laurash

Hi- I have been subscribing to this site for about six months and lots of people it seems have actually gone to Oz. The question is- ' where are they now and what is happening?'. Have they all given up? are they too busy sunning themselves in the garden? If you are one of them, please post your adventures on line to us all!! Thanks

cresta57

I suppose it depends on who's theory you subscribe to, on the one hand they're enjoying life in the sun or they're to skint to afford net access and working 7 days a week for peanuts.
Hmmmm I think I'll go with the optimistic one based on a recent speculative visit as opposed to the bitter rants and hearsay on here recently.

colind

Hi Laura and Ash

We left London last June for Sydney, via a short holiday in Hong Kong and Auckland. We arrived in Sydney on June 15th. I got a transfer with my job and started work here 2 days after we arrived, so straight into it. The people at work (both team members and clients) have been very welcoming and helpful as we knew no-one in Sydney at all when we got here. My wife, Wendy left her job in London with nowhere to go in Sydney. She took a month off then started looking and has been working in a marketing role for a firm of lawyers in the City since the end of September.

During her time off, Wendy drove around the area looking at different suburbs and countless properties. Most of our weekends were taken up looking at houses. We went through the dreaded house auction process (if you're coming to Sydney, prepare yourself for this!) two times, being outbid by empty-nesters with a stash of cash on both occassions. Finally, we found the perfect place and put in an offer...which to our amazement was accepted, and we moved in at the end of October. We are 5 minutes from the beach, 40 minutes commute to work (which was the same as I had in London and is a much more pleasant drive than the M4!).

The winter months were spectacular for weather, days usually between 16 and 20 degrees with the odd one a bit warmer and clear blue skies. The summer has been pretty good too - not stinking hot at all. We don't have air con and have only had 3 nights when we have needed the fan on (we get sea breezes, which helps). I am expecting it to warm up a bit next month, of course...

We are starting to find some friends and have had some visitors (Wendy's family are in Brisbane so they have been to stay, as has Wendy's sister and her husband, who live in Spain. My Mum and Dad are coming out next month for 8 weeks).

Over Christmas and New Year, we had a holiday in Queensland on the beautiful Sunshine Coast with some friends who came out from London. Back to work on Jan 6th...although I think many people are still away. Sydney seems to have almost shut down at the moment! I guess it will be back to normal next week.

We have been very lucky in that we got in and out of the property market at the right time in London to be able to afford something nice in Sydney and also with my company having an office in Sydney. All in all, we are thoroughly enjoying it.

Australia is not perfect. Some things frustrate me but if you just get on with it, you get used to it. However, for us, we had had enough of London (7 years) and we needed a change and we are both very confident this is the right move for us.

Hope that's helpful and perhaps of some encouragement to you.

All the best

Colin

Claire

Hi

We arrived in June '02 and stayed with rellies for a few weeks until we found a place to rent. My husband started work within a couple of weeks after getting the first job he applied for. He is a motor mechanic and has pretty good working hours. He is home for 4.30pm most days. He works just outside the City at Burswood and he travels around 30 mins each way.

My eldest child settled into school almost straight away and now has lots of friends. My youngest starts Kindy next month and we are both looking forward to it!!!

We bought a block of land a couple of months after we arrived and since then most of our time has been taken up with choosing a builder, sorting out house plans, choosing bricks, interior, floors coverings, blinds etc. It has been a bit stressful at times but we have finally finished choosing everything and building work should start this week. Phew. Not sure I'd want to go through that all again in a hurry, if ever.

We are enjoying the weather now that summer is here. It was cold when we arrived in June, especially in the evenings so we will definately be buying a heater for the next winter, and an umberella as it rained a lot. I think it is usually somewhere between 26 and 40 degrees at the moment. We have only had to put the air con on during the night on one occasion though. We don't mind hot weather but we do look forward to cooler day, especially on a weekend when we want to go places with the kids. I think it was about 26 degrees this weekend which was just nice.

As Colin says, Austalia is not perfect but we are enjoying ourselves and have no regrets. None of us have been homesick which surprised me. I am pretty close to my Mum and the kids were very close to their Grandparents but they talk on the phone every week and so far they haven't really said they miss them! They are oviously having too much fun right now. Maybe a few years down the track we might want to return to UK, but for now we are just enjoying the experience.

Love
Claire xx

pread

We emigrated at the end of September last year to Melbourne's Eastern suburbs. Had a rough time at first trying to find both a rental house and a job, but got both of those by early December. Really enjoying it so far, no major disappointments, and we're starting to get out and about like a normal family.

We actually keep an online diary (weblog), going back to the day we applied for our 457 visa, so that the folks back home can keep tabs on what's happening. If anyone's interested, I'll post the link.

Cheers,
Paul.

mashiraz

Yes please, very interested.
Cheers
Mash..

sue5665

We actually keep an online diary (weblog), going back to the day we applied for our 457 visa, so that the folks back home can keep tabs on what's happening. If anyone's interested, I'll post the link.

Hi,
Please can you send me a link too.
thanks Sue

springflower

Hi
I would be very interested in the link too.

Thanks Jan

laurash

Love to have the link too. Thanks

karenvirginia

would enjoy reading your story.
has anyone seen the video that outbound newspapers (australian news) advertise? alan and i got it and sat for 2 hours watching but found it skimmed over a great deal. i think i am obsessed with the shipping aspect as want to take as much as poss and have so many questions. quite interesting all the same (the couple who went to adelaide did not plan very well after 12 months still no work and they are probably back in the uk now)

heres to the gold coast in august

karen

tinaj

They are looking for people to 'star' in the new video that they are making - definately not for me, I am sure they show all the awful bits.
I havn't seen the video, is it worth buying?

karenvirginia

not really, much more info available right here. only two stories were to oz and like i said not the REAL info we need.
it was a watchable video though with some nice scenery.
they showed some film of the emigate show at sandown last year, i thought it may be interesting but there was crowds queuing outside the doors and it appeared to be made up of stalls all trying to make you buy i think - removal co's, agents etc. they have a couple of seminars but this show is for people emigrating all over the world.
has anyone actually been to one of these shows and how relevant is it if all you are waiting for is the visa? we would need to book a hotel as its a long drive so it needs to be relevant.
karen

BookBear

Well, I'm not a recent mover (relatively speaking), but I'm happy to report that I've been here for just over two years now, and I'm still loving it. Hardly a day goes by without me consciously thinking "I'm so happy to be here".

My partner and I are most likely going to buy the flat we've been renting, so we'll have less disposible income, but I can't ever imagine us being in this position if we were still living in London, not for another few years at least.

My dad's over from Ireland at the moment, so I've been showing him the sights, and discovering more things I like about the place.

Generally life in Adelaide is good.

Nara

pread

Here's the link :
http://readthompson.blogspot.com/

The newest entries are at the top. To see older entries, you'll have to use the archive links on the left.

Please note that it doesn't only contain visa & immigration entries, but also family guff like "Nathan's got the sniffles at the moment". You have been warned.

Cheers,
Paul.

FOX

We also bought "the video" and settled doen expecting to learn a lot. Nothing much that was new, but if anything made us feel better, as we felt we had done a lot more research and pre planning than most of the people on the vid!

Oh and also confirmed our decision of not wanting a tearful farewell at the airport!!

Also bought Billy Connolly's Australian tour to re watch, far more inspiring!

Sarah