bracko
Contributor
Secondly, unless you really want to work in Australia, don't go there. I lived in Cairns for 6 months after I left Thailand in 2008 and I walked into one of the major outfits there and walked out laughing. 5 instructors in a pool: This corner does Confined Open Water 1 - finish - go to the next corner for confined 2, then the next corner... etc until you go to the middle of the pool for confined 5. After your classroom and pool training is complete, you get taken down to the shop front for a HARD sell on equipment. My ex-gf decided to get work there but if you think Australian training is better than training in Thailand, think again. The Queensland book of regulations was almost as thick as the old PADI manual, and mostly full of crap.
while not as bad as that, I'll agree that I've seen some pretty average training situations there... but every popular dive destination for noobies doesn't really set high expectations for their OW students. The aim of the game is getting people out to reef and pump through the OW students.
If you'd come to Sydney or Adelaide (the only two cities i have experience with) the training is significantly different and much more personalised.
re COP. I hope you always had a snorkel with you firmly attached to the left side of your mask

although we digress, i did mention that as a general cautionary note for training overseas and obtaining "work" back in the UK being a DM.