3 Months in - NSW
 

Hi All

Have been meaning to post this for a while, always found them helpful when I was in the UK - here goes (Sorry if it is long and boring but there is too much to sum up in a paragraph!).

Left Manchester on 2nd Sept. with OH and 3 children aged 12, 8 and 6. The worst day of my life, without question....nothing and no-one can prepare you for the goodbyes and seeing my children so upset is something I find hard to think about........

Flight went well with Singapore Airlines, the only problem we had was too much luggage, you need to be brutal. I sent our furniture etc...with Robinson's, we sent them ahead so that we would pretty much arrive at the same time as our shipment - someone told me if you can live without stuff in the UK it is easier than doing so when you arrive to a new country. My problem was that I decided I would keep toys back for the children to play with, barely sent any clothes and shoes with shipment, sentimental things stayed etc.....this resulted with us travelling with 25 pieces of luggage, we were so overloaded that we had to leave 4 pieces at Manchester Airport and pay 900 pounds to have them follow us over (over 2000 pound to have the 4 cases come on our flight with us!!).

Arrived in Sydney the following day, met by family which was nice, but strange to think that you have left family 24 hours previous in a state of grief and here are others delighted to see you......The next week was not great, lots of running around with 3 bored children in tow! Listed below are immediate things we did:

Bank A/C - We put some easy access money in a regular account and switched our savings into a high interest account earning us interest which is paid every 3 months.

House - Luckily my Dad has a house which we rent from him.

Doctors - Registered with one.

Cars - In the UK we had a Chrysler Voyager - here we settled on a Hyundai Terracan, got this brand new for $36,000. Hyundai might not have been our choice in the UK, but Uncle in the industry said it was a great 4WD value for money and it comes with a 7 year warranty! Husband bought a Houlden (cant remember name!) 4 door saloon for work - $7000.

Insurance - $56 per month for Hyundai and $32 for Houlden. No problems with insurance, did not ask for UK details.

Schools - Children were already registered from the UK. We went for a formal look around and agreed a start date which was one week after arrival - my O/H thought this was too soon, but I felt the sooner they established a routine the better and in hindsight this was a good decision.

Driving License - Although in NSW you have 3 months to change over, it is a great form of ID as it has a photo and your Australian address. This was straightforward and is done at the RTA there and then.

Medicare - You have to be in the country 10 days before you can register. My son had to be treated in this time, but we still got our rebate once we were registered.

Centrelink - Strange, but we hadn't really looked into this, but it was on our list of things to do from the agent. We went into the local office to register and the lady asked why we were there. I explained we had just arrived from the UK and I understood we needed to inform them of our arrival (I thought we just needed to exist in the system!). She asked which of our children were Australian - none I replied they were all born in the UK. She then asked whether my o/h or I were Australian - NO we are all British! She then laughed and said I don't know why you are here, we cannot help you with financial assistance!!

She made us feel like we had landed off a plane with cap in hand looking for free handouts!!!! I kept my calm and explained I did not know why we were there or quite what Centrelink were for, but I had been told to inform them of our arrival for some reason. Next thing a guy comes over and she chats with him, he looks at our visas and apologises saying as we have children we are entitled to family assistance (news to us, I thought we were entitled to nothing for 2 years!!). It turns out as I am not working we also qualified for rent assistance. All in all - despite all the form filling the application was delt with quickly.

Furniture - As we have rented our house out in the UK, we needed large furniture items, we bought a package from Fantastic Furniture (a bit like MFI) Got Corner sofa, entertainment unit, sideboard (with cupboards), hall table, 8 leather chairs and square dining table for $2100.

Mobiles - Difficult to get a contract as you have no credit rating when you arrive, so we started on pay as you go, top of the range handsets are expensive. I got a camera phone so I could send pics back home, only to find out later you cannot send pics on pre-paid! Also I opted for Vodafone, but apparently coverage on this network is not the greatest!!!

Phone and Internet - On a package with Telstra, no problem with connection all straightforward.

I think I will leave it there for now. There is loads more I could say - I could do a whole other thread on emotions!!! It has not been easy, the Women will find it harder, especially if you are not going to be working in the beginning like me. I think it is the best decision for us as a family but only time will tell. We spent 20 months on the hunt for a visa, so we feel we have to give it the same amount of time at this end before we decide where our future lies.

I am happy to help anyone if you have any questions.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Nikki

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

Hope everything works out for you and your family Nikki. Have a wonderful christmas! the update was fantastic, thanks for that. :D

Jackie x

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

Bet they tied you down to a 24 month contract before you realised how much of a rip off they are :cool:

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

Hi Nikki,

Good post and glad you got over safe and sound, just a quick couple of questions. What type of visa have you come over on and have you already got your PR status?

Also just for people who travel from Manchester with more luggage than they should have! There is a service from Piccadilly Station (on one of the platforms)that look after the extra suite cases and ship them out for you, I shipped an extra case out to New Zealand for the total cost of 30 quid, your best doing this the day before.

Ian

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

Maybe it's just Vodaphone but we are all on prepaid Virgin and have no problems sending photos.

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

Your right they did!! But to be honest my Dad advised us to go with them!! I am sure there are other much cheaper companies around, I think in terms of the landline, we are going to get phonecards to phone the UK - can anyone recommend any?

We get 6 months unlimited internet for $30, after that it goes up to $60. At that time I may assess downgrading our package, but with a 12 year old I think I would rather pay full whack than be landed with an even bigger bill. :scared:

Nikki

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

Daybreak are a good card.

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

I've sent pics with no problems. I'm on vodafone.

I wonder if it depends on which top up you use, I don't use the cap ones ($49, $79 etc) as you only get 10 mins of international calls, don't know about picture messages. I usually top up $30 or $50 and then can ring the UK anytime for $3 for 10 minutes and haven't had any trouble sending pics to my brother.

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

Hi Ian

We have come over on a 136 skilled visa and yes we have PR status.

Wish I had known about that service in Manchester before we flew out!!! I could have got rellies to take them down for us - I wouldn't mind the cases are still in the garage not opened!! The stuff I had in them was not anything I have needed yet!!

Nikki

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

Can I just get them in a shop or do I have to get it on the net?

Sorry Moneypen - I am referring to your thread on the daybreak card!!! :o

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

I use the $49 maxi cap - maybe I should change, as I never use my free mins anyway as don't really know anyone to call!!!! lol

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

It's not unlimited, you get slowed down crawl after you get to a set limit. You should be paying about $30 for that sort of internet anyway without any offers.

Telstra are the kings of small print ;)

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

That's why I don't buy them :D

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

I am on my first month of maxi cap prepay $49 and I haved used about $85 worth in text message mostly, so for me it is worth it. My OH hasn't used much though, I am wondering - can he just top up with however much he wants, rather than a capped amount. I know he wouldn't get any extra credit like with the maxi cap.... but could he just load $20 on it every month?

As for Telstra bigpoo (oops pond) My Father has them....cable internet too!!!! Sheesh! He was on 200mb but we used that in a week so we upped him to 10gig and he gets it for $30 a month (as he has everything with telstra). After 10 gig it slows down, not charges extra. He's suckered into it for 24 months but least with 10gig, we get more usage!

:)

Re: 3 Months in - NSW
 

Yes he can just change it. Next time he needs credit just get $20 or whatever and you can change his tariff to either talker or text. You can do that from the same number when you credit it to the phone.

I think you get 20 free vodafone to vodafone minutes on the talk, and 20 free sms on the text :)