bruce n sheila

My wife 4 children and myself moved to perth 1 yr ago and just cant seem to settle.
Although we've had a busy year what with me finding work,(not in my trade as a carpenter)but as grouter and blaster working in the city mostly but have fifo work every so often...(cant seem to get employed as a chippy) And not good for family me working away..wife is expecting 5th baby after my great vasectomy done in 1999!! ..shocker but am totally fertile again ...more strain on family however will give my wife something to do .

Have also moved rental homes three times now (first rental had to take landlord to court because we were paying for a pool and spa that never worked) we lived in an area initially full of bogans and it depressed us ......(we have now found a good area with good schools in secret harbour)south of perth, life at the moment is just ticking along, and here lies the problem .....


Find perth isolated, seen everything worth seeing within sensible driving distance north and south find trying to do something on the weekend hard as used to so much around us in Bournemouth where we are from .And find if the economy and weather was a bit better we would never of left , had spells of home sickness , but then remember it was not a bed of roses there .

we have just enrolled our kids into surf school in hope to meet new friends , as in all honesty found perth cliquey and hard to break into a friend circle ...the weather is beautiful at the moment spring , but the summer is too hot and dry , beats grey skies in the uk though.

we originally wanted to move to Queensland , but listened to so many poms they all said how great perth was, We decided to listen to them instead of our original plan of Queensland ......we also shipped three cats over here , and rescued two dogs to make our family complete on the other side of the world .

we don't seem to hear many people from south uk , a lot of northerners live in perth to me it is like Benidorm nothing wrong with Northeners but I moved to Australia not Northern uk so to speak they seem to love perth as it knocks spots off where they were from in England , however coming from one of the best places in uk its hard to see the appeal in perth .

The money I earn is three times more here and although more expensive here we seem to tick on by with a smallish dated rental,we get help with family assist , can't afford a mortgage for our family apparently I don't earn enough based on the fact we will have 5 children .

we are pondering moving to Eumundi area near Noosa Queensland next year
I guess we have been here a year and every weekend spend it moaning about the place being so spread out . so so indecisive on what to do for the best , when the economy is shocking in the uk , we don't feel like we could live here another 5 years thats for sure , and it will be a big move going to Queensland pending on me finding a job prior

.....have any of you been in the same predicament ? and moved over to Queensland for the same reasons have you found you regretted it ??or it was the best decision you made ,
queensland just seems to tick all the boxes for my wife and I , its lush tropical , houses are more affordable to rent in sunshine coast , and could have a better house there with pool or acerage in Noosa hinterland for the same rental cost as a small bungalow here in perth .

Also told by a fiend who visited how much cheaper things are over East , like food , beer etc .....more to do in general , less poms ....but is wages the same I know its not mining central like perth , but I don't want that to be away from my family .....any advise or comments appreciated .

babysinead

I felt that i needed to reply to you..........I know nothing about Queensland so cannot comment on that...BUT we moved over to Perth 13 weeks ago (I think !!) and we are from Blandford Forum.....YES, Blandford Forum, DORSET !!!

We are still finding our feet in WA and can honestly say it is eary days. Hubby has found a job easily, daughter has settled in the local Kindy (and the school is a good one i believe) we are in a comfortable rental, just starting to furnish it little buy little........and we have bought a cat, which has made us all settle in a bit better.

Perth is very isolated and not having many friends does not help. I have started to make friends, but find it alot harder then what i ever thought it was going to be. I miss Dorset and I miss my friends, but im sure if we went back we would want to come back to OZ, so i think you are doing the right thing by looking at Queensland first, dont chuck the towel in yet.

Both me and my husband said that if it was not perth it would be Queensland. Dont go back to Bournemouth though, it's not all it's cracked up to be, their are alot of unpleasant areas around their as well (boscombe.....say no more)

Have you tried moving NOR........their seems to be alot more of a mixture of cultures

eddie007

Jeez... Whats with this north south divide?

I'm an essex girl living in shockingham... Some of my friends down here are from north of the watford gap, some from south, some are strines...

Havent lived anywhere else in stralia, so NO idea .... But we find plenty "to do" at weekends... Getting on with life, what are YOU looking to do at weekends? Skiing? Advanced origami classes?

Give us a clue

al150n

I'm another from South of Watford Gap, in actual fact I lived in Watford itself for a few years & 2 really good friends (& their families) here are also from the same areas as me, so South of Watford Gap too!

We've also been here a year & are still finding tons to do at the weekends. We've hardly touched on things here & feel there is so much more still to discover. Just bought a tent & a 4x4 & can't wait to get going with all that now. I know many Aussies who've lived here most their lives & still haven't seen it all. Mind you I can remember you saying you'd checked out every suburb north & south of Perth within the first few months of being here so may be we don't do so much traveling about.

Alison x

HelenTD

Hi Bruce & Sheila, I wondered how you were going as you haven't been on here for a while. As I'd visited Perth on my WHV, that's where I decided to settle when I first moved over, then thought that it wasn't the best place for a young and single female, so I decided to give Brisbane a try. I met some great people, went to some great places (thought the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast was wonderful). After 6 months of horrible casual jobs at low rates of pay, meeting some weird Queenslanders (well, they seemed weird to me), I had enough one day and returned to the UK. I made my way back to Perth about 2 years later. Perth is still isolated, has got stupidly expensive, it's even more full of northeners, so there is a need for the few southerners who make it here to stay a little while.

It could cost you a lot of money to move over to QLD, and still be struggling to get work. Here, you've had a tough time adjusting from Dorset, but I'd think it through a bit more. Have you been down south yet?

mrs i

Hi,we emigrated to Queensland in 2006 got homesick,went home and then decided on Perth!we have been in Perth 2 years now and have settled in ok,we still get iur ups and downs but we would get them wherever we lived in the world as it's just a part of life.we found Queensland very humid,it is the most beautiful place we have ever lived but there was a lack of work for my hubby who is a brickie and we found the cost of living to be more expensive there.I always say that if we won a huge lotto we would buy a house there right next to one of their magnificent beaches.I think Perth has a lot more to offer youngsters and there's so much work here,we have made some really good friends(one lives just across the park)and the kids have got lots of friends,I do understand what u mean about feeling isolated because we used to go to France etc for little holidays,for now we are happy with Perth, whatever u decide can only be your families decision as we are all different.good luck to you whatever u decide to do.
P.s. My god scary the snip not working,did they say why it had failed and taken this long?

primalgirl

Hi, I am an Aussie living in the UK and have been basically for 7 years. We will be returning to Brisbane soonish and I just thought as I grew up in brisbane, I may be able to help.
I have never been to Perth, I have heard how lovely it is tho. Brisbane is great. Very relaxed- unlike melbourne and sydney. It is quite spread out tho. I always lived on the North side as it has the huge Chermside shopping centre and you can go:

45 mins up the bruce hiway to Maroochydore, mooloolabah, caloundra, noosa, etc which have some great surfing beaches and swimming beaches

30mins up the Bruce hiway to Bribie Island which has lovely swimming and surf beaches

or halwfway between the two is the Glasshouse Mountains if you are like us and into trekking up mountains for beautiful views.

or 45mins down the motorway to the Gold Coast, dreamworld, movie world, wet'n'wild etc oh and IKEA.

There are some great schools both Public and private and also housing in the rental market is quite competitive, there are good houses for reasonable prices. We had a lovely 3 bedroom in Bray Park for about $280pw. Lovely neighbours and no trouble.

The thing to remember if you don't like the heat is Queensland is hot. Rockhampton is on the tropic of capricorn- your hottest point. If you want cooler weather Melbourne is the better bet, but with that comes expensive property- but then you may aswell be back in the uk hey.

The thing with Brisbane tho, is the houses are made to keep the heat out and to stay cool. Air conditioning is becoming more common in homes and most homes come with ceiling fans. I know when things got too hot for us we would just head to Chermisde and wonder around the shops in the aircon... lovely

Job wise, it took my husband about 8 weeks to get a good job working with AAMI in the city- but he was unskilled so Im sure could have got one quicker had he been qualified or experienced to do something. He worked casually for a scaffolding firm out Yatala way while looking for work and was earning around $1000 a week.

Well, I hope this is of some help. btw The public transport is ok- if there isnt a train there's most likely a bus Feel free to ask any q's.

Grayling

Are you a helicopter pilot

Pollyana

Must be to take 45 minutes to Maroochydore and Noosa

Been there

Never understood the pom penchant for moving to Perth. Very isolated.

LouiseR

Hmm... must have been less busy when you lived in Bray Park then. We lived there for a year and it was about 45 mins to Bribie, more if there's a tiny amount of rain or if there's a crash on the Bruce.

45 minutes to the Gold Coast?? More like an hour and half, with good traffic.

An hour and half to get to Mooloolaba too, maybe an hour if there's no traffic.

You'd struggle to get a house for $280 now. House's in Bray park are more around $350-$400, even higher in Warner which is the next suburb across. We never had any trouble in Bray Park, other than an irritating neighbour who used to play his music loud about 3am on a Wednesday .

I think you'll find North Brisbane changed since you were here. A lot busier, more traffic, more expensive housing and cost of living has increased.

fish.01

Yes, sounds about spot on for Caloundra compared to my trip last weekend though.

DeadVim

But hey, the shopping centre is still there.

LouiseR

Very true! My post sounded really moany... I like living here, honest!

jad n rich

Traffic is somewhat mental at times in brisbane, I think if you lived there 7 years ago, it would be much worse.

You could do GC or SC in an hour in OFF peak. Ive dont SC to Chermside in 47 minutes but it was about 10 am on a tuesday morning, I would allow up to double that in Peak.

$280 rental house would be erm interesting but $350 up for something decent.

Weather. Best bit of SE QLD for me is you do not get the infamous flies that plague much of australia ( the 200 on your back/nose/eyes type ) . For some reason I have never seen that in SE QLD. Weather - worst is the humid months of Dec jan feb, it can be very humid, but nowt like north queensland

One massive bonus is property in QLD is a fraction of the price of Sydney/Melbourne.

Brisbane has far more on in events etc than it used to. In last 6 weeks weve been down for home show, ekka, surrealist art exhibition, this weekend its the mad men fashion display and a charity dinner. I dont do sport but plenty of that too, and concerts.

Weve recently had a look at melbourne, and I have to admit I didnt appreciate quite a few things about QLD, like my sons $1200 a year IB education that will cost us $24,000 a year in melbourne if we go. Or the house we had at Woody Point that would cost treble in a melby beach burb 23klms from CBD.

Worst thing I find about Brisbane is dining out is VV expensive, I have no idea why, but it seems a total rip off. Maybe I just have bad luck. No doubt someone can name good restaurants but it aint me thats for sure