fish.01

hi guys, im after some advice on what you do with spiders if its not a general house spider, there is a red back who lives in the garden next to our washing line. we are finding she makes a big web from the washing line to the fence and worried she might get into our washing. dont want to kill it but dont know how i would relocate it ? any ideas

You sure it's a red back ? They unusual make formless messy webs underneath furniture and in nooks and crannies...not usually large proper webs across open spaces ?

The lifetime loading is nothing to do with your tax though? Its just on the health insurance premiums I think. Its the Medicare Levy that is to do with the ATO.

 

So glad I'm back home, the NHS is so much simpler!

Yeah that's correct, the loading is nothing to do with tax.

@OP There are two government "incentives" to push people into private insurance. One is based on your age, the second on your wealth.

Age

----

A sliding penalty loading which increases the cost of your private health insurance depending on how old you are, after 30 years of age, when you first take out private health insurance. It's stated purpose is to encourage people to not wait until they are old and unwell to take out private health insurance.

You are only penalised if and when you subsequently take out private health insurance; your premiums will be higher for 10 years.

If you stick with Medicare only you will not incur any penalty loading.

Wealth

--------

As stated if you earn over $180,000 as a family (or $90,000 single) you will incur an additional amount of tax if you do not hold private hospital insurance for the full year. Note this has nothing to do with the "extras" portion of any private insurance plan, only the private hospital cover.

If you earn under the thresholds this will not affect you.

This is interesting... Do you live in Paddington yourself then? How do you rate life there?

We live around 10 mins walk from Paddington so I cycle through Red Hill, Paddington & Bardon most days.

I love it because it suits my interests. I really love character homes, the history everywhere, the windy hilly old streets, the little independent shops, the old trees and gardens, the great food and coffee, the accessibility to the city, the bike riding distance to town etc. So for me it is worth it as I get a kick out of it every day but it does depend on your priorities.

I also love that traffic has almost disappeared from my life. When we lived further away commute traffic was a big part of everyday life. Barely think about it anymore as easy to cycle or get a bus so it has almost disappeared from my life. Bliss. As I mentioned if you do have to use your car you can just take the empty back roads few use until you get right near town. People say that because outer suburbs have less traffic they are better for avoiding traffic stress but having lived in both I have found it the exact opposite...it is the daily grind of commute traffic that gets to you in the further out suburbs.

We have also found the kindergartens to be just lovely (Rosalie Creche & Kindergarten and Red Hill C&K) and our children love their school. My wife is English and has made some great friends from Australia and all over the world that she sees all the time. Many lovely families that meet up at the local park for birthday parties, coffee mornings etc. I have always been able to cycle the kids to or from kindergarten/school and then go to work and my wife does it via bus at the other end. Has meant I have been a lot more involved with my kids life (knew all the kindergarten teachers really well, children's friends etc) than I would have been in an outer suburb with long commutes. Easy to jump on my bike at work and cycle back if one of the kids is sick or something.

Thanks. I'll check out the bike paths too then - sounds worth looking into. ...

If you're looking in Paddington and want to cycle I would stick either to the Red Hill/Ashgrove side of Paddington to pick up the Ithaca Creek bikeway (flat, goes right into the city off-road) or the Rosalie Village side of Paddington to ride via the Bicentennial Bikeway (flat, to city, mostly off-road).

You can ride down Latrobe Tce in the morning ok and ride back up using the footpath in the evening but not as pleasant as the two other options above.

Thanks - that's useful to know that once the child is in a school, they can stay.

If you move out of catchment while your child is in primary you may not get into the catchment high school though.

.........

In relation to schooling, Paddington just doesn't have a public secondary close by (at least that is my understanding). ...

FYI, Paddington's state high school is Kelvin Grove college which is around the same distance as the local private schools. Around 1.5km away from the edge of Paddington at the closest point. See:https://kelvingrovesc.eq.edu.au/Pages/default.aspx

... People will tell you drainage systems have been improved since the last floods. Mostly bunkum. ...

Interested in this if you can expand Roberta ?

You might consider too whether your jobs might require frequent interstate travel, in which case you will want to be in the inner north.

Paddington is really easy now with the airport link tunnel, just have to pay that pesky toll.

A "character home" in those suburbs will cost at least a million. A Queenslander closer to two million. (You need to budget for maintenance for those. Painting one costs at least $20,000.) In fact, any character home within about 5 ks of the CBD will cost at least a million. See real estate websites. The quality (or perceived quality) of the schools tracks closely with median house prices. But you need to live in the catchment to be sure of a place.(See Dept of Education maps.)

Hi Roberta, I'm not sure what you consider a Queenslander but I presume my definition if far wider than yours as those prices seem extremely high given my definition. As I understand almost all pre-WWII homes are considered queenslanders, just many different styles. I presume you have one particular style in mind. Maybe the colonial style with full wrap around verandahs ?

Around 5km out you can get 3/4 bedders character homes starting around $800,000:

Example: http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-red+hill-122762886

Example: http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-ashgrove-121045198

If I were moving to Brisbane, I would be looking carefully at public transport. Paddington and Bardon have no railway or dedicated busways. They are also very hilly with narrow roads. (Originally bullock tracks on the ridges on the foothills of Mt Cootha) Traffic congestion is a big problem now. So is parking outside schools. Wilston would be a good bet - close to the train. Cafes etc but also a short bus ride to the city. There is also the ferry/City Cat network on the river. Anyway, why not rent for a while first? You can take out a six month lease. It might be better to start with jobs first anyway.

Paddington does have the Maroon city glider, 385 etc and the distance is short so the bus trip is only 10-15mins in peak...I find Latrobe Tce one of the least congested streets leading into Brisbane in peak hour.

Living in the area I find the traffic the easiest of anywhere I have lived in Brisbane. The steep windy streets are actually a blessing as only the locals know the way through many of them and the smaller connecting suburban roads are often empty almost right to the edge of the city, even when the neighbouring arterials carrying people from further away suburbs are busy. The rat runners don't dare enter the maze, it's great

Also if you choose to live in an area like Paddington, as pointed out your son's friends are likely to be going to private schools (probably expensive ones) after.

Plenty of the local kids go to state schools. The state schools in those areas are very well regarded.

Contemplating a move from NSW to QLD. There seems to be a lot of building going on up near Brisbane.

We are a family of 4 (kids 9 and 6). Is Coomera a good area? If not, suggestions on family friendly suburbs with good access to Brisbane CBD and coastal areas (also affordable - say less than $500k) TIA!

If you do decide to consider non-beach places in Brisbane rather than Gold Coast here are some varied examples of family homes around your budget:

Ferny Grove

A quiet family area with good access to the city, countryside, samford village, mountain ranges etc. Has a variety of housing prices and quality of pockets so is a good place for a bargain in a family suburb. Dominated by end of the line train station as photo below shows...always get a seat

Peak hour commute 30 mins on train:

• 8.02am Depart Ferny Grove station, platform 2, Ferny Grove

• 8.33am Arrive Central station, platform 1, City

• Travel time: about 31 minutes

Note the asking price is often bargained against.

$479k: 4 bed, 2 bath, 2 garage

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-ferny+grove-119951145

<$500k: 3 bed 2 bath 2 garage

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-ferny+grove-119828979

$530k: 3 bed 2 bath 2 garage

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-ferny+grove-119863693

$439k: 3 bed 1 bath 0 car

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-ferny+grove-120085057

$395k: 3 bed 1 bath 1 car (on a busy road at this price)

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-ferny+grove-119840417

The Gap

A well regarded quiet family suburb surrounded by mountain greenery on all sides with long term well rated public schools, mountain biking, sporting facilities and clubs. A reasonably short drive to more vibrant parts of the city.

Source: http://images.realestateview.com.au/pics/423/232-settlement-road-the-gap-qld-4061-real-estate-photo-1-large-7202423.jpg

Peak hour commute 30 mins on bus (note it is a huge suburb so location dependent, this is from the park and ride in the middle):

• 8.20am Depart The Gap park 'n' ride, The Gap (Brisbane City)

• 8.47am Arrive King George Square, 2A, City

• Travel time: about 27 minutes

575k: 3 bed 3 bath 2 car

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-the+gap-120230261

$545: 3 bed 2 bath 2 car (on local road)

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-the+gap-119969913

Isn't helensvale the next stop on that timetable you posted or am I just misunderstanding ?

Anyone working in Brisbane at the moment ? What is the market like for application support type roles ? Not helpdesk/level 1 roles but more specialised, eg financial sector...

Hi Nick,

I don't know about the broader question of demand level but if it is any help our company (a financials software house) has around 18 vacancies in Brisbane spread over these roles if it gives you any idea of current demand areas. Vacancies exist in other cities as well.

Application Managed Services x 1

Events co-ordinator x 1

Graduate developer x 1

ITQA x 4

Business Analyst x 2

Compliance Analyst x 1

Developer mobile apps x 1

Presales consultant x 4

Cloud systems engineer x 1

Solution architect x 2

Systems engineer - transitions x 1

Support Consultant x 1

when I said near Brisbane, what I meant was within an hour commute

hubby commutes 1hr 45 door to door at the min into Sydney!! (Which is why we are looking at a shorter more affordable commute)

Just a note that if you take the near the beach requirement out you could get it down to a 30 minute commute on your budget.

My Brisbane based team needs an experienced senior QA tester so thought I would throw it out there in case any of you talented individuals are interested (assuming this is the appropriate spot mods ?). We get a recruitment fee and we really need someone now so don't mind broadening the hunt I don't think sponsorship is an option unfortunately. Well not last time I asked.

The team is responsible for developing installation services and an enterprise app store for the continuous delivery of a very large enterprise software suite. It is delivered to our on-premise and cloud SaaS customers (AWS currently and probably a mixture of cloud vendors in the future). The modern revision of the software runs in browser on both desktop and mobile OS using a common platform.

They would prefer someone from a broad IT background who feels they could get comfortable setting up and testing complicated ERP systems.

The company is international, head-quartered in Brisbane with a large R&D team (hundreds of developers). We sell into most verticals including all levels of govt, financial, education, health, utilities, media etc. Over two decades of continuous profitability. Offices everywhere in Australia, also New Zealand, Asia and the UK.

Perks include free all day breakfast every day, fruit, lollies, regular social events, newspapers, service recognition, 4 to 6 weeks leave, every friday at 4 the beer taps are turned on and the wine fridges opened , large variety of teams with very experienced peers to learn from/work with, sponsored sporting teams, very large bike centre with lots of showers and towel service etc. etc

Ping me your CV if this suits you and I'll pass it on...

We don't have kids yet, but would definitely want two kids in the future. We don't want to be full time working parents as we want to be there for our kids.

We both had an income of 65k gross annually. And managed to save around 2k net a month when we had a $420 a week rental house.

 

If we have kids, my wife wants to work 2 or 3 days a week. So her income is likely to drop to somewhere around 25k annually. We were wondering if we would manage having kids.

What kind of benefits/rebates/etc would you have? I know there is child care rebate that covers up to 50% of the cost of child care (up to $7500 a year per child). Then there is child care benefit and family support allowance.

 

So I made a calculation on centrelink and we could get around 3k family assistance entitlement a year. Child care at $80 a day for 2 kids, 2 days a week = $16640 a year. 7.5k is covered by the government, so you have to pay 9k yourself.

 

So to sum it up; We would earn $40 grant less a year, due to having less salary, we pay $9000 grant for child care, but get 3k family allowance. So we have to pay $6000 compared to our current situation. And then I didn't even talk about all the extra costs (food, clothes, etc etc). Seems like an impossible or am I overlooking something here?

Hopefully your figures are wrong as I think you may have:

- missed childcare benefit in your calculations and only counted childcare rebate,

- capped the childcare rebate at $7500 per family rather than per child

- appear to have a lowball figure for family assistance going off your figures.

From using the calculator it seems to be:

Assumptions:

Rent: $420 per week

Income 1: $65,000

Income 2: $25,000

Child 1: 2 years old

Child 2: 3 years old

Both in "Approved" long day care 12 hours max per day 2 days per week

You would both work, study or look for work >=15 hours per week.

Family Assistance:

Centrelink calculator estimates $5356 per year in family assistance payments assuming you still rent (includes rent assistance).

Child Care Benefit + Child Care Rebate:

EACH CHILD: $80 x 2 days = $160 per week minus $77.31 child care benefit leaving $82.69 out of pocket. Half of the out of pocket is paid by child care rebate so final out of pocket is $41.34 per child per week or $2,149.68 per child per year

Total childcare Out Of Pocket for two children per year = $4,299.36

Summary

Family Assistance income of $5356 minus childcare out of pocket of $4,299.36 means your govt payments more than cover your childcare outgoings with a "positive" $1,056 balance.

I hope these figures are close to being correct and I haven't stuffed up as I don't want to give you false hope. Might be worth going into a centrelink office to confirm.

Hi,

 

... Brisbane State High School is the ONLY selective high school in Brisbane area ....

Brisbane State High must take all students from within the catchment and then applies it's enrolment managment plan for applications from students outside the catchment only. It is at this point that any Brisbane govt high school is allowed to apply selective criteria depending on demand from out of catchment enrolments.

Schools like Kelvin Grove College have schools of excellence which are selective and include:

- Queensland Dance School incorporating Queensland Ballet senior programs

- Queensland Golf School of Excellence

- Queensland Tennis School of Excellence

- Queensland Football School of Excellence

- Aviation School of Excellence

- Art and Design School of Excellence

- Engineering School of Excellence

- Music School of Excellence

Mansfield state high is selective for out of catchment enrolments for its full French immersion and music excellence programs.

The only fully selective govt high schools I know in Brisbane are:

- Queensland Academy for Maths, Science and Technology at Tooowong

- Creative Industries Academy at Kelvin Grove

Undertaking is not legal. It's just that everyone does it.

I checked this out after getting a load of abusive hand gestures (from a Sheila !) for moving over to let her pass safely on the outside when I saw her approaching at speed.

On the QLD highways website it states that undertaking is illegal unless two lanes are slow moving traffic (same as UK).

Having said that, even the police undertake !

I'm not sure what law you refer to...undertaking is legal if a road has marked lanes?

Assuming I've guessed the circumstances accurately, if she was approaching in a lane to the left of you at speed you shouldn't change left in front of her (depending on how far back she was and her speed of course).

Reminds me of the time I was on holiday in melbourne in the middle of summer a few years ago. The weather was ok and then one day if just turned artic...all the locals were prepared and the winter coats and jackets were out everywhere with everyone on the tram well rugged up...we both said it was like we had been transported back to London...felt bizarre for summer in Australia. Of course the next day all was well again

Adelaide is the sort of place it is nice to live in short term though- not for ever. It is very small and I think people don't realise this. Plus is that you can drive North and get into the real outback up beyond Flinders Ranges

Wouldn't that totally depend on what balance of things you prefer ? Adelaide may suit many for a whole lifetime and not others....Melbourne may suit many for a whole lifetime and not others. Every city has advantages and disadvantages and people who prefer the city because it has a balance of things that best suits them ?

Tangalooma, Brisbane by fish.2, on Flickr

My big lad at Tangalooma, Brisbane.

Tangalooma by fish.2, on Flickr

Outback Queensland holiday:

Outback 055 by fish.2, on Flickr

Outback 024 by fish.2, on Flickr

Outback 030 by fish.2, on Flickr

Outback 089 by fish.2, on Flickr

Untitled by fish.2, on Flickr

Untitled by fish.2, on Flickr

Untitled by fish.2, on Flickr

Untitled by fish.2, on Flickr