I_Will_Freckle

You don't say what line of work you are in but salaries here in Perth are pretty good and workers are in a strong position when in comes to striking a deal.

I know Perth is a long way to come just for 'a look' and it's not everyone's cup of tea, but having spent two weeks in Brisbane/Gold Coast I have to say I'd rather live back in the UK than live there - I preferred Auckland too tttt and Auckland didn't exactly set me on fire.

But enough of my preferences! I think if I were you, I'd would try another visit. Never been to Melbourne but it sounds lovely and there is always the west coast if you're feeling brave.

As for Australians being blunt - hmmm, they're definitely not politically correct and I find that refreshing most of time, but don't find them rude or aggressive at all (in general).

Good luck with your plans.

kiwinow

There's not telling what place you'll like best. I disagree that you should've just gone without the reccie, because you'd be feeling pretty miserable if it didn't live up to expectations. We went over expecting to like Perth best, but we hankered after Qld when we were there. We also went for interviews and Dave was disappointed with wage offers and the fact that nobody seemed willing to offer him the job as he wasn't living there yet, even though he said he'd move in a matter of weeks if necessary.

When we got back we realised the place that felt like home was Hervey Bay, or a place just north of it, but we face the problem of earning a decent wage there and may end up in Brisbane yet.

We quite liked Brisbane, but it was hard to find a suburb we liked that we could also afford. On the other hand I was surprised at the closeness of some of the places, providing you're not travelling at rush hour. It took us about 10 minutes to get to Redcliffe from Eagle Farm and we quite liked that area, but it's getting pricey. Kallangur, Narangba, Burpengary do feel a bit countryish but it depends what you like.

We used to live in Auckland and it took us 50 minutes at rush hour to travel into the CBD from Henderson, so I guess we are expecting a bit of a hike.
Perhaps you need to explore some different suburbs closer to town, or go for it with Sunshine or Gold Coast, or another state as some have suggested.

Kim67

From your list of likes and dislikes, I reckon you're choice of suburb (Kallangur) could have been your problem. Have a look at some suburbs within 10km (within 6km is better but suburbs in that region can be quite expensive, depends on your budget) of the city where you can actually enjoy the things about Brisbane that you liked. Kallangur is a long way out of the city and it does have it's bogan element. I have friends in Kallangur, and even though I think they're an absolute scream, especially at parties after copious amounts of alcohol, they're real ockers and not everyone's cup of tea.

IMO Brisbane is a pretty good place to live. We still have a home there and will eventually go back after we've finished roaming for a couple of years. It has great weather, nice lifestyle and provides the opportunities that the East coast of Australia holds, whilst maintaining a more relaxed feel that some of the larger east coast cities.

Mr Grumpy

I really dont understand this false image that jobs are plentiful and that you will be able to come over and get a decent salary.

I am Australian with 11 years work experience here and a Uni degree, and I struggle to find any decent paying jobs advertised. And the ones I do find and have an interview for I strongly suspect of being false advertisements by recruitment agents just to get people on the books.

Face it, there are very few decent paying jobs left. Most are now low paying customer service, tourism and retail jobs. As well as an abundance of part time, casual and fixed contract roles. Gone are the days of the career oriented permanent full time position.

It took me 2.5 years to get a permanent full time position and thats with a University, so I had to get out of the corporate sector all together just to make a living.

Simply put you are not going to get a decent salary offer. Not anytime soon anyway.

SNH

I'm guessing that (like many British people) your main reason for choosing Queensland is the different climate.

You will find people are very different from state to state. Queensland is like a different country sometimes, and when I am there I do notice the people are very blunt (or rude, if I'm going to be honest).

Same as in Sydney they are 'in your face' and over-confident. In Melbourne completely different again.
I personally believe that - generally - people get friendlier as you travel south through the country. The problem is, most people here seem to choose Australia for the beach culture, and most of that's up north.

But I often hear New Zealanders are more reserved and polite than Australians, and I won't argue with that.

Notts_bloke

Melbourne is easily the best "city" in Oz in my opinion.

Spellbound

Hi Guys

Thanks for your replys. The thread was written and posted just after returning from Australia and obviously now thinking about it, I was on a bit of a downer and feeling deflated. I think we did have unreasonalble expectations of our reckie and short visit to Aus.

We really are looking forward to making the move permanently but as we have little or no funds, particulary when we have paid for the removals etc, we were really banking on getting job offers, so that we can at least make ends meet and have an income coming in. We are in the situation of not having much of a life-line financially as we have no house to sell etc and so trying to do the move on a bit of a wing and a prayer. Not ideal and not to everyones way of doing but this is obviously why finding work is a priority to us!

For those that know Auckland, we currently live in Dannemora and on a good morning it takes about 40 mins to get to the city and over an hour on a bad day. I have been doing this trip for 3.5 years now. Dannemora is a brand new housing estate with a fairly new shopping complex and we like that we have a shopping centre nearby and only have to travel to the city for work and when we want to. I dont think that kallangur was any further away than Dannemora but it just felt like it!

We feel like we only have one chance to get it right and cant really afford any more reckies, so its making us very nervous about our situation. Obviously affordability makes a huge impact on deciding where to live, and when to make the move.

We have done all this before too when we came to NZ from the UK, and as I said I think that is making a big impact on what we are doing and reasons why. We do have 'Hindsight' to a certain extent and its making us very cautious.

Thanks for all your comments and words of wisdom.

spartacus

Hi Spellbound, if you don't mind me asking, why kallangur? I've just looked on whereis.com and its miles away (apologies if already mentioned in earlier post).

How about somewhere a bit closer?

Edit: Have you tried an agent. My OH is tentatively using this chap, not a recommendation, but he moves in your field.
Mathew Seneviratne: Architecture & Interior Design Consultant
Level 20
333 Ann Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
T: 07 3231 0230

http://www.recruitr.com.au

Spellbound

Hi

Yes I met with Mathew of RecruitR last week for a coffee, one interview he had arranged for me, the other two I had organised from NZ.

As to kallangur - I thought that it was closest in style etc to where we currently live in Auckland (based on research from here in NZ) - a little way out of the city.

We like new houses/estates but want to be close to a decent selection of shops, and not feel like we are in the city. We also have a teenager (nearly 18) that we are trying to please, so would like somewhere where she can hang out and do teenage stuff like going to the pub and look out for boys!

We havent made any friends in NZ except for work collegues and my husband cant wait to have a social life again! He had a very active 'pub' life in the UK but is stuck indoors with us girls most of the time now. When we came to NZ we wanted to mix with the locals but we havent been able to manage this, so now we are looking forward to mixing with expats and poms and building up a social network of friends again.

We will be looking at 420,000 for a property eventually (brand new 3 bed, hopefully) so we dont want to be renting in an area we cant afford to live. better to start where we intend to remain.

And now to add to my list, I will need good public transport to get to work and back in the city.

Everyones different, I know but this is my current 'like to live' list!

spartacus

Hi Debbie

There are as many different opinions on suburbs as there are suburbs to have opinions on, so I won't burden you with mine. but I think recreating an active pub life on your doorstep is quite difficult over here. Good public transport options as you say are the key, at least then you've got the choice of using them even if you still commute by car. We're out west and after using the car for a year we now both use a mixture of train or bus.

Spellbound

I should say my husband is not particular bothered about recreating an active 'pub' life but a social life and some male company around his age that he can pass the time of day with whilst enjoying a beer or two! He currently only mixes with a work collegue who is a lot older than him and hes getting a bit tired of listening to the same old stories.

Fred Basset

Kallangur: I think that is part of the problem; I wouldn't move from overseas to that location, even though I live in Brisbane.

The UK 'pub' life really doesn't exist in Australia, well none that I am aware of.

Australia is more of a sporty country so a lot of friendships are based on the type of sport you might play or be involved with.

Remember you came in winter of course the weather will be good in Brisbane but come December/January it gets a little hot.

Good luck with what ever you choose.