MattWest

Hello,

My name is Matt. Me and my other half are just starting out on the long road to oz. I am a carpenter and my wife is in childcare. As we are just starting we obviously have loads of questions. I have tried to search the forums as much as poss., but still feel completely confused.

The 1st wondering is how do you decide which area is right for you?

I have always liked small town life rather than city life.

Level Of Schooling is important as my 1 year old son is the inspiration for the move.

Fishing, windsurfing, kayaking, sailing, snorkelling are all activities that we are into.

I am looking for a community feel, where you go into the local shop and they ask how your wife and kid are.

Being a typical pom spiders scare the hell out of me here, let alone ones that can kill you!

Any ideas of nice towns that can be googled would be appreciated

Thanks

funkydelia

This may get moved to another part of the site...

I feel exactly the same as you, it is so tempting to head for the city because its easier!

We have an almost 3 year old and he's the inspiration for the move too.

I know I haven't been much help, we've looked at the areas round about Perth and round about Melbourne too.

Maybe we'll just stick a pin in the map and hope it sticks in close to the blue bit!

No Dramas

Have a good think about what you want out of Australia as this will obviously reflect where you will live. How hot do you want it? We are moving to Brisbane where the weather is sub tropical so the hot summers could be a problem for some. Personally I can't wait.

But work was a big factor for us, I work in IT and my wife is a primary school teacher so we have to be near a city. We also have family in Brisbane so the decision was easy.

But you can't beat flying over to Australia and taking a look for yourself.
We checked out Sydney, loved the place but could not see us living there.
Have to been to Australia?

Cost is another factor. Sydney is expensive and you have to pay school fees which is another factor if you have children. In Queensland there are no school fees.

MattWest

Yeah, got to admit the climate is very appealing. To be honest wouldn't even mind going up further than Brisbane. Although the warmer it gets the bigger the critters are!!!

No haven't been down under as yet, all of our research so far has been on the net.

Didn't know about the school fees issue. In fact didn't realise the different states could vary that much.

Thanks for you comments

DadAgain

Forget the critters..

Theres no significant difference in your 'critter exposure' wherever you are in Australia and after seeing how still and easy redback spiders are to avoid you wont worry any more!

Climate is strange one - I'm in Brisbane and love it for 8 months of the year. Strangely its mid-winter as well as min-summer that I dislike. Everyone expects to struggle with the heat and hummidity and when you get a week of 37C 90% in February it does sap your will to live, but the 10C days and 5C nigths in August are surprisingly cold. With architecture designed to let heat out and capture any breezes, what seems like a cool day on paper can feel FREEZING - and with heating a rarity there is no escape. A typical Qld response to a cool evening is to sit in front of the TV in the evening huddled under a blanket!!!

Probably the major factor in deciding where to live is going to be work. As as IT guy myself I was stuck with little choice and had to head to a city but couldnt stomach the mega-cities of Sydney and Melbourne so headed to what was a much smaller Brisbane. Brisbane has now grown to be much the same size these days and suffers many of the usual 'big-city' problems. Deciding where to live is usualy a case of finding a balance between 'employability' and 'livability'

Good luck

gillysm

This thread has some info on school fees in NSW - there is some contradictory advice but a link on it with a table of fees
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ht=school+fees
although NSW may not be your first choice if you like it warm. I've never been so cold as I was in winter when we lived in Sydney! No heating means you are huddled under the duvet watching t.v.
As others have said, define what you are wanting from your new life a little more and you're bound to get lots of help.

Potato_potato

I find most parts of the UK (outside of London) to be much friendlier than AUS.

I also haven't seen a spider in over 2 years. Even then it was harmless and easily killed. It's not something to be worried about.

I wouldn't live in north QLD. The humidity would get to me and the people are rednecks.

I would go where you can find work. Money is number 1 when you have a family to support. Australia is an expensive country - don't expect to be able to live it up in style while only working 30 hrs a week. Most folk I know work longer hours in Aus and earn less. Australia has a warmer climate - that's it.

funkydelia

Might just stay here then!

The Woodcutter

If you actually think about it - Australia is not so huge when deciding where to live. 80% of the population live around the coast, and then within commutable distance to the big cities.
Depends initially on your line of work, and then appreciating which of the big cities and surrounding area attracts you: Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane.
We live in a small town (50,000) which is commutable to Brisbane.

Hutch

How to decide where to live:

1. Availability of work in your profession.
2. Availability of work in your profession.
3. Availability of work in your profession.
4. General climate you like (tropo or seasonal etc)
5. Distance you're prepared to commute.
6. General landscape you prefer (inland, mountain, rural or coastal)
7. Cost of property without stretching the finances for the sake of a pool.
8. Quality of neighbourhood.
9. Proximity of good schools.
10. Proximity of good shops.
11. ...
12. ...
13. .....
14. .....

99. What a friend's neighbour's cousin's sister told your brother's girlfriend's plumber's son.

Simple.

funkydelia

And I had that one at number 1. Thanks for pointing out where I was going wrong!

Buzzy--Bee

What Hutch said.

Unless you are financially independent you must go where there is most likely to be work, or everything else in your migration will not happen.

Buzzy

worzel

We are into camping and water sports and love Perth for that reason. It probably isn't a good choice if you are into pubs, clubs and amusement parks but if you want to be close enough to a major city to take advantage but be minutes from the sea/ river / bush I don't think you can fault it.

Simo429

you clearly have never travelled to derby or nottingham

moneypenny20

I love it when people give balanced, non generalised posts. Makes life so simple