New DAMA – Townsville – North Queensland

DAMA stands for Designated Area Migration Agreement. It is a type of Labour Agreement. 

The DAMA enable approved employers to sponsor overseas workers for positions they are unable to fill with Australian citizen or Permanent Resident workers. This comes in response to their current and emerging labour market shortage.

The Visas subclasses available for this agreement are:

• Temporary Skill Shortage visa ( sub 482)
• Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional Visa (sub 494)
• Employer Nomination Scheme (Sub 186)

Individual Workers cannot apply independently, therefore the applicant needs to be sponsored by an employer.  The latter, will have to gain approval from the Designated Area Representative (DAR). Moreover the business need to be located in the designated region.

Most importantly, with the DAMA agreement a key factor is that some concessions may apply, for instance:

• English concession

• Salary

• Age

In other words the applicant could be waived the condition of

• the minimum level of English,
• the minimum salary
• the maximum age to apply the Permanent Residency (generally 45 years old)

However not all the DAMA list in each state are the same (see below the links to each DAMA’s webiste)

Finally the DAMA is a 5 years agreement so it is subjected to review after this period of time. 

|List of all active DAMA

There are currently twelve DAMA lists in place:

1.The Orana region DAMA (NSW)

 65 occupations / Concessions: skills and work experience, salary, English and Permanent residency pathway (PR) 

2.The Northern Territory DAMA (NT)

 124 occupations / Concessions:  English and salary for some occupations.

3.The Far North Queensland (FNQ DAMA 1.2) (QLD)

168 occupations / Concessions: English, skills, experience, salary and permanent residency (PR) pathway.

4.The Townsville DAMA (QLD)

195 occupations included in the list.

5.The Adelaide City Technology and Innovation Advancement DAMA (Metro) (SA)

61 occupations / Concessions: English, age, salary and permanent residency (PR) pathway.

6.The South Australian Regional Workforce DAMA (Regional) (SA)

190 occupations / Concessions: English, age, salary and permanent residency (PR) pathway.

7.The Goulburn Valley DAMA (VIC)

 56 occupations / Concessions: age, qualifications, experience, Salary, English and permanent residency (PR) pathway.

8.The Victoria’s Great South Coast DAMA (VIC)

38 occupations / Concessions: English, skills, experience, salary and permanent residency (PR) pathway for some occupations

9.The EK (East Kimberley) DAMA (WA)

Over 100 occupations.

10.The Goldfields DAMA (WA)

125 occupations / Concessions: English, salary and permanent residency (PR) pathway.

11.The Pilbara DAMA (WA)

66 occupations

12.The South West DAMA (Shire of Dardanup) (WA)

56 occupations / Concessions: age, Salary, English and permanent residency (PR) pathway. concessions.