Sydney - help and advice please

Rod-Helen-Poppy · 09-10-2008, 01:28 PM

Hi everyone,

we have read various threads on this forum and have decided to take the plunge. I have kind of a job offer to work in Sydney and have some questions to ask please.

I have been offered what i believe to be quite a decent salary ($120,000) with medical, car allowance, super an and stuff. i know that it sounds a decent wage but i have heard that sydney is very expensive to live in etc. the company would sponsor me through the visa application etc too they say - how long on average does the application take?

basically we would like to know where the 'nicer' suburbs are as we have a 1 year old daughter. we dont really fancy living right in the city, but then again i dont want a huge commute to work every day.
we would love it if we could live near the beach and have a nice 'out doors' lifestyle as we are still quite young.

im hoping that my partner (helen) would not have to work and that she can meet up with fellow ex pats and go to baby groups and such like; hopefully we can find all this out from the kind members who visit this site.

any advie and help is greatly appreciated, and hopefully we could meet up with some of the members should i defintiely get the job.

thanks in advance

Rod & Helen

nareyclan · 09-10-2008, 01:49 PM

Hi Rod

We are expecting to move to Sydney in Jan 09. There are a number of ways to look for decent suburds. Rough Guides are good, the forums on here under NSW and there is the guides to living in....(google them). you have to buy the guides to living but once you narrow your search down to a couple of areas the are worth looking at.

My research has gone in to the public transport system and own way travel. the highways are much like any other throughout the world. the public transport appears to be very good on paper and relatively inexpensive. Dependant on you preference area Cronulla(sutherlandshire) is 35km from Central Business District(CBD) and this takes about and hour on the train. Parramatta(NorthBeach ish) is also about an hour to hour and half by train to CBD but both of these are on the coast. If you are prepared to travel the further out of Sydney you are the more you get for your dollar.

I too will be sponsored to move and it has taken me 3 months so far to complete forms medicals and police checks. Hopefully we will get our visa very soon. Other people have taken considerably longer. I suppose it depends on your new employer and how soon you are wanted there.

One way to check information out and see if there is anything interesting is on the POI tool bar. Use search and it will give you all the threads relating to you query. I know last week there was coffee and baby group meet ups discussed.

good luck with the process and welcome to Poms in Oz. prepare to be addicted very soon

Rod-Helen-Poppy · 09-10-2008, 02:04 PM

Ray,

many thanks for the quick reply and the information - we will scour the net and this forum over the weekend!!

its all quite exciting and nervous too; i have a teleconf interview thing to complete soon so im swotting up on my notes from uni lol.

we are moving to hopefully get a better 'work/life balance' - not to mention better weather and such!!

good luck with your move and you never you know we may end up having a chat over a pint sometime.

Cheers

Rod

nareyclan · 09-10-2008, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rod-Helen-Poppy

Ray,

many thanks for the quick reply and the information - we will scour the net and this forum over the weekend!!

its all quite exciting and nervous too; i have a teleconf interview thing to complete soon so im swotting up on my notes from uni lol.

we are moving to hopefully get a better 'work/life balance' - not to mention better weather and such!!

good luck with your move and you never you know we may end up having a chat over a pint sometime.

Cheers

Rod

Look foward to it.

dazla · 09-10-2008, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rod-Helen-Poppy

Hi everyone,

we have read various threads on this forum and have decided to take the plunge. I have kind of a job offer to work in Sydney and have some questions to ask please.

I have been offered what i believe to be quite a decent salary ($120,000) with medical, car allowance, super an and stuff. i know that it sounds a decent wage but i have heard that sydney is very expensive to live in etc. the company would sponsor me through the visa application etc too they say - how long on average does the application take?

basically we would like to know where the 'nicer' suburbs are as we have a 1 year old daughter. we dont really fancy living right in the city, but then again i dont want a huge commute to work every day.
we would love it if we could live near the beach and have a nice 'out doors' lifestyle as we are still quite young.

im hoping that my partner (helen) would not have to work and that she can meet up with fellow ex pats and go to baby groups and such like; hopefully we can find all this out from the kind members who visit this site.

any advie and help is greatly appreciated, and hopefully we could meet up with some of the members should i defintiely get the job.

thanks in advance

Rod & Helen

Hi

I am moving to sydeny in Jan 09 and have ben looking at the northern beaches area, such as dee why narrabeen etc. These area are served by an express bus to the city and to the ferry terminal at manly which then enables you to get either the jet cat or slower ferry across to darling harbour, right in the city centre

Cheers
Daz

carkyde · 09-10-2008, 08:37 PM

HI Rod

Whereabouts will your job be based? I lived in Sydney for 8 months. Initially I lived in Neutral Bay, North Shores and travelled across the Harbour Bridge every day to Maroubra, Eastern beach. Neutral Bay was really nice, quite upmarket, no complaints about this area except the commute was a bit of a pain, some days it could take 20 minutes just to get across the bridge. Public transport is good but can be a little time consuming too due to the volume of traffic at peak hours.

If you live Manly, Narabeen it is really nice but again you will have to go over the bridge or use the tunnel to go from North to City side, it can be a bit pricey doing this everyday as the Bridge and Tunnel are tolls!!

We then moved to Maroubra Beach, it is about 3 beaches down from Bondi and very Aussie. Brilliant beach, not a lot in the actual Maroubra Beach area in the way of shop but Maroubra Junction is about 5 minute drive away. Maroubra has a bit of a reputuation as the Bra Boys live there. We loved living there and never had a problem with any of the locals, in fact we broke our hearts leaving there.

We are going back to Oz soon, just got our PR!!! We are planning on giving Adelaide a go, mainly as the houses are cheaper. I was earning $115,000 and even though my OH didn't work we lived comfortably, managed to save a little every month but found if we wanted to buy a nice place close to the beach we couldn't afford it!!! We did house share that's probably how we managed to save.

What job have you been offered?

Hope this helps. C