British Expats - 2 years in NE Victoria

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2 years in NE Victoria

Well I haven't been on here for a while as I have been too busy with life in general so I thought that I would update you all on how we are going.
We moved over September 2005 never having been to Australia before and on a 457 visa with hubby's work. We did have the added security of knowing that they had started the application for PR as soon as we received the 457 and that they were paying for it all so it really wasn't too much of a worry. However moving from Belgium to Australia with 4 kids and knowing no one was a bit of a risk:blink:. It was something that we thought that we could take on though as we had just lived in Belgium for 3 years and this was something that we had always thought about but never had the opportunity to do so what the hey. We arrived with a bit of cash but no house profits so buying was out of the question for a while. Or first jobs upon arrival were to set about looking for a rental and getting the kids into school which was all pretty straight forward. Our youngest had been in school for a year in Belgium but here couldn't even start Kinder (10 hours per week) until the following year so I found a couple of playgroups nearby which broke the week up a bit.
I made a lot of friends at the local playgroup, school and through my involvement in amateur dramatics and we were quite the local celebrities as the town didn’t have many migrants at the time. I am quite an outgoing person and enjoy a chat and a coffee so slipped into Wang life pretty quickly managing to find the like minded people who had seen something of the world beyond the town limits and we have made some really strong friendships.
Money was always a bit of an issue as things are not really all that cheap over here and we needed 2 cars so we decided to buy one outright and take out a novated lease for the other and this has worked well. Although Ian is on a good salary compared to most people that we know we underestimated some of the expenses of having 4 kids over here. Luckily his job included excellent health cover and various other little things that helped to ease the burden, but holidays and large expenses were a no go and still are really.
Our first year was really traumatic as Ian's father passed away and we had to rush back to the UK which hit us hard. Our eldest son hated it here and struggled to settle dropping out of both of the local schools and I struggled to get my qualifications recognised so that I could do my teacher training course. Through all of this though the local people were really helpful and friendly and we struggled through, moving rentals 3 times in the process :blink:. We didn't expect this to be easy but there was more than one occasion that I found myself looking at houses back in the UK and wishing that we were going back. But these thoughts were only there when things were at their lowest and all in all everyone was happy here. I felt that I was taking a lot of the stress as I could see how unhappy Sam was and Ian was struggling with his father's sudden illness and death. I was also ill with my arthritis which is partially stress linked so at times I felt really lost here. We had some links with people in Melbourne and went along to the ExPat meets there much to their amusement (a 3 hour drive each way) and this really helped. We also found some local expats which meant that I was able to sound off to someone over a cuppa and work through the harder times.
Our second year has been so much better in comparison (which is why we are still here probably ;) ). I got offered a place on my course and our youngest started school. I also got offered the opportunity to direct a play with the local drama group and started helping to run the youth drama group. The play went so well that we won loads of awards at the NE Victoria Drama awards and we had a real laugh from start to finish. It was around this time that I began to see more and more how wonderful the opportunities are out here if you go for it and we began to settle more and more. My course was pretty full on being full time and it stretched me to my limits but it also gave me something to do for me which is what I seriously needed. (If anyone has any questions abut the graduate diploma of education just PM me). So at the end of this year I am a qualified teacher with a full time job for next year and the kids are all finally settled with our eldest starting TAFE next year.
We have bought a wonderful old house (between 100 and 150 years old) which was the old bakery in the town and we are getting plans drawn up to renovate. By the end of the work we will have a house that we would never have been able to dream of in the UK and although we will have a mortgage it won't be too bad and definitely nothing like we would have to struggle with if we went back.
So we are now living in a small community just outside of town and the kids go to the local country school. We have made some really good friends and are beginning to feel really settled as we head into our 3rd year. It has been a real rollercoaster and although people say that a lot you have to experience it to really understand just how much it is true. We have got through this by being able to support each other and by being able to rely on friends here when we needed to. I believe that we are very lucky to have had this opportunity and I constantly find myself wondering how this all happened. I have got a sense of humour that has helped with a lot of things and also I tend to try to look for the positive in life where possible as I work on the fact that it is up to me to make things work and if I don't put in the effort then noone is going to do it for me. We always would have gone back to the UK if either one of us had felt that we really couldn't copebut I know that Ian and the 3 younger kids have been happy since the second we arrived so it would have had to be impossible for me to carry on before we would have turned around and gone back to the UK. We also watched my parents go back to the UK from the USA and then return there after 12 months so that has always been in the back of our minds.
We are planning to take our citizenship test around May next year as soon as they will have us and I will not live it down if I fail as I will be teaching a lot of the subjects that they ask about :p.
Sorry if this has been rambling but good luck to all that are starting out and please drop me a PM if you are thinking of heading out to country Victoria and have any specific questions as I might be able to help.
Nicky