beanbear

We were very much in the same situation. We moved back for similar reasons and then our kids, who are now both young adults, decided to come back to Australia a couple of years ago and we moved back nearly a year ago. I agree as to the financial impact - it has definitely set us back quite a lot in mortgage terms, however we were the ones who brought them here, and I can see why they wanted to be back. We have settled back in pretty well. Our kids are doing so well here, with opportunities they would never have had in the UK. Always going to be a difficult balancing act with aging parents in the UK though.

We are going to be moving out of our lovely house on the coast in Adelaide at the beginning of November. Just in case anyone is coming over at that time and will be looking for a rental, please feel free to get in contact. It is an old house but has the most incredible location looking directly over the sea. 8 minutes walk to train station and 5 minutes to a nice pub. Landlords are good and respond quickly with repairs etc.

Hi, You would need an education qualification to teach here (certainly I can talk about SA). Teachers either do a four year teaching degree with teaching prac every year. They then have to pass something called a GTPA (a final teaching project, consisting of a learning sequence they compile, and a longer teaching prac). The other alternative is to do a 2 year Masters course. You will not be recognised for prior teaching experience overseas, or a qualification other than a PGCE, even if that seems unfair.

Haven't heard of them. Is that with a company? Will Google thanks.

I think there are lots of things that will help you to settle. You definitely make friends more easily when you have Primary aged children and once you know people and have joined in with things you may feel more part of your new community. It will be easier once the housing is also sorted. It is more of a culture shock than you probably anticipated and that can be hard too. On the schooling side I (as someone who's taught in both countries) am adamantly opposed to all the testing and stress the UK puts on children in primary. The Oz system seems slower paced and that's great! Kids here still become vets and nurses etc but also have more variety of experience, learn to be more articulate and grow up more slowly with things like scouts on offer and plenty of sport and outdoor stuff. If you have come and not really improved on what you had in the UK, you might question the benefit overall. Give it time with as positive a perspective as you can. Where you are has lots to offer for families. Personally I feel the UK is in its worst state in living memory!

We recently moved back to Australia after 7 years back in the UK and this time just shipped some boxes and no furniture. We still have a few things to bring and just wondered if anyone could recommend a oast-effective way to ship a few more boxes as our shipping company said the extra ones are too small a quantity for them.

Thank you. How about other big industry?

I wonder if anyone can help. My son, who is seventeen (eighteen in September) is currently in the U.K doing a level 2 electrical installation course, which finishes at the end of May. He would then find an apprenticeship to complete level 3. However he has recently been thinking he'd like to work in Oz, possibly in the mining sector, so we were wondering if it would be possible for him to do his apprenticeship out there, so he became qualified with the right Oz tickets? He has citizenship. We were living in SA for seven years and returned to UK nearly three years ago. Any advice gratefully received.

Am interested to know of your reasons for the move? It might help in people offering opinions that could help the decision. I think moving interstate would be equally daunting to your previous move; once again starting from scratch. A family friend of ours moved from Perth to Noosa as she felt quite isolated over there and it is very expensive for housing. Have also heard it's beautiful and the climate is great there.

How funny, my cousin lives in Stony Stratford!! Small world. I think you'd probably not find it difficult to get work but property in the S.E is expensive and you'd certainly need to be aware of the whole picture with pensions etc. The credit history was tricky. We signed up to the electoral register straight away but it takes a while to add you. We also got direct debits sorted which also helps. Takes a while and you do initially pay more for insurance etc.

My children were actually very much on board with moving back and we were really lucky in that regard. My husband had completed a masters the previous year and with job opportunities being a bit limited in Adelaide we put it to them that we might have to move for him to get the kind of job he wanted. They said they'd much prefer to move back to the UK than interstate as they'd be back to knowing no one if we did that. From there it snowballed really. We had a long delay at that point as I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a year of treatment. The care I received in Australia was excellent and I will never forget the support I had from friends there. As far as A'levels go, it was tricky! We brought back some examples of her work and then persuaded the school we wanted her to go to, to take a chance on her. We also had all her school reports etc. as a teacher myself I know what she is capable of and they gave her an interview and found her immensely articulate, which helped. She does have to do a maths and English GCSE as well though. She will take the maths in November, when the others are resitting it. The English will be next June. It has been hard to really take such a step back financially, but where there's a will there's a way and I firmly believe you shouldn't be put off following your life's path for the sake of money. There's always a way to catch up if you work hard and are focussed. Nothing can take the place of spending time with those we love whilst they are alive and this is the biggest issue that migrants wrestle with. The snake issue is a funny one. I mentioned that we like walking here without fear of snakes and this is true for us. We traipsed through a meadow recently that had really long grass and wild flowers. I wouldn't have risked this with our dog in Oz. I like the fact that dogs here can go anywhere if you are respectful ( in terms of countryside walks and national parks etc). I only ever had two glimpses of a snake in Oz though, so it's not like I was fighting them off every day, I was just very aware of the possible repercussions of encountering one. Nothing we do is ever irreversible really and I like to think about the future in terms of chunks of time. For now we are in the South east and will be until the kids finish school, then we will move north for a chunk of time. A much later chunk of time my well see us spending time in Oz again, who knows?! Oh and someone asked about rentals. We looked on rightmove.co.uk and when we had the shippers and flights booked contacted the agent of one we liked. We sent my parents to view it and then completed the paperwork before we left Oz. We moved in a few weeks after we got back and then our container arrived a few weeks after that. We did get rid of lots of stuff before we moved but still found that not everything fitted in; including one of our nearly new sofas grrrrr!

Thanks for the good wishes. It's always helpful to know of the experience of others, even if your own experience turns out to be completely different. We were not in the hating Oz camp at all and may end up back there one day, maybe as grey nomads or retirees, who knows?! The only thing I can say for sure is that you can never plan too far ahead as none of us knows what's around the corner. Live life without regrets - or at least don't regret what you didn't do.

So we moved back at the beginning of April and it has been a time of fluctuating emotions. We had lived in Adelaide for over seven years but decided as a family that we wanted to return to our roots to be with family and to be in Europe once again. My children are fourteen and sixteen, not easy ages to resettle in some ways but they were on board for the move and that helped the decision. We lost out financially with the exchange rate plummeting and our house in Oz barely covering what we paid for it so we returned with about half of what we left with! It is a hugely expensive move to make with shipping and then paying six months rent up front. We had worked everything out ahead of the move but it is still a shock ( as it was when we moved the other way and got through money like water in the first few months!). We got my son into school with few dramas and he has moved back at a good time as he had one term of English year 9 to do and then he is set up for the two year GCSE course. My daughter will be starting A levels in September but this took some convincing on our part as she had no equivalent to GCSEs. The law now requires that she take English and maths GCSEs so she will be doing those alongside her A levels. It has been a boring time for her as she waits to start school and meet some new friends but we have kept her busy and she is looking forward to starting. My husband continued to do contract work for his Aussie employer whilst looking for a job and has now started some contract work with a UK firm. He is having to take a UK based industry course next month in order to fully utilise his Masters in sustainable energy systems but hopefully this will lead him to the kind of job he's hoping for. I was offered a number of teaching jobs, but have now accepted a job as SENCo at a primary school where we live and start in September. There are lots of teaching jobs available! We we have found that there is loads to do and the only limiting factor is money really - as in getting into London by train is very expensive as is public transport in general. Once there though there are loads of free things to do and we are constantly overwhelmed by the beauty and history back here. As others have said food is good value. Eating out in general is probably similar to Oz if you're talking restaurants, although Pubs can be cheaper. Other things are dearer and with wages much lower than Oz that is difficult. We moved to an area in Hertfordshire to be near family, but once our children leave home I should imagine we will move up North to afford a house. If you can live outside the South East I would recommend it, with wages for lots of professions being similar but houses costing up to three times less than here! I think you come to realise that distances are so small here by comparison that it is not scary to move a few hours away from family and there are so many gorgeous parts of the country you'd be spoiled for choice. We are happy to be back. Since moving back we have had four members of the family diagnosed with cancer, so it is good to be here to support them. It is lovely to make plans with people and to be able to drop in to see them. We do miss our friends in Oz and the bigger houses and space you have there. Ultimately you can't have it all and you have to prioritise what it is you want most. Upsides: near family, culture, history, proximity to Europe, London and other very varied cities to visit, country walks without snakes, lots to do locally, Pubs, shops, customer service and driving. Downsides: cost of lots of things - public transport, electrical items etc, rent, petrol; smaller houses, having to establish yourself again with a credit history. Feel free to ask any questions. ?

we are now going to be affected by this new rule as we will be sending our dog back soon and we're hoping she would go ahead of us by a few weeks to enable us to have a holiday on the way back. My parents are happy to get her from Heathrow. How much would the import duty be as we need to weigh up whether it would be more expensive than putting her in kennels so she can fly back at the same time as us? Sorry to hijack the thread!

We are going to use an Adelaide company called Animal Travel. My friend has just used them for her cat and was very happy. The rabies vet also recommended them. They are competitively priced and fly via Malaysia with the most direct route of the companies we investigated. They can arrange the rabies jab, or you can get it yourself at a number of vets; we used one in Aldgate.