Hi Pirate

In relation to Question (5) I can strongly recommend Qlds007 aka Richard Taylor as an excellent Mortgage Broker.  My partner and i have a couple of investment properties and at first we used a broker we found in the Yellow pages that was very very hopeless, through this site and by reading heaps of Richard's post, I decided to send him an email (and very glad I did). 

He assisted us to structure our four investment loans properly.  He answered heaps of our questions (and didn't make us feel dumb because we didn't know the answers).  He knows his stuff inside out and he was always prompt in his replies and always kept us up to date with what was happening when we took out our fourth investment loan through him. 

and lastly to boot, we did all this at long distance…..as Richard lives in Brisbane and we live up in far far far far north Queensland, so it was no dramas for him to assist us via fax and email.

Anyway his advice is invaluable.

Cheers

Hi Astra

Well done in your adventurous spirit to go and check out the Bowen Basin Area. Are you going through Clermont andCapella, they are near Moranbah. I have read that Rio Tinto is shutting their Blair Athol mine down and moving a further 15km south east towards Clermont, it should be open in 2008 and fully operational I think by 2010 (you can find more out on the Rio Tinto Site). I have also read the minutes on the internet for the Beylando Shire council which has some good information on their proposals/planning and developments as they are looking forward to the new mine opening and how it will impact their towns (Clermont). Anyway I’m no expert on Central Queensland but I do live in a Mining town (Weipa) and the people that work here are on big money and have nothing to spend their big dollars on, so it’s nothing for them to throw down $350+ on rent.

Good luck and all the best on your trek.

Cheers
Anna