Australia - A Top Travel Destination?

Many people like me who live in Australia would surely rate New Zealand as the top ‘must-see’ destination. It is always true that many people would not want to go too far out of their cultural comfort zone.

Like Australians preferring New Zealand as the top ‘must-see’ destination, many people living in New Zealand prefer Australia as their top ‘must-see’ destination. There are various reasons for this and the one that strikes my mind is that Australia is like New Zealand with the difference being only in bigger size, more diverse and with better weather.

However, in the whole Asia Pacific region Australia ranks top among travel destinations preferred by many people.

The above statement was confirmed by Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). They survey reported that about 2.7 million people already visited Australia in 2007 and also this number is confidently forecast to increase in future.

The above statistics are based on door-to-door interviews conducted among various people of nine countries and territories. The survey asked people to list their top five ‘must-visit’ travel destinations in Asia Pacific region in order of priority and among this, a majority responded with Australia as their top ‘must-see’ destination.

There are various reasons for majority of people preferring Australia. Before residing in Australia, I had visited Australia about seven to eight times… What drew me back, time and again?

• amazing scenery
• fascinating Aboriginal history
• an land of contrasts
• remarkable variety in nature
• dramatic night skies

There are various places in Australia - like Kimberley - which bear testimony to the above beauty and features. One more vital reason is these factors remain unaltered for years and are sure to be there for keeps!

Though I have lived in Australia for so many years there are yet a lot of great places for me to see. Australia is a diverse country which contains lots and lots of cities, towns, rock formations, beaches, forests, deserts and islands to be explored which cannot be finished in just one travel visit.

I liked Sydney in Australia which has a moderate climate with warm summers, mild winters and rainfall that is spread throughout the year. The climatic conditions in Australia also make people prefer it as a top destination.

There are many nature lovers like me for whom the best place would be Gold Coast in Queensland. This area is a perfect blend of man made and natural attractions which is an eye-catching treat for nature lovers and is sure to make them prefer it as their top ‘must-see’ destination - even the next time round!

During my travels to Australia, I stayed in Melbourne where I found cost of living is cheap and less crowded than other places.

My visit to Tiwi islands is surely an unforgettable cultural experience and anyone would definitely have this in the top of their travel list each time. All these above factors like amazing scenic beauty, excellent climatic conditions, options for cheaper cost of living, great cultural experience, and abandon natural beauty contribute towards majority of people preferring Australia as their top ‘must-see’ destination.

Being such a cornucopia of natural beauty and such a melting pot of cultures, its no wonder that Australia is fast emerging as the dream destination - not only to travel to, but also to live in!

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Casual Employment a Stepping Stone to Permanent Employment in Australia

Casual employment which is generally termed as non-standard forms of employment is steadily increasing its share of total employment in Australia.

The employment nature in Australians in recent days has changed a lot. Many prefer getting employed on a casual basis. The statistical research report given by Australian Bureau of Statistics on the data collected in this aspect indicates that about 26.9% of Australian working people are on casual employment.

In 1997 the research done by Simpson, Dawkins and Madden showed that in the period from 1984-93 rate of casual employment increased in the total proportion of total employees. The highest casual employment occurred in sectors like electricity, gas, water, agriculture and tourism and Mining with states like Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania recoding highest casual employments in Australia.

I have many of my friends who like and work in casual jobs in Australia. Many professional females in Australia find the non-standard forms of employment like casual employment more flexible and easier to take up along with their family works. The reasons for these are enormous.

Some of the reasons to state for increasing number of casual employment in Australia are:

Casual jobs in Australia are easier to get. In fact if you have very good English skills you would very soon land up in casual jobs in Australia.

The payment structure of causal jobs in Australia is per hour basis and is also quite attractive which make people to prefer the same. Even an average person can get paid roughly about 14.50 Australian dollars per hour. This remuneration amount would get increased depending on years of experience and skills of an individual.

Casual work in Australia is the biggest sector of the economy which contributes a vital part in increasing the number of casual employment in Australia. These factors result towards the full time jobs to slowly disappear from job market.

Greater change in global employment patterns and lifestyle of people also made Australian employees to give high value for their health and safety in work place along with social and family life. These made the people in Australia to turn their career choice towards casual employment.

Due to the increase in casual employment in Australia almost all people in Australia are employed. The statistical report recorded that in 2004 Australia recorded the least unemployment rating in world.

Factors like policies designed by government to improve international competitiveness, high floating exchange rates and deregulation in financial department made employers to prefer flexibility in employment. This contributes a lot towards the non-standard form of employment namely casual employment in Australia.

Even the increase in the number of employees in job market plays as a factor for raise in causal employment in Australia.

From the above points which details on the reasons for increases in casual employment in Australia it is clear that both demand-side and supply-side factors have contributed to the spread of casual employment in Australia. In fact the casual employment in Australia provides an important stepping stone to permanent employment for many Australians.

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Property Crash Not Likely

Author: David Koch
Date: June 2, 2008

Rapid increases in interest rates have slammed Australian home owners with a mortgage to a point where they are now making the highest repayments in the developed world. Thankfully, one consolation is that generally house values are holding up.

I know there is a big increase in home repossessions and loan defaults, and property values are relatively stagnant, but compared with the rest of the world our real estate prices are staying pretty solid.

The question now is whether Australian residential property prices are overvalued and could we see the same sort of cracks which are happening overseas.

The news from overseas is just appalling. A recent US house price survey by the National Association of Realtors recorded an average 7.7 per cent drop for the year to March - the biggest fall since records started in 1982.

Would you believe states such as California and Florida are seeing average falls of up to 30 per cent over the past year as the credit crunch bites hard. At this stage 1-in-194 homes in the US have been repossessed and that ratio is climbing constantly. There are reports that some financiers are repossessing homes and then asking the owners to stay rent free to protect the property from vandals.

Now there are fears this sort of property crash could spread to Britain based on its current valuations. Average house prices in Britain are running at six times average earnings, which is way above the historic average of 3.7 times wages.

Australian residential property values are currently double Britain’s historic high - 12 times earnings in Sydney and 10 times in Melbourne.

Australian mortgage repayments are 57 per cent of average incomes compared with 50 per cent in Britain where the historic average is just 30 per cent.

A recent survey in The Economist magazine says Australia has the most overvalued residential property in the world.

All these comparisons make for very nervous reading and you’d think would point to an impending crash the size of that in the US. That may very well be the case a few years down the track.

But for the moment there appears to be a couple of significant planks underpinning Australian property values.

Firstly, the high skilled and business immigration numbers combined with low construction levels is creating a shortage of supply accentuated by the banks tightening development financing.

Full employment also means that even though higher loan repayments are stretching family budgets, household incomes won’t fall.
The other factor is the rental crisis. Strongly rising rents are usually a precursor to rising values as investors chase property to take advantage of the strong yields.

For property owners it looks like a crash in values isn’t on the cards for at least a few years. For those looking to get on the property merry-go-round for the first time, property is not going to get any more affordable either.

But it seems there is hope of picking up an affordable bargain if you know where to look.

Last week on my Sunrise program we interviewed Terry Ryder who is a former property writer and now runs a business called Hot Spotting, which analyses property issues.

Terry Ryder put together a list of the top 12 places to buy a house for under $200,000. Yep, $200,000 and many on the list are well below that level down to $90,000 in one area.

Now before you chortle and say they must be in the middle of nowhere, Ryder’s 12 locations all have good community facilities and reasonably good employment prospects for people moving there, because they’re booming.

There are only two locations on the list close to a capital city - Melton near Melbourne and Elizabeth on the outskirts of Adelaide.
Ryder says most areas close to Sydney and Brisbane were priced out of this list.

His personal pick is Parkes in regional NSW because of its location as a transport hub.

In Queensland, Charters Towers is the best pick while in NSW there’s Broken Hill, Glen Innes and Inverell.

In Victoria, the best buys are Gippsland, Melton and Mildura.

Further south in Tassie, George Town and the Rosebery-Zeehan area are on the list.

In South Australia, Elizabeth rounds out the top 12.

Source: The Sun-Herald

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