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They're miles away from Ballarat! - a good 3 - 4 hour drive.

Don't let the removal guys unpack your chest of drawers, pack it full of socks, t shirts, bed linen. They will say they have to, because your socks might damage the chest of draws. Then throw a pair of socks at it and examine the damage.

Shep is prone to floods - you've only got to look at the big rivers - Campaspe, Goulburn, Murray and Ovens and they regularly flood and impact the towns along their routes so Wangaratta, Benalla, Shepparton, Seymour, etc all cop it regularly. Ballarat is south of them in the hilly area and not on the flood plains of the big rivers.

Nasty place (crime, drugs). Give it a wide berth

The last time I flew Singapore was in 2012, so yes, I must have avoided them.

You don't have to be resident in Oz for 2 years before claiming. You can claim the day you arrive in Australia, but the catch is that you've then got to stay for 2 years, or it gets stopped.

Yup, I asked my husband whether he thought Ballarat was flood prone and he was surprised I would think of asking! I think it is just the odd suburb on rare occasions.

I know someone this happened to. It was much less severe of a false allegation, but touching someone's bottom is still sexual assault. If found guilty, the penalty was unlikely to result in a jail sentence, but would result in a conviction, being placed on the sex offenders register. That would have led to the loss of this persons job and they'd never have gotten another professional role again. They would have ended up losing their home, their children's lives would have been changed forever A couple of friends were character witnesses in court and one other who wasn't a witness sat through the whole trial. She described it as an absolute joke. The accuser was caught out in a lie on the stand and the jury deliberated for under an hour, including their lunch and acquitted. The impact on this person was profound. 18 months it took to get to court. 18 months of terror that his whole life could end as he knew it and his families for something that was blatantly malicious and false. He became withdrawn, depressed, was drinking more etc. Work performance suffered. Fear was the first thought he woke up with and never left. You can imagine. As he describes it, there was clear evidence from the start of malicious intent and clear evidence that the accusers story didn't make sense, but his solicitor said to him that in such cases at the time (over 15 years ago now) the prosecution service don't like to take a decision not to prosecute because there was bad press on the statistics for prosecution rates for sexual assault allegations and they prefer to make the jury decide not guilty rather then the CPS not prosecute. As well as undermining genuine victims, false accusations destroy people, even when (eventually) cleared. This person convicted yesterday is vile and deserves the harshest sentence possible. Please note, I'm in no way suggesting that most allegations are untrue. I'm sure they are not. I am quite sure that prosecution rates are terrible and that more genuine crimes go unpunished that false allegations happen.

To me, this sounds like a strange question. It's assuming that your kids will want to buy where you're settling. Looking at friends my age in Sydney and Melbourne, I can't think of any whose kids bought in the same suburb or even close by. Either they want to live in a trendy inner-city area, or when they're ready to start a family, they'll move to the outer suburbs where they can afford something. Quite a few of them are rentvestors (renting their home but they do own an investment property). However even then, their rented home is in the "young" suburbs, not where their parents live.

Your migration expert, assuming they are a registered migration agent, is best placed to answer these pretty specific questions. That’s what you paid them for : -)

I think it’s likely to be even Longer!! Many of us here were told 18-24 months for applications lodged around 2016-2017 - they’re currently taking around 6 years!!

All coming out now about the source, gain of function carried out in the labs in wuhan with Fauci front and Center of it.

That has been common knowledge for about 4 months , Fauci up to his eyes in all this.

A lot of them circulating in India now, as well as even more loony effects from just being in the same room as someone who's vaccinated. The theories are filtering into the UK and Australia through Indian immigrant communities, too. I'm not going to repeat them here because I don't want to give them air time. https://www.vice.com/en/article/88nnwg/anti-maskers-ready-to-start-maskingto-protect-themselves-from-the-vaccinated

No, not each to their own if it's someone who's spreading foolish theories which might discourage people who should be vaccinated from getting it.

Isn't discrimination illegal in Queensland?

We live in a free world we are not living in North Korea it’s about choice , what if you are allergic to such things ? where do you draw the line ? I don’t have the flu jab and not that interested or keen to get it. I will probably get the covid one so I can travel internationally. How are they going to police people entering shops. It’s still discriminating as it’s not law to have the vaccine it’s a free choice , if it becomes law different kettle of fish.

No it's not. Gay is not a choice.

Not if he has been vaccinated himself.

No different than flat Earthers or moon landing deniers.

https://www.healthline.com/health/post-viral-fatigue#symptoms I thought we had been over this once already.....many viruses cause fatigue after you have seemingly recovered.....its not uncommon and coronavirus is no different.....to say Flu does not cause "post viral fatigue" or "CFS" is just not true.

Have the Australian government actually said they are delaying the rollout because they’re letting the rest of the world be guinea pigs?

I have two sons. One emigrated accidentally back to UK, he's doing very nicely. The other was, sadly, led by "love" away from a full medical scholarship which should have seen him do very nicely. Since then, he's built a couple of homes in the bush (ie nobody's planning regulations) which subsequently burned in a bushfire despite all his elaborate precautions. The "Love" decided she fancied her best friends husband (his best mate) and her incessant need to control their daughters has been and continues to be horrific. He was fortunate that my father left both of my sons a good amount of money which has enabled him to buy a country property outright. He had our granny flat in town when he needed it. He's always managed to find work but it's not a career and he's not bothered by that. He's got a reputation for being an intelligent and very hard working chap - doesn't pay much but he seems happy. We are having to help him with legal fees because his ex has kidnapped his kids - fortunately we can manage that but he wouldn't be able to do it without our help. I think if you are prepared to work hard, do anything and maybe eschew materialism you can make a go of it. I've friends whose kids have slotted into the public service ok, others have kids who've done apprenticeships and they're doing nicely, most are still renting but a few have had a leg up from parents or inheritances and been able to buy/get a mortgage. A couple have kids with serious mental health issues and they're struggling with non functional kids still at home in their 30/40s and no end in sight. Son #2 wouldn't have had enough to have bought in Canberra but hours away from nowhere, the land is cheaper! Son #1 has a good job, as does his wife and they've been able to buy a nice place in London. Must say, I wouldn't like to be trying to get on the property ladder here at the moment. It's certainly the topic of conversation in my social groups - one friend was recently helping her daughter find a new place. The $500k mortgage she thought she could muster wouldn't even buy a decent size single bed unit and she was depressed about that.

and your point is...?

Good move. Gladys and Morrison confused but might get to it next week...