Rather than 205's, the mediums in the Brissie area would probably be ex mil UH-1's. The only civvie 205 in Oz is Helicorp's 205-A1, on fire contract in Melbourne. Most 204/205's are worked very hard, fires, mossie spraying, lifting, etc. Are you talking about John McD's aircraft, or Tim Turner? Tim has a 205 equivalent, John's are mostly 204 types. Being 'Restricted' category, they aren't allowed to carry passengers.
Pay: no idea of what is paid in Qld, but expect $A50-65k, is my guess. Cost of living is very cheap cf. what you'll be used to, so the $A goes quite a long way. Cars and some consumer goods are disgustingly expensive, and choice is significantly less (smaller market, less incentive for manufacturers to import and comply with Australian Design Rules), but Quality of life....there's the big attraction. Wild horses wouldn't drag me back to UK, you have to be here to understand
Tax is swingeing, mainly because threshold levels are relatively low for income tax. IIRC, threshold for the highest income tax is $A60k which means that above that you are paying 47% tax. GST (goods and services tax) is a federal tax, 10%, and there is no direct state tax, although lots of little ones, such as state debit tax (on every bank debit transaction), tax on house sales (% of sale price), vehicle registration, petrol, etc etc. Queensland is a relatively low tax state tax regime, due to good financial management and low debt of previous state governments. Weather is warm/hot, often humid, semi tropical.
If you have a genuine offer, take it. Don't wait, it may be gone next week!!
ps Gibbo, what do you mean you have
worked in Australia. That's drawing a fine line, isn't it <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">