The Cost of Living in Australia of Everything…
How much is ……?
Let me tell you.
When I first moved to Australia in 2007, shopping online wasn’t what I was used to back in the UK. Most major stores had a website, but they weren’t quite ‘finished’.
By that, I mean almost all websites had a picture of their store, a way of finding where the store was, the telephone number of the store, but very rarely had any information about their products and almost always no pricing.
If you did find exactly what you are looking for, with full details of the product and the price, it would invariably turn out to be a site from the US. Their $ sign and Australia’s $ sign both look like $.
Today it’s a much different story, which is why I can present to you….
The cost of absolutely everything in Australia!
But before you check out all these prices, a word of warning. If you take these prices and convert the Australian cost into your currency, you will not be left with a fair reflection of the cost of living in Australia. Why?
If the Australian dollar is strong against your currency, then Australia will appear to be a very expensive country to live in. If the Aussie dollar is weak against your currency, Australia will seem like a cheap country.
But when you live here and earn Australian money, exchange rates mean nothing. And as salaries here are generally higher than the countries, prices won’t seem so bad once you’re here.
But to understand this fully, you need to read the following two posts…
Now we’re ready for the cost of everything……
Houses:
I’ve got a separate page for that…..
Cars:
Here are three great resources for checking out the price of cars in Australia. The first one is the big one; it’s where both private sellers and dealers can advertise their cars for sale online.
The system is very flexible, you can choose to search for cars by age, vehicle type, mileage (kilometreage isn’t a word yet) or by make. For example, my first car was a Vauxhall, but here, of course, they are called Opel…
If you clicked on the link, note how every car for sale in the list is an Opel. Click on the link for “New Search” top left, and you can define exactly what you are looking for.
Other options to search for second hand cars, in fact all…
Second Hand Stuff
Food:
Our two major supermarkets here are called Coles and Woolworths. We used to have a couple of independent websites that would check both of these supermarkets prices side-by-side, but sadly those websites no longer exist. I’ve looked at the Coles website, it doesn’t seem possible to easily find out the price of things, on Woolworths though, it’s a different story.
So, it’s all down to Woolies then, from bakery to toiletries, click below to find out the prices for your grocery shopping…
Utilities:
This is a difficult one, because there is gas, electricity, water and telephony as well as rates. Prices vary from state to state too and with eight states there would be a lot of links.
To make things worse, utility companies hide their pricing structures behind plans, tariffs, peak times, off-peak times, they build in surcharges, standing charges and sometimes make the whole lot inaccessible by insisting you enter your address and postcode before giving you a price.
But I hope these links help.
Electricity:
This is one of those “switch providers” websites and if you “invent” your location and answer some other questions you will be able to get prices for gas and electricity across Australia.
Or you can read my posts about electricity prices…
Water:
Water prices in Australia are the best kept secret in the world. I am flabbergasted at how difficult it is to find the price of water from these utility companies. Do you think they are trying to hide something? Here are links to what I think are five of our states water suppliers.
Here’s a tip though, don’t bother trying to look for prices, life is too short.
The information is probably there, although you’ll need to dig deep. But on top of water, there are also sewerage costs. And I know, there are 3 more states to go, but as a guide, you’d be better off reading my post about it…
Telephony:
The national telephone company here in Australia is called Telstra. You can find out about their various plans here…
I found them way too expensive, especially for international calls. So I set up a VoIP telephone system which wasn’t that difficult to do. This is the company I used…
You can read my post about it here….
And of course, there are mobile phones too. I use 3.
But if you really want to research all of your telephony needs, these are the guys to visit…
Rates:
Rates vary from state to state, from council to council and from one year to the next. So I won’t list them all here. But if you search Google for “average council rates” you will get an idea. But make sure you search the Australian one….
Clothing and small household items:
The following three stores are amongst the most popular in Australia for what I used to know as “department stores”. So they are like a mix of John Lewis, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer’s, but if anything, a little downmarket. You can buy all sorts of stuff from these people and their websites now show pictures and prices….
Insurances:
There are hundreds of insurance companies, all will require you to speak with them at length before they will quote you a price. We did, (well Mrs BobinOz did) and these are the companies we chose for our insurances. That doesn’t mean they are the best, but they were good enough for us and we haven’t been disappointed with the service we have received from any of them.
- Home – Allianz
- Car – Bingle
- Private health – Medibank Private
Electrical goods:
This is one of Australia’s biggest electrical goods retailers, but more important than that, they have a good website….
Entertainment:
I’ve divided entertainment into 3 sections, alcohol, TV and going to the pub! Use these links to find the prices of alcohol and your digital TV package.
I’ve got quite a lot of posts about going out drinking, here’s a few of them….
- A Night Out in the West End of Brisbane
- A Night Out At the Comedy Club
- Social Life in Australia: Making Friends Revisited
- Caxton Street, Brisbane: A Night in the City
Find bargains here:
We don’t have Amazon here, but we have these people…
And for product reviews, go here….
And with that, I think I’ve covered everything.
More useful links:
But if I haven’t, and you can’t get what you’re looking for from here, then I just don’t know. Well, I do, this lot sell everything….
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Myer and David Jones are more of an equivalent to the department stores you mentioned in terms of being ‘upmarket’ and price also
Of course, yes, I don’t know why I missed them out. They are exactly like Debenhams and John Lewis, for example.
Thanks for pointing that out.
i am moving to queensland on a 457 sponsor visa…
i wont be eligible for most if any benefits , but if eligible for the lafha, i am led to believe that this is being done away with ,or is it just becoming taxed….is the goverment going to introduce anything else to help overseas workers….i have 5 kids…….can i apply for anything else,i will be paying tax so would immagine there would be…its my only concern as my partner is staying at home with babies…
i am a diesel mech/fitter.
cheers
I’d never heard of LAFHA until a couple of weeks ago when it was discussed on this post….
http://www.bobinoz.com/3335/cost-of-living-in-australia-school-fees/
Take a look at it for yourself and read the comments that follow it. There is a bit of a discussion about it there and also a link provided by Kathleen to some further information.
Hope it helps.
thanks bob
i’ve got some information here. i got to know that we shouldn’t convert the prices to our country’s currency. that’s the matter
Yes, always try and use the hard yakka.
Hi bob , it was good reading all about your move to australia . We are meant to be going out oursevles , got our visa’s & just sold our home . Can i ask about hime appliances and taking things like washing machines , tv etc .The cost if taking all my home out is going to cost between £3000-£5000 , my husband wants to sell everything and buy new once we get there is this a cheaper way to do it or is it cheaper to pay the £3 – £5000 & take all our stuff ? does our uk washing machines work out there ? many thanks julie
Personally, I’d say bring your stuff with you, it’s very expensive kitting your house out with everything from scratch. The only electrical item that won’t work here is your TV, although you could buy a digital box for about $40 to fix it.
Read my post about what to bring with you for more information.
Actually 5000 pounds is about 10,000 aussie dollars last time I checked. If you’re looking to deck out a three bedroom house, you can probably do it for less than 10gs depending on where you move – the further out bush the more transport AND finding new furniture will cost. Even in cities it relies on a bit of pot luck sometimes and the idea is you buy cheap basics to tide you over, save up later for nice things when you get the hang of the seconds/local markets (factory seconds / floorroom displays are often quite handy). But you can also use your computer as a TV if you want – will need adapters (if bringing overseas plugs) and a tv card but it’s cheaper than transporting a tv especially now digital is being rolled out (and analog cancelled) and the cost of monitors / hardware in australia is getting cheaper if you know where to look. Save transport costs for the things you can’t replace like heirlooms, knitted baby booties nana made for the kids and stuff like that if moving to a city. Get insurance too.
It must have been a long time since you last looked then, £5000 is now worth more like $7500 AUD. As you point out as well, there are certain things that you just must bring, and I know you can buy one quarter of a container on a shared basis. By the time you’ve paid for that, you may as well go the whole way, get a complete container and bring everything. Well, that’s my view anyway.
And yes, insurance is a must.
Hi Bob
I would just like to double check with you whether there is some kind of rule regarding bringing over household furniture. We’re looking at moving to Brisbane in January 2013 and are not sure whether we should bring over our couches etc. or purchase new furniture and then ship it over? If I’m not mistaken, I read somewhere (and for the life of me, I can’t remember where) that one cannot bring over new furniture and that furniture must have been in your possession for at least 1 year.
Please could you advise me whether this is in fact true? We also have a relatively new Samsung LED 3D Smart T.V (series 6 range). Could we also just buy one of those digital boxes that you mentioned in one of the posts above?
The rule, as I remember it, is that you must declare to customs EVERYTHING that you are bringing over which is less than 12 months old. I remember remarking to Mrs BobinOz that I had some underpants, bought from Asda, which were only about nine months old, wondering whether I should put them on the list.
We didn’t put them on the list and I appear to have got away with it.
I think if you bring too many new things over, they will charge you an import duty, so it’s probably not a good idea to buy new furniture. But yes, I’d buy a digital box when you get here for your TV.
This is only what I think though, you can always check with your removal company, they should know the rules.
Thank you so much for your prompt response. The information regarding your underwear was particularly interesting;) But ultimately how would they know whether your furniture is 6 months old or 14 months old?
They probably just do not want to see a container filled with products in their original packaging.
That’s right, I don’t think they can possibly tell, although stuff still in its original packaging would be a bit of a giveaway
hi my family emigratedin july this year
i am the mother enquireing .if i wanted to go for a visit .around xmas 2014.can you advise wot i do?
Hi, you’ll need to get a holiday visa from the Australian government. See my page about Visas.
That is great info. It made me look more closely at some items of everyday life and wages… It’s reassuring to find that the food and cars costs almost the same as here in Qc, but the minimal wage is around 55-60% higher. takes the weight off about the lodging costs
Thank you Bob!
I just got my visa for a working holiday, as the first step to building relations and hopefully move permanently soon. I will fly to Perth in July, and wish to stay around Rockingham/Warbro. In the meantime, your blog will become my home page!
Thank you Patrick! I hope you have a great time here on your WHV and that it does lead to something more permanent. Cheers!
hi bob good luck.my son and family emigrated to oz july 4th this year.guess wot they r in rockingham
Well, I’ve never been there but I hope they are having a fantastic time! Good luck to you to.
hi Bob, me and my family will move soon in Australia, we are from Albania and i will get a student visa for master. my child is 11 years old and if he goes in a public school is it for free or we have to pay fees if its so how much are the fees for him ?
I can’t really answer that question, because it depends which state you are moving to. I am also unsure whether or not you might qualify for any concessions as you will be on a student visa. You might like to read my page about school fees in Australia, and be sure to read all the comments as well, they are also helpful.