blondie

We moved back from Sydney in 2015 after 7 years there. We were 50 and 55 respectively. We both secured jobs and husband is now self employed and earning equivalent salary to his Aus one. We bought a lovely large barn conversion and are happy here. Our son has received first rate support in his education which he never got in Sydney ( he has dyslexia) we came back and father in law was shortly afterwards diagnosed with terminal cancer ... we were around to help where we could and pleased to do it BUT if we had stayed then we would have had to find other ways to help and support and, ultimately, live with the choices we had made .. good or bad. just as we have to live with the consequences of moving our family to Australia in the first place ... there’s always a price to pay. Only you know your moral compass. Good luck

Theones who moved back to the UK out of sentiment and homesickness...they seem ok but none enjoy the lives they had here,certainly not from a financial, quality or contentment perspective. You seem to have a plan...don't ruin it. How could you possibly know if returnees enjoy their life in the UK ... what amazing arrogance to assume they don’t !

We brought ours back, it works fine

Ok .. that makes sense, thanks for explaining. It might still be possible for our son to travel back then as he has citizenship and wants to do his year work experience in Oz. Just might take all our saved up air miles for the flight

I understand the leaving permanently exemption, but surely if you’ve applied for that then how do you get a flight a few months later to return to Australia? All we seem to hear is that there are thousands of Australians trying to get back home, unsuccessfully. This is a genuine question, asked with no ill intent.

I don’t understand how you managed to get onto a flight to return ? Didn’t you have to apply for an exemption to leave ?

We were in the same situation and returned to the UK 6 years ago, almost to the day actually. I came back every year for a uk holiday during the 7 years there, each time it was harder to get back on the plane. Have you thought about taking some long term leave and returning for longer, enough for the initial glow to wear off a bit and then seeing how you feel ? Or if returning is a real no go and you want to stay together maybe think about moving to Tasmania, greener and cooler ?

In short no I wouldn’t return ... but yes there are things I miss occasionally, mostly superficial though. I came to the conclusion there is a ‘holiday’ Australia and the one to live and work in, no surprises I wanted to see the holiday one. Living and working in Sydney was my idea of hell but my husbands heaven. I would be happy to private message you to chat as your situation is 100% identical to the one I found myself in.

As soon as we made the decision to go .. I initiated the idea on the understanding that we would stay for the duration of the contract and then come home. We had one quick recci trip to Sydney and it was during this that I reconsidered the whole idea. I felt like I had been dropped into a Chinese city, I had no idea and could only rely on my, clearly, outdated impression of Sydney. The navy then offered us a posting in Perth but that felt too overwhelming to start researching all over again so we plumped for Sydney. Stayed 7 years. Been back in UK 5 years.

I get bitten by mozzies wherever I go in the world .. midges love me too . We lived in Sydney and I can’t say the Gold Coast was any worse than our suburban back garden

No not at all, completely flat

We have a 4 bed townhouse which we are currently renting out. It’s in a gated complex called Runaway Royale, Coombabah. I know there’s a bus stop just outside the complex. The shopping mall (runaway bay) is about 3 minutes by car and there is a much bigger one called harbour town about 6 minutes by car. There’s a health centre near-by. The residents in the complex are a mixed bunch, lots of retirees. It’s quiet and orderly. Brisbane airport is under an hour away. Maybe that’s a suburb worth exploring ?

Just remembered though we had permanent residency as soon as we got there so that mY have been why we got the health card .. sorry if I misled,

We lived in Sydney for 7 years and my son has asthma and eczema with the exact same allergens you mention. We lived in north west Sydney (west pennant hills) I found his eczema cleared up completely. His asthma was slightly better but I think that was because we were in the suburbs, lot of houses and manicured lawns, not much in the way of countryside. Our house had hardwood floors throughout. It was a very dusty environment and I had to dust a lot more inside the house. We were told by locals to avoid the south west area as it had very poor air quality. I applied through centrelink for a healthcare card which we got and then just paid a flat rate for all his inhalers and medications. You may find that the school fees you have to pay for a public school could be equal to a private one so I’d advise check out both. 700 a week is a bit on the low side.

https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/jobs/employers.aspx This may help a bit. The equivalent of a YTS is now the Apprenticeship scheme and can be found on the Gov.uk website. There is very good support for students with learning needs within further education but you may have to pay overseas fees for any courses he wants to take. Good luck