My Move to Melbourne

Written by richtea31

Tuesday, 07 April 2009

I thought I would share my experience of my move from the UK to Melbourne, warts and all, in some detail. So I'm sorry if this goes on a bit but it may nelp someone avoid the pitfalls I went through.

Employment

I arrived in Melbourne at the end of November in the hope of gaining employement and starting a new life close to my daughter (she's 5). I had set up some meetings with recruitement agents and potential employers (I'm an ACA Accountant) before I left the UK.

My first experience was that very few employers/recruitement agents have very little time for you until you arrive in Australia. They ask for a resume and then suggest you contact them on arrival (which I did). Many interviews later and I was lucky enough to get a position with one of the Big 4 establishments. I noted that many companies had an attitude of doom and gloom (that the world had collapsed and there was no way back) and although they were polite most interviews were a waste of my time, as they had no vacancies anyway. But you just have to keep plugging away.

Accommodation

This was a massive challenge, as before I had arrived I tried to find a long term temporary rental, but found them all to be too expensive for my budget, or they were already fully booked - in retrospect I should have tried harder because staying at hotels was even more expensive. So my advice to those thinking of moving here is to look really hard for a short term rental and look/book way in advance. There are some good value options available but you do need ensure that you search, search and search some more.

I stayed in hotels as I thought it would give me an incentive to get into a rental as quickly as possible. Here's my thoughts on the places I stayed, with a best to worse list:

Quest on Jollimont
I stayed here a few days just before I moved into a rental property and to be honest I wish I had found it earlier. The apartments were big spacious and very clean and modern, and there were nice park views from my room. There was free underground parking and the staff were really nice. A negative was that there was no pool. However it was worth the money.

Mantra on Jollimont
This was a good functional location with pool, gym and jacuzzi. The rooms were big but in need of modernisation and the staff were a little disinterested. Parking was expensive at $19.50 per night and the restaurant for dinner was poor, but good for breakfast. When I stayed here I was still searching for jobs on the internet and it was a nightmare, it was a dial up connection and it took forever to download a page, and at $6 an hour, I soon gave up and sought an alternative (I'll return to this later). Overall good.

Quest East St Kilda
I liked this one as the apartments were two hotel rooms combined and a TV in each room. The kitchens had everything you needed and they were clean and modern. Staff were really friendly and worked hard to please (it must be a Quest thing ), there was a pool and jucuzzi. Strangely, the restaurant was not open to guests but seemed full every night with the local Jewish fraternity. Which means you have to eat out, buy pizza, or have a car to do a grocery shop (my option). It was also some way from the CBD and required either a drive or a tram trip, which was no big deal. Overall worth a go.

Mercure (Swanston)
This was a large hotel and was packed when I stayed there. The room was small and expensive and it was so noisy, particularly at night (2-6am), but I got used to the constant banging of doors, and the maids wanting to clean you room at 7am (an expletive worked best I found as 'no thank you' was taken as an invitation to empty the bin!!!!! ). However, it's right in the centre of the CBD and everything is on you door step. Overall - Give it a miss.

George Powlett Apartment
Where do I start? OK the good point, it was cheap ($77 a night). However, I had to move rooms because the first room was invested with fleas. My second room had something living in the bed that decided to eat me each night and I would wake up with blood on the sheets and spots all over my shoulders and back. The rooms smelt of stale pee and they changed my sheets once in the 7 nights I stayed there (and that was because I asked). The maid would leave a clean towel each day without removing the old, I soon had a nice collection thrown in one corner. I also had an army of ants that decided the table was great place to visit 24/7 and I would have enjoyed there company if it was not for the fact that the table was broken. Overall - avoid. Saving money is one thing but been eaten by the local insect population is just NOT worth it.

I also checked in the Herald Sun for short term accommodation and found a couple of adverts for 'resort accommodation from only $280 a week', this was at Bell City in Preston. II must admit that it was very nice when I went and had a look around, but the price was actually $450+ per week and the application form required more information and references than the application for a rental, so why bother?

Banks

I thought about openning an account when I was in the UK but decided to do it when I arrived. In fact it was an inspired idea, as in the UK you had to provide a mountain of documents to prove you name, address, date of birth and shoe size. Over here I walked into the Commonwelath Bank on Swanston street (next to the Mercure Hotel) and walked out 10 mins later with my bank account sorted. All I needed was my passport, and I used my daughters address to have my cards delivered, but could just as easy used the hotel address and collected my cards from the branch in 5-7 days. It was easy. I'm not going to go into which banks offer the best accounts because I think it is a personal thing. But just to add that both the Commonwealth and WestPac Banks have tried so hard to get me to take out a home loan or mortgage I am pretty confident that when I do decide to buy it will be no trouble at all.

Rental

After finding a job this was going to be the next big challenge. However, despite all the remours that there were few rental properties out there I found one pretty quickly. I had decided that I wanted to be close enough to my daughters new school, a train station so i could get into the CBD, and a shopping centre so I could walk and get some groceries. That way I would not have to buy a car that straight away and can save money to buy furniture. After looking around Brighton in bayside I decided the rentals there were overpriced and garbage, so I expanded my search area and found a 3 bed modern unit in Highett. I opted to be cheeky and bartered the price down by $20 a week, and submitted my application. It was approved 24 hours later (in fact all they did was confirm my salary with my employer and my start date). They didn't take up my personal references. I could have moved in then, but my money had not arrived from the UK, so I had to wait a few days to pay the rent and bond. You also have to pay both with a bankers draft/cheque, so you do need a bank account, so my advice is to get your money moved over early.

NOTE: Over here they price rentals on a weekly basis, (say $400 a week), rather than the PCM basis in the UK. Also when it comes to paying the rent, some estate agents use a method (forget the name) where you divide the weekly rent by 7 and multiply by 365 then divide by 12 (so say $400/7 = $57.15 x 365 = $20857.15 / 12 = $1738), Which actually means you paying more than $400 a week, but paying the correct amount over the whole year (I hope that makes sense). So do check before you rent how the monthly rental payments are calculated, and ensure you have enough for the first payment and the Bond (which again is not always 4 weeks rent in advance, sometimes it can be more or less).

However, getting into a rental property was easy and as soon as you have employment get looking.

Internet

After my expensive experience at the hotel I went looking for an alternative, and found it at Melbourne Central. There is an internet cafe on the second floor and it is fast speed broadband and pretty cheap at $4 an hour. You can also grab some food/coffee near by. Worth a look.

It's still early days but so far I have started work and everyone is great, and I am really enjoying my new life here.

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 September 2009 )