Mairead

We are planning on making the move to Melbourne as soon as our visa comes in which I am hoping at the latest will be May 08. My self and hubbie and our 1 year old daughter will be making the move without no friends or family in Australia. Just wondering how many did it with a small child and no contacts in Australia and what exactly it was like for the first year. It will be strange not having a babysitter down the road or friends to meet with on a Sat night!!

ozdreamer

Hi
We are also making the move to Melbourne at the beginning of next year without ever being there and with no friends or family. We are hoping that we will make lots of friends when we get there, hopefully some of them will be from here and others through our kids. (our 2 are older at 11 and 13)

I'm sure that you will find lots of friends on here who you will keep in touch with and maybe meet up with when you get there, hopefully we can be one of those if you like
There is another forum which is dedicated to anyone who is moving to Victoria, they are all very friendly on there - http://www.z7.invisionfree.com/BritVics

Amanda

Mairead

Thanks Amanda. Definatley looking forward to the move although this really is my only concern. Have ye got your visa sorted?

ozdreamer

We applied at the end of May and have frontloaded the medicals so we are just waiting for the magic email to say the visa is granted - looking through some of the timelines for others we reckon we should have it by the end of October
Decided to put the house on the market last week cause we don't want to have to wait any longer than necessary.
How far are you along with your application?

Mairead

We are at the very beginning with the ACS only going in next week. House is already on the market and has been for the past 6 month!!! We did go sale agreed at the beginning but our buyers back out due to market sentiment and rising interest rates. Unfortunately, Ireland is going through a bit of a property crisis so I am not holding my breath.

ozdreamer

I can sympathise with you as my OH had to do the ACS RPL
I'm really hoping our house sells quickly, unfortunatley the way the market is at the moment I really doubt it

Keep in touch as it would be good to know how you get on

ekiec

Best of luck mairead, we came over in january with a 6 & 7 year old. New no one here. But people here (NSW)are wonderful, once you embrace everything thrown at you, you will love it here. It is a great new life, if you remember this, neither of you will miss home.
There are so many bonus's that completely outway the negative's. Best of luck with the house sale. Have you considered remortgaging and renting...Eamon.

comet555

We moved over from Canada in May with an 8 month old and a 3 and half year old. We didn't know anyone here and neither of us had ever visited. So far we love it here and are having a great time.

We are actually very used to having no family around since all of ours lived really far away from us. I did some friends though that I could count on to watch the kids occassionally, so I do miss that.

We spent the first month here travelling around and staying in lots of hotels while my husband had job interviews. After that month we were about to kill each other I think But once we got out of the hotels and into a rental we were fine. Then the next month or two was spent getting furniture and running around getting Medicare, licences, a house to buy, etc. In between all this we took some time to explore all the areas we were in and do some fun stuff for the kids.

We're in our 5th month here and in a new house now so we're finally settling. Now it's really time to find ourselves a babysitter so we can get out occassionally.

Even though it was incredibly busy at first I'm loving it here and am finally truly relaxing. One of the best things you can do when you first get here is find some playgroups and meet up with other moms or people from BE. Anything to get you out and talking to other people is fantastic. Or, if you have any hobbies or sports try and get involved very quickly so you can meet people.

It looks like you've got a while to get over here so you'll be able to do a lot more research before you get here. When we arrived we didn't know where we were going until my husband got a job. I had spent a year researching the Hunter Valley in NSW and then my husband unexpectedly got a job in Brisbane (he's a mining engineer and there are no mines here). So I was totally unprepared to move here. I only had 2 days to research before we moved up here, so it was a little stressful.

We managed, so I'm sure you'll be fine. I think you have to go into it knowing it's going to be a little stressful initially so you're prepared. After you adjust and settle in life should return to normall.

sarskis

Mairead

We will be in the same boat when we head out from Wicklow hopefully middle of next year, have a 6 year old ourselves and don't know anyone... we are going to rent our house out here while we are away - have you considered this?

Sarah

allthejs

We will be in the same boat as you too only we will have five kiddies

Hopefully heading to Adelaide, but we have never been so don't know what its like yet!

We are Jacky (37), John (37), Jonathan (13), James (8), Jack (5), Joe (3) and Jorja (19 months)

Am hoping to be able to make new friends and gain lots of new experiences. Hopefully be there for around Aug08.

Jacky xx

ekiec

We are on the Central Coast -NSW, and anyone passing thru or moving over is very welcome to give us a PM or buzz to hook up for a friendly face or for some info. Born and bred in Dublin, moved to London, two little 'uns, have now moved to the countryside and we know exactly what you're going through.

Pomster

I'm in Melb with little bub (8 months) and no family.

One of the best things about being a SAHM is our "new mother's group" which the council organises.

When you decide where to settle, contact your local Maternal and Child Health Nurse (you will need them anyway for vaccinations etc) and they should be able to put you in touch with a local group. They start when bubs are a few months old, but if the group you join are anything like my one, they will welcome new people at any point.

Good luck
(and my fellow mummies are keen to set up a baby sitting circle amongst ourselves)

killamarsh

Just remember you are not on your own - you have a other half. You will be fine. Whether we move to another county or country we have to make friends etc, don't worry about it.

Fly Away

Just got your signature!

We are moving with a 7 yr old to Adelaide - 'all on our own'. To be honest, we have so little help now, it won't make much of a difference. Plus Ozzie life is far more family orientated - kids are included in social events which usually happen in peoples homes. So I reckon socialising won't be too much of a problem.

allthejs

Hi flyaway,

The J's just seemed to get out of hand, lol! We had the first two boys and we named them both names that we liked. Then the third boy arrived and we thought we couldn't leave him out and not give him a J name and then the same happened with the fourth boy! The boys picked our little girls name after we saw it on the credits of CSI and included it in the name picking!

I know what you mean about not having any help because we have none whatsoever as well. Hubbys parents live about 90 miles away but I do have a big family that live quite close, but they just don't seem to ever want to help, wonder why!

Good luck with your move hun, consider it all an adventure.

Jacky xx