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WARNING - LONG POST Hi all - a bit of an update as we have celebrated 6 months here this weekend. We gained so much from this site over the years (6 years to be precise!) that I hope this will be useful and encouraging for some. We are a family of 4, us and 2 boys aged 12 and 9 Visa We have a SS176 visa, which we eventually gained in 2011 - it took 2 and half very long years from making the decision to go, to getting our visa - at the time I (the main applicant, nurse) was working part time 19.5 hrs per week, frustratingly ANMAC wanted me to have worked 1 year at more than 20 hrs per week before being able to do my skills assessment. Luckily the boss was my friend so I upped my hours and did this for a year. Managed to pass IELTS with much stress. Lots of changes were going on around the time to do with visas and suddenly we didn't have enough points for the independent 175 visa. We then had to wait 4 months for SS to come through before visa application, but we eventually succeeded in 2011. Validated it in 2012 as we hadn't sold the house - 4 weeks in Australia, time in Melbourne with my bestie followed by a fantastic road trip up to Fraser Island, some time there, and a week on the Gold Coast - we were smitten ! AHPRA Anyone who has read my 2010 /2011 posts will understand my stress re AHPRA - I'm sure if I didn't dye my hair, it would have been very grey during that process !! It was a nightmare for nearly a year, but I was very determined lol. I am old style trained without a degree although I had lots of post reg courses. I studied madly even more over that year and managed to complete and pass 4, degree level post reg courses (as well as working full time, looking after 2 small kids, doing the visa app without an agent and renovating our house to sell) phew !! Eventually after many midnight phone calls, out the blue came my LOE. I finalized it on our validation trip the following year. I'm so glad I did it before the even harder AHPRA conditions began and I have so much sympathy with those that have struggled. Flights We flew to Brisbane with Singapore Airlines who were great, we were in a hurry to get there so went straight through with just an hour or so at Changi. We flew with Royal Brunei to Melbourne for our reccie trip and they were also very good, although no alcohol on board to wash down my flying valium tablets! But you can buy it and take on board. Pets We have a dog and cat. We made the very difficult decision to leave the cat behind as he is 19 now and very set in his ways. Our adorable, elderly next door neighbours kept him and he now rules the roost there and is having a great life being spoilt rotten. For the dog, we prepared early with the rabies etc. Our vets were fantastic throughout the process and so helpful. We used Golden Arrow Shippers and I cannot recommend them enough. They were the absolute best. Bob from Pet Air also seems great and we got some really good advice from him, but in the end we chose GA purely on price. They were so friendly and very accommodating when we had a few issues - such as my car blowing up on the motorway with the dog in it (not hurt) on the way to GA's place. Also for some reason Sydney quarantine forgot to process our payment, so Mungo the dog had to stay in the UK for another week waiting for the next Qantas flight - all at no extra cost to us. Fantastic customer service. He stayed in quarantine and then we flew him up to Brisbane - was a very emotional moment picking him up from the airport - tears all round. He's settled in great, been a bit hot for him a few times but he loves the beach now. Many trips to The Spit at Southport and Palm Beach (dog heaven). Lots of off leash parks around also. Shipping We had a full container - used John Mason - fantastic service from the office, the packers and the unpackers over here. It left our house in Essex, mid-August, arrived in Australia mid-September and we got it the end of September. Great service - nothing broken and a couple of Xmas decs discarded - bloody pine cones I think ! Family Do not underestimate the effect the grief of parents will have on you. It was awful, we left 2 sets of parents in the UK as well as brothers and sisters and other family members and friends - very very hard. I will never forget the sad choking noise my dad made as we walked away. Although I love it here and have no wish to return currently, I'm not sure I will ever get over the guilt I have for hurting my parents and for breaking their hearts. We Skype, phone and viber regularly, but obviously its not the same. They are coming out in September and we can't wait to see them and show them around. My brother and his girlfriend had a baby in January and it is so hard seeing him on Skype and photos but not being able to have a cuddle. Job I started looking around at jobs a few months before we came out, I was a top band 6 nurse in the UK in a speciality. I applied from the UK for 2 jobs in QLD health and got offered both. Did telephone interviews for both which was an amazing way to do it. They emailed the questions through 20 minutes before the interviews so I could prepare my answers in advance and they couldn't see my panic!! and I was in my pyjamas ha ha. So, I accepted one of the jobs, which is in a totally different field to my experience, and started full time 1 week after we arrived. I'm on a RN top of band 5 scale as they took into consideration my previous NHS years - take proof. I do shifts and my wage is around 95k, which is great. It has been a MASSIVE struggle though - to the point of practically vomiting every day with nerves. I'm so glad I stuck with it though as I've now been there coming up to 6 months, have started to settle and enjoy it. The people have been so lovely - supportive and just so nice. Be prepared that everything is different - the processes, the medical system, some of the drug names, slang names for things etc. etc. Arrival We only had one week to get semi sorted before I started work full time, so we planned with military precision !. We had a short term, dog friendly, furnished let in East Brisbane that we rented from the UK for 4 weeks. Gorgeous Queenslander house and very close to the city and transport. We also had a hire car. We got set up with GO cards straight away and used the river cats (awesome) and other transport methods with no issues. Within our first week we had picked up bank cards from ANZ (we opened account in UK), got medicare cards, driving licenses, mobile phone sim cards etc. We also bought a car and returned the hire one. Days were spent poring over realestate.com.au. Decided we wanted to be down the Gold Coast - Brisbane is a brilliant city and we really enjoy the times we go there but we are not really city people and wanted to be away from it but not too far. My job is south of Brisbane so we discarded the Sunny Coast even though its gorgeous. Bayside was also a choice but we fell in love with the Mt Tamborine area when we were on our reccie trip and so much more since. So we compromised with Coomera - close to Tamborine and also close enough to the M1 for travel to work. I drive the M1 every day - shift times and peak times and yes its busy at times in certain areas and the driving a bit hairy, I have had no problems with it so far and get to work far quicker than my job 5 miles away from home in the UK. We looked around at lots of rentals and applied for 3. We got accepted for our top one and we and the kids love it here. Its a brand new 4x2 on a very manicured estate with lots of barbecue areas, a lake, pool and gym facilities for residents use. The boys have sure made use of the pool over the summer! We bought a printer when we first arrived and made up lots of rental application packs so that we could apply straight away for rentals. We included anything relevant in the packs - copies of driving licenses, work contract, bank statements, reference re the dog, reference re the kids, estate agent details of our sold house showing how well maintained it was, evidence of paid utility bills, character reference for me and hubby etc. Coomera has a bit of a bad rep but to be honest so far where we are its been fine. So quiet and peaceful, close to everything inc schools, I think its just certain areas and we've been lucky Gold Coast My opinion only but often feel the need to stick up for it. It’s not just Surfers Paradise (although I don't mind that either for a touristy day out! )After 6 months here, I wouldn't live anywhere else, it has everything that we as a family want - within 1 hr of a major city, great beaches, great schools, beautiful rainforest areas, theme parks, shopping centres, rivers, dog friendly areas and much more. Schools Youngest is at local primary - fantastic school, have nothing but good things to say about it. He is learning so much and has made some great new friends. Both boys have been shocked and must have had an easy ride in the UK as the homework amount here is much more. Eldest started Pimpama Secondary in January - a newish school. Has settled really well. Managed to get into the CAP class (academic extension class) for which he took an entrance exam and has just been elected school council leader for his class. Both boys have only 25 pupils in the class which I'm very happy with. We had to buy them both Apple iMac's for school which we hadn't budgeted for but they use them all the time at school for lessons and for homework etc. Husband is still jealous that the boys both have one of these and he doesn't lol. Money / Bills I think we transferred about 10£k over at 1.7. Out of this, we paid for our car up front, bond and advance rent for the house, hire car, flight for Mungo from Sydney to Brisbane, fridge freezer, sofa, shipping quarantine costs and fumigation, car rego and insurance upfront, lots of odds and ends - kitchen stuff and bedding as we had 2 weeks in our rental prior to shipping arriving. We are not finding it more expensive to live out here. Yes some things are more and some things are less. Really is swings and roundabouts and I think different people just have different opinions, styles of living and expectations. Went to the bottle shop tonight - bottle of chardonnay for $2.49. Now I know the first glass may be a bit bleuurgh but after that hey who cares for $2.49 a bottle! We are living on my wage alone. Hubby is enjoying staying at home currently, being a house husband and just generally spending time with the kids as he never did this in the UK. He used to leave for work at 5am each morning and home at 9pm. We haven't got round to claiming centrelink yet either so it is just my wage. Our rent is $480 pw. We eat well and shop wisely - probably $300 per fortnight and topped up with bread and milk and fresh fruit, veg and salad. I try never to buy fruit and veg from the supermarkets as it is so much cheaper and better quality at the market plus we like to support the local farmers. We have no school fees except the stationary for the start of term, odd trip / sports gala days and the ICT payments. Uniforms are crazy prices - how I wish for Tesco boys school trousers at £3.50 a pair. We have 2 cylinder for gas outside that we paid for when we moved in 5 months ago - approx $150 and we haven't even used one cylinder yet in 5 months. We have not had a water bill in yet so cant comment. We had an electric bill in December $100 for 3 month use, but the big summer one is due at any moment we've tried to be sensible with the aircon and have only really used it a handful of times. The ceiling fans have been much more used. Optus $130 per fortnight for 2g internet / phone and TV. We don't watch a huge amount of TV as there's not much on, but we have been able to catch up with a couple of UK series that we wanted to watch - The Missing and Broadchurch We may be on one wage but we seem to be able to do far more here than what we did in the uK on 2 wages - I don't know how that works out ? We live well, eat well, and have bought lots of little extras like furniture, 2 new TV, theme park annual passes. We are able to go out to dinner as a family of four at least once a week, we have hired a boat out on the River Tweed twice for the day which was fantastic, we've explored up and down the coast, been to Lamington and Springbrook National Parks, had a long weekend in Noosa, been to the cinema several times etc etc. While the boys have been at school and as I’m on shifts, hubby and I have been able to go out many times - romantic lunches, walks along the beach, walks in the rainforest - so many thing that we just didn’t have or make time for in the UK. Join Groupon and Living Social – so many cheap deals to be had General My son and I have both visited the doctor and had blood and urine tests done – all free at the local bulk billing practice – lovely friendly staff. My sons medicine here costs $18 a bottle, which was free under the NHS in the UK. I love that you can go to any practice here. I also think the availability of bulk billing visiting doctors is amazing here, although not used the service. Bug life – we paid for a cheap groupon deal to get the house sprayed when we moved in. So far in 5 months we have has a few annoying flies, I small cockroach (yuk), 1 small beetle, 1 small gecko and a redback – discovered on Christmas evening after too many drinks cue hysteria ! We had no spray or a ladder to reach it. We left it and it went. A few mozzies outside. We have had a few mozzie bites but generally when we have been near water at dusk. Friends that live near us but by the water have so many midge bites and they say they go through the fly screens. We have seen 2x dead snakes on the road, lots of giant lizard creatures and lots of kangaroos but still no wild koalas sadly Weather has been much more bearable and manageable than we imagined. Sure it’s been crazy hot at times but it’s been more of an annoyance than anything else. That said we are looking forward to the winter when we can be a bit more active outside of early morning / late afternoon times. The storms when they happen are truly spectacular to watch – and the hail - WOW 6 months in and we fall for Australia more each day - corny I know, but true. It was the hardest and most stressful experience ever to get here and the last 6 months have been very very difficult emotionally, financially and just in general. There’s been no real homesickness yet although I know it can strike at any time. The boys have said several times that they love it here, love life and although they miss friends and family, have no wish to return. I guess it’s the same for us. There has been many a time that I’ve sat on a beautiful beach or looking at a view from a mountain or walking through a rainforest that I’ve had an emotional tear and a ‘WOW I live in this amazing place’ moment. Looking to the future now - We left so many lovely close friends in the UK and really miss the great times we had over the years, we need to make more friends, anybody near here give us a shout for a meet up and a drink. We have started thinking about buying and have been to several open house mornings. We plan to buy on Tamborine Mountain as it is our dream lifestyle there. Yes a bit longer to commute but the tradeoff for me (as the commuter) is worth it any day. We hope to buy a project that hubby can remain at home and renovate. The boys have joined the soccer club up on the mountain and we all hope to become part of the community soon. We have friends and family coming out this year and cant wait to show them around this beautiful place we are so lucky to call home If there is anything we can do help anyone that's arriving soon or if anyone has anything specific that we might be able to help with - please ask away Rachel, Dan, Sam, Jack and Mungo

Thank you so much for the great advice. Happy to leave it. Will just reassure the children. Thanks again and Happy Christmas

Advice please Hubby and I are a tad tipsy on too many daiquiris !! Just seen a red back outside the front door. Our first nasty in over 4 months ? Kids are now freaking, we have no spray or anything here. Do we leave it alone or kill it ? Can they get under the front door or are they relatively unagressive - should we leave it. Please please advise. Many thanks in advance xxx

You're welcome. Good luck with yours also

Hiya Just had the shippers out. John Mason, Doree Bonner, Pickfords and Crown. All nice but the quirky guy from JM won us over !! Quotes between £3400 and £4200 for 20ft sole use container. Essex to Brisbane. 3 bed bungalow. Hope that helps Rachel

We should have a ' who's exchanging house contracts in the next couple of weeks' thread' !! We are also due to exchange tomorrow. Have a job lined up in Upper Mount Gravatt starting in Sept. Looking to fly mid August. The dog is the only one who has a flight booked lol !! Also in a state of massive wobbles here. Laugh one minute and cry the next. Have a good life here - just would like to experience something different. Kids 11 & 8 doing great about it. A few tears as we are leaving our elderly cat with fab neighbours who dote on him. Parents not so good at all. I know we are breaking their hearts and I feel the worst person in the world. Not a good feeling and it's def a downer in the excitement. As a nurse and mother and wife I think I'm always trying to help, make people feel good etc and by migrating I seem to be making everyone feel c**p !! It is nice to know I'm not alone. Would be be great to keep in touch with you all that are going through the same emotions now and are due to arrive and settle around the same place as us. Happy thoughts and best of luck for the exchanges this week. All my fingers and toes are crossed for a painless transaction!

Hi Mungo the dog is booked to fly to Sydney on 19th August. Gets in to Sydney at 6 am ish on 21st August. Does that count as day 1 of quarantine or does the 10 days start the next day (when it's a full day )? And do they come out on day 10 exactly or day 11 when they've had full 10 days in there. Just trying to work out when to arrange his onward flight to Brisbane. Also, can anyone recommend how / who to use for the flight for him from Sydney to Brisbane ? Would love to drive and get him myself but can't due to work commitments. Many thanks in advance x

Thanks all for your help and advice. Hoping to exchange tomorrow or Tuesday ! (If ) all goes to plan - hope to be able to arrive about 10 days before starting work. So lucky to have a job to go to, so certainly not complaining. Would've liked a stopover to recover a bit from all the pre move stress but hey ho. Onwards and upwards to a new start. Thanks again x

Hiya Our labradoodle who is pretty big is flying 19 th August UK to Sydney. Costing approx 2500 plus quarantine fees plus the rabies stuff which has already been done. Hope that helps Rachel

Having a nightmare day !! Have a job to go to, starting Monday 1 September. We were going to book flights for the 12th so we could have a couple of weeks to chill, get over jet lag, have a potter around etc. shippers booked for 24 July, dog booked to fly on the 19th etc etc all in place. Due to exchange contracts on house this week, complete on 31st July and have booked a caravan to stay in until 11th August. All perfect until today :arghh: Our buyers buyers have at the last minute decided they will not complete until 21 August as -wait for it - they fancy a holiday first aaarrggghh even though we are ready and have things booked etc. our buyers are ready to go and move on 31 July. Our estate agent says why don't we just go on 12th Aug as planned and it will still complete on 21 August. I just feel so uneasy about this. Being on the other side of the world with no money until the proceeds come through. Should I be worried ? Have other people had this ?? alternatively we complete on 21 August and fly out a couple of days later which only be a week before I start work. Do other people start that quickly after arriving ?? Am I stressing needlessly ?? I'm so grateful to have a job I know that. Thoughts / reassurance pplleeasee. Sorry for for the rant but there's only the dog here and he doesn't understand !!!

Thanks that is encouraging. Good luck for the community job. I haven't done shift work since 1998 ha ha. Looking forward to the challenge !! (She says). Yes they've said you can SS up to 50% of salary. I need to understand all that a bit more. Where on the GC are you ? rachel

Oh that's not good. I've been a band 6 for 13 years so hoping they do recognise it - oh well just have to wait and see. Probably have to cut back the wine intake to help the pennies:chatterbox:

Thank you - that's good to hear. I hope they recognise my many years !

Thank you very much. Looking forward to getting there now :wacko:

Hi Kelly my AHPRA nightmare was sometime ago - 2011. It was when they first changed the system. OMG the hassle and the tears over the 6 months it took were soul destroying !! I can remember it well. They kept wanting more and more info al the time. It was incredibly frustrating. I have kept in touch with the current thread about AHPRA and I really empathise with all of you. I know exactly how it feels. ( if you look through my old threads you'll see I was practically cracking up !!) I eventually got my eligibility letter, went to Australia for my validation trip, didn't have a job so joined an agency, used my friends address and eventually got my full reg. My email from AHPRA to say my reg was complete was when I was sitting in an expensive restaurant, large glass of wine overlooking the sea on the Qld coast - man I celebrated lol - and I'm sure you will soon. Good luck xx

Thanks all so much for your good wishes. Am sure I will be on here a lot more now ! Marie - yes would be great to be in touch. PM me

Hi I've just secured a job via telephone interview. What a great way to interview for a job - late at night, pj's on, no make up, all my notes spread around me. Was great. Good luck, hope it goes well for you Rachel

Hi Just wanted to say hi and that by the looks of this thread you are sure not the only ones to feel like this. We ( family of 4, 2 boys age 11 and 8) are heading out in August also to Brisbane south side or Gold Coast. We have had our visa so long that actually going has felt like a far off thing and now that it's here I'm bricking it seriously. I've been researching it for years but nothing can prepare us for the actual living there ! Torn between "can't wait" and "OMG". But as they say - if you don't go, you'll never know ! We feel in limbo at the moment as I've secured a job starting 1st Sept, waiting to exchange contracts on the house, scared to hand in my notice at work until house sale def goes through - potentially leaving us with a very small window between working out my notice, arriving and starting work - aargh. Would love to keep in contact with some of you guys in the same boat as us. Hope all goes smoothly for everyone Rachel

Hi Ive recently been successful in getting a nursing job with Queensland Health. I'm a band 6 nurse in the UK currently in quite a small speciality. The new job I have is a new area of nursing for me. It is a band 5 RN job - I want to know if they will recognise the (many) years of nursing experience I have in the UK and put me on the top increment of a band 5 wage or will I be totally at the bottom of the band 5 scale like a NQ nurse. I will be able to get a statement from HR here to verify my years. Just wondered what other UK nurses found when moving over. Also, having not worked shifts for many a year now, I am going back to shift work in this new job - on average does a normal shift pattern (nights, lates, weekends etc ) make a real difference to your basic wage. its just that I will be the only one working to start so just making sure we can survive :wacko: Thanks in advance Rachel

Hello all Not been on here for ages as have been at a standstill with our plans for so long now I feel like I've been asleep lol! But now things are starting to move a bit ( at last) I feel the need to be reacquainted with PIO and try and make contact with people who may be moving soon also. We've had our PR visa since 2011 - nobody can say we have rushed the idea !! Validated it in 2012 where we fell for SE Qld. It was a long hard slog to get the visa - I'm a nurse but as the children were young then, I worked part time 19.5 hrs a week. This was 0.5 hours a week under what ANMAC would accept so I had to grit my teeth, up my hours and worked full time for a year until I could apply for skills recognition. IELTS was a pain but managed to pass it. AHPRA was a b&@"&y nightmare and took 6 months, state sponsorship took 3 months, all this with major visa changes ! My hair used to be brown - have to dye the grey now :arghh: People on here we're so helpful and we were able to do the process without an agent :notworthy: But here we are now, 5 years since we first went to Downunder Live, hopefully booking flights soon. The house has taken 2 years to sell but is now SSTC - just can't feel excited until the contracts are exchanged. I applied for a job with Qld Health and have been successful and start work on 1st September. So just need to complete on house and hope to arrive in Brisbane in August. Would love over to be in contact with anyone Bayside or between North GC & Southern Brisbane. Sorry - that's a bit if an essay - just wanted to say hi really and show my excitement in finally getting there Rachel,Dan, Sam and Jack

Many thanks Lorna. That's a bit reassuring. Will keep all fingers and toes crossed x

Hi all not been on here for a while Quick question Does anyone know how long it takes for Qld health to let you know if you've been successful in securing a nursing job ? I had 2 phone interviews recently ( 2 separate jobs) - the second one I heard back within 5 days that I had been unsuccessful but the first interview - they emailed me a couple of hours after the interview to ask whether I was interested in full or part time hours, then a week later asked me to email over ID and complete a criminal history check which I did straight away. Then last week they emailed to say they had requested references the previous week and could I chase up my referee. She sent the reference a week ago. I've heard nothing since. Just wondering how long other people waited. Really very keen on this job so lots of fingers crossed. Many thanks in advance if anyone knows

Hiya Its on the front page of DAFF announced today starts 2 December Hope that helps rachel

Hi all just seen that quarantine has gone down to 10 days from 2 December. Hope that's useful info for some Rachel

Hi Can anyone help please - I need to buy a pic frame to send to Australia. If I buy it here and post it it will cost £50 !!!! Does anyone know where I can buy online in Aus and have it delivered to an Aus address or failing that - where I can buy a gift voucher to spend in Australia like the equivalent of our Debenhams / John Lewis etc Many thanks Rachel