ramot

I bought my 2nd hand car almost 18 years ago!!! I admit to being a ‘careful lady driver’ and it’s only used mostly locally, with the odd treat of a drive to Brisbane, but it’s still in really good condition, so was well worth the price I paid. I’m going to get it detailed as a present on it’s 20th birthday shortly

We have won mostly small amounts, but occasionally a more generous one fairly consistently over the years we have, and still do have, PB’s. Perhaps not as good ‘an investment’ now as the prize money was reduced, but a safe way to park your money, and easy to withdraw at any time, especially from overseas, with the chance of winning more than the interest rate if left in the bank. . So it does suit some people, not all of us want a long term investment, and PB’s shouldn’t be dismissed as a choice. We might have even have come out on top some years!!!

Same

Natuzzi make very good sofas, they aren’t cheap, but you get what you pay for, and ours had a 10 year warranty, we bought our leather suite in 2008, and it’s still in excellent condition, the material suite has been re covered. One thing that that we would now look for is that the seat cushions are not fixed to the base of the sofa, miss being able to turn them over to share the wear, we had that changed when we had the material suite re covered. Having said that our leather suite doesn’t seem to have suffered. We haven’t regretted buying them,

I’ve lived in the Sippy Downs area for 19 years and that’s the first time I’ve heard that it’s any better or worse than anywhere else locally, certainly not something that worries me. Mountain Creek also was supposed to have a mosquito problem, but it doesn’t. I find Buderim is worse. I think you are right about Bli Bli, it did flood in the recent bad rain event.

Reference your last point, my son’s planned extension, he lives in Bristol, has doubled in cost from last years estimate. Having to seriously reconsider how much they now have done.

I will add to the above, that because there are so many different types of visas that enable people to legally live in Australia, that from our experience, having been on a long term temporary visa, most organisations automatically assumed we were PR as we lived here, had no knowledge of our visa status unless we explained our visa conditions. We never assumed that banks etc are across all the many different visa restrictions, we learnt the hard way that the onus was on us to be clear, to avoid potential pitfalls.

I live close to Sippy Downs, and as far as I know it’s fine, certainly don’t hear reports of much trouble there. My son has happily bought a house there recently. Chancellor Park school seems to have a good reputation locally, as does the university. Fairly new hospital close. Good shopping, coast about 10 mins away, hinterland about 25 mins.

Condabilla fish farm near Chinchilla, just googled it and it says permanently closed? We were there only a few weeks ago, wonder if the floods just after we were there was the cause?

There is no easy answer, and only you can make the decision, irrespective of any advice given. I think if you are an only child it is harder, but a bit easier to not live close if there is a sibling near. We are different because we the parents moved to Australia, in our retirement, leaving our three grown up children in UK,, we would never expect our children to move near us, they have their own lives, however 2 did follow us here, one lives over an hour away in Brisbane, the other is in Sydney, but we don’t rely on them for any support yet, my husband is 80 this year, and I’m not much younger. We on average go to Sydney a couple of times a year, and our daughter visits once or twice,.On balance more of our friends have at most one child living fairly near, their other children live anywhere in Australia or lots permanently overseas. Our only grandchildren are in England and until covid restrictions we went there for several months to see them every year, I realise this will get harder as we get older, but friends well in their 80’s still seem to manage with the travelling. We didn’t live close to either my mother or my husband’s parents, or other family, probably only saw them a couple of times a year, hardly ever met up with any cousins because realistically unless you live close to any family, the reality is that you become involved with your own lives where you live. I don’t remember my children talking much on the phone to their grandparents, but with modern technology we face time regularly with ours which has certainly kept us in touch and close. Wish you well with whatever you decide

Sunshine Coast is regional, in case you don’t know house prices have sky rocketed here, lots of people moving out of Sydney and Melbourne to live here, as so many can work remotely now.

Yes first photo was lunch under the shade of a lovely tree in the gardens of J House. M Cod for commercial only.

I was undecided whether to reply, but I’m am so fed up with the keyboard warriors that jump on other posters posts just because they think they are the only people who know everything and are always right. Unless you rent out properties in England as we do, what gives you the right to basically call me a liar. We rent with different agents in different cities who have the same inspection conditions, that is our experience, I certainly wouldn’t bother to post that others with a different experience of renting is wrong, it’s nothing to do with me.just as our rental conditions are no one else’s business. we happen to be extremely good landlords, and have kept our properties immaculate for 25 to 30 years, the inspection is a quick written check list/report checking that nothing needs doing! It’s not a 100 page report, and our tenants over the years are predominantly long term, perhaps because they know the properties are well maintained.

We have rented out property in England for about 25 years while living overseas, and still do. We would never appoint an agent that didn’t do 3 monthly inspections followed with a written report, This is quite normal in England with reputable letting agents, makes sure your property is being well looked after, and any potential problems are dealt with promptly, well worth the cost for peace of mind. Yes you do hear of the occasional horror rental story, but among other expat friends who have rented their property, I can only remember one. We certainly have never had any problems with properly vetted tenants.

There are always doomsayers, but I think if I had listened tp them when I was single in my mid twenties I would never have gone to Africa on my own in the 1960’s. That was more of a risk quite frankly than moving to Australia in 2022. I appreciate I wasn’t emigrating, but who knows I might have stayed for ever? I wouldn’t have missed my time there for anything. We came here in our retirement for a couple of years adventure with no close family here, that was 19 years ago, so you never know how life will turn out. Only you and your husband can decide what to do, like any decision you way up the pros and cons. I have met quite a few ex UK nurses here on the Sunshine Coast, yes they work very hard, and underpaid for their hard work, but almost all say it’s much better here than the NHS? , If you keep up with the news. in both countries, there’s very little difference between complaints about the increase in the cost of living etc, seem more reports of crime in UK? i would say go for it, but it isn’t really up to me. Good luck with your decision

The point is that it was only about say $2/3,000 annually per couple (I can’t remember, but it went up 42% one year!!!) 19 years ago when we based our decision to move here, so what is affordable then, becomes less affordable 30 years later for many people we knew on the visa, as many people’s income did not keep pace with the increased cost of living 20/30 years later. We pay less than half of that amount now we are PR. ps $11,000 per couple

This brings you back to the concept of the now defunct old temporary long term retirement 410 visa followed by the very expensive 405 visas, also closed to new applications. absolutely no one was entitled to Medicare or any age care help. You had to be totally self funded, so therefore reasonably affluent at the time of application. The temporary 410 visa was a renewable visa that allowed you to retire and live in Australia, but the problems arose for many who had made their homes here, that life that was affordable when they first came, became harder and harder as they aged, with no help available, so many had to give up and go home, after making their lives here for 30+ years. The cost of the necessary health insurance was over $11,000 when we last paid it several years ago, before we got PR. So if perhaps a similar new long term parent/retirement temporary was introduced insisting on health insurance, cover, it would have to be with no Medicare to work, plus if you now add in the extra costs involved in buying a house, on a temporary visa not sure how many could realistically afford the long term commitment. The idea of a condition insisting a parent on the permanent parent visa must have health insurance is unworkable, it can only work as a condition of a temporary visa.

My cousins 2 granddaughters go to Primary school in Lennox, and what I love about them is that they aren’t too grown up for their ages, 11 and 9. They go to circus school in Byron, can’t believe what skillls they have, well into surfing and touch football? love craft work so a good balance mix.

Think he died in 2007 according to google. Have you heard about ‘the Twinnies Pelican and Seabird Rescue on Steve Irwin Way Landsborough the Sunshine Coast ? They do a fantastic job, they are identical twins, who speak in absolute complete unison almost all the time, sorry won’t go off thread again

my cousins 3 children went to the Catholic school in Alstonville and then on to university and good jobs. They have all traveled extensively, and my niece worked in London for Deloitte’s. They never seemed bored growing up there, all the usual activities are available but would have gone to Ballina I’m sure for the cinema, more likely to Lennox though for the beach and surfing. I’ll ask them one day if they felt they missed out not living in Ballina, but I know my cousin has loved living there, from the 1990’s when she moved there from Zambia, had her children there and made great friends. Sometimes a smaller community has a lot to offer. ps don’t eat the cakes if you go to Nimbin!!!!

Alstonville is worth considering, I have family there and it seems a friendly small town, also Lennox Head, but it’s quite pricey now. The countryside is lovely in that area.

My daughter applied for the WHV just under the age limit, while here on her year, she was well qualified so was employed on a 457 visa then partner visa and still here 10 years later, married and a citizen. I don’t know if that’s possible nowadays as I don’t know how the new visa works.

The student visa route descended into a nightmare route to PR, when the Labor immigration minister Chris Evans changed the rules for PR retrospectively more than once,from memory 2008/9’sh time, causing thousands of students studying here onto bridging visas for 3 years before then sending most home. The labor government had previously encouraged international students to study here, as a route to PR. Don’t know if anything’s changed and it’s now good a route to PR again? but it is a very very expensive to study here as an International student.

Many of the places we visited flooded only a few days after our trip last week,, so tough on everyone affected again in such a short time, just when things were starting to pick up.