macker

Hi Chef 69,

Send R&T our best!! Funny that they arrived to rainfall - must have made him feel at home!! . Starting to feel the jitters myself to be honest! :scared:

Bidd

Hi Macker, we're heading for Sydney on skilled independent (my husband was the main app). We haven't organised transferring money yet or anything like that - not sure what way we'll do it. Kind of flying by the seat of our pants anyway so won't have too much to transfer... We won't have much to ship either so were thinking of just sending a few boxes with Irish Shipping if anything at a later stage! At the moment it will just be us and our two rucksacks! Who are you using? We're really excited - can't wait to go! Only one thing stressing me a little at the moment - my husband's sister has just told us that she's coming to stay with us for a month in early Jan (yes, told...). Would have rather she'd waited a while until we got settled and my husband said that to her but it hasn't registered! If anyone has any suggestions on what way to sort the situation I'd be grateful!!

Bidd

macker

Hi Bidd,

Yafoley got a great quote off careline so I will check then out, there are a few other companies too that I'll have to call, get the cheapest rate going if I can!! I have a contact name at HIFX that was recommended to me so I will pm you with that.

As for the sis in law - tricky situation - I would try to be as honest as possible and tell her that you will only be renting when you get there and the place is tiny and there won't be alot of room , if she could wait just a little longer until everything settles down and you are more organised and then you will more spare time to bring her sightseeing etc!!

Bidd

Hi Macker - got your pm, thanks for that!

Will try your advice with the sis in law thing... To be honest, ten years from now would be soon enough to have her visit but I suppose I can't put it off that long! Will let you know how I get on!

Bidd

andrew63

I used Careline. No issues with them at all.
Customs, (AQIS), well there's another story!

Andrew

andrew63

Paul
Sorry for my late response. trying to avoid this place as it's too addictive and also annoying at times.

Anyway, we stayed at the Holiday Village for 6 weeks and had a great time.
What with Sony PS in all cabins with free game hire - you can't go wrong! Nice pool area for the kids etc.
Can't remember what cabin we stayed in but initially (2 weeks) a 3-bedroom one which was fine but when we extended for another 4 weeks as we bought a house and had to wait that long to move in (great eh!), we had to move into a 2-bed cabin but it was one of the "new" ones. It was absoultely fantastic and far bettter than than the 3 bed ones. I think it cost a little more.

I am sure there was a thread a week or so ago and someone else stayed there giving it the thumbs up. Try to search for that if you need to. Mini-golf area, small shop and kids playground also.

Facilities are good and clean and the cafe isnt bad there but it shuts early. It is very close to Garden City shopping centre which has everything you possibly need inclduing a decent Irish pub (sure you don't want that!), Cinema and tons of shops incl. supermarkets. Probably a little too far to walk to but no more than a 5-minute drive. Plenty of restuarants, etc nearby too.

Commute to CBD would be approx. 15 - 20 mins outside of rush hour/accidents and a straight road all the way.
Same for Carindale but but not motorway driving.

Hope that helsp but feel free to ask me more.
That place is only 10 - 15 mins from my house so we can catch up with you then.

Andrew

Paul Fitz

Thanks a mill Andrew63 for taking the time to give me so much detail. I phoned the site last night. We were given a quote from early October for 6 weeks. Wait for it 7,050 dollars. I thought that was very steep considering it is low season. That is for a 2 bed Cosmo Cabin. I think we would consider paying it at a last resort. I know it is short term but was hoping for something in the line of 700 dollars per week not 1,175. Have checked out sooo many places at this stage. We are beginning to come to the conclusion that we may have to book ourselves into a hotel for a week. We might have more luck when we get out there trying to find short term accommodation. We like yourselves are hoping to buy a property fairly soon after we come out. We just need time to search out the area and hopefully find a suitable property in our budget. Know we are asking a lot, but who knows.

Carindale is high on our list, but will have to wait until we get out to have a good look.

Better get back to the decluttering.

Thanks again

MK

macker

Hi,

Just a follow up on the Access advantage account at ANZ - I would not advise opening it up until a month or so before you go. I emailed them about their $5 monthly charge and asked would I be charged that fee even before I "unlock" the account and this is the response:


"You will find that the $5.00 Account Service fee will be applied to the account on the Monthly anniversary of the account opening, you may wish to simply open the account 2 to 4 weeks prior to your departure."

tucs

Westpac new account

Didnt read through the whole post so excuse if been repeated.
i opened up an account with Westpac but the $5 per month still stands, so macker is right when she says wait till you are about to go before opening. What a clever little bunny that macker is .

Also you have to allow a time for the money to be transfered over to activate the account so allow a couple of weeks for you to get a reply from them saying they have received it.

macker

Thanks Tucs,

The more info we can get our hands on the better!!!!!!!

Andrew63- glad to hear no problems with Careline - any tips on how to avoid problems with customs?

wexford lass

hi all. need some advice.hoping to move to oz asap. my hubbie has his au passport so i'l be looking for a spouse visa for myself and daughter from previous relationship whom my husband has since adopted. we also have baby on the way shortly so baby wil get passport by decent. should we use migration agent or is the process straight forward enough. i dont want to lose any more time as we had to wait a long time for adoption to come through and i cant do meds until baby is born.

andrew63

Only way to avoid issues with customs is don't bring anything with you!
Things weren't too bad really.
Careline were very helpful.
Alcohol - you have to pay tax on unopened alcohol you are bringing in. I had over 100 bottles of decent French wine so that was an issue plus 20+ spririts.
Fortunately, Careline packed them and recorded them as "ornaments" on the manifest to prevent anyone from thinking of stealing them between leaving my house in Ireland and arriving in Brisbane.
So, when it came to the customs declaration when you receive, I just claimed 10 bottles of wine and 2 spririts. Allegedly customs Xray your container so they should have seen that I had more but didn't!
Tools - quite a collection being a handyman. I did not clean them. Ironically they were allowed through but the plastic tool box was not!
Chopping boards - new, clean, plastic or wood. All got stopped.
Garden tools - all cleaned, got through no problem.
Bikes/garden toys - all cleaned, got through no problem.
Brand new bike - got stopped!!!!
Christmas decs including pine cones and home made ancient nativity scene made with wood and straw - got through no problem.
New goods - only made a minor confession for a PC monitor as eveything else was not in original packing.

Once customs "stop" your stuff, you have to pay to have them cleaned, destroyed or returned to Ireland. Each item gets a different price per process but they are helpful in giving you full costs. Cleaning tends to work out the cheaper option.

We bought absolutely everything with us except for furniture and white goods.

Hope this helps

Andrew

andrew63

Only issue I see if the daughter from previous relationship but with adoption you should be OK. I had to do without so my case was complex and I needed an agent.
To be certain, pose this question on the immigration forum.
If the adoption is OK, then I reckon an agent would not be necessary.

Andrew

Chef69

Just to let you know. We sold our house on the Thurs. Flew out of Ireland on the Tues. Arrived in Bangkok on the Wed morn.Contacted HIFX and got them to transfer our money from our Irish account to our ANZ account that day. It arrived in our Account in Australia on the Fri. By the time we arrived our money was there. We arrived in Perth on the Friday morn. Went to the Bank that Fri. afternoon. Showed proof of identity and Date of entry to Australia. we then had use of our account and our cards were sent to us in the post within three working days. Maybe other banks are different. we could have had the money through earlier if we did not wait until we went to Bangkok.

macker

Thanks Andrew,

Great post. Very interesting that the new bike got stopped and the others didn't. What did they say about the new bike as I am planning on buying new bikes for the kids and shipping them?

Welcome Wexford lass to the thread!!