iwilldoit

Hi everyone
Well its been 1 year, cant believe it, its gone so fast, as a family who came out here with 4000 dollars and 3 suitcases, id say we have done really well. Life is wonderful if not different, My OH has a good job with good prospects, and my 6 year old daughter who has just broken her arm is happy. Just a reminder to those who are about to move here, the ambulance service number is 000, could i remember it noooooooooo nightmare, the hospital here in Townsville was just brilliant, could not believe the level of care, my daughter was operated on at 3am. In england she would have had to wait till the morning, just wonderful care, so i hope that puts peoples minds at rest as to the NHS her in australia. we did have a bit of a shock a few weeks back when we received a letter from the agents who we rent this house of, telling us that the owners had decided to sell, that was just after me telling the agents i wanted another 12 months here, real panic as i now had to find another house, not that easy here, lots of viewings, trying to be the first to put an application in, then the waiting to see if the owners say the big yes. anyway its worked out well and we move next week, not very settling though, and is always a rushed thing, so hopefully next year we will try and buy a property. As a lot of women probably would agree there is nothing like having your own property, especially as here you are not allowed to hang a picture without the owners permission. But hey you have to go by there rules here. Well i have to say that i still love the place and the weather and the people, and now have no worries on the medical care, something i had not thought about, and the funny thing was that the paramedic was english the nurses at the hospital were english, the doctors were german, so i did not see a whole lot of australians in the hospital lol. Anyway next update 2 years, to everyone have a good xmas and hopefully a happy new year down under...
sharon and david

mindblower

[[/QUOTE]

Well done in year one !

hitchcock71

well done x great post x

The A Team

Great post.......Townsville is a wonderful place and we love it here too

THORPES

Well done.

Thanks for the great post. Its good to hear from families who have made it with little money.
Its reasured me that we can do it also.

Hope your daughter gets better soon.

Jill
xxx

snoo

Hi...........just wondering if that lovely little ball of fluff in the avatar is yours and if so....how have you found renting with a dog in tow?
Lisa,x

Sammy T

Hey Sharon

Long time, no see

Glad to hear all is going well, sorry about your little girl's arm, hope she is coping well with it in plaster, good to hear that the hospital was quick and efficient.

Bit of a pain about the rental but at least you've managed to get something else which can be hard when there is a lot of competition around.

We are doing well here, have got over our earlier wobbles and are buying a house, all being well we should be in before Christmas which will be great for the children especially. It is not exactly what we dreamed of when we first planned to move here but we never had as much money as we had intially hoped due to house market in UK, crap exchange rate when we changed (if only we'd waited) but its a new build in a pleasant area, only 10 minutes from where we are now and I can't wait to have somewhere to call home!! Children continue to settle well, enjoying school and hubby is probably changing his job after Christmas as he hates it with a passion!

Take care

Sam x

iwilldoit

Hi Lisa
Yep she was ours, but unfortunately to expensive to bring with us so we found her another home.... have found it to be fairly hard here to rent with a dog in tow, so be warned, it has to go onto the rental form and of course the owners who pick the tennants would rather have the ones with no pets, in saying that dogs are huge here, and you find that most people keep there dogs outside, i have to say not my idea of having a dog, and there are rentals that allow dogs. just your luck really.

sharon

iwilldoit

Hi Sam
Good to hear from you, glad things are working out for you, have to say that after this rental experience we are looking to buy in the next few months, but of course we have no monies to put down, but the govermnt has made it a little easier to buy before june just now, so its possible. and at least i wont have to ask if i can hang a picture up lol. sorry to hear your oh does not enjoy his job, its hard that, my oh is away now adays more than he is here, but he does enjoy the job, which is a bonus i suppose. i just feel like a work widow lol.

sharon

iwilldoit

Hi
Just wondering were abouts you are.........
sharon

The A Team

Hi Sharon

Living in Kirwan but I work for Stockland Development who are selling the land at North Shore. They are the same developers who have done Pacific Pines and North Lakes, both very popular on BE PM me if you'd like some more info as I'd be happy to help

Bluekim

Hi Sharon,
sorry to write to you out of the blue but after reading your post I think that you sound like a genuine person and I've value your information.
My husband has a job in Townsville and we are moving July/August 2009. Can you please tell m what life if really like in Townsville. I'm quite nervous about the whole thing and am trying to research as much as I possible can about the place. We have three children, two boys 14 and 12 and a little girl aged 2. We also have Chalie our jackrussel of 8 years. Do you know which are the best schools? We are going to rent and would like to have a house in the catchment area of a good school. Was it really expensive to take your dog? What is day to day life like there? What sort of things do you and your family get up to? Sorry I know that you are probably very busy and answering a strange womans questions is the last thing that you'd be wanting to do but it would really mean a lot to me and my family.
Many thanks and hope to meet you next year. lol. Can't wait to get there.

iwilldoit

Hi There
Well, firstly Townsville is a wonderful place to live, it is growing and growing, so there is more shopping, more property being built. for me it has just everything you need, not to big but not to small, days out here, loads to do, from the different beaches to magnetic island, to the aquarium, there is loads. for us the weather was one of the main attractions about coming to the tropics, i just love all the seasons, some would not as now for instance it is hot and humid and will only get worse of the next few months, but once you get used to it, its not so bad, in the winter months i found that it could get quite chilly especially in the mornings and evenings, but that because its normally so hot. i still find it amazing to go into places and feel chilly and want to come outside to the heat, were as in england it was the other way round lol. I have just moved to a new estate called bohle plains, from douglas, my daughter goes to a public school called annandale, and i find it to be juhst great and most impotant my daughter loves it, there are things in the school system here that you will find strange the security issue in the school, ie there is none, takes a little getting used to, but all in all good school, and if you dont want to pay probably the best public school in townsville, i would say, so your choices of areas for that school are kirwan, douglas, annandale, i have as i say just moved to out of the catchment area, but as she was already in the school it makes no difference to them. it is a wonderful life for children, and you can see it in everything they do and say, bringing your dog. understandably you want to, but a word of warning that you will have some problems with a rental especially as you will be new here. also you will have to rent some sort of holiday accom firstly i would have thought unless you have people here to stay with, think carefully about bringing, him, my brother is the inspector of the rspca here and you could not imagine how many cats and dogs end up there due to owners being unable to rent with an animal.
now you do have a better chance if you rent the older properties on closer to the city, but for me i wanted no hassel so the new properties are a better choice for me. so you have to consider were the kids will go to school, you have to start in the catchment area if you want them to go to annandale for instance, after they are in its up to you.
but as for the choice of moving here, i dont think you will be dissapointed, life is very good here. and i for one would never think of moving.....

hope this helps a little, if you need any info costings ect, dont hesitate to ask.
sharon and david

Bluekim

Thanks for all of that information iwilldoit. That was amazing. You sound like me, if the children are happy and settled then that makes you happy too. I am about to look online at Annandale school and also Kirwans.
I am really upset about our dog having to stay behind, we have had him for 8 years and he is such a big part of the family. Oh well will have to deal with that when the time comes! Do you work? I'm not planning on working as my daughter is only 2, she'll be 3 by the time we get there. I'll try and find a nursery for her as she is attending one at the moment, is it normal in Townsville from small children to attend nursery?
God I'm wishing my life away right now, I just want to be there. settled and enjoying family life.

iwilldoit

Hi
Well I was working for Telstra, but i found that the before care and after care was just so tiring for shosh, so we made the dec for me not to work till she was a little older and able to cope with the long hot days... some children of course have no choice but to get used to it, but im one of the lucky ones and we cope on one wage.....your dec to leave the dog is probably the best one, especially at her age. The major nursery here is the abc, but at the moment things are a little unsure for them as a lot of them are closing as the company is in recievership, but there are others and you find it no hassle to get your child in, but beware that the cost is high unless your oh is in the forces.

sharon