bluesteele

Hi all,
My husband and I (we have a 21 month old daughter too) have been granted state sponsorship to Melbourne. Husband is in IT.
Long (very long) story short, it's taken us 4 years to get to this point and 4 years is a long time to put a place under the microscope. What I'm increasingly seeing on forums etc is that Melbourne is host to cold, wet Winters, high cost of living, high housing cost and a lot of people seem to leave Melbourne to move elsewhere in Australia.
We are fortunate enough to be able to choose between living in Canada and living in Melbourne and now it's decision time because we'll be granted a case officer any day and need to decide in what direction we're going. I was hoping to try get as many people's opinions, experiences etc to help in making our decision.
Thank-you in advance.

Kiwikaye

Hi,

Congratulations on the sponsorship! I can only provide a limited POV, never having even been to Canada, never mind lived there but I will say that I think Melbourne is a great place to live. We were here for 13 years initially, then went back to NZ (I'm a Kiwi and OH is a Brit), got earthquaked-out of Christchurch and came back to Melbourne earlier this year. There are plenty of us on here who love living here, but I'm sure there are just as many who love living in Canada. At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, it really comes down to what you want and what kind of things you like to do.

Here we have the choice of beaches, mountains, the city and country all within a fairly easy drive, great food, good shopping.

If you want to know anything in particular, please feel free to ask.

BTW, OH (who has been to Canada) advises that Melbourne is about 6 degrees warmer year round than Fleet, and how the heck can you look at Canada if you think Melbourne winters are cold (!).

bluesteele

BTW, OH (who has been to Canada) advises that Melbourne is about 6 degrees warmer year round than Fleet, and how the heck can you look at Canada if you think Melbourne winters are cold (!).[/QUOTE]

We were considering Canada because we never thought Oz would actually happen. I don't think Melbourne looks particularly cold, but does look very wet. Going by Wikipedia (yes, I know it's not always 100%) it seems that Melbourne has on average 40 extra days a year rain compared to SE England. Do you find that to be an accurate estimation and does it limit what you can get out and do?
How do you find the cost of living / housing vs salaries? Housing looks very expensive there which is putting me off somewhat.

lesleys

Best source for weather info
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averag...w_086071.shtml

bluesteele

Thanks for that. So it's not as wet as Wiki was showing which is a plus.
Any comments on the cost of living / house etc? I've had a look on a few real estate sites and housing seems shockingly high.

pilot_pik

Hi Bluesteel

We've been in Melbourne for 11 months now. We moved from the UK, lived in Scotland worked in London. Melbourne is a fabulous place for a family, we looked at Canada before coming to Melbourne.
You are right, it's not sunshine all year round, Melbourne has 4 seasons which I like. The summer is fantastic up to around 30 degrees, the winters get down to 4 or 5 degrees. Much much much less rain than the UK all year round.

Housing is ridiculously expensive as is the cost of living generally, but my experience is that the salaries are higher, so it's all relative. Despite the cost of living, on balance I think we are better off here than at home.

bluesteele

Thanks so much for that. The housing thing is so scary. I'm so worried about moving over and taking 10 steps backward.

derab

As far as I can make out, a first home buyers place in Fleet is about the 300,000 GBP level, which compares to the First Home buyers level here in Melbourne of $500,000 quite equitably.
So compared to deepest darkest Hampshire, the Melbourne house prices are not too scary. also, wouldn't you be renting until your PR comes through and you would probably get more for your money in the rental market in Melbourne, by the time you look to buy you will probably be in the groove of thinking in AUD and not GBP.

Margaret3

I do like melbourne, have only visited a few other states in aus, and still prefer melbourne, however I do feel like we have taken 10 steps back re:housing.
In Scotland we did own our home, we still had a mortgage of about 10 year to go, albeit a small house, it was a small mortgage. By the time we moved , set up, came across unexpected hitches and learning curves, our funds were very much down. I doubt we will ever be able to afford a mortgage in Melbourne, we are both 48, and although we have the 20% deposit, the payments for us with 2 children still at home (event though one is 21, but she is at uni), we would struggle with the repayments. I suppose we were spoiled in Scotland with houses being so cheap (all comes with a price though, cheap housing, no work!).

Goodluck, this is our best year yet (year 5), dont really have any complaints..............today!!, lol!!

Most of my whinges are based on homesickness, not the place.

Zen10

Melbourne will be what you make it, like anywhere else. Housing is very expensive in Australia, but no more so than Hampshire, really. Canada and Australia are similar nations, and you will have a very interesting and fun time in whichever one you choose - you're right - you are fortunate.

elice_in_oz

From experience, I can say that Melbourne weather (post drought) is still more like the south of France than anywhere in England! That means seasons, hot summers (anything between 25°C and 40°C on any given day) with daylight until about 9pm, mild winters (rarely goes under 8°C in the daytime but can get windy) with daylight until about 5.30pm. We have had more rain in the last 2 years than in the previous 8 years put together but it still feels like less than what we used to get in the Midlands!

Lifestyle in Melbourne is what you make of it. If you want to move to Australia under the assumption that you can get bigger and better for the same money in England, then you are about 8 years too late (Not saying that is what you want, just setting the record straight )
If you come over to experience a different lifestyle/culture and have no expectations of a better/higher standard of living, but rather of a similar one, then you should be OK. Yes housing is expensive, but again, it is all relative and not everyone wants/needs to live in Brighton, Toorak or Camberwell (suburbs of Melbourne) in a 5-bedroom, 3-bathroom house with a swimming pool. There are still some areas of Melbourne where you can rent a decent 3-bedroom house for under $400/week.

Then again, if coming to Australia means your standard of living will take a step back and you will have to start from scratch, now is certainly not the best time to come...

bluesteele

Me again.
It's been almost 4 years to the day, but we finally got a CO today (originally 176 Family Sponsored and changed to 176 SS - Victoria in April)

It's been an absolute rollercoaster getting to this point. So much has changed since we first applied and we are now wondering if a move to Oz is still for us. We have a moral obligation to live in Victoria for 2 years but the cost of housing/living really scares us. We dont want to blow our life savings on rent and then not be able to afford to buy a decent house due to the cost. I dont want to commute an hour each way (i already do that) just to be afford something decent.
We've managed to save enough money to afford a mortgage on a nice 4 bedroom house in the UK and we're wondering if that's the route that we should just go with.
What we're craving is a more outdoor lifestyle, especially for our 2yr old. Some better weather. More open spaces. Basically, a life closer to what we grew up with in South Africa. Not sure if we'll get anything close to this in Melbourne.

I'm sure many of you are shouting at the screen wondering how we can not be excited about finally getting a CO. Four years is long time and we've moved on a lot in our lives since we first decided to emigrate. We also harbour a lot of anger towards Australia for forcing such an emotional rollercoaster on us. Can we ever forgive Australia for that? Can we learn to love the country after the way so many of us have been treated in the immigration process.

So, I guess i'm just reaching out again to those who took the plunge and moved to Melbourne and hoping for a bit of positive, and even negative, feedback.

Is australia (Melbourne in particular) really the land of plenty? Or is it just not worth it?

Hebe

Not worth it. Stay where you are!!!


How can you really expect us to answer that question for you. It depends on lots of things - where door live in the UK, what is your budget. Are you very close to family etc etc. you don't know until you try!

bluesteele

I'm not trying to get somebody to answer anything FOR me, I'm just trying to get perspective of other people's experiences.
In terms of family, all of our family live in South Africa so we said our goodbyes 10 years ago. We have no family if we stay in the UK, or move to Oz.

itigo

I think the question to ask is: In 15 years (or any amount of time) will you look back and say What if? I wish we had....? When my Mum knew she was at the palliative care stage, she told us all the great things she had done in her life and was so content that she had no regrets, even though she was young. I am trying to live like that. Life is too short!

We had to take a big hit on our house sale in the UK, and are still renting/about to build here. The house prices are expensive. But then my husband is earning a lot more than he did in the UK for the same job.

If you come with an open mind and look upon it as an adventure of a lifetime, then you will be fine.

I just had coffee with my husband today and he said "Just think, if we had sold up a year earlier, we'd have had nearly double the cash to build with now etc etc." We laughed but there's no bad feeling, we're pretty fatalistic about it. We are still living a much happier life than we had in the UK and we're content.