UK Tradespeople → Queensland, Australia

Queensland will be short 35,000 workers. Your trade fills the gap.

Carpenters, sparkies, plumbers, floor layers, brickies. Queensland is building for the 2032 Olympics and pays trades properly: carpenters average $95K a year. We connect you with verified employers under our Job-First Guarantee: job confirmed before you fly, or you pay nothing.

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$49.54/hr
Avg. QLD carpenter rateIndeed, May 2026
35,000
Forecast worker shortfallConstruction Skills Qld
$11.2B
Games-related constructionCSQ estimate
Carpenters Floor Layers Electricians Plumbers Bricklayers Steel Fixers Painters Carpenters Floor Layers Electricians Plumbers Bricklayers Steel Fixers Painters
482
Skills in Demand visa pathway
3–6mo
UK to Australia timeline
£0
Cost to you. Employers pay us
300
Days of sunshine per year
Hiring Partner Evolved Floors Gold Coast · Brisbane · Byron Bay · now hiring floor layers

The numbers

Earn around 40% more.
Live a better life.

Same qualifications, same skills, different market. Here's what the data says trade by trade. We'll give you the real numbers for your specific role on the call.

🇬🇧
United Kingdom · Carpenter
£35K
avg. carpenter salary / year
Rising cost of living
Crowded market
Grey skies
VS
🇦🇺
Queensland · Carpenter
$95K
avg. carpenter salary / year (AUD)
Job confirmed before you fly
300 days of sunshine
Olympic infrastructure boom
Trade UK average Queensland average In pounds Uplift
Electrician £38–39K $100K+ ≈ £51K +33%
Carpenter £30–34K $95–98K ≈ £49K +50%
Plumber £34–37K $95K ≈ £48K +37%
Painter £25–30K $77K ≈ £39K +42%
Floor layer £27–32K* $75–90K ≈ £38–46K +40%
Bricklayer £32–36K $80–90K ≈ £43K +27%

Queensland figures: Indeed Australia salary data, 2026 (carpenter $49.54/hr across 444 reported salaries, electrician $51.35/hr across 1,000, plumber $48.62/hr across 225, painter $77,488/yr across 363, floor layer $71,393 to $90,000/yr across Indeed and SEEK job-ad data), hourly rates annualised at full-time hours. Bricklayer: SEEK job-ad data. UK figures: ONS-based 2026 employed averages; *floor layer UK figure is an industry estimate. Converted at A$1 ≈ £0.51, June 2026. All figures are averages before tax and superannuation. Individual pay varies by employer, experience, and overtime.

The Job-First Guarantee

No job. No fee.
No risk.

✓
Job confirmed before you fly
You'll have a signed offer from a Queensland employer before you book a single flight. No leaps of faith.
✓
Completely free for tradespeople
Employers pay us to find them skilled workers, not you. The only costs you cover are government visa and skills assessment fees, which we outline upfront. And we push every employer to contribute to those costs as part of your offer.
✓
Registered migration agents
Your visa is handled by registered professionals, not us guessing. The 482 pathway is well-trodden and we'll be honest about your eligibility from the first call.
✓
Straight answers, always
If your trade, qualification, or situation isn't a fit, we'll tell you on the first call. Not after months of paperwork.

The process

4 steps.
New life.

Step 01
Apply Free
3-minute form. Tell us your trade, experience, and timeline. We review within 48 hours.
Step 02
Qualification Call
15 minutes with our team. We confirm your eligibility and walk you through the visa pathway. We'll be straight with you.
Step 03
Job Match
We match you with vetted Queensland employers. A confirmed role before you board the plane.
Step 04
We Handle the Rest
Visa, skills assessment, relocation guidance. You focus on the move. We handle the paperwork.

Why trust us

We made the move.
Now we help you make it.

"I'm British. I grew up in Oxfordshire. A few years ago I made the move to Queensland. I'll tell you straight: the salaries are real, the sunshine is real, and the demand for skilled trades here is unlike anything in the UK right now. Queensland is building toward the 2032 Olympics and there genuinely aren't enough qualified people to do the work. Construction Skills Queensland forecasts the state will be 35,000 workers short at the peak.

I know what's going through your head, because everyone we talk to asks the same five questions. So here are the answers.

Will my qualification count? If you've got an NVQ Level 3 or equivalent and solid experience in your trade, almost certainly. Your skills get formally assessed by Trades Recognition Australia, and working as an employee for a licensed Queensland employer you generally won't need your own contractor licence to start. The detail varies by trade, and we'll tell you exactly where you stand on the first call.

Will the visa get rejected? Nobody can guarantee a visa, and you should run from anyone who says they can. What we can do is make sure your application is handled by registered migration agents who do this every day, and that we never start the process unless they believe your case is strong. The Skills in Demand (482) pathway is well-trodden for UK trades.

What about my family? The 482 visa covers your partner and kids. They get full work and study rights. Plenty of the people who make this move do it as a family, and the ones I've met say the kids settled faster than the adults did.

What if I arrive and there's no job? That can't happen with us, because it's our one unbreakable rule: the job is confirmed before you fly. You'll have a signed offer from a Queensland employer in your hand before you book a flight or hand in your notice.

What's the catch? There isn't one, because you're not the customer. Queensland employers pay us to find them skilled workers. Our service costs you nothing. You cover government fees for the visa and skills assessment, and we'll show you exactly what those are before you commit to anything. We also push every employer to chip in on those costs as part of your offer. They're short of workers, so they listen.

The worst case is a 15-minute phone call where we tell you it's not a fit. The best case is a different life. I made the move and I've never looked back."

RG
Raf Garcia-Krailing
Founder · Oxfordshire, UK → Gold Coast, QLD

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The real costs, the real timeline, the real salaries. Everything in this FAQ and more, in one straight-talking guide you can read with your partner. No sales pitch inside.

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What's included

We handle
the hard part

📋
Visa Support
We work with registered migration agents to guide you through the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), the main employer-sponsored route for UK tradespeople into Australia.
🎓
Skills Assessment
Your UK qualifications need to be assessed by Trades Recognition Australia. We guide you through the process step by step so nothing falls through the cracks.
🤝
Employer Matching
We connect you with vetted Queensland employers who are actively hiring. No cold applications. We make warm introductions to the right people.
✈️
Relocation Guidance
Finding accommodation, understanding your rights, what to expect when you land. We share everything we know so you arrive ready, not overwhelmed.

Common questions

Got questions?

Yes, through a formal process that works across the trades. Your skills are assessed by Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) under their Offshore Skills Assessment Program. The standard requirement is a relevant qualification such as NVQ Level 3 plus at least three years of full-time experience, including 12 months within the last three years. The assessment may include a technical interview to confirm your hands-on competency. A positive result is valid for three years. The exact pathway differs slightly by trade, which is one of the things we map for you. We guide you through the whole thing.
Not necessarily. Plenty of good tradespeople learned on the job and never sat an exam. TRA accepts experience-based applications, though the bar is higher: typically five or more years of full-time paid work in your trade, with recent experience. If that's you, the qualification call is where we work out whether your evidence stacks up. Be ready to show payslips, references, and photos of your work.
The Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), Core Skills stream. It replaced the old Temporary Skill Shortage visa in December 2024. It's employer-sponsored, which is why having a confirmed job first matters so much: your Queensland employer nominates you for the role. The visa requires a minimum salary of $76,515 AUD (rising to $79,499 from July 2026), which trade roles in Queensland's current market comfortably clear. Your visa application itself is prepared and lodged by registered migration agents, not by us.
Our service is free. You cover the government and assessment fees: the visa application charge is $3,210 AUD for you, plus $3,210 for a partner and $805 per child under 18. The TRA skills assessment typically runs $1,000 to $2,800 AUD depending on whether a technical interview is required. Add health checks and migration agent professional fees and most single applicants should budget roughly $6,000 to $9,000 AUD all-in. Your employer pays their own sponsorship and nomination fees and is legally prohibited from recovering those from you. On top of that, we negotiate with every employer to contribute to your visa costs as part of the offer. Some cover the lot, some part of it, and we can't promise it every time, but it's a standard ask in every deal we put together because they need you more than you need them. We put the full breakdown in writing before you spend a pound.
Realistically, three to six months from starting your skills assessment to landing in Queensland. The TRA assessment typically takes seven to fifteen weeks once your documents are in. Visa processing for the Core Skills stream commonly runs one to four months, though times vary with demand. We'll give you a timeline based on current processing speeds on your call, not a best-case one. The biggest delays come from incomplete paperwork, which is exactly the part we manage closely.
If you hold a UK passport, generally no. Native English speakers from the UK are exempt from the English testing requirement. If you hold a different passport, a test such as IELTS may apply, and the required scores for this visa are modest. We'll confirm your exact position on the call.
Yes. The Skills in Demand visa covers your partner and dependent children. They get full work and study rights in Australia. Many of the people who make this move do it as a family. Factor in the additional visa fees ($3,210 for a partner, $805 per child) and school enrolment, both of which we'll help you plan for.
Yes, and it recently got faster. After two years working with your sponsoring employer on the 482, you can be nominated for permanent residency through the subclass 186 visa (Temporary Residence Transition stream). That requirement was reduced from three years to two. Permanent residency opens the door to Medicare, buying property more easily, and eventually citizenship if you want it.
A fair question and the old horror-story scenario. The rules improved under the Skills in Demand visa: if your employment ends, you now get more time to find a new sponsor than under the old 482, and you can work during that period to support yourself. Queensland's trade shortage also works in your favour here. With nearly half of advertised trade roles going unfilled nationally, a qualified tradesperson on the ground with work rights is in demand.
It depends on your trade and how you work. In Queensland, trades like carpentry and floor finishing are licensed by the QBCC, but the licence requirement mainly applies to contractors running their own jobs. As an employee of a licensed Queensland employer, which is how our placements start, you generally don't need your own contractor licence from day one. Electrical and plumbing work is more heavily regulated and has its own occupational licensing. We map the exact requirements for your trade before you commit to anything.
It depends on your trade. As a benchmark, Indeed's Queensland data puts the average carpenter rate at $49.54 per hour across 444 reported salaries, which annualises to roughly $95,000 to $98,000 full-time. Electricians and plumbers typically earn the same or more. Your visa also legally requires a minimum salary of $76,515 AUD, so there's a floor under you regardless of trade. Actual pay depends on your experience, your employer, and whether you're on wages or hourly rates with overtime. We tell you the real number for your specific role before you accept anything, because it'll be written into your offer.
Most people we work with haven't been. Queensland, particularly Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast, consistently ranks among the best places in the world for quality of life. The honest trade-offs: you'll be far from family, the summer heat is real, and the first six months of any migration are hard. The honest upside: outdoor life year-round, strong wages, good schools, and a construction sector that will need people well beyond the 2032 Olympics. We'll connect you with people who've made the move so you can ask them what we can't answer.

Figures correct as of June 2026 and subject to change. Visa fees and thresholds: Department of Home Affairs. Skills assessment: Trades Recognition Australia. Licensing: Queensland Building and Construction Commission. None of this is migration advice. Your situation gets assessed by registered migration agents.

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For Queensland employers

Short on skilled trades?
We fill the gap.

We source qualified, visa-ready UK tradespeople for Queensland builders and contractors. We already work with Evolved Floors across the Gold Coast, Brisbane, and Byron Bay. You only pay when they start. No placement, no fee. And if your placement leaves within 90 days, we replace them free.

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Your skills are
worth more here.

Queensland needs 35,000 more construction workers. One of them could be you. Apply in 3 minutes. It's free.

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