wengerboy

hi there mash could you please let us know how you get on in adelaide (35 days you lucky bugger) for me and the mrs still can,t decide, mind you the stamp duty hike in perth might sway it once and for all

r.bartlett

this is a cut and paste from on email i got some time ago from some friends 100km north of adelaide
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We just love it here. Although we live a couple of hours drive from Adelaide in Burra, an old copper mining town, we take every opportunity we can to drive down to the City.

As City's go, its beautiful. It is surrounded by parklands and after the experience of English Cities, to us it's really like a grand country town. The roads are wide and there is a wonderful feeling of openness about the place. The beach is only a 10 minute drive from the town centre, where there are some lovely stretches of sand to walk along.

The Town Center has a great range of shops and there is a fantastic Central Market which sells a huge variety of quality foods and goods. We just love going there and a trip into Town wouldn't be the same without a visit. There are three large department stores and a good selection of other shops. David Jones is one of our favourites - its comparable with John Lewis and the other good one is Meyer.

There are many varied suburbs around Adelaide, mostly with older style houses interspersed with new ones (mostly single storey). Something to suit everyone really. Within the suburbs there are also Shopping Malls so you don't have to travel very far to reach any good quality shops.

Its a great place to eat too and there is such a diverse choice, most at reasonable prices. There is always a vibrant atmosphere in the town on most evenings as you can eat at one of the many pavement style cafe/restaurants at most times during the year. The Mediterranian climate allows for this.

Within a short drive north from Adelaide is the Barrossa Valley and south McLaren Vale, both offering a superb choice of cellar door wineries and wonderful scenery. There is also a lovely coastline to the South of the City. House prices tend to be higher down there.

We have found that the cost of living here is far lower than England. We are doing fine on only part-time wages. Good sized houses are cheap in comparison to the UK as are cars. General insurances are much cheaper too. Petrol is 40 pence per litre, fresh food and meat is much cheaper, the rates are about a third of the cost of ours in the UK and we are almost managing our full household weekly budget on what we would have spent in Tescos and M&S on food alone. Having said that we are out in the Country and so are not tempted by the big shops and we do one monthly shop for the bulk items then shop daily at the small, but very good, grocer in Burra. The only thing we have found to be more expensive is electiricity so we have to watch fuel comsumption. If we were working full-time though and had a decent wage we wouldn't be bothered.

As you may have guessed from the above we think the place is fantastic and can't believe our luck that we are fortunate enough to live here. What do we miss? Family and friends of course but that's all. The weather is wonderful, the food and wine superb, the locals very friendly and welcoming and we have been lucky to find a house that very quickly became home. What more could you want?

We will buy a local paper next time we are in Adelaide and send it to Charlie so you can get an idea of house prices etc and if there is any more specific information you need please ask.

If you want a good removals company we can recommend John Mason. They did an excellent job for us and everything arrived safe and sound.

We found it a good idea to open a bank account in Australia while we were in England. We did this by post through the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in London and on the very day we arrived we called in the the Adelaide Branch and had a bank account number and credit card.

We don't know if you are intending to stay here permanently or not but we got some very sound advice regarding our pensions and endowment plans etc through Montfort International in Guildford
www.miplc.co.uk. They are independent advisers and although we had to pay for the service it has proved well worth it. The taxation policy is so different here it is worth finding out more about it and far too much to take on alone. They also have a sister company in Adelaide who are very professional and they take over once you arrive in Australia.

We look foward to hearing from you and in the meantime good luck with your preparation for the big move.

kind regards

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cheers

richard

mashiraz

Thanks richard. Good post. Unfortunately the link didn't work so if you get chance, sort it out!

Cheers
Mash

terryg

Hi Mash

The link does work but their site is down at the mo - Try tomorrow

Cheers

PS I tried them and found their quote to be horrifically expensive