clarkey

Hi - After reading this you all may think I am a little bit tapped but here we go. I am a Police Officer, have never been to Oz (but everyone I know that has, says it is great,brill etc etc) but WA Police are later this year recruiting Officers from foreign countries. The starting wage for my length of service is about $50000 which is a pay cut in UK terms but I have heard cost of living is cheaper over there. I would be based in WA, but exactly where is unknown.

So my questions are:

1. Is it really as good to live there as everyone says?

2. Is $50000 a good wage to live on, bearing in mind my wife would not walk straight into employment? (Excuse my ignorance) I have been told that $50K would be a struggle for mortgage, and we have one wee bairn on the way too

3. Are house prices reasonable, and is $50K enough for decent mortgage etc (obviously will have some savings from sale of overly priced house in UK!!!)

It is a long way off and there are many hurdles to get over but I want to get as much info as possible to make an informed decision.

Any info welcomed

Thanks

Ross

geordiebloke

Hi Ross
I'm in a similar position to you and as I'm still in the UK
can't really advise on your queries.
I would say however that most questions you have will probably be well
catered for over on the Australia forum.
Steve.

zoe13

well we like it! it's all very personal though. we like being outside, i love the sun, like the fact that it is laidback, that traffic jams are pretty chilled events (we are in adelaide. lee joined SAPOL) and just think it is better for kids - we had a baby out here a few months ago. what do you like doing? do you love where you live now? do you spend all your free time with your mates or family? if you have read the forums here you will see that some people love it here, some people hate it, others love perth, others don't, some think adleaide is a dump, some think it's great, some hate the fact that australia is so far away (have to admit to being confused with this one: did they mistake it for france or something??! lol everyone, LOL) etc etc.

i was lucky enough to have been to australia (perth) several times before we moved, lee only once. i don't know how people go about moving without ever being to the country before, they are brave! we had never been to adelaide and it did feel a bit nuts! but at least we had an idea about what the country/people/culture was all about (some people on here may scoff at the fact that i used the word 'culture' when discussing australia, but i don't miss uk 'culture' if by that they mean stately homes and old town halls etc, or even the yob 'culture' that is so trendy in high streets every weekend. funnily enough). don't think that it is uk with sunshine, it isn't and it certainly isn't perfect, nowhere is. it is a decent, honest place, pretty straight up. that is how we have found it.

lee is still on probie wages at present, i think around $44k. it's not easy with me not working in a paid job ('just' a mum, but the benefit payments aren't bad actually) and we are only renting at present. we have a car and a motorbike bought outright (neither new, waste of money anyway IMO) and we have a deposit in the bank when we do eventually buy. please don't get bogged down in all the crap that gets thrown around on the various threads on the forum, but i would seriously think about why and what you are doing.

i know a few people that have gone back to the UK that started here with SAPOL and they never could explain why they even applied in the first place; they were all happy in their careers in the UK, they had good social lives, close family etc. it was something we were trying to do the usual points route, but when the police started recruiting we would have been mad to not go for it. we both miss our family, lee more than me, but the positives (for us, so please don't shoot me down anti-aussies) outweigh that negative.