Quoll

No siblings but I've always found that people bend over backwards to try and get together. I'm planning a visit in a couple of weeks and I've been invited to stay by most of my friends. Those I can't get to are willing to come and see me or meet half way. I tend to go and visit them because I want to get about the country and see /do as much as I can.

If you're not including bonds, insurances, vehicles and out of work living expenses that'll be OK if you're living with family in the short term. However all depending on where you go, you might need more than a month to find accommodation. Schools are going to cost you little in comparison, just uniforms, stationery, "voluntary" contributions but if you decide to go private then that's obviously going to be a while lot more.

You’re right! Thanks!

You would have been given a NI number at birth - you don't need to apply for a new one, just ask them for the old one. You were born in Britain so you just apply for your passport and use your birth certificate for that. If you are in UK on a foreign passport that might well be your problem, hindsight is perfect vision but if you had entered as a citizen you wouldn't be having some of these issues. Passport applications are straightforward and done largely on line these days. Remember that Australia is a foreign country, you haven't paid a single UK tax for the NHS!!!!

She could look at doing years 11 and 12 at TAFE (the cohort there may not be the most academic/enthusiastic though) but, honestly, I'd be leaving her to board with family or friends and finish her A levels in UK then she's left the door wide open to do Uni in either UK or Australia. As long as she pops over to validate her visa she loses nothing.

I think you'll find that Aus Unis are incredibly woke, just like UK ones which is lovely if you're into CRT, radical feminism, climate change etc and drugs and alcohol are still at the core of most social interactions. There is also a lot of group grading - if you happen to get into a group with a load of students who don't speak English or who are so stoned they can't be bothered to go to lectures and you want a good grade then you either have to do all the work yourself for group assignments or just accept lower grades. Remember too that honours degrees are going to take you 4 years as opposed to 3 in UK so the road to honours is a longer journey.

If you are on a temporary visa though, apprenticeships aren't available - you didn't say if your visa is temporary or permanent.

ADHD doesn’t qualify as a disability in most states and doesn’t attract any additional funding so it’s probably not going to be an issue but you do need to honestly answer questions about any concerns. It’d be worth running it past one of the agents who specialise in medical issues along with all assessments (which they will probably ask for) of cognitive ability, skill levels, adaptive behaviour etc.

Are you coming on a temporary visa? If so you might want to consider what your older teen might do - 16 this month would make them the very youngest in year 11 this year and year 11 is already part way through so they'd be better waiting and enrolling in year 10 this year then have the full 2 years leading to VCE. However if there's a chance you'll be returning to UK, let them stay with family or friends to get through GCSE and A levels by which time the rest of you will have decided whether to stay or go and they can consider where their best Uni options would be. Does the 200k include superannuation? That would reduce it a bit if it does. As for leaving early to get to work and leaving early to get home - it'd probably be leaving home early and leaving work late and hopefully parking is included in that deal too. Which side of the city is he going to be working in? That'd be something of a deciding factor as to which side to look. $200k is around twice the national average wage at the moment so if you're living on twice the average wage or more in UK you should be good - most families these days are two income to make ends meet but 2 average salaries would be the family income. On the plus side rural rentals tend to be cheaper than urban ones but if you want a job, there may be fewer local options in tiny places.

Yup, getting a bit of a bad rap at the moment LOL

With teenagers - how old are the teenagers? I only ask because of the VCE - you wouldnt want to be moving a kid who is 16+ because it would be hard to get into a senior school program which would give them a good Uni entrance score. Just as an aside - you'd really have to think about educational implications You could do much worse than Ballarat. I believe the train service is now pretty good - no longer the old bone shakers they used to have and I think if you were commuting into Melbourne you would really want to look at the train. Driving in would be a nightmare and though it would be an hour to the Tullamarine turn off it could be another hour into the centre. There are some excellent private schools in Ballarat as well (no idea how many genders are de rigeur at the moment though). You could look at stops on that rail route to see what else looks OK. My in-laws live in Lara which is a town just outside Geelong and they are very happy there - our nephew commuted into Melbourne by train every day to Carlton and thought that was fine. He went to school in Geelong before that.

Some of them out at Fyshwick do. But there's a lot on the local buy nothing pages

After Uni your kids could go anywhere - what would you do if one chose Canada and the other preferred Spain? There's no guarantee they'll stay in Australia. HECS Help https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans/hecs-help

And check out FB for a Buy Nothing group for the town too.

They probably didn't have registration with AHPRA either which is always going to be a barrier

There was nothing wrong with my skills and I did very well, thank you. Fortunately never out of a job but the experience of many of my acquaintance was that over 50 was over the hill for finding a new role. The retirement age has diddly squat to do with it - I know quite a few who had to engage retirement well before they wanted to. Currently supporting a lady in her mid 50s trying to get back into work - previous public service history, had to quit to care for her sick mother. Now no mother and not much money - skills perfectly fine, aiming for positions well below her capacity - crickets. It's always much easier to get a new job when you're in a job. Like Marisa I was surprised to be offered 3 jobs - 2 of them skill based and one because I was a nice friendly person - without applying for any back in UK - where I didn't want to work anyway. The DH was only offered a couple!

It's hit a gddy 7.6 here in Canberra but, they say, and I believe them, feels like 2.4!!!!

There are plenty of op shops and you'll often find Buy Nothing groups who will give you a hand until you can get stuff you like. Furnished places aren't that common for rent.

Ah, but.... Tasmania!!!!!

62??? Oh dear. As has been said, Australia is very ageist and if they can get a 20 year old to do the job they will pick them every time. Dont fancy your chances unless you are in an incredibly niche market that nobody else in Australia is skilled enough to do. Over the hill at 50 here.

Weather and lifestyle huh? For me, the weather isnt better - I like to walk and in the summer here I do not like having to get up at 5 to walk otherwise be burnt to a crisp. In the winter it is OK because I can layer up. When it rains, IT BLOODY RAINS - none of your nice gentle mizzly stuff and you will be drenched within a few minutes. I am also one of the ones who gets SAD with relentless blue skies, especially when you are in the middle of a drought when you PRAY for rain, the more torrential the better! (Yes, blue sky SAD is a real thing! cured only by skies broken with clouds!). But Australia is a huge place and the weather is as variable as can be - from almost arctic (that's a joke, Tasmania!) to tropical and all stops in between. Some places have standard seasons, some dont. Flies - I hope you like flies, they attract themselves to every orifice they can see and their intent is to penetrate every one - with buzzy noise accompaniments. Lifestyle - hmm, is that the old work life balance thing? or is it the inclination to have a barbie every weekend with the flies and their mates, the mozzies? Of course there will be places you can go which dont have flies but whether that's where you might want to live - in a huge expensive city - is up to you. As for the work/life balance, that was never better for our family - both of us worked well over the 40 hours a week we were paid for, back in the day, and so, yes, we might have been numpties but we needed the jobs and the jobs needed doing. You might struggle with just 4 weeks rec leave a year though. Bottom line though, you have to be old/young enough and skilled enough to get a visa so that might be your first hurdle.

Absolutely!!! When we moved, phone calls cost £1 a minute, aerogrammes took a week or more. Trips back involved 2 refuelling stops and fares cost a lot, we didn't wallow in the "missing stuff" just got on with it. My head said Australia was home but my heart screamed NO! No real reason except I don't like it, I just don't belong, the colours are all wrong, I dislike the superficiality of it, I don't get the humour and constant blue cloudless skies have exactly the same SAD effect on me as grey skies do on others. I can imagine that with a failing marriage it would have been an isolated nightmare.

I note you are a single parent - will your daughter's other parent allow her to leave? That's often an issue that single parents have when trying to move their kids. I agree that talking with an agent is your best bet - but some of the pathways are going to put a serious dent in your £450k (especially private international school fees!)

I think they ask for any conditions that have been diagnosed so lying wouldn't be a good option. Especially if he's getting 1:1 in school. If he's eligible for 1:1 on Australian criteria then that's your chance of a visa gone. That said, provision for kids with autism in Australia is well less than UK from reports of those who've returned.

LOL, yes. Been retired for a while now, but I always chuckle at the better work life balance thing. Used to joke that my husband always worked 5-9 (and usually at least one day at the weekend) and I wasn't much better but I had more flexibility for the kids.