charlene

Can anyone tell me if Southport State Primary and Southport State High are good schools? Looks like Pacific Pines High School is the catchment school for Parkwood but would be a lot easier logistically if I could get the boys into Southport schools. Anyone know much about Arundel State Primary School or even Keebra Park High School?

Thinking about moving to Parkwood, 4214. Used to live in Southport and Ashmore so am familiar with area. As there are no state high schools in Parkwood itself, which high school could I enrol my 13 year old into? Does anyone live in Parkwood with kids at state high school, if so which ones do they go?

Hi Alytia, We have settled in pretty good. We found it a little quiet at first, especially moving from the Gold Coast but over the past 10 months Bundy has grown on us. I have got used to the laid back easygoing lifestyle. I work as a hairdresser in town and find that a majority of the clients that come into the salon are lovely, community spirited people. My boys are 11 and 5. My youngest started prep in January and is doing good. I am not sure about which child care centres are good as we have never used any here but I am sure there are good ones around and someone can give you more info. How did you get on with the agents? Did you have any luck? Anything else you need to know I will try to be of help. Charlene

Hi Alytia and Aaron Me and my hubby and two boys moved from Gold Coast to Bunday about 10 months ago now. Bargara is a lovely place to live if you want to be by the beach. But saying that there are many lovely areas around such as Innes Park, Coral Cove, Elliott Heads etc. We don't live near the beach but we really like Bundaberg. It is a lovely place to bring up children - quiet and laid back with really great community spirited people. Our rental agents "ANP" in Bundaberg are really good. Not sure how they would be about securing a property from the UK, but they secured a property for us without us travelling to Bundy from the Gold Coast to view it first and they were the best as other agents did not really want to deal with us because we were not able to view the properties. Just google them and give them a call to see whether they would be able to help you. The only advice I would give about securing a property from outside of Australia would be to show that you have sufficent funds for rent, evidence of the jobs you will be starting etc... If you can provide as much info for them that will make them confident in you then you should be in with a good chance. This is what we did when we secured our first rental from the UK to the Gold Coast when we first came over. Good luck and if you need any further advice please let me know

Just an update on our move to bundaberg. We have been here for just over 2 weeks now and I am loving the lifestyle here and the amazing friendliness of the people. We rented in Thabeban in the end and have a gorgeous house that is everything we could have hoped for and more - we rented it unseen - we just viewed photos on realestate.com and the agent secured the house for us within 1 and a half days. It's just great. Yes it is remote out here but once you get to the shops which is not far away it has everything you need. I start work on Saturday and my eldest has already started school at Thabeban State School and it's just so friendly - the kids are so well mannered and very friendly and my son has made lots of friends. We have to stay put for about 3 years but if we end up really loving it here then we will stay in Bundaberg. I have to say after moving up from the Gold Coast this is REAL Australia and I have no complaints - I always knew I was a country girl at heart...

Thanks for your advice Traveller76. Will look into Branyan. We are going to be renting a house so if we do move and rent somewhere for a bit and find we don't like the area then we will look at another area and move again. Reason for choosing Thabeban is that it didn't get affected by floods. Not sure about Branyan - do you know if the area was affected in any way? Isn't Branyan closer to the river? We have never been to Bundaberg so as much info anybody has would be much appreciated and if anybody knows anything at all about schools in the area - that would be really helpful to me (primary and secondary).

Hey Kitty Kat We will hopefully be moved by mid July to beginning of August. I have been offered a job and we are moving there on a regional sponsorship visa. We are liking the Thabeban area at the mo - we have spoken to estate agents and Thabeban didn't get any damage from the flood - I think Thabeban Primary School got a little storm damage but nothing like the North or East of Bundaberg. This is why we are thinking that Thabeban is going to be a better area. Bagara is looking beautiful but they get a lot of tornados going through there. Let us know when you move out - would be good to make friends...

Okay - more advice needed Does anyone have any info on the suburb of Thabeban in Bundaberg?? We have looked at all the flood areas that were affected and it was mainly North and East Bundaberg - Thabeban wasn't affected (South Bundaberg). Does anyone know much about the area and primary schools/high schools? Thanks

Thanks for all the advice - we will be speaking with our agent tomorrow and see if we can get the cost down - if not we will ask about them checking through the application and what that cost would be - failing that we will do it ourselves.

The $4,500 is just the agent's fees - as I said we are looking at about $9,000. We just don't want any hiccups and I can imagine getting everything together and doing all the paperwork is quite a stressful thing. So Sussexboy you paid an agent just to check everything? - how much did that cost if you don't mind me asking.

I have had a job offer and the company have said yes to a regional sponsored visa. I had my letter of offer through today and my agent has spoken with them and all seems great. My agent has just sent me through a Schedule of Costs. Agent fees are $4,500 plus gst with the application costs on top of that. Basically we are looking at about $9,000. :arghh: We are undecided whether to keep with our agent who we have used twice before, once for my student visa, once for my graduate visa, and have been really happy with them - but we are running on empty money wise and we also have to relocate from Gold Coast to Bundaberg for this job so we have moving costs on top of this. The company who has offered me the job have sponsored on this visa before so they know what they need to do. What I want to know is how easy or difficult is it to do the RSMS application without using an agent?

Hey Misplaced, good luck with getting your job interview. I went for my trial today, did three clients. I got offered the job so it looks like we are def heading to Bundaberg. Just need to work out how we're gonna do it, costs etc... Life takes funny turns sometimes!!

Okay so an update on this Albury move. The owner of the company e-mailed me last week to say that he has now withdrawn the position due to personal reasons. So looks like my move to Albury is no more. I am now going for a job trial on Tuesday in Mt Gravatt and if they like me this salon chain are willing to do a regional sponsorship with me for their salon in Bundaberg. So it looks like if all goes well we will be staying in Queensland and heading to Bundy. Any help on Bundy would be great. Think I'll have to post in the QLD forum but feel free to advise if you know anything about Bundaberg, which areas are better than others. I have been told it's a lovely place to be...

Hi Jaysam Welcome to the Gold Coast. We have been here for over 3 1/2 years now and we live in Ashmore. I love it here and you are close to Southport (I worked in Southport for two years and it only took me 10 mins drive there in the mornings). You are only 10 to 15 mins away from Surfers so it's pretty central. My eldest goes to Ashmore State School and I cannot rave about it enough. Before this he was going to Bellevue Park State School. He was there for 3 years and he was being bullied and had all sorts of issues and the school just did not deal with it. He really struggled there. He's been going to Ashmore State School since beginning of this year and he is flying high. The school is amazing and if there are issues they are straight on it. I have spoke to a few parents who have chose to send their kids there and I have not heard a bad word. It's an average sized school - highly recommended. We have no problems with broadband access living here. Rents are not too bad price wise, other areas are probably a bit cheaper but it depends what price region you are happy with - have a look on realestate.com.au and search for rentals there. Hope this helps.

We do miss a good old english pub - I guess that's another plus!!!