....your visas!

Having never been to oz before..

Appox 2 years ago we came up with idea of emigrating to Australia, we researched loads of areas, from both the internet and friends who are/have been there. We had our rose tinted glasses firmly attached. Thinking it was the best thing for our family, moving to the sunshine, beach lifestyle with friendly auzzies, better education, etc.

We went to court to get permission to remove our kids, promising the judge that Australia was the promised land, where we would all benefit from moving to, going to the beach at weekends, and doing more family stuff.

We got our visas after 12 months of waiting and decided we would validate by taking a 2 week holiday.

We had already spent approx £10,000 on getting up to the stage of visa grant, we then paid an additional £3500 for our validation trip.

We were so excited on the plane wondering if our expectations would be reached.

How wrong we were.

Everything about the place is the opposite to what we had been told. The aussies we came accross were racist, as soon as they heard a non aussie accent they didnt want to know, taking all their effort just to crack a smile. Hubby went on a building site where there were 8 brickies building a garage, and out of the 8, the only one to acknowledge him was a brit. The guy had heen there for 5 years and had been in melbourne. He moved to Birsbane for work, but there is nothing about. He told us that he was earning $15 and hour, $20 if he did alot of work. They are awkward, en example we went to a zoo, my kids had waited 20 mins to hold a rabbit, which they did, they went back 5 minutes later,the woman was still in the pen, and no other kids in sight, my kids asked if they could hold a different rabbit and were told 1 hold per child, how petty.

EVERYTHING is expensive, meals, drinks at bars, general shopping at woolworths, a pack of mushrooms was $6! clothes are expensive.

We were told that if we got PR we would get free medical care, wrongo! i got ill and had to get some antibiotics, it cost me $65 just to see the doctor, and then $15 for tablets, even with medicare. you can claim back half apparently.

Schools - you have to pay for books approx $200

Hubby got arrested for breaking up a fight, the police told him to go, and because the argument had been settled and they were going for a drink, he got arrested for not following a direction. he was the only one of 4 to get arrestedm even though 2 of the others started the fight and hit hubby. the officer took great delight in abusing him, calling him a pommie prick, and making sure the handcuffs were extra tight.

Yes it is sunny, but it is also very humid, it was uncomfortable to walk around in, never mind working outside in it, and it wasnt even summer.

houses are expensive, gone are the days where you can get a massive bungalow with a pool, and loads of land for peanuts, all you can get now is a static caravan coated with wood on stilts for £150k in a decent area.

We hated the place, and people so much that we begged our airline to get us out, even though we had paid for our hotel in brisbane, we booked a hotel in dubai and spent the last 4 days there in instead.

I cant believe it had cost us so much and the country/people left us so disappointed. We hurt family and friends with our decision to emigrate. Spent £14k, and almost gave up our home and everything.

I am soooo glad we only went one way, the moment those plane wheels left australian runway was the best part of the trip.

ADVICE - It is not the promise land where you can stroll along the beach all day, if you have never been go for a holiday first, we found out the hard way.

Everone has their opinion, some love it, others such as ourselves hated it. This is our opinion based on our personal experience.

Oh no what a story...
We are planning a validation trip now...only because the house wont sell in time!
However, from what you have said it may be a good idea to...indeed...
"Try before you buy!"

HKA
x

Harsh story there CC !

I am really shocked in some ways by your account,

Where abouts were you ? And judging by your signiture you have only just returned after a fortnight ?

Do you think that was enough to get a wider view on the matters that bothered you ?

Was there any good bits ?

And how on earth did you spend £10,000 getting to Visa stage ?? If you dont mind me asking ?




Dougie

Hi we were in Brisbane centre, but we hired a car for the duration and explored several towns which we had researched previously, and from friends opinions. Some of them were like stepping back 20 years!, we met a friend in brisbane who is a nurse , and he said the aussie health system is 20 years behind as well. The only one which was decent would cost you 1million dollars plus for a house there.

Good bit were
1. lone pine animal park (minus the miserable cow , who insisted one hold per child!)

2.leaving!

3. Kebabs (but hubby says Dubai kebabs are better!)

The 10k was for:

£3700 for agent (yes we were screwed!)
£1100 visas
£750 meds
£200ish to certify paperwork with solicitor
£3500 barrister/solicitor/court fees to remove children
£300ish for TRA
£70 police checks
£80 for new passport showing change of name (even though my old one had 9 years left on it)

The to rub more salt in the wound..
£2400 flight
£900 hotel in Brisbane
£330 for car hire
£50 for sat nav in hire car!
£90 to park the hire car at our hotel $20 per night
£1000 for food etc
£300 for our hotel in Dubai (money well spent!)

think thats everything!


It's hard to explain how much and what exactly we disliked about the place. But for me to actually cry because we couldnt get a flight out of the place shows our unhappiness there. We had invested so much time and money into it, cant help feeling deflated. If only we could go back 2 years...

You are right in saying try before you buy, You guys must have had seriously tinted glasses on before travelling!! I wonder what were you expecting??

I guess your post will perhaps help those who are thinking about the greener pastures... go and see the place for yourself before making an application and shelling out your hard earned cash....

It kinda does make sense to visit place and have first time acount of things before you make a decision like this!!

I also think it is very different when you visit a place for a few days on a holiday and live in a place....

Horses for courses!

It sounds like a bad holiday rather than a bad idea. Im afraid that your experience is more or less rose tinted glasses got covered in mud...shame really. Its a very nice place with nice easy going people. Part of the Aussie
way is to take the mick of non aussies....if you give as good as you get they accept you as one of them pretty quick.

I suppose if it has put you off thats that but its a huge place and each city has its own unique ways and style. Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne...all different and different attitudes to folk from overseas. Perth on the other hand has more poms than Aussies so easier to settle in. Ive seen a lot of Aus and we live there 3 months a year for the past 8 years....its not "home" as you know it but its a great new home in its place.

Above all everywhere and every place I have lived has taken a period of misery before I got to the good bit...it takes perseverance. All good things worth having always cost a bit of pain on the way to the nice bit

My suggestion? Here it is...dont quit so easy. Try again. Try another place and dont waste the money you spent....your kids will thank you for it later.

Good luck

Blimey. I think Australia just dodged a bullet.

I'd like to hear where you got that idea from because it's just not true.

HA!!!!

Geez, that's terrible and not at all necessary for the way you were treated. Does anyone have any experience with South Africans? If some Brits are not really accepted what about South Africans?

I have a house there....and perth is packed with poms....most of the people I know are poms and the aussies I know all work with poms so it would be enough for me to say its full of poms. But I take it from your post you disagree. Perhaps we can settle on the fact that each of us has our own experience and mine is that I stand by my comment.

Since the Population of WA is about 1.6 million and the British make up 171,024 of that figure I seriously doubt thats true.....

We just validated

And i think you had your expectations set to high. We were there for three weeks and it turned out to be even better than i expected. We cant wait to get back and start our new life.

And as was said already you have to take a bit of stick being foreign its not like those that have moved to the UK or Ireland from other countries did'nt get any stick. For me being over there seemed like life was about enjoying yourself instead of existing in the rat race we know.

And before i get jumped on i know we were on holiday but we did not treat it as a holiday the only thing that was missing was going to work and if we as a family can have some sort of life like that around work then it will be worth it.

Paddy

Does sound like you had a particularly bad holiday, but some of what you said i thnk is quite true:

Queenslanders aren't multicultural like i think some of the other states are, we have come across this a few times.

Tradies are pretty bad for this, we have experienced it and have a bricky mate that hada really bad time of it.

The police do seem to be a law unto their own.

The weather is pretty stiffling, i don't expect it helped coming from British weather.



we have been here 10months, i hated it when i set foot, but now i think it's OK, i will be going home, not because i don't like Australia but because i want to return to be nearer family.

You are def right though TRY BEFORE YOU BUY!

Love it!

I think it's probably closer to £200k for your average 'shed' in Brisbane though.

I have to say as well that they do grow on you after a while & they are very well suited to the climate.