snowqueen

Hi

Seems like there's a good few others out there in Ireland planning on upping stix and moving, like us. If you were to believe half of what you hear on the radio and read in the papers, you could have sworn we were actually meant to be living in the land of milk and honey ! It's good to know we're not the only ones who feel differently!

It's hard to leave family behind though and a really feel for those of you having problems with your family's reactions. I am actually English, so in effect am already 'away', but even then it is hard to be going further away, and the guilt is part of the package I think. Many people here do live so close to their families and have so much support and contact with them that the move away is obviously going to be felt all the more. It's a natural reaction for them to only see your move as to how it will affect THEM. After all we're all a bit selfish deep down, which is why we are probably doing this move anyway....

But you only have one life, and if you think that moving to Oz is what's best for you and the kids then you have to give it a go.

Hope it works out for all of you.
Snowqueen

gidxg03

Thanks snowqueen.

Tbh I'm sick of most things in Ireland. The government (health, roads, tax etc etc), traffic, cost of living, rip off Ireland, the bloody weather (esp here in Galway), the lack of job opportunities, the fact that all there ever is to do is go to the pub or the cinema. When we went away on honeymoon we took a round the world trip (Jan of this year). To drive on good roads, with nice weather and not be ripped off everywhere we went was a breath of fresh air. I hope these reasons are enough to sustain our enthusiasm once we are "actually" living in another country.

wallaby64

Moved to Goldcoast from Cork last september. Wife and three kids..15,12 and 8. Renting in Ashmore. Kids in school in Merrimac. 8 yr old in state primary and other two in St Michaels Catholic. Im back in ireland since Christmas to sort out business, house sale etc. and hope to be back in Oz for easter. Family love every minute of life on Goldcoast. Have done all the theme parks...cost about 85 euro for family of five for the day but well worth it especially Seaworld and Wet n' wild. Everything and everywhere is easy to get to as the road network is fab. Beaches are soooo clean and allmost seem deserted. Parks everywhere. Large shopping centers everywhere...Robina, Pacific Fair, Australia Fair are the three biggest..I think. Never far from water..river or sea. 8 year old fishes most days after school with his little aussie mates. He plays handball, football, rugby and soccer through the school system. The two older ones play tennis, field hockey and get this one..go ice skating through the school system. Bit different from GAA, GAA or GAA. Wife has joined a few social groups where she is getting to meet some nice people.Place reminds me of what Ireland used to be like years ago where people allways had a smile and were only too willing to have a chat or help out. Group of young men (18 to 22 yo) renting next door.. thought they might be a bit of a problem...The day we moved in, they rock up to the front door with heaps of takeaway food to welcome us to the area....they figured we wouldnt have thought about eating with all the unpacking etc. My 15 yr old daughter was mighty impressed!!!! (i presume it was the tanned bodies, not the takeaway.) Phone bill is massive as we are in touch every day. The young fella sounds like an aussie allready....god I miss em.

sme

This is what my shallow 13 year old is looking forward to (and me )

Paul Fitz

Great post Wallaby64. It is great to see you have all settled well. We just can't wait to get moving. The outdoor lifestyle is so appealing. Seems like a good number of Irish are making the move down under.

Thanks

MK

macker

Hello everyone,

Heres another paddy to add the the list. We are in Dublin. Husbands a carpenter and we have just completed our TRA application. Our agent is hopefully posting it off next week so the wait begins. One step closer to "the lifestyle"!!

Dee & Steve

Hi, we moved here from Ireland in August 2004, hard to believe we are nearly here 2 years already. We moved to Perth and we love it. Yes, we miss our families, the sausages, the t.v., the chocolate and most of all the Irish pubs, but not enough to make us want to go back, you just miss all those things 'cos thats what you have grown up with and naturally are used to. Perth has been really good to us, personally I don't find food or clothes anymore expensive here than what I did back home, but having said that, I stopped converting back to euro very early on as I told myself that I am no longer earning euro so no point converting back to it. Of course its only natural to convert back and forth when you first arrive just to get an idea of things. And, yes, I am earning less here compared to what I was earning in euro, but yet we have managed to save more money here than what we were doing back home, our money just seems to go that bit further here. What I also like about here is that there always seems that there is something to do and somewhere to go. We dont have children, but when it comes to school holidays here they always seem to make sure there are lots of activities going on, some for a fee and some free. Everyones experience here is going to be different, some will love it and some won't. It all depends on your mindset and your own personal circumstances. We have already gone home for a trip, that was great as when we were leaving it stopped us from being toooo sad as we knew we were going to be back there within 12 months. Plus, we have put the hard word on our families to come visit us, my husbands family will be here in December, and one of my sisters is applying for a visa for here which would be great. My parents will never get to visit us here due to health reasons, but thats ok, we will just go back and visit them. You do have to be prepared for the fact that alot of your time off work will have to be saved up to go back and visit home and family, not to mention the expense, but thats the sacrifice you make when you emigrate here. And while the weather is a massive improvement on good 'aul sunny Ireland, there are days when you just wish it would rain, but that doesn't mean that Oz is not for you, alot of the Aussies struggle with the weather too. Oh, someone asked about meeting people. I find the Aussies to be very friendly, but as you get older I think it is alot harder to meet new friends and to break into social groups, but you can't let these things get you down too much, it will all come good in the end. Apologies for such a long post, I get a little carried away, but hope my info is of some help opposed to boring ye to tears

breezeboylan

sounds like your all having a great time and hopefully it wont be to long till you see them again

JohnandMichelle

Yeah - will keep everyone posted about licence. Haven't been on much lately as we are so busy trying to make a home, but as soon as things settle down a bit, I'll hopefully have more time to share our experiences. Pick up dog from Gold Coast airport tomorrow so looking forward to that! Kids (13 and 8) have settled in to schools really well - starting their third week tomorrow. A lot harder for the 13 year old though. She came from an all-girls school in Galway with just 400 pupils to Robina High with 1,800 and a map to get around! Tough for her, but she seems to be coping okay. At that age, they don't say too much, but hopefully no news is good news. 8 year old at Robina State Primary and loves it. They spent the day on Friday at Burleigh National Park and Beach and he thinks his teacher is cool - so that's okay then.

Dee & Steve

BTW, if anyone misses their pint of Guinness there are a few pubs you can get a good pint,according to my Husband anyway . J.B O'Reillys on Cambridge st. do a really good pint, they also do great pub food, a really good roast on a Sunday afternoon, and the restaurant food is good too, there is a session band that play there on a Wednesday night and they are quite good, ( amazing, as soon as you emigrate you start listening to the Dubliners ) The Irish club in Subiaco also serve a good Guinness, as do Rosie O Grady's in north bridge, he wasn't impressed with Paddy Maguires in Subi, or the Elephant and Wheelbarrow in North bridge. Yes, he has done extensive research into this. Someone mentioned phone bills, there are lots of different phone cards here, similar to the planet cards back home, but you get alot more for your money here, a $10 super saver card will get you about 500 minutes to England and about 380 minutes to Ireland, so you can relax and chat away without worrying about your bill, and a txt message is only about 25 cents, I get the $30 vodafone one where I get 60 free txts, and if you buy it at your video ezy video store you get a free new release. Deirdre

macker

Hi,

I'm enjoying reading all your stories and thanks for all the info. Few questions for all you expats!! Who did you use to transfer funds to Australia? ( HFIX seems to be quite popular). What moving company did you use? Overall, would you recommend selling all furniture and bits and bobs or moving it over?
Any recommendations for an airline and possibly a stopover on the way for a few days?? Any feedback greatly appreciated.

Dee & Steve

We flew with Malaysian airlines, and going back for a holiday, flew with Qantas, Singapore is also good and Emirates are meant to be quite good too. We shipped our stuff with Careline, ( they have an office in Limerick), we found them great, we packed it all ourselves and everything was perfect when we got it, and they were a good price also. We set up a commonwealth bank account before we left and transferred our money through them, but got our own rate through a broker at the bank of Ireland. We decided not to bring any furniture, we just wanted to start again, plus my mother in-law bought our house so we left a good bit of ti to her. We did bring all our bits and bobs, dishes, saucepans all that sort of stuff, I would recommend that you do bring all your bits and pieces. And we booked our flights through a Dublin agent, can't remember their name now, but ring around, and tell them if another agent offers you a cheaper price and see if they will better it, thats what I did. good Luck with it all. Deirdre

macker

Thanks Deirdre. Great info. Will probably bring all the bits and pieces as you recommend as I feel it would be a nightmare trying to shop for all that stuff. Our furniture is very tired now after 2 kids so it will be nice to get new furniture. Thanks again.

priscilia

Hi everybody, not exactly going from Ireland to oz (we live in France at the moment) but partner is from Cork. Interesting reading though for us too.
Can anybody help regarding police checks n Ireland, we are going to need them but I can't just go around to the local garda station to ask about it! Can you get this done by post, does anyone know?

Dee & Steve

As far as I know you can, probably ring up his local station back in Cork and find out what you need to do, or what station you need to send your form too. When I applied for my visa years ago I was living here in Australia, and I got mine through the post, and when we applied for Stephens visa last yr, we were living back home but we had to get police clearance from Sydney as he lived there for 3 years, so we did this through the post also. You just have to provide details of all your precious addresses in that country. Hope this helps. Deirdre