My get ready for Australian power / Will my TV, computer, device or appliance work in Australia?? guide

Australian power is 230 Volts and 50 Hz.  A medium sized plug is used that looks like you took a three prong US / Canadian plug and bent two of the flat blades of the plug out...as per below.  The wall plugs are also always switched like you see in England.

This is not a voltage change if you are coming from most of the world with 220-240Volt power. In that case you either use a plug adapter (see a paragraph below) or cut the plugs off and buy a rewireable Australian plug at your local Bunnings, Masters or electrical wholesaler. Wire it up (or hire an electrician to do it) and you're good to go.

Rewireable plugs are easy to buy at Bunnings, Masters or many other shops

North American electrical items are a bigger problem.  Our kitchen appliances, stereo receivers and most TV's (more on TV's later) are 120 V - 60 Hz.  Unless you plan to plug in a big step down transformer rated to handle the power requirement they're not going to work in Australia.  For this reason, we have a whole pile of really nice small kitchen appliances sitting in a big wooden box in Canada.  I regret not bringing our stereo receiver and speakers as they're pretty expensive here but otherwise that seems like it was a good decision. I also don't like the idea of big step down transformers sitting around the house.

A relatively small step down transformer with US / Canada / European outputs.

Computer / tech gear is a different scenario.  Most computers*, laptops, monitors, cellular/mobile phones and other computer peripherals in general have auto switching / universal power packs.  My electric razor was also fine.  You can tell by looking at the power pack which should say something like 100-240V AC 50/60Hz.  If you see this range you are good to go and just need the plug adapter.  We did have a couple of computer items that were a problem including the printer and pc speakers but everything else was fine.  One small technicality to note is that electrical items "should" have the Australian "check mark" as shown below in order to be used here.  I have found that most electronic gear has it, but some may not.

*Be a little careful with desktop computers which may require you flick a switch to enter 230V mode.

Quickly on Australian plug adapters....we originally bought a 10 pack of US/Canada to Australian plug adapters on eBay.  While these have filled a gap, the quality is really suspect (honestly, they're terrible!) and some of them either don't stay plugged in or don't hold the plug you are trying to adapt.  They will move electrons across but consider yourself warned.  The more expensive ones such as Korjo (readily available at airports and Dick Smiths) definitely work a LOT better.

I love the "High Quality" comment.  Buyer beware on these eBay Australian plug adapters.

These adapters from Korjo are readily available and work excellent at a price.

The even better solution has been (where possible) buying the correct IEC power cords (some people call these kettle leads or cords).  I always knew that computers seemed to use the same style of cables but I didn't realize that they were part of global standards, easily available with any countries plug end and relatively inexpensive.  As per the chart below which I shortened to focus only on some of the more common cords, the ones you likely have are the C5-which is usually your laptop, the C7-this was on one of my scanners and apparently is used for for some appliances and the most common C13-which is used on TV's, monitors, printers, desktop computers and more.  For some reason when you buy the cables they refer to the female end even though you're buying the male end.

I did a quick survey of all of my tech gear and found that I was easily able to create a shopping list of all of the cables I needed.  I used website www.4cabling.com.au  which has all of the cables with Australian plug ends for approx $5.00 per piece and ridiculously good service.  The cables themselves are perfect.  For the 10 dollar shipping fee I had my plugs in Perth the next day.  There were a number of options with the cheapest being eBay but I decided I didn't want to chance it on these.

An example of an IEC power cord for my PC.

The result is we're down to just 3 US / Canada plugs-my electric shaver which will cost almost as much to buy a new plug as a new razor (note to self, buy a new razor, you never get a decent shave anymore), a Bose stereo plug which has an interchangeable plug but I can't find them, and one iPad charger which could easily be replaced from the Apple monsters.  Don't ask me why, but these projects make me smile.  (Note to self, get help)

** Exceptions you need to know about:

Wireless home phones (not cellular / mobile phones) from the US / Canada cannot be used here as they use a different frequency which is causes a conflict in Australia.  I never tried and don't suggest it.  See my post on my awesome voip phone for what I use here.

Television broadcasts have different standards in different parts of the world.  That said will always work as monitors from computers or same standard DVD players (assuming they have universal power or you buy a large enough step down transformer) but US/Canadian TV's will very likely not be able to play broadcast television.   We ended up leaving 2 big plasma TV's in that big wooden box.  For other countries see below the current digital standards around the world.

Some helpful links:

Want to know what power your country or any country has... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country

More on IEC standard cables.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60320

A good discussion on bringing a US / Canadian TV to Australia (the summary-don't bother) http://www.avsforum.com/forum/25-hdtv-technical/1390270-possible-bring-us-cdn-tv-australia-atsc-dvb-t.html

About the digital television standard DVB-T that Australia uses: DVB-T and Countries using it

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Kalbarri is worth a trip

We did this trip up to Kalbarri in early January.  It is about 5-6 hours straight north of Perth on the coast of the Indian Ocean.  The trip was a 5 day, very necessary stress reliever during the events that lead to the bleepedy bleep post here. 

I think during my time in Australia, this trip stands out as my favorite.  Margaret River will continue to get awards for it's trendy wine country, sea side surf, fancy cave, lots to do, tourist possibilities which may or may not be deserved.  Mostly this depends on perspective but I can see what they love down there.  

That said, I couldn't help but love the Kalbarri Region.  Hope you enjoy...

   

On the way up we started off back at the Pinnacles.  See my original post on the Pinnacles here.  This visit solidified a couple of things.  1 - You should visit the Pinnacles during sun up or sunset as the lighting gives them a totally different feel which can't be truly described.  2 - Heavy wind and sand don't really mix.  It was seriously windy that day and rather unpleasant to be walking out among the pinnacles.

A quick stop in Geralton where there is a great park for the kids to play on the waterfront while coal freighters get filled in the background.  A quick stop at Dome for a standard mediocre meal and back in the car to try to hit Kalbarri before sundown.  I'll let you decide if Owen liked his and Olivia's room....   

One of the big attractions in Kalbarri is the Kalbarri National Park which includes several nature trails. Many are very short 500 metres to 2 kms while others are in the 8km + range.  We were sternly warned before we headed up that the temperature can be 5-10C hotter than in town and that these tours should be done early in the morning in Summer.  How bad could it be right?  We got in the car and headed up.

The drive is around 35-50 minutes from town to the major visitor areas with nature walks.  After about 15km the road turns into the washboard you see below and we were forced to slow right down to prevent the car from shaking fillings loose or loosing control.  It isn't that bad, just requires some patients.

We were warned about heat....and oh yes it was scorch your face off hot, but we were not warned about the flies.  The flies were really really bad and apparently this is a well known fact.  There were a few people with mosquito nets and I think this is the way to do it.  Don't let what I'm telling you scare you off, it was worth it.

River gorge to me meant I was going to see a river.  It becomes clear very early that there hasn't been water flowing for some time.  Apparently it can come fast and furious when the Pilbarra region to the north gets Cyclones and heavy rain but that clearly hadn't happened for some time.

Natures window itself...probably the most photographed feature in the region is only a 500 meter walk from the car park.  It's not a difficult hike but there were certainly sections I made absolutely sure I had a good grip on whichever child I happened to be walking with.  It was so hot that at one point Olivia and I were switching hands about every 30 seconds as my hands were so sweaty.

The views were simply brilliant and awe inspiring and forced us to spend a lot of time soaking it in despite the heat and flies.

 After a much needed siesta, swim in the pool and dinner we decided it was time to see the coastline.  Just outside of Kalbarri are a significant number of lookouts, some require short walks and some you can drive right up to.  The wind was really howling but it didn't spoil the great views of the coastline and Indian Ocean.

The next morning we headed back up to Kalbarri National Park and this time went to the Z Bend trail.  This trail is about the same 500meters from the car park and this time there is a small amount of water to see...though not flowing.  We went earlier this time which meant the heat was more bearable.

After we got back to town it was time for another Siesta, swim and then we found some Pizza at Kalbarri Pizza and let the kids burn off some energy.

One of the real highlights for me in this sleepy little tourist town is where the Indian Ocean meets the Murchison River.  Not 500 meters away you have the strong surf of the Indian Ocean but the water in town is almost perfectly still and perfect for swimming.  That is not to mention a great spot to catch the sunset.

This was a really great mini vacation that I would highly recommend to anyone willing to make the trip up.

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Preparing for an Australian winter

When you've lived over 35 years in 2 of the coldest cities on the planet the idea of feeling cold in Perth seems mad.  Outdoors is never an issue...it never goes below zero celsius and most days will still reach a high in the teens.  That said, after 2 winters here and approaching a third I have never felt so cold inside a house as I have in Perth.

The majority of houses here are built with an extremely simple form of insulation: air.  Houses have two layers of brick with an air gap in between.  Unless the house was build in the last 5 or so years it will have no insulation in the attic.  Regardless of build date it will have single pane / glazed windows.  This makes for a structure that gets cold fast and stays cold without significant heat input.

Heat can be provided in a number of ways:  

1) Centrally via either natural gas (I've never actually seen a house with this but I'm told it exists) or reverse cycle air conditioning (electricity).  Vents tend only to be in major areas.  You don't see them in bathrooms, closets or laundry rooms typically.  Ducted reverse cycle is the most comfortable year round solution in Australia.

2) Split unit reverse cycle air conditioners (electrically run) which will only heat or cool in the room their in.  If sized properly these work well and make for one of the most energy efficient solutions as the idea is you only turn them on when needed.
 

3) A gas point is provided in multiple places in the house for you to connect a gas heater which can be purchased for 900 to 1200 dollars each new.  A note of caution, these units are self contained and have no mechanism to exhaust gases such as carbon monoxide.  Houses are never equipped with carbon monoxide sensors.  I'm told that state governments have run campaigns in the past to try to get people to get rid of their old dangerous gas heaters in exchange for newer safer ones.   It is suggested when running these units that you have windows or doors open a bit to ensure ventilation.  One could suggest that the less than modern aussie construction techniques leave houses so loose in terms of air movement that this isn't a real problem.

4) A wood burning stove (Jarrah hard wood seems to be the fuel of choice and number of companies offer bulk home delivery starting around $150 per 1/2 tonne).  The heat is uber nice but of course you have very little control and they are not exactly low maintenance.

5) Bathrooms often have heat lamps which feel nice and would keep a roast turkey warm in a pinch.

I should mention that thermostats are also very rudimentary when compared to North America.  Those used to smart thermostats that set the temperature based on when you're home or awake might be disappointed. By contrast, split units allow you to set the temperature of the air coming out, and have timers.  Central ducted units allow you to set the room temperature and have timers.  Many systems are purely on or off.

So that all said, this year we've got a combination of available heat.  One split unit in the master bedroom.  A wood stove in the living room.  A gas point in the same room, and a gas point in the main kitchen / living area.  Kids rooms have...well...blankets.

I've ordered 500 kg of jarrah which showed up next day.  A lot of it is little tiny pieces so I'm not sure how long it'll last but it's dry and it definitely burns.  The reverse cycle in the master works really well.  I'm thinking we may add a gas heater to the house as a last resort if we get to a point that we can't get the majority of the house above 17 C. 

   

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