Originally Posted by Mike H

Thanks for all the kind responses, glad I could help.

Just told it like it is for us.

Wish you all the very best of luck, keep smiling

Originally Posted by posh10

sarah,


u r soooooooooooooo right !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we too are going melbourne mornington in may.

Diane

Originally Posted by Mike H

You often here people say that they can’t believe just how quickly the last year has gone. Never more true of our first year in Oz. It seems like weeks not months ago that we said all our goodbye’s and left behind our friends and family to boldly go into the unknown, well, Melbourne actually!

People generally still don’t believe us when we say that we didn’t know what we were going to do when we arrived, but it’s true. Sometime in that eighteen months of chaos, trade skills assessments, visa applications, countless e mails and a very difficult house sale we decided to stop worrying about the things we couldn’t influence.

After all, we had more than enough to do on the UK side of things that needed our full attention. If we had started to worry about housing, work, mortgages etc. in a place that we had never ever seen before that might just have just been one worry too many.

So, we decided that all worries relating to a future life in the southern hemisphere were not up for discussion until we landed in Oz. And that’s what we done. Checked into an airport Hotel a little bit bleary and jaded on the night that we landed, dropped the bags, ordered a couple of drinks and said ‘Right, what should we do with the rest of our lives?’

This I imagine is not a great game plan for those of you with children and as we only brought our dog with us, things were I’m sure a lot less complicated for us in comparison to those of you planning a move for a family.

Also worth mentioning, we are not (nor never will be) millionaires, we sold everything we had and didn’t make huge amounts on the sale of our property as the area we come from never quite hit the property hike we kept reading about. We probable brought over a little less than the average if you believe the stats on the net.

We had one month holiday accommodation booked in St Kilda and we figured enough money to see us through twelve months if we used the ‘mortgage deposit’ fund.

What we did have though was a determination to do whatever it took to make it work, and so far so good – it’s seen us through to this point.

Here’s how we are finding things so far

The people -Got to be honest here. I read a number of posts on line when still in the UK describing terrible anti pom sentiment being rife here. Maybe we are very lucky but to a person, we have only found the Australians very friendly people. It’s true that they are very direct but also very straight! Yeah, you get your fair share of teenage road racers (Hoons) wheel spinning their way around Safeway’s car park in the small hours and no night out is complete without seeing the odd bleached mullet drinking tins of Bundaberg Rum and Coke whilst singing AC/DC songs very badly, but then you tend not to stop these people to enter into a conversation.
One of the reasons we fell out with the UK was the rise in violent crime and disorder, we don’t feel that here.

Let me share one thing with you that will always stick in our minds – We had been here three weeks and were sitting in a café the week before last Christmas with everything we owned piled into the car we had just bought that was parked outside. We were in the process of moving from our holiday accommodation into our rental, for some reason we couldn’t collect the keys until 5pm so we were making some coffee last as long as we could while keeping all our worldly assets in good view. The lady who was serving us picked up on our accents and took pity on us for not having any family around us at Christmas time and invited us to spend Christmas day with her and her extended family! So obviously we initially suspected all the obvious ie. nutter, religious zealot, serial killer etc. but as we had no other plans (or friends) we went along and met a wonderful family who not only treated us like their own but had actually wrapped boxes of chocolates as gifts for us so we were not left out of the proceedings. I tell you, a very humbling experience. We have stayed in touch with this family and catch up for a meal every couple of months. I’ve actually met two other ex-pats who have had similar Christmas invites! Not with the same family I might add.

Very pleased to say we have made some good friends in a short period of time. We are the only poms on our estate and everyone stops to speak which is nice.


The place - We had never been to Victoria prior to getting off the plane but it’s a great place for us. Within three hours drive you can be well along the great ocean road, inland to some great country side and the snow fields in the winter. Never been city dwellers and never liked spending too much time in them but Melbourne is a beautiful place, big and airy, new and old, fast and slow. Great for catching live music and you can overdose on sport any given weekend. Very clean too!

The traffic can be a bit of a pain, but that’s a city for you. If you settle somewhere within reach of one of the train lines it makes life simpler.

Renting, we were lucky I think. We spent the first three weeks on line checking the rentals available every morning and then driving around visiting in the afternoon. Three weeks after we touched down we were moving into a four bed roomed furnished house in a suburb about 30 mins from the city centre and ten minutes from the country (Rowville). Still there, starting to look to buy soon. TOP TIP – Bring a laptop and make sure your rental has an online link up. Save you so much running around.

Banking, Tax, Medicare, buying the Car etc. It all seemed to fall into place, you’re not the first persons to do this. We had opened accounts from the UK with ANZ and only good things to say about them. TOP TIP – Keep a UK credit card and a UK account, you won’t get a credit card here until you have a job and you need them for quite a few things (paying road tolls, topping up phone cards……debit cards aren’t as accepted here for a number of things!).

Getting to see a Doctor is a doddle! Most medical centres have a number of doctors on call and are open early until late. Dentists a little more difficult but at least you can get to see one.

Private medicals insurance here is not the luxury it is seen as in the UK. It’s very common and not that expensive. It’s in you interest to take it out as after the age of thirty your income tax gets loaded every year above the age of thirty for those who don’t have private insurance. Worth noting, as an immigrant no matter what age you are, as long as you join a scheme within one year of arrival you join a scheme at the same rate as a thirty year old. For nationals the cost climbs up after the age of thirty.


Cost of living - Something’s are cheaper than the UK some things not. Forget about the comparisons the day you stop earning pounds. Depends how you budget yourself I guess.

The Weather, bloody hot summer and autumn (not whinging!) and surprised how cold the winter was (handful of ground frosts and cold winds too).

Work, there is a lot of work opportunities. In the UK my wife worked with children with special needs (integration aids they are called in Oz) and after some initial work in childcare centres which she did not enjoy, took herself around the local schools with a bag of résumé’s and had a lot of casual work within a couple of weeks. One of those positions has now become a full contract we are pleased to say. I was a Fitter & Turner many years ago and been in Occ Health and Safety for a number of years more latterly. Took me two weeks to land a job back in OH&S when I finally put my CV through an agency (we did give ourselves three months chill out and acclimatise time after arriving). Had that job a couple of months in that position and got offered another job, where I am today. Lots of short term or twelve months contracts about but that seems to be more the norm here than the UK in my opinion.

Family visiting - Fantastic when they arrive and then breaks your heart all over again when they leave. Don’t think that one will ever get easier.

The health system! Had the poor luck to be rushed into Hospital for a surgical procedure, our private medibank care had not kicked in (has a cooling off period) so went in through the Oz version of the NHS. Nothing bad to say about the facilities and the staff were wonderful. I’m told if I had been private, I would still have travelled to the same hospital for the procedure but just recuperated in a private clinic.




So all in all, things have been good for so far.

I’m not saying that Australia is a great big Shangri La where everyone hugs each other and the rivers flow with beer. I know of people who have decided it’s not for them and returned to the UK and for them that must be the right thing to do. All I’m saying is it has suited us so far.

We think it’s suited the dog too, hard to say as he doesn’t say much but he keeps himself busy chasing possums up tree’s.

The reasons that brought us here was the search for that old cliché of a better quality of life, the thing that motivates almost all of us to leave behind security, familiarity, friends family and less than great weather.

And have we found it? I honestly think we may have.

I believe that it’s not until you have begun working and doing ‘normal everyday’ things that you can measure how well you are settling. Three months travelling around was fantastic but doesn’t leave you any idea of how settled you will be when you are both back in day jobs and looking forward to the weekends again.

My only advice to any of you who are reading this and about to take the huge leap of faith that is emigrating in search of that ‘improved quality of life’ is to ask yourself what exactly does that mean to you.

If you’re Aussie dream is the Ute, the boat, the house on the coast and the huge flat screen TV. Good luck and I wish you all the best in that.

Or is it the urge to simply experience a new life where hopefully you will be happier in yourselves than you are in your current one?

In our limited experience it’s the people who fall into the latter category who seem to be making it work. Not saying that’s the Gospel, just what we have found.

You do have to work hard at it and when one of you is down or family sick the other person needs to be strong and positive. There’s big emotional ups and downs that catch you when you least expect them and it does test you. But keeping positive and keeping has helped.

So, have we got more friends here than the UK? Of course not.

Are we earning more here than we were in the UK? That would have to be a no too.

Do we know what the future will bring? Absolutely not.

Are we happier? Yes, lots!

It may all change tomorrow, who knows, but for now…life is good.

Rambled on here a bit longer than intended but hope it’s give some perspective to people planning to make the move…..and if that’s you. The very best of luck to you.