JBO76

We moved to Melbourne just over a year ago and have enjoyed it so much much that we have decided to buy our own home and will be moving out of our rental in the first week of June. I thought I would post details here in case anyone is looking for a home as this place is great. Huge family home in fashionable Black Rock, with bay views and located just 5 mins walk to beach. If you don't know the area well, Black Rock is a very family friendly suburb and is a great location for access to Bayside's best beaches. You can walk to black Rock beach in 5 mins and have the choice of Ricketts Point, Half Moon Bay and Watkins Bay all within 5 mins drive. Great schools with 3 excellent primaries to choose from plus close to secondary schools. 4 bed house (plus study plus additional loft room) with 4 large living areas (3 downstairs and one upstairs). 3 bathrooms with ensuite to master bedroom alongside huge walk in wardrobe. Large internal garage with workshop/storage room and plenty of garden space front and back. Upstairs terrace with beautiful bay views from bedroom and terrace. Easy access to CBD and perfect if you are a keen cyclist with bike path along beach all the way to the city. Unfurnished, rent $860 per week. Property available to move in 7 June 2014. Please pm me if you would like more details.

Just a quick line to say thanks to everyone for their words of support. Its nice to know that I am not alone is feeling swamped by the cleanin! Camping kit is a killer with so much scope for little pockets of dirt tucked in nooks and crannies! Will post again after we arrive in Melbourne.

Months in the planning, the start of the next chapter as we move from London to Melbourne is about to begin. I first started looking at Poms in Oz in the middle of 2010 when a move to Oz was just the beginning of an idea. I quickly worked out that first stop was to sit an English test (had to do the academic one which was no walk in the park), and by Feb 2011 I had submitted the full application online with a PR visa granted by November 2011. A reccie trip to Melbourne for 2 weeks in May 2012 and we fly, one way, on 6 September. It is quite a journey to get to this point as I know many of you will appreciate. Right now we are very busy organising the move and that is a lot of work. We are filling a 40ft container with almost everything we own and shipping the lot as we felt this easier than buying everything when we arrive. The poor kids have had has way less attention than they need and the house must feel very unsettled to them. We have just begun to start saying goodbye to friends and family and we have many more painful ones to come. It's a hectic time. We have never been busier yet at the same time we are trying to see as much of close friends and family whilst we can. If all of that was not enough, you also have the cleaning! Bloody cleaning. We are quite outdoors people and have a lot of bikes, camping kit etc etc and every bit of it needs a clean. I have cleaned more things than I care to remember and still have some to go. The car has been sold and our house rented out and we are now in the final stage of sorting through the last rooms. Shippers arrive on 28 August and will need 3 days to pack. As I reflect now, it strikes me that this process is a big like being pregnant. You are so focused on the labour, you spend very little time thinking about becoming a mum or a dad. In the same way, i have had very little time to think about the next phase of our journey as we shift from organising a move to arriving in and exploring a new country - the point of all the effort required to get a Visa and move overseas! What a great adventure it will be. Underneath all of the current activity I have a great sense of excitement about where the next phase of this journey will take us. There is a little bit of fear about whether it wil work out ok but it makes the excitement all more real and there is also a great sense of achievement in making a dream of an idea become reality. Everything we do and create starts life as a thought or an idea and some of these gather enough momentum to become reality. I would like to wish everyone on this forum the best of luck in getting a visa and enjoying life in Australia. As my Brisbane based, £10 POM uncle always said to me "keep the dream alive".

A big thanks to everyone who replied to this thread, your views and thoughts are much appreciated. I have approached John mason and asked them to clarify the position if volume has been underestimated. I have also asked them to provide revised storage and handling costs based on a larger volume so that I can be sure to compare like with like. i have also asked both parties to specify how many man days they have allowed to pack the container. Was hoping to get this all locked down this week but suspect it might take a little longer.........once movers are locked in, it's on to selling the car, getting the house ready for rent, sell unwanted stuff on eBay, get addresses changed and brace myself for a lot of goodbyes! Moving to the other side of the world sure takes some effort!

We are now just under 2 months until we fly to Melbourne and currently trying to pick which mover to go with. The dicsion is a tough one and I would really appreciate your thoughts and comments on who you would pick in my situation. We have spoken to Crown, John Mason and Doree Bonner - all agree that we need a 40ft container. Crown- have quoted £7,828 and said that we have 1,850 cubic ft Doree - have quoted £7,236 and said that we have 1,950 cubic ft and that we need 4 days to pack. John Mason - have quoted £6,165 and said that we have just 1,500 cubic ft and will need 3 days to pack Doree are also offering a free pickup from Melbourne airport and 8 weeks free storage on arrival. Crown are not offering any free storage and have the highest handling and rental charge so I am writing them off for now. This leaves Doree and John Mason. The guy from Doree is adamant that we will need 4 days with 3 people to pack and says that John Mason sub contract the packing to a firm in Croydon "who are not international shippers" but just general removal folks. He also says it is highly likely that something will go wrong if John Mason have underestimated the time required to pack and the volume and that this could lead to an additional charge. I am not sure he is right but I certainly dont want to get hit will an additional bill on the day if the move does turn out be more than they initially expected. When I look at the inventories the Doree one is more comprehensive and detailed. The other big difference is the handling charge when the container is unpacked (if you need storage before delivery). John Mason charge £315 and Doree £728. I have negotiated hard with both Doree and John Mason but this has yielded little movement - John Mason droped £125 and Doree say they have nowhere to go and right now are not dropping their price. I am no stranger to making financial decisions but find this one a bit tricky.......... Both Doree and Mason seem to have good feedback on POI and I would love to save £1,000 if I can as I am funding the move myself. I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been hit with additional charges by John Mason where the volume turned out to be higher than quoted and also whetehr they did outsource the packing (in the South of England) to a 3rd party and whether this was a problem or not. What would you do? Many thanks in advance for your responses. Jay

Many thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions

Am moving to oz in September and wondering if anyone has any good tips on where to buy uk/oz electrical socket adapters? In particular, I am looking for ones that are narrow enough to let you fit two side by side into an oz double socket. Thanks Jay

You might want to look at Amex my essentials which provides cover for computers, laptops, iPads etc all your tech kit for just 9.99 a month. Although this is a uk based product, they provide cover for 90 days abroad. I don't think there is a limit on the value of items you can register with them so it's great value. I have the policy and have claimed and was very happy with the way it was handled. Not exactly what you have asked for but thought it was worth mentioning.

I am heading over to Melbourne on Thursday night for a two week recipe trip in advance of taking the family over in September and would really appreciate any tips people might have. Curent plan for the trip includes: Meet with recruitment consultants - meetings already set up Buy a car so have ready to go when arrive with family (will leave on friends drive for now Check out neighbourhoods - have been looking at Eastern suburbs online Buy pay as you go phones so have numbers to give people at home Register with Medicare and get Tax number Am guessing that will keep me pretty busy for the time that I am there but am keen to hear if anyone feels that i have missed anything obvious off the list? Many thanks Jay

I am also really interested to hear how anyone has got n with this kind of service. I was planning on buying a scanner and asking my folks to open.and scan post. Having a professional service would be grreat...... QUOTE=Goochie;1935791738]I've been looking at the options for post redirection and the problem seems to be that you cant set it up with Royal Mail before you leave unless you already know the forwarding address. A bit of googling later revealed a company called UKPostBox.com who set up a PO box for you, scan in all of your incoming envelopes and ask you if you'd like them to be opened and emailed or destroyed. I have no connection to the company what so ever but thought it seemed like a really good idea. You just get Royal Mail to redirect all your post to your UKPostBox and decide what you want scanned or forwarded when it arrives. Has anyone here used a similar service?

If you can't get the super back, will be able to claim your oz pension at retirement? Is the superfund ring fenced as your wn as in a uk Sipp or is this money held and managed by the government? Thanks

Can anyone give me a steer on the rules regarding whether you are allowed to pack any food items in your container. I know that when you fly into Oz you can take some items through if they are pre packed so was wondering ifthis also applies to containers - could you pack a tin of beans for example? i know that pretty much most things will be available tobuy in Oz but am just curious. Also - can I check that my recollection about being allowed pre packed food in luggage when you fly in is also correct? many thanks Jay

That sounds like a very frustrating experience. Would you mind pm me the company so that I can avoid them as we will be shipping our stuff in a few months. Thanks Jay

For what it's worth, we applied for 176 family sponsored and it took 9 months start to finish - no agent. It was quite straight forward but I did spend a lot of time researching and always found great answers to my questions on here. I don't have experience with using an agent but if you don't have much time, are a bit overwhelmed by the unfamiliarity of the process and if paperwork is not your thing, an agent would prob be best. If you have a bit of spare time, are good at project management and getting your head around beauracratic systems, then I would go for it on your own and save anew pounds. It is also worth trying to get a sense of whether your application is straight forward or has some complex issues. Hope that helps. Jay

Thanks for all the comments, I appreciate you taking the time. Glad to hear parking near the beaches shouldn't be a problem. As regards to station car parks.. It's as I thought. Someone told me that you could park anytime at a station car park, but I couldn't believe that! I would only ever be going into town mid morning, with young kids (not daily, twice a week or so), so I think we are going to need to be within walking distance of a train station. Or at least know that I can park a 5-10 min walk away. Finding a rental that ticks all the boxes... That's going to be a tough one!!!!!! Vanessa

Hi, I have a question about parking and driving around MElbourne and its suburbs. I'm trying to work out how close we will need to live to a train station (we are looking around bayside or suburbs just inland) and would like your experiences re parking. In particular, do you think it's possible to park at a station car park easily in the day? Is it easy to park by the beaches? How about near the parks or shopping streets? We currently live in London and its not possible to park anywhere unless you are visiting a friend and they give you a parking permit. Yeah there are parking meters around, but they are very expensive and only last 2 hours. Thanks Vanessa

I think all materials required have been covered in the above posts. I would add that I used CPA who are based in Australia House in london and found them to be exceptionally helpful for my asessment as an ACA. I work over the road from Oz house And took in my original docs which they then certified for me before posting off to Australia. They really were a very friendly bunch. Inwould also add that the best way to answer your question for your specific situation is to call them on the number posted on the skills asessment website.

We are a home schooling family with 2 children - boy 2.5 years and girl 6 yearsbandnwill be moving to Melbourne in September. Would be great to know if there are any other home schooling families currently in the area or planning to move there soon. Jay

Is this a new series that is on? I missed this - can anyone tell me when it is on and which channel? Many thanks Jay

Really useful information - thanks for posting Jay

Many thanks m2m. I was really surprised at how quickly this came through following completion of the meds. Start to finish the whole process was 10 months and 3 days. Did the whole thing myself without a migration agent and am chuffed to have managed to navigated the process. Flights are booked and we arrive in Melbourne 10 Sepember next year! Jay x

Just wondering if anyone can help me set expectations for when our visa will be granted (assuming everything is all ok). Our meds are showing as "health requirements finalised" on the status page and we have uploaded all of the additional information requested by the CO. We are being processed by Megan Peachy of team 2 in adeleide. App was submitted on 4 feb this year and we were contacted by the CO about 1month ago. Visa is a 176 family sponsored. Many thanks

I used a lawyer at work to certify all of my documents but then read that they only need t be certified if they are not colour copies (this was in a letter from DIAC). I would guess that colour copies are much cheaper than paying for certification.

Thanks for that Shel. It looks like there is an option to be be exempted from the immunisation schedule if you make a formal objection. My wife does not work and will be the full time carer for our kids - am i right to assume that we won't be able to claim the child care allowance? Do you know if this benefit is means tested? Thanks Jay

Thanks for that. I had seen something along these lines before about needing vaccines for school and possibly getting reduced benefit if not vaccinated. Our kids are pretty young right now and we are planning to home educate them initially whilst we all settle in to our new life. Jay