shiels

Tallebudgera Valley, close to Burleigh Heads, to start off with anyhow as we will be staying with my moms cousin. House to stay in until xmas at the latest and a car to use also. How lucky are we? Very we think.......C X

RachelH

wow - that is lucky!

I am not sure where we will stay when we get there. My husband's family live in a 5 bedroom house but they have two kids themselves so we would struggle to all cram in there although they have already insisted that we would have to stay with them until we managed to find somewhere to rent. And from what I read on here it seems that there is lots of competition for rental properties - i.e. about 20 families all going round the same house and then all competing for it. Sounds like a bit of a nightmare to me! My other big worry is saving up and then seeing it all disappear with all the hidden costs and being worse off than we are here.......

Is anyone else shipping their furniture? WE arent bothering as its all so old and tatty!! I think it will just be clothes, CDs, photos and toys for the kids that we send so I am unsure of how long that will take. I have a spreadsheet of all the things we have to do before we go and also what we have to do when we get there - super organised!

iPom

Hi y'all.

British born and married to an Aussie. We now live here in NSW since Easter last year.

Not one regret in coming here whatsoever.

RachelH

iPom - do you plan to go back to visit the UK much? IT seems to be quite prohibitively expensive from the UK (just been reading the Cost of Flights thread) and I know its always so much more for my sis in law to get here than it is for us to go there.

People talk about buying a return from the UK and using it every year, but I'm not sure how feasible that is and anyway you would have to buy a flexible ticket which is pricy anyway!

iPom

Heck no - once in a blue moon for me. Too expensive and really, I've got other places to be...

moneypenny20

Hi I am here on the fab GC on a spouse visa. Hubby was born here to 10 pound pom parents who then went back to the UK when he was 4. We moved out here November 2005 with our two girls 14 and really really nearly 12 who also have dual nationality.

No intention of going back for a visit any time soon but presumably will at some point.

RachelH

Hi moneypen - you obviously like the lifestyle then? I depress myself reading the Moving back to teh uk forum.......I should stay away from it really.

Whereabouts on the GC are you?

iPom

You shoud read it Rach... but recognise there's unhappy people who blame a lot on the place and not on the person.

You're a go getter, Rach, from your posts... I can't see you having too much of a prob moving tbh.

moneypenny20

We love it here. Very settled BUT we were very lucky in very quickly deciding which suburb to move to and then finding our house which, because of neglect, we got for a good price and now own an acre and a half of Gold Coast hill and trees.

You have to read MBttUK but not ever when you are having a 'what if/why' moment. Only go there when you are upbeat. It's good to see the other side of migrating, you won't change your views - who learns from others mistakes? but it does help to be aware that if it doesn't go well immediately, you are not alone.

We are down the bottom, just up from the NSW border. In the hills but five minutes drive to one of the best beaches on the GC

RachelH

Awww you ladies are lovely - I guess the easier thing about having an Australian spouse is the ready made family out there. I also have a friend in Brisbane who emigrated with her Aussie husband 3 years ago and she absolutely loves it. She can get back to the UK easily though as she works for Emirates so gets nice cheap flights!

Plus there are so many people on here who seem to be going to the same area I am sure I will have lots of ready made friends! I go on another site called mumsnet in the uk and there are lots of ladies on the forums on there who live in Aus and a sudden surge in interest in people emigrating - wonder if thats got anything to do with the Wanted Down Under programme!!

moneypenny20

I sort of fall between the cracks on that one. Hubby knows as much about Aus as I do and the only family we have out here is his sister who is in Perth

RachelH

oh well - as long as you love it then who cares!? Have you had loads of visitors?

Scubaemma

Hi Claire, yeah I think I've read on here somewhere that you can't get a permanent position with QLD Govt until you are a PR, but there seems to be a fair few long-ish term temporary positions so maybe I could do for one of those?

Think spending days on the beach sounds like a much better idea though!

sasswa

Hi guys!

Yipee - other chicks with babes and we're all moving to Brisbane! I'm Aussie (been in UK for 4 years now) and married to my Yorkshire lad and now have a little English boy born 8 months ago. My dad is English so I have dual nationality anyway, which made moving to the UK relatively easy.

We've been planning to go for years now but seeing the little man is here and the bleak outlook of England, we're desperate to go home. Yeah, we're going through the 47SP visa and OH's had the medicals and police checks, we just now need to get the supporting evidence together and shoot it off with the application. It makes us feel great hearing that some people have had their visa's in their passports 2 weeks later.....god only hopes.

Once we do that, well all that's left is buying the flights and packing up here, which I'm dreading!! How the heck do you get rid of stuff and live your final few weeks on a minimum, with a little BABY!! Arrgghhhh.

I have my mum in Coffs Harbour (we got married there too in 2005) and a brother in Sydney but being originally from Sydney we just put our foot down - way way too expensive, Melbourne was too miserable and no beach, so the choice has been Bris Vegas. We're looking to go around the Manly/Wynnum area. Friends in Oz are already making the move out of Sydney to Brisbane so that's great and I have a cousin there already, so it's looking promising.

Mel - the Sunshine Coast - love it! And Mooloolaba Surf Club is the BEST. I went there on holiday years ago and that was my frequented spot. Love it. What a great place to bring up kids too.

Can't wait to see my little man become a little nipper.....nippers is the kiddies surf life saving that happens on the weekends. I had to do it as a kid and hated it but that's because I was a bit terrified of the surf - had some bad experiences. Love the beach though......

So yeah, I'm praying we get there before the end of 2007 but we'll see how we go. The job sucks here and OH is over his as well so COME ON!!!

Sasswa

Scubaemma

We'd love to live on the Sunshine Coast but think we'll have to be in Brissie for work so don't think it's really an option. Anyone know if it's possible to commute by train? I'm guessing it would be a fair old journey so don't really fancy it. Especially as we cycle to work in London at the moment and think it would be a shame to add commuting into our lives!

Think it's beautiful up there though - we spent some time all around the area a couple of years ago and then again recently when OH's sister got married there. I like the fact it's so different to the Gold Coast and it would be great to live nearer the nice beaches. But can't have it all!