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-   -   My First Week Living On The Gold Coast (https://britishexpats.com/forum/update-forum-107/my-first-week-living-gold-coast-219747/)

floweroscotland Mar 25th 2004 2:08 pm

My First Week Living On The Gold Coast
 
Hi guys

Ok this is my first weeks update,

Have a house in Arundel, lovely area, 10 minutes from surfers, the house is more than i could have asked for, put it this way, i could never in a million years have a house like this in the UK unless I won the lottery! the house is worth $500,000, brand new, we are paying $350 a week, roughly £150 I think, we were paying £500 a month for a 2 bed shack in the uk before we moved over. We got the house absolutely no problem, its through a letting management agency, we went a drive one day and saw this lovely golfing estate and the sign outside said renting now!, we went into the estate which is really big, spoke to the renting office and they had around 10 properties ready for rent all different prices, and loads more coming up in the future as its a really new estate. We paid 4 weeks bond and one weeks deposit, which will be our first weeks rent, they copied our passports and drivers licences and we had a couple of references for good measure, although i don't think they would have bothered with this, we also got proof from the commonwealth bank of our savings, and that was it. get the keys next Friday, as we still have a weeks holiday accommodation, and they are putting blinds and electrical goods in it for us.

Areas in the Gold coast, well we wanted to be quite close to the beach, we looked at Labrador, which is nice and very up and coming, but not for me, I absolutely loved Runaway Bay and coombabah, which are about 15-20 mins from Surfers, but couldn't find any houses we liked and it was just a little too far out. So we settled for Arundel, which I love.

I have bought a new fridge, queen size bed and dining table with 6 chairs, as out stuff is being shipped over and this is things i was going to buy before i came and decided to wait till we were here, the prices are good, i find it cheaper than the uk, but i suppose it depends where you go, every shop we have gone to has given us a discount for cash.

we have also bought a car, a ford, second hand. Very very big differences for cars here, for a start, they look at you like your daft when you ask the mileage, as here no one cares about mileage, and their mileage is in Kilometers not miles, there wasn't 1 car we looked at that was under 150 kilometers, which is about 100,000 miles. Age is also not a factor, as cars don't rust and still look brilliant for their age, that is why they keep their value, ours is a 1995, 150 kilometers and cost $9000, the garage was really really good as they usually give you 1 years warranty, but because we were only over from the uk and didn't know anyone, they gave us 3 years, worth $700 dollars, they also paid the Rego (like our road tax) which includes passanger insurance. Also what happens is everytime someone buys a car it is re-registered, so every car that has a new owner always has a new number plate, not like us where you buy the car and it always keep the same registration plate. We took car insurance through the commonwealth bank which were pretty competitive, but we pay more because we haven't got an Australian licence and we are waiting on our no claims coming over, without these our insurance would cost $2000 :eek: but when we have our no claims over it will cost $600, the commonwealth said we don't need to pay anything until our no claims is over, which was good.

The commonwealth bank, I know there has been a lot of slagging off about them on this forum, but so far i have found them brilliant, we went to Brisbane branch to activate our account, we got taken into an office with an employee who only deals with overseas customers, he was so helpful, had our cards waiting, told us everything we needed to know, gave us credit cards with a $3000 dollar limit without even filling in a form, said when we want a morgage, we find out how much we can borrow and they will hold that amount for a year until we are ready to buy, which i thought was good. We also went to the Southport branch and they were brill, took us into an office and were very personal, done a car insurance quote, and filed in all the paperwork for us. I have found them really helpful. I know they have charges for loads of different things, but i have looked at other banks, and they also have charges. I am happy with them just now, but i will wait and see how things go.

Schools: There are loads of schools out here, lots of state and private, I initially wanted private for my 6 year old, there is every religion you could think of although we wanted non denominational, which there is not that many of and their teaching structures look very similar to state schools, and i'm not impressed with their class sizes which are around 25 to 30, not much different from state schools. I think my daughter will be going to Arundel state school, I have checked out their web site and it looks really nice so i will be in touch with them soon, the easter hoilidays are soon so i will hopefully get her enroled after that, give her a few weeks to settle.

There is so much going on here that kids could never ever be bored, loads of parks, so so clean and all have BBQ areas, it is a really beautiful place and i feel so lucky, to be able to walk along golden beaches in the sunshine, it's such an amazing feeling. I do get little pangs of homesickness, but then i think 'what am i really missing', nothing, only family, and they will be out on holidays. I have no doubt i have done the right thing, especially for my kids future.

I will keep you posted regularly, as i know so many people post on here, but as soon as they get to Oz, they don't ever seem to let us know what it's like, which this forum is all about, so i will do my best to keep you posted.

Oh bye the way Debsy! they have Ryvita, $1.98. Less than a pound, in coles supermarket!!!!

Bye for now guys

Lisa :)

irishmolly Mar 25th 2004 2:14 pm

Your updates are greatfully appreciated, great to know exactly what we all have to look forward to !!!

Keep posting about your adventures - once a week would be great.

Try to work out what you would spend on a weekly grocery shop, is there a Tesco of suchlike ? or even beter is there a Lidl or Aldi ?

Cheers and ENJOY !

:beer:

debio Mar 25th 2004 2:16 pm

many congrats on a great post.

Have a fab new life:cool:

floweroscotland Mar 25th 2004 2:31 pm


Originally posted by irishmolly
Your updates are greatfully appreciated, great to know exactly what we all have to look forward to !!!

Keep posting about your adventures - once a week would be great.

Try to work out what you would spend on a weekly grocery shop, is there a Tesco of suchlike ? or even beter is there a Lidl or Aldi ?

Cheers and ENJOY !

:beer:
It's coles and woolworths here that are the 2 main supermarkets i have seen, their prices are very similar to the Uk, we bought a shopping that came to $70.00 but that didn't include any meat stuff for BBQ's, i would guess around $50-$100 for a weekly shop, haven't seen any Lidl's or any shops like that, little shops are the same as the Uk and much more expensive, chocolate is more, a cream egg around 60p, and flake about 70p, so the kids are banned!!!! you tend not to waste money on stupid foods like you would in the uk, we haven't had any fizzy juice at all as its so hot we have been drinking water or diluting, in the uk we drank lots of fizzy, same with crisps and sweets, we have hardly had anything.

The is loads of mcdonalds everywhere and kentucky fried chicken, they also have red roosters which is the same as kentucky, and their burger king is called hungry Jacks. Same prices as the uk.

when renting over here you only pay the rent, your electric and phone if you have one. The landlord has to pay the rates (like our council tax) and as there is a slight drought just now, the landlord will have to pay water charges. Anything at all that goes wrong, the house needs a lick of paint new carpets etc the landlord foots the bill, as we have a new house, the phone has to be connected costing around $150 dollars, the landlord also pays this. When we rented in the UK we never got anything like this, it was out responsibility to do most things except anything major. I think that is why so many people rent here, it could be cheaper in the long run, no upkeep of houses, and loads could never afford to buy what they rent.


:)

irishmolly Mar 25th 2004 2:42 pm

Amazing difference in Insurance prices if you have no claims discount !!!!

I was 12 years free until last December when I had the smallest of knocks which lost me my NCD :( I do have a certificate dated Jan 2003 which says I'm claims free - I wonder if I could blag it and tell them I was on company insurance the past year and try to get away with it ??? any advice ?

How much NCD did they ask you for ? 1, 3, 5 years to get the cheaper quote ?


Good job I'm on a diet when you look at the cost of chocolate
:)

See ya.

lostkiwi Mar 25th 2004 2:54 pm

Fantastic post Lisa - makes a big difference to hear from those who've made to the "other side"...
Well done & thanks!

Tina Castle Mar 25th 2004 3:09 pm


Originally posted by floweroscotland
It's coles and woolworths here that are the 2 main supermarkets i have seen, their prices are very similar to the Uk, we bought a shopping that came to $70.00 but that didn't include any meat stuff for BBQ's, i would guess around $50-$100 for a weekly shop, haven't seen any Lidl's or any shops like that, little shops are the same as the Uk and much more expensive, chocolate is more, a cream egg around 60p, and flake about 70p, so the kids are banned!!!! you tend not to waste money on stupid foods like you would in the uk, we haven't had any fizzy juice at all as its so hot we have been drinking water or diluting, in the uk we drank lots of fizzy, same with crisps and sweets, we have hardly had anything.

The is loads of mcdonalds everywhere and kentucky fried chicken, they also have red roosters which is the same as kentucky, and their burger king is called hungry Jacks. Same prices as the uk.

when renting over here you only pay the rent, your electric and phone if you have one. The landlord has to pay the rates (like our council tax) and as there is a slight drought just now, the landlord will have to pay water charges. Anything at all that goes wrong, the house needs a lick of paint new carpets etc the landlord foots the bill, as we have a new house, the phone has to be connected costing around $150 dollars, the landlord also pays this. When we rented in the UK we never got anything like this, it was out responsibility to do most things except anything major. I think that is why so many people rent here, it could be cheaper in the long run, no upkeep of houses, and loads could never afford to buy what they rent.


:)
Hi FlowerScotland!!

We are from Aberdeen and moving out there in Sept! When are you off to Oz?? I am so stuck on where in Brisbane to move, we have been told Wynumm is great but I like the idea of being close to the Gold Coast (I love the beach). How did you come to your decision??? Help!!!

nikkers Mar 25th 2004 4:01 pm

Hi Lisa


Really good post really interesting about the renting and the car

I've learnt things from you I haven't read in books etc

You are right when you are stuck over here the posts you really

get excited about are about first impressions etc


Nikki :) :) :)

debsy Mar 25th 2004 6:10 pm

Hiya Lisa
Fantastic post - the house sounds really great. I will be round for a cuppa when I get there!!!

Glad to hear about the Ryvita - I love them!!!

When do you start collge?

take care
Debs

footie chick Mar 25th 2004 6:16 pm

Excellant post Lisa

Looking forward to more updates as and when!!

footie chick

mcjimbo Mar 25th 2004 6:46 pm

Re: My First Week Living On The Gold Coast
 

Originally posted by floweroscotland
Schools: There are loads of schools out here, lots of state and private, I initially wanted private for my 6 year old, there is every religion you could think of although we wanted non denominational, which there is not that many of and their teaching structures look very similar to state schools, and i'm not impressed with their class sizes which are around 25 to 30, not much different from state schools. I think my daughter will be going to Arundel state school, I have checked out their web site and it looks really nice so i will be in touch with them soon, the easter hoilidays are soon so i will hopefully get her enroled after that, give her a few weeks to settle.
Ahhh Lisa it was refreshing to read your thread. I lived on the Gold Coast for 15 years (1986-2001) of my life and loved every minute of it!

I met an American last time I was out there on holidays, i'm living in the UK now, and anyway now i'm moving to the States instead of back home. But we will return one day.

You picked a beautiful area. Another great aspect to the Gold Coast is the mountains and rainforests. A must do is the O'Rielly's tree top walk. Basically its a bunch of suspension bridge's at the top of rainforst trees, its simply fabulous! Mt Tamborine also has some great Bush walks, and a couple under water falls. Talking about all this makes me a bit homesick actually :(.

Anyway I got off the subject. I can recommend an excellent High School (Secondary school) for you, its Coombabah High, at its just up the road from you in Arundel. I went there throughout my highschool life from Junior through to Senior. The staff are excellent, and the school has some excellent facilitys. Anyway here is the link to the website:

http://www.coomshs.qld.edu.au

I went back when I visited in 2002 and met my old teachers, it still is a great place. Anyway just my recommendation.

Good luck on your new life

James

rob&lucy Mar 25th 2004 6:54 pm

Re: My First Week Living On The Gold Coast
 
Hi
Am so glad that things are going well for you all. Am admitting that i'm envious but i know we'll be there in a couple of months . Keep having adventures and keep us posted:D :rolleyes:

Dicko Mar 25th 2004 6:57 pm

Re: My First Week Living On The Gold Coast
 

Originally posted by floweroscotland
Hi guys

Ok this is my first weeks update,

Have a house in Arundel, lovely area, 10 minutes from surfers, the house is more than i could have asked for, put it this way, i could never in a million years have a house like this in the UK unless I won the lottery! the house is worth $500,000, brand new, we are paying $350 a week, roughly £150 I think, we were paying £500 a month for a 2 bed shack in the uk before we moved over. We got the house absolutely no problem, its through a letting management agency, we went a drive one day and saw this lovely golfing estate and the sign outside said renting now!, we went into the estate which is really big, spoke to the renting office and they had around 10 properties ready for rent all different prices, and loads more coming up in the future as its a really new estate. We paid 4 weeks bond and one weeks deposit, which will be our first weeks rent, they copied our passports and drivers licences and we had a couple of references for good measure, although i don't think they would have bothered with this, we also got proof from the commonwealth bank of our savings, and that was it. get the keys next Friday, as we still have a weeks holiday accommodation, and they are putting blinds and electrical goods in it for us.

Areas in the Gold coast, well we wanted to be quite close to the beach, we looked at Labrador, which is nice and very up and coming, but not for me, I absolutely loved Runaway Bay and coombabah, which are about 15-20 mins from Surfers, but couldn't find any houses we liked and it was just a little too far out. So we settled for Arundel, which I love.

I have bought a new fridge, queen size bed and dining table with 6 chairs, as out stuff is being shipped over and this is things i was going to buy before i came and decided to wait till we were here, the prices are good, i find it cheaper than the uk, but i suppose it depends where you go, every shop we have gone to has given us a discount for cash.

we have also bought a car, a ford, second hand. Very very big differences for cars here, for a start, they look at you like your daft when you ask the mileage, as here no one cares about mileage, and their mileage is in Kilometers not miles, there wasn't 1 car we looked at that was under 150 kilometers, which is about 100,000 miles. Age is also not a factor, as cars don't rust and still look brilliant for their age, that is why they keep their value, ours is a 1995, 150 kilometers and cost $9000, the garage was really really good as they usually give you 1 years warranty, but because we were only over from the uk and didn't know anyone, they gave us 3 years, worth $700 dollars, they also paid the Rego (like our road tax) which includes passanger insurance. Also what happens is everytime someone buys a car it is re-registered, so every car that has a new owner always has a new number plate, not like us where you buy the car and it always keep the same registration plate. We took car insurance through the commonwealth bank which were pretty competitive, but we pay more because we haven't got an Australian licence and we are waiting on our no claims coming over, without these our insurance would cost $2000 :eek: but when we have our no claims over it will cost $600, the commonwealth said we don't need to pay anything until our no claims is over, which was good.

The commonwealth bank, I know there has been a lot of slagging off about them on this forum, but so far i have found them brilliant, we went to Brisbane branch to activate our account, we got taken into an office with an employee who only deals with overseas customers, he was so helpful, had our cards waiting, told us everything we needed to know, gave us credit cards with a $3000 dollar limit without even filling in a form, said when we want a morgage, we find out how much we can borrow and they will hold that amount for a year until we are ready to buy, which i thought was good. We also went to the Southport branch and they were brill, took us into an office and were very personal, done a car insurance quote, and filed in all the paperwork for us. I have found them really helpful. I know they have charges for loads of different things, but i have looked at other banks, and they also have charges. I am happy with them just now, but i will wait and see how things go.

Schools: There are loads of schools out here, lots of state and private, I initially wanted private for my 6 year old, there is every religion you could think of although we wanted non denominational, which there is not that many of and their teaching structures look very similar to state schools, and i'm not impressed with their class sizes which are around 25 to 30, not much different from state schools. I think my daughter will be going to Arundel state school, I have checked out their web site and it looks really nice so i will be in touch with them soon, the easter hoilidays are soon so i will hopefully get her enroled after that, give her a few weeks to settle.

There is so much going on here that kids could never ever be bored, loads of parks, so so clean and all have BBQ areas, it is a really beautiful place and i feel so lucky, to be able to walk along golden beaches in the sunshine, it's such an amazing feeling. I do get little pangs of homesickness, but then i think 'what am i really missing', nothing, only family, and they will be out on holidays. I have no doubt i have done the right thing, especially for my kids future.

I will keep you posted regularly, as i know so many people post on here, but as soon as they get to Oz, they don't ever seem to let us know what it's like, which this forum is all about, so i will do my best to keep you posted.

Oh bye the way Debsy! they have Ryvita, $1.98. Less than a pound, in coles supermarket!!!!

Bye for now guys

Lisa :)
Great post
We are heading to Helensvale in June to see friends, but it is also a look to see if we will like it there because we have a STNI nomination for Victoria and after the 2 years are up we plan on going up there to settle.
Well to be honest we are quite open minded we may just love Victoria and stay there for life.
Anyway back to my original reply the kids can't wait for all the stuff to do: By the way it looks as if we have found flights with SIA for £2400 for the 5 of us :D

Keep up the posts they are really informative and good luck for the rest of the adventure :)

floweroscotland Mar 25th 2004 9:15 pm

Re: My First Week Living On The Gold Coast
 

Originally posted by mcjimbo
Ahhh Lisa it was refreshing to read your thread. I lived on the Gold Coast for 15 years (1986-2001) of my life and loved every minute of it!

I met an American last time I was out there on holidays, i'm living in the UK now, and anyway now i'm moving to the States instead of back home. But we will return one day.

You picked a beautiful area. Another great aspect to the Gold Coast is the mountains and rainforests. A must do is the O'Rielly's tree top walk. Basically its a bunch of suspension bridge's at the top of rainforst trees, its simply fabulous! Mt Tamborine also has some great Bush walks, and a couple under water falls. Talking about all this makes me a bit homesick actually :(.

Anyway I got off the subject. I can recommend an excellent High School (Secondary school) for you, its Coombabah High, at its just up the road from you in Arundel. I went there throughout my highschool life from Junior through to Senior. The staff are excellent, and the school has some excellent facilitys. Anyway here is the link to the website:

http://www.coomshs.qld.edu.au

I went back when I visited in 2002 and met my old teachers, it still is a great place. Anyway just my recommendation.

Good luck on your new life

James
James,

Thanks for that, it's great to hear from someone that has lived here too, I saw coombabah primary school and it looked fantastic, but i think because our house is in Arundel we are out of the catchment area, coombabh high also looks lovely. I wanted to stay in coombabah or runaway bay at first but just couldn't find the property we wanted and they were just a little too far from the beach.

Thanks for your tips i look forward to checking out these places when we get settled.

Tina, Arundel is a really good move, the Gold Coast is fantastic, like something from a post card, and it has 300 sunny days a year which is a big plus for me, the coolest it gets is in the winter here around June and July and its around 21 degrees, about the same as a good summer for us. The owner of the garage where we bought our car was really helpful and he told us they had 2 weeks at 40 degrees last month :eek: a bit too hot. I would definately advise anyone who is coming here to have air conditioning, its a must, and you will be surprised as not than many houses have it!

Dicko, we also thought about STNI in victoria, but we haven't heard great things about it and the weather isn't that great, they can get 4 seasons in one day. But i suppose its worth taking the chance to get a quick PR.

Lisa :)

mad city fan Jan 25th 2007 4:31 pm

Re: My First Week Living On The Gold Coast
 

Originally Posted by floweroscotland (Post 1327650)
Hi guys

Ok this is my first weeks update,

Have a house in Arundel, lovely area, 10 minutes from surfers, the house is more than i could have asked for, put it this way, i could never in a million years have a house like this in the UK unless I won the lottery! the house is worth $500,000, brand new, we are paying $350 a week, roughly £150 I think, we were paying £500 a month for a 2 bed shack in the uk before we moved over. We got the house absolutely no problem, its through a letting management agency, we went a drive one day and saw this lovely golfing estate and the sign outside said renting now!, we went into the estate which is really big, spoke to the renting office and they had around 10 properties ready for rent all different prices, and loads more coming up in the future as its a really new estate. We paid 4 weeks bond and one weeks deposit, which will be our first weeks rent, they copied our passports and drivers licences and we had a couple of references for good measure, although i don't think they would have bothered with this, we also got proof from the commonwealth bank of our savings, and that was it. get the keys next Friday, as we still have a weeks holiday accommodation, and they are putting blinds and electrical goods in it for us.

Areas in the Gold coast, well we wanted to be quite close to the beach, we looked at Labrador, which is nice and very up and coming, but not for me, I absolutely loved Runaway Bay and coombabah, which are about 15-20 mins from Surfers, but couldn't find any houses we liked and it was just a little too far out. So we settled for Arundel, which I love.

I have bought a new fridge, queen size bed and dining table with 6 chairs, as out stuff is being shipped over and this is things i was going to buy before i came and decided to wait till we were here, the prices are good, i find it cheaper than the uk, but i suppose it depends where you go, every shop we have gone to has given us a discount for cash.

we have also bought a car, a ford, second hand. Very very big differences for cars here, for a start, they look at you like your daft when you ask the mileage, as here no one cares about mileage, and their mileage is in Kilometers not miles, there wasn't 1 car we looked at that was under 150 kilometers, which is about 100,000 miles. Age is also not a factor, as cars don't rust and still look brilliant for their age, that is why they keep their value, ours is a 1995, 150 kilometers and cost $9000, the garage was really really good as they usually give you 1 years warranty, but because we were only over from the uk and didn't know anyone, they gave us 3 years, worth $700 dollars, they also paid the Rego (like our road tax) which includes passanger insurance. Also what happens is everytime someone buys a car it is re-registered, so every car that has a new owner always has a new number plate, not like us where you buy the car and it always keep the same registration plate. We took car insurance through the commonwealth bank which were pretty competitive, but we pay more because we haven't got an Australian licence and we are waiting on our no claims coming over, without these our insurance would cost $2000 :eek: but when we have our no claims over it will cost $600, the commonwealth said we don't need to pay anything until our no claims is over, which was good.

The commonwealth bank, I know there has been a lot of slagging off about them on this forum, but so far i have found them brilliant, we went to Brisbane branch to activate our account, we got taken into an office with an employee who only deals with overseas customers, he was so helpful, had our cards waiting, told us everything we needed to know, gave us credit cards with a $3000 dollar limit without even filling in a form, said when we want a morgage, we find out how much we can borrow and they will hold that amount for a year until we are ready to buy, which i thought was good. We also went to the Southport branch and they were brill, took us into an office and were very personal, done a car insurance quote, and filed in all the paperwork for us. I have found them really helpful. I know they have charges for loads of different things, but i have looked at other banks, and they also have charges. I am happy with them just now, but i will wait and see how things go.

Schools: There are loads of schools out here, lots of state and private, I initially wanted private for my 6 year old, there is every religion you could think of although we wanted non denominational, which there is not that many of and their teaching structures look very similar to state schools, and i'm not impressed with their class sizes which are around 25 to 30, not much different from state schools. I think my daughter will be going to Arundel state school, I have checked out their web site and it looks really nice so i will be in touch with them soon, the easter hoilidays are soon so i will hopefully get her enroled after that, give her a few weeks to settle.

There is so much going on here that kids could never ever be bored, loads of parks, so so clean and all have BBQ areas, it is a really beautiful place and i feel so lucky, to be able to walk along golden beaches in the sunshine, it's such an amazing feeling. I do get little pangs of homesickness, but then i think 'what am i really missing', nothing, only family, and they will be out on holidays. I have no doubt i have done the right thing, especially for my kids future.

I will keep you posted regularly, as i know so many people post on here, but as soon as they get to Oz, they don't ever seem to let us know what it's like, which this forum is all about, so i will do my best to keep you posted.

Oh bye the way Debsy! they have Ryvita, $1.98. Less than a pound, in coles supermarket!!!!

Bye for now guys

Lisa :)

hi just doing a bit of research myself about life down under, this post was a great read, we are in the early stages of our application just read this post and sounds like you have found your feet already i know this was wrote 1n 2004 and hope life in oz is still as good or even better now, we have two boys age 8 and 6, how did your kids settle, this site has been great for all kinds of info, well once again hope you are loving oz enjoy :thumbup:


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