Don’t let the heat put you off. I sleep in an air conditioned bedroom. I drive to work in an air conditioned car. (Trains and buses in most capital cities are air conditioned if public transport is your thing.) I work in an air conditioned office. On a really hot day at home, we put the air conditioning on in the rumpus room and watch the television.

When I was over in the UK last October, I caught the last of the summer “heat wave”. I scoffed at the calling of 28C a heat wave, but I actually found it rather stifling in the UK. The houses are designed for the cold, not the heat. Being on the tube was unpleasantly hot and stuffy. Most houses in Oz are designed for the heat. Windows open wide to catch summer breezes. And there is nothing like dozing on the back deck (or veranda) on a summers afternoon, with a cold drink nearby.

Brisbane and north are paradise in the winter. Temps typically range from 10C to 21C. Winter is the dry season in northern Australia, so most winter days have clear blue sky. Sky blue - like you have never seen it.

I’ll try to answer this as well.

From a job perspective, be aware that Australia is a two-speed economy. Anything to do with mining and related support industries has zero unemployment. If you have any engineering related skills and are prepared to move to where the action is, you will be employed almost instantly. An English lass I know with project scheduling skills is on $250,000 per annum (about 160,000 GBP per year) for working in Brisbane.

The down side is the impact that mining is having on the rest of the Australian economy. Mining exports has driven the AUD to be above parity with the USD. Makes imports cheap and exported produce expensive. This is seriously impacting tourism, farming, and manufacturing industries. So, there is some serious economic structural adjustment underway and not everyone is happy.

In terms of comparisons between countries, I find Tasmania is very similar to the English countryside. (However, Tasmania is struggling financially.) I find similarities between London and Sydney (weather is completely different though the traffic is not). In terms of lifestyle, Australia has it all over England. In terms of culture and the arts, England has it all over Australia.

Some people never get use to the heat. Others wonder if they could ever go back to the cold. The northern parts of Australia (e.g. Queensland) are a great place in the winter. Some UK immigrants struggle with the egalitarian, forthright, plain speaking Australian culture. Others revel in it.

If deciding between unis, the Australian sandstone universities (Google it) and/or the Group of Eight consider themselves the more prestigious. If you are concentrating on an academic career in Oz, it is advantageous to have one of these on your CV at some point. From a practical perspective for undergraduates, there is little difference. A degree is a degree in the eyes of most employers. While some give preference to a sandstone Uni, others have a preference not to employ graduates from a sandstone Uni.

Oh, and be aware of the immigration requirements for working visas.

Colleagues,

Thanks for the comments. I will read Hart’s book (in fact, I have just ordered a copy from an online bookstore). I am not too sure about Cochrane; it appears to be too removed from my field.

Yes, the number of articles in the literature review is rather broad. At this stage of the journey, I suppose that I am digging through the mud looking for the few nuggets. It has been a good learning experience, so, I do not consider it a waste of time.

I do like the ideas of just picking out the top 10-15 articles to use as the core of the review. I already have the top five in mind. I also like the idea of doing some Venn Diagrams (I was playing with something similar in the mind mapping space).

I do agree with the advice, the best thing is to keep writing and plugging away.

I am stuck fast in the mud.

At bit of background about me ... I work full time, 40 hours per week. I have been a part time student (one Associate Diploma, one Bachelor, and one Masters) during my working life (nearly 30 years). I have a grown up family (wife and two daughters who are both at Uni). I have been able to successfully juggle work, home, and study OK so far. Recently, I have gone through a particularly bad patch at work. I was caught up in some nasty internal politics. I cut my losses, did a triple summersault, and landed on my feet. Unfortunately, it was a serious distraction for about five months.

I have been doing a part time PhD for the last twelve months. The study is related to what I have been observing at work. I have read about 300 academic articles and recently completed an excellent research methodology course.

I have had a couple of aborted attempts at doing the literature review. The results are not PhD standard, way too broad and lacking academic rigor. I have tried a number of different tricks (mind mapping, just writing, etc). It is not helping, just making it more frustrating.

I gather that a PhD should have a “story” or a logical sequence that the reviewer can follow. I have seen some great literature that I can use, the trouble is folding this into my research. My trouble is justifying why I am using a particular academic article for this research instead on another.

Any thoughts on overcoming the writer’s block?