KangaRay

Brisbane – finally arrived! Oh my god there’s so much to do! What first?

We flew with Eva Airlines, from Heathrow, with a quick stop off in Bangkok and Taipei. Fair dues, they were pretty good. No one was more surprised than me when our 4 suitcases appeared first on the luggage carousel at Brisbane and all together! The only issue we had with Eva was that they only allow 20kg each, which was hard. They’re pretty strict so I’m glad we weighed everything before we left. They were asking for £39 per kilo over – no way was I getting spun for that!

It was emotional leaving the family as expected, but it’s one of the steps you have to go through.

Have just installed Skype on my brother in laws PC and have linked in with my family already. I told them that we went to South Bank yesterday. The kids had a swim with a free open air movie in the background on a massive cinema size screen. It was really well organised, combined with the great weather there were lots of happy people.

The sound quality on Skype is excellent by the way. Picture depends on quality of web cam though, but remember it’s free. I can definitely recommend it.

It feels strange that we’re currently homeless, carless and jobless. Am staying with brother in law at the moment but there is so much to do. House, bank, credit cards, cars, mobile phones, kids schooling, tax codes, child benefit, buy beds, TV, etc etc…..

Rented a car from Avis yesterday using one of those cashback websites everyone is talking about. Got $50 back off so am renting a 4 litre Holden for peanuts. I think it’s fair to say the big engines are quite popular over here.

Used White and Co to transport most of our smaller things as we sold the larger items on ebay throughout last year. We did pretty well (there is something for everyone on ebay that’s for sure) Did not want to take the larger items with us as they were pretty old and once we realised the cost of a full container we decided to buy new when we arrived. Booked a date for pick up with White and Co, filled in all the forms and booked a days holiday from work. Called them the day before to make sure they were coming and low and behold, they had no record of us. At that point I was worried that things would not go smoothly. We rearranged a new date and when the removal men arrived they were quite abrupt and proceeded to promptly drop a couple of the boxes very clearly marked fragile. We complained to the office but were advised they were just having an off day. Anyway we waved goodbye to our things in the hope they would turn up in the condition we packed them. Well, apparently they arrived here on the 4th of Jan. No phone call, email or delivery. Watch this space!

We’re really excited and looking forward to the future. We are under no illusions though that the first couple of years will be pretty tough. I will try and make sure the kids are happy as that takes some of the pressure off the parents. Happy kids + happy parents = less stress for all.

Will post an add on the meet ups – it would be great to meet up with some other ex-pat families in and around Brisbane.

Kangaray

want2bthere

welcome to aus and just dont try and do everything at once

ridds

Welcome to Brisneyland - don't worry, the weather's not always this British!

The advice above is good - pace yourselves and it will make the transition a lot easier Also remember to post any questions you might have - the BE crowd are a pretty helpful bunch!

Dazza49

Hi,
Welcome to ozJust a few helpful points to make life a little less stressful. You need to find yourself a permanent address as you might have trouble getting your medicare, TFN and changing your driving licence to QLD one.Once you have permanent address sorting the above should be straight forward. You can apply for TFN online, to change your driving licence over ,go to any QLD Tranport office, we paid $67 for ours to last 5 years. GO to Medicare office after about 5 days of arriving to give the data from immigration to be passed onto them that you have arrived in OZ. We went after 3 days and had to go back because they hadn't received acknowledgement that we had arrived.
When you get around to buying furniture and all house hold goods, dont pay what they are marked up at. ASK FOR DISCOUNT!!!!You will get at least between 12-25% off. We saved ourselves quite alot . We had discount on everything we bought so dont forget to ask, especially if you pay cash they will bend over backwards.
We have only been here since Nov and so far so good, everyone we've met has been great ,really helpful ,polite and happy which is a refreshing change.
Anyway ,welcome to Oz and goodluck for the future.


Ally

goingau

where do i look, as need to rent a car soon

KangaRay

I used buckscoop.com.au which is similar to quidco.com, which i used in the UK. Type in Avis as there is an offer for $33 off and then cash back aswell.

KangaRay

excellent advice - thank you.

sheli0508

Thanks for your posting - just waiting for the next installment.

We are coming out to validate early April as we still haven't managed to get a buyer - hopefully we'll get the chance to attend an ex-pat meet then.

all the best,

Shelley

cascrew

Where about in Leeds and where abouts in Queensland, we're not far from you

NEXT INSTALL PLEASE WE CAN'T WAIT

B1ondi3

we are looking into moving to OZ but have no idea where. My hubby works in a Oil Refinery so we need to live within a 40min drive of any oil refinery out there. We know of one in Kwinana, Perth but again know nothing of the area. We also have a young family ranging from 13wks-9 years so schools are really important too. PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanks
Natasha

egghead4

brilliant update
I hope everything keeps going well
best of luck
bec

KangaRay

Have found a brand new 3 bed town house to rent fairly near to where we are building on North lakes. It has a community pool and gym and it’s pretty cheap too.

We’re very close to choosing a builder but the costs have gone up an incredible amount in 12 months so we wish we had decided to build back then. We like Plantationhomes.com.au and mccarthyhomes.com.au but there are soooooo many builders to choose from. We’ve heard good and bad stories for most of them so all much of a muchness. However build time is important to us as it will save us renting and as plantation are quoting 16 months this may be an issue.

Update White and Co. – well we contacted Whites and they said they would email us that day which they didn’t so we had to call again the next day. They are blaming the shippers this end saying that they should have contacted us. However the shippers this end (when we called them) were apparently supplied with the wrong details by Whites back in the UK. It’s sooo frustrating as we were so careful giving the right contact numbers, addresses and email addresses. How hard is it for goodness sake?

TIP – find out which company your shippers are using Aus side and contact them directly.

The boxes have not passed through customs yet so it will take 10-14 working days. We have resent all the paperwork to the shippers here and will arrange delivery. I’ll be so surprised if our stuff is in one piece but will update you when we get it.

Dazza49

Hi,
The problems your experiencing with your shippers is why we chose a company call CROWN RELOCATIONS because they located both in u.k and australia. We had to wait 3 weeks before our stuff was released from customs.I have to say they gave us a first class service and nothing broken and we only brought about 20 boxes of stuff.

Ally

KangaRay

Thanks - I'll have to use them next time.

OzJo

Welcome to Oz. BEen here three years and luvin` it!

We used SIMPSONS relocation Company in the UK and shipped 35 boxes! all in 1 piece! ANd delivered ahead of projected time!