Three has horrible coverage. I'd strongly go for Optus and Telstra. The big T has some decent prepaid plans
these days.

Re princess89: despite what the Liberals and The Australian may have their readers think, landline broadband will always be superior to wireless broadband. Nothing to do with economics, partisan politics or Conroy's hypocrisy.

Just plain and simple physics.

---

Added on February 14, 2011, 9:26 amThis is not the place for you to whine how boring your life is. Go out and see the place rather than being couped in your room and expecting people to entertain you.

This post has been edited by haya: Feb 14 2011, 09:26 AM

Are you sure your friend's warning letter was really from iinet?

What kind of people do you hang around with?

Never heard any one being stopped to check for your software or the validity of the content you may have on your hard drive.

Drug swabs yes. Checking for Child Pornography indeed. Making sure you don't bring food into Australia of course. How on earth are they going to determine whether the copy of your software is genuine or not?

Think of the problems of practical implementation of the kinds of "checks" you write off.

There are only 4 telco's in Australia (three if you see Vodafone and Three as one). Any others are just MVNO's (Google it).

Vodafone and Three may be one company now, but they're still not quite sharing their infrastructure yet, and for all its flaws Vodafone has better coverage than Three.

I wouldn't jump into any contracts after landing. Get a prepaid SIM and see if the plan and coverage suits you. Australia has MNP (google it), so you can change your carrier while keeping your number. However, its not that easy to change telco's while you're in contract.

And please, please, read everything before signing up for anything. I've had enough of people who can't read, sign up for a contract and try to get out of it 2 months down the road and moan that they're now legally bound for the next 24 months, and expect me to give them a escape hatch.

The Trade Practices Act and Fair Trading Act(s) are awesome, but they're not meant to protect the stupid.

This post has been edited by haya: Feb 16 2011, 11:20 AM

Guys, this is the Studying in Australia thread, not the Kopitiam subforum to discuss about the different brands of milk.

While I appreciate the impact of the "milk and bread" wars, this is not the place for banal chit chat. I can acknowledge the odd tangential discussion to give a day-to-day perspective of living in Australia as a student, but in the interest of keeping this thread as clean as possible as so other people who do their research don't have to wade too much chaff of your musings.

Try to keep this place informative rather than a stream of your thoughts eh?

Why would you want to do that? Go into JB Hifi et all and/or the online Apple store and buy it straight from Apple. (My reservations on these tablet like devices notwithstanding)

Question: if your dissatisfaction on the academic teaching side, or the administrative side of the university?

At the very least, can you elaborate on "your smooth, boring education journey"?

Despite what most Malaysians think, bureaucracy is the same around the world. Red tape, people throwing you around, the lot.

Just because a nation is a 1st world status does not mean the cogs of bureaucracy grind any faster.

1) Unless they've changed, domestic roaming with Three has always counted towards your cap for voice calls and SMS. Its video calling and data usage that is extra and does not count towards your cap.

2) Unlocking: ask Three.

3) I got all this from their website. Learn to do some research rather than coming into a forum of strangers randomly asking questions to people that may or may not exist, expecting to be spoonfed.

The linear equivalent of Canberra would be Putrajaya. An artificial city created in the middle of nowhere.

Most artificial cities (Canberra, Washington, Brasilia, Putrajaya) are usually dull and boring places. But a perfect place for study.

They'll pay you the bare minimum. Keep in mind that unless you're 18 and above, you don't get the full minimum wage. Its a tiered system. Below 16 years of age its something like $9/hr, and between 16-18 its something like $12/hr. Once you hit 18 you get the full amount.

(Note all amounts are pre-tax. Don't get me started with Superannuation deductions)

Not that most people here are that young, but before I have someone screaming that they're being scammed by their employer because they're not getting the $15/hr.

Its a personal decision to work cash in hand and be underpaid, but don't come complaining that your Chinaman employer haven't paid you for months. If you want the protection of the law you need to comply with it.

For the record, McDonalds (and other fast food employers) have been caught in the past underpaying international students, probably with the assumption they can get away with it as international students usually are poorly aware of their rights (and obligations). Dob them in through, and Fair Work Australia will usually compel them to pay up.

Just curious, what kind of professional certification are you looking at?

Why do you need 3 months to find a place?

Until you provide more background information everything is just speculative and anything that is said may or may not suit your circumstances.

See here and here for a none exhaustive list of temporary accommodation around Brisbane.

Do you seriously believe people will give free accommodation to a stranger, even if its the couch?

You'll have to go to your nearest MAS office to pay it.

I know, its a bit redundant offering the application to be submitted online when you still have to physically walk into a MAS office, pay, and if you want to submit online, show receipt of payment during the online submission. You might as well just hand in the form at the MAS office there and then.

Personally, as long as I don't have classes between the hours of 6pm-8pm, I'm usually fine. I prefer having classes early in the day to get it out of the way so I have the rest of the day available.

Some people cram their timetables to slot fit all their classes in 2-3 days a week, with little or no breaks in between. I prefer it to be a bit more spread out. That, and QUT's timetabling ican be horrible.

Just for completeness, one can walk into Immigration's office and request a label for your student visa to be affixed into your passport. Its not necessary, but for some people they prefer to have a "hard copy", so to speak, for a piece of mind. Charge may apply for this extra service.

Its all electronic now these days anyway.

And on another matter, it would seem like the free-wheeling days of student migration to Australia are coming to an end, as the rules get tighter, the doors start closing, and the high AUD makes Australia unattractive from a financial perspective in comparison to the old world.

I personally don't see that as too much of an issue. With the exception of CQU, I don't expect any of the Australian universities to disappear any time soon. Cuts will be made, but one has to admit the whole reliance on international students for funding makes a mockery of higher education, not to mention cheapens a Australian qualification.

Its a cycle people. Once upon a time the UK was the destination of choice. Then came along the new world in the southern hemisphere, offering as good a education as the old world with a lower price tag and geographically closer. As the old world starts to crumble financially, the money from the Orient is looking quite attractive.

Give another 15-20 years and Australia will be a destination of choice again.

IMO, the less people, the better. Education has been used as a backdoor for far too long.

The irony of all this is that this closing of doors happens under a Labor government, while the best time for migrants was under John "too much Asian migration" Howard.

Put your departure as when you expect to finish your course in Australia.

Do you have any past documentation? The dates need not be pin-point accurate, but reasonably close.

In any case, if it is was a while ago, it is of little relevance. I doubt you'll be denied a 573 on this grounds.

Read. The. Front. Page.

If your plan is to come back and work in Malaysia full time, Monash Malaysia is perfectly decent.

And unless one has taken both pre-university qualifications, how can one quantify which is "harder" than the other?

http://compare.brisbanetimes.com.au/savings-accounts

This is the place to start.

At a 6% base rate with Ubank, with 100k AUD, assuming the rates don't change, that's about $500/month. Should get you along quite comfortably, even in Sydney and Melbourne, if you exclude rent.

One thing to keep in mind with these 3rd party saving accounts is that they are considered "other financial institutions". Even Ubank, which is "backed by NAB", if you transfer money from your savings account with Ubank to your NAB Classic Banking account for use, it can take a few (working) days for the funds to be cleared.

This is in contrast to the sub-accounts provided by most Australian financial institutions, which while only accessible via online banking, at least funds that are transfered from your high interest sub-account to your everyday account are cleared (almost) instantaneously.

This bit scares most people, primarily Asians, because of the perceived "lack of security", in that anyone who gets hold of your paypass can go on a spending spree with no PIN or signature.

Despite this perception, there hasn't been an outbreak of fraudulent use of the PIN-less paypass system.

Another thing I've noticed is that there aren't as many cash deposit machines in Brisbane as in Malaysia. If you want to deposit cash, its still easier walking into a bank than finding a machine that accepts deposits.

But Meruchan is spot on: I haven't walked into a bank branch in a long while. Almost everything can be done electronically.

Re MickeyKumiko: also consider the other factors, such as cost of living vis-a-vis Brisbane vs Sydney, the frequency of flights, your social support etc when making the decision.

Without further background on your circumstances, it is hard to give a complete feedback.