don544

she has never read anything on BE. She was scared of the gangs of youths hanging around.
don't try and tell me how to be a parent. FFS

eddie007

Uh oh.... Sense of humour bypass???? Maybe I should have put one of these on my post..


the point I made earlier was about the gangs of yooves hanging around looking for trouble in kwinana, and unfortunately they were aboriginal gangs of yooves...

I eventually found HIM and his little Girlfriend Jason about 3km away from where they said they were heading to.... But driving slowly past ANYONE in kwinana at 0100 trying to identify two drunken prats is NOT a good thing to be doing

cresta57

I had visions of moving to Cairns just so that I could join you & TE down at the Centerlink job club

engineer wayne

Hi I am moving over to Rockingham in Feb next year, just a few things I would like to ask is how far is the airport to Rockingham? Whats the place like for crime etc, is there much to do for the kids under 10, what are the schools like and do you pay for them or is it government funded. Where can I hire a car?????????
Any advice please

eddie007

35 minute drive to the airport.... Depending on traffic....

i wokred in The local ED for nearly 3 years... Violent crime less than my home time in the uk, i could count on one hand the number of stabbings we had in, and half of those were family barbeques where the waving of a steak knife had got out of hand.... Where as they were a twice weekly occurance at least at home...

Car driving offences... Probably high in comparrison....

Burglaries, depends on area you live in

Drug problems... No worse than uk.. I think less of a problem than my hometown...

Whether you pay for schooling depends either on visa and choice

Or visa

there are perfectly good primary schools .... Rockingham beach is worth a look.. If you're state... Local Private schools, take your pick at around $3-5k pa
If youre catholic then star of the sea..... Is free and has a good reputation

Lots for kids under 10, cubs, PCYC activities....dancing... Horse riding nearby... Cinemas indoor and outdoor pools, excellent play areas and sporting clubs/facilities, bowling, and of course one of the safest swimming beaches in WA... Surf life saving club and sailing club.....what else would you like???????


We hired from No Birds... Picked up car from airport and delivered them back to city....

engineer wayne

Thanks alot Eddie for the info, I just hope I am doing the right thing I still ask myself is life better in Oz, I chose Rockingham as it is industrialised. Im still nervous about giving up my job here and moving over without employment, I have applied for a few but they dont seem to want to know as im still in England, did you find this to be the case with you???????

eddie007

I'm a nursse so it worked differently for me, I had employment offer before I came out.... Attached to my PR visa...

I hhtink a lot of people find that they arent treated as serious applicants for posts until they actually get here.... Too many people change their minds and don't come....

Life for us is better in. Australia, but everyones experience is different.... Depends on what you have now versus what you want/expect... And how you cope with relocation and adjustment to being so far from friends and family... A lot of variables.... As well as ease of finding employment on arrival..... There are multiple potential stressors...

engineer wayne

I have come on a WA government 176 visa sponsored visa, so in a way this tells me my skills are needed in WA, My missus is also a hairdresser, I think it will be hard with family and friends so far away but I see it as I have my own family now and Im giving them a better lifestyle hopefully.
Also can I ask what happens with your uk pension and tax code etc, how do you get a tax code over there, do you need the equilvalent of a P45 etc. Is there any estate agents we can contact for rented accommodation to get on our feet.
Much appreciated!!!

eddie007

have no idea about pensions mate, sorry.... You apply for a tax file number when you get here... Rentals.... Are a bit like jobs..... They dont take you seriously until you are actually here.....

We did the fully furnished holiday let thing and found a rental once we were here... Honestly you DONT want to rent anywhere on line without checking it out in person first.... They say photos never lie??? Well welcome to australia... What might look ok in the photos may be a roach infested pit with a wildlife sanctuary full of snakes for the kids to play with as a garden, shack in real life....

We have a better lifestyle here... More outdoors stuff to do and more good weather to do it in... Kids sail and fish and swim and sometimes just mong, our intellectually disabled 11 year old is probably the busiest... With horse riding, hip hop dancing, scouts and rifle club..... We still have the housework, wqshing, cooking and cleaning to do, so dont get out and about as much as we'd like to ... But at least at weekends when we have a coffee break from all the regular house hold chores we can dip into the pool, or put the sunnies on and soak up a few rays before getting more of the same....

Same shit much shinier bucket

engineer wayne

Thanks for that didnt give it a thought about furnished holiday let, where would you recommend to live in Rockingham? wheres a nice place and resonably priced area to start out near schools etc. I have a 2 and 9 yr old so with parks etc would be great.
I live in Cheshire at the minute and my life and work balance at the min is good, I just hope I can find a job similar, not to far from where I live. I do suffer with the winters here and like you say with the sun shining you can get to do so much more with kids etc.
How do you find the ozzy people, have you made lots of good mates, also is it true there are load of english migrants in Rockingham?
I really do appreciate all your answers.!!!1

eddie007

Dont be surprised if your work life balance goes tits up for a while.... Its REALLY stressful...arriving... On time lines to find a rental, schools, taxfile numbers, insurance, a car, the whole kit n kaboodle... Even if you're packing up your whole house and bringing it you wont be carrying everything on that plane that you need... And the trips to kmart will be frequent intitially... Picking up stuff you need until your stuff arrives....

Even simple stuff like salt n pepper can spark a trip to coles... You're not bring yer pantry with you neither

Lots of poms in rocko and surrounding burbs... Many of the locals are 2/3 generation pommie decent... Rocko used to be a piss poor pommie shanty town back in the day.... And for many the reputation sticks.... But there have been MILLIONS poured into developing the area, infrastructure etc... The shopping centre has doubled in size since we arrived 4 years ago... All the shops are the same as anywhere else... But thats perth for you..lol

we love it... But then our life is centred round work and children so we dont really want or ask for much.... I suppose we're homebodies... If you want bright lights big city then DONT come to perth, let alone rockingham

As far as recent migrants go... I think you tend to rent north or south of the river and pretty much stay where you land TBH....

I've made good mates, through work and on here... Mainly people who dont post anymore... Aussie mates??? we have a few... But it can be hard, they may have been to school and grown up in the same area and have family here
So They dont invest too much effort into making new friends ... I've met Quite a few have been burned by ping pong poms so dont bother... Remember, they dont need you as much as we need them..... Best advice.... Go to the opening of an envelope if you're invited... You may well start off with a large circle of expat "friends" but they do tend to move or burbs are too far apart... Or they just not your cup of tea...

Dont be fooled into thinking the sun shines ALL the time mate... The winters are COLD, grey and wet... Bring ALL yer woolie jumpers ... You'll need them... Although you can tell the fresh off the plane poms because they are the ones sunbaking and swimming in August when its only 18 degrees and we're all scarfed up.... and the houses arent designed for saving heat so when the temperarure does drop at night you REALLY feel it

If you arent paying for schools then rockingham beach is probably the btter primary.... You're still going to be stuffed for high schools.... Rocko isnt great... Even if that IS where our are kids are...

Being a "holiday" destination you will find plenty of holiday rentals online.... But it wont be the cheapest time to arrive... Take time to look around before renting the first house you see.... When we got here rentals were in short supply... There we thirty families looking at every single one... We HAD to take the first one we were accepted for.... The pool was illegal (patio doors opened straight onto it with no self closing mechanism. And I mean step outside and you wre IN the pool lol..no australian would have touched it) and it was filthy... We cleaned for a week before we could move in... No aircon and right opposite a public payphone... Where cars would screech upto it and people get out and scream down the line at 0200.....

Take photos of the outside and inside when you do sign a lease.... And make notes of every hand mark and chip to any paint and ALL exisiting damage/defects... You will be expected to return the property in the same condition you got it in... Hard with a pristine new build and kids...make sure you document everything in your inspection report.. You WILL loose your deposit if you dont and rockingham has more than its fair share of total SHARKS when it comes to letting agents... And dont be fooled by the fact they may be poms... They are still scum... The horror stories still keep coming... Same with buying a car... Dont be fooled by the matey attitude, they're still sharks.... But sharks that can smell fresh pom and sell lemons...

As for parks... You'd be hard pressed to find anywhere down this way that doesnt have a small green for kids to play on, usually well equipped and the larger ones have free public barbies too....

2 & 9 will be easy to entertain down this way.... It the 20 and 19 that might struggle

engineer wayne

Thanks Eddie, appreciate all the info you have gave me, I just hope things will go smoothly for us now thanks again.

eddie007

I'm sure they will go smoothly... And if you accept it there's always a lot of help offered within the expat community... Paying it forward not just paying it back appears to be the name of the game...

I met some one on here, she lent me her address when we came, because we didnt have a destination address for our stuff to come to... We met up for coffee, then two weeks later discovered we were working in the same small private psychiatric hospital in The city... Still good friends.... And meet up for coffe/wine etc....

Other people I had been talking to on line, via forums, for at least a couple of years before we got here... And we are good mates with in real life....

Good attitude and realistic expectation that its not going to be all wine and roses and it will be hard will help you.

And get the missus to start practicing walking two steps behind you and having to defer to you... Our pommie rental agent told me I should ask my husband whether we wanted to see a slightly more expensive rental before we viewed it... I was the only one working at the time and have always been "in charge" of family finances, even if HE does have final say... I was GOBSMACKED.... She was serious