newjez

On 25/08/2022 at 08:20, Russ1976 said:

In the UK, we have OS maps available, paper form and digital, showing us footpaths, bridle paths etc. Is there an Australian equivalent? Thanks for reading.

Alltrails.com doesn't look that bad. Haven't used it but searched for walks in South West wa and it came up with quite a few. 

There are a few others, but until you test them in anger you won't know how good they are.

I'm planning on doing some walking when I'm in Oz later this year so I can report back then.

On 25/08/2022 at 09:13, Toots said:

Have a look at this Russ.  https://parks.tas.gov.au/things-to-do/walks/map-of-walks

It's not like the UK as far as bridle paths etc.  Farmers wouldn't be too happy if you walked through their fields.  I read that there have been instances of people attacked by cows in the UK.  Are people stupid or what.  Why would you walk through a field of cows especially if they have calves.

If you are at the end of a ten mile walk and you find cows in the field you need to cross to get home what do you do?

I have been in that situation with cows and calves on the path and I decided to take another route.

But sometimes you might not have that option. Farmers do tend to move their stock around, and you sometimes find cows unexpectedly.

On the south downs you get the Scottish cows with the really big horns, but they are gentle giants.

On 25/08/2022 at 09:43, Russ1976 said:

Thanks for the link. Take no notice of ‘people being attacked by cows’, it’s as regular as ‘people being eaten by sharks’. 
 

I walk pretty much wherever I want here in the UK, 99% of farmers are cool, as long as you aren’t cutting through the middle of their fields.

So can I assume there are no equivalents to public footpaths?

More people are killed by cows than sharks, but both are very minor.

Sometimes paths do go straight across the field. It's usually pretty obvious where the path goes. But I use footpathmap.co.uk as it is free (you can pay) and it has a GPS so you can keep to the paths. I was hoping to find a site like that in Australia.

23 hours ago, MARYROSE02 said:

I've not been walking in the UK for a long time but if there's a public footpath thru a field then I THINK(?) the farmer has obligations regarding walkers.

Walking between a cow and its calf is not a good idea but other than that situation I THINK(?) it's safe to walk through a field.

Are farmers allowed to keep a bull on its own in a field?

In the New Forest where I'm from livestock runs free and, again, walking between a cow or pony and its young is foolish, ditto trying to pay NF ponies.

For all that, I'm a scaredy cat(and a poet) and I doubt I'd walk thru a field with livestock in it.

Farmers aren't allowed to keep dairy bulls in fields crossed by footpaths. For some reason dairy bulls are much more aggressive than beef bulls.

You have to make a judgement call with cows, and a lot depends on whether you have a dog. I often cross fields with cattle walking or on my bike. Sometimes coming close to them and I've never had a problem.

12 hours ago, calNgary said:

Try hitting a Hong Kong mattress..

       Cal x

All night long.

14 hours ago, alanothen said:

I've just registered with the forum, this is my first post. I'll introduce myself: I'm retired here in the UK on a good government pension (I'm a retired military guy), I've just turned 62 (I retired nearly a decade ago, so I'm pretty unlikely to re-enter the work market now). My pension and other income comes to about AUD80,000 plus I'd have about AUD1,750,000 in capital. I'd also have my UK state pension (so another AUD15,000 PA) from 2026. My son (my only dependant) is nearly 18 and taking his A levels at the moment.

My son and I were talking about leaving the UK, I've been to Australia a few times for work previously and liked it, being English speaking would make life easier for my son as he finishes his education and looks to a career (maybe banking or accountancy). Our question is: what sort of visa would we be looking for if we moved to Australia, me as a retiree - my son probably as a student? We don't have any family connections, this would be a new life for both of us.

Perhaps I might also ask for some pointers as to whether we would have sufficient capital and income to live reasonably well in Australia, and perhaps which areas of the country we might look at (my previous working experiences have been in Bendigo, Victoria and in Canberra.

Any advice would be welcomed.

Alan

  

Have you considered south east Asia as a base? If you're son managed to get it into Australia, (possibly after UK degree) then you would be in a position to visit him regularly. I'm not up on South East Asia, but I have heard of it being popular as a retirement destination. Or possibly NZ. 

12 minutes ago, dharmaqueen said:

We left in 2013 and waiting for my 19 year old to do the same!

Would need to register for Medicare as well. 

We suspended our medicare to avoid lifetime loading (or whatever it’s called) when we left but not sure if that would apply to someone leaving as a child and returning - either way, a trip to the medicare office (perhaps worth having travel insurance in place for transit & until he gets registered) 

What's lifetime loading?

23 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

Quite different to alcohol actually by not bringing on possible aggressive behaviour. Although I believe, that poster is correct in stating the stuff these days is far stronger than in days past. Hence possible mental health problems for some. 

You can buy seeds online in the UK for your "seed collection". Apparently you're not allowed to grow them they're not cheap.

Thanks for the replies. Timing isn't too much of an issue as they won't be traveling for a while. But it does mean I wouldn't get them back before I leave. So I might need to rethink that.

On 16/06/2022 at 23:56, mrcactus said:

Hello all. This is my first post so please forgive me if it's in the wrong section of the forums.

So, I live in the UK and I am 30 years old. Currently studying a diploma in IT with the Open University which will finish in September 2023. I've decided I need a change...a big change! I still live at home with parents, no kids and no partner. Stuck in a dead end job for the past 13/14 years and I have simply had enough. Once I renew my british passport I will then apply for my work visa for OZ in the next few months.

I am not a skilled worker so don't fall under any of the in-demand jobs over there. 

If my visa is approved, I plan on getting rid of all my belongings for some extra cash to take over there (and I think my parents would want my stuff out of my room so my brother can move out of the box room )

I have tried to read as much information as I can from the OZ immigration website, forums and other places. I have a few questions:

• If I am granted my first work visa, I can work for 6 months correct?
• When should I apply for the 2nd year work visa?
• How do I apply for permanent residency after completing the required amount of work and after how long?

 

Family, friends and colleagues have said go for it. I feel now, since the age has been raised from 30 to 35 and any kind of work can be done on a working holiday visa, if I don't go for it I'll regret it for the rest of my life - while still stuck in my miserable job. 

Do you have any tips, suggestions or have a missed something? Or am I dreaming of something that is completely unachievable? Since I have this in my head for the past few months, It is ALL I can think about and to be honest, it's the first time I've been excited/looking forward to something in years.

Thanks everyone 

 

This is going to sound weird, but go skydiving. Jumping out of an aeroplane will change your life. You won't be the same person when you land.

It will change your life much more than moving to Australia.

I am planning a trip to Perth, and I wondered whether I could get the kids passports renewed when I was there. Plus get the first Australian passport for my youngest. The kids won't be with me, but I figured it might be easier in Perth rather than go up to Australia house in London. They always make me drag the kids up there and it's a real pain.

I figured I could do it by post from Perth, or even go into the immigration office. Probably easier by post. Might even be cheaper.

3 hours ago, Tulip1 said:

There’s much truth in that.  I used to work with a girl who would moan about her teenage kids not staying in to spend the day with the grandparents when they visited.  To solve the problem she actually paid her kids a tenner to stay in.  We all thought it was funny although terrible.  I adored my grandparents and feel quite bad now when I look back and remember my desperate attempts to get out of visiting them when I was old enough to be left at home and my attempts to escape and go out with friends when they visited.  Young kids can’t get enough of grandparents but it changes as they get older.  They no doubt still adore them but when you’re 15 hanging out all day with the olds loses appeal.  It’s natural albeit a shame. 

I never had grand parents as they were in the UK when I was growing up in Australia. I do feel like I missed out.

31 minutes ago, Eera said:

Far as I can see rules are:

Bounce ball every now and again.  I suppose there's an increment but frankly are the refs counting?;

Jumping on someone's head is allowed, encouraged and will guarantee Youtube plays forever;

Flamethrowers are not allowed, but the teams would like them to be.

Husband is Victorian, and I spend many an hour asking "what did he get a point for now?" In response, I get asked why the ball goes backwards in rugby.  This is why I like Alpine skiing - you either get to the bottom in a good time or you get limbs torn off by fences - nice and straightforward.

from my understanding there are actually a lot of rules, as they are in Union, but the advantage rule is played alot, so it appears there are less rules than there are. Keeps the game flowing.

23 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

And I guess always make absolutely sure your offer on a property is subject to finance approval.  This might be standard in some states, but I am not sure it is everywhere.

Not only subject to finance approval, but name the bank that you want to approve it.

4 hours ago, Cath.C said:

Reiwa.com.au is blocked for me on all the computers I try, is it blocked overseas for everyone?  Is there anyway to access it outside of Australia without a VPN with an Australian IP address?

Nope. Works fine for me from the UK.

9 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

Absolutely, home fees status is granted on the residence of the student in the three years before starting university.

As we were in the UK for the GCSE years and the 2 A Level years then it is home UK fees for the duration, similarly if you had only been in the UK for A level unless you then took a gap year it would be overseas fees throughout.

Thanks, that is interesting.

7 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

We have two home from UK Uni's each holiday it's about $4,500 each holiday in air fares

Can you live in Australia with your kids at a UK uni? Do they have to pay international fees? I had thought of nipping of to Australia whilst mine were at university, but wasn't sure if it would affect their status.

On 22/04/2022 at 03:47, Lucia said:

Thank you for your responses. I'm so sorry that others feel trapped too - it's truly awful.

I've now had four sessions with the psychologist and she is great. She can't give me the answers but she's telling me I need to take note of my body and my heart - I'm all head really as I keep saying - house, money, mortgage, superannuation etc. She's told me that I need to soothe rather than bury the feelings, but I'm unsure of what I've been doing these years. How do I know I was burying rather than soothing before? I've thrown myself into everything whether it's making new friends, work, exercise, camping holidays etc, but the thought of my kids having such a limited existence in Perth makes me feel sick. Perhaps it's rose tinted glasses, but I want them to have the opportunity to go away for uni - halls of residence etc. I want them to go up and down the country for music festivals and nip over to Europe for a weekend etc. What the hell can they do here? Marry their childhood sweetheart who they met in Year 11? Go to uni and live in the family home? Go to Rottnest or Busselton for the weekend...then where? I'm just bloody bored of it all. I find Perth so limiting

When I was young I had a lot of friends who used to travel from Perth to Cairns to live. Mainly because it's about as far away from Perth as you can be and still be in Australia. Alot of Perth kids do leave to see the world. I did, and I didn't come back. Well not to stay. But I might. The thing is, Perth can be a prison if you treat it as such. The isolation engulfs you. For some people, they can only be happy there if they know they can leave. Maybe it's being trapped that's the problem. But your kids aren't trapped. They can and will do what they want.

I didn't understand the kids away from home university thing. My wife didn't understand me going to a uni close to home. Having the experience to grow and so on. We have one kid at our local uni and one kid up north. True, the one up north has grown alot from the experience. But the one at home is much happier. But I do get what you are saying. Mine did Europe summer before last and loved it. Talking about doing it again this summer, as everything is really cheap close to the war zone.

A lot of it will be a mental battle inside you. It's claustrophobia basically. But on a larger scale. If you can get past that, there are benefits from isolation. I'm not 100% happy at being a target should a thermonuclear war start anytime soon. I'm guessing no one has bothered to put Perth on their target list.

5 hours ago, Loopylu said:

I tend to agree. I have noticed lots of new housing developments in the villages of Worcestershire and also in Carmarthenshire. New industrial estates and shopping centres too. 

It's never ending building in both countries. Drives me insane.

39 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

Yes, you've been personally given that feedback, but talk to most Aussies and they'll say that life has gone downhill in the last 20 or 30 years too.  It's a global phenomenon.  If both have gone downhill, which has gone downhill worse?  It's a question of comparison and as @tea4too points out, your family and friends are imagining you living in a Home & Away paradise.  Which maybe you are, because you're a single person renting in a nice part of Sydney, which you could never afford if you were part of a family and needed to buy a home, so I'm not sure you have a realistic view of life in Australia for the average family either.

I don't think anything has changed in the UK over the last twenty odd years other than there being a few more houses. I walk and cycle and it is still a very beautiful place. We often walk cuckmere haven, and for some reason we never took the trails up the downs. We did the other day and it is breathtakingly beautiful.

Possibly people's attitudes have changed? When I arrived in the UK in 95, we had a tired old Tory party that seemed to have run out of ideas, and the only answer they had was to sell off utilities cheap.

Then new labour burst onto the scene. Things could only get better. Peace in northern Ireland. Brit pop. The UK had a place in the world where Australia never had, and it was quite exciting, and there was a real feeling of hope, and a feeling that the government was on your side.

Sadly that didn't end well. The Iraq war, overpriced property, and a GFC. We changed to the Tories who only offered austerity. Then the bitter division of Brexit, and then covid which reunited us briefly before tearing us apart again. And now a bitter war in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear destruction. Not saying this threat is realistic, but it's just another thing.

We now have two/three political parties that have the inspiration of a damp piece of toast. There's no vision. I don't think I could vote for anyone and feel that the country would be in a better place in ten years time.

It just feels a bit tired. Still beautiful. Still has the countryside and the lovely village pubs and all of that. But Britain seems to have lost its purpose. At least that's how I feel. Understandably I guess considering what we have been through, and I imagine other countries are the same. It worries me that France may lurch to the right this weekend. I don't think that is the solution. But what is the solution?

Despite the beauty of the UK, and everything it has to offer. I can't see any hope on the horizon, and I'm contemplating a retirement in Australia. True, it also has its problems, but at least it's warm there.

On 18/03/2022 at 16:54, MARYROSE02 said:

I'm studying with the Open Uni and I use HECS to pay for the study. As long as my yearly income never goes above the threshold set by the ATO I'll never have to pay it back. I just checked the ATO website and the threshold is nil below $47014, then 1 per cent up to $54,282, and increases by 1 per cent gradually. https://www.ato.gov.au/Rates/HELP,-TSL-and-SFSS-repayment-thresholds-and-rates/#HELPandTSLrepaymentthresholdsandrates201

I did pay about $3,000 in HECS about five years ago when I had a "big" year for income but usually I pay nothing. If you do have to pay HECS you do it on your tax return not when you enrol in a course/unit.

What are you studying if you don't mind me asking? I haven't made up my mind yet.

On 13/04/2022 at 03:24, Parley said:

Why are you studying though? To what end?

If it is just a pursuit out of boredom, what is the point and why should the taxpayer fund your leisure activity?

If you are really expecting your education to lead to paid employment then fair enough, but if you never end up paying increased tax from your education then people will ask why should we fund you?

That's like telling someone not to take a tax deduction because you don't like it. If the government are happy to pay then let him learn. The government can change the law if they don't like it. I was also thinking about going to university for fun in the near future. Why shouldn't I? I've paid taxes all my life?

6 hours ago, Hudsonsmumxx said:

Thank you good idea ! We’ve decided not to go for Pilbara now due to the heat. My partner got an email from a scaffolding company that they might potentially sponsor him (fingers crossed) 

not sure where yet. Either Melbourne or Perth 

what do you suggest ? We are a young family  

Either. Perth has better beaches. Melbourne has more culture. Melbourne is more expensive from a real estate point of view. Perth is a bit marmite. But Melbourne winters are chilly.

On 12/04/2022 at 07:13, Hudsonsmumxx said:

Bringing a child up in Australia is 1000 times better guys. All my family live there. Thanks for your input 

 My niece in Australia is currently in rehab.

The streets aren't lined with gold.

On 12/04/2022 at 00:00, Marisawright said:

Not really, because Perth doesn't get hot weather by Australian standards, and even when it does get warmer days (like 32 degrees), it usually has some sea breezes to make it more comfortable.   It's hard to describe what real hot weather feels like.  You'll be fine because you'll basically live in air conditioning, going from your house to your car to the shops or pub/restaurant and back.  I would feel more worried for your husband having to work in those brutal temperatures outdoors, as it can actually be dangerous to your health.

Like I said, I'm sure your MIL can tell you stories about people who got their residency once sponsored for two years, but that was on an old visa called the 457.  The new 482 visa has only been in existence for 3 years, and that's the one you'd get - so I'd be asking herhow many 482 holders have managed to get permanency under the scheme and how many didn't, or had to go home because they couldn't stand the heat/work. I may be wrong, but I'm sure your in-laws are desperate to get their son out to Australia and might be glossing over the downsides to convince you to come.

On another note - do bear in mind that teenage violence and stabbings are a global thing these days in big cities.  Just last night, there was a teenage brawl and fatal stabbing in Sydney at the Easter Show, and another who died in a separate incident in another part of Sydney. 

I'm not trying to dissuade you from emigrating.  I'm just worried that you may not be doing it for the right reasons.  Both England and Australia have their good points and bad points.  We have members here who love living in Australia (like me) and members who tried it, didn't like it, and have returned to England to settle happily.  Australia has drug problems, violence, and all that stuff just like the UK, it's not a paradise.  Like the UK, how bad those are depends on which city and sometimes which suburb you live in. 

I've done 45 degrees in Perth Marisa. Perth gets pretty damn hot. Not as hot as the north, but a lot hotter than the eastern states, and I did live in Sydney for five years.