bex 66

Yes, I know what you mean, every one gets "het up" regarding getting the visa, but I suppose in a way that's the easy part.
It's the getting the family, pets and possessions there in one piece, finding somewhere to hang your hat and find work, all whilst trying to adjust to a new way of life, climate and getting over homesickness.
What on earth are we all doing ????
I am a nurse and hubby is a tower crane operator, I don't suppose it will be that hard for me to find a job, but we are a bit worried about my husband, I guess he will have to redo licences and the like, and then find a job after that.
Do you know where abouts in Perth you want to live?
Really wish you the best of luck with your house sale, we will be putting ours up for sale once we know the medicals are ok

cindyabs

Don't know yet-it's a short US type of holiday rather than a longer European type, .

worzel

Strangely enough Perth was the one place we didn't visit in our 9 weeks in Aus so I don't really know where we will like. Northern suburbs seems most popular so we will aim for there on a 3 week holiday rental when we arrive and take it from there. Apparently most industry is either CBD based or south of Perth so we could end up that side depending on where I get work.

My first impression of Australia in daylight was the skyline of Melbourne from a hotel window and I could see dozens of cranes so I imagine your husband won't have trouble getting work:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/iain_sa...ll/melbou1.jpg

My advice re house sale is that meds are rarely a problem so get the house on the market now. Its not nice, but even if there was a problem with meds you could delay / pull out of a sale.

bex 66

I think you are probably right regarding house sale, just don't want to tempt fate.
I will get it valued in the next week or two, but to be honest, our house is an ideal first time buy, not too pricey, and not too big, so I am hoping that will be in our favour, if I had a big 4 bedroomed detached I think I would feel more worried.

Why have you decided on Perth if you have never been there? We haven't been there either, but I have a few friends there and they say it is a wonderful place to live and raise a family.

I bought a Perth suburban map the other day from Amazon to get a feel for the different suburbs, and I am going to try and find out the one's to avoid, if indeed there are any.

Thankyou for the photo of the cranes hubby will be really impressed, I think he is worrying a little bit about the job side of things. But I feel for sure I will get some kind of nursing job, so at least one of us will be sorted.

What sort of work do you and your wife do ?

Hope the house viewing went/goes well.

worzel

We spent ages deliberating on where to go. Never fancied Sydney, I found it far too busy and expensive. Adelaide was an early favourite as my wife has an uncle their but it has an unfortunate reputation as being somewhere to retire to and a bit odd. We also found people less pleasant there in our 6 days than anywhere else though the weather may have had something to do with it. Melbourne was also favoured early on as most of the major sports are there and it has the comedy festival too. I really liked Melbourne but I reckon we would end up living 45 minutes plus commute from the CBD to be affordable and that means quite a way from the sea also. Brisbane was ruled out as prices have risen there a lot in recent years so it is almost as expensive as the big 2 and there are very few accounting jobs (to answer another question) in the smaller towns and cities.

So we ended up at Perth by a process of elimination. In its favour, we can be almost mortgage free there, have shorter commute times, a less oppressive dry heat than the east coast, less of a time difference to the UK (and shorter flight times). And okay, so it is hours from the rest of the major cities but what we save on house prices means we can comfortably afford one flight East per year or more.

We have a UBD map of Perth and have been familiarising ourselves with it. Making sweeping generalisations; the coastal burbs are nice but expensive. Keep east of the Mitchell Highway and they are still nice but more affordable. A bit further west between the Mitchell highway and Waneroo Road is still nice and cheaper again but they do say east of the Waneroo road is not so good. I think the burbs closer to the CBD are not so nice as a rule. Our thinking is that somewhere in a rectangle bounded by Greenwood, Sorrento, Ocean Reef and Joondalup is likely to be our target area. How about you?

As I say, I am an accountant but work on systems work a lot. My wife is intending to be a "home maker" which I think means watching tv and shopping as much as possible. She does sales in the UK but is open to a bit of bar work for pin money and to help her meet people if needs be. We have a 7 year old daughter and may possibly add to that, but the clock is ticking!

We are having our own little virtual Meet in this thread it seems! Shame we missed it really as there would have been quite a few heading for Perth. At the last meet (30+ people) we were the only ones going to Perth from memory. Most were going to Brisbane or the Gold Coast.

Tell your husband not to worry. Perth is one of the fastest growing cities in Australia. Most trades are in demand and I have heard it said that there is so much building that bricks aren't produced fast enough and you have to wait 2 years for a new build from start to finish (shame as we fancied that) which all indicates a booming building sector.

woody1974

[QUOTE=worzel]We spent ages deliberating on where to go. Never fancied Sydney, I found it far too busy and expensive. Adelaide was an early , Ocean Reef and Joondalup is likely to be our target area. How about you?

It is a shame none of the people met up in the end as we ourselves are toying with the idea of perth or melly, as you have said if you want to be close to the city perth is looking more promising at the mo, have friends already in north perth living in quinns rock area, he and his family seem to like it and have settled well in the area.
melly was nice when we went there a few years ago but realistically we would be looking at narre warren or berwick as areas to live in which are pretty far away from the cbd.
maybe next time we will all wear cork hats and aussie shirts lol

may see you at the next one

andy

sel

Longer European type ... I wish Will be spending time visiting family in Devon and Lyme Regis although both places are glorious when sun is shining (but really grim when raining).

I hope you have a fab time, however long your stay is ... plenty of Brummie hospitality

bex 66

I am intrigued as to why you think Adelaide "odd" ? I have never been there, but wonder why you should think a place odd.

We too were looking at areas like Ocean Reef or even Hillarys, my friend has just bought a property there, a 7 min walk away from the beach, she describes it as perfect. 4 bed 2 bath property cost what our 2 bed terraced is about worth.

I am grateful for the advise re areas to possibly be avoided, any reasons why ? and thanks for the information on the building industry in Perth. For one awful minute I thought I may have to go back and work full time. heaven forbid. (lol)

Murphies

Dear all
some pictures from our trip to Aus last Oct. Pictures taken in Perth , Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney- http://uk.msnusers.com/mywebdocuments


Enjoy

worzel

Apparently there have been some really weird murders there in the past. The "body in a barrel" case rings a bell.

From a personal perspective, I think the rain coloured our view of the place. On the one sunny day we went to the river and it was really pretty. But we went into the central shopping area on a rainy day and everywhere seemed to be dull / grey concrete (reminded me of Coventry), shop staff weren't as helpful (Qantas staff didn't want to help us rebook flights to avoid HK due to SARS for example) as we had experienced in Melbourne and there were kids hanging around the malls that reminded me of the chavs in the UK.

Apologies to anyone who lives in Adelaide and likes it, as I say it was a personal perspective based on just a few days. But we don't have much else to use to differentiate between the cities so we used whatever we had to whittle down our choices.

Murphies

Re Adelaide- totally agree with comments made - though we were told that its going to be the next Melbourne (give it 10 years ) . Its very 70/80s (quite retro all that brown and yellow !!) and i thought it smelt "old" - however - we visited Glenelg 20mins drive from Adelaide - here we saw $100000 apartments and the Marina was fab. Driving along the coastal rd - the houses where to die for however we did not see many people (in fact all of the people seem to be in the main shopping area) so i assumed that they were holiday houses for the well off. I think its the place to invest in if you can be in it for the long haul - we were advised that alot of money is being pumped into Adelaide to boost the economy and attract people to the area - this ties in with the regional skilled visas as Adelaide was /is one of the regions that needs skilled workers and families.

worzel

We stayed in Glenelg and I agree it was really nice. It was either a Golden Chain or Second Best Western right at the front, I forget which. We took the old tram into town a few times and staff in a travel agent were really helpful sorting out a 4 day safari at Uluru. We watched guys fishing for crabs on the pier and the sunset was fantastic. But the city was another story altogether. It has potential though.

stevenpoole9

Sorry BEx & Sel we've been away for a couple of days, enjoying the sunshine!(Yeh right) in Welshpool. It was good to meet other people in the same situation as us. Hopefully a few more will turn up for the next meet. But we should be in Brissie by then, we've hade the solicitors on and they want to complete the house sale by 22nd July, so we hope to be off by the end of July, GULP. Did you look in the resturant area for any other hopeful migrants just in case they'd gone in there instead? By the way nice pub, and easy to find if anyone is thinking of going there for a meet in the futrure. Speak to you soon, Steve.

worzel

Yep, we were.

bex 66

Wow,
That's it then, Brisbane here we come !!!! :scared: I bet you can't believe that after 4 years you are finally on your way !!! Mind after hearing your story, so many things were on your side, you were all meant for Australia.

It was really lovely to meet you and your family but guess we won't be meeting again at Balsall Common. Unless you change your minds of course.

Good luck with the move and settling in. Please keep us informed how things are going would love to hear all of your news.

Very very best wishes and luck to you and your family

hope to talk soon
Becky