Living and working in Brisbane

If you and your mates are going to slot into a share house, the length can be anything as per agreement.

But if you want to start a house share, or look for a house as a main tenant, the real estate agencies normally want 6 months to a year.

Note that real estate agents sometimes do not wish their properties to be made into shared housing, ie, its the rule of the owner, and the agent is just enforcing it.

If you go to www.domain.com.au or www.realestate.com.au, you can find houses to rent, and also houses to share. The houses to share here, the agents are probabally aware about it, ... the main problem to what I refer above, is that you being the main tenant, and do the share house split.

Take a look at the asking prices for rents on the 2 websites.

www.sleepingwiththeenemy.com might have spots in Brisbane, for them, anything goes I guess. Any term of rent that is.

As for jobs, some jobs are paid as per award rate, meaning everyone in the industry gets paid the same. Though lots of employers have pushed their employees onto individual contracts, you want the job, you sign an individual contract, also called Aust Workplace Agreements. This means that you might be paid say, $16 an hour, your mate in the same industry with another employer, might be at $16.50 per hour, but without some other benefit, while you paid less, might have that benefit.

Its hard to say which employer has gone onto AWA and which haven't.

Anyway, just keep your options open, and don't turn down any jobs that will pay you a bit of/some $$$$$$$$$$.

I would say, try both, employment agencies, websites and also direct with employers, what have you got to lose, just maybe your pride when you get a knockback.

www.seek.com.au is the most popular job site for Australia, give that a go for jobs.

Your highest paying job that you can get swiftly with very little training (and also leave when you please) is hospitality (bar work or waitressing pay better than baristas unless you're very good).

Bar work however requires a Responsible Service of Alcohol certificate available for AU$75 from a whole bunch of places in the city, just Google it and book in for your first or second day in town.

This said I have no idea how old you are or what fields you've had most experience in.

www.realestate.com.au is your best bet for finding a sharehouse.

If you want to be close to the city and general happenings of Brisbane, look for places in New Farm, Fortitude Valley (this area gets noisy though), South Brisbane, Highgate Hill, West End, Paddington, or Milton...

For quieter areas with good bus routes into the CBD and easy access to shops look at Kenmore, Chapel Hill, Indooroopilly (in the westen suburbs); Wooloongabba, Dutton Park, Yeronga, Mt Gravatt (southside).... and Kelvin Grove, Red Hill, Enoggera (northern suburbs).

Does the Courier still have an accomodation section on Saturdays? Last time I checked there were heaps of peeps advertising for roomies in there, normally looking for someone to add to their sharehouse collective.

Also check out the uni's student union pages - I know the UQ Union has a bitching online classifieds section