Tasmania or the UK??

I agree with what Baz said. If you're after a relaxed lifestyle and think you were born 100 years too late, Tassie will he heaven on earth!

I found your comment hilarious! Not sure whether you meant it to be so funny but that will keep me going today!

Good point!

 

We're leaving the Netherlands because homeschooling is illegal, but they don't provide education for all kids.

Because the Netherlands are to crowed and the government is to controlling.

The Netherlands is going to fast for us.

We constantly have the feeling we were born 100 years to late.

We decided to move to Tasmania because they could sponsor our visa.

Homeschooling is legal and children are accepted in schools when you enrol them.

And the kindness, the space and the friendly people.

 

Edit: My husband is a plasterer and I was a welfare worker once.

We just want to slow life down and get a good school for our kids.

Following that response I would pick Tassie out the two. If you are worried about crowds and the Netherlands being "too fast" I don't think the UK will be any less crowded or any "slower".

I think Tassie would be.

Bit confused though, do you want to home school your kids or do you want a good school for your kids?

Bit confused though, do you want to home school your kids or do you want a good school for your kids?

We're not sure about that yet.

But we want to have the option to choose. ;-)

We're not sure about that yet.

But we want to have the option to choose. ;-)

If you were "ready to go" in 2013 and you're not here yet I guess you've had second thoughts?

Tasmania..The uncrowded paradise of Australia.

We're FROM the UK and moved TO Tasmania. Best decision ever! Similar climates (except here is warmer) and is a pretty chilled out lifestyles. Trades are always in need in Tassie as a lot of people build their own places.

hockayak - http://abritintas.blogspot.com.au/

It's nice to hear that the move's worked out well for you, Hockayak. We are moving out in a few months! We're really excited but we do have doubts about whether we're doing the right thing sometimes. Par for the course though I'm sure. So what do you prefer about Tassie? We love the scenery, the people, the space, the scenery...! Our only two real concerns are the economy and the weather. I'm pretty sure the weather will be noticeably better than the UK but I just wonder whether, on a cold, grey day we might wonder why we didn't move to Queensland or somewhere! Just wondering whether other people ever feel like that. I really think that Tas is the right place for us though. There are more important things than the weather! If we can get work sorted, we'll love living there.

Are you any closer to making a decision, Family S?

Hi Tastastic,

Its an amazing yet daunting experience. We basically dropped everything and just moved over for a year provisionally, and have now decided to stay. We are building a house and currently applying for permanent residency! Its been a crazy but amazing 18 months but it really suits us. We are approaching 30, living more now than we have ever done. The cold, grey days that you mention are much rarer than in the UK and seem to be a lot greyer too. We arrived with the attitude that it would be a great adventure and we have been out and done so much stuff in the past year. My blog www.abritintas.blogspot.com.au keeps a bit of a diary but im back-dating bits of it because we only just decided to document our thoughts on what to do in and around Tassie. I have to say my computer has ended up with thousands of photos in monthly folders and you can see the incredible diverse fayre on offer.

We were from the cold North-East England and i can say for certain that what Tasmanians criticise as cold weather is laughable. Today its mid-winter and 9 degrees overnight, when i compare that to the minus 6 degrees and foot of snow on our garden wall, i have to say i think you'll be alright. It gets pretty warm in Tassie summers and the Spring and Autumn are more like a UK Summer (changable with the potential to be a mild scorcher).

Obviously i cant speak for everyone's experience and, for sure, it depends on what job you do etc but we have found that we are significantly better off financially here than in the UK. We have more disposable income than ever before and we found, generally, that saving deposits etc was much quicker here than was our expeirence in England. A quick message on PIO i'm sure wont convince or put you off moving to Tassie, but in our experience it's been the best, most daring, adventurous, out of our comfort zone, eye opening and wonderful experience we could have imagined.

Hope things go well,

Hockayak - www.abritintas.blogspot.com.au

but I just wonder whether, on a cold, grey day we might wonder why we didn't move to Queensland or somewhere! Just wondering whether other people ever feel like that.

 

Having lived "or somewhere" for 13 years, I think a few cold, grey days are a small price to pay for not having to put up with months of summer heat and humidity in other places...and for still being able to experience the 4 seasons.

Actually, the coldest weather here tends not to be grey, so much as windy and showery, with lots of sunny patches in between.

There's a blog you may be interested in, written by a young mum who moved to Hobart from the UK last September...and 10 days ago she wrote:

It is hard to believe it is winter.

http://dorkymum.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/dark-mofo-and-the-winter-solstice/#more-3628

Good point!

 

We're leaving the Netherlands because homeschooling is illegal, but they don't provide education for all kids.

Because the Netherlands are to crowed and the government is to controlling.

The Netherlands is going to fast for us.

We constantly have the feeling we were born 100 years to late.

We decided to move to Tasmania because they could sponsor our visa.

Homeschooling is legal and children are accepted in schools when you enrol them.

And the kindness, the space and the friendly people.

 

Edit: My husband is a plasterer and I was a welfare worker once.

We just want to slow life down and get a good school for our kids.

If you are worried about missing your family now, then imagine how you will feel when you are thousands of kilometres away. Flights sold in Australia are far more expensive, and the airlines are mean - if you live in Australia they will not let you buy a ticket at cheaper European prices. So a trip home will cost you almost $2,000 each, plus the cost of getting from Tasmania to Melbourne. How often will you afford to go home at those prices?

In your shoes, I would consider going to a quieter part of the UK to try it first. If you could live with the weather, you might consider somewhere in Scotland - plenty of less-developed areas to look at.

What I don't like about the Netherlands is; they want everything and they want it yesterday.

If someone sends you an email they get mad if you wait until the weekend to answer it.

At the supermarket everybody is in a hurry...

This is modern life in a city. It's exactly the same in Australia in the big cities.

As you may know, we're Dutch and after reading a lot of stories about people missing their loved ones back home, we started having doubts about moving.

We have our visa, almost sold our house and ready to go, but we can't decide if we're going to move to Tasmania or the UK.

So maybe you can help us?

Pro's en con's Tas and the UK: :chatterbox::arghh::twitcy::nah::yes:

You want to move so you can home school. Know that you are also going to isolate your child from aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents because when you emigrate this far away you are saying goodby to your whole families on both sides of your marriage. I now have nearly 100 members in my family originating out of myself and 3 brothers and my children deeply regret that they do not know them. They regret not having huge family gatherings like their friends did at Easter and christmas and for Weddings and Christenings etc. When I am back in Oz like I am now, I slowly return to being the ghost on the wall at these gatherings. If it wasn't for FB I wouldn't know any of the younger generation! Emigration has to be considered with wide eyes open. It is not like popping across Europe.

This is modern life in a city. It's exactly the same in Australia in the big cities.

Except that the OP is talking about Tasmania - and there are no big cities in Tassie. Even Hobart is more like a large country town.

And some people complain that life is too slow and relaxed here. :rolleyes:

Except that the OP is talking about Tasmania - and there are no big cities in Tassie. Even Hobart is more like a large country town.

 

I guess the point I'm making is that perhaps what the OP needs is to move to a small town somewhere in Europe or the UK, they don't necessarily have to move halfway around the world.

Hello again.

I don't want to derail the thread but just wanted to say thank you to Hockayak and Skani for their comments a while ago. I was having a bit of a panic when I posted I think! Tasmania is an amazing place and I think it will suit us down to the ground (just so long as we can sort out work). I think I was just in 'spreadsheet mode' if you know what I mean and Tasmania didn't seem to be faring so well when I compared the weather stats and the job/salary stats with some other states. But...without sounding like a romantic fool who's completely in denial :wacko: Tas has something that isn't quantifiable but could definitely make us all very, very happy. The scenery, the people, the culture, the general vibe about the place really... There just are no googleable stats for that kind of thing, but that's exactly what makes us want to move there! I really do think it's the best fit for us as a family out of all of the Australian states (I am tempted to say all of the world but I will hold back - for now! - from making such bold statements! :biglaugh:). So, Tas it is. We cannot wait. Unfortunately we've been hit by somewhat of a curveball recently which has set back our move date. But hopefully we will be there in time for Christmas. Anyway, it gives me more time to tackle the never-ending list of things to do!

I love your blog, by the way, Hockayak. It certainly seems like you've been very busy! Photos are amazing. These blogs and this forum are great motivators!

OP, if you're still around, please come back and chat! I know what a huge decision a move like this is. I hope you feel a bit more certain about what you're going to do.

Happy to have found this reply from you stating that trades are always needed in Tassie. We moved from Victoria to France for a couple of years and husband worked as a builder in the Midi-Pyrenees. When the work dried up in France, we stayed with his parents near Norwich, UK and husband tried finding work in Norfolk 18 months ago. After over 4 dozen applications, he was only offered one position paying below poverty level wages, so back to Australia we came. He's UK born (hence the EU ability to live in France), I'm USA born but AU citizen for almost 2 decades, and we're 20 years older than you are. Husband still working in the building trades and making the long commute from Ballarat to Melbourne every day whilst we renovate a house to sell on. Thinking about Tasmania because we had a fabbo time down there about 6 years ago on holiday and thought the lifestyle would be a very healthy option for us as we got older.

Could try the Isle of Wight, not as far as Tassie, too. I don't know if they support home schooling though.

Happy to have found this reply from you stating that trades are always needed in Tassie.

I'd urge caution on this. The building trades in particular go through boom-bust cycles. It has been very quiet for the last year or two. However, one of the trade organisations - I think it was the Master Builders Association - was warning that there may be a shortage of tradies shortly as a couple of big projects are due to commence.

I think physically Tasmania is THE most beautiful state and if you can find work- go for it. It is country living, not town- even in Hobart, so you have to be the sort of person who likes this. The climate is great except for the West Coast where it rains kind of non-stop (still very beautiful though). We lived there for a while and it is lovely but, being more of a towny, I did miss the shops etc and life in Melbourne- but as an ex-Londoner no surprises there I guess.

I'd urge caution on this. The building trades in particular go through boom-bust cycles. It has been very quiet for the last year or two. However, one of the trade organisations - I think it was the Master Builders Association - was warning that there may be a shortage of tradies shortly as a couple of big projects are due to commence.

Thanks. We're probably at least a couple of years away because the house we have just purchased needs a LOT of reno. Guess I'll have to revisit our decision making process at that time.

Tasmania reminds me of pockets of Cornwall and Ireland and sections of France. We lived in a lovely town in France -- not too big -- so I think the less zoom-zoom lifestyle that we have just left behind in Melbourne probably suits us. I was staggered when we were in London last year and it was SO crowded and polluted and zoom-zoom.

Tasmania reminds me of pockets of Cornwall and Ireland and sections of France.

Me too! And Scotland also. :wubclub:

But - do consider the economy. Tas is actually worse than the UK with around 8% unemployment

With a real unemployment rate of maybe double that. 1hour worked in the last 4 weeks is considered 'employed' and a lot of people only have part time or casual work now. This can cloudy the figures leaving the headline unemployment rate little changed while at the same time massive change is happening in the structure of employment re casual/part-time/insecure rather than the traditional full time work we all mean when talking about work.

I think overall I tend to agree that Tasmania will suit you better than the UK but a lot would depend on where in the UK.

Homeschooling is supported more in Australia but has it's place in the UK and you would have support and networks to hook into.

I found Australia very 'backward' so in that sense in might suit you better but it really depends on what you mean - I love where we live now because it is a really community, children play in the street, neighbours are well neighbourly (we moved house last month and had cards from our new neighbours, others came to introduce themselves etc.) and our nearest town still has independent shops, cafes etc. Where we lived in Australia that sense of community was sadly lacking (we made our own through school but I think that was somewhat unique - an awful lot of the families there probably would have homeschooled if our wonderful little school had not existed). For me it wasn't 'backward' in the sense of 'idyllic times past' it had all the same social problems but what frustrated me in Australia was things like the procedures in banks, government dept. etc., when we bought a house our solicitor didn't even have an email address. Things like the speed of broadband (no ADSL when we moved in, we were put on a waiting list), frequent power outages, and a complete lack of reliability from any kind of service provider. Complaining is of course 'un-Australian' and if we didn't like it we could leave.

One of the things I did like in WA was the fact shops were closed on Sundays and there was only one late night for shopping, that changed whilst we were there though - not sure how it is in Tassie. There are parts of Scotland still like that - not where we are though.

Moving to London or another big UK city clearly would not meet your needs at all but there are probably parts of Scotland (& Wales and Cornwall as others have mentioned) which would but would bring the benefit of being close to Europe & home. Scotland has a much better economy than Wales or Cornwall and whilst I have no knowledge of the construction industry there is certainly plenty going on.