Originally Posted by liver bird

Hi good luck to you and don't let what I say put you off as i'm still homesick after three months in brissie and pregnant!!

BUT, please don't believe the Down Under programmes. My friends have just been watching a new one and say people are saying Brisbane is really cheap?!!!! I'm only speaking from our experiences and our family, others find it brilliant and lovely here
but we find ourselves even more broke out here. We are prs and spent about 20k getting out here (got two under three kids and pets!). Things we wish we'd known before coming out (even if it sounds obvious are)

a) House prices have gone up in Brisbane, you'd have a hard job living mortgage free on 200k in a decent area and not miles out in the sticks or in some new town housing estate (sorry no offence) then you're going to need more - We're looking at 500-600 Aussie Dollars at least to get a decent house. As prs you qualify for child benefit over here but we are finding ourseles really struggling. Medicare is mostly free to prs but a trip to the docs still costs us about 20-30 quid even after we've claimed medicare costs back, havent' been to a dentist yet either! With two young kids it all adds up! We were better off financially in England. Our equity from our house is fast disappearing as we're paying a really high rent here at the moment (stupidly got signed in fo
r six months), and second hand cars are really expensive (just paid 6k for a corsa!)

B) Meat is cheaper here (doesn't count for me as am veggie!) but on the whole our food shops is just as expensive (although we have just found an aldi!) - and hubby on far less money There are only two big supermarkets over here and they ahve monopoly on stuff, hardly any home brands. Shocks for us is wine is expensive! Telstra is expensive (we had a great deal gas and electricity and phone with telewest and np power and our bills have rocketed here).

C)Don't discount the humidity and sunshine. Sunny sounds great but for us it's a struggle doing every day life in the heat with two young children. Just our experience and you may love it but I loved the sun before I came out and now I find it really hard. Sun cream is fairly expensive too (expected it cheaper!) even though we try and go for special offers. Plus have been freaked out by the number of skin cancer clinics everywhere.

Kids having a better life?? MMm. Yes there are superb parks and outdoor facilities swimming pools etc for kids but at 35 degrees and 80 per cent humidity you don't much fancy a trip to the park! (have to wait till after half four till it gets cooler!). Heat has made ours cranky and grumpy. Mainly stay in aircon, shopping malls or toddler groups! Think for us, ours would have a much better life in the UK. Apparently winter in brisbane lovely though you get the heat but then cool evenings....

School system here different. At home our three year old would qualify for free pre school place, five mornings a week > Here she won't qualify cos of hte new prep system and her birthday falling late in the year for free school till she's six! Daycare and kindy just as expensive as UK with huge waiting lists (Unless we're looking at the wrong places!)

D) The biggie - missing family and friends. Sounds daft but you really don't appreciate what you've got till they're on the other side of the world, even with skype and webcams etc.


E) Really stupid one here..... Brisbane is actually quite far from the aussie idea of a beach!! It takes us an hour and a half to drive to the sunshine coast and the lovely beaches there (even if you have a man made beach in town!).

And it always gets dark (unless someone to tell me different) at 6pm! so no light evenings out in the summer like in the UK!


Anyway don't shout at me everyone as I say I'm hormonal and these are just my experiences. I wish you good luck in everything you do and really hope you do what's right for your family and that it all works out for you xxx
(we've

Originally Posted by liver bird

Hi good luck to you and don't let what I say put you off as i'm still homesick after three months in brissie and pregnant!!

BUT, please don't believe the Down Under programmes. My friends have just been watching a new one and say people are saying Brisbane is really cheap?!!!! I'm only speaking from our experiences and our family, others find it brilliant and lovely here
but we find ourselves even more broke out here. We are prs and spent about 20k getting out here (got two under three kids and pets!). Things we wish we'd known before coming out (even if it sounds obvious are)

a) House prices have gone up in Brisbane, you'd have a hard job living mortgage free on 200k in a decent area and not miles out in the sticks or in some new town housing estate (sorry no offence) then you're going to need more - We're looking at 500-600 Aussie Dollars at least to get a decent house. As prs you qualify for child benefit over here but we are finding ourseles really struggling. Medicare is mostly free to prs but a trip to the docs still costs us about 20-30 quid even after we've claimed medicare costs back, havent' been to a dentist yet either! With two young kids it all adds up! We were better off financially in England. Our equity from our house is fast disappearing as we're paying a really high rent here at the moment (stupidly got signed in fo
r six months), and second hand cars are really expensive (just paid 6k for a corsa!)

B) Meat is cheaper here (doesn't count for me as am veggie!) but on the whole our food shops is just as expensive (although we have just found an aldi!) - and hubby on far less money There are only two big supermarkets over here and they ahve monopoly on stuff, hardly any home brands. Shocks for us is wine is expensive! Telstra is expensive (we had a great deal gas and electricity and phone with telewest and np power and our bills have rocketed here).

C)Don't discount the humidity and sunshine. Sunny sounds great but for us it's a struggle doing every day life in the heat with two young children. Just our experience and you may love it but I loved the sun before I came out and now I find it really hard. Sun cream is fairly expensive too (expected it cheaper!) even though we try and go for special offers. Plus have been freaked out by the number of skin cancer clinics everywhere.

Kids having a better life?? MMm. Yes there are superb parks and outdoor facilities swimming pools etc for kids but at 35 degrees and 80 per cent humidity you don't much fancy a trip to the park! (have to wait till after half four till it gets cooler!). Heat has made ours cranky and grumpy. Mainly stay in aircon, shopping malls or toddler groups! Think for us, ours would have a much better life in the UK. Apparently winter in brisbane lovely though you get the heat but then cool evenings....

School system here different. At home our three year old would qualify for free pre school place, five mornings a week > Here she won't qualify cos of hte new prep system and her birthday falling late in the year for free school till she's six! Daycare and kindy just as expensive as UK with huge waiting lists (Unless we're looking at the wrong places!)

D) The biggie - missing family and friends. Sounds daft but you really don't appreciate what you've got till they're on the other side of the world, even with skype and webcams etc.


E) Really stupid one here..... Brisbane is actually quite far from the aussie idea of a beach!! It takes us an hour and a half to drive to the sunshine coast and the lovely beaches there (even if you have a man made beach in town!).

And it always gets dark (unless someone to tell me different) at 6pm! so no light evenings out in the summer like in the UK!


Anyway don't shout at me everyone as I say I'm hormonal and these are just my experiences. I wish you good luck in everything you do and really hope you do what's right for your family and that it all works out for you xxx
(we've

Originally Posted by FluffyTheCampfireSlayer

Mate, we're going with the shirts on our backs and about £5K in cash.........stop worrying! You'll have more money than you'll need!!!

Originally Posted by Bhoywonder

You need to move down to Melbourne..............more bearable with less of the problems stated above, well it gets dark at 21:00 during summer

Originally Posted by jad n rich

That is a very honest post, yes it is lovely here, but like anywhere in OZ there are downsides too.

Cheap wine, you can get it, but its in boxes, like 4 litres for $10, not exactly great quality but its there for those who want it. Food only way we survive food wise is to drive all over the flippin place buying from farms, bulk etc even then when all the kids are home easily $300 a week now.

"Free' school is not that free either, you will pay for all books and supplies, levies for many things, we have school contribution fee, levies for science and computer use, art levy, then the constant and neverending requests for stuff like swimming, camp, outings, special days, people visitng the school doing stuff like sex ed, or performances. They are usually smallish amounts, highest we got was $200 for a 2 day camp, but like you say they add up especially if you have more than 1 kids.

Respite from the heat should arrive by april, lovely then till around november when it warms up again.

Dark mid summer just after 7 winter about 5.

Originally Posted by jad n rich

Cheap wine, you can get it, but its in boxes, like 4 litres for $10, not exactly great quality but its there for those who want it.

Originally Posted by tonik25

I am an IT project manager and hubby is a senior cisco engineer like you. We were in Cairns the week before last finishing our travels and decided to drop our CV's to a couple of job ads on www.seekit.com.au. Our phones practically rang off the hook. We moved back down to Brisbane on the Sunday and I had 2 job interviews lined up for Tuesday. Got offered both jobs, accpeted one and started on Thursday! Decent package (I think) $80K plus 9% super which is better than I was expecting. Hubby has had loads of response to his CV as well so it looks like he will have a job soon as well.

Originally Posted by themerlin

Hi,
Who did you end up working for ?

Glad to know there are loads of I.T. jobs incase I get bored where I am LOL

Originally Posted by Ste&Dawn

I am a Senior Cisco Network Engineer
.....
The vibes that we are getting is that you get demoted to the bottom of the career ladder when you get there as Aussies get preferential treatment when doling out the jobs, is this right?

Originally Posted by tonik25

Hi Ste&Dawn,

........
So to summarise, there are loads of jobs in the IT industry here if you are half decent. UK is generally ahead of Oz technology wise so you are seen as ahead of the game apparently (i.e. no reason why you should need to start at the bottom). Both companies I had interviews with said they have had real trouble getting skilled IT workers so don;t worry and good luck with the move. Keep in touch if you need any help/info when you get here.

Cheers

Originally Posted by wmoore

Firstly, it hasn't been my experience that you would be overlooked for an Aussie just because you're not one - I've done OK Also in both the jobs I've had in Australia, there has been plenty of non-Aussies doing OK within the company so I don't believe this is true. You do have to 'think Aussie' a little bit though - really talk yourself up on your CV, get rid of the British reserve , that kind of thing.

Secondly, as a Senior Cisco Engineer, you'll have companies fighting over you Good Cisco people seem to be in short supply.

Originally Posted by Deadmeat

Careful in The Valley and New Farm there is a lot of petty crime about there ... I had a friend that sold her apartment there because of the constant hassle and noise. That's the price you pay for living somewhere 'edgy' I guess ...

Of course, it's not ALL like that but she was searching a fair while for somewhere half-decent that wasn't plauged by blackmarket rental properties full of dodgy tenants or party animals.

Tread careful and be sure to visit your chosen area on a couple of Friday/Saturday nights before committing (not that it makes that much difference in The Valley from my experience).

Cheers,
Matt

On Topic Section (lest my post gets deleted ...)
I arrived with 20K pounds debt and seem to have survived without a huge wedge of cash

Originally Posted by samnrob2

I agree - I'd be very careful before renting in The Valley...some very 'colourful' characters.

And all this talk of starting at the bottom and getting crap wages?! It's not always the case. I moved out here two years ago and my wage was 30% more than in the UK. It's now 57% more than the wage I left behind.

In terms of buying a 200k house, you'll get something pretty decent in most inner Brisbane suburbs like Camp Hill, etc. My advice would be to look south of the river. You can't go far wrong looking around Bulimba, Hawthorne, Balmoral too although your money probably won't go as far. We bought our Queenslander for $500k and it's tiny compared to our house in the uk but it's a spot on location and in reality big enough for just two of us.

Ta

R