fish.01

Maybe you should move to Brisbane as well The cold nights are a distant memory here.

Dorothy

My sister lives in Brisbane. Hence the reason I live in Perth.

fish.01

FYI, Brisbane is a fair bit bigger than Calgary. Correct me if I'm wrong but Calgary metro area (Greater Calgary) is about 1.1 million where Greater Brisbane is approaching 2 million with another 500,000 nearby at the Gold and Sunshine coasts. So it may not be as small and peaceful as you are imagining if basing it off Calgary. Calgary reminds me of what Brisbane used to be like.

It also feels and looks different to Calgary in a lot of ways though I'm sure you realise this.

alzo

it seems there are a lot of meetups between the brits...anything similar held by Canadians in any of the cities in australia?

comet555

There are a few Canadian groups, not nearly as many though.

For example there is a Canadian Meetup group in Brisbane that I know of. They usually meet up for Thanksgiving, Canada day and quite a few times during the hockey playoffs to watch a game. Most often it seems to be right in the city, although I have seen a few at people houses I think.

http://canadian.meetup.com/207/

At the bottom you can see all current meetups and past meetups.

As far as I know there are similar type clubs in Sydney and Mebourne, not idea about the other cities though or how often they meet.

Dorothy

A lot of Canadians join the American clubs.

Japonica

We're from Edmonton and just arrived in Perth a month ago. Not sure if there's a Canadian meetup group here. There seem to be a few Canucks about though. My sister-in-law's neighbor is originally from Winnipeg.

alzo

That's cold considering no insulation or lack of.....Dorothy how months of cold are we talking about?

comet555

I can't speak for Dorothy but I think there's only about 1-2 months of cold, usually during June-Aug in Brisbane. During that time we just use little space heaters in the house if it's really cold, or we turn the heat on (our air con also heats).

During those winter days I might put on a light jacket or sweater in the morning and then by afternoon I'm just wearing jeans and a t-shirt as long as it's not too windy. The temperatures were usually about 10-15 in the morning and about 20-25 in the afternoon, although overnight could be colder.

alzo

phewww...... I can handle that....it's about 10 degrees today in Toronto.....

alzo

On a separate note have you'll had to file both a canadian and an australian tax return annually? I am assuming you'll did not give up residency in canada.

comet555

No, we didn't give up our citizenship in Canada. We are however considered non-residents as we have no residential ties there and are living in Australia as PR (now citizens actually).

So the first year we were here we did file a tax return as we were living in Canada until about May, so we were there part of the Canadian tax year. The last Canadian tax year, 2008, we were in Australia all year so we didn't file a Canadian return. I don't believe we had to although I will probably still do one just in case.

If you move to Australia but keep property in Canada then you would likely still be deemed a resident even though you are not actually living there. In that scenario you would still have to do a return I think.

As for Australia you will have to do a return every year you are living here.

Bernieboy

I like it.

Japonica

I think Perth is chillier in the winter than Brisbane. I have a friend in Brisbane who was swimming a few weeks ago. Here in Perth, even in Sept it was about 18C during the day and raining. Nights down to about 5C or so. There were quite a few chilly mornings here in the house when we raced to the heater and clicked it on. Nothing like a brick house with no insulation and no central heat in winter.

Dorothy

Bear in mind that 10 will feel cold when you aclimatise to 30-35. It's still a 20-25 degree difference, so it's cold. In Perth our winter is about 2 1/2 or 3 months. July and August would be like January/February back home with it warming up a bit in September. It rains a lot in late July and then through August so that makes it feel even colder with the damp.

On the tax front, we did the same as Comet. We moved in August 2006 so filed a '06 return both in Canada and Australia. We ended up paying in Canada because of capital gains, but made up for it here with getting money back at tax time. Also like Comet we haven't filed any other returns for '07 or '08 and won't again for '09. We're not residents anymore so no need.

Spring seems to have finally arrived in Perth. It's been a glorious weekend with sunshine and temps in the mid 20's. We're all nicely pinked up from working in the back yard, windows are open and laundry is on the line. Love it!