You cannot work at a job in Australia without a work visa and to get a permanent work visa, you must have formal qualifications and experience in an occupation listed on the Skilled Occupations List (SOL); you must pass the points test ; you must have your skills and qualifications assessed by the body responsible for skills assessment for that occupation and you must meet English language, health and character requirements.

If your occupation is only on the SOL and not on the Critical Skills List (CSL), you will have to wait until at least the end of 2012 (and probably longer) before your application is even looked at.
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1121i.pdf (the SOL)
http://www.immi.gov.au/asri/a-z.htm#a (required qualifications and skills assessment)
http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/faq-priority-processing.pdf (visa processing priorities and link to the CSL)

I think that Australia is very interesting and I'd definitely like to visit someday.

Australia may imitate others where that particular action or thing suits it or its people. As a nation, however, Australia punches well above its weight when it comes to innovation, invention and international relations.. Where else is there a nation of some 30 million people in an area almost as large as the continental United States that is one of the leading economies on the planet. We've saved lives, won wars and led the way for others. See my source for the list of inventions Australians have been responsible for.

Because Australia is too BIG to be called an island. If we have to call OZ an island, then why not call America or Africa one.

Australia is a continent. And I think it's a better title than island. We're not islanders. LOL. We're continentals.

Also, the word 'island' makes our land seem small even if OZ is the biggest "island" -- that still won't make us any bigger cos islands are always seen as small.

I am returning to Australia to live with my 2 children. My daughter is a dual citizen in Australia and the USA.

The differences are as follows: Positives: Less taxes, not as over crowded, lower cost of living, booming job market, exotic foods to us here in the USA are everyday fruits and veggies in Australia, not as anal about rules, humid heat in most of the States in the USA, etc.

Negative/Positives: Water restrictions are enforced. Imported yank stuff is a bit more costly, dry heat even though its much hotter. If you can live with the differences, then, like me.. there are no negatives in living in Australia.. frankly, if it wasn't for my family, I would have no reason for coming back to the USA.. I love it in Australia.

It's not classed as European, it's classed as 'Australian', just like New Zealand. you have Australia the country and Australia the continent.

As in the USA, debt in Australia is a civil, not criminal matter. You won't be arrested in you return to Australia.
- If you live or plan to move to another Commonwealth nation like NZ, Canada or the UK, then they can still try to come after you for this debt.

I have lived in the rural areas of Western Australia all my life and have yet to see a snake. Cats are immune to funnel web spider venom and they are the main problem in the Sydney area, you would have more problem with those little monsters than your cats. Redback spiders pretty much stay away from sight so they are not a big issue with pets either, more with people. There are no funnel web spiders in WA thanks god, they are huge! We lived on a farm and our cats roamed around and never had any problems with snakes. Western Australia also dosen't have those awlful paralizing ticks.
Basically wherever you go there is some chance you will at some time see a creepy crawlie but I wouldn't let that worry you.

When I fly an airliner, Sarah, here is what I do: Whenever I hear a strange noise or feel a bump, I look at the stewardess and if she looks happy, then I am happy too. Although I own and fly often a little aircraft, I don't know anything about the behaviour of a large airliner ... but she does!

Likewise, if you are afraid that a catastrophe my occur to Australia later this year, I would think that the media would be full of it, if a real danger existed, don't you agree?

The problem with the media today is that, "good news is no news" and they feed us with the worst of what is happening around the world. Perhaps because we have a morbid need to learn about people who have it worse than us. In any case, this is why some people feel that everything is going astray and that the end is near. But, fear not, my friend, later this year and the years to come will be just "business as usual!" ;-)

Like many countries, Australia is both good and bad on environmental issues, depending on the issue and on who is in control of the government. It has long been a leader in international efforts to stop whaling, including so-called 'scientific' whaling by Japan. Australia has also been active in global efforts to reduce overfishing of species like patagonian toothfish (a.k.a. Chilean sea bass) and to protect threatened sharks, like the great white and the whale shark.

At the same time, however, Australia has been far from a leader in the global fight against climate change, and, like the US, resisted accepting binding commitments to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

And even on issues where Australia is generally a leader, there are sometimes exceptions. For instance, at a recent global meeting on trade in wildlife, Australia lobbied against measures that would protect critically endangered sawfish from international trade in order to protect Australia's right to export 10 sawfish a year to aquariums. And to give another example, Australia has grappled with invasive species problems for decades, and played a useful role in developing international guidelines on invasive species within the Convention on Biological Diversity only to derail the guidelines at the last minute after concluding they might impede Australia's trade interests.

So, I'd say the answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no.