bovis

Hi,

We found this forum incredibly useful when applying ourselves. So now we are willing to help others.

We are out in Sydney 7 weeks on a PR visa. We have a young family (3.5 and 1.5). Have house, jobs, childcare, etc. Its been difficult but doable.

If anyone is in the process of moving out with young kids and need some questions answered give us a shout. Cant promise we know it all but at least we can advise on the basic things.

Bovis

WBB

congrats on the move, sounds like you are doing ok in your first couple of months.

did you find work easily?

how have the kids taken to the move?

bovis

We both found work within the first 3 weeks, and both have friends who have worked over here before and they where able to give us contact names in agency's, found some agency's very proactive about oragnising interviews. But i think we were both very lucky and in the right place at right time.

3.5 year old settling well into daycare, but 1.5 year old never been before and is a bit unsettled by daycare, plenty for kids to do, library very helpful in finding out info and they do some reading mornings and arts and crafts, i met other mothers through this.

Good Luck

AnnM

Hi Bovis,

Can I ask where you're living in Sydney and what it's like? We're due to arrive in Sydney mid November and are trying to find info on areas to stay in among other things. We have a young child of 3 so any advise or information you can offer from your experiences so far would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

Ann.

The Koalas

Nice to hear a positive report, hope all goes well for you keep us up to date and let us know how it all goes.

jasonK944

My wife and I plus our 2 children aged 7 and 4 are moving in December to Sydney. We need to be reltively close to the RPA hospital in Camperdown. Do you know of any good areas to bring up children near there?

bovis

Hi Ann,

We're living in a place called Concord (west Sydney, about 10 km from city centre),serviced by trains - Burwood local station or concord west and buses and also by ferrys. We are close to the water which has a very nice walk way and plenty of parks and playgrounds for your child . There are also plenty of BBQ areas. The olympic aquatic centre is a short drive away and is great for young kids (free for under 4's) Concord has a nice main street with rest and shops . doctors etc. We picked this area mainly for the kids and the walks and parks around. There are day care centres around but very hard to get your kids into, we managed to find places for both our children but not in the same centre, (day care is hard to get no matter what area of Sydney you live). Day care costs about 250 dollars / week/child but the government supplement about 25 dollars a week.

One piece of advise is to apply for your tax file number as soon as you can once you arrive, and also medicare, as latter entitles you to free GP visits for your children under 5 and also specialists appointments. (Not too sure if all doctors do "bulk pay" term used when you don't have to pay for gp visit, but worth checking around which ones do).

We are renting our house and to be honest we found the quality of homes in our price range to be quite poor and not suitable for a family. Not too sure what your budget will be but expect to pay a min of $400 / week for a decent 3 bed house.

We both sat our knowledge driving test last week, best way to prepare for it is to do the test questions on the web from the RTA site, i think you need to do test within 3 months of purchasing a car. The test is straight forward and you should have no problem passing.

Good luck with the move if you have any other questions just ask

AM

bovis

Not too sure of this part of Sydney as we are living west sydney, my only advise is to rent a car whenever your going to start your house hunting and drive around all the area's close to camperdown and get a good feel for the place and whats in the locality for the children, this is what we did and we were amazed at how quickly we were able to rule out certain areas based on our needs and expectations of a place, also the estate agents will be able to give you a rough guide as to the house prices in the area and this maybe a deciding factor in the locality you pick.

Good Luck AM

Jirrupin

Gosh are your outgoings of rent and childcare $950 a week, is that for full time places?

bovis

Hi,

Our rent and full time day care costs for two children are about 1000 dollars a week, and once we found day care places we had to pay full times rates immediately to secure the places even though i was still looking for work.

janeyray

Goodness me $1000 !!! Lets hope the wages there are better than Perths!?

bell_a_ring

How much in Perth:

1. Rent (3 bedroom house within 12 - 15 km from city)
2. Daycare

THanks

tiredwithtwins

blimey, that is a lot!!
The cost of childcare was the deciding factor for us putting off our move for a couple of years; with 2 1/2 year old twins it just wasnt feasible, although I had a rough figure of $150/week each.
At what age do the childcare costs start to come down? Do you have to pay for pre-school/kindergarten when they get to 4/5?
the childcare is definately cheaper than in the uk - I currently pay over £290 a week for the twins nursery and 6 year olds after school club.

brill post btw - very helpful!

good luck with everything

Sue

ps do you both work at RPA?

bovis

Hi,
You have to pay for pre school (the year before they start primary school) but sending your child to preschool is your own choice, not too sure of costs). Children tend to start primary school when they are 5 - 6 years of age and the school year begins in Feb enrolment usually takes place the April of the previous year. I want my daughter to start at 4 years and 10months so i will have to enrol her April 2004 to start Feb 2005.
The schools over here have a before school and after school facility for working parents, still have to check it out , not too sure if every school has this facility.

AM

cazzarichmond

We're getting there at last....we move to Aus end Nov and are likely to move to Perth (house prices a bit more in our league I think).

Biggest headache is knowing where to move to. How do you decide? We have two kids 12 and 9 and think its important schools are good but how do you get their 'SATS' results so you can compare.

Any advise on the does and don't of where to move to initially would be appreciated.