4 years in Melbourne - Citizenship test next week, eep!

So.....as of 13th January 2015 we have been living in Marvellous Melbourne for 4 (!) years. It's been 2 years since my last update and quite a few things have happened since then....

Our own little Aussie <3

In Sept '13 we welcomed our beautiful daughter into the world :-) Maternity care isn't free here, even if you through the public system (and having a baby privately is really quite common here) it will cost you for blood tests, ultrasound scans and GP appointments (unless your doctor bulk bills). Parental leave is quite good though, if you meet the work requirement you get 18 weeks minimum wage (currently $640pw) paid by the government and are entitled to 12 months leave, with the option to extend for another 12 months. Dads also get 2 weeks leave paid at minimum wage if they so choose. My employer also offers 16 weeks full pay for maternity leave so this meant I was able to take 18 months off to look after our daughter - a scenario that would never have been possible in the UK. The local council runs new mum sessions so you get allocated to a group of new mums with babies born at the same time as you - this has been fantastic, 16 months later we are all still friends and it has provided valuable support at a time when family is a long long way away.

Melbourne family style

So as we are now a 'young family' rather than 'young professionals', how does Melbourne stack up? It's still awesome :-) We moved a little further out the city to Newport, an inner west suburb and young family hotspot, so DH could still commute easily (20 mins on the train to the CBD) but we could afford a bigger house. So now we rent a new-ish 3-bed townhouse, 5 minutes walk from the centre of Newport and the train station, for $475pw. We have a playground right behind the house, another playground 5 mins walk away and more playgrounds than I can count within a 20 minute walk. There are numerous child-friendly cafes within walking distance - and by child friendly I mean they have dedicated child play areas with sandpits, toys, climbing frames, slides etc. We can be at the beach in 10 minutes, or at either of Melbourne's zoos in 20 mins (children under 4 go free and you can buy an annual adult pass for $88), or we can go swimming at any number of swimming pools (adult entry $5/6 including a brilliant outdoor complex which is fabulous on hot days). The 4 local libraries run free Storytime and Rhymetime sessions and the Royal Botanic Gardens are only a 20 min drive away too (there is a really good children's garden with fountains and a little stream for the kids to play in). There are heaps of organised music, dance, sport classes for kids too but so far we haven't bothered as we have plenty to keep us occupied.

.......now the bad news

Childcare is nightmare. I put our daughter down at 10+ daycare centres and registered with council and private family daycare (childminders) - due to the popularity of our area wait lists are 18 months to 2 years (or even longer - this isn't the case everywhere however). I would have liked my little one to go the daycare where we go to mothers group - but she's still about 160th on the wait list :-/ In the end I had to phone and phone again until one day I was lucky enough to get a spot at a different centre. Currently, the government offers a rebate of 50% of childcare fees, up to a max of $7,500 per year. Which sounds great but when childcare costs $90-$120 per day, per child, $7,500 doesn't go very far. We're now expecting no.2 and we will seriously have to look at whether it is worth me going back to work - proposed changes to the childcare rebate may mean we could end up shelling out $40k a year for full time childcare alone (although families earning under $60k a year would see their rebate increase to 85%). Having said that, I love being a SAHM and we can get by on DH's salary.

Financial stuff

I have always said that finances are a purely personal thing and really hard to comment on. For us personally, I've been able to stay home for 18 months which is not something I would have been able to do back in the UK as we simply would not have had the money. In addition, we've still been able to live and not just survive - we still eat out a couple of times a week, we went on a month long holiday to Europe, had a family holiday to Noosa, QLD, and still been able to save a little.

General

Having a baby here has made DH miss his family even more, although his dad recently visited for the first time (just a shame he never bothered before we had our daughter). I still don't miss England and my parents come and spend the European winter with us and my little brother emigrated to NZ in 2013 (copycat!) so I haven't been as hard hit by any homesickness. We are both excited at the prospect of taking our citizenship test, it will be a wonderful moment when we finally get our Aussie passports :-) I got quite tearful when my daughter's passport arrived and under Nationality it stated 'Australian' (she has a British passport too). Will defo be here for while longer - no.2 is due in July and I plan to take another 2 years out to enjoy this wonderful country without having to work. After that, who knows?

Good luck to everyone in the visa process at the moment, it will be worth it xx

It sounds like you are, like most of us, another migration success story!

Well done you guys. And hope new baby / young lady is well.

B