iwilldoit

Hi All,

Just been reading a few of the update posts and feel that i am really lucky not to have had the home sick feelings, I feel great having nearly gotten through a winter here in sunny Townsville, I am now feeling the change of weather even though i was told i would not feel it for a year or so, had to buy duvet covers, and as we only came with 3 suitcases, we brought no winter wear at all lol, well believe me you def do need it, for early mornings and night time... but apart from that the weather is wonderfull and is up to 24 - 26 deg here at the moment, if i rember correctly that is an english summer.
My life so far has been better than expected, jobs have been easy to come by, my OH is now in a really good job, and is getting paid a higher rate with each certificate they send him on, Australia is really big on certificates, and the more you have the higher the rate of pay, shoshanna is loving school, i still have issues with the security in the schools here, but all in all the schooling seems good. I have given work up for the moment as i feel that shosh was having to long a day for a 5 year old, and the work starts early morning here finishing at around the 4-30 mark, so shosh was in from 6-45 till about 5ish, a long day, but the point i am trying to make is that i will be able to get another job with no problems here when i am ready to.
We are still renting and will be for a long while to come yet, houses are expensive and the interest rates follow america and move up frequently, and we figured that we would never really own it anyway it would always be the banks, so why struggle, we have just upped our life insurances as that is the only time we would benefit from the money anyway, and renting is freedom should we want to move around. We have just chnged in our car, and im now driving a lovely model, never thought i would do that again..
So although i do miss the family in England, the life here is so much better that i couldnt ever think about moving back, and as we all no we only live once... For those of you who are feeling home sick, please give yourself time to settle, i was so unsettled in england that we settled as soon as we placed our suitcases in our house. Life here is wonderful, the opportunity you have here in work or starting your own business is huge, for your children well its everything i would want for my daughter, Im always here to anyone who wants a chat....

David and Sharon

sa2uk2oz

Hi
glad to hear you are enjoying life in Australia. We too have settled in well, and live life to the full.. long may it continue

kevzone

Hey there,

You are right Townsville is certainly an opportunistic place and will be for some time to come. My wife and I have lived in Townsville for 4 years or so now and we have ridden the roller coaster of homesickness, as most of the ex pats have. Of course it depends on each individual situation and what family ties you have. We had an Aussie baby here and as she is my wifes parents only grandchild so there is a strong pull across the water.
We ask ourselves all the time, "should we go back?" But the lifestyle and climate is very good in this part of the world, as is the job opportunities as I said.
Expat home sickness can overwhelm you, especially as it can come from left field out of nowhere, which I have experienced and had a lot of friends feel the same.
Most people that I have met have gone back as the feeling was too strong or the situation just wasn't right for them.
For me personally, this is the life and I am very happy living in Townsville.

If anyone needs to chat or wants advice, feel free to pm, cheers

Sally Simpson

Congrats Sharon! Glad all going well for you.

poppie

What a reassuring thread!
I've been watching BE for ages & have finally joined up!
My family are starting the emmigration process and Townsville is one of the places we're looking at. I was there about 12 years ago, but only for 2 months, and I really liked it.
What are your issues with safety in schools?

bluekipper

Thats brilliant,, Im made up for you, Ive heard about Townsville and how lovely it is,, I totally agree with you comment on it being better for children in OZ, they have so much more to do there!

Carry on enjoying your life in OZ

Bluekipper

iwilldoit

Hi
Well you will find that the children here from the age of 4 upwards are able to start prep, the schools are beautiful but very open for instance, gates are never closed, my daughter goes to annandale state school a large school, roads to all sides, gates never closed, and you find that the children have to leave the classroom to go to the toilet, which is a fair way from the classroom, teachers do not go with them and they have no idea how long the child is out of the classroom, you have a lot of adults walking around the grounds, I did my own little test of the security and went into the school an hour prior to closing, my daughter came out of the classroom to go to the toilets, i took her and stood round the corner with her, i was there with her for 20 mins before taking her back to the classroom, no one noticed she was not in the classroom, scary, I have spoken my concerns with the principle of the school, who told me that nothing bad ever happens in townsville lol. That was just before they uncovered the pedifile ring here, so although the schools are truly beautifull to look at children are given a lot of freedom and are expected to understand at a very early age the difference between right and wrong, i dont know a 4 year old who is capable of understanding the difference. so in short waking out of the school at anytime is a possibility, any wierdo is able to walk in to the school at any time and would never be noticed or stopped. I did look at the private schools here but the cost is very high and although i may be able to afford it short term, you never no when something crops up and you no longer can afford it, which means you would have to remove your child from the school. And i have to admit that i do live with this constant fear that something is going to happen, THE QUESTION ONE ASKS IS WHAT AND TO WHOM, sounds dramatic but is a worry.

poppie

Oh my That's dreadful! Our local primary is rigorous with security (not prison like though). That would really scare me. How much is private schooling and is it any more safe? We looked at it here and it started at £3k per term per child (W Sussex), there's no way we could afford that!
Thanks for the info. Do you think thing's will change, school wise?

iwilldoit

Hi
Well i looked at townsville grammer as this is the only private school that suits me as i dont want a religous school, it works out at 150 dollars per week, then there is the uniforms and books and of course the trips, you are probably looking at 200 per week all in all, a lot of money, i think that as more and more english especially arriving in townsville, the security issue will be brought up a lot more and eventually kicking and screaming they will change, but i wont be holding my breath for it, you see becaue townsville has such large numbers of forces famillies, they are not in the schools for that long and of course they are moved from one state to another, so you have different famillies coming and going all the time. i think till you see it and make your own opinion, its difficult to comprehend, for me security is a huge issue but i suppose as we come from england the mentality is way different.

Sammy T

Hi Sharon

9 months already, I can't believe it

You sound very happy and settled, apart from the school security issues.

We have now been in Tasmania for 2 months and whilst things are good I'm not sure whether we will remain here or not.

We have found a lovely rental house with sea views, we looked at some horrors but when we saw this one we snapped it up quick! The children have now been at school for a month, we have sent them to a private Catholic school as we were not that happy with some of the state schools, we are not at all religious oursleves but felt that overall it was the best school for the children. They certainly seem to have settled really well, starting up some clubs as well. I'm very proud of them both

What are house prices like in Townsville? they have gone up a lot here in the last year or so, as well as the exchange rate being against, we will not rush to buy yet, as we are not sure 100% sure we are staying as well as being quite happy with our rental anyway.

Good to hear from you

Sam

iwilldoit

Hi Sam
Its really good to hear from you i did wonder what had happened, well you are in Tasmania, well cold i bet just now lol. well Townsville is just wonderful, house are not cheap but you know what it is better to keep your money in the bank and rent, you are never tied down and if you want to move on there is no hassle, we live on a wonderful estate called riverside, the houses are low set modern and suit us really well, we are about 15 mins from the beach well actually everything is about 15 mins from the beach, the work opp here are really good, no problems with jobs, and shosh just loves it, cant see us moving from here in a hurry, you need to come see it, we will meet up and i will show you round, once here you will never want to leave, its like a piece of heaven on earth....AND LOTS OF TAKE AWAYS LOL
sharon

Sammy T

Hi Sharon

If we are ever your way, I'll hold you to that

We are looking at places for holidays over the next year or so, so spoilt for choice here in Oz, although I have noticed that being in Tas, flights are that bit more expensive.

We like it here but I can't say I'm in love with it yet. Maybe Tas isn't the right place for us, I don't know? The reasons we chose Tas over other states still stand but one thing we had not expected was how expensive things were and that choice etc is not so great. Generally services are not so good which is to be expected as there are only 500,000 people on an island the size of Ireland!

It will be interesting to see how we find other parts of Oz when we get the chance to explore a bit more. I was always open to living somewhere a bit warmer but OH would never consider it (I can blame him)

You sound like you have found your soul place and thats really good to hear

Sam

iwilldoit

Actually i made a friend from shoshs school who has just up sticks and moved to tasmania, she could not stand the heat here, but for me its the main thing for me, i have to say though that the winter mornings and evenings have been chilly i even had to go out and buy duvet covers lol, but apart from the odd cooler day its been like a british good summer, but in the summer here wow you sweat just getting up from the sofa lol. but thhats were air conditiioning comes into play, humidity is amazing here in the summer, ive never experienced anything like it, but like i say the weather was the main concern for me.. not for everyone though, i will be looking around myself as i have not been anywhere yet as its taken us this long just to settle properly, but i do want to have a look at cairns, my mum and dad came out for nine weeks and stayed with my brother and they went there for 4 days and just fell in love with the place, so it will be interesting to see, also port douglas is supposed to be lovely, but hey who knows what the future holds all i know is that i dont have to go through that immigration process again and jusr feel for all those who are still waiting, thank the lord its not us anymore lol.
sharon

Sammy T

It was the humidity and heat that put me off some places, I guess arriving in Tas in Winter not the best time, although we have generally had sunny weather even when its cold but the last week or so has been rainy and cold! Looking forward to the summer

I know what you mean about not repeating the whole process again, the last few months were tough with the house sale and then having to leave in 2 weeks from exchange of contracts to flying - I really couldn't do that again
Thats a benefit of renting, not having to get involved in all that stress again, but saying that I don't feel like this is our home yet, maybe when our container comes with all our furniture and stuff it will be more cosy, its a bit bare still!

I'd like to go to Cairns too and have just been looking at some places on the web, looks lovely

Sam

iwilldoit

Hi
We were not able to bring our stuff with us as we were in france and i would have doubled the cost as it had to go via england to get here, but my oh wanted a fresh start and that it was lol. at the moment we rent to buy so it is costly but at the end of a 3 year period well 2 years and 3 months now its all ours. bit like buying from a catalogue only the furniture is a lot better, and it suited us as we had nothing when we arrived, but i have to admit i do feel like this is home, and i dont feel the need to get into the mortgage thing again, with all the stress it brings with it, especially as interest rates are so high at the moment. and of course your money does no buy at much here, but for now it suits we will see in the next few years how it goes. once you have familiar stuff around you im sure you will feel more settled, i have found everyone here really friendly and at least i understand what is being said,, that makes a change lol.

sharon