gazsmith

Hi Bug, is good sometimes just to get it off your chest, it can be hard when it feels your not just contending with your wife but her whole family too and can really lead you to feel bitter. i can imagine you feel you just have to roll with all the decisions leaving you isolated, which manifests into thinking it's just not right for you! Hang in there buddy it may just all come good! Work constructively with the in laws and move them on when they have the deposit they need! Maybe suggest a break for your wife and kids to get away together with you and try to work it out! remember why you wanted a new life here and although you love wales there must of been a sparkle that brought you here to get a better life! I had a childhood if holidays in north wales and each one was an adventure, I loved and hanging round the black cat in towyn and it still brings back fond memories. However I'm now in Perth and no matter how good those memories are they will never pull me back! Like you I have had a daughter here and I can only want her to grow up here in Australia knowing that she will have such a better life. Start yourself up with an interest and give yourself a new lease if life, don't get down trodden, as you stated! New country! New home! Just adjust the lifestyle mate and rekindle the love you not only had with coming here but also with your wife and family! Show them all the big guy you are can play ball with the best and come out the winner! Where would any of them be if you hadn't took the huge step to get here! Your the winner mate, the family is riding on the coat tales!! if your ever down mandurah way send me a message and we can have a beer! gaz.

You bought a JEEP! ​sorry couldn't resist! The ad drives me mad!

Hi Mindy, Do you have a list of the items for sale you could email to me? A friend of mine has just arrived in WA and he will be looking for furniture. Im sure he will be willing to take a look with a view to buying from you! cheers Gary

Hi Mindy, Would you have a decent size set if bedroom drawers in white? we are going looking tomorrow. Would sooner part with cash to someone who needs it rather than a store. Pm me with details if so or email garysmith496@yahoo.com.au Gary

Congratulations! We will keep a cold one waiting for you! Gary & Sue

I did mine in perth last year, took 45mins and walked out with the card in my hand for $60 from which I could claim $50 back from my end of year tax return! Remember to put the receipt in with your end of year return. gary

We have British friends who live in orange! pm me your email and i will ask Sue to pass it on for you! gary & sue

Most job adverts carry an enquiry number! I have called the ones I'm interested in and make a good impression on the phone! They will usually say they will look out for your application. I have had an interview with everyone I called to enquire first! Works for me!!

Sounds like a celebration is in order! Lovely 38degrees this weekend to bask in! congrats to you and your family. Gary & Sue

Travelling to work seems the norm! when we first arrived I travelled from Rockingham to Northam everyday about 300klm round trip and almost 4hrs driving! At the moment I'm driving to bassendean which is about 60klms or hour each way! next week I start my new job which is in mandurah 25mins each way and only 4 days a week! let the long weekends roll! I will get a job on my door step!! good luck mate. Gary & Sue

As said above its only a moral obligation to stay within that state for 2yrs. SA have only sponsored you to get your visa and there is no legal law stating you must stay there after DIAC have issued it. I guess it does come down to basic morals and how the decision to leave that state lies with you. At the end of the day though if there is no jobs in your industry you have to do what's right for you and your family, Savings won't last forever! gary & sue

I would say that yes you hear of alot of break-ins but lets face it, If UK news was to sit and report every break-in like they do here then there would be no time to schedule any other programmes!!

Is a catch 22 situation! Where in oz are you heading? Do you have friends or realities who can give you somewhere to stay to reduce costs???! good luck in your venture

We had a little Suzuki wagon R in the UK, was cheap as chips to run and never a hiccup! We actually sold it for more than we paid for it! Great little cars

Well Im gob smacked! Thank you to everyones kind response's! I feel it's important to give something back which may help people in the same way that this site has helped us. Moving to Perth was the biggest decision of our lives and we had to adopt the positive attitude because it was important it worked for us. Sues Bump is getting bigger and bigger and we are so looking forward to being old first time parents! One quick update is i have managed to stumble into another new job! Same pay but 20 mins from home in Madurah and only a 4 day week! Result! I will no longer need to recite the boom town rats classic "tell me why, I dont like Mondays!" as from the end of next week Saturdays,Sundays & Mondays are my days off!! Again thank you for your equally positive replies. Gary & Sue

My understanding would be if your not living in the UK you would be exempt from UK tax and ni but as Maryrose states you should contact the ATO and seek advice.

How time flies! On the 2nd February this year we will have lived in Perth for 1 year, Given this i thought i should summarize our year here and hopefully this may inspire many who worry about finances etc... Some of you may of read some of the following in earlier posts i have put on here but i will repeat some areas to give a full account of the year. In relation to our visa many have told us our process was very quick. We started our quest with the Vetassess part as I am a bricklayer by trade at the end of December 2010 and had our 176PR visa granted in Nov 2011. Believe me the visa process was the scariest part as we chose to do the whole process ourselves and on reflection although the DIY method does not suit all I felt being in control and having direct contact with the case officer played to our advantage, My application was very complex due to numerous personal reasons which I won’t go into today! So anyway we obtained our visa in November 2011 and were heading out in Feb 2012. (Flights were booked before visa granted as we thought well it’s a holiday if it falls through!) The intention was that i stayed for good if I found work and Sue would return and sell what we didn’t want and pack what we did for shipping! We were not strangers to Australia so knew exactly what we wanted to do when we got here; we had booked a 2 week stay in City Beach at a small apartment and gave ourselves a 2 week goal to find a new home and a new job for me. By the 3rd day i had a job! Albeit it was with an agency laboring but i thought it pays dollars and gives us a foothold so i had to accept with a start date to coincide with Sue going back to the UK to ensure we made the most of our littletime together here before she left. We jumped onto everything we had highlighted, Bank accounts transferring money to dollars, driving license, Medicare etc. etc... At the same time we were attending viewings and chose to stick with one agent (Ray Whites) this was great as we was basically following the same agent around the Rockingham area and got to know her well, She could see how desperate we were as we mentioned i had work to start etc. etc... Well after about 3 days and submitting several applications the agent told us we had been shortlisted for a couple of properties we had viewed and not to worry. That day they called and offered us a lovely 3x2 unit we had viewed, only 2years old and very modern. No need for a pool as its 2 streets from the beach a 3 minute walk. We had to put down the deposit and 6 weeks rent but yes by the beginning of the 2nd week we had a home. The only downside was that I couldn’t move in until the beginning of March which left me with a 2 week gap to find a place to live which my mate in Secret Harbor more than willing threw me his house keys and whooped "Drinking Buddy". We were both and still are delighted with the place, we now know the owners and they have extended our lease for a further 12 months or until we decide to buy (we aren’t rushing to buy either) Our rent is $370.00 per wk. which as I see it is cheap as chips for our location etc... If there are any specific details you'd like to know just ask as I’m just skipping through the main parts! Sue left to return to the UK for a month which was hard given all that was happening but it at least kept me busy as I had work and furniture to find for our new home! With that I started work in Perth hills which was quite a drive and got straight into working in 42deg heat WOW! That hurt for the first week and still does on some of the hot days still, I was lucky enough to meet the owner of the company and pushed into him everything I could do and within a week was offered a full time job with the company as a site supervisor with a salary package of almost a 100k. Amazing I thought I’ve cracked it!! Happy Days!!! So there i was living in Australia less than 1 month, Job I enjoyed and a new home, Just needed Sue back and life’s perfect! All sounds perfect don’t it!! Maybe too perfect!! Well I cracked on with work and furnishing the new house and at work my employer approached me and said if I buy my own Ute to match his fleet he would pay for all my fuel and give me 10k a year allowance! Be rude to refuse I thought! So with that I purchased a 4X4 triton and got it on finance as I thought the allowance would make the payments and keep our cash in the bank!! (Kept the thought that if I did comeout of work our savings would in invaluable given we would have no rights to any benefits etc. (2 year rule)) Sue Had returned at the end of March and was going stir crazy as she didn’t know anyone, had no transport or job while i was working 14-16hr days with the travelling! I was told that once the project I was on was completed would be nearer to home so it was a goal to strive for. Deep down Sue had said on many occasions that we both came here to have a more relaxed life as I had always said I wanted to get out of construction and find something more laid back once we arrived here. By this time we were into August and my project was coming to an end with a promise of a small site in City Beach being planned for me to start. My project was completed on time and on budget with an excellent report from the client which earned me a nice bonus. So there I was setting up a site at City Beach when Sue rang to tell me she had been offered work with Target! (Superb!) and that she was also pregnant! (Double celebration!!) Having children in the UK hadn’t worked for us but here we are in our early forties with a child on the way! Sue thinks she will be the oldest new mum in WA!! Remember too good to be true! September came and on the 21st it all went horribly wrong! I got a phone call asking me to go straight to the office where I was met by an insolvency agent! My employer had gone into liquidation with debts of 1.5 million and all staff was dismissed with immediate effect from that moment. I filled out some forms for them which promised the government would pay all salaries owed to me in due time and left the building! At first I thought no worries I’ll soon be back on the horse and earning in no time! Crickey! How lucky was I when I got here to get a job so quick! I was sending my resume and typing individual cover letters for eachone on a rate of about 12 a day from various job sites with not even a buggeroff! As a response! I had 6 interviews in the 2ndweek of October with no answer from them and was starting to worry! When you suddenly have so much time on your hands you start working out sums in your mind calculating the savings x the rent x the car payments x the bills and breaking down into weekly costs then dividing your savings to see how long you can sustain living! Plus the pressure that Sue's mum was spending the whole of November with us which equaled days out x expense = we will have to think of going back to the UK in the new year if things don’t change!! I enrolled back onto the agency which gave some income plus stopped me thinking too much about the downer which had hit me since being dismissed and after a couple of weeks I had a call from one of the first jobs I applied for which was for local government and a complete change of job altogether (which is what we had planned initially) I went all out for it at the interview and I knew when I left I had a good chance of it which was confirmed when they called and asked for a medical and background check. I started my new role in late November and it’s from this point that we are now living the ozzy dream we had; it’s not the money as I earn a hell of a lot less than my last job but I have a new desire to work hard in my new role, I am now a gardener and my work is with the elderly and disabled to help them with their gardens which gives them such a great sense of pride to sit and continue to enjoy the surroundings they have worked on all their able lives. It is also only 35hrs a week so now me and Sue have so much more time to relax together and although the money is alot less we still buy the same food and pay the same bills and still get out and have a beer (Coke for Sue) go to the movies or just go for a dip in the Sea! You don’t need to be a millionaire to live in Australia. I think with the opportunities which arose when we landed I got swept away with it all and in saying that I don’t regret any of it as its led us to here and now but its brought home that in our journey that we never came here to get rich, we just wanted a simple life which we can enjoy to its full extent and now we will have our ozzy daughter arriving in April to give an abundance of love to. Getting what you want in life isn’teasy, and I hope this may help others in their quest. Gary & Sue

Hi, As Rupert has mentioned their is not alot you can do. To enrol in college etc... You will need a permanent Australian address for correspondence. Unfortunately I doubt they would acknowledge anything until you are here permanently. As for job hunting I could recommend you scour the job sites and let them know of your intentions on any applications, give them time frames of your reccie and suggest if meeting during your stay may be possible! If you have any friends here possibly ask about using there contact number as a communication point whilst here if they wish to call you to discuss possibilities, or even buy a pay and go on arrival and forward them the number. There are also company websites, some offer you the chance to submit an expression of interest to work for them! You have to put yourselves out there and show them your completely serious with your intentions to move and make Australia your home. Good luck on your reccie and your move later this year. Gary

Welcome to Perth When you venture down to Rocko give us a shout and we can get the BBQ going! gary & sue

Hi Stu, Welcome to WA. Myself and Sue are in Rockingham, been here for just on 12 months now, both in our 40's and low and behold we have a baby on the way! This place must of relaxed us far too much lol. Dont worry to much about cash it will sort itself out once you stop converting! We have booked a hotel in Mandurah for valentines day so we may just bump into you. Enjoy settling in mate. Gary & Sue

I'm if the same with the automatics! Can't do without it now and talking of that rd you just want to pelt I just flick of the overdrive and boot it! Mind my 3.5 triton glxr bloody loves it when I do lol gary

Well done and a fabulous Christmas present. Best of luck with the remainder of your journey. Gary & Sue

Hi Mike, Not to dampen your spirits but as above states seek advice. Not sure if you'd need state sponsorship at your age but I have heard bricklayers have been taken off some lists. Dont take that as gospel but a little research will help!!

Please stay away from Great Wall!!! i know 2 blokes with them who regret the day they parted with the cash!! interior falls apart in weeks along with several teething troubles. A ute sounds to big for you but you could try a Mitsubishi lancer or the like, top spec is around 35k I think.

Its allowed its new year! Enjoy!