Socialising & Get TogethersIf you're looking to meet up with like minded people emigrating to Oz or want to arrange an event in Oz, please post details here.
My partner Kerrie and myself, Jamie have just been granted permanent residency visas for Australia and intend, all being well, to migrate to the Sunshine coast area in August 2007 (after my bro's wedding). It is also our intention to go over again for another short holiday during my shut-down week at the end of May 2007, for another "look" to re-fresh our memories, as we think this would be sensible.
We feel it is very important that we now speak/contact as many people as possible who are in the same situation/recently migrated and settled in the Sunshine Coast/Brisbane areas.
Anyway, i'm Jamie, I am 33years old, and we applied on me as I’m a metal machinist/engineer and my partner, Kerrie, who is 28 years old is a qualified hair dresser, but currently working in retail. It only took approx 9months to be granted our independent permanent visa.
We live in Rugby in the West Midlands, about 10miles from Coventry and we would like to settle in the Maroochydore /Mooloolabah/ Caloundra/ Buderim area, but not yet decided!
So if all this sounds relevant, please get in touch!jamie.kerrie50@ntlworld.com
That's a co-insidence, although we are aiming to settle on the Sunshine Coast permanantly in Aug 2007, we are heading over again for another look in May 07 and more to the point, I have an aunt,uncle and 2 cousins who live in Beerwah!Small world.
As you can see, my first message was really to introduce ourselves, so if you want to do the same, you are welcome to drop us a line on:-
Hi Jamie we too are off to sunshine coast. we are in our final stages of our visa process had medicals and police checks. we aim to be there for june 2007. We are looking to settle in mooloolaba or mountain creek. we visited in january and february last year and loved it. we are a young family my name is caroline and i am 34 my partner laurie is 40 and we have two boys age 9 and 6 we too will be looking at meeting people and are interested to hear from people there or heading there. from your replies looks like a popular destination. you are lucky to have some family who will be near by we will not know a soul. 8)
Thank you for taking the time to reply, as we are trying to correspond with as many people as possible, we feel the info we can all share would be invaluable in helping to settle in and of course making new friends.
Yes, the Sunshine Coast is a lovely area, we last went out in Nov 2005, to stay with my rels in Beerwah (about 20mins drive inland) where Australia zoo is, before touring right up the East coast past Port Douglas and into the Daintree, amazing.
We particularly liked the Sunshine Coast, as the towns are all within a few miles of each other, right on the coast, yet still close to the National parks/walks forests, etc, as well as being only about an hour from the Gold Coast/Brisbane.
We particularly like the look of Buderim, again due to it's location and because it is on a platto, hopefully meaning slightly cheaper housing and unlike the rest of the Sun Coast carn't really be built out too much, as we think the area is going to expand massively in the next 20yrs or so. If you don't mind me asking, did you think the prices of land/housing in Buderim are more reasonable, ie is that why you decided to choose Buderim?
Anyway, i'm Jamie, a 33yr old engineer (not sure I will be able to find work in this field, but am open-minded and have a varied c.v) and my partner, Kerrie, is 28yrs old, she is a qualified hairdresser, but is currently working in retail.
Our main reasons for emergrating are that we believe we can have a higher standard of living/better quality of live, eventually, all things considered, well, that's the idea (!) and are thinking long term, ie, where we would rather be in 10,20,30yrs time, etc.
Anyway, that is a bit about ourselves and what we are thinking,
We moved out here 2 1/2 months ago from Stamford, South Lincs, so not far from you. I originally wanted us to settle on the Sunshine Coast, obviously because it is just so beautiful, and I much prefer up there to the Gold Coast. However, my husband is an engineer also, and we found engineering wise there is just not the work on the Sunshine Coast. We originally though that you would be able to commute from up there to Brisbane but given what the highway is like in rush hour we decided this was not feesable.
We eventually decided to live in Brisbane itself on the premise that both Sunshine and Gold Coast are only 30/45 mins drive away. My husband, Damian, works in Acacia Ridge (South Bris) and we live in Moorooka. We are only 7k fron the CBD but it is amazing how quite it seems to us. I cannot believe that you can live so near the centre of a city and it be so peaceful and beautiful (not by english standards anyway). The parks and green areas are just fabulous and we are the tiniest of train rides to South Bank, our 3 year old loves it there (he calls it his city beach, bless).
So in summary if you do want engineering work, there is not a great deal up there, but loads in Bris itself. And when I say that the Coast is only 30 - 45 mins drive by aussie standards this is nothing and you soon get used to this mentality.
Wishing you well! But I certainly wouldn't discount living in Brisbane itself!
Hayley (very nearly 30 arghhhhhh!), Damian (32), Spencer (3) and Jayden (7 months) x
We originally though that you would be able to commute from up there to Brisbane but given what the highway is like in rush hour we decided this was not feesable.
Hi Hayley,
Oh no!, this was the plan in my head!
We are only at the very start of the process but was looking at Caloundra - hoping it wasn't too far if my husband needed to travel into Brisbane.
How are you getting on in OZ, I see you have only been there a short while but what are your feelings so far?
We moved over in September last year my wife Vicky and two boys Taylor and Callum, we lived in Brisbane for a month but it was to hectic for us so we moved up the coast to Caloundra. It is lovely here and very easy going, Taylor 9 and Callum 8 love being able to go down to the beach every day or just down for a walk in the evening to spot the odd dolphin in the bay.
My name is Matt and I am an electronics engineer, I work in and around Brisbane so need to leave at around 7.30am to be at work for 8.30, the drive is easy but the Australians would say different as they hate to drive anywhere which is ironic considering the size of the country.
We are renting at present but are watching the market and looking at Pelican Waters or Belvista.
The boys start school on Tuesday so that will be our next DRAMA.......
Hope your search goes well and best of luck with the application, any questions fire away.
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Sunshine Coast QLD...but there is no place like home!!!
Some info about the place would be great - my son will also be 8 when and if we get there. He absoloutely loves football - so you know if they have many soccer teams or anything?
Also, how easy did you find it to rent a place there?
How are you finding the it there - do you think you made the right decision to move to Oz?
Sorry, so many questions. I wish I had a crystal ball!
