The Booths

Hiya

New to the forum and wanted to make some friends

We (Me, Hubby and 2 girls) have just lodged our 176 (ss ACT) visa with DIAC on 8th June, and once the long wait is over, heading to Canberra or one of the towns in the North of the ACT, not sure where yet. Any suggestions? Need a nice town with Primary schools near by.

Anyone else heading for ACT/just put a visa application in?

Sam


ACT SS application 23/03/09 - ACT SS Approved 05.06.09 - DIAC 176 lodged 08.06.09

paulry

Hi Sam,

Firstly welcome to BE.

My family: my wife, sons (aged 11 and 14) and I are heading to ACT. Hoping to be there by early December. We've recently been asked for our meds and PCCs. PCCs have been applied for and meds are tomorrow. We've just put the house on the market. Hopefully things will move quickly from here

Good luck with your application

Paul

sasbear

Hi to you both,

We are a friendly lot here in Canberra - sadly I won't be here as we are moving further south. But there are loads of expats here who will help you settle right in.

Sas

quoll

"Canberra" doesnt have "towns" it's just one big suburban sprawl really. They call them the Woden Town Centre etc but they arent anything like towns you would be used to. It's basically about 50km from top to bottom of suburbs with green bits running through them.

People tend to live reasonably close to where they will be working although I, for one, would hate to be living in southern Tuggeranong and working in Civic - which of course many people do.

Most of the schools are OK and there is a very strong private system alongside the government system. The trick will be to find somewhere that you dont mind living in which is not going to be too hard to negotiate to get to work. Check out www.allhomes.com.au for the best real estate information.

paulry

A useful link. Thanks.

There does appear to be a perception that the north is better than the south. Do you think this is indeed the case? And from an IT worker point of view which suburbs are most likely to be within striking distance of where most of the work is located?

Thanks.

quoll

Being an inner North girl myself, of course the North is better

The jobs could be anywhere really, it all depends where you can pick one up but chances are it would be Civic, Barton area, Woden, Belconnen or Tuggeranong Town Centre.

sasbear

Exactly as Quol said IT work in Government - locations are south and north and centre

paulry

It seems like so much more of a dilemma when there are the needs of four people to balance. It's looking like the best starting point might be to find a good school for the boys preferably centre and take it from there. The enormity (and risks) of the tasks ahead are beginning to scare me

...But I'm sure everything will be alright in the end

quoll

No, the first thing is to find a job and a home that you are prepared to live in 24/7, the school can be the last thing on your list. If you go for a non gov school then it wont matter where you live. Most gov schools are just fine and if they arent then there will be a non gov one fairly close by which will be. The real trick is to find a house that you a) want to live in b) can afford and c) beat all the other applicants to renting it or getting a mortgage in order to finance it

Graham and Maria

[QUOTE=quoll;7674528]Being an inner North girl myself, of course the North is betterQUOTE]

ICK Dont listen to Quoll, come and live in the beautiful South at the foot of the gorgeous Murrumbidgee corridor. The northerners live in fancy architectural new builds squeezed into meagre 400 plots

But seriously you will like Canberra, I live in the South West and work way over in the South East and its only like a 20min drive.
By the way Canberra touches the North ACT/NSW border, there is no northern ACT town, the next major town to the North of Canberra is probably Yass but its like 100k into NSW from the ACT.

WillBlack

[QUOTE=Graham and Maria;7675417] If you hurry, you'll catch Hall before it is subsumed under a final paroxysm of star-gate houses.

Graham and Maria

Lol it wont be long indeed, I work for an engineering consultancy and were currently designing the extension of Clarrie Hermes drive

quoll

Nah, I have a quarter acre with an old weatherboard on it!

You can get from top to bottom in just over half an hour on a good day and from side to side in less. However the Monaro and the Tuggeranong parkway arent the best roads to negotiate in the rush hour (unless you are going in the opposite direction as I used to)

The Booths

Hiya

Thanks for your posts it's all very exciting, we are very open minded about where we are going to live and just can't wait to get over to the ACT and check it out.

We are hoping to check into a hotel for the first few weeks and do some exploring of the different suburbs. I'm sure we will know which one is right when we see it.

Hubby is a football coach - does anyone know how hard/easy it is to find a club/team to work with?

Sam

The Booths

Good luck - hope things move quickly for you - keep in touch
Sam