Positive Emigrating To Australia True Life Stories

We were jet lagged and scared half to death lol. Looking for work was tricky at first, getting to know what and how to search, tweak CV abit more but hey presto after 5 weeks OH got offered a fantastic job in Central Queensland.

Which part of Central Qld?

Finally I'm in the correct reading space. I've not even started reading the posts in this segment. I have be drawn to reading lots and lots of negative posts. Lots of people on PIO seem to want to turn I basic thread into there own negative Story.

I'm in the early early stages of the process.Looking forward to the success stories as I was about to ask where these guys are. Presume if you living your dream your too busy to tell the world about it.

Been to Egypt, We loved it. Friends hated it, that's life. I suppose with the risks involved it's a whole new ball game but one life, live it is how I want to Darn we'll try.

PLEASE TELL ME THERES LOTS OF WINNERS ON THE JOURNEY OF AUSSIELIFE. Want to join you.

Very much feeling bombarded with negative at the moment too Jamie but I've read that it's only a very small percentage of people that the move doesn't work out for,like you say the ones who are living the dream are too busy enjoying themselves to post about it. It's the same with reviews of absolutely anything,there are always many more negative ones than there are positive ones!

We aren't yet in a position to post a story, just waiting for a visa, but I will endeavour to add our story when the time comes, hope to read yours also in the future, all the very best!!

There are a few sad sacks on here, but probably only half a dozen.

The vast majority love their new life in Australia and you will too.

I have be drawn to reading lots and lots of negative posts. .

Bear in mind that most migrants don't subscribe to this forum: this represents a very small proportion of UK migrants who have arrived in Oz. Those who go looking for a forum such as this are more likely to be those who are struggling and looking for support. Some people do hang around because they appreciate the help they received before they migrated and want to give back. But they are in a minority compared to the former group.

On the other hand, it's good to be alert to potential problems and be prepared for "what ifs". It's all part of the necessary research and preparation required for successful migration.

Originally arrived on a WHV Oct 2010. Got to travel this amazing country in a campervan for 6 months- one of the best experiences of my life. Its amazing how free you feel not knowing were you will park up each night and how happy you can be with only the most basic simple things washing up and showering at beach showers! After that I joined hostel life- which was a crazy time as you can imagine. I was fortunate to get sponsored in my first year and put my application for PR in last year( still waiting mind!) I live in beautiful Manly NSW and absolutely make the most of the beautiful beaches. Yes oz is expensive and yes its a long way from family in England but I have had the opportunity to do things I only dreamed of. I swam with whale sharks on the Ningaloo reef, I drove across the Nulaboor Plane from Adelaide to Perth. I did a sky dive. I because a qualified scuba diver off Rottness Island WA. Ive done Tough mudder, Ran the City to Surf, Competed and placed in a fitness modelling competition and found my passion for fitness. I wondered if I would have come across that if I stayed in the UK? . Although it has been hard to get used to saying goodbye to friends over the years as they move on. I now have friends that have the same passions/ interests as me. We have learnt of a greater world that what we grew up in. I often get homesick for my family and wonder if im doing the right thing and don't get me wrong I have had my challenges to and many times wanting to just go back but this experience has made me a stronger person. I must say its rather nice to reminisce on just how many amazing things this country has brought into my life. My best friend from Uk visited for my bday last year and she brought me a locket with a map of Manly in one side and London in the other. Pretty much sums it up, I have 2 homes!! x

Originally arrived on a WHV Oct 2010. Got to travel this amazing country in a campervan for 6 months- one of the best experiences of my life. Its amazing how free you feel not knowing were you will park up each night and how happy you can be with only the most basic simple things washing up and showering at beach showers! After that I joined hostel life- which was a crazy time as you can imagine. I was fortunate to get sponsored in my first year and put my application for PR in last year( still waiting mind!) I live in beautiful Manly NSW and absolutely make the most of the beautiful beaches. Yes oz is expensive and yes its a long way from family in England but I have had the opportunity to do things I only dreamed of. I swam with whale sharks on the Ningaloo reef, I drove across the Nulaboor Plane from Adelaide to Perth. I did a sky dive. I because a qualified scuba diver off Rottness Island WA. Ive done Tough mudder, Ran the City to Surf, Competed and placed in a fitness modelling competition and found my passion for fitness. I wondered if I would have come across that if I stayed in the UK? . Although it has been hard to get used to saying goodbye to friends over the years as they move on. I now have friends that have the same passions/ interests as me. We have learnt of a greater world that what we grew up in. I often get homesick for my family and wonder if im doing the right thing and don't get me wrong I have had my challenges to and many times wanting to just go back but this experience has made me a stronger person. I must say its rather nice to reminisce on just how many amazing things this country has brought into my life. My best friend from Uk visited for my bday last year and she brought me a locket with a map of Manly in one side and London in the other. Pretty much sums it up, I have 2 homes!! x

What a wonderful update, thank you for sharing:hug:

I haven't posted in this forum for so long as this part year has been absolutely crazy for us but Ive still enjoyed reading posts and browsing etc. One year on, we've finally found our feet and settled in so wanted to update and post a 'Positive Emigration story'

As my timeline shows, we (Myself, Hubby and 2 children) were granted our PR Visa some time ago, after much grafting with ANMAC (I'm a Midwife) and AHPRA. After finally selling up and tying up loose ends, we decided to have one last Xmas in the UK and decided to fly out NYE 2014. I had applied for jobs in Brisbane from the UK and was very lucky to have had a telephone interview at 4am one night and secured a job in the city. On Jan 2nd 2015, we landed at Brisbane airport after the most horrendous goodbyes to family and friends! The flight was ok but the fact it was one way, was very daunting. However, we picked up our rental car and made our way in 40degree heat to our temp accommodation for 3wks. The first few days were getting over jet lag and exploring the area etc (we had already researched potential areas on our trip over in 2013 to activate our visas so we knew where we wanted to secure a rental and get the kids into school) The first 2 weeks were horrendous!!! Trying to sort out TFNs, Centrelink, Medicare, Bank accounts, points for rental - (we'd got references prepared) securing a rental, buying a car, school interviews- it was full on and everything is linked, so we couldn't secure a rental without this, we couldn't apply for schools without permanent address, bank accounts without an address etc but after a roller coaster 4 weeks, we were finally in our rental, we had bought a car and kids were about to start school. The plan was hubby was going to stay at home for abit and settle the kids in, whilst I worked, as my job was sorted and hubby (a thatcher in the UK) was going to have a career change. However,.........as AHPRA decided due to some continuity of care business with UK mws, they wanted us to be supervised for 3 months. Whilst my new employers negotiated what this meant and weren't sure they had the resources to deal with this, my start date got delayed by a month. Not a hugely worrying thing but when you start to dip into savings as now neither of us were working, it was a pretty scary time. Furniture had started to be delivered and our stuff arrived from the UK - the house was starting to feel like home and the kids had settled in to school perfectly Finally I started work and things were starting to feel 'normal' and 'settled'. One year on, and things could not be better. The kids are loving school - have made some wonderful friends and joined 'soccer' and cheerleading clubs. They have thrived on this lifestyle - they eat better (bbqs and salads!!), they play outside more and they love the beaches. We have made some fantastic friends through the kids and also off our own merit by putting ourselves out there and socialising and attending events in our area. I love our neighbourhood- we walk to school, we have everything we need nearby and we are only half hour from the Sunshine Coast. I love my job I've made some fabulous new work colleagues and I've already been offered a promotion. Hubby has retrained as a Carpenter/Cabinet Maker and is about to start an apprenticeship. We have just renewed our lease for another year but plan on buying next year. We miss family and friends immensely, but we FaceTime a lot!!! Days off and time together is precious but we spend so much more of it as a family, often up at Bribie Island, or at the beach. We've just come back from an amazing time away together as a family up at Bundaberg seeing the baby turtles hatch and then over at Tangalooma feeding Dolphins and spotting Dugongs, which is just amazing and the kids thought was fantastic. I miss some parts of England especially family and friends, but then I look at what we've got here and my children and know we've done the right thing. The best piece of advice i can give anyone emigrating anywhere is......embrace it, work hard and accept the differences. Yes, there's no 24hr Tescos or Sainburys, yes TV in Oz is pretty dire and yes the cockroaches can be annoying but I wouldn't be in Australia if these things mattered and I'm loving the life we've come to

Sounds like you and your family are enjoying life here Laura :smile: Lovely post.

Fab thread. Really uplifting...

B

hi, I do come back here and check on how people are doing but never post, my story I am English married to an aussie for ten years made the move in October 2014, all the usual thoughts am I doing the right thing is it gonna work out. moved in with my inlaws in a huge house but 30 minutes from the nearest shop, loved the country way of life, we gave ourselves a couple of weeks before we done anything then set about finding work. we came to Australia with very little money about $6000 so work was important, we got real lucky I found work as a vehicle spray painter after 2 days of knocking doors handing out my cv, my wife a couple of weeks later doing office admin and still have the same jobs 20 months in. like anywhere still hard to get up in the morning but until the lottery win comes we will keep getting up. was not ideal living so far out of a small town my work was an hour and 15 each way my wife 30 minutes. managed to save money and loved the little town we lived in and had good jobs so bought a house here in july 2015, little house big garden sits on half an acre what ever that means, but I know it takes an hour and a half to cut the grass. cut my journey to work by half and my wife can walk to work. at the moment things are working out great have had more holidays and weekends away then we have ever had. feel like we are in the right place at the right time and had a bit of luck along the way. hope this helps in some small way the people that are moving soon, it can be done, it can work out.

Really nice to read other people's positive stories

i was working in Middle East and sharing house with Aussie girl so decided to give Australia a go. Got 457 visa very easily (I'm a nurse ) and got job in Sydney. lived in hospital accommodation and really explored the area on time off. Moved to Hobart and Alice Springs in my quest to see as much as possible.

After Alice I returned to the Uk and got job in Nhs. Wow what a shock was spoken to like dirt and after 15 months of crap pay and ridiculous pt loads ,I returned to Australia. Tried Brisbane and Hobart but finally arrived in Darwin and love the place. Been here on/ off since 2009 and trained as a dialysis nurse. Money heaps better than Nhs and I'm working primarily with the indigenous. Spent 4 yrs working out in remote communities and just moved back to live in a city for awhile. Had some amazing experiences and met fantastic people.

There have been hard times and the death of my Dad back home and leaving the care of Mum to my siblings, has really been hard.Fab employers allow meto take lwop and go home twice a year

Love Australia and have many very good friends here

Can't believe I just found this thread !! Thanks all for sharing your good news xx

We moved to Perth February of this year on a 189 visa (my partner is an electrician) yes it's been difficult sometimes but wherever you moved would be, my other half is just about about to gain his wa grade a electricians licence and I have a fabby job as a hotel receptionist on the beach, it's better that we were hoping for xxxxx

Moved :August 2012 with 18'year old 9 year old and 8 year old leaving 22 year old in uk . 22 year old is now a 26 year old teacher just bought her own house with her partner in the Uk ( after travelling Asia and Australia for a year )18 year old is now 22 travelling Australia with her partner . Both boys are excelling at school in high and primary in accelerate programmes . Both myself and oh are in paid work , we are just about to apply for citenship

and looking to buy our new home

Hi,

I've not been on POI for ages but I found it incredibly useful when I was traipsing the web for info. It is very difficult to gain an insight into how life will be once you arrive due to some people having a great time and others hating it. Of course, naturally we gravitate to the more negative stories and feel that our experience will be exactly the same. It may well be for some however here is my story:

On 4th July (independence day, how apt) I flew alone, leaving many friends behind in Cyprus. As the plane left larnanca I sat sobbing watching the city disappear below. I was going to miss it, I'd had an incredible 3 years there but I was excited and apprehensive about our new adventure. I won't lie, the flight was horrendous. I landed ini Abu Dhabi and then flew for 13 hours to Brissy. I spotted the west coast of Oz and got excited hoping we'd be landing soon enough. 4 and a bit hours later we touched down. I was packed in between tow other people so do yourself a favour and ask for a window seat.

Anyway I got to Rockhampton airport with 3 gigantic suitcases and the first thing I noticed was how friendly people were. They kept offering to help me with my bags. I checked into a hotel, showered and slept, waking early to the glorious sunshine of the sunshine state. I went to the bank to pick up my card. It wasn't there. I had to order a new one to my temporary address. Two weeks later it still hadn't arrived so I had to get one delivered to the bank. Annoying but not a deal breaker. I visited centre link and sorted out my Medicare. Dead easy. I went online and sorted out my TFN and then spent more time searching for places to live.

Now I was in a position where I had a job to go to. Once I secured my PR I just applied for hundreds of posts and managed to secure a position in a very good school. I went into school, met people, prepared for the start of the new term and one of the guys even invited me onto his boat which was immense. Again, everyone was so helpful and interested in why and where I come from.

It took 4 days after the flight before I started eating again and even longer to stop waking up at 4am. The hardest thing though was my hubby not arriving until after the new term started, he followed 3 weeks after me. I definitely needed to arrive two weeks before the job commenced to sort out a rental and all the little fiddly bits. I spent days exploring, eating out alone, visiting botanic gardens, car show rooms etc. I must say it was very liberating doing it all independently.

Anyway so I booked temp accommodation for 4 weeks and a hire car for 4 weeks, which we extended whilst our GBP transferred over.

3 and a bit months on. We are renting at the beach with sea views (loads cheaper than the big cities) and we are walking distance to bars and restaurants for the first time since we have been together. It's a 35 minute drive to work which I'm not sure I will want to do forever. The apartment is lush but very poorly built. There are mould spots in places due to poor ventilation. I'd hate to see what it looks like in 10 years. the beach is gorgeous and just yesterday we visited Great Keppel island which was like somewhere in Thailand. The people are incredibly friendly and we have just bought our second car. We transferred some cash just before Brexit. We got almost 2:1. We didn't want to transfer anymore until the rate increased but we had to bite the bullet for the cars and lost a fair whack. If you can hang on, do!

Our shipping arrived, some of it was broken, luckily our apartment is furnished.

One piece of advice, pack some warm clothes. I packed dreadfully and had to buy new bits when I arrived and I packed lots of work clothes only to be provided with a uniform. So annoying.

One thing that is frustrating, recently there was a music festival on the beach. Hubby and I took a picnic bag with some wine. I noticed no one else was drinking - turns out after some googling that its against the law. WHY???

Everyone pretty much drives at the speed limit or under because its a criminal offence to speed. I'm sure if you get caught twice in a year you go to jail?? someone will correct me I'm sure. You need a boat license to ride a jetski. It just feels like there is a lot of red tape, however I did come from Cyprus where rules were a little lax.

Internet is weird. There is 4g everywhere which is great but you don't pay for speed you pay for like 15gbs of data...? or something like that. Hubby deals with that. Doctors are expensive unless you go to a bulk billing doctor and then its free. Car insurance is similar if not a bit cheaper. I don't think shopping is more expensive but we do visit farmers markets for veg and stuff. And in Cyprus food was relatively expensive. Eating out and drinking can cost a bomb...but then sometimes it doesn't so swings and roundabouts. I went to a 'hairdresser' I use the term loosely who turned my lovely blonde hair orange, hacked at it (it was halfway down my back) gave me square layers and ripped off half my eyebrow. I then had to pay someone else to fix it (not my eyebrow thats still refusing to grow). So please do your research as that ruined mine and hubby's weekend when I was crying about the 'monster' who hated hair.

We haven't made many friends yet, but its still only early and we are rather enjoying exploring on our own. I did meet a cousin in brissy whom I have not seen in 10 years or something and we have friends coming to stay on the weekend. I used to play netball but the season has just finished and I went along to rugby but the matches are at 7:30 at night! I'm an early bird so will perhaps wait until I'm a bit more settled before getting involved in that.

I know its super rambly but I'm just trying to remember stuff. It's hard to believe we started the process only a year ago and have been here almost 4 months. I can barely remember all the panic and worry now. I know at the moment those going through it are panicking about not getting everything done, not liking it, not getting a job etc. Its a leap into the unknown, but do you know things just have a way of working themselves out. We love it here. I am currently on school holidays and this morning I took a stroll along the beach and spent the afternoon in the pool. Life is good, oh and hubby got a job within a week of applying so its not all doom and gloom. I'm sitting here writing this at my dining table with floor to ceiling windows that look out across the bay. It can't all be bad can it?

Anyway, when I was reading these stories myself way back when, I promised I would come back and post. I do hope its helpful.

Thank you for updating us, i am sure your experience will help others who are due to arrive. We had similar experiences to yourself, people very friendly and helpful, red tape (still annoys me almost 10 years on,lol), winter clothes, haha who would have thought it gets chilly here???? lol

Good to hear things are falling into place for you

Cal x

Thanks Mini Cooper

we have 10 weeks to go before we start our journey and as always it brilliant to hear good news..

Well, we're six month in and loving every minute. Our journey started to appear in the UK newspapers this week, will be run in a magazine next week, And Good morning Britain want us to do a live link on the show ( but we've kindly refused) . As you can imagine some papers have "modified" our story .

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brit-family-emigrates-australia-after-9778025

made the front page off our home town paper

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-family-emigrate-australia-because-12575580

my fav quote was from the sun newspaper "OZ move as boy allergic to Brum"

anyway my journey started on these forums a few years back. Thanks to Pominoz members for all the advise!

Good to hear you have settled well and especially lovely to read that your little son is a lot better here too. :smile:

Great to hear your little man has improved so much and can now do the simple things he missed out on, like playing out. Had you thought of migrating before or was purely because of his condition?

Cal x

Well, we're six month in and loving every minute. Our journey started to appear in the UK newspapers this week, will be run in a magazine next week, And Good morning Britain want us to do a live link on the show ( but we've kindly refused) . As you can imagine some papers have "modified" our story .

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brit-family-emigrates-australia-after-9778025

 

made the front page off our home town paper

 

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-family-emigrate-australia-because-12575580

 

my fav quote was from the sun newspaper "OZ move as boy allergic to Brum"

 

anyway my journey started on these forums a few years back. Thanks to Pominoz members for all the advise!

That is wonderful news for both your little boy and you as a family. There are so many people loving life over here that we tend to forget to tell others who are waiting for their visa that they are making a good move.

Great to hear your little man has improved so much and can now do the simple things he missed out on, like playing out. Had you thought of migrating before or was purely because of his condition?

 

Cal x

Thanks all. I've thought about moving for a long time, my son's condition just gave the determination to make it happen.

these threads are so old.  Are there any up to date posts?

these threads are so old.  Are there any up to date posts?