buzzy--bee

My daughters will be with their school ski camp. BB

Well I managed to leave my front door wide open all day today accidentally and everything was still in the same place when I came home. BB

Hi, I notice your location indicates you are in rural NSW. Are you planning to move to Melbourne, or to rural VIC? BB

The Alfred would be a great location to work in - right opposite a lovely park, within walking distance of the city and also the nightlife of St Kilda, Chapel St, Commercial St etc. You wouldn't need a car and could probably even get away without public transport if you lived in Prahran or Windsor or even St Kilda. BB

Good choice. Melbourne is a big "singles" city, of all ages. As others have said, many Australian houses aren't built to cope with the cold, so try and find one that is. Melbourne is a lot warmer than the UK all year round (for instance where we live by the bay we never get frost and can grow tropical plants). Not sure what you are reading, but there are plenty of nice places to live here. This is totally up to you. You have to get out there and make the effort. For instance, volunteering or joining a club with like-minded people will help. I do hope not. It's really up to you to make it work. Some people may be miserable in Melbourne. I haven't met any of them personally and I've been here 9 years! BB

In Melbourne itself you could join the 75,000 other cyclists navigating Beach Road between St Kilda and Mordialloc. BB

The weather in Melbourne is much-maligned. However it's not that bad. Here by the bay we never get frosts, it never snows or sleets. The coldest daytime max is about 10 degrees, most of the winter it is in the mid-teens. The spring and autumn are normally in the 20s and even low thirties. Summer is very pleasant. You get the odd 40+ degree day, but there normally is only one at a time, and as has been mentioned, it is a very dry heat, so 40 here feels like 30 in Brisbane, you don't sweat at all. I quite like the weather in Melbourne, it is certainly better than London where I came from. BB

Not a midwife but I do know that at our local hospital in Melbourne the complaint from midwives is the lack of doctors when needed for births with issues. BB

Depends what you want from life! Could you give us some clues on what you are looking for from your move to Australia that you currently don't have in New Zealand? I've lived in NZ and find that Melbourne offers the best of NZ lifestyle and UK economy, but I can't compare with QLD as I haven't lived there, just visited. BB

Actually we are desperate for rain in Melbourne. The reservoirs are well down and the desalination plant is about to be brought on line for the first time. Melbourne gets less rainfall than any other city in Australia except Adelaide. BB

I quite like Gippsland as a rural area. Parts of it resemble what Americans think England looks like - gentle rolling green hills, Mr Darcy riding on his white horse to see Lady Jane, that sort of thing. Warragul seems to be an area where people like to live. Probably best to avoid Morwell. BB

Yes, but it might not be a very nice rental, because it would be one that everybody else had rejected and was vacant as a result. People who stay in our short-term accommodation normally allow 4 weeks to find a place. BB

Hello and welcome. If you are in IT, I can thoroughly recommend Peter Chiam - www.ptlabs.com.au, otherwise for other roles George Lombard - www.austimmigration.com.au/ Whatever agent you use, ensure they are MARA registered. Good luck! BB

Have a look at beachside suburbs from Mentone down to Bonbeach. The Mentone/Parkdale area has fantastic schools, and your budget might cover a townhouse / unit. Further out the secondary schools are not as good, although primary still good. These suburbs are all on the train. BB

Yes. The only days when we really can't go out are when it exceeds 40 degrees - 1 or 2 days a year, and then in the evening we walk down to the beach and watch the sun set while lying in the sea. I love Melbourne weather because of the seasons, we don't get frost (down by the bay) so I can grow tropical plants, summer, autumn and spring are well into the 20s - 30s and winter is a pleasant change and much shorter than UK winter. Often in winter we get sunny days into the high teens or even 20. One thing that is very different about Melbourne from the UK is the hottest time of day. In the UK this was always around lunchtime, whereas in Melbourne it tends to be late afternoon or early evening. BB

Thanks Nic for the quick response to the OP. BB

As a landlord, I would happily accept a new arrival, provided they could persuade me they could afford the rent and would look after the property. Note that an agent is not allowed to rent to you sight unseen, so while it is fun to look on websites at places to rent, you won't be able to rent one until you are here. BB

The technicalities of this emigration path are as follows - A PR of NZ can apply for citizenship of NZ after 5 years (so 5.5 years probably to actually get the passport). As a NZ citizen you can then live and work in Australia indefinitely temporarily. You can never become PR in Australia, never get Citizenship, be ineligible for many benefits and a "grey area" for lots of other things, including mortgages and insurance. The recent changes grandfathered NZ citizens who had been here for 5 years + and earned over $53k each of those 5 years. They do not apply to anyone arriving from now on. BB

Yes we have twin girls aged almost 11, they were 2 when we emigrated so we have no personal experience of them being educated in England. I love the fact that children are encouraged to grow in so many different ways. Every child at school here does public speaking from a very early age, first in front of their class and then the whole school and parents and teachers. Every child is encouraged to set a good example to others from day 1 in various ways. Team sports are very important. Art and music classes happen more than once a week. Discipline seems to be constructive, bullying is dealt with by a "think" sheet, where the bully has to take a sheet home which reflects on how the person being bullied felt, and also how the bully felt, and has to be signed by the bully's parents and then returned to school. When my daughter was bullied by another girl on one occasion, this action was taken and it hasn't reoccurred. The main area where schools here do not excel are foreign languages and RE. RE is still not taught at all in our girls state school, and foreign languages used to not be , however Japanese is now taught and they love it. We also pay for them to learn French outside school to "top up" their language skills. Now the next challenge for us is which Secondary School! Hope that helps BB

At a high level - it is much more focussed around developing the whole child as a rounded, confident individual, rather than on passing tests and scoring points. Depends when her birthday is in relation to April 30th. Children start school in the year when they are 5 after April 30th, so a child with a birthday on May 1st would start when they were 4 3/4 (although most Australians would hold that child back 1 year), a child with a birthday on April 29th would start school when they were 5 3/4. Sing out if that doesn't make sense. You'll have to extrapolate the years to her current age. No. You will not have to pay any more than an Australian for your children's education . Good luck with it all, We moved to Melbourne 9 years ago and have never looked back. BB

Have a look at Pascoe Vale, Essendon, Ascot Vale. Good luck managing with one car! I swore I was only going to have one car when I came to Melbourne. I lasted about 4 months before buying a second one! BB

I reckon Toukley and the surrounding suburbs are set to rocket in status and value - bit of a well-kept secret IMO. BB

Hi Dazken Amac, I have PMd you. BB

Personally I would not be attempting to obtain a loan by defrauding a lender, probably not the best way to go! Better to talk to a broker. BB

Hi Matthew, I recommend you consider Mordialloc and Parkdale - they are by the beach, lovely suburbs, 1 hour by train from the city or 40 mins drive and also close to the freeways for the Mornington Peninsula etc. They are big family areas - kids everywhere, also becoming trendy cafe areas too. Have a look and see what you think. BB