Goochie

The wife and I dont have private medical cover and nor do we want it. We're permanent residents so are catered for adequately. So when do I have to pay the Medicare Levy? Is it taken out of my pay with other tax? Do I have to pay it at tax return time? I'm talking only about the Medicare Levy not the Medicare Levy Surcharge.

Homewardbound wouldnt have put prices up given the chance to make more money. Only nasty horrible retailers would do something like that - They're just as bad as the bankers, you know!

But surely they've already "started" and are established in the UK? Speaking from personal experience, things can be difficult when you're thousands of miles from home and people in your fmaily dream of friends and family. Those times are a lot easier if you can goo out for a nice meal, go and do some touristy things or cuddle a koala. If all you can afford to do is sit at home staring at the same 4 walls whilst talking to family in England, its not really going to work, is it!

But whats the point in moving to the other side of the world to count the pennies and struggle on a weekly basis?

Obviously I dont know what I'm talking about having spent 7 years working for a UK company that shipped thousands of products from China every month. You'll notice that I refer to the cost of handling the shipment at all points, not just the "shipping costs" Here is an example; Back in the UK I was shipping a container with 20,000 of the same product inside. This was easy because the Chinese were happy to handle big orders of the same thing and load up one container with the same product. When it arrived in the UK, we unloaded it and stacked all the identical products in one big warehouse from where our customers would collect them 500 at a time and distribute to their stores. Nothing had to be re-packaged, nothing had to be split up or separated, right the way until it arrived in your local store. We imported red products one weekand green products the next. Now, here in Australia I try and get the same thing from the same factory in China. The factory owner isnt happy because I've only asked for 10,000 items and because I know half my market will want them in red and the other half want green, he has to split his production up. He puts his price up to compensate for the hassle and lost time whilst he changes the colour in his paint spraying equipment. Now I only have half a container, so I go to another factory and suffer similar increases in costs for the same reason. I now have to pay someone in China to combine the shipments into one and the costs of the admin goes up, customs charges go up and it becomes a hassle. The container then lands in Melbourne where it has to be split up again. I now have 4 different products which have to be stored and sorted, booked on to the system and allocated to customers. When the customer turns up, he doesnt want to take 500 of the same, he wants a few hundred of these and a few hundred of those. I have to employ more people to split things up, drive forklifts, do admin work etc. All of my costs have gone up dramatically for doing exactly the same thing in Australia as I did in Europe. And its all because there are fewer potential customers on my doorstep.

I really wouldnt want people to move out here and find they couldnt afford to live so I'm going to be honest. Thats no where near enough money to live on. Not even on the level of "you'll get by". All it will take is an un-expected bill and you'll be screwed. ​

This is exactly what we did and it fitted perfectly. Here you can see our large MoveCube inside the trailer they deliver it in: https://www.dropbox.com/s/19f2mejlntb0mx4/3566085.jpg I was lucky enough to work at a place in the UK that had a massive warehouse filled with boxes. This allowed me to get a lot of boxes all identical in size and that allowed us to significantly reduce wasted space. You cant really take a photo of the cube itself because its mostly hidden in the trailer.

I always try and avoid threads like this but this one has wound me up a bit! I really wish people would stop trying to compare Australia with Europe! Yes I know you're talking about the UK specifically but the whole reason things are cheaper there is that there are millions more people in Europe. In these days of mass manufacture (in China, probably) the cost of the product itself is quite small compared to the cost of shipping it around the world and getting it to the shop. If your household appliance of choice is made in China and shipped to Europe, the manufacturer will be sending thousands of them there to cater for the millions of customers. They will be shipping more products, more often so the cost of getting the product to your highstreet is tiny. Meanwhile, the same manufacturer is making products for customers in Perth. An isolated city with a tiny population in a country with a small population. He's not going to ship anywhere near as many products so his shipping costs will be higher. The cost of handling that smaller shipment at all points will be higher and spread over fewer units - So the cost goes up. Its basic rules of supply and demand. If you want things to get cheaper in Australia you'll have to buy more (fancy taking 3000 washing machines home?). Some people really are stupidly blinkered when it comes to thinking about WHY something costs more. Its all too easy to say that retailers rip people off in Australia compared to the UK.

If you dont mind being a little further out, take a look at Sorrento, Hillarys and Mullaloo. They're established suburbs with a mixture of older houses on big plots and massive new houses on the same size plots. Rent for these areas will start at $575 per week and you can commute on the train from Whitfords station in less than 30 minutes. However, the station car park fills up by 7AM - You could always take the regular buses which runs through the area and drop you at the station. Parking, buses and trains here are clean, safe and good value.

Thanks for your reply, Andy. I've opened a new account with Australian Super. In fact that was one of the most ridiculous things about the whole process - You have to sign up as a new member in order to open another account, you cant simply add another account to your existing profile (as you would add a savings account in the bank, for example). After a few years (5 or 6 I think) they can shift the former-UK balance into the Aussie fund.

I'm just about to send off the forms to Australian Super to transfer my Scottish Widows private pension from the UK. Each tim eI speak to them they insist on telling me it can take 4-6 months for the process to be completed. I've filled in all the forms from HMRC, Scottish Widows and Australian Super so they just have to tick a few boxes and process it. My UK pension fund is small (less than 10k) and simple. So how can it possibly take 6 months? I'm in no real hurry to move it as I've got another 30 years until I reach retirement age! I just dont see how it could take so long.

Following on from another thread where some people thought there were few good quality places to eat out in Perth, I thought it would be worth starting a thread to see where people like to go for a nicve meal every now and then. I'd like to start by introducing you all to Frasers in Kings Park: http://www.frasersrestaurant.com.au/

Glad you all enjoyed reading my rather long post - I never intended it to be so long and was amazed when I looked at the clock to find it had taken an hour to write! As I say, I know we've been quite lucky with things, particularly my job. However, I still stand by what I've said in relation to the differences in pay between here and the UK. Of course it will depend on which engineering discipline you guys are talking about as well. For example a civil engineering manager may be able to pick up more/less than a mechanical engineering manager and those differences may flip from one country to another. The important thing to consider when thinking about money and the cost of living is what works for you as an individual. I know of some people who have taken a few steps back in their career simply to get a job here and for them it's not such a simple comparison. I'm also lucky in that the product we manufacture is used for maintenance on existing facilities as well as construction of new ones. Many of the products are safety critical and some others are used to clean up after cyclones and storms - These are things that people dont tend to cut back on. We sell throughout Australia and whilst we have seen sales slow slightly since 2007-2008 things are still going well. My comment on the crime stats was based on some digging we did online a few days ago. The problem with crime statistics is that they are massaged to look better than they really are. After all we all know that 34.76% of statistics are made-up However, this may be interesting; Violent crime For Australia http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/0/B/6/%7B0B619F44-B18B-47B4-9B59-F87BA643CBAA%7Dfacts11.pdf 0.766% of the Australian population were the victim of violent crime For the UK http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/hosb1011/hosb1011?view=Binary For that period, UK population was 63,200,000 which makes it 1.3% of the population that were affected. Homicide From the same documents, includes murder and manslaughter: Homicides in Australia for 2010 = 260 (0.0012% of the population) Homicides in the UK for 2010 = 642 (0.00102% of the population) State variations

Having used this forum regularly during the visa application process, I've not been here for a very long time. However, we've now been in Perth for 6 months so I thought it would be worth posting our thoughts for anyone else who may be thinking of making the move. This follows on from my one-month report which can be found here: http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/reccie-arrival-reports/164339-perth-one-month.html Housing It is well documented on here that the rental process is different to the UK. However you should try not to worry too much about it because if you get a good place, its quite simple to stay put. I have colleagues who have been in their rental for 3-6 years and in that time their rent has hardly gone up. The new housing estates have no character and are just like glorified apartment blocks. They're piled on top of each other so you can hear everything your neighbours are doing, smell their smoke and get no privacy at all. If you can afford it, move to a more established surburb where you'll get a lot more space. Having said that, some of the new $1m+ estates are just as bad with big houses built right up to the boundary, all over-looking each other. The windows here are all single glazed. The aussies dont seem to realise how much they keep the noise out or how much they'd save in air-con bills during the summer by keeping the cold air in the house (They think its just to keep the house warm in winter). Generally, if you want a house, you'll have to choose between a new house on a generic new estate, designed with the copy and paste button, or an older place with a bathroom and kitchen from the early 90s. Household Bills We find we spend a lot on general household goods and food etc. We dont have any children and still manage to spend about $250 a week in the supermarkets here. Back in the UK we were only spending about 70-100 pounds. We dont have expensive ready meals or take outs, and we buy as much as we can from places like Spud Shed. Aldi is coming to WA very soon and it'll be interesting to see what effect they have. Clothing here is very expensive, as are things like bedding and towels. Yes, you can go into BigW and buy a set of cheap bath towels but they're really poor quality. We found it was actually cheaper to buy a set from John Lewis and have them shipped over than it was to by the same quality over here. The locals complain about energy bills and we were expecting the worse. However ours are less than we were paying per month in the UK 5 years ago at about $100 per month for gas and the same for electricity. This includes our heavy air-con usage during the summer. General Cost of Living. I'm very lucky. As an engineering manager, I was previously working in a profession that is thought by many to be under-paid in the UK. Here in Australia, thanks to the mining boom, I'm on good money and that has helped mask the differences in living costs. I imagine that if you were a nurse or teacher etc. it would seem expensive here. As I say, I've benefited from a massive uplift in salary simply because of my particular qualifications and experience. Driving People told us that Perth drivers were really bad and the traffic is a nightmare. In reality the standard of driving is about the same as most large towns around England. I grew up on the outskirts of London and I'd much rather drive around Perth than go and visit my parents house back home! I'm lucky enough to commute to work from the coast inland, cutting across most of the commuter traffic. In doing so I go over the freeway where I see it almost stationary on the way towards the city before 6AM.... this is about half way down the northern freeway (Mitchell Freeway) Petrol here is rising in cost all the time. I have a large estate car and it costs me about $70 per tank which I get through in about 2 weeks. I'm glad I resisted the temptation to buy an Aussie car with a 6ltr V8 engine! Car insurance is reasonable and slightly less than I paid in England. Be wary when buying a car that you have to pay stamp duty on it - I get a $600 bill a few months after buying mine. I got a car from John Hughes in Perth. They have a good reputation but very cheesy TV ads! I got my car partly on finance in order to preserve some of our savings. During the process they said that if I wanted they could do 0% deposit finance easily for permanent visa holders. If personal number plates take your fancy, you'll love it here in WA. You can write pretty much anything on your plate and it doesnt have to be in a certain order of numbers and letters like the UK. They're not my thing but I used to see loads in the UK so thought it was worth mentioning! Second hand cars here are very, very expensive. Anything thats going to last a few months will cost $2000+ Anything that is modern and sensible for a family will be $10,000. If you have a car in the UK, seriously consider bringing it with you. Back in the UK I have a Lexus that I bought for 1000. It had 196000 miles on the clock and was an L reg. I could have sold it here for $10,000. If you have an Audi, BMW or Volkswagen, you'll find they're worth a fortune over here as long as that model was originally sold here too (So dont bring an odler VW Polo, Audi A1 or A2) Dont buy a 2 seater Ute - They're rubbish. Roads here are very very slippery when it rains. There are traffic lights everywhere and they're stupid, stupid, stupid things! Reach the junction just after they've gone red and you can be there for 3-4 minutes. Whilst that doesnt sound like much, these junctions can be every few miles. My journey to work is just over 12km and has 8 sets of traffic lights. If a few of them are red it can double my journey time. Pretty much all of these could be replaced with a European style roundabout. Where there is a decent roundabout (outside Hillarys harbour) the locals complain about it and say its so confusing because they dont know which lane to go in! Speed cameras here are small, portable and hidden in the bushes. The operator will park up in the adjoining road and run the cables through the bushes to the cameras so you cant see them if you're going to fast or if it's dark. Fines start for 3km/h over the limit. Business I've worked for small and medium sized companies in the UK for over 10 years and in that time I've found most UK business people to be keen and professional. Sadly the same cant always be said for Aussies in the workplace. Many of them seem to be lazy and have no real drive to get things done. They take ages to make decisions and sit about in meetings that take 3 times too long. They're unaware of simple things that we were doing in Europe 5 years ago. However, there is good money to be made and if you come here with a European work ethic you will do well. Things To Do There is very little to do here in terms of tourist attractions. Whilst you could easily spend a couple of weeks in Devon or Cornwall doing something different everyday, you'd struggle to do the same here, partly because things are so far apart. However, if you like going to good restaurants, sitting by the sea relaxing etc. you have plenty of opportunities. Politics Australian Politics is full of back stabbing false people who do nothing more than slag off the opposition. Yes, I know thats pretty much the same in the UK but over here, their election adverts are on every 2 minutes and they make no real effort to tell you what they're going to do for people - They'd rather have a go at the other guy, telling you how bad he is. TV We dont have Foxtel. However we had it in our rental when we first arrived and concluded that it is a waste of money. Terrestrial digital TV has about 10 channels and they tend to put the big shows on during the week. For example, something like X Factor is on a Tuesday night at 7:30. Friday and Saturday night TV is poor. The selection of channels and programs reminds us of the UK pre-digital when there were only 5 channels. Here the only ones worth watching are SBS one, 7, nines and Ten. Most of the shows are either British or American. Internet The internet here is very very slow. A friend of mine back in England just sent me an email saying he now has 70mb broadband on Virgin media. When we left we had 10mb on our standard BT phone line. Here you're doing well to get much more than 3mb. Sadly this removes the internet as an option for alternative TV, its just too slow to watch things online, particularly after you've gone through a proxy to access the iPlayer etc. My X-Box live account still works here fine but when playing mutli-player it does have issues. Despite changing every available location option to Australia, it still tries to match me up with UK players. This means that games like COD can suffer with lag and occasionally it cant find any games for me to join. Once my current Live membership has expired I'll probably sign up for a new account here in Oz. Weather The summer was hot but no where near as bad as we were expecting. Apparently it was a lot hotter this summer than it is usually so things can only get better from here I guess! Currently it's pouring with rain and 12 degrees My colleagues are complaining that they're cold. We actually quite enjoyed walking the dog in light rain yesterday, it makes a pleasant change from constant sunshine and blue skies. When it rains here it is very heavy. We dont get any of those days when it rains lightly all day long - Its been and gone in a few hours. The English The English people we meet tend to fall into two categories. Firstly, there are those who have moved here to escape the changing face of the UK. Despite not realising the irony of complaining about "bloody immigrants" they're generally a positive bunch who have been here a while and have adjusted to the Aussie ways, you wont hear from many of these people on internet forums because they're too busy enjoying life. Then there are those who seem to have moved here for some other reason. Maybe they've got issues in their relationship or they have another problem back in the UK. They come here expecting it to all go away overnight - When the problems resurface a few months later they become the classic whinging Pomme. These are the people who also keep converting everything to pounds in their head and complaining about how expensive everything is. Australians There are just as many rude, ignorant people here as there are in the UK. There are a lot of different nationalities around the place - Something that slightly confused me to start with is that they use the word "asians" to describe people from China, Japan, Malaysia. Back home that term normally applies to people from India and Pakistan etc. I remember wondering what I was supposed to say when a colleague asked "Do you fancy going out for an Asian tonight?" Many Aussies like to keep fit. They'll be out and about jogging and power walking from 6AM. Most of them are obsessed with cutting their lawn. They have about 4 different petrol powered machines for cutting, clipping and trimming the lawn and it's edges - Normally at 7:05 on a Saturday morning. Most Aussie's go to bed early and get up early. You will find it hard to start with but before long you'll also be getting up at 5:30 and going to bed at 10. For the guys (females skip to the next section) In the summer, lots of good looking, physically fit women will be wandering the streets wearing very little. They go to the shops in tiny denim shorts and skimpy tops. If you happen to drive up the west coast highway from the city north, you will see many many good looking women in bikinis all over the place. I think I may have found the reason that there seem to be a lot of road accidents here - Its guys getting distracted by hot girls on the pavement. Luckily sunglasses are almost mandatory during hot weather so you can look all over the place without upsetting your other half Crime etc. When we last went to Hillarys dog beach there was a woman in tears because her car had just been broken in to. As with anywhere, criminals are not THAT stupid and they know rich pickings can be had from good areas. Violent crime here makes the headlines. However, when you look at the statistics, it is a lot less than most big towns in the UK. If someone gets beaten up on a Friday night its on the news, back in the UK, people got murdered on a Friday night and it barely made the middle of the newspapers. Public Transport We always use the train to get into the city at the weekend, despite living just 15-20 minutes drive away. Parking is free, trains run every 15 minutes and they're clean and modern. Apparently its very busy during the week-day rush hour though. Staying in touch. Family - Skype makes it easy to see our families but thanks to the poor quality internet speeds it's not always great. I think they miss us more than we miss them but for now we're all happy. Friends - Dont believe all your UK friends when they say they'll keep in touch. We're not of the Facebook generation so we only keep in touch by phone and email. Of the many friends we had back home, my wife is in touch with two and I'm in touch with one. Meeting New People. Many migrants seem to struggle to meet new people. I work with a Frenchman and a Columbian who speak fluent English and are married in the early 30s. However, they really struggle to meet new people. Yesterday I saw an advert for a lady seeking friends who had been here with her family for 4 years. We're lucky to have neighbours that by coincidence used to live just a few miles from where I grew up in England, the couple over the road are very friendly and we've even invited the postman and his english wife round for a BBQ. You have to make the effort to find people, accept that you wont get on with everyone and eventually you'll make new friends. If you sit around complaining that you dont know anyone, you wont help yourself. Be bold and reach out to people - Invite anyone and everyone round for a BBQ! I genuinely believe its no more difficult to make friends here than it is in the UK. If you moved from Bournemouth to Dundee you's have exactly the same "problem", its not unique to Australia. What do we miss? The English countryside. I sit and watch Top Gear, my wife watches Downton Abbey and we look and think how lovely it all looks. Here its pretty much sandy soil, scrubland, dried up bushes and gum trees wherever you look. We'd love to go for a nice walk on the Malvern hills, through the Chilterns or through the Yorkshire Moors. The History. Obviously there is very little really old history here. Before we came we visited York and are very glad we did. Here there is nothing like the rambling old streets filled with old shops and that christmas shopping atmosphere. Are we glad we made the move? Yes. It is the best thing we've ever done and we really wish we'd done it 6 years ago when we first thought about it (I cry when I look at historical exchange rates!). For us, Australia really has been the land of opportunity, we've had more good luck, more good times and more money than ever before. I dont tend to use this forum much these days but as it was such a good source of information when we made the move, I thought I'd share our views on the place. Maybe I'll be back in another 6 months!

D'oh! Turns out its the front AV connection on the TV that doesnt work correctly! Connected the VHS player to the rear connection on the TV and it works fine. Just ignore me.

How strange....... We currently have a Sony VHS player that has a Australian plug fitted (moulded onto the cable) and it says "NTSC Playback" on the front. The problem is that the tape plays but it shows in black and white only and not colour.

We bought a few VHS tapes with us that we'd like to play back - They're home movies etc. from the last 20 years. However, having tried a few VHS players from Gumtree, we've found that the local machines wont play UK tapes correctly. The reason for this is that the UK machine uses PAL format but Aussie machines are NTSC format. So, if anyone in Perth has a VHS player that was originally purchased in the UK, please get in touch. EDIT: D'oh! Turns out its the front AV connection on the TV that doesnt work correctly! Connected the VHS player to the rear connection on the TV and it works fine. Just ignore me.

About 12 months ago we started thinking about setting a date for our move here and how we were going to bring the dog over. Because at that time I diddnt have a job arranged and we were unsure if we'd be able to find a property which would allow a dog, we decided that he would follow 3 months after us. Luckily my in-laws are very dog friendly and our dog was able to stay with them whilst we got ourselves established over here. Of course this meant that is was then up to them to get him to the vets on time and make sure all the paperwork was sorted and correct - Something that both my wife and I were very concerned about. As it turned out, we needn't have worried. Sam from Jets4Pets did an excellent job of keeping my mother-in-law informed of what needed to be done and when it should be done. Our dog was collected by them from his adopted home in Staffordshire on Monday and taken to Heathrow for a flight that evening. We were all a bit nervous from then until the lady from quarantine called yesterday morning to say he was doing very well and making friend with all the staff already. We have nothing but good things to say about the service we had from Jets4Pets and would recommend anyone speaks to them about pet shipping.

Also bear in mind that you have to be here for 7-10 days before you can apply. We turned up at Medicare on our second day, sat in the queue for 15 minutes only to be told to go away and come back the following week.

Our dog arrives in Australia next week and will be booked in to Byford quarantine on January 9th. Does this mean he's likely to be released on February 9th? I'd like to book some time off work to spend with him and my wife and I need to do that ASAP.

We also used the large movecube and it was also picked up from the UK on August 10th. I can mirror the comments above and wouldnt hesitate to use them again.

Only Australian citizens can hold an Australian passport.

We cleaned our bikes with......... water! Took them outside and washer them down with warm water and a sponge, turned them upside down to make sure we'd not missed anything, scrubbed the tyres with an old kitchen scrubbing brush. They were mud and dirt free which as all that matters. When they arrived here in Oz, they had "quarantine passed" stickers on them. I think the whole Jeyes fluid is an "old wives tale" perpetuated by paranoid people on this forum. A little common sense is all that is required.

Final update on our movecube experience. Our cube turned up on Monday and the very friendly driver even helped us unload it. Having spent an hour loading it in the UK we got it all out in under 20 minutes and into the house. Customs and quarantine had inspected a few of the boxes, but those we knew they'd look at (xmas decs, bikes etc.) were placed right at the door to make their life easy. Boxes that were marked DVDs, books, Photos etc. weren't opened. Nothing was damaged and they put everything back perfectly despite it being tightly packed when it left the UK. I diddnt pay for damage insurance, instead I made sure everything was well packaged. Nothing was broken and I cant fault the whole MoveCube experience. I would use it again without hesitation.

Well, our movecube turned up this week and they diddnt charge as a cent extra. There was a "quarrantite passed" label on the brand new-in-box Miele vacuum cleaner but they diddnt charge us GST on anything (even though it was obviously seen)