furkew

Hi Henk. welcome aboard. I'm British, but my wife is Dutch and I lived there for 21 years myself in Delft, Den Haag, monster & Naaldwijk so know Zoetermeer quite well. You will find plenty of info on both visa applications and Melbourne. On Poms in Oz forum there are a couple of Dutch members as well, and you might want to check out http://xpdite.net/forum/ which is a Dutch forum for people heading to Australia. The Dutch community is very prominent in Melbourne and just a couple of weeks ago we were at the "Oranjefeest" in the city. Ourselves, we live in a small town on the edge of Melbourne called Monbulk which has a very large Dutch population because of its micro climate is ideal for growing flowers & plants. good luck with you application, and any questions feel free to ask. Groetjes Paul.

The commute from Cranbourne to Glen Waverly is probably about 45minutes. Personally I think there are nicer areas than Cranbourne, but its all the new housing estates that put me off the area. I feel its a bit soulless. When you have arrived, I would suggest hubby does the drive one morning in the rush hour to give him an idea of what to expect. www.stayz.com.au has a very big selection of furnished lets, but because it is more orientated for holiday rentals, prices can be quite high, although September is not a peak period, you could try to negotiate a better rate if you are looking to book for 4 weeks. 4 weeks is a good window to arrive, settle, get everything organized and find a long term rental without having to rush things too much. www.airbnb.com seems to be getting quite popular with new arrivals, but not sure how they are priced. Paul

No yummy mummy's or Chelsea tractors on this track. I don't live in the CBD so everybody I know has a 4by for on the farm. Towing the camper trailer or caravan or going for a few off-road adventures.

I have a jeep JK, my son has a jeep TJ and I know dozens of mates with jk's, jku's, TJ's, grands and even SRT8's and they are all very happy campers. offroad a Tj & JK without modifications will go anywhere a land cruiser can go, and I have had to recover plenty of land rovers, land cruisers, prado's etc where I have had no issues (mine is heavily modified and still well below $60k). The big difference with the jeeps is that they cost a lot less than most of the other brands, but you need to modify them to with non jeep aftermarket parts to make even more capable. The biggest disadvantage with most jeeps is fuel consumption and space. A landcruiser can cost up to over $100k and a top of the range JKU Rubicon with lockers, sway bar disconnects etc under $60k. The new Grands have a very good reputation, and although they do have issues (like all other cars), the Jeep warranty service is excellent. At the end of the day, "its a jeep thing" You love them or hate them.

jump onto www.ausjeepoffroad.com.au they are all jeep owners/fanatics from early willy's to the latest Grands. You will find all the pro's and con's plus what sort of prices new owners are being offered at the moment. I love the new models they have at the moment, and would love to look at updating the wifes car to a Laredo or overland.

Totally agree that its a lot more bang for your buck out this way, but because it is in the hills, it does carry a higher fire risk, winters are colder and wetter and it is still at least an hours commute to the CBD so I don't think it will ever be as expensive as suburbs closer to the city of beach. You can still buy something very nice between $400k-$550k depending on the size of the house and the block it's on.

My wife has a beauty salon here in the dandenong ranges in the hills in a small town and she offers hair, shellac, gel nails, various massages, spray tanning, waxing, eyebrow tinting and soon Botox and permanent make up so you will have no problem getting pampered in the more built up areas/towns. There are nail salons in every shopping mall but they work on turning customers over as fast as possible and the quality can be very average lots of the time.

I've got a 22.000 liter water tank that hasn't been empty for the last 5 years and had to go back to mains water 3 months ago because of no rain and I live in the dandenongs which is one of the highest rainfall areas in victoria.

31 in Melbourne today and not a fly to be seen anywhere. Same again tomorrow. Still wearing my shorts daily since later October. Who says Melbourne weather is like the UK. ?

Is it a complete fibre glass shell, or is it one similar to the ones that Clark rubber sell? If its the clark rubber type, they normally have an inner liner to keep the water in, but the outer shell is made up of separate panels. Once drained, they can easily be dismantled. You could either sell it cheap on ebay/gumtree or offer it free to anybody prepared to dismantle it themselves and move it. If it is a complete shell, you can hire a franna crane to lift it over the house (depending on power lines and trees etc) The hire of a crane could be up to about $1500.00 for the job. (we paid a bit less than that to have ours lifted in, but that was 6 years ago)

that's a difficult one to answer. just be open about everything, because the worst thing you can do is try to hide it, and it comes back a few months later and bites you on the bum.

I visited for a reccy, and then on arrival. declared on both occasions.

don't agree with you there. there are still plenty of honest folk in this world and if you are open about everything and the price is right it isn't difficult to organize. If the seller promises something and the car isn't as advertised, then it falls through, and the seller is stuck with a car just before they leave.

I'm now on PR. started on a 457, and never had an issue. I was young and stupid (like many others) but if you are open with immigration, you should have no problems.

unfortunately that is your problem. You need your van ASAP. I have seen the same issue on the Jeep forums that I am on, and its the same. lose a key or need reprogramming, then they have you over a barrel. Unfortunately I think you are going to have to pay up and get it to the dealer or lose income because of your trade. My car went into the dealers recently for a couple of warranty issues and they couldn't reprogram my spare key because of software issues. Luckily they had been able to reprogram the first key before it happened, otherwise I would have had no car to drive on a Friday arvo as well.

have you thought about advertising it on here? you could maybe work something out with a new arrival that will take it just before you leave Oz.

check out online forums for Holdens. They are normally the best place to find this sort of info. Its very common that keys need re-programming and stealers/dealers charge like wounded bulls (just like the locksmith)

always tell immigration. It wont affect your application in any way. (they are only worries about convictions that have resulted in jail sentences) It depends on what job you are applying for sponsorship for. If they have asked for anything regarding any previous criminal records then don't hide it, but if not, there is no reason to mention it. If you feel comfortable in telling them, it wont hurt, but I never declared mine and it was never brought up.

The majority of new arrivals don't have jobs straight away, so you're not alone. As already mentioned proof of the funds should be sufficient. Short term holiday lets are not cheap, but from experience with both ourselves when we first arrived and new arrivals in our unit 3-4 weeks is a good time frame to be able to find something after researching areas and not hurrying to find a long term rental that you might regret later.

Did anybody see us and give us a wave?

well be heading down the esplanade/beach road after 10am. If you are on the water in the area, don't forget to give us a wave

This Sunday is the Melbourne Jeep topless day to raise funds and awareness for the allergy & anaphylaxis charity. http://www.allergyfacts.org.au/ There will be 100 Jeep wranglers driving in convoy from Moorabbin along the beach to Beacon Cove, finishing at Lysterfield Lake for this cause (departing from Moorabbin at 10am) If you see our group, please give us a big wave, there will be jeeps ranging from basic to jacked up, pimped up jeeps with the roof and doors off all helping to raise money for this great charity.

Mildura and swan hill have been 40+ far more than us and we are getting 20-30 backpackers a week stopping and looking for work so nothing is guaranteed at the moment.