Re: Tasmania (continued!)
 

Just glad all is ok :wub: those twins of yours are gonna be big!!!!!

Much Love xxx and take extra special care xx

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What on earth is farm town????

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It's a thing on FB that Kerry and some of my friends use...I dont know exactly what it is -Kerry would be the expert to tell you - but i think you can grow things / sell things, get people to become involved etc... All a bit of fun - there's loads of such things on FB...i think they get their idea's from the kind of games you can buy nowadays on those DS lite things!

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Hmmm i'm gonna give that a miss !!

Hows Jared coping with his lack of hair?:ohmy:

House will be up for sale on Tuesday..so you can have a nose on rightmove, hows the kitchen?
We are off to the caravan this weekend for a break before all the house stuff really kicks off:blink:

Speak soon
Zoe x

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Jared's fine thanks - quite a few people have rubbed his head the last few days though! :lol: I'll be glad when it's grown a bit though!

That's good news about the house Zoe, i'll have a nose next week :)

Andy hasn't had a chance so far this week to do anything else!
I'm fed up of the new kitchen worktops (in boxes) running along the wall in our dining room (only place we had long enough to put them!). Hopefully he can get something done this weekend - altho he is working tomorrow & it's Fathers Day Sunday... I think it'll be at least another 3-4 weeks before the whole things done at this rate!
Have a great weekend at the caravan - hope the weather's nice for you!
and wishing you HEAPS of viewers tuesday onwards! :D

Cathy x

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Hello Tasmania thread people! This is my 1st post on this website, though I've been signed up to it for a couple of months.
I'm in Surrey (UK) having just phoned the shippers to move my house contents to Hobart on 30th July. Now feeling a bit scared!! I will be coming with husband and 6 yr old son and we're hoping to live in or around the Hobart area but haven't committed to any business or house yet. From previous visits we're thinking of Blackman's Bay as an area to live. Anyone got any comments?

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Hi my name is Luke and i will be travelling to Aus next month on a 1 year work holilday visa. I intend on moving to Hobart and would like to know if theres anybody living in Tasmania that can tell me what the employment situation is there at the moment? Im Bascially will just be looking for any job from supermarket to Hotel to working in a shop. Are there many of these jobs available at the moment? Also what wage could i expect for working in these positions? Thanks for any help in advance:)

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Hi and welcome :)

We have been in Tas for almost one year now and lived in Blackmans Bay for 6 months when we arrived. I loved it there, lots of houses with sea views and good for schools and close enough to Kingston for shops etc. Only 20 mins to Hobart (on a good run) so handy for work in the city.

We now live in Margate which is about 10 mins further out, we would have been happy enough to stay in BB but when we came to buying we could get more for our money by moving a bit further out. There are plenty of nice suburbs around Hobart, it's a case of getting here and getting out in the car and driving around, you can take advantage of open homes at the weekend to see what you can really get for your money because they often look very different in the flesh than they do on the realestate website!

We knew within the first week where hubby would be working so we then based our search around that, what line of work are you in? We had a holiday cottage for 3 weeks which as arrived in low season was a good price, this had everything we needed and was a lovely base to come back to after those very busy early weeks!

Send me a pm if you want any more info, I'm more than happy to help, some of the others will be able to give you info too.

Good luck

Sam

PS I've just re read your post and realised you have been before, so probably already have an idea where you want to be. If you want any info on schools just shout up.

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Hi Luke

I'm not very familiar with casual work here, although as I'm sure you've heard that Australia is suffering in the economic downturn just like everywhere else.

From personal experience I'd say they like to give jobs to the local people as a first choice but I know there is a fair amount of seasonal work, eg apple picking, grape picking at the right time of year. As for wages I haven't a clue, I'm sorry but maybe some of the others will have a better idea.

Good luck

Sam

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Bugger, hopefully not long to go though Kerry :)

HI Luke have a look at this link see if its of any use.

http://www.discovertasmania.com/abou...for_travellers

if you fancy moving around the island then seasonal work is the way to go, lots of fruit and veg picking.

if you want to work in a bar you need your RSA (responsible service of alcohol) courses are run all the time, it cost 80 bucks and certs come within a week. I did mine last month.

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Hi there and welcome to the thread :) We're still based in the UK so i'm not able to offer much assistance where info is concerned... But good luck for your move...i hope it goes well!
We too liked the Blackmans Bay area's...:D

Cathy :)

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Thanks for your responses Sammy T and Travelbug. We too are planning to rent in Blackmans Bay initially and take it from there. We are on a state sponsored business visa so are looking for a business to buy asap!
Regarding schools, any idea how strict they are on catchment areas and how much availabilty on places? Have looked at Blackmans Bay, Illawarra and Kingston primaries. All look good from the website info I have seen but it's difficult to form much of an opinion from here. Also don't know how concerned to be if we end up renting in one place then buying in another area. As you say Sammy T, I'm sure it will look very different once we're actually able to start exploring the surrounding areas and comparing what you get for your money. (Isn't Margate the place with the train? It was the highlight of the trip for my son when we visited!).
Any comments/opinions/advice (or warnings!) gratefully received.

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Hi

When we first looked at schools, Illawarra were very strict on catchment areas as the school is popular and even though we were going to be in BB, we were still not in their catchment as they cover the far end and also Howden, Tinderbox areas.
The primary school in BB and Kingston are slightly more relaxed on catchment areas (when we were looking in July 08,anyway) although all the schools said they would need proof of address, ie rental agreement.
We chose St Aloysius in just between Kingston and BB in the end, as it was close enough to walk to, had a good reputation and felt right for our children. One of our big concerns was high school, we had already been in touch with Taroona High School which we were keen on but could not find a house to rent in that area at the time and therefore they would not accept us, the Kingston High School is in desperate need of more facilities and work was supposed to have started last year on building the new school, as yet this has not yet started, once it is finished it will no doubt offer fantastic facilities but in the meantime the existing high school has a few problems. So as my daughter would have started there this year and we were not keen, we chose St Aloysius as they have just built a middle school and will be extending this each year to become a full high school in a couple of years.

It is a Catholic school and we are not at all religious but they didn't have a problem with that and we like the caring, compassionate ethos of the school. The fees are higher than a public school but not as much as the private schools which we could never afford, and so far it has all worked out well and the children are happy.

As far as moving after you have enrolled the children I don't think this would be a problem for the public schools, as long as you are living in the catchment areas when they start. I contacted lots of the schools before we arrived and they were all helpful.

Sam

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Thanks Sam, sounds like you have looked at all the same areas as us! Will look into St Aloysius - I'd previously disregarded it as we're not churchgoers and I assumed the fees would be astronomical.
Alison

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I'll send you a pm tomorrow about the fees.

Sam