Hello Ang
Our story in a nutshell is this: never had any desire/wish to visit/live in Australia. Then 3 years ago a very good friend of mine at the hospital where I work said he was off backpacking around Australia for a year. I said that it sounded so exciting and he said, why don't you and Stu come out and meet me in Perth in March 2006. We said, sound's great we'll book the flights. So off he goes, then 6 months later, says he's homesick and he's coming back home, so he's very sorry, won't be able to meet up with us!! Well, we had booked the flights so we were blooming well still going. Off we went to Perth March 2006, didn't know anyone, had 3 amazing weeks there. In fact, loved it so much, that when we came back in April that year, we booked the flights again for the following March 2007.
So....then we got to thinking - why don't we emigrate? Kids grown up, UK down the pan, loved WA etc etc. Looked into it a bit more and November 2006 went to an expo in Manchester, talked to an agent who basically said that we wouldn't get enough points with our jobs. Had we thought about Student Visa? No, of course we hadn't, but he gave us all the info and a contact in Melbourne. We decided that we could sell our house, and with a nice pot of equity we could afford the studying fees not only for Stu but for my daughter too. We got into contact with a lovely lady at StudyAustralia.com.au who has bent over backwards finding suitable courses that will mean that Stu will have a skill in demand when he qualifies. Unfortunately, she is Melbourne-based, and all her contacts are too. She knew nothing about studying in WA and after a quick search on the web, we couldn't find any information either. So we decided we'd go to Melbourne, do the study for 2 years and see what we thought. People on here have been great, we've heard nothing but good things about Victoria, so we're extremely excited and eager to get there. Meanwhile, March 2007 comes around really quick, and off we went to Perth for the 2nd time. Still love Perth and WA and if things don't work out in Victoria, then we'll be hot-footing it to WA.
Sorry it's so long! Didn't think that would take too long to type!
Cheers,
Rachel
