ramot

A brief synopsis of a 5 day trip I am just back from to the Darling Downs, Chinchilla, Miles, Roma, Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley, so many interesting places to visit and learn about, including the introduction of the Catoblastis moth from South America to the Chinchilla area, the caterpillar has almost eradicated the prickly pear is the area !! bet apart from Bob J not many know that! Held some fossilised wood, it’s very heavy and experienced great country hospitality, it’s been a tough 2 years for them. Jimbour House, photo posted last for some reason! built in 1842, with lunch in the garden. Historical Village Museum, at Miles. Roma Sale Yards, the largest in Australia, about 6,000 cattle sold at a sale, takes from 8am till 3pm. Not my sort of place, but spoke to an official observer who was there to ensure all done properly. Visited Mount Hope Farm that as well as farming, does bed & breakfast, has a lovely lit up barn for functions, and gas wells on the property, all needed to supplement income. There were loads of gas wells in the Roma area. paddock to plate lunch at another lovely house. Condabilla fish farm near Chinchilla breeding Murray Cod. Scotty’s Garage in the Lockyer Valley, the barn is full of motor memorabilia, with a totally unexpected American Diner at the rear, complete with a working Wurlitzer juke box! it was such an interesting and enjoyable trip

Hi Bob, we learnt all about the cactoblastis moth, and held some petrified wood, it was so heavy! It was such a good trip. Wish more people would go out and about to discover more of Queensland and Australia, we have visited every state since we’ve lived here. ps sorry to post on your thread, meant to post on the general travel part, teach me to post late at night. Think I might repost on CTF so more people see the post

When Chris Evans was the immigration Minister for Labor he retrospectively changed the rules for international students overnight, not sure of the date, 2008/10? causing untold hardship on the thousands of students studying in Australia, so don’t hold your breath hoping Labor will actually be any more sympathetic to potential parents wanting to live here.It all comes down to money and the cost to the country. It’s the dishonesty of the waiting list times for the visa on the official website that fools potential applicants to pay for a non refundable visa application that is so disgraceful.

Out of interest what visa are you on? The 410 retirement visa was closed to new applicants in 2005, The very very expensive 405 visa closed in 2018. Not many people could afford the 405 visa long term.

Although the 410 visa closed to new applicants in 2005 and 405 visas closed in 2018, those already here on these visas, have no problem with staying here forever, as their visas are renewable. Would be interesting to know how many retirement visa holders actually took advantage of the pathway visa? There were only 3 of us out of the approximately 40 couples that we knew of on these visas. Most felt that they were already too old to justify the cost, as they were already happily settled here, owned their houses, Perhaps more on the 405 visa took up the offer, as it was a very expensive visa in comparison to the 410? Quite a few couples on the 405 visas had left Australia because of the high cost.

A very brief synopsis of a 5 day trip I am just back from to the Darling Downs, Chinchilla, Miles, Roma, Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley..So many interesting places to visit and enjoy country hospitality, it’s been a tough 2 years for them. Jimbour House, built in 1842, Historical Village Museum, Roma Sale yards, the largest in Australia, about 6,000 cattle sold at a sale, takes from 8am till about 8pm, Visited Mount Hope farm that also does bed & breakfast, plus has a barn set up for functions and which also had gas wells on the property, all needed to supplement their income. Gas wells were everywhere in the Roma area. Condabilla fish farm near Chinchilla breeding Murray cod. Scotty’s garage in the Lockyer Valley had a shed full of motor memorabilia, and then totally unexpectedly an American Diner at the back, complete with a working Wurlitzer juke box!!

Enjoy

We are in contact with our tax agent who deals with all the UK tax end, who will sort it out. Will let you know if I find anything out that will help you. Our sale isn’t finalised yet.

I think your query is perhaps beyond the remit of most PIO members, and hope you can sort it out. My son was an international student a long time ago, and the rules changed constantly then, so I understand your concern to get clarity to ensure you keep within the visa conditions, but also not pay more than needed. I assure you we aren’t all keyboard warriors on PIO. we are not experts,just ordinary members who try to help. I have been a member for a long time, I have seen thousands and thousands of posters helped, not just with immigration concerns, but also useful advice given for all sorts of queries that arise for new immigrants. I know I have been very grateful for advice and help. So please keep posting, even if no one could help this time. Wish you all the best

We will need to pay the non resident CGT shortly, please check if it’s still 30 days from completion of conveyance, or now 60 days? before you are fined., please don’t take my word for it, check to make sure you aren’t caught out and get fined.

The only thing poor about camping in Cornwall would be the pouring rain!! It rained almost every day the last time we had a family holiday there, and we never went back for another family holiday. Go back most visits back to UK as I have family there, and when the sun shines it’s a really lovely place.

I am aware of bug family struggle from his posts, and I understand where Parley is coming from as I experienced the same, but we must be careful that this thread doesn’t get out of hand, keep help/advice general and not loose sight of how sensitive an issue this is for some people, and not make it too personal. The hard practicality of living on the other side of the world to your children is the reality of actually seeing them. I can’t remember how old BF’s children are? under a certain age they might be unaccompanied minors? . A 24 hr flight with at least one stopover (might be straight through from Perth?) is hard and for most people, daunting if not used to the trip. It’s also expensive. My daughter was only 13 the first she did did the trip on her own, to say I worried the whole flight is an understatement, and she was very used to flying. Up until covid we went to UK annually to see our son and grandsons, unless we go this year, it will be 3 years now since we saw them. I know this makes depressing reading, but that’s the reality of life getting in the way of your plans,

I might be possibly one of the only posters who has lived on the other side of the world to our 3 children. I know my circumstances were different as I was living in Brunei due to my husband’s job for 10 years, had split loyalties between being with my husband and or children. and if you think living in Australia is difficult because it’s not like UK, I can assure you Australia is a doddle in comparison. Until you have experienced living apart from your children, you have no idea how awful it is, and I was lucky that I could fly back to England at almost no cost, as often as I wanted due to my husband’s job, so I could be there with them and not miss any important times. That plus keeping a house there was the only way to make it bearable. I know your children will be full time with their mother, but from experience of the time I spent in UK on my own, it wasn’t easy being the equivalent of a single parent, can make you quite resentful of having the whole responsibility. I know you are very unhappy in Australia Bug Family, and really wish you well and hope you get the job, but I know my husband really regrets how much time he missed of our children growing up, and he saw much more of them than I sadly think you will, as he saw them occasionally in UK, and they flew out to us for all their school and university holidays. We made it work, but it took a lot of hard work and it wasn’t easy.

NDSS not NDDS . So easy to make mistake from NDIS to the Diabetic support initials as I did in my post as the letters are so similar.

I Can’t answer, but when we arrived in January 2003 the exchange rate was about $3 to the pound, I can’t remember how much or why , but there was a fair drop before we wanted to transfer funds to buy our house in late March, it certainly made an unexpected/unwelcome difference to the amount we received transferring a large amount.

Going back further The novelty of going to a Wimpy burgers and squeezing the ketchup out of the large tomato shape sauce dispenser. I think the first Wimpy was in the early 1950’s in London. I remember reading an article about how almost everywhere has become so similar with the same chains of hotels, fast food outlets etc. The author walked out of a Hilton Hotel, passes a Macdonalds, plus various other common international outlets, and until he came to the then Berlin Wall, he could have been in almost any major city in the world.

Yes sorry, my mistake, new to all this and confess I didn’t check the initials were different

I was diagnosed type 2 on Thursday last week, I went to a local private Diabetic clinic, was charged $120 for a 1 hour consultation, which included blood test kit, had a $55 rebate on Medicare. The form for NDIS filled in while there, should have been sent off immediately, but got mixed into my information folder. Handed into my pharmacist Friday morning, NDIS number emailed several hours later, card to follow, can’t fault that, I’m a PR but not entitled to any benefits. As of yet I don’t need any medication, so I can’t help with ongoing costs. Hope that helps a little, it’s hard if you have an ongoing health condition to cope with the necessary cost to control the condition, as my daughter is epileptic, and has a hefty monthly prescription bill.

I think income makes a difference to being eligible for a pensioners health card? We get our scripts at a reduced amount when we reach the PBS Safety Net Scheme.

I’ve heard it’s advisable to register as early as possible as it can take a while before you are assessed ?

An income problem that I think affects us, is that we don’t have Super, and I don’t know how having income from Super affects your financial assessment? . I think in our case as all our income is from UK, we theoretically have too much income to be eligible for much help? This might affect many others on parent visas?

Agree, Sorry, had posted before I read the above.

I’m not quite sure who else apart from people like me who were on the retirement visa not entitled to Medicare, as a condition of the visa, and had to have health insurance wouldn’t have a Medicare card? Surely if you are a visitor and don’t have a Medicare card, or come from a reciprocal country why shouldn’t you pay? I certainly should have paid for my visits and treatment from the Dr when in UK on holiday as although I lived in Australia I wasn’t Australian, so not entitled to reciprocal, but even though this was always explained, it was in the too hard basket, so I got free NHS. So I dread to think how many many more people have had free treatment when not entitled.

Sometimes it’s down to the right questions being asked, as it doesn’t cross the person asking the questions that you aren’t Australian, so visa status questions don’t arise. We had a seniors card issued, it never occurred to us that we might not be eligible, likewise home assist.we were asked if we were pensioners, we answered truthfully yes, never gave it a thought.. This was when we were on the long term self funded temporary retirement visa. Similar to using to use the NHS several times on our regular annual visits. We explained we had travel insurance, don’t need that it’s not a problem, there are reciprocal rights between Australia and UK. We tried to explain that we were on a temporary visa without reciprocal rights. In the too hard basket, appointment made every time to see a Dr, or practice nurse no cost. We didn’t feel too bad though as we had never stopped paying all our tax in the UK.

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