Australia has come a long way since the days when Captain Cook stumbled ashore to find an aboriginal way of life that went back for tens of thousands of years. Even the outdated images of Crocodile Dundee types swilling beer around the Opera House have long been replaced by a forward-looking attitude that embraces Australia's Pacific Rim location. Sea, sun and surf - Australia has always been a popular destination even though contractors are unlikely to see rates as high as in Europe and the US. Obviously, money is not everything and working in Australia exemplifies this - with an early start in the morning you can be enjoying the surf by late afternoon and enjoying al-fresco dining in one the world's most varied restaurant scenes.
Australia is the sixth largest country in the world (roughly the size of mainland USA) but with with a population of just 20 million meaning it has the lowest population density in the world - on average there are only two people per square kilometre! However, the vast majority of people live on or near the coasts. The capital city is Canberra, located in the south-east of the country. The Australian environment is extremely varied; as it is essentially an island, it has beautiful coastlines all around with thousands of unspoilt beaches; it has tropical rainforest, mountains and deserts. Being in the southern hemisphere, Australia has a very temperate climate. The currency of Australia is the Australian dollar. For more info on Australia see Expedia's travel destination guide or check out the Lonely Planet website or buy one of their many guides on their mother country!
Australia has a growing pharmaceutical market not only servicing its population but extending into the Far East and Pacific regions, and the industry in the country has been growing at an annual rate of approximately 7%. Not altogether surprising then that Australia has an extremely high demand for pharmaceutical managers and pharmaceutical professionals, especially for people with good IT qualifications and solid business experience. The vast range of pharma-based occupations available ranges from regional CRAs, programmers, analysts, and data managers.
The majority of pharmaceutical contracting is based in the Sydney and Melbourne areas, with some based in Adelaide. Those wishing to work in Brisbane and Perth will have opportunities limited to CRAs or medicals reps. Although wages for top technical positions may be considerably less than in Europe, the pace of work is far more relaxed and the difference in living costs means that the take home pay may not be that different. Sydney can be expensive, similar to living in any other major world city, but most contractors move to Australia for a lifestyle change and to explore the country, rather than make large sums of money.
There are only a handful of pharma-specefic recruitment agencies in Australia - a reflection of the the relatively small pharma industry. Their process will usually involve:
- A preliminary interview with the agent
- Your CV is then forwarded to their client(s)
- You will then have an interview with the client
- Upon a successful interview, you have the choice of being employed as a contractor or as an employee of the agency (whereby the agency will pay workers compensation, public liability, superannuation (i.e. pension), payroll tax and PAYG)
- Don't feel you can't negotiate your contract rate - there are only so many skilled pharma workers in Australia!
Arriving in Australia, with your first position, you need to go to the nearest Tax Office, to get hold of a Tax File Number and complete a Tax File Number Declaration. You must take along your passport, work visa and some other form of identification. If you don't do this, tax will be deducted from your salary at 48.5% until you do!
A visa of some form is required to work in Australia.
Fore more information see our Australia
visa section.
A national healthcare scheme called "Medicare" provides basic healthcare for citizens from the following countries: UK, New Zealand, Finland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and Sweden. If you feel you require extra medical cover you can approach one of the private healthcare schemes:
MBF www.mbf.com.au is the largest privately owned and managed health insurer,
We would welcome your experiences of contracting down-under whilst we expand this section so send us your stories and useful links! In the meantime:
Australian Customs & Excise www.customs.gov.au - Helpful information on what you can take into the country in terms of money, food, artefacts and souvenirs.
Australian Tax Office www.ato.gov.au - Everything you'd want to know about the lovely Australian tax system. See how you can pay next to nothing on your tax.
Domain www.domain.com.au - Australia's number one website for property sales, rentals and houseshares!
ebookers destination guides to Melbourne and Sydney contains info on Key Attractions, Activities, Getting Around, Need to know stuff, City Guides, What to know etc. If you are travelling via Asia, Africa or North America then there are additional guides for cities including Bangkok, Los Angeles, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Dubai, Tokyo and Cape Town. Many guides contain useful 360 degree film clips.
Easyroommate (FlatmateWorld)
www.easyroommate.com
- FlatmateWorld is the #1 Flatshare House Share Site, serving
all the Towns across the UK. FlatmateWorld, will provide a Flatshare
House share service, featuring flatmate housemate pictures and
comments about the flat to share, the flatmate & the room
to rent. If you have a flatshare or a room to let you can advertise
for Free. If you are looking for a room to rent you can search
for free! FlatmateWorld is part of the EasyRoommate Group – the
world’s largest shared accommodation network so where ever you
are contracting FlatmateWorld should be able to help you!
JobCube www.jobcube.com.au - As a member you gain instant access to a comprehensive listing of permanent and contract vacancies in the IT market plus the opportunity to earn substantial Cash Rewards for providing them with information about new positions that an employer seeks to fill. Useful forum to pose questions about working in Oz.
Transport Infoline www.131500.com.au - Helpful information on travel in the major cities - timetables, tickets and fare info.
Many airlines fly to Australia, including:
British Airways
www.ba.com
- The world's favourite airline. If you are looking at holidays
then you can visit the BA Holidays site
www.baholidays.com.
British Airways Holidays offers hotels, car hire and sightseeing
across the world.
Cathay Pacific www.cathaypacific.com - Flying Cathay Pacific is a popular choice amongst many to see the sights in Hong Kong.
KLM UK www.klm.com - Carrying more than 17 million passengers each year KLM is the 4th largest airline in Europe. In partnership with Northwest and more recently Air France, there are even more destinations you can enjoy enroute to Australia! Fly KLM to Kuala Lumpur continuing with Malaysia Airlines onto Oz!
Malaysia Airlines www.malaysiaairlines.com - Flying via Kuala Lumpur, you can fly direct to any of Australia's capital cities. From Europe you have direct services to KL from Amsterdam, Vienna, Manchester, London, Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt and Rome.
Virgin Atlantic www.virgin-atlantic.com - The second largest long haul airline in the UK and the third largest European carrier over the North Atlantic. Their route network has grown rapidly to include destinations in the US, Caribbean, Far East, India and Africa, and they have won virtually every award the industry has to offer.
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Singapore Airlines www.singaporeair.com - Internationally recognised as one of the world's leading carriers. Their route network spans over 90 cities in almost 40 countries including the Far East, Australia and New Zealand.
Qantas www.qantas.com - Australia's national airline!
United Airlines www.united.com - Take advantage with a stop-over in the US and forget about worrying what to take to Australia with a 64kg weight allowance! Part of the Star Alliance scheme.
Other airlines that service Australia include Finnair, Lufthansa, Air Canada, Emirates, Gulf Air, Australian Airlines (Qantas owned), Garuda, LanChile, Air New Zealand, JAL, Asiana, Korean Air, Philippine Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Air China, South African Airlines, Thai International, Austrian, American Airlines and Olympic.
You may also want to compare flights with the following sites:
Airtours www.airtours.co.uk - Airtours.co.uk is the website of one of UK’s leading tour operators offering great value package holidays and flights. Now and then you're able to pick up a cheap one way flight either direction for about GBP380!
Austravel www.austravel.net - With over 20 years of experience in arranging travel to Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the South Pacific, Austravel are perfectly placed to introduce you to the superb diversity and natural attractions of these destinations in addition to stopover destinations. Also good for insurance, hotels and visas.
Bridge The World www.bridgetheworld.com - Amongst it's flight offers, it also caters for speciality travel and holidays. Also have a useful round-the-world travel planner.
eBookers www.ebookers.com – Online version of Flightbookers. A popular choice when looking for flights to Australia. ebookers specialises in discount air fares offering a huge selection of 2 million discounted fares from over 120 airlines.
Expedia www.expedia.co.uk - Great site giving you real savings on hotels, flights and car hire. Another one-stop site when searching for travel down-under.
Lastminute.com
www.lastminute.com
- One of the largest providers of online travel offering a varied
range of great value deals on flights, holidays, hotels, dynamic
packages, car hire, entertainment tickets and gifts.
Opodo www.opodo.co.uk - Offering an unbiased and competitively priced online travel service for world travel, Opodo have access to flights from over 400 airlines, enabling you to search out a great deal to Oz from the ease of just one site! Start your flight search below!
Don't forget to check our flights section for more links in addition to the low cost airlines section for your connecting flight to Heathrow, Manchester or European hubs!
Getting around and other essentials
Budget Rent a Car www.budget.com.au - Car hire in Australia
Drive Now www.drivenow.com.au - Simply provides an online market for previously unrented motor vehicles. Rental Partners update their rates and allotments online based on their unrented inventory (i.e., cars sitting in the lot, not being used), appealing to the flexible, late-booking, value-conscious traveller. The Price you see is the price you pay – drive away.
Downunder Travel Insurance www.duinsure.com - Provide great value travel insurance for anyone aged 55 years and under. Ideally targeting the backpacker market, their policies provide 24 hour medical emergency assistance, cover more than 80 adventure sports and offer a 10% discount online for UK bought policies. They can provide cover to anyone based in the UK, whether temporary or permanent resident (excluding USA citizens) from 5 days to 18 months.
Jetstar www.jetstar.com.au - Low-cost airline from Qantas. Established to compete with Virgin Blue.
Virgin Blue www.virginblue.com.au - Budget airline partly owned by Richard Branson's Virgin group - began operations in Australia in 2000 offering some competitive fairs.
Virgin Mobile www.virginmobile.com.au - Provides a simple, flexible & value for money mobile service with no hidden catches. They offer 5c/min Virgin to Virgin call rates (billed by second with 20c connection), 5c text Virgin to Virgin (and only 20c to others), free voicemail, per second billing and free delivery in Oz when you order on the web.
Vroom Vroom Vroom
www.vroomvroomvroom.com.au
- Find & compare your car hire specials, car hire deals and
car hire offers from the leading car hire companies of from Avis,
Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Thrifty in over 240 locations across
Australia.
