I am considering making a move to Australia and was wondering if anyone out there could give me some advice as to where to begin the search for employment. I am in the marine services industry presently a service manager. I worked my way up from bottom painter to G.M. of a major New England repair facility with a couple of different gigs in between. Are ther any good yards that I should look into or any particular area that is better than another? Thanks For Your Help.
I would suggest either Coomera south of Brisbane or Western Australia. Both locations have a number of boat builders. Coomera has mostly pleasure boat and WA are for the most part commercial.
Thanks Jorge--my interests and experience are in the pleasure boat field, particularly 90'+ range boath sail and power
Hi, I would do my research very carefully if I were contemplating a move like this. Riviera a prominent Queensland based Yacht builder ( probably the one referred to by Jorge Lang)has recently laid off 120 staff and cut back to a 4 day week. http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=159&ContentID=92330
While Riviera is the main player in Queensland, there are others too. Maritimo, Mustang, Azzura and a number of smaller builders. Of course, you should not rule out New Zealand as a possibility. A lot of building going on there too.
Hi, I think that whilst things are slowing down in the economy of both countries that trying to up sticks and move to either from the other side of the world and enter an industry that is showing many signs of the belt tightening that seems to be everywhere these days is not something that should be treated as a sure thing. I would say that NZ companies in need of skilled boatbuilders/ supervisors will be getting a number of applications from Australia in the near future. The freedom of movement between the two countries for each others citizens makes it more likely that recruitment would be kept local.
I appreciate all of the input, but I am not looking into the building of boats but more into the repair and refit of boats--even with a bad economy the boats have to be maintained. As I am presently in the repair end of the business now I haven't seen much of a difference this year over the past couple of years.
m2m, Are you able to work there, and would you get a job when competing with a native? It's also a long way from home to get stuck if the job scene doesn't pan out. Maybe they'd prefer to just have you as a tourist spending money instead. OK, I'm probably busted. I've had trouble finding competant, hard working marine service personel in my area and I'd hate to see talent leaving. LOL. If you'd like to come to Long Island and work on somewhat smaller boats than you're dealing with in Newport it would probably take you 5 minutes to find a job. (You might have to hide your Red Sox hat though. It sounds like you would be our loss and Australia's gain. Hope you don't mind a little kidding although those are actual concerns to check into.
Hi, Part of the original posters research could be to read online a few of the Australian Newspapers. Economy and Politics seem to fill every page and none of it makes particularly good or encouraging reading. I have physically been in Australia/NZ for the last couple of weeks and have seen it first hand.
I work for Alloy Yachts as a leading hand in the machine shop and know we are taking on a lot of staff right now so if you are looking to move down I would say give us a try we have orders to see us though and it is a very good place to work , one of the best I have worked for
Hi, Bryankiwi- Have you seen any fallout or people from Sensation looking for work with you at Alloy?
a hard question to answer we have employed a few lately but as most are fiber glass it is hard to find job for them all. I do not know what is going on over there but there has been a bit in the newspaper and from what I can see it is not to good for them, but in saying this they did put a boat in the water last week so I am hoping they can trade there way out of any difficultly that they may have.