Antney

It’s exactly three years today that I arrived to start a new life in sunny Brisbane, but the journey to Australia started much earlier in the year.

Back in January 2005, my wife and I had decided that we longed for something different and wanted to live overseas. We both had very good jobs and an excellent lifestyle in the UK, but my wife longed for warmer climates and fantastic beaches whilst I was hoping for skiing and snow filled winters.

Alas I lost out and the plans for a move to Australia were on……..

We started by contacting an immigration agent through a recommendation from friends who has already started their visa process. The telephone conversation didn’t play out as expected, whilst we had jobs and skills that would have netted us 60 points from the MODL list, neither of us having degrees meant that we couldn’t move forward with any sort of application.

Our eldest daughter was born in the February and we still felt that we wanted to give her a better life than the one we thought she would have in the UK.

Undeterred, we attended the Emigration Expo in April at Sandown Park to see what opportunities or options were still available to us and we met a lot of useful contacts and an independent migration agent who initially proved to be very useful. It was outlined to us that two possible pathways were as Senior Executive starting their own business or to go on a student visa with the plan to convert to a PR visa after we had completed our studies. Neither of us was particularly with the student visa route and we opted to go for a business visa. The cost for the paperwork, business plan, application fees and agent fees were indicated that they were going to be around $12,000 and it was at this point we decided to put things on hold.

Then out of the blue I was at work in early May and I saw a job avert in a trade magazine advertising a job in Brisbane. I couldn’t believe it and quickly called my wife to tell her all about it. That night at home we quickly sent off my CV to the recruitment company advertising the position and waited with baited breath. A reply came back a couple of days later requesting some additional information which I duly sent off and again we waited…………

Then the bombshell dropped, we received an e-mail telling us that the job had been withdrawn as a suitable candidate had been found in Australia and we were thwarted again or were we? Another e-mail and telephone call were received two weeks later the job was back on. I attended an interview in London with the recruitment company in June along with eight other candidates and then waited for what seemed like an eternity for the follow up. We received a call from the recruiter on August 4th and I boarded a plan bound for Brisbane on August 12th for my second interview and reccie trip.

I landed in Brisbane very early on Monday 14th August in complete awe (I’d never visited before) and jumped straight into a taxi heading for my hotel in Kangaroo Point. It was a typical Brisbane winter day (as I understand now) sunny and driving along by the river was truly amazing. I got settled into the hotel and my hire car was delivered (I love travelling when other people are paying).

We’d done a lot of research on areas to live from the UK, so I jumped into the car and headed out to Fig Tree Pocket where I stood on the bank of the Brisbane River and decided that I wanted to leave here.

I had my second interview, got the job and headed back to the UK. We applied for a 457 visa, put the house up for sale and within 6 weeks I was back in Australia ready to start work…………That day was Friday 7th October 2005, my wife and daughter joined me on Friday 25th November and our new life had begun.

We quickly bought land in Pullenvale and had a wonderful two storey house built. Our second daughter was born here in December 2007 and I’m grateful to say that we were granted out PR visa in May of this year. In all the time we have been here we have never looked back, Australia is and since our arrival has always been home. I’ve only visited to UK once since we arrived and that was for business, my wife and daughters have never been back, although we are going to a wedding there at the end of next year.

We’d honestly have to say that Australia (Queensland) ticks all the boxes for us and we consider ourselves very lucky in getting our dreams realised and we look forward to the future in Oz…………….

Antney & Family

lyndhurst

thats a fantastic post

i wish you all well in the future, enjoy your life

cheryl

RenShen

This is such a lovely post. Good luck to you and your family, though I am sure you won't need it.

I hope things go as well for us.

Ren xx

framac67

Nice post Antney. Hope it continues.

awayinoz

Lovely post. I always enjoy reading these updates.

All the best for the future.

AIO

Sally Simpson

Lovely update & I wish you continued success & happiness!