powellfamily

Thanks for the replies, We are sure we won't miss the social side to the UK, my job and wife job changes the way u view pubs and clubs. Tv yes we watch it but much prefer being outdoors and spend most of the time doing this, even in the shocking weather. News again although we like to keep upto date with current affairs again we view what the press report differently.

Good to get the different opinions

Jan4kids

We came on a 4 week reccy in a Camper Van ...with 3 kids under 5 (I don't recommend this )

It was 'nice' to do it, but with hindsight ...a total waste of time, effort and money. We were hoping to find the place we'd like to live...just like that! ...but Australia is so vast and each area so different in feel I'd say it's almost an impossible task.

If you do come...fly between the different cities to experience their vibe and hire a car in each place...you'll cover more ground that way.

To decide your initial Geographical starting point without a visit go on job availability initially.

Good Luck (Scary isn't it?)

Jan

powellfamily

We decided on Western Australia, I know people and have distant family there. I think we have decided not to visit. We know in our heart of hearts this is what we wanna do! Now to get the ball in motion!

old.sparkles

Good luck with your journey

Gill73

We lived in WA from Oct 08 to Jan 10. We returned back to UK and we've recently got our Residents Return Visas.

Having lived in WA, we know it's not for us. We moved there without visiting first. It's impossible to know if we'd have still emigrated there if we'd have been on holiday there first.

We are thinking of moving to Melbourne, but don't want to jump in with both feet again. We plan to have a two week rekkie first before making the final decision to move or not. It's not a cheap thing to do, but the thought of selling everything again and making the massive move without checking things out first, is too daunting to us

powellfamily

Gill73 what made WA not for u?

carolinephillips

We visited Australia as a big holiday. We had been thinking of emigrating, but were thinking of NZ. Going to Aus changed our minds and we decided to emigrate to Perth, which we all really liked. However, OH was offered a job in Sydney by his firm, so we came here instead.

You never can tell what the future will hold for you.....but if serendipity tells you to go, then do it!

DeadVim

I hadn't been to Oz before I moved but I had spent a weekend in Hull, which by all accounts, is similar.

skinnygeorge

I had been here in before in Victoria 1989. I liked the way of life. A friend has lived in Qld since about 1997. I came with wife and two boys in 2008. this was their 1st visit. For me it was much as I had expected, Obviously very new for the rest of the family. As previously said the holiday feel is very different. And to be honest that new experience feeling can go on for 6 to 12 months, then the daily life routine kicks in and you realise life is not hugely different. But you are 11000 miles from your old life,friends and family. This why people often return to the UK around this time. You need to do two years,Hit the lows and see through them. Then make up your mind. Personnally I`d save the money for here. You will need it. Lets face it you have a wealth of information and experience here. Ask the questions, Even the silly ones. They are often the little day to day things that can be important to your happiness. I am very happy with my move, My wife? maybe a little less.Boys? one big yes one little not so sure. Happy hunting and good luck.

astera

Add Sydney to your rekkie and you'll forget about Melbourne altogether.

Anything specific you didn't like about Perth?

h2oskineil

I came around 5 times over a number of years and back-packed to most places around the outside and up the middle.

Met my wife and had a child and then a few years later we were married in Sydney, which was her first visit to Australia.

Went back a couple of years later, visited Perth, Melbourne (Great Ocean Road) and Sydney and decided we wanted to 'give it a go', got a job 2 years later mid 2005 and moved here January 2006.

Can't imagine moving to a country and never having visited. Even if just one of you go, you'll have an idea if it's a place you would like to live and bring your family. It's huge financial gamble (IMO) to move here only to find you don't like it.

Been here now coming on 7 years and I am now thinking of Australia as home. We're now citizens and I'm starting to feel more Australian than British.... but it has taken a while.

Gill73

We personally found WA to be very expensive and lacking in things to do and see.

We found it to be approx 10 years behind the UK. It was only as we were leaving WA that Coles starting doing home deliveries for your weekly food shopping. If you wanted to order furniture etc on-line, then forget it. I don't know if it's caught up with the rest of the world, but that's how we left it in early 2011. As someone who does around 95% of all shopping on-line, I struggled with this.

Once we had bought a plot of land, built a house and then a pool, it was like we had ticked all the boxes and got to that "what now?" moment. We couldn't then see a future there for our family.

My eldest daughter didn't settle in school and I couldn't find work. I've never been unemployed before and thought as a Business Manager in the chemical industry, I would have enough transferrable skills to work anywhere. This was not the case. When I spoke to recruitement agencies, I was told that there wasn't a chemical industry in or around Perth, so they had nothing for me! As if I only had skills that would work in one industry!! I applied for jobs which were half my UK salary and still got nowhere.

Our WA experience wasn't great and I would not move back there. Perhaps if I had found work, I would have been happier, but it still felt lacking. This is obviously looking at things from a very personal point of view. We met some lovely people who are still in WA and love their life there.

We were NOR, Burns Beach, and we found the area to be one of the cleanest places I've ever been to and to have glorious beaches within 5 minutes of where we lived was amazing - so it wasn't all bad

rasen78

We weren't planning on doing a recce, but DIAC put paid to that when they processed our Visa much quicker than was anticipated. We had to make our initial entry before ROMFT left the RN, so decided to do a recce trip.

We stayed in Sydney with relatives for a few days, then hired a car and did a road trip to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road which was fab. Then stayed a week just outside Adelaide to get a feel for the area, look at houses etc, then a 2nd road trip back to Sydney via the Hay Plain (got detoured because of the floods too) and spent the last few days in Sydney.

I am glad that we did it now, as it helped reinforce the feeling that Adelaide was the right place for us. Sydney was nice to visit, but I don't think I could live there, and I loved travelling the GOR. When we are in older, I think we may do a motorbike trip down there - just the 2 of us

It didn't really feel like a holiday to me. We have never really done the holiday thing as our breaks have always been to visit family rather than to chill etc, and we were quite practical (as ever :rolleyes) on our trip, checking out areas, the price of things, even working out the petrol price routine Of course we did some touristy things, but not a huge amount.

chris and farideh

We came to Melbourne about 16 years ago on business visa fell in love with it, then we visited Sydney for holiday & hated it, when we decided to emigrate we wanted to go some where laid back so we picked Adelaide & did a recci 7 years ago we really fell in love with Adelaide & decided this is the place we want to live in soon after moving there we realised getting a job for a highly quailifed engineer is like finding a needle in a hay stack.
after moving 3 states we now live in Sydney cause that's where the high pay jobs are for OH, I still hate the place but what can you do.
I really don't think doing a recci makes much difference except its very expensive but picking the right state is way more important for the jobs you do search for the industries which is related to your jobs.

eddie007

No reckie here... 4 kids and visiting somewhere in holiday mode and all that jazz...

Quite content here in WA miss the uk...gateway to Europe blah blah blah

Won't be going back unless it's without the OH and kids... Which today appears quite doable.