Be wary of job offers that involve going to a very remote location and being paid only for flying hours. You may not get wnough hours to make it viable.

Use your strengths...?
 

Hey Krazy, Have you considered moving to Darwin, Jabiru, Kununurra as an accountant? This would allow you to get to know the people in the area, and then when something comes along (as it enevitably does), making the transition across to flying, at least your income would be stable and you could pick the best operator as you got to know them. I presume Rio Tinto would hire accountants at Ranger, which would possibly allow you the freedom of shift work. Just a thought. Good luck mate!

I can't say I have! I've done book-keeping for a small business before, but with Accounting 101 being one of my worst subjects at uni, I don't think that would be a good career move for me! On the other hand, finding a job in my profession IS something I have considered and is something I'm actively pursuing. There isn't much going (in any profession) in these tiny little towns. But I have looked, believe me. Darwin is much more of a possibility and something still being actively pursued as an option.

Cheers!

Have I asked? Are you a carpenter or something useful?
They're always looking for block layers in Darwhine

http://i49.tinypic.com/qpfaeo.jpg

Does the pub at Darwin airport still advertise for topless bar maids?

Used to pay $60.00 an hour, so you could drop the wife/girlfriend/patrner/backpacker/bonkbuddy off for a six hour shift and you could spend the time annoying the various operaters for a flying gig and then call in for a few cold ones at the end of the day.

Win Win situation I say.

Of course I'm something useful - I'm a pilot! hehe. Seriously though - I don't have a trade as such. More technical office worker. There are a few such jobs around, but not many.

I can't say I've checked that one out yet! Maybe I should. Hell, surely under equal opportunity regulations they wouldn't be able to deny ME a job!

Firstly, I would like to reiterate again to anyone else thinking about this and not sure whether they should make the trek or not (ie., me 1 month ago). Do it! Especially if you like travelling and like seeing new places. And I don't mean make the commitment up front to MOVE to whoop whoop if you are unsure about it. Come up, drive around, meet people and see the places. There really is no need to make a commitment up front to stay in one particular place.

Yes, many people say it's good to hang around one place and dig yourself in there. I do not disagree, this definitely seems like one way to get a job. But, you don't need to randomly pick a place off the map and then go there. Try a few places, see where you like and what place you'd like to hang around (if at all). Whilst I may be at a disadvantage with SOME places for not hanging around (ie., not deciding yet where I will base myself), I have had the opportunity to meet lots and lots of other people in the industry in the mean time (and see some interesting places). Some senior people even have agreed with me that it's good to see lots of places and meet lots of people at least initially.

Anyway, a few thousand KMs later I am chasing up a couple more leads. Only one serious one to go. Interestingly, a few of the leads I have been chasing on this trip have been unrelated to me being on this trip (although for at least one, being on the trip meant I was able to meet the relevant people!) What I would like to say though, is there are leads out there. Yes, there are lots of pilots, but I'm finding that there are opportunities to be had. I'm not saying I've got a job yet, I'm just saying that I can see there are opportunities about that are beyond the obvious. Maybe I'm talking BS - but I'm hoping that in a couple of weeks I can say that I wasn't!

Oh - and I LOVE the lightning storms!!!

They don't look so flash from the inside!

Krazy - well said. I'm going to make the drive up in the next 3-4 weeks (wish I could do it earlier but unfortunately I cant... hopefully I wont miss out:))

My reasoning is "what have you got to lose?". In the end, if the **** hits the fan, it isn't for you & you don't like it - you can at any time pack the car again and drive back to where you came from (or buy a plane ticket back)... That said I'm definitely going to have a drive around a lot of places, look around to see what I like and then decide who I'm going to bother for a job :)

I'd rather sit around up north waiting for a job opportunity than in Melbourne... even if worst came to worst I'd just consider it a nice scenic holiday I've always wanted to take.

Nice pun there gassed budgie!

Great thread! I can't wait for Krazy to write "I got the job, flying a C206 on scenics!" I know 1000's have gone before you and its a common career path but to be following you in real time and not just talking about it after the event is actually very exciting. Bringing back memories, its the 'thrill of the hunt'!

Stick at it until you achieve your goal (as corny as that sounds). I don't want to read "Sorry guys, I've run out of money and I'm heading back home, flying is not for me." I (and everybody else following you I'm sure) will kick your arse!

Krazy & Onezeroonethree

I'm doing exactly the same thing and am in the same boat as you both and headed up in early May.

Hopefully we can look back at this thread in a few months when all 3 of us have jobs (as pilots) and have a laugh!

Its a huge move but a once in a lifetime opportunity and a great experience!

Good luck to all :ok:

I hope this isn't getting too political for pprune, but I must say that spending time in Northern Australia seeing the plight of Aborigines in the towns around here is quite an eye-opener, and quite a sad indictment on Australia. It's not like I grew up in areas which didn't have an Aboriginal population (even though I may live in one now), but it was very different to what I see up here - or at least very different to what I see as an adult.

People talk about the issues of living up North - the remoteness, small towns, cost, etc. But I imagine many other people would find the 'in your face' reality of racial divisions in society quite hard to live with too. Sure, there are amusing things, such as watching 3 locals fight over a case of beer in the middle of a street. But that's quite sad too. Seeing people drinking almost non-stop, then passing out drunk in just about every public place, seeing blatant racism, seeing people beg. It's a big slap in the face for those of us that come from the comfy life-style down South where we think Australia is a lovely place to live, first world, and everyone has a good life.

I really don't want to start a political debate here. I just want to make those people who have not yet come up here but are thinking about it, to be aware of yet another aspect of Northern WA and NT life that us Mexicans aren't so used to.

You have stumbled upon the raison d'être for the Darwhine aviation industry :ok:

Yes Krazy, and if you travel further afield in search of work as a pilot, to Australia's north and east, you will find poverty and a lack of opportunity for locals too, a percentage of which is of their own making because change is too hard to do. Adjust or remain behind, in this world, has been the way since before the Ice Ages ! (There is always a cost though, and a nostalgia for the Old Ways)

Wait 'till you start flying them around Krazy, they will drive you crazy!

The average IQ of indigenous people is around 70 points. Due to being an isolated small island population they did not have the chance and opportunity for mutations to occur randomly in the population, to evolve higher levels of intelligence which is why they look and act primitive. The population in Tasmania was so small and isolated they were considered to be the most primitive people in the world not even being able to 'make fire'.

Suddenly combine this with a modern lifestyle where lateral thinking and problem solving is required daily and you work out that they are not equipped to deal with what we impose on them.

There was a study done in Broome back in the 80's with Aboriginal children where they were asked to pick the larger quantity of fluid. A glass was poured into a tall thin glass, and a glass and a half poured into a short wide glass in front of them. 8/10 chose the tall thin glass.

You will see this often when trying to explain 5 seats in an aircraft mean 5 people, not 7 or 8.........it can take them a while to work it out :ugh:

I'll be havin' the tall thin glass too, thank you Seamus.

So which clan are you from Bozo?

bbbbbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Blueskymine, those comments could get you in trouble...

The idea that one race is superior to another is a dangerous road to start down. Nazi Germany and Communist Russia under Stalin carried out horrible attrocities based on that very belief. What you believe affects how you act people.

It's the 'HUMAN' race - we have to find a better way than repeating mistakes of the past...

Exactly, and the traps of the 'Western' man such as the booze play a bigger part in the problem than what a lot of people would be willing to admit. Perhaps it is also that it is so big a problem that it goes in the 'too hard' basket.

I still disagree with the idea of making blanket remarks on race related opinions of 'intelligence' levels.

Perhaps a little research into why some indigenous Australians are the way they are (think mistreatment, harassment, exclusion and the destruction of culture by the saviour white man over the past 200 years) would serve some of the posters here quite well, rather than making stereotyped assumptions based on anecdotal experience. Slippery slope indeed :ugh:

Cultural Experience
 

Krazy one:
The truth about the condition of indigenous people in the NT is indeed heartbreaking to Balanda, but is not to Yolgna - it falls into the category of "what is" to them.

Ignore some of the remarks made here and go work in Arnhem Land, once you develop an understanding of the people you will see it differently.

Blueskymine( .....our beds are burning?)
As far as IQ is concerned, it gives a number unrelated to anything else.

BH

Guys - as I said, I didn't want a political argument. Please stay away from making inflammatory comments (or simply comments which OTHERS may consider inflammatory).

My point was not whether anything is right or wrong, or who's to blame, or why things are they way they are. It was simply trying to get across to those who aren't here HOW things are because I reckon it's an important point.

Personally, I would love the opportunity to work in a community in Arnhem land. Never been there, but the opportunity to try and integrate with a local community, learn a bit of their culture and try and understand it a bit better sounds fantastic. I've loved doing that sort of thing travelling in other countries, it only makes sense that I would want to do it in my own country. That being said, for ME, PERSONALLY, it would be harder in my own country. But still something I would like to do.

Well said. Experience and understand. All the best with the jobhunting.

You started it Krazy...

Blueskymine is correct, but I think the description of the difference between whites and Abo's could have been better put.
The difference between Aboriginals and whites is a gulf that will be with us for centuries, and no amount of money, or do-gooders efforts, will do much to narrow it.
Until you have worked with Abo's or employed them, as I have, you will never grasp the differences between white and Aboriginal outlooks, on every facet of our respective cultures.

The problem is that Abo's are tribal - but whites are independent and self-reliant. Abos do not recognise material value - whites value it greatly. A fine wooden table, built by craftsmen, is adored and respected, and treated with care, by whites - but in Abo's eyes, it's seen as a table only until it gets cold - then it's seen as firewood to keep you warm.

Money is something that whites value greatly, and place great personal attachment to. Abo's see money as something to be spent - now - with no idea of its value, and no idea of the amount of work attached to gathering it.
If one Abo has $50, the whole tribe is rich. No Abo goes without, if just one Abo has money. If you're a white, and have $50M - and I'm down on my luck, unemployed, without a cent to my name - you'll walk past me in the street, telling me I need to work harder. If you're stuck, anywhere, for any reason - any Abo will help you - but he expects you to turn around and help the whole tribe, the minute he decides they need assistance.

The reason Abos steal everything they can lay their hands on, is because their minds work on simple tribal mentality. "You have money - I need it - if you don't give it to me, like other tribe members would do - I'll steal it."
The need for personal possessions, and the work ethic, are something that Abo's have never possessed in 40,000 years. They have never needed to work.
They get hungry, they hunt down some food, kill it and eat it on the spot. If it's a big feed, like a wallaby, the whole lot has to be eaten on the spot. There may not be any food tomorrow, and tomorrow may never come.
Abo's never even consider tomorrow in any form. Whites plan carefully, and plan ahead. Abos never plan anything. They take life as it comes, and live only for the present.

Booze is something that makes Abo's feel good, and is readily available. Why not drink booze all day? This is the simple childlike outlook of the Abo mentality. Unfortunately, booze was never a part of their culture until the whites arrived - but early administrators saw that Abo's were incapable of handling booze - and refused to give it them (a wise move).

In the 1960's, do-gooders said that was discrimination, and fought for "drinking rights" for Abo's - and won them. Since that time, billions have been spent trying to reverse the damage that alcohol has done to Abo communities. Some communities have gone completely dry to try and eliminate the community damage, and have ejected the Abo boozers - who have ended up hanging around the outskirts of, and in the centre of, country towns - creating trouble and indulging in anti-social behaviour. It will get worse before it gets better. The remote Abo communities don't want these trouble-making, boozing, Abo people - but neither do the white-run towns want them. Thus, they live in permanent limbo, from welfare payment to welfare payment, and from one booze-sozzled day, to the next.

The tribal, communal, simplistic, childlike outlook, that Abo's have, is totally at complete odds, with whites outlook - where we value the work ethic, monetary wealth, personal responsibility - and take great pride in material possessions, and guard them possessively.
The Abo's possess fabulous hunting, tracking, and visual skills that few whites can match. Ask a white child to look at a tree, and relate what they see - and a white child will tell you the type of tree, whether its a pretty tree, whether it has value as timber, or how it fits into its urban surroundings.
An Abo child will tell you about what medicine that tree is good for, what animals or insect inhabit it, that are good to eat, what the wood and resin is good for (digging sticks, woomeras or spears) .. and they'll examine the ground under the tree and tell you what animals have tracked under it recently.

If you employ Abos, expect to employ the whole tribe. If you want one Abo worker, employ three - because the one you employ initially will turn up for the first three days of the week, then vanish for 3 weeks - as he is gripped by more important issues than work - such as "family problems", or some tribal gathering that's important to him. Having to work, to earn money, is not something that has ever been linked in Abo's minds. The whites provide you with money, anyway, so why bother working? If the whites don't provide it, steal it! - they got plenty anyway!

Until the people in charge of decision making with regard to Abo support, come to the understanding that Aboriginal overall outlook, and the whites overall outlook, are at a variance that can never be fully joined, by trying to make Abo's behave like whites, the sooner the "Aboriginal problem" will be resolved.

Experience and Understanding
 

Krazy one:
MAF if you are so inclined.
Layhnapuy Homelands if you need more income

Cheers
BH

A great discussion.
 

I have lived in Alice Springs for over 30 years and had lots of cantact with all sorts of territorians, and others. I welcome discussion and we should be mature enough to do this without fisticuffs. I have come to the conclusion that aboriginals are the upper class in this area. Most people here work for them. Many are wealthier than me, although they don't display it.There is a huge gap between our two cultures, and we unknowingly insult each other daily.
New arrivals in the N.T. have a huge culture shock.
The N.T. will never have sufficient money or resources to handle this situation properly, although there is a massive attempt being made by lots of dedicated Territorians.
The Federal Govenment have the resources, but don't care much, because there are not many votes out here, and anyway they do not have a clue how to do it.
As Tinny says, light aircraft are an essential part of this. What I find difficult to tolerate is the southern pilots who come here just to stay a short time in order to get hours, and loudly complain about everything. We can do without them. We need dedicated pilots who accept reality and work to help make things better. I think the Krazy one might bet the latter.

Good post plainmaker, with some accurate generalisations. However I do believe the problem can be solved by integration. Within a few generations actually, started by some bold political (not politically motivated) decisions and strong aboriginal leadership.

As I see it, the first problem is separation or more commonly touted by the media and do-gooders as a racist divide. At the moment we see us and them. However in reality we are all Australian in this modern world of the 21st Century. Some are Australian of English, Irish, Italian, Greek etc descent. Others are Australian of Aboriginal descent. Imagine that………..all equals.

That is step 1. Without this change there is no point wasting time and resources to fix the problem.

Step 2 is the how. Difficult but not impossible.
The current generation of Aboriginals are lost to the welfare, missionary segregated alcohol fog created by white man of the last century.

However, the children of the current generation can learn to integrate into the modern society that we all live in. That is REALITY, and the sooner we understand that the nomadic hunter of 200 years ago doesn’t exist any more the better. No welfare, no special treatment that keeps us divided.

Australians of Aboriginal descent will take responsibility for themselves. They work and learn the value of money. They will be able to own property. But most importantly they will have a sense of self worth.

They can be proud of their culture and keep it alive as well as contributing to society as equals.

This may take a couple of generations for change in behaviour to take place, but it will happen.

But who am I kidding. No politician will ever have the balls to implement this idea – and the “Aboriginal Problem” will forever exist until they become extinct like an endangered species.

Oh by the way – happy topend adventure

Welcome to the Nanny Territory!!!

The skimpy bar maid job pays bloody well, compared to GA.

Lets say the better half could put in a forty hour week at $60.00 an hour that equates to $2400.00 a week multiply that by 52 equals $124,800pa.

Your call krazy.

Suggested Reading
 

Suggested reading for BlueSkymine, Onetrack et al:

Guns Steel and Germs by Jared Diamond.

Gives a far better explanation on cultural differences than the simplistic concept of genetic superiority.

BTW when camping and fishing with Yolgna, get your bit of the barra before its chucked on the fire - they will not mind.

BH

random Q: What's phone reception like out there? In towns like Darwin/Broome I'd presume it's fine, and smaller places like KNX I would also assume it would be fine... but what about smaller towns?

When I ask about phone reception - I ask about all the phone providers. I'm with 3 atm and am wondering whether I should switch to something like Telstra or whether I'll be fine?

Switch to Telstra. 3 is good for nothing outside the major cities perimeters.

onezeroonethree, only Telstra or Vodafone in KNX.

Tesltra Next G. Don't bother with anything else. The extra you pay is worth it.

Will work at most weird and wonderful places you fly to. Helpful when planes break down, or pax don't turn up etc. If it does not work at the place once airborne you get reception fairly quick. I'm only talking from experiance but obviously depends on the place you go to.

Thanks guys! will make the switch soon!

I have been travelling with my Vodafone SIM as well as a Telstra SIM (which I've used primarily for Internet rather than phone calls). I've had Vodafone coverage in every town I've been in (where I've stayed looking for jobs that is). Telstra definitely covers a LOT further out of town (assuming you've got a 850MHz capable phone) than Vodafone. Unfortunately I've had endless troubles with Telstra customer service (what's new). Otherwise, the coverage is great!

So. Did you get a job Krazy? We're all on the edge of our seats here.