barry&carol

Hi All - A few lines to say that we are settling well to oz life and things have gone well for us till now.

I (barry) arrived Oct 6th and got straight into job hunting mode whilst doing all the other things that needed attention. Got work at BAX/Samsung at Homebush Bay (Olympic Park) after 3 weeks (casual) and through this got work in my profession ( Customs Agent ) with BAX in Alexandria ( Nov 24th).

Started looking for house to rent start november and have a nice large house overlooking Brisbane Water on the Woy Woy penunsula. Beautiful views.

Carol and cassie ( 13 years daughter ) arrived new years eve.
Cassie was a little tearful first few weeks (missed friends) but once she had got to school at end of jan she is making friends rapidly ( she is a very outward girl & confident ) and has a friend staying over tonite. We are mightily relieved!!

Carol is doing good and enjoying being a house wife again (for the moment at least)

I can honestly say that I ( been here myself 5 months ) have not missed the UK whatsoever and have not had one regret about coming here.

I have to commute to Sydney, the job is busy and I am attending TAFE for next two and a half years for my cert IV in Aus Trade which will allow my to sit for a Customs Broker Licence ( and hopefully pass). This was always my intention/goal and so far things have gone to plan. If only life always went to plan !

Anyhow thats our story up till now and will try and answer any questions any of you guys might want to ask as best I can.

Barry

HiddenPaw

Good to hear that things are going well - not just for you, but family too. I guess getting kids to settle is one of the biggest worries but sounds like things are working well. Wish you all the best for the future
HP

steve-n-jo

Hurray, glad to hear you have all settled well.

I've been thinking about you. Enjoy everything

Jo

Sausage

Sounds like a success story in the making.

Nice one

Encouraging to read.

TOB

Hi Barry and Carol,

Good to hear that you have settled in well.

My husband and I along with our 3 year old and 18 month old will be flying out on the 4th November this year. I was interested to see that you have settled on the Central Coast as this is exactly where we would like to settle. We want to arrange a house to rent before we leave the UK so any hint/tips that you may have on where /where not to rent would be welcome, in fact any tips at all!!!

We have been looking around Woy woy, Gosford, Terrigal, Hornsby areas but don't really know where to start!! We are used to living on the outskirts of a town so wouldn't want to be too remote. How do you find the commute from there to Sydney cost/time etc?

Good luck with everything hope all continues to go well.

TOB

barry&carol

Thanks Jo - We are enjoying it and are sure you will as well. Hope all is going well with your application . Keep in touch with us. As you know we were living on Poole Quay ( Port St James ) for the last 6 months of our time in UK and we had nice views didn't we. Well what we have now takes your breath away and to look at this every day is amazing. We still can't believe we are here!

Barry

barry&carol

Hi - We came to Central Coast because Carols sister lives here in Woy Woy. We did of course know how beautiful it is here. On the Woy Woy Peninsula ( Woy Woy/Umina/Ettalong ) there is of course a great variety of rentals and it depends on your budget and what you are looking for. I looked at plenty before deciding and could be chancy renting without looking.

If you needed to be close to a train station then Woy Woy would be your choice here on the peninsula. If you were in umina or ettalong then you would be around 3-6K away from station. We are in Blackwall which is an area bordering woy woy / umina and I can walk to station in 20 mins ( carol drops me in car ).

Hornsby is half way between woy woy and central station ( woy woy to hornsby 35 mins - hornsby to central 35/40 mins) but do not know the area of hornsby ( or surrounding areas )at all so cannot give you any info . Same goes with Gosford City so an extent but you will be able to rent a nice house/apt with views over brisbane water any where between woy woy/gosford with several stations in between. Gosford to central by rail 90 mins.

To get a train from woy woy day return is $10 (£4). ($18 peak day return) I buy a weekly return from woy woy to mascot for $60 a week (7 days travel). Good value compared to UK prices
I am sure ( never used the train in UK ). As for the travel I am not finding it a problem. get the 6.50am from woy woy and change at central for the airport line train to mascot where there is a courtesy bus every 15 mins that drops me at the office or I walk to office ( 8/10 mins). I get in the office at 8.30 give or take 2/3 mins. Read a book/paper on train - listen to a CD - passes the time (lots of course sleep). The views from woy woy to hornsby are great. I can remember my first day going to Sydney job hunting . I was stood on woy woy station with this super view in front of me. amazing.

There are of course plenty of great beaches here on the peninsula and if you like beach life (sure your kids will) then you are spoilt and none of the racing to the beach when you have ' a good day' like in the UK. We have spent plenty of time on the beaches here (weekends) during this summer and they are NOT crowded. You are only minutes away from a beach here unless of course you rent a place with beach view

Terrigal is beautiful . I go there every saturday morning to run with the terrigal running club. They start at 6am which I know is early ( I get up at 5 ) but it is worth it . Great view of the sun coming up then a glorious run over some spectacular scenery ( hard) bush and beaches.

Terrigal would be a very nice place to live although not close to station ( 21K/ 13 miles ) from woy woy.

I assume you have an idea of rental prices here what you want and how much you can afford each week/month.

We rent a 3 Br house for $300 per week. It has an en suite bathroom/shower. A further bathroom which our daughter uses. A very spacious open plan living/dining area. Full balcony along front of house with fantastic views. Downstairs we have a very large 'rumpus' room where we house the home cinema and a third bathroom. We have orp parking for 2/3 cars and a garage.
Rear we have no garden as such (ie lawn) but a decked entertainment area with seating and plenty of space for our 'spa' and Jackaroo Barbie !! We pay our electric and water and that is it!! No taxes at all. We paid the estate agent the deposit/bond as you would ( months deposit ) and there fees were $20 !!! We had to pay a UK agent hundreds of pounds when moving into a rented place in the UK plus of course all the costs of living there.

You do get plenty for your money here but of course it can be offset by what you might be earning here.

Hope some of this gives you an insight and feel free to ask anything else you may think will be helpful to u and I will try and answer you as best I can

Good luck and keep in touch

Barry and Carol

tinaj

Great to hear that things are going so well for you all.

Keep us posted with your progress.

TOB

Barry and Carol,

Thank you so much for your informative reply. It's good to hear from someone that lives in the area we are looking at.

You said that you thought it may be a bit chancy setting up a rental before seeing something, what would you suggest we do? We have no family or friends there so will need to have some type of accomodation set up for our arrival on the 8th November. I do agree that I would much prefer to view before signing up to rent somewhere but am worried about having somewhere to stay when we get there!! Your rental sounds exactly like the type of thing we are looking for and around the same money. What agent did you arrange yours through?

The info on ares/commuting times was very informative and it's good to see that the fares are lower than in the UK! The area you live in sounds beautiful just reading what you said about empty beaches and good weather really made smile.

I have loads more questions but have to go for now. Once again thank you for your help.

TOB

plumber

Well done ,Barry & Carol,

positive thread.....just what this forum need's at the moment!


all the best plum

ENGLISH IN OZ

hi barry and carol,
nice to see other brits in central coast area,myself(darren) my wife nicola and our two boys luke(6) and zac (5)moved here on 13 0ct 2003 and we live in bateau bay central coast we too have no regrets, life is very different over here isnt it.i am new to this website its a great idea, must go now going to cook a full english breakfast on the barbie.
all the best Darren and Nicola

Grayling

Missed this thread earlier.

We are thinking of settling on the central coast but probably nearer to Newcastle/Lake Macquarie.
Spent some time in Gosford recently.

Probably a bit more expensive than many places in Australia but that is because of proximity to Sydney.

Not sure I would like to commute to Sydney, Certainly not by roads as they get pretty busy especially as you get closer to Sydney.
Fortunately we do not have to worry too much about work as We will both be retired.

The Fishing is more important to me

What surprises me is how little this area is discussed on this forum compared to, say, Brisbane or Perth.
I think it is one of the best stretches of coastline I have seen in Australia and I have travelled much of it.

G

Wol

We were looking a bit more North - Port McQuarie and Laurieton rather took our fancy. Far enough from the Smoke yet near enough to have a weekend there.

Grayling

Spent some time in Port McQuarie and really liked it but less work opportunities.(I intend to do some casual/part time).

Nice place though.

Good luck

G

joho

Glad to hear everything going well. We are hoping to move to Ettalong or Umina early next year as we have family living there. Loved the area, even went over on the ferry to Summer Bay (Home and Away). Mad fan am I. Can't wait to get are visas, we are post july applicants so are hopefull for visas within 6 months. Only been 2 weeks so far though.

Cheers Jo