I'm done with this...

[Son of a Steelman]

Well, here you have it, I'm done with the place. I'm so close to buying my ticket home.
Unless someone wants to trade places with me... A Boilermaker in the U.K. is someone who is CERTIFIED to make vessels that hold pressure. Turns out in Australia its a name for someone who can weld. I have experience...but No... not enough. Places don't want some one who can just weld, but also a forklift truck driver, a crane operator, a metal brake press operator, a machinist, a lathe operator.. all in one...

I'm sorry but you dont get people my age with the experience of someone who has just retired from 50 years in the industry... Apparently that is how I see what they want from people my age...25.

I used to make truck and coach chassis in England, I'd say the welding of those is more critical than that of bulldozer buckets.. Have any of you guys heard of new Asda trucks or Calor gas/BoC gases trucks breaking in half down the M60? Considering I built 30 new Asda trailer and 30 or so Chassis for Calor trucks, that's a fair few trucks on the U.K. roads.

Take it from me.. Australia like to nit pick and aren't too literal with what they mean... 'nuff said!

Stick with it.
Reading your post reminds me precisely of my time In South Africa in 1970, which ended up stretching to 16 years.
Yes it was difficult to understand that I was expected to be fully trained in all trades as well as carry a pilots licence & a brain surgeons toolkit, but I swore I would not give in and in a year or so was loving the fact that I was adding other feathers to my bow -working electrical & pneumatically skills to my knowledge - as well as a host of others that I would not have been allowed to try in the UK.

They will all stand you in good stead in your lifetime.

As a punishment for being an Englander or rooinek I was given a difficult job day one that 5 men before me had failed to complete. The drawings were all German blueprints so were impossible for me to interpret. The Portuguese charge hand could only say "Maka da angles" as he passed my work area at speed and the foreman took an instant dislike to me. Well needless to say I proved them all wrong and the job was completed which impressed the works manager. The foreman swore he would see the back of me but that never happened. Quite the reverse as I took his job.

Stick with it. Of course its different but soon you will be as well.

See ya in twenty years bluey.

Good Luck

 

[Tino]

I used to make truck and coach chassis in England, I'd say the welding of those is more critical than that of bulldozer buckets.. Have any of you guys heard of new Asda trucks or Calor gas/BoC gases trucks breaking in half down the M60? Considering I built 30 new Asda trailer and 30 or so Chassis for Calor trucks, that's a fair few trucks on the U.K. roads.

Arrogant and insulting. Thanks

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

How amy digger buckets have you done Mr sip! There's a lot more to them than you think......

 

[SiPMerlin150]

I didn't mean it like that Tino, My deepest apologies if I offended you. I was rather miffed at the time I wrote this.

Arrogant and insulting. Thanks

 

[SiPMerlin150]

How amy digger buckets have you done Mr sip! There's a lot more to them than you think......

Unfortunately I've not made a single one, though spending hours rewiring Gantry crane pendants, and servicing the electric chain hoists in a large dozer bucket factory, I've seen how huge sheets are laid onto a large computer controlled plasma cutter, then fed into a roller bender, out and into the welders area for construction along with other parts, it's something that I think i'd be happy to learn to make. Some of the buckets when sat on their ends are over 8 meters tall!!

 

[Tino]

I didn't mean it like that Tino, My deepest apologies if I offended you. I was rather miffed at the time I wrote this.

No offense taken. I understand your frustration. A very good friend of mine moved to New Zealand years ago. He was/is a very good welder. He could hardly believe it when he applied for a job and they told him that his Loyds codings “don't mean a thing here mate!”

From all I have been told a, I'll give it a go, attitude is vital. Good luck and Happy Christmas.

 

[dannyp]

i've made 1 digger bucket, it was challenging to say the least. try doing it manaly with just a gas axe, press, sledge hammer, 9" and of course welder.

tho in your first post you did pritty much describe my job, add desinger, sparkey and mecanic sadly the pay is still shockingly rubbish. keep fancying a trip somwhere else just for the crack

 

[Burdekin]

What happened with the job http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/a-backup-plan-just-in-thoughts-stage.40408/

I'll be blunt, sounds as if you didn't do your research. We call welder fabricators, boilermakers in Oz and is a trade qualified job so you have to have done an apprenticeship in the trade, Australia is not England. Why is it the employers fault that they want qualified wonders? I had all those tickets and skills you mentioned when I was 21, they aren't hard to get and pretty standard in Oz. Yes Australia is Hot in summer, really you're complaining about the heat and you moved to Australia? If you're not working for your step dad why don't you move to where there is work?

I moved the other way, I live in Scotland, it's not Australia but like Australia it's what you make of it and I love living in Scotland. So a bit of advice, it's not Australia that has to change and adapt, it's you. There's no shortage of work in Oz and if you haven't got the quals you'll need to work towards getting them. Aussies hate people slagging them off so you're attitude won't get you anywhere in Oz but if you tell them you love the place (even if you're not feeling the love at the moment) that will go a long way. Go to where the work is, knock on doors, get down to the local pubs and ask about work, be upbeat, positive and have a sense of humour.

Seriously though, good luck and show some of that gritty English stiff upper lip...