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View Poll Results: If you have migrated to Oz in 2006 are you thinking of going home?
Hi there fellow migrators. After a 2 year process of looking onto migrating, applying for a job, visas, medicals, house sale, carboot sales, quiting work and the parties we got here June 2006.
We flyed to Singapore by Singapore Airlines (very reccommended) for a stopover and then onto Sydney for a two week break. June is Winter over here so not much swimming in the sea. We had to make do with the sights on days it was not raining. Thinking back now we should have gone up to Brisbane or Darwin for a holiday first instead. We then flew to Adelaide our final destination. We have relatives here so thought that would help. My husbands company put us up in a holiday unit for two weeks on Henley Beach, we then had to move into another holiday unit in Glenelg until we had secured a rental house. What a nightmare - not like the UK atall. You have to go on open evenings where other people viewing will be there too to see rented houses and if you are interested you have to put in an application very quickly and hope for the best. Make sure you have copies of final bills and references. We now live in a Beach suburb - Hallett Cove on the South Coast. Very poplular for families and British expats at the moment.
We are giving ourselves until next July to decide whether to stay or not. I know some people will say thats not long enough, but with our son approaching 14 it is important that he is settled in a school for his final school years.
We have 2 children age 11 and 13. Our 11 year old daughter is in a Primary School, so although she was due to go up to secondary school this September in the UK, she won't go up to high school until Jan 2008. Our son goes to the local high school. We are not that impressed with the state school system. If we decide to stay we will be looking into private education which I suppose is similar to UK state school standards but not with the private school rates.
Our children have settled well into Aussie life. Our son is out all the time with his new buddies at the local skate park and basketball court. He also goes to the local youthclub on Fridays. Our daughter is out all the time also, at the local beach, parks, playing tennis, cycling and many sleepovers and parties.
My hubbie works as a field forklift truck engineer and get out and about all over Adelaide and the suburbs. Found it quite hard at first in getting people to understand his accent - Mancunian. The work is not as technical as the UK, and I suppose other people in other industries will find this too. They are behind the UK with equipment and standards. But he is loving the gorgeous views he sees on his way to work each day, the sea, the hills and the river. Not much social life yet as the BBQ season is not yet got going.
Myself - well not easy, people keep themselves to themselves alot here. Not as outgoing as I thought they may be. Not that open on advice. With the children being older now I don't get the school gate chats that you get when they are little. But over here most children get picked up and dropped off by car with the parents not even getting out. I am finding it hard to find part time admin work. I have lost count with the amount of CVs I have emailed and sent off and mostly not even getting a reply back. I had no problem in the UK in getting a job and always got what I wanted. This is frustrating as we are having to dip into our savings to make up the shortfall in me not working. My husbands wage just about covers the basics. The cost of living is higher over here compared with living in the NorthWest of UK. Shopping is around 30 quid more a week. Utilities are nearly double. The only compromise is that the rent is a little cheaper than the UK and you only pay council tax if you are a home owner. But you do pay more income tax. I know this may appear as a real moan and believe me I am only scratching the surface, but at the end of the day it does not matter where you live, if you don't earn enough income then life will be hard. People may say that the lifestyle can make up for the lower income but you really need money to help pay for a lifestyle too.
I would be interested in finding out if other expats have similar feelings to the above and that we are not on our own with this. We want to make this work, but at the back of our minds we think that we may go back next year and put this down to experience. The important issues being - schooling (without a good income even private schooling will be out of reach). Future pensions - theres a crisis here too at the moment.
On a brighter note - if you get the chance to live here and it is something you have always wanted to do - then do it. You don't want to look back in years to come and think - what if????
We arrived in Feb 06 and are living in Perth (snoozeville), my husband got a job straight away and is enjoying it although quite different to uk, my children are very young just 3 and 1 so they are ok just get on with it my husband earns pretty good money and we have a ok lifestyle, although
no where as good as the uk, money is still tight, and it does not seem to go far,
We said we was going to give it 2 years even if just to get the citizenship for the kids future, but I don't think I can last that long, I miss home and my life so much , I feel the kids are missing out with their grandparents, I miss my grandparents and the thought of not seeing them alive again, well.
I have made some good friends here and meet with them a couple of times a week, which is great and really helps otherwise I would have gone mad, having spent near on last 5 months alone with just the kids to talk to, even got excited at the prospect of calling utility companies just to have an adult coversation.
We did really think this through before we came and new we would miss everyone, but the reality has his us harder than we thought and I do think I had my rose tinted glasses on.
Oz is a great place and for anyone coming what an experience but for me home is where my heart is.
hi there all when you come to Adelaide and need a car feel free to look us up our website is www.grandnissan.com.au and we have plenty of selection to choose from so drop us an email and let us know what you need look forward to hearing from you all very soon.. all the best from the man at grand .... ( craig turner)[/quote]
Hi! Sorry to barge in... I'm new here and I'm like a kiddie in a sweetshop with all these fantastic forums!!!
I just wondered if you could give me some more info about Adelaide. I thought it sounded lovely, from the books I've read, but I didn't realise it was expensive to live in...
Forgive me for butting in, you both sound very fed up. Is it really a worse life than in the UK? At the moment I can't imagine a worse sountry to live in than this one, but then I've never lived anywhere else.
Sorry to hear you sounding so sad. Its only been five months though - I guess this is the lows of the settling in period ?!. Might it be an idea to stick with it for a while yet and see how it goes. Its a huge move emotionally and financially I can imagine. Surely after all this it would be worthwhile just keeping with it. Have your friends and relatives got someway to be in touch like skype, msn, email and the like? Would that be a worthwhile idea to make you feel like you are still close to them perhaps not geographically but that you can see them and hear them? Would it be an idea to ask for the exchange of dvds or parties and messages through the post?
Weve still got all this to go yet. ! Not been sent THE letter/email for our visa.
I hope things improve for you and perhaps just a bit of a "Itll be okay" vibes might make a little bit of difference to you ;-)
Sorry you haven't been welcomed. That's one thing that p!sses me of about we Australian's. The Yanks....they'll trip over themselves to welcome you (although I always think "Hang on...what are you after. My wallet? My arse? Trying to convert me to Jesus?" :lol: )
I'm in the Adelaide Hills. You're welcome to come & have a barbie and a drink. I may also be able to give you some help with work (but I can't make promises there)
I understand how you are feeling, I too am finding it very difficult to get work and like yourself I have worked in Admin and didn't find it hard getting work at home, I have got a job in a Nursing home but it isn't a very nice job in the Laundry etc. but the sort of job that not many people want to do. I have felt the same as you you don't really meet people and my two children are 17 and 13 so One at High school and my son has just started Tafe as he didn't want to go back to school here, I think he should have gone to school though to meet kids his own age as he is doing Real Estate at College he is meeting older people, he says he definetely wants to go back tom England and doesn't really like the lifestlyle here. I think if you were to meeet the right people that you could really click with and do things together it would make life better, maybe I am wrong but it does get quite lonely, we are living in N.S.W on the Central Coast, it is very preety but we haven't really explored too much yet, my husband is working so doesn't really feel like doing much when he gets in. We came here originally because someone I used to work with in the UK is here and asked us to come and stay, well that turned into a nightmare and we had already commited to buying a house here so we stayed, we were originally going to Perth and our friends have just gone there to live so I am really missing them and wish we had gone there. I don't know if it would have been easier to find work over there . HOw are you finding things now and where did you move from in the UK, I will give you my email as I don't always look on theis site frances.page@hotmail.co.uk speak to you soon Frances
