United Arab Emirates - haven for the estimated 14,000 Australians living and looking for hot property, employment opportunities offshore.
Managing Director of search firm Talent2 International, Andrew Banks said, " We have a mandate to recruit 600 accounting and financial services from Australia and Britain for an international firm in the Gulf.
He expects his search business to grow exponentially.
"We acquired UAE firm InterSearch - which has 40 people in five offices in the region - three weeks ago," he says.
UAE companies like Etihad Airways, United Emirates Airlines and Nakheel Corporation are among those jostling for talent from Australia.
The biggest employer of Australians is the Dubai-based airline Emirates. An Emirates spokeswoman says: "We employ more than 1000 Australians, with nearly 700 working as cabin crew, more than 250 flight deck crew and others in various managerial positions."
But the airline will have to compete with its rival, the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, which has stepped up recruitment from Australia and globally to feed its rapid expansion plans. Etihad's Australian boss James Hogan is hiring about 200 new staff, as the carrier increases its services. Since he became CEO 14 months ago, 10 Australians have joined the senior management team, including chief financial officer James Rigney.
"Most of the Australians are employed as pilots, engineers and cabin staff," Hogan says.
"There are 190 nationalities among its 5000 employees."
Etihad, which flies to Sydney and Brisbane, conducts a recruitment roadshow every three months in Australia.
Whether it is the airline industry, financial services, oil and gas sector or property, Gulf employers look overseas for talent.
When one of the world's wealthiest businessmen, Dubai's Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, wanted someone to lead his Nakheel property group in Dubai, his primary focus was on Australians. Through Andrew Banks, Sultan Ahmed found Chris O'Donnell who, in turn, is hiring more Australians to fill positions in the Nakheel group.
O'Donnell says Nakheel had 850 employees when he began last year and it now had 2000. Between "4 and 5 per cent" are Australians. "We will likely increase the number by another 1000 in the next 12 months," he says.
O'Donnell says Australian professionals in the real estate sector are highly regarded and headed several divisions in Nakheel.
Nakheel's most recent Australian recruit is David Pitchford, the former boss of the Melbourne City Council.
The Nakheel group has development projects valued at $33 billion and is behind some of the world's groundbreaking projects, such as the Palm and World islands.
Queensland concept architect Warren Pickering is says to have sketched the original design of the Palm Islands - three man-made island off the Dubai waterfront, described by some as the eighth wonder of the world - on a piece of paper for key Nakheel executives.
"The number of Australians has grown from around 4500 when I first arrived to 13-14,000 when I left," says Peter Linford, Australia's consul-general and senior trade commissioner for Austrade in Dubai until his return to Austrade in Melbourne last August.
David Knott, former chairman of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission runs the Dubai Financial Securities Services Authority, a government agency.
Kym Hewett, the consul-general and Austrade senior trade commissioner to the Gulf, says the education sector was the second largest employer of Australians.
The UAE campus of the University of Wollongong and three schools offering Australian curriculums employ many Australian staff.
"In every facet of activities, we are seeing Australians - whether it is in traffic management, city planning and horse racing, event management and so on," Hewett says .
Former Northern Territory chief minister Denis Burke is a consultant to an Emirate municipal government.
Craig Symons, who is consulting to the UAE's second largest conference centre, Al Ain, and heads a UAE zoo, is an Australian who used to run Adelaide Zoo.
Australian companies are also ramping up their operations in the region.
Paul Morris, global business stream leader with Sydney consulting firm GHD, saw his staff grow from 30 when GHD acquired a small local company in 2000 to 600 today.
Morris, who has lived in the Gulf for seven years, says: "Every company here has to rely on expatriate staff: the local populations are small and generally unavailable. They prefer to work for the Government or run their own business."
GHD has $100 billion worth of projects, including some of the most innovative such as the World and Palm Islands projects, on its book throughout the Gulf region.
The Leighton Group, which last year spent $870 million to acquire a 45 per cent stake in Al Habtoor Engineering, is also increasing its staff numbers quickly.
Property experts such as Jeff Rossely were part of the first waves recruited to support the booming construction sector.
They are now entrenched in key positions with the UAE's leading property groups, such as Nakheel, Majid Futtaim, Al Dar and Al Ghurair. Rossely was headhunted in 1997 to join Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Group - a company he knew well from his days as development manager of the Robina project on the Gold Coast - to run its development projects.
After Rossely, the MAF group went on to employ several Australians, most of whom had been executives with Lend Lease.
Salaries have risen sharply in line with demand. The key attraction to potential recruits is tax-free incomes.
Etihad's Hogan says employees received a total package, including accommodation and schooling for their children.
O'Donnell says most contracts ran from three to five years, but some like Morris planned to stay for the long haul.
"My children are born here and will go to school here," Morris says.
"One of the biggest attractions is working on major projects. People are focused on making things happen here, when in Australia people give reasons why things can't be done," O'Donnell says.
Morris agrees: "The projects are very exciting. We cannot expect to work on anything like the Palm Islands or the World Islands in Australia."
