Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

the carvings are brilliant, there is absolutely nothing else in Ledgerwood though :lol:

Hi welcome :)

just another to add that Tassie (along with the rest of Australia) is horse crazy, we are in a small seaside town called Bridport on the north east coast, about 30 mins from Gary. also lots of horses kept around here, along with racing horses/trotters. a local bloke takes his trotters in the sea most days, they love it :)

september would be better than August, though can still be lot of winds and rains up north. summer starts 1st Dec. I think you could get a good idea of the island in a couple of weeks especially if you research where you want to visit. Here is a good website for info

http://www.discovertasmania.com/

as for the ozone the hole isnt there all the time http://www.theozonehole.com/ but Sammy is right the UV here is very high.

Kay :)

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

HI,
Here are a couple of pictures from the local area.
The picture by the water is George Town which is on the North Coast of Tassie about 60 km north of Launceston. Then there is a pictrue of just the local landscape, Then there is a picture of the foal which was born last November.
With you having the baby there are lots of things round here from swimming for babys to Music Tree, (song and dance for babys) and also Mother and Daughter Yoga. We have a little 7 month old daughter and we love it here. My wife breastfeeds and is a member of the breast feeding association and they have meetings so that has been good for Vikky to get to know people.
Feel free to ask us any more questions its a pleasure.
Gary Vikky and Hollie

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Hi, thanks for your replies, links & pics Gary & Kay, been busy researching - it gets addictive!!!! Gary my son is nearly 6 months (breastfed too!!), so great to hear there are plenty of clubs, a great way to meet new people. I do want to get back to work in the future though, do you know if good childcare is readily available & what the costs are? Also I have a few more questions, if everyone wouldn't mind helping me with, I've been told by a few people who have Tassie friends that work can be difficult to find in Tasmania & the wages are poor, less than the mainland - is this right? Is there a job centre website which I can look at (I tried google but with no luck!)? Also I read that the cost of living is comparable to the UK, (utility bills / food etc), is there an equivalent to Council Tax, or any other rates you have to pay on property? Also motoring expenses / insurances, are they comparable to the UK?

I've had a look at property & we seem to like the Bernie / Wynyard areas, as hubbie would like to be close to the sea, are there many job opportunities in that area?

Has anyone brought their pets with them from the UK? Is it really expensive? We'd love to bring our dogs.

We have decided to go ahead & apply for a Visa, based on what we've seen / heard so far (scary:unsure:), been reading up on the requirements & sounds quite lengthy, a bit more complicated as hubbie's self employed! We were going to do it ourselves but not sure if it would be better to go via an agency - any thoughts / recommendations please?

Thanks again everyone.

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Hi there :) I know everyone else will respond on different bits and pieces - but just wanted to comment on the work situation and visa application side of things. My other half is a Sheetmetal Worker/Thermal Insulator (your hubbie would refer to him as a lagger in the trade). He is also self-employed.
We applied for a 136 Skilled Independent which i presume you would be doing as well? We decided to use an Agency (Go Matilda who i could fully recommend - very professional / very competitive with their charges), as we were concerned by the fact that my OH had not fully completed his original apprenticeship - therefore at the time of our TRA application we could only go on references/proof of work in his trade (and i think since we applied some rules have changed and possibly you're not able to do that anymore). It actually took us more than 6 months to accumulate all the references we needed from all the previous people he had worked for / been sub-contracted to before we could do the TRA application... With all good intentions many people agreed to provide the info - but had to be repeatedly chased up to deliver the goods! I'm just saying this to forewarn you that things like references etc can take ages & cause delays. From start to finish it took us over 18months to obtain our visa's - i know some people can get theirs a lot quicker, some take longer and i guess a lot of it depends on situation/occupation etc.

Before we visited Tasmania during our visa validation trip - we actually looked up all the businesses in the Hobart area's of Tasmania using the yellowpages.com.au - you could probably do something similar with regards to building contractors, whereas we put in Insulation Companies and picked out the ones you could tell from their adverts handled Industry/Construction?metal work. We managed to get Email addresses etc and organise a few meetings with people prior to our arrival. We got the feeling that people are reluctant to offer any jobs until you're actually living on the Island. We also know that the wages for my OH will be considerably lower than what he was earning in the UK and that he'll be working more hours than what he's used to doing now.

We found during our visit that things like food shopping etc were actually for some stuff far more expensive than the UK - but i know the locals will advise you on that tomorrow....

I just realised some of the above sounds a bit negative, which i dont mean it to (as you know we still want to go! :):)).

Cathy :)

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

I just remembered - i think a lot of people use the following website to search for jobs :-

www.seek.com.au

I did just put in builder though and only one job in Tas was advertised but that was for a site manager - so i do think that you'd be better off contacting contractors directly as they may not advertise the normal way which is often the case for tradies...or they may just use local papers etc instead, you probably know already its more a case of getting to know people and finding out about work by word of mouth.

But i did just put in Building contractors on www.yellow.com.au - and Burnie and loads of companies came up - so i'm sure you'd have some luck getting info about hourly rates / superannuation etc from some of them.... Most people on the Island seem much more forthcoming with that kind of info than companies in the UK would be ;)
I should have also said that the people my OH met with said that there was a fair amount of work for his trade, one did say he had about a year's available work for my OH but most of that year has now passed :(, so i dont know whether the situation would be the same....we're just hoping it is..:)

I work in the UK myself (although only 21hrs for the last 5yrs) - in Reinsurance Accounts & my former employer (which is now my new companies client) does have offices in both Launceston and Hobart. I was until recently unaware of the Launceston office, so i am actually considering contacting both to see what work prospects i may have myself. After making some enquiries with my former boss who is now based in their Sydney office it's very possible if they had vacancies in my line of work that i would earn more than what my OH could...which is not the case over here so it's an option we may consider ourselves - although i was kind of looking forward to having a break after 20 years! :lol:

Good luck with deciding what to do with your visa application etc - it's all a bit scary - but a bit exciting at the same time! :thumbsup:

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Hope that helps a bit, most of it is just my experience of things, others may have different or extra things to add.

Sam

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Sorry can't help with child care costs I'm afraid, I'm a stay at home mum. I did send my son to an early learning center for 3 hours 2 mornings a week which was around $14 for a morning. I haven't put him in a proper nursery, so can't help with nursery fees I'm afraid. I will ask a few mums and see if I get some info out of them and let you know.:)

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Hi Sam, thanks for the info, been looking at the government website re the VISA, my head is spinning!!!:blink: Think we may have to go via an agency, as our situation not straight forward!!! Like Cathy's OH my OH doesn't have any formal qualifications either but doesn't look like it'll be impossible, just lots of evidence to provide. The good news is that his job is on the critical list, so fingers crossed. I was a bit shocked at the cost of applying!:eek:

What a shame about your dog, at least you found her a good home & she's happy. We've got 3 dogs, so will cost allot of money, really going to have to think long & hard about them, if we can't bring them it will be a real gut wrench :(

Also thanks Cathy for all your info, I have PM'd you.

Claire.

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Hi All :) Did any of the tassie wannabee's see the Wanted Down Under episode yesterday morning?

I dont think the programme showed Hobart at it's best really which is a shame, although it still looked great. I can't remember the name of the town they took them to in the "country", but for anyone that didn't see the episode they were also shown houses in Oakdown and Moonah. The woman liked the country house the best - but they weren't overly keen on the other two (but having trailed through realestate.com.au for the last couple of years they certainly didn't pick the best houses they could to show them!). The couple had a budget of approx £185,000 (including a mortgage) but as usual the programme showed them houses that were over their budget! :sneaky:
For the duration of their stay they were based in North Hobart in a nice old house (wouldn't have minded that myself - although it had no garden as such).
The guy involved was a Stone Mason and overall at the end they did "pick" Australia above the UK...

They were taken to Bonorong Wildlife Park to see Tassie Devils etc and on another day to see snow. They made a comment on the ozone hole and showed the slip, slap, slop advert during the episode, and really commented on how far away Tasmania is from the UK compared to other Oz destinations,
so i'll no doubt have my Mum commenting on that next time i see her! :lol:

But it was soooooo nice seeing Tas on the TV for a change instead of all the other main area's of Australia that normally get shown. :thumbsup:

Cathy :)

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Hi Cathy,

We watched it too, glued to the TV!!!!! Love'd the countryside & the old buildings, nice to see some History! Didn't realise that you could Ski in Tassie, always wanted to try sking!! It was good to hear about the Ozone Layer & that they give daily forecasts, also great to see playschools etc! My OH wasn't very impressed with the houses & from what I've seen on the web they didn't choose very good examples. Good that the couple voted for Tassie!!:thumbsup: I wonder if the BBC does follow up programes of those who actually make the move, to see what they think say a year on??

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Hey Kastell

Here is a link to Snow watch webcams, Ben Lomond would be the one that will interest you as its ooop north, we usually go to Mount Field as it's only a 45 min drive for us. There won't be any snow this time of year, but if you check the webcams in winter you will see plenty of snow! :thumbsup: It's a good idea to check the webcams before you leave too, as sometimes it gets so bad you have to have snow chains and a 4 wheel drive to get up there. There is some good skiing to be had at winter time, great fun for some. But for me I will stick to snow men and snow angels! lol:lol:

http://www.ski.com.au/snowcams/australia/tas/index.html

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

obviously didnt get to see it Cathy but sounds like they showed the difference between seeing houses on real estate and seeing them in real life :lol: also they wouldnt get a real nice house for their budget in a decent area of Hobart. I've said it before houses are so overpriced here, lot of old shacks with big price tags.

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Thanks for that link Kezzabird, clicked on the link & definitely no snow now!!:lol:

Possums I think you may be right about seeing pics on the real estate sites, agents are very cunning with the photo's they post / can be really deceiving!!!:sneaky:

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Been looking at property round here and some nice places going for around $250k, If you have around $370k you can have a nice place with land!! And lots of out buildings.
Hope you all have a lovely Australia day, I have to work for second year running otherwise Id be off to Latrobe.
Gary Vikky and Hollie

Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

I thought you might have done :D I can honestly say hand on heart that the place is much nicer in the flesh than how it appeared on that particular episode - so if you liked what you saw - then you would REALLY like it if you were actually there...:) The old buildings is something i really like - especially in town centres - i think they give so much more character to a place, although it was shocking how many buildings are in such a bad state and need government funding to be repaired. :(
They have done follow ups on previous series - i remember one about a family that moved to Perth and they did go back and see them a year or so later for an update....so yes it'll be interesting to see if they do the same - but i think a lot of the families we've watched so far have picked the UK over Australia, so maybe they wont have enough families to do the follow up programmes. :confused: But you never know! :)