nmm

Hi, I've read a lot about the things 'you should do' before you emigrate to Australia, but i was wondering for all those people who have actually done it if they have experienced advice on the following areas of concern (if it helps because of differing state rules we're thinking of heading to Brisbane):

Property
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1. Is it best to rent property in Australia when you arrive or before? I'm a bit scared of committing to a rental lease purely on property I've seen on the internet.

2. If its better to wait until you're in Oz, what's the best short term option? I'd imagine hotels are expensive for a prolonged period while you hunt somewhere to rent and its available. What about renting a 'holiday' home? Is this common in Australia. Maybe able to do it for several weeks. I have 3 children under 3 so i think anything more than a few nights in a hotel is going to be out of the question.

3. Is the minimum commitment 6 months for rental then on a monthly basis after that (like in the uk)?

Cars
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1. I've just spent 3 months trying to find the right car (here in the UK). Maybe i'm picky, but how easy is it to buy a family car in Australia. What are the popular manufacturers? Any good websites (like autotrader etc) especially in the Brisbane area?

Proof
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1. In the Uk there are many times when you have to prove your who you are. Typically that'll involve a drivers license and also a utility bill showing your name and address. Obviously in the first few weeks on arrival you'll need to buy things, eg mobile phones and other contractual items , cars etc. How can you do this, especially if you haven't got a fixed address (eg staying in a hotel or holiday accommodation)?

Shipping
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1. As mentioned above, i have three children (currently all under 3). There are going to be some items that we will need immediately in Australia that will be too big/heavy to pack in suitcases (high chairs, car seats, sterilisers etc) but we can't wait 3 months for the shipping company to deliver and certainly don't want to have to buy new ones on arrival. Can you send things via air freight ( in advance of us travelling - maybe the day before) for collection at the airport etc.

2. What do you do with all the really important personal documentation, eg Birth certificates, financial documentation, wills etc etc. Don't fancy having this stuff in a suitcase to get lost and again may need this stuff before the boat arrives.

Kingseat

All I can answer at the moment is the baby stuff. We rented. There were loads of places we could have chosen from in Perth so there is likely to be a few in Brisbane. We rented cot, highchair, monitors, baby walker and they had loads of other things.

Juliecabs

You may have to wait a while as the Brisbane lot will be in their beds at the moment.
I can't help with all your questions as we stayed with family when we moved over there so I don't have experience with short term lets but someone will be on here later to help you there. Also I've been back in the UK for 2.5 years so I've forgotten loads aready
As far as carrying your personal documents are concerned, I took ours in a holdall as hand luggage so they weren't out of my sight.
Cars are pretty easy to come across. There are loads of dealerships around Brisbane. Or look in the Courier Mail newspaper or online www.couriermail.com.au
We bought a fab little Toyota. There are a lot of Asian makes - Toyota, Kia, Nissan etc. New cars are better value as used cars tend to hold their value for some reason.
Good luck with the move.

Julie. x

Pollyana

A few of us are still awake.....I love my night shifts.....

Proof of identity - get used to carrying photo id everywhere. Its a constant issue, I get asked for ID in pubs (!'m in my 40s and look it) , ID for posting parcels, ID for banks, rental agencies, jobs applications, and many more.

Shipping - have a look at http://www.wedelivertheworld.co.uk - they collect from your home and it takes about 4 days door to door, much cheaper than excess baggage on an airline.

Rental - get a hotel or holiday apartment at first, then choose a rental once you're here. Most agencies won't rent to you till you are in the country, and trust ,e you really do need to see the places before you sign up for them. Most places are 6 months at a time.

Can't help on cars at all I'm afraid, but its not long till the rest of them get out of bed

squeezzii

our experience is that with cars we wish we'd shipped our car too! the 2nd hand car market was flat on its arse when we left the uk-where you could pick up a reliable old runner for a couple of hundred pounds- when we arrived in oz we found the 2nd hand car market was horrendous. they want several thousand dollars for a car that would be scrap in the uk! they dont have MOT here so there are some very unroadworthy and dangerous cars about buyer beware is what I'd say.
If you are buying new then Toyota are extremely popular, as are many of the japanese car manufacturers (hyundai mitzubishi etc) Holdens (vauxhall-but dont say that to an aussie) and ford are plentiful here.

dogscogs

Hi ya,

I'll try and reply in the appropriate sections, I can't quote on any specific rules for Brissy but here is what I found when we moved here last year:

Property
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We arranged a short term furnished rental in Sydney for the first 6 weeks, it was a bit more expensive than an unfurnished place but it was well worth it since we had no furniture and it gave us time on the ground to research longterm rentals while on the ground. We used www.apartmentservice.com.au for the short term rental.

The benefit was having cooking facilities since you can just go shopping and eat on a budget, otherwise you're eating out all the time which is Uber expensive in the long run - don't forget you won't be on holiday! (but by all means have a few days to relax first and get your bearings before you get stuck in :-)

I think they are much for a muchness in rental terms, 6 or 12 month leases are fairly normal, some fixed term leases for random amounts like 3 or 5 months seem to crop up occasionally but they are usually furnished properties where the owner is overseas.

Unless you have been to the area you are intending to move to, you cannot possibly get a feel for a place from a photo. We saw a wonderful 3 bed house in our price range on the net, when we went to view it we found that it was situated on the corner of one of the busiest 3 lane roads I have *ever* seen. Strangely enough, that wasn't mentioned in the ad so consider yourself warned :-)

Cars
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Toyotas, Holden (read Vauxhall), Mitusbishi, Nissan and Ford are the most popular here, European cars like BMW, Audi, Mercedes and Volkswagen are luxuries :-)

New cars do seem to hold their value a bit more here, and many second hand cars have high mileage. For an autotrader style site try www.carsales.com.au


Proof
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Until you get a long term rental, there is no point in getting an Aussie Drivers License (which suffices for 99% of all ID requirements when buying / applying for anything here) cos you will end up paying for a new one when you move. Until then you'll just have to stick with your UK Passport / DL as proof of ID. *DO* apply for Medicare and a Tax file number soon as poss, you can always update your address at the local Medicare office etc when you move. Medicare cards are sometimes useful as a secondary source of ID (despite not being photocards)

Open a bank account and get your first opening statement sent to your short term rental, thats useful for proof of residence for things like mobile phone contracts (it doubles as a proof of means too) and again it's easy to change the address, in the interim I asked for all things like bank cards and cheque books etc to be held at the branch (HSBC were happy to do that) for me to collect in person.

Got a job lined up already? a copy of your contract of employment goes a long way when applying for longterm rentals / mobile contracts. Otherwise rental agents might ask for 3 months rent in advance as did ours until I could provide a copy of my new contract.


Shipping
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Many shipping companies will come and collect the stuff whenever you like, most offer faster "Air Freight" services for which you will pay a premium over Sea Freight. I think they usually include a period of storage too so you can always send that important baby stuff ahead to be collected / delivered to you once you arrive.

We only packed the things we could not live without in the short term and sent the rest by sea freight, it took 10 weeks to arrive but like I said, we could live without it.

As far as important documents were concerned, between my wife's and my hand luggage we split two folders with copies of birth certificates (not that expensive to get from the GRO), certified copies of Passports, work references, historical bank statements, P45's, shipping information, copy of visa grant letter etc etc.

Since that folder shared a bag with my Macbook Pro and DSLR (two of my most prized posessions) I didn't let it out of my sight and would have fought armed assailants to the death to protect it so I felt they were quite safe ;-) ..... And no, I wouldn't trust putting stuff like that in a suitcase either!


I hope that's of some use to you and wish you and your family the best of luck with your big adventure :-)


Dean

LittleKittyCat

Hi,

We came over just under four months ago with two children under three, so I can answer a few questions for you on that front. High chairs we hired until our shipping arrived. There are lots of furniture and baby equipment hire shops about.

UK car seats, I believe, are not legal for use in Australia as they don't meet Aussie standards. Car seats here are fitted in with the seat belt, and then they also have a strap which goes over the back of the cars seat and fixes to a bolt in the boot. I was loathe to leave two expensive car seats behind (one seat was only six weeks old - our dd had a growth spurt and her head wasn't protected by her infant carrier any more), but I think that your car insurance won't cover you if you use them here. Things may have changed since we got here in Feb, but worth checking out. I'm sure there have been threads on car seats frequently on here. We had a hire car for the first two weeks and hired some from the car hire company.

We sent four air-freight boxes with sevenseasworldwide. The boxes were huge and we got loads of the girls toys, books, bedding, clothing etc in. We were arriving at the end of the summer, so we knew that we would need warmer clothing and bedding etc until the container came, but didn't want to bring them in the suitcases. They arrived within 6 days. I think it cost about £550, so it wasn't cheap, but it was great to have their toys and familiar things from home.

I took all of our personal documents (marriage cert, birth certs, bank statements etc) in the hand luggage. We were allowed one hand luggage bag each (four of us because we booked seats for the children), my handbag, a laptop and case, and then change bags for the girls. So we had eight pieces of hand luggage to put it in.

With regards to renting a property, we did it before we arrived. Because of the children, I didn't want to stay in a hotel whilst we looked for somewhere, so we used a relocation agent to do it for us. She did a fab job of looking round houses, sorting out paperwork, arranging furniture hire etc for us. She e-mailed dozens of photos for us to look at from the houses she viewed, so that we could decide which to rent. She negotiated a price for the rent with the agent and arranged for everything to be signed once we got here. It was a six month contract with one months notice after that.

We did look at renting a holiday home from stayz.com.au, but there wasn't anything available in this area for when we needed.

Obviously, for ID I would imagine that you would have to have a permanent address. It was easy for us because we had. We had already opened accounts with Westpac, so all we did when we got here was ID ourselves with them and then change our address with them (using the lease agreement) and got them to print something out with it on. Once you have that and a medicare card etc, it is all fairly straightforwards.

Cars, I bought a new Ford Territory. Straight forwards because no finance involved. Did need a customer number from the rta though (can't have license until here 6 months becuase on 457 visa). Hubby bought a second-hand holden. Again, no probs with that.

Anyway, that's all I can think of at the moment. Hope it is of some help.