dejags

It feels like we are home.

We've settled well. Made a fair few really good friends. Hubby is enjoying his job. We've bought and renovated and old QLDer (I love the character of the place). The kids are all happy and thriving in their various school/pre-school/kindy. We chose to live just outside Brisbane CBD and love the area we've chosen, good parks, facilities, transport links etc.

We still have a mortgage. We still pay bills. We still fight with the bank/utilities company. We still had all the stresses related to renovating a home. Life carries on.

I am happy here in a surprisingly quiet way - it's just my home (no question).

The prospect of NEVER EVER having to pack up a container is a particularly wonderful one.

sa2uk2oz

glad its all going well. we did a fair bit of moving between a few countries before coming to the gold coast, and are really settled here now..

mark wool

Really pleased to see your settled. We have been to oz once and returened back to the uk. Having been here for three years we are thinking of returning to oz once more with two very young kids as the lifestyle for children just seems so much bettter than the uk. More things to do outdoors and the working life not so tough,so hopefully more time to spend with the kids. our visas expire in apr 10, any advice.

Sally Simpson

Glad to hear that all going well for you

fish.01

You are one of the few migrants on here to actually move to Brisbane proper - as opposed to Redlands, Pine Rivers, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Logan.

I think more people from the UK should consider sticking to the suburbs of Brisbane (inside the Brisbane Council boundary) - far too many go to far flung burbs which are too quiet and suburban compared to what they are used to. Of course some love it but I think a lot don't and just go there because everyone else does.

Glad to here you are settled.

dejags

Very good point about the suburbs being uber quiet. We did look at all areas in and around Brisbane. We really loved the Western Suburbs but on close evaluation and having looked at a few rental properties, I decided that I'd probably go insane with boredom (on my own each day after the children were at school). The downside to this is that property is much more expensive, but if we were to do it again, I wouldn't change a thing.

The area we live in is very vibrant, loads of cafe's bars etc. The city is a 10 minute bus ride, so even if DH takes the car to work it's easy peasy for me to get around.

Horses for courses I suppose.

Grayling

I think you will find there are quite a few of us.

dejags

Agreed - we have a fair few expat families at DS's school.

<<<<<Inner Burbs Rule>>>>

fish.01

Sure there's quite a few in reality...but do you not get the impression on this site that percentage wise you seem in the minority? I don't mean to imply that everyone who lives in the outer burbs is wrong - heaps of people love it and it is just what they are looking for. Just that some UK people who belong in inner city (used to busy town, walk to shops, pub etc and like it that way) end up in outer burbs just by following the crowd and then look around and scream - where are all the people etc!!!!!