Clare Everest

Hi everyone!!

Its nice to know that there are others that don't like everything in OZ!!

How long do you give it before you hang up the towel?

We have only been here for 2 months and the costs are already mounting!!

Do we buy a house and see if things get better... I thought that maybe we could give things 4 years.

So far I am feeling that the longer we leave it the more difficult it will be to go home... the kids will be so far behind at English school as the OZ school are no way as good!!!

Maybe things will be better when the sun shines!!!

Bald Badger

2 months aint long enough, what part of Melborne do you live? I always liked Melborne nice buildings and such, The weather gets better from November onwards, though winter ther is bloody cold Regards Johnny Bald Badger

Clare Everest

Hi

We are looking at giving it 4 years.... Do we go to the expense in the mean time of buying a house or carry on renting?

We are living in the hills at the moment in Emerald..

Luke I Amyofath

I dont know how high the "hills" are but I can tell you that the average temperature falls 2 degrees celsius for every 1000 feet above sea level.

Sorry to hear you are thinking of moving back to uk after such a short time.
Are you working ? If you are, you have little to lose by staying a while longer.

Good luck

HiddenPaw

Hi Claire
We're going back - we said we'd give it minimum 2 or 3 years but we have a baby on the way so we decided to go back a little bit sooner rather than later.

The way house prices are rising in Melbourne, it may be wise to buy as in 2 years you can make a healthy profit. Some areas (mt Martha for example) have gone up about 25% (I think) in the last 12 months alone. Other places are on an rise of about 15% p.a - you need to check with real estate people to get the figures (although there are articles virtually every week about house prices and rates of increase in the weekend papers).

I know it's been freezing lately - we were talking abou this yesterday - this time last year (about 21 Oct) I started a new job and the first week I was going into the CBD in a summer skirt, bare legs and a blouse - no jacket! I'm sure it will warm up soon.

It does take time to settle in and you're gonna feel the ups and downs - I found the homesickness came in waves. Where is Emerald? Is that out the Dandenongs way? We are in Kew which is about 8kms east of the CBD.

HP

HiddenPaw

Hi Claire
Ignore what I said about house prices in the above post!! I got it totally wrong. There is an article in today's Herald Sun about Melbourne house prices, what the average is for each suburb, and percentage increase over last 12 months. The internet article doesn't list the individual suburbs - but I'll take the printed article along to the Melbourne meetup tomorrow.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...5E2862,00.html

Jirrupin

Hi Claire,

we have bee her since mid august and are asking the same questions as you. we have beenunable to secure jobs so far and that does mean the savings we brought with us are not going to last. We haven't yet transferred all of our money and the poor exchange rate doesn't help.

We have no set timescale, we also have no children to worry about which helps. At the moment we are thinking that we will be here at least another 5-6 months, if we see a house we really want to buy then we will revisit the finances, if we are still unable to get jobs in that time, I can't see how we can afford to stay any longer. But it doesn't mean we can't come back, still years to go on the visa.

Clare Everest

Thanks you guys!!

At least I don't feel as though I am the only one to feel the need to return..

The big question will be though, where to resettle in the UK...surely we could feel the same there.

I have to say that the longer I am in Melbourne the more i like it, plus just saying to the kids about returning makes them cry...

My hubby has secure work in the city and loves his job and knowing that we have put a 4 year limit on things makes it alot more enjoyable....

I think that we will buy here, where though is a very big question!!

Looking forward to meeting you Hidden Paw...got your brollie.

Goodpubmisser

You know when I said this in the Australian forum, i.e the Australian education system was not as good as the English one I really got hassled.

It turned out though that the main person hassling me was actually an Australian teacher living in Scotland (TennisOZ)! Some sort of vested interest I think - and how people like this are allowed to subscribe to a British Expat's forum I don't know.

I remember that my first girlfriend in Australia was a Vet from Perth. She said that her parents had taken her to England when she was young. Because the Perth education system was so bad, they put her in a year below the one that she should have been at her English school.

When she returned to Australia (at age 14) they put her a year ahead of the other kids in Perth and as a result she started university at the age of 16!

For myself as an Engineer I am sometimes suprised at how little the Australian Engineers know about things which I regard as basic.

I don't have any kids but I would not trust schools in Australia. Also Sydney has one of the highest if not the highest, suicide rates for young men in the world. A very children unfriendly country if you ask me!

janeyray

We've only been here 8 months and are returning to the UK next year. I would go back tomorrow if it wasn't for the animals (we bought over here with us) having to have Rabis vaccines and blood test etc.!!

We bought a house about 3 months ago. We have made money on it though and will be returning to the UK with more money than we bought out with us

I also agree that the education is not as good as the UK. Lots of people have the attitude that it's ok for 6-7 years old not to be taught basic maths, English etc, they have all the time in the world. I disagree with this and feel at this age a child is ready to learn.

We are making our move to the Uk in time for our daughter to start school in September next year. she will be going into year 3 in the Uk but will have only started year 2 here, in the February. I don't think she will have any trouble catching up but I'am glad she is still young. An older child may find it more difficult to adjust from the Oz education?

I knew after about 3 months that this place wasn't for us. I felt like a hugh weight had been lifted off my shoulders when we decided to return. It has made staying here till next year so much easier. Although I'am counting down the months! I can honestly say that I wouldn't get use to it over time, I think once you have made your mind up, then returning is the best thing?

Rosy

Just thought I'd back up this thread with a little personal experience.

We moved to Oz to give us all, particularly, the children, a "better life". However, after less than 18 months, we have returned to the UK, because of several reasons, not least of which was the dire standards of Oz education.

Our children, both bright, left the UK and went to Oz schools where my eldest (9 at the time) was put up a year and was still way, way ahead of his classmates. My youngest (7 at the time) was put into the same year group and basically learnt nothing in her time in Oz.

they have returned to UK schools and at a recent parents meeting, our son's teacher told us that he was now behind his classmates and needed to do a lot of catching up in order to do well in his Year 6 SATS next year (he got straight 3's in his Year 2 SATS here).

This merely confirmed my opinion about Oz education - if you can afford to pay for it, then private education seems to be a little better over there, but otherwise, forget it.

We liked a lot about Australia, but as eldest has to start Secondary School next September felt we had to move when we did in order to get him into a good school here (which we now have, thank goodness).

If your children are of average or above average intelligence, then I personally believe the UK is a far better place to be educated (with the proviso that you obviously need to chose a school here carefully - but generally speaking good schools are in good areas i.e. if you live in a "nice" part of the UK, then the kids will go to a fairly good school).

Majj

I am a bit suprised to read that the Australian Education appears to be quite a bit behind UK's.
But I suppose if you stick it out in Australia and your kids end up getting degrees from University, I suppose it wouldn't make too much difference, or would it?:scared:

jandjuk

well this subject (education) has been done to death in the aus/nz forum, and vested interest or not, I'm not about to 'hassle' anyone giving their opinions.

All I will say is that I work in one of the UKs best universities (in one of the top dept's in it's field globally), and from a intake of around 25 new graduates this year, there are 5 Australians. The year before there was 4. There are also at least two very senior academics who are from Aus.

Take from this what you will, but it must be that at least that some aspects of the Aus education system are up to scratch.

In addition, they are the most confident, outspoken ones. They are the ones that run the student societies, conferences etc , and are more often than not, referred to as being amongst the best students we have.

dugongs

i think the biggest problem with aussie unis is they accept far lower standards than would be tolerated in a good uk uni. Bit like a third rate poly vs oxbridge comparing aussie unis to brit ones.

you cannot blame bright aussie students for wanting to study in the uk and obtain their degrees etc from unis with reputations for the highest standards known worldwide. The alternative for when they leave australia as most bright students will to obtain better jobs given the limited opportunities in oz is to try and cope with a degree from an unknown aussie uni which would be considered of dubious quality.

The really interesting thing would be how many of those aussies studying at our top unis went through the state system in oz and how many had rich parents and were able to benefit from private education which is far more common option in oz. In fact as a professional person it seemed to me that everybody that could afford to was educating their kids privately in oz - that sounds alarm bells to me about the state of ozzie state education. compare that to the uk where there are excellent state schools around.

jandjuk

well yes this is true, but my point was that these students already have undergraduate degrees from australia, and in the case of the academics, masters and phds from aus. Which shows that aussie uni's can foot it with any in the world when producing students of oxbridge graduate level quality.

this would be interesting to know. perhaps I'll do some quizzing one day, to get some more rather flimsy anecdotal evidence! (in support or not).

Not sure about Oz, but some of the best schools in NZ are state schools.