Roofman

We are a family living in the midlands who are wanting to make a move to a better life. I'm Andrew my wife is Jane I'm 32 and Jane is 35. We have 3 children aged between 8 months and years old.
We are not all that happy with the way things are panning out in the UK and see a move to Australia as a fantastic opportunity to create a better life for us and a bright future for the children.
We are quite young for our ages and love sports, eating, drinking, music and a quite hip lifestyle which can be tainted in the UK due to rubbish weather, lack of facilities and a growing number of idiots that our society seems to breed like rabbits.
We have only been discussing this plan for a month or so but feel committed already and have a few teething problems which we hope you lot can help with!
I would love to move to the Brisbane area because my job, (roofing) involves working outdoors and I am fed up with freezing my wotzits off in the winter. My wife has reservations about the intense summer in Brisbane and is worried that it will be too hot/humid and also she wants to know if there is a problem with mozzy's as she always gets bitten when we are in Europe!!
I'm not keen on the idea of moving half way across the planet to be stuck in a climate that is pretty much similar to ours which is why QLD appeals to me.
I would love some feedback on what life is like in Brisbane and the surrounding area and also what day to day life is like, what we can expect financially, what kind of home we could buy with our money and what the schools are like for the kids.
Please could someone who has been in a similar situation to us please give us some idea what to expect and how your lives are going before we take that plunge.
I dont mind working hard during the week but I want some quality time with my family, what can I expect???
Your comments would be most appreciated.

Sandy.l

I just wondered have you been to Australia before for a holiday? Welcome to the forum by the way!

There's plenty on here who live in the Brisbane area already. We spent some time out there a few years ago. I did get bitten by the mozzies but found that the longer we were there the less it affected me. I must have started to acclimatize. I got supplements from the chemist and ate lots of vegemite. I think it's vit B that you need a boost of to help reduce the effect of the bites.

Hope you find the answers you are looking for

Sandy

Roofman

Thanks! No we havent but will definately visit before making a big decision. Thanks for the mozzy comments, does this mean that they dont bite as nuch or just that you dont notice it as much. I konw it sounds daft but its little things like this that could potentially make a housewife in a new country very homesick and peed off. Not what we need!!

Sleeping Beauty

welcome to the forum. are you a flat roofer (felt roofer), or slates/tiles?
not that it makes any difference...just interested

Sandy.l

I'm not sure really, perhaps I just got used to it! I can tell you that it hasn't put me off the idea of living in Brisbane!

jad n rich

Partners a australain qualified and lic builder and reckons the worst states for working outside in summer are

Perth and Adelaide - searing heat- says if your worried about heat avoid
The rest
Darwin, and Cairns wet heat - exhausting
SE Queensland sticky heat in summer but settle near the beach and you will get breeze and throw yourself in the sea at knockoff time 9 months of the year lovely for working in.
Melbourne and Canberra have cold wet weather in winter canberra can be minus temps, melb just drizzly and miserable.

Roofing is about half tiles and half colourbond sheet metal.

I'd say visit australia first, catch is many visit but just holiday really and seem to miss some very important points Have a trip out but avoid the tourist jobby stuff, because living here is not like a holiday if you get my drift

Roofman

Im both but not felt. We use GRP (fibre-glass). We do slating and tiling too. Is there a lot of this in Aus?

Stitch

Hi there,

Try the following link for starters. Gives some info about Brisbane, Schools etc. www.ourbrisbane.com

Hope this gets you going.

Cheers

Ginny

tabby

House prices www.realestate.com.au

Visa stuff www.immi.gov.au

A couple of sites to be going on with

ABCDiamond

What I found was that in the first few months the mozzie bites came up massive, but then the bites began to have very little effect.

I am sure that many people seem to develop some sort of immunity to them after a while.

An old saying is "To avoid mozzie bites, stand next to a newly arrived Brit"

Roofman

Is there any wonder ointments or maybe things you can eat which repell the mozzy's. This is the one and only thing my wife has against the move to QLD. I refuse to move to anywhere not hot all year round!!

Timber Floor Au

Welcome Roofman

Good post too !!

Okies, I owned a roofing firm back in the uk, many yrs ago, and can appreciate your plight with the weather, specially when you have flat roof stripped the bitch pot goin , and then the heavens open !!!you know the feelin.

Qld is a beautiful and brilliant lifestyle, almost beyond words.

Regards the weather issue and working in the Summers we have, well this yr is predicted to be a heatwave, a real arse burner of a scorcher.

Most of Qld is on Drought orders, water here is really a scarce commodity and highly respected.
Example: other day on a job, lady asked if we would like a drink, I said Water please, was about 23 degrees i dunno.. she said couldya have a beer or a coke, we are low on water !!! How ironic is that !!!

Regards Mozzies, at first the barstuds getya, and then you kinda become immune. As someone previously said I think it is extra sups of vitamin B.

QLD is all about the outdoor lifestyle, what pisses me off, and I mean really BOILS my PISS!! is bleedin Poms who come out here and sit in front of Foxtel watchin friggin Eastenders and Corrie LOL !!

Below is a POST i pasted on one of my forums about 6 mths ago: Its true:

Red face Another day in paradise
It's 6.30am ... cool crisp morning, the mist gently brushing the tops of the grass and licking the dark waters of the dam..

I walked out of the house a while ago, purposefully opening the screendoor, quietly , trying desperately to hush the squeaking wheel on the bottom of the door, so as not t awake the sleeping...

Outside 2 cockatiels are chirping merrily, one of them, Ding is pretending to be a 70's trim phone.. and succeeding (suck seeding)

I gaze across the rear lawns, to the bird feeder, a solitary cockatoo, sits their, flicking his golden crown, and nonchalantly feasting on a hearty breakfast... he sees me but indignantly continues his brekkie..

I walk slowly around the back of the house, fag in one hand , the smoke tattooing the cold morning air, a coffee in the other hand, the warm steam from it...kinda makes the aroma all that more strong .... as I walk round the corner, to see the huge web a huntsman had constructed between my vehicle and a coco palm, the night before.. its gone??? I strain my eyes, preffering to see the web before walking thru it, ... np its gone ... dammit.. an Ibis scampers and awkwardly flees the bushes beneath the palm tree, kinda hopping flying and squaking as he departs, we call him Iris, im sure hes male.. lol ....

As I turn the corner, the cockatoo, now fed, pierces the cool blue sky with his illuminous white underbelly as he squaks loudly and aims for the biggest gum tree a few hundred metres away... Cheeky our pet cockatoo hears him, and I can flinchingly hear the retorical COME BACK squak... arggh I bet he wakes everyone up..... I wander on....

A family of ducks, a few metres away, some feeding, some having a nose and some with their heads arched into their backs, carefully watch back at me, thinking im sure... shall we stay, will he eat us, oh sod it, to much effort...lets stay... I walk on past...

The cockatoo, atop the giant gumtree is beckoning his family and friends, jeeeze they are loud... Im sure his calls are set on International Rates !

A flock of Rainbow Lorakeets shrilling and singing, dart duck and dive thru and above the trees in our centre garden, everything with them is ultra fast, they weave in and out of the trees, meandeing in between the dense foliage, and chase each other with apparent disregard for the fat bloke supping coffee , smokin his mornin fag, and fly merrily on cutting their way thru the morning mist over the dam...

Almost colliding, two gallahs fly steadfastly past the lorakeets, almost hitting the hoons, gallahs just soldier on, they are heading somewhere and off they go, they totally ignore the smaller menaces, like a roadtrain they fly on... their pink bellies, and head lit from the now emerging dawn...

I sit down, and listen... somewhere a long way away i can hear a kookaburra telling the entire world he is awake, and then some... I smile, sup my coffee, and finish my fag...

....ahhhhhh

BettyBoop

Roofman,

Tell your wife to try Skin So Softly by Avon...Woodland Fresh...it works a treat...we have used it in Kenya, Cuba, Dom.Republic and not had one bite...works a treat.

Timber Floor Au

Nup lost me lol, why my wife??

BettyBoop

Sorry, newish to this I meant this reply to Roofman....oops!
P.S. do you get Avon Cosmetics over in Oz?