Well actually, no it didn't, it started at the back of a works van. Well that is in fact where I first saw the words 'AUSTRALIA', on that fateful day in July last year, that lead us on this long and winding road to Oz. I tend to be an impulsive person, but this is the furthest I have ever got whilst acting on a whim! I wonder where others get their first spark from.

I was 16...my (older) boyfriend got a working holiday visa & went to Sydney to seek his fame & fortune... unfortunately he found it really hard to get work as a printer & spent many hours writing to me on reams of blue airmail paper (remember that?) whilst watching the world go by from his towel on Bondi Beach.

I vowed one day I'd get there too....okay, it's taken about 30 years, but the best things are worth waiting a bit for, aren't they

I spent 4 weeks in Oz on a group tour earlier this year and can't wait to get back out there on a more permanent basis! I had an awesome time and fell in love with Australia there and then!

I've always fancied living abroad, so thought I'd take the plunge and start the application process! Now playing the waiting game...

Long time since I posted on here.... anyhow mine started at the tender age of 8, having taking some family friends to Heathrow, I cried all the way home vowing that if I ever went to Aussie, I would never come back....for the past 10 years I/we have been trying n one holiday later, there may possibly be a sparkle of light....ssssshhh!!! Ems x

Wifey came home one day and suggested we move to Oz.

And here we are.

talked about it since moving in together 8 years ago, then the Condems got in and we decided we HAD to do it before we would be tied to this country forever

Mine was October 28th 2005, arriving for the first time at Sydney Kingsford Smith at 8.30am on my first holiday to Oz, to see my sister and for my Dad to marry his girlfriend of 25 years.

I walked out of the arrivals hall, felt the warmth and saw the blueness of the sky...........love at first sight!

My aunt moved here when I was 7 or 8, and she got homesick so came back to the UK. Her kids came to my school for a while and I remember thinking they were mad to be in the UK when they could live in Australia. They all moved back here a year later and I wanted to come with them.

Gave it the odd thought after that, but nothing too serious until one day we were looking to move away from Bradford, and we found that we couldn't afford to move anywhere nice in the UK. I filled out a form on a migration site for 'a laugh' and to see what would happen, and we were 15 points short. Didn't really think we had any chance to be honest

Then a few years later, only a couple of days after my Mum passed away, we got an e-mail from the migration company saying they had put my OH's profession on the in demand list and did we still want to go...

Took me all of 10 minutes to convince the OH that is was a good idea, and now here we are.

Came with three girl friends in 1968 and arrived in Sydney and loved it, sunshine I remember the warmth.

We looked into moving to New Zealand at first didnt even think about Australia that was in late 2003 early 2004 could not get the right amount of points
Then around the end of 2006 my hubby had a applied for a job in the back of the paper (hull daily mail) and i just laughed it off saying he never would get a job in the back of a paper especially to Australia and anyway a couple of interviews on the phone and 457 visa sorted with an agent ended up here moving in March 2006 !
(forgot to add we didnt know anyone here when arriving or had never been before)

I am embarrassed to say. Anyway, I took some time off work last year to do up our house. When it was finished I think I had too much time on my hands, I need to be working towards something, so after a couple of weeks of watching Wanted Down Under on a daily basis ... moving to Australia became my next project.

I said to my husband when he came home from work one day that I had decided we should apply for a visa to Australia. He was delighted as he always wanted to live in Australia but he would have never suggested it to me.

Along the way, at various points I wondered why on earth I started this but very glad we did now.

About 5 years ago, we seriously considered moving to Spain to live the life, as you do, when you watch too many episodes of A Place in the Sun. We soon had a reality check and realised there was no way we could ever make it work. There certainly wouldn't have been any future for our children there. But I think from that moment I was searching for something else to fill that void.

Another farming company advertised in UK farming press and my OH said he might apply for the job ... we'd discussed moving overseas when pregnant with first son and the time wasn't right.

5 yrs later it was and I'd lived overseas as a kid so took it and ran, and ran all the way here! I'm impatient and love the sun so I was here as quick as I could manage!

No regrets! And neither of us had been here before!

It was A Place in the Sun that did it for us! Knew we wanted to get out of the UK just not sure where. Then A Place in the Sun was in Aus, the host was walking along a beach in Perth and said "Now we are in Perth, the most isolated city in the world and the hottest in Aus" that was it for us, decision made. 2 years later we were living in Perth and haven't looked back in 4 years.

We were initially heading to Queensland on a 457 but I could only get sponsorship in Cairns. We were really reluctant to go there at the time as there were reports of box jellyfish hogging the beaches! We watched a programme called Phil Down Under back in January, and it was based on Perth. I hadn't even looked at WA, for some reason I thought it was all barren land and no development. It featured areas like Quinns Rocks, Burns Beach, Joondalop and Mullaloo. Well that was it, destination plans changed, and PR Visa applied for!