bundybell

Kev & Juliette
You are more than welcome to join the forum.
Another set of expats in Bundy is just brill.
It will be nice to know others out there.
I will email my friends in Bundy to see if they would like to join Kathy is a local girl but Andrew is a pomm and has been in Bundy for 15 yrs.
Kathy works with an expat called Tracey i will ask for her email address and see if she would like to join us. Her husband is ex navy and called Steve. they have been in Bundy for about 2 yrs. We will have our own little community going 'good a'

We stayed in Bargara in Feb when we visited Kathy & Andrew, its lovely there i would like to live there but as you may ahve already read we have 2 adult children and i think it would have been to quiet for them.
If you dont mind me asking how old are you?

Its nice to hear of someone elase working at the friendlies. My boss will be Jackie Emery and i will be working on the acute medical ward there. I am working in Cardiff at present. If i every get there mind, they are taking so long to process our application. The waiting is killing, we was supposed to have left the Uk 5th sept but im still waiting my visa!!

Stay in touch i look in everyday it will be nice to know how you are getting on. I will email Sharron to tell her about you because shes out there now.
Cheers
Teryna

bundybell

Hi The murrays
This is just great more pomms living to Bundy a?
I was beginning to think everyone just moved to the cities.
Makes me just want to get out there even more.
Cheers
Teryna

sharron2074

Hello everyone,

so great to hear more fellow Englishmen coming to Bundy, you will be surprised that there are loads of English people here, my hubby has just started working in Bunnings and almost everyday he hears or talks to English people.

We have been here a year in nov it has gone so quick, we are starting to feel more at home now but still miss people back home and TESCO's!!! supermarkets here are not very good (in my opinion).
We have land at Innes park (Bargara can be a bit on the expensive side) and we are building a house with Dixon homes (www.dixonhomes.com.au), they are very reasonable and have lots of designs to choose from. We never even thought of building, we had always thought we would get an old queenslander (but too much work), we looked at loads of houses when we first got here but none had everything we wanted and in town the plots can be quite small and overlooked, so we looked into building and found that to be better value for money over buying an old house (of course it depends who you build with but like I said Dixons are very well priced), we have 1/2 an acre at Innes Park with views of fields out the back, very quite neighbourhood.

Hi Kev & Juliette, how are you settling in? perhaps we could all meet up sometime? do you have children?

Schools: my oldest son (age 14) goes to St lukes, it is meant to be the best school in Bundy but is also the most expensive (we choose that school because he already had his cousin there and thought that it would be easier for him to settle in), my youngest son (age 5) goes to Woongarra state school, which is a lovely school, we are happy with it.
The Christian college is meant to be very good too and it is much cheaper than St Lukes, if you are looking for a private school.
Kalkie school is meant to be good too, that is a state school and is a primary school.

Well great to see this tread take off, I'd almost given up on it as I had n't had any replies and now everyone is coming out of the woodwork (LOL)!

Will be on here more often from now on.

Sharron

markandgill

Hi Everyone

Great to hear there are a few more of us going to Bundaberg, we will be able to organise a get together! Bargara sounds nice too, we didnt go there when we were in Oz in May but we have been looking at land all around the Bundaberg area.

My hubby Mark is hoping to get a job in the Rum Factory, he currently works for Baileys and this is owned by Diageo who also owns Bundy Rum, there is a position available in the Factory at the minute, but they want it filled by the end of the year, so it all depends if we have the Visa in time, and the flippin house sold! fingers crossed anyway.

keep in touch

Gill

kevnew1

Hi Bundybell and everyone else heading to Bundaberg
I arrived in Bundaberg 5 weeks earlier than Kev and everyone in the UK said I was mad to do so. I have found the locals to be very friendly, the weather is fab and I feel that I'm in paradise...until I go to work. I even told Kev that I was coming back to the UK because I hated it! Fortunately Kev is very good at reasoning which is why I am still working at the Friendlies. Basically, I have found it very hard to stop saying 'I didn't do it like that in the UK'. I have only been a radiographer for 2 years but felt confident with my skills. I now feel that I have to relearn most of my techniques to be able to fit in. I haven't got a problem with that but it does knock yor confidence. I won't go on about work because I'm sure in 6 months time it I won't remember what wound me up so much.
We both can't wait to meet you all when you arrive and if we can help you out in any way then we will. I am 36 and Kev is a 40, we dont have kids but we do have a dog called Woody. Our neighbours send their 7 year old to St. Lukes and they rave about it in comparrison to the school in Bargara.
As for where to buy land in and around Bargara we have done an awful lot of looking and comparisson, Innes Park seems to be a lot of land for your money but we chose to be a little nearer to the facilities of Bargara so are concentrating on the Golf Links development.
Sharon, would love to meet for coffee and a chat please pm us so we can make some arrangements.
Best of luck everyone, stick with your dream as it really is fab out here. 29 degrees today, the sea is very blue as is the sky.
Juliette and Kev.

bundybell

Hi Juliette & Kev
Glad to hear you are liking Bundaberg its a lovely place isnt it?
How did you come to want to settle there its not really that well known a place. Im just loving the fact you are there and the others that have joined the site.

Im sorry your not so fond of work at the moment to be honest thats something im worried about. Ozzies are so confident and where as we are a little more reserved in our approach to people they just go straight in.
I only qualified 18 months ago so i will be in the same boat as you. look on the positive side. we havent learnt to many bad habits so we should be able to fall into the ozzie way of doing things easier.
We have no pets just the kids but they are all grown up now. We are going to get a dog when we get there. because we sold our house in dec and have been renting we had to find new homes for our cats and my dog died a couple years ago but weve decided a dog is just what we want. Lucy our daughter wants one like paris hilton one she can carry around
O well i best go they will all be in from work in a minute and they hate me on the computor all the time.
Im becoming obsessed with looking on BE hoping i will find some miracle way of getting my visa granted.
I just want to get over there now even more so now ive made contact with everyone on the site.
Im glad its hotting up its getting colder here yuk

Stay in touch i love to read anything to do with living in Bundy
Teryna

bundybell

Hi all,
I got a case officer today she wants a couple of things and then my agent reckons we will be in Bundy for christmas.
We have to give months notice at work and for house rental.So maybe if all goes well we will be there mid november.

Im so excited
Teryna

markandgill

Hi Teryna

Congratulations! Really pleased for you, would be great to be there for Christmas

Mark and Gill

bundybell

Cheers i think it would be great too!!
Im so excited ive got butterflies
Teryna

bundybell

Well Its Done.
The last papers needed have been signed certified and posted.
They are on their way to my agent as we speak[or type]
Should hear in about 3wks my agent thinks.
So christmas in bundy is looking ever more likely.


How is everyone???
Am i the only one posting on this site
Teryna

markandgill

Congratulations Teryna

Christmas in Bundy would be great.........

Hope all goes to plan and remember to keep in touch whenever you go....we'll meet up for a bundy & coke

Havent posted anything in a few days, not much happening on our visa front, bit depressed at the minute, especially when we read what everone is saying about the backlogs, think we might have a long wait ahead. Oh well, we will try and stay positive

Mark & Gill

kevnew1

Hi Teryna
Great news, you should here very soon from your case officer. We had to send more info that the CO wanted and we thought it would be weeks before our case was looked at again but it was days. So get the bubbley on ice.....
Kev & Juliette

bundybell

Thanks Gill & mark.
We will stay in contact now weve been in contact dont worry. myself and my family will be ready there in Bundaberg to greet you when you arrive


Kev & Juliette,
I hope it doesnt take as long as weve been told it will before they grant our visa we want to book our flights but are to scarred to yet.
We are hoping to get one for the 4Dec i dont know what our families will say mind,
but we cant put it of for ever.
Im not going to tell them im at the friendlies that im flying then, Id like to start after christmas so we as a family have our first christmas in Oz together.

I will keep you all informed

Cheers Teryna

sharron2074

Hi Everyone,

sorry not been checking in over the last few days as my eldest son Lloyd has had projects to complete for school, so not got much of a look in on the computer. I've missed so much.
First let me say CONGRATULATIONS to Teryna and family with your good news about your visa application, sounds like it is going ahead good and you will soon have your visa and be able to book flights etc, how exciting!!! that will be fantastic to be here for Christmas, it's going to be hot! stock up on suncream as the highest you can get here is factor 30.

Hi Juliette, yes would be great to meet up for a coffee, I'll PM you. Sorry you are not liking work too much at the moment, I guess it is hard to have to get used to doing things differently, I'm forever saying 'back home we...' etc i'm sure local people must get fed up with me saying that but it is just a figure of speah.

Gill, keep positive, hope you get some news on your visa soon. What stage are you at? do you already have your house up for sale? I know it is a very stressfull time with all this waiting but it will be so worth it once you get here.

markandgill

Hi Sharon

Our visa application was lodged on 17th August, so its just a waiting game now, we are not sure if we should go ahead and get our police checks and medicals organised yet, Think we may wait a couple of weeks and then start to get them sorted.

Our house has been up for sale since the start of July, we have only had 4 viewers, with only one of them interested (or so she said!) the rest were real time waisters, but sure that is normal. The market here has really died, if we had put it up a few weeks earlier it would have been sold within a few days, oh well! We will just keep our fingers crossed, We would be a lot happier if the house was sold at least we would be one step closer.

We will keep you informed how we are getting on.

Gill