"The first four years were great." A senior, now an Australian citizen, described how things were with IT and spiders.

"My wife's friend started sending photos from Brisbane"

My father was heavily involved in electronics, we had computers at home, and in the 10th-11th grade I already understood that I wanted to be a programmer. In 2004, I entered BNTU, FITR (Faculty of Information Technologies and Robotics). Starting from the fourth year, I started working part-time in a small startup, and after graduating I moved to a larger company, ISsoft. And I worked there almost until I moved to Australia, until 2017.

Thoughts about Australia appeared somehow by themselves. Probably about three years before leaving, in 2014-2015, we began to think about moving from Belarus. And then my wife had a friend who went to Brisbane [a city in the central part of the east coast, the capital of the state of Queensland, the Olympics will be held there in 2032] and started sending photos from there, showing how beautiful it is there.

Павялічыць

Of course, we didn't think about Australia at first. The first idea was about the USA, we tried for a long time to win a green card in the lottery. Nothing worked out, so we decided that we shouldn't rely on luck.

When we started looking at Australia, it seemed like a distant dream to us. Their immigration program had pretty steep, serious requirements. A person needs to meet certain criteria: experience, specialization required for Australia, knowledge of English, confirmation of a diploma. All this is assessed in points. And, having scored a certain number of points, you can submit documents and stand in line for immigration consideration. [You can roughly estimate whether you have enough of these points here].

At first, I didn't have enough experience, and my English was weak. So I gained experience and at the same time improved my English. I managed to improve my language skills in a couple of years, and by that time I had enough experience. And we submitted the documents. [The current list of professions that give the right to apply for various types of Australian visas is located on the website of the Australian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Currently, for example, for the profession of Developer Programmer it is necessary to have a corresponding diploma confirmed in Australia or five years of work experience].

A year later, we received an invitation. We arrived in Australia in 2017 as Permanent Residents [the status of a permanent resident of Australia]. This is a type of residence permit with which you have almost the same rights as citizens - only without the ability to vote and receive preferential loans for children's education at the university. But in everything else - state medicine, various social programs - permanent residents are included. Therefore, immediately after arriving, we did not feel any strong discomfort.

In principle, this is similar to the American green card. With the status of Permanent Resident, you are not tied to a specific employer, you can live and work in any state. At the same time, they have many different migration programs, for example, from individual states - then you will be able to work only there. There are also lists of professions suitable for immigration - both for the whole of Australia and for individual states. And they are constantly updated. Now, by the way, programmers and accountants are the most unsuitable professions from the point of view of getting into Australia. Some conditional electrician or plumber, nurse will have more chances.

Now we are already citizens of Australia: according to the terms of Permanent Resident, you can apply for citizenship after four years of being in the country.

About working in Australia

I started working here in a small startup. A couple of months later, the company closed. Literally the next week I got into another startup. I worked there for two years - the startup also did not survive.

Now I work as a Senior Software Engineer in one of the well-known fast food chains. Their head office is in the USA, and they sell franchising rights to other guys who want to work with these pizzerias. And in Australia, they have the largest franchise after the States.

Now we have a completely remote work format. But the people themselves sometimes gather and come to the office. We come on Thursdays, some also on Tuesdays. It's all voluntary. Those who live further away from the city, who have an hour and a half to drive - those, maybe, come once a month.

The office is in the very center of Brisbane, five minutes from the business center of the city. It takes me 30 minutes to get there by car at best. We decided that it is better to have a bigger house, but further away from the city. Because all this is very much dictated by prices. For the same money, you can rent housing closer to the center, but it will be a small apartment.

Павялічыць

Here there is a conditional division: if you arrive 15 minutes before the center - this is inner city, living there is considered "wow", cool. There is a lot of space and the center is close. We live further away.

There are people from the post-Soviet space in our office. Due to the high turnover, their number is constantly changing. At one point there were about seven Russian-speaking people. Then there were only a couple left. Now there are three or four people from different post-Soviet countries, including me.

I have not noticed any special attitude towards specialists from our region. It is difficult for locals to remember where I am from - from Belarus or from Russia. Australia is a very multinational, multicultural country. You go out on the street - and meet representatives of different races, with different skin colors: both yellow, black, white, and tanned white. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish Belarusians separately.

Income and expenses

The level of salary is not even close to comparable with what it was in Belarus when we left. For specialists of my level, the average range is 110-160 thousand local dollars, my salary fits into this range [the Australian dollar is currently worth $0.65 and 2.2 rubles].

This is before taxes. Taxes are about 30 percent of that. However, it should be noted that taxes here are a very interesting and multifaceted subject. People often pay taxes themselves. If you want, you can tick the box "I want the employer to pay taxes for me." This is one option. And the second is that you can get a job as a contractor. And then you yourself receive taxes from the amounts that come into your account. And you can submit a declaration in which you indicate that I bought this, this and that because I need it for work. And you don't have to pay taxes on this amount.

We are a family of three, we have a 17-year-old daughter. Now we live on my salary.

Salaries in Australia are paid weekly, and rent for the house is also weekly. The salary came - and hop, 30% immediately flew away for rent. There is also a range from 25% to 40% here.

Eating on the street or in a cafe hits the wallet noticeably. But the products in stores are not much more expensive than in Belarus. In some positions, it is even cheaper.

Meat, beef from 6-12 dollars per kg to 60 dollars for marbled steaks [all prices are in Australian dollars, which, let me remind you, currently cost $0.65 and 2.2 BYN]. Chicken is cheaper. Beef and chicken are the most popular types of meat here. Pork is not very good, with a foreign smell, so we ourselves have moved away from pork.

Павялічыць

We recently had trouble with eggs, bird flu or something like that. For about six months there were interruptions with eggs, finding them in the store was a success. They cost from 6 to 8 dollars (depending on whether they sit in cages or live in free range). Milk from 1.5 to 2.5 dollars per liter. Unlike the USA, we have a metric system here, no gallons. Fruit juices are also somewhere from 1.5 dollars. Oranges are 2-3 dollars per kg. Banana prices depend on the season, it was 4 dollars, now, in summer, 2.5. There are a lot of avocados in stores, they cost a dollar a piece or 4-5 dollars per kg. Tomatoes from 3.5 dollars (the most plastic ones), to 15-16 dollars (which smell like grandma's garden).

Under the New Year will be the mango season, when they are sold right in boxes. Off-season, they cost 2-3 dollars per piece, and in season they will cost 15 dollars per box, in which there are 10-15 pieces.

Cars in Australia are not very expensive. Japanese models are very popular. Honda, Toyota - this is probably 50% of everything that drives here. Toyota Corolla - it's right everywhere. If it's a taxi, it's almost certainly a Corolla.

Gasoline prices are literally sinusoidal here. This is their strategy. From 1.6 to 2.2 dollars, gasoline runs back and forth along this amplitude. People try to fill up the full tank while the price is at the bottom. There are applications for the phone that show the fuel price chart, where it goes. It really looks like stock quotes on the stock exchange.

Education and language

We moved to Australia when our daughter was 9-10 years old. After arriving, both she and my wife had a hard time because of the language barrier, but after a year or two, my daughter started speaking English better than me. This happened thanks to the school, thanks to immersion in the English-speaking atmosphere. She also studied English in a Belarusian school for three years, it was there a couple of times a week. But this is a very basic level.

When we arrived, we immediately enrolled in a school attached to our area. This is a primary school, which children attend until the sixth grade. She studied at the primary school for a couple of years, where she was helped with English. Australia is an immigrant country, school workers here are accustomed to visiting children who do not know the language well. If a child is very weak, he is sent 1-2 times a week to a specialized school, where children with zero English are raised from the very basics. We went there, probably for a year. Everything is very loyal to visitors who do not know the language.

Павялічыць

She also studied well in other subjects, she did not sag academically due to the move. And the seventh grade is already high school, high school. There is no need to pay for tuition in it, as in primary school. Except for textbooks, notebooks and various school supplies - but this is all inexpensive.

Now my daughter is graduating from high school and will enter the university. The higher education system here is peculiar, something between the European one, where education in universities is free, and the American one, where it can cost all the money in the world.

There is a special type of loan that the state gives to the applicant and which the applicant will then pay. That is, if there is no money, okay, we will sponsor you. And when you start working, after reaching a certain level of income, this loan will be withheld from your salary.

The price for training can be different. You can choose a specialty that will cost 30 thousand dollars, or you can for 150 thousand. How much a particular specialty costs, such as a doctor, teacher or programmer - I don't know, I didn't look at the price. So far, I have given it completely to my daughter, so that she herself shows some initiative, she herself is interested - who, how, where. But in general, the most expensive specialties are a lawyer and a doctor, which will cost in the region of 100-150 thousand dollars for the entire period of study. And most of the rest are in the region of 30-40 thousand.

Medicine

Everything is very radical with medicine in Australia. If a person is right at death, a lot of people will fuss around him, he will be pulled out, he will be cured, put on his feet and will not take a penny for it (if this is a public hospital). Recently, a friend had a stroke, and he was kept in the hospital for three months. A month in intensive care, then in some more relaxed one, where his personal nurse was next to the ward. And the third month he just lay down, did some physiotherapy, physical therapy. And he didn't pay anything.

And at the same time, if you have a problem that is not related to life and death, then you can wait six months for your turn to see a doctor and pay 300 dollars just for a visit. At which the doctor will just look at you - and, possibly, will not help at all.

The situation with medical insurance is as follows. There is an inexpensive general state insurance here, which we all pay as a tax. It allows you to be treated for free in public clinics and hospitals. And there is private insurance, which allows you to lie in private hospitals or have operations in them for free.

My employer does not pay for private insurance. The maximum is a bonus to the insurance, which added six conditionally free weeks to the paid period.

About travel and nature

If there is a large external trip outside of Australia, then it is most likely Belarus, with a flight somewhere along the way. To visit relatives, longing for the homeland, all this. I go once every couple of years, my wife more often. My daughter has not yet flown to Belarus.

Domestic tourism happens much more often. Local tourism is generally very developed in Australia. The most memorable trip is the Great Ocean Road, the road from Melbourne to the west, with attractions such as the Twelve Apostles rocks. You drive there for three hours along the sea, the rocks - breathtaking. Just wow! I was impressed not by the destination, but by the road itself. It is generally interesting to drive around Australia.

Павялічыць

Australia is a very large country. And we usually choose transport for travel depending on the distance. In Sydney, for example, it is interesting to drive by car. Along the way, there are small towns where you can have a snack or look at the sea. And somewhere further - it's already a plane. I wouldn't go to Melbourne by car. Prices for domestic flights are quite affordable, a round-trip ticket to Melbourne will cost about 150 Australian dollars.

A hobby that I have in Australia is barbecue. Slow cooking, smoking, when meat is cooked at a low temperature with smoke for 6-8-10 hours.

The widespread stereotype that Australia is packed with dangerous animals such as deadly poisonous jellyfish, spiders, snakes and crocodiles may be true depending on where you are. If you live on some farm, there may be spiders, jellyfish, and snakes.

And if you live in a well-populated area, then the most terrible thing that can happen is that a python will crawl in, or a huntsman will run in (this is a spider the size of a plate). But both of them do not attack humans, so it is visually scary, but not really. These big scary spiders, by the way, on the contrary, drive all sorts of small dangerous spiders, cockroaches in the house, kill. Therefore, there are guys who are not only not afraid of these spiders, but are even glad that they have such a spider living in their house.

In general, in Queensland [north-eastern Australian state with the capital in Brisbane] there are few reptiles that can harm you. Small very poisonous spiders live further south, in the areas of Sydney, Melbourne. Crocodiles and deadly jellyfish that sting strongly live more in the north, closer to the equator - Cairns, Darwin. And we are kind of in the middle, everything is quite safe and good here. And during our travels, we don't often climb into areas where there are many dangerous animals. We practice more urban tourism, with amenities.

But, for example, a koala can be seen somewhere in a city park. This happens very rarely - and it's very interesting. Locals love them very much. And if someone finds a koala, he watches it. Someone passes by - he says to him: "Look, there is a koala." The first one leaves - the second one starts watching. Then more, and more. And it turns out that such a continuous chain is built up at this koala.

But a squirrel in Chelyuskintsev Park can be found much more often than a koala here.

Павялічыць

But a kangaroo is commonplace. You go somewhere - kangaroos are jumping along the road. Some of them can run through the backyard.

Infrastructure

Public transport in Brisbane is arranged disgustingly. Almost all bus routes go to the center. It is like a collection point for them, and from it they diverge in rays in different directions - that is, you can not get from one suburb to another without transfers in the center. A couple of bus routes run from our stop every half hour. If you missed one bus, consider that you missed some meeting, you did not get to the center on time. Therefore, everything is sharpened for cars.

Павялічыць

Shops and services that are not related to food usually close at about five o'clock. Shops that sell food close at about eight o'clock. By 9-10 pm you won't find anything. Everyone is already asleep.

Due to the fact that it is very hot during the day, workers on the street start working at about five in the morning. And after one o'clock they are already going somewhere for shopping, for services. Office workers finish work at four or five o'clock, and it is not very convenient for them. But employers are usually loyal: if someone needs to go to the doctor or drive the car for maintenance during the working day - that's okay, that's normal.

I will add that there are enough so-called "Russian stores" here, which sell kvass, black bread, condensed milk, glazed curds, bagels, sunflower seeds. But the local condensed milk is also very tasty. Therefore, there is no nostalgia for Belarusian products.

Near Brisbane there is an amusement park with slides, a water park, there is a large aquarium, a zoo. You can buy one general ticket for all this for a year, and go to rest every weekend. We bought it for one year, but we didn't buy it anymore. Of course, the attractions are more interesting than in the same Chelyuskintsev Park. But still, this is entertainment for one year.

I am quite large, I am almost two meters tall. Perhaps, because of this, I have not met any criminal elements in Brisbane. Although, they say, you can run into crime here. If my daughter needed to walk a couple of kilometers through the night Brisbane - I would not let her go. There are enough homeless people in the city center. Night life is in full swing, with drunk guys and guys under the influence.

Australians are "rational, competent, sociable", but "there are enough freaks too"

In Belarus, at ISsoft, I worked with American customers and got used to the American accent during that time. But the accent is such a thing. Office workers in Australia especially don't have any Australian accent that would be difficult to understand.

There are locals who emphasize their accent. They have their own accent, they have some of their own jokes, specific Australian words. At first it was difficult to understand them. But then you get used to it.

In my opinion, there is no strong difference between Australians and Belarusians. They are rational, competent, sociable people. I wouldn't say that the guys I communicated with in the Belarusian office are different from the people in the Australian office.

Павялічыць

I have an Australian friend with whom we have been acquainted since my very first job here, for about eight years now. Communication with him in everyday life or on friendly topics is the same as communication with Belarusians. There is an opinion that it is not possible to talk heart to heart with Australians. I haven't noticed that. If you really become friends with someone, you can talk heart to heart. And on the other hand, you won't pour out your soul to every colleague in the Belarusian office, right? Professional communication is one thing, personal communication is another.

There are enough freaks here too. We have the Gold Coast nearby, this is a resort town by the sea. There is one dude there, he is 55-60 years old. And he walks around the city in a thong swimsuit, like the main character of the movie "Borat". And he's fine. There are all sorts of people here, both "Crocodile Dundee" and others.

I don't know about Belarusian communities in Brisbane. There are Russian-speaking communities - there are Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Russians. There are, of course, more Russians in such communities. Political issues are not raised in such groups, people already have some of their own thoughts, problems here. It may even be that in the company I just don't know which city a person is from, whether he is from Russia or from Ukraine.

"Live peacefully, look at nature, fry meat in the backyard"

I can't say that after eight years of living in Australia I feel completely at home here. But I don't feel like a foreigner either. As the Russian taxi driver in New York said in the film "Brother-2": "The homeland is where the fifth point is warm." It's the same here. I just live. For me now it is more comfortable here than in Belarus.

Everything may change. Perhaps, in five years we will change our vision and return to Europe, to some Sweden or Norway (these are not exact plans - just offhand). I will not assert that I will stay here. My daughter, most likely, will stay. She has friends here, her circle of friends.

Everything was good, optimistic and cool, probably in the first three or four years. And now some not very pleasant things are starting to surface. Buying your own house, for example, is a very difficult question that does not allow you to fully enjoy life. It's very expensive. For a purchase with a loan, you need a certain initial payment, from 5 to 20%. And a huge loan for 20-30 years.

We manage to save something from the salary, but we can't keep up with the growth of housing prices. When we arrived, the average house cost about 500 thousand Australian dollars. And now it's about a million. A house like ours costs 1.1 million. This is an area of 200 meters, two floors, four bedrooms, a kitchen and a lounge on the first floor, a bathroom downstairs, two bathrooms upstairs, a backyard with a canopy, grass, all sorts of bushes, a garage for two cars.

In general, everything is not very good so far, but not so bad that you can move somewhere.

Would I decide to go to Australia if I lived in Belarus today and would make a decision about emigration? Yes, and I would have left yesterday.

Would I recommend Australia for relocation to other Belarusians? If a person values traveling around Europe, European architecture, service, nightlife - then, of course, it is not worth it. But if a person just wants to live peacefully, look at nature, fry meat in the backyard - then it is definitely worth going here.

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