I saw the other post on moving to England or Canada, and I'd like to extend the question to any opinions on Australia or Germany as well. I know we have a few Aussies here (I don't know about Germans) and I would love to hear your opinions on the living situation there. Obviously, how easy is access to T and does your insurance cover it? And how is the discrimination level? (I would think it would be pretty much the same anywhere you go, but I'd love to know the opinion from someone living there.)

Also... I know this isn't strictly trans related, but... How often do you worry about lethal spider bites? Or snakes? I'm not going to base my moving opinion entirely on the trans issue, but I also don't want to base it entirely on the stereotype that the Australian continent doesn't like being inhabited by anything as squishy as a human. Internet fatality stats aren't as useful as asking some who lives there.

Regarding Germany: T is covered by insurance (though there is a 5 Euro prescription fee), you usually need a letter but there are  also GPs who will give out prescriptions. Haven't experienced any discrimination whatsoever. No lethal spider or snake bites in Germany

Haha, thanks for that. Guess I should have been more specific with my train of thought :-p

I came to Australia from the US and now have residency here.  In Australia, the public health system that helps you pay your medical costs is Medicare, which means you get a great deal of treatment costs free or at very low cost.  It depends on where you live, but some states try to funnel trans patients into a gender clinic which usually makes you go through the therapy route before you can get T, but I had heard so much crap about the clinic in Adelaide that I wanted nothing to do with it, so my GP prescribed me T on informed consent within 15 days of asking him about it.  Medicare covers all my lab tests and I only pay about $35 for an office visit and about $45 for 3 shots of T.  Surgery would be covered partly by Medicare and most of the rest by private insurance.  Spiders here aren't anymore of an issue than black widows and snakes don't usually bother us in the southern suburbs.

I forgot to add that I've not experienced any discrimination so far, but I pass 99% of the time.  I am about to start job-hunting, though, so we'll see - my vital documents are still in my birth sex and name until I have citizenship.

Kreuzfidel covered the situation here pretty well.
Things that bite are really no worse than anywhere else, and no-one has died of a spider bite since antivenine for Funnel Webs and Redbacks was invented nearly 50 years ago.   
Snakes are a bit like Transphobia, depends on where you live really.
If you are in Melbourne or Sydney there are suburbs that are known for high population of  Trans and Gay people,  conversely  if you live on Flinders Island in Bass Strait, you will certainly meet Tiger Snakes.   

Karen.

Why do so many people still think that Australia is the world's deadliest continent or something? I guess Crocodile Hunter still has that effect on people...

To be honest, yes there are creepy crawly poisonous things, but the chances of an encounter are pretty low unless you're living right on the bush.  As far as funnelwebs and redbacks are concerned, if you know where they're likely to be, you take small precautions and they're not an issue.  I last came across a redback spider over 20 odd years ago.

The rundown on the medical system:
1.  You only qualify for Medicare if you're a permanent resident or citizen.
2.  Medicare has a schedule of payments for a given health care provider service (GP - short/long consultation, biopsy etc.  Specialist - short/long consultation etc).
3.  Health care providers have the right to charge more than what the scheduled rebate is - that is the gap that you will need to pay out of pocket - the gap varies from provider to provider so if you're concerned about cost of treatment, ask about the gap before scheduling an appointment.  Some providers do charge rebate only (AKA bulk bill).
4.  Most diagnostic tests are covered (radiology, blood tests etc) but only under referral by a health care provider.
5.  There are a few transgender clinics in the major cities - I've avoided the one in my city to date.
6.  A few of the Docs providing transgender care are pretty up to date - my endo fully understood where I was coming from and gave me my E script without requiring me to go back into therapy (and it's been over 8 years since I last saw my psych).

Transphobia - varies from place to place/suburb to suburb.  justmeinoz has pretty much covered that - you'll pick up pretty quickly where the trans friendly/indifferent areas are.

Kreuzfidel - I would love to hear about how your move to Australia went. How long did the whole process take, and more specifically... what's the first step?

Luna - If you'd ever seen a documentary on "worlds deadliest creatures" in the states, you'd know exactly why. Over here, any show on deadly animals turns into an Australia showcase. It has got to be a conspiracy. I have to wonder if the government isn't trying to scare us away from your continent because they're afraid we'll like it too much and stay, hahaha!

Australia! Woo!

As the others said, medicare can help with a lot of costs, and private health care can help make up some of the extra. While poisonous animals are everywhere, you really don't run into them that often, and even if you do most of the time they're more afraid of you than you are of them! Even if something bad does happen and you get bitten by a snake or spider, the hospitals are well versed in what to do in such an instance, and you're likely to recover easily.

As to descrimination, I've only ever had one bad experience in that regard, and that was with an online friend who was American, so I don't think that counts! You are (I believe?) covered by anti-discrimination laws when getting a job here, so it really shouldn't be a problem.

One thing to take into consideration is that we have few surgeons here who will work on trans patients. There are only three surgeons I know of who will perform top surgery, and bottom surgery (construction, not hysto/oopho) isn't done here at all.

Biscuit_stix, it depends on the type of visa you apply for as to how long it can take and whether you apply onshore here in Australia or offshore.  I applied for the spouse visa as my wife is an Aussie.  From my first initial visit until now, it took 2 years to get settled.  The Department of Immigration and Citizenship can take a long time to grant a visa because they have so many applications to wade through.  Obviously a lot of people want to live here!  The first step is to go to DIAC's website and look into what types of visas you may be eligible for: http://immi.gov.au

You dont really need to worry about spiders. There are a lot of spiders in my shed but they are mostly just those Daddy Long Legs ones, they are everywhere!! I dont even know how they get in there! I might see a snake in my yard 2 times a year, but I live near a park so that is probably why. Different animals also like to swim in my pool too, its kind of weird actually. There was a baby possum swimming in there one morning! It isnt scary or anything tho. Your more likely to just come across a gecko lizard on your window every night 

You have to be careful of the killer koalas that leap out of trees and suck your brains out.

I've found Australia to be pretty laid back. I have had no issues. It may be easier for FtM rather than MtF to get hormones. In Adelaide there are only two licensed endos who can treat MtF while most GPs will prescribe T. It's an Act of Parliament thing so I've been told. Each state has different rules as well just to keep it confusing. The major cities seem tolerant of most things, you may have problems in small country towns but there isn't much work available in them anyway, and little medical care in most cases. Sydney and Melbourne are the most expensive to live in. Then Adelaide and Perth.
Tasmania pays people to live there, which is why Karen lives there

I have lived in and visited many places but Australia is quite special.
I emigrated from the UK  many years ago so I'm not sure what the process is, there are job categories that have preferential treatment, so it would be worth checking the Govt web sites.  That said the immigration bureaucracy is very slow, and it is deliberate, in order to keep the number of immigrants down.

Cindy

Off topic but that's for making these moving posts Biscuit.  I want to move sometime in the future too and some of these areas are some of my choices so I'm paying close attention to what the other readers said especially with the deadly creatures in Australia.   

Deadly shmedly!    Nothing a long handled shovel or a boot won't fix!  

Karen.

More people in Australia die from reactions to bee stings than they do getting attacked by sharks, crocs, snakes or Tasmanians.

And that is considerably less than those who are killed in motor vehicle accidents.

I'd just like to point out for those who are following this thread and aren't Aussie, Tasmania is actually a beautiful place, and lovely to live in. It makes me think of Scotland with the green countryside and colder weather! For some reason the rest of Aus picks on Tasmania, and I've never been able to work out why; I visited once and never wanted to leave again!

I couldn't live there myself though; their quarantine laws are ridiculous, and my fishkeeping hobby demands I have access to outside sources! -goes off on random tangent-

Anyway! As others have said, the treatment here can sway from one extreme to the other; it took me close to two years to get on hormones because I had no help, and none of the people I went to wanted to put me on T, Yet others I've spoken to have been put on hormones within the first few weeks. It really does depend on who you go to, which state you're in, and factors like how old you are.

Some interesting Aussie tidbits that might help sway you (though I don't know how many of these will help immigrants):

1). Our licences don't have a gender on them.
2). It is possible to change your gender on records before having surgery or going on hormones.
3). Top surgery will be partially covered by Medicare regardless of your legal gender at the time of surgery (with further coverage available through private).
4). Hysto/oopho will be partially covered by Medicare if you are legally female (with further coverage available through private).
5). A legal name change takes around a week to process, and will cost just over $100.

A quick breakdown of our anti-discrimination laws by state/territory:

NSW: 'Transgender' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1977.
ACT: 'Transsexuality' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1991.
QLD: 'Gender identity' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1991
SA: 'Chosen gender' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1984.
VIC: 'Gender identity' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1995.
WA: 'Gender history' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1984.

Neither TAS or NT cover transgender people in their anti-discrimination laws, though it could be argued that a transgender individual's status falls under 'irrelevant medical history' (which is covered in both) in certain cases.

Australia's six most expensive cities ranked as of Mercer's 2011 Cost of Living survey:

Sydney - Globally ranked 14
Melbourne - Globally ranked 21
Perth - Globally ranked 30
Brisbane - Globally ranked 31
Canberra - Globally ranked 34
Adelaide - Globally ranked 46

It's worth noting that the Mercer survey compares against New York, and as such is skewed to an American market. One also has to take into consideration that the average Australian earns (as far as I can tell) more than the average Brit or (I assume) American. For example an English cousin is staying with us at the moment, and we've worked out that her salary as a full time (40+ hours) nurse converts to around $35000 Australian. To put that into perspective, my annual income as a part time (20+ hours) assistant manager in a retail store is $39000 (and let me assure you that is at the bottom end of the Aussie pay scale). So while the cost of living can seem high here just from looking at the numbers, from what I can see the average wage is more than capable of coping, so don't let that scare you off!

I hope that's been of some help!

Quote from: Bane on March 23, 2012, 05:45:09 AM

1). Our licences don't have a gender on them.

Aww thats not fair mine has gender

Quote from: harlee on March 23, 2012, 06:07:36 AM
Aww thats not fair mine has gender

Wow, really? Gosh, I guess I was too quick to jump on that generalisation then! Now I'll have to go and check which states do and which don't! I'll leave it there so these two posts don't look stupid floating around with no context.

Okay! So the ACT, NSW, VIC, WA, SA and NT driver's licences do not have a gender marker on them, while QLD licences do. I was unable to find out if TAS licences have a gender marker or not; anyone else know?

Quote from: Kreuzfidel on March 21, 2012, 09:08:44 PM
I came to Australia from the US and now have residency here.  In Australia, the public health system that helps you pay your medical costs is Medicare, which means you get a great deal of treatment costs free or at very low cost.  It depends on where you live, but some states try to funnel trans patients into a gender clinic which usually makes you go through the therapy route before you can get T, but I had heard so much crap about the clinic in Adelaide that I wanted nothing to do with it, so my GP prescribed me T on informed consent within 15 days of asking him about it.  Medicare covers all my lab tests and I only pay about $35 for an office visit and about $45 for 3 shots of T.  Surgery would be covered partly by Medicare and most of the rest by private insurance.  Spiders here aren't anymore of an issue than black widows and snakes don't usually bother us in the southern suburbs.

How did you get residency in Australia? I've always heard that Americans have to open a business with $100,000+ in capital or get some kind of high power position like a brain surgeon or something to get citizenship in other countries. And I've also heard from a friend of mine in another part of the world, that Australia doesn't let anyone in, that you need to have a ton of money to your name to be allowed into the country even for a vacation.