marinsdad

Toby Haenen in Chelsea Heights is good. Both my kids have regular lessons there both privately and with their Primary school and my wife is an instructor there (so a little biased!) Haenens is on Wells Road 5 mins from Edithvale.

I've just had a call from our MA to say our Visa has finally been granted!! The perfect christmas present Our timeline as follows: 14 Jul 13 Visa and Nom application submitted to Melbourne office (decision ready front loaded with police checks and medical) 09 Sep 13 - Nomination Approved 20 Dec 13 - Visa Approved (Via Parramatta) Its been a long frustrating wait but its finally over. Good luck to everyone else still waiting.

I had a call from our MA yesterday, apparently Parramatta is taking a number of cases from the Melbourne centre as its been swamped with applications. The MA has said that we've been assigned a CO finally, fingers crossed we'll get a decision soon.

I've been commuting from Chelsea up to the CBD recently normally travelling around 7.30-8.00 the trains are quite busy but certainly not rammed. Travel time is about 45 mins and trains at that time run every 10 mins or so. As commutes go its not bad at all.

IT Project manager originally from UK.

Mikepat, I lodged visa app and nomination via Melbourne office on 14/06/13 transition stream DR through MA. I received nomination approval on Sept 9th but its all gone quiet since then .

A friend in my office (in his 50s) lives on the Sandhurst Estate and really likes it . I don't think its isolated at all , there is a Coles 5 mins down McCormicks Road and there Woolworths even closer. Its a 2 min drive to the Eastlink and traffic wise its not bad at all. The downside to the area is the lack of train service to the city but the trains and the beach are only 10-15 min drive away. My family and I have just moved to Carrum Downs its a nice suburb, there are parts of it that are a bit less desirable but that's to be expected. If you need any more info on the area PM me and I can try and get some answers for you.

John I shipped my road bike via airfreight last year which took around 11 days from the UK to my office in Melbourne. Shipping via container was out as I didnt want to be bikeless for 3 months. Orginally I'd planned to take it as excess baggage when we left the UK but it was going to be a lot of hassle dealing with that as well as 40kg of luggage each for 2 adults and 2 young kids once we arrived in Melbourne. I can't remember the exact details of the company we used (I deleted all the emails ) but the cost was around 400gbp that included door to door service, 2K GBP insurance , bike crate and packing materials . I did get stung for customs clearance at this end which was about $95. Cost wise it compared to taking it as excess baggage with Singapore Airlines. The box was pretty rigid and I was able to fit my bike + helmet, track pump and some tools/spares . Hope this info helps Cheers Mark

Jimmy, In 2 weeks we move into our unfurnished rental in Glen Waverley. Most rentals we found were unfurnished. We took the decision to sell everything we had in the UK (that we didn't have a sentimental attachment to) and buy new here. Our sentimental items are being shipped over once we settle in the new house. Selling up and buying new stuff has been a big part of our 'adventure' of starting a new life in a new country. Furniture and whitegoods can be expensive here but we hit the many furniture shops on the Frankston Dandenong road with a list and a pile of cash and bartered our way to some really nice stuff. Back to the subject of suburbs. I was lucky to have a reccie trip over with work back in June. I told the guys in my office where we had been looking as potential suburbs. They told me that most Poms they knew all wanted to live bayside. They suggested areas away from bayside such as Bulleen , Doncaster, Doncaster East, Glen Iris, Glen Waverely and a few others. We settled on GW as it is a lovely area, its 30 mins on the train into the city, 30 mins to the beach and it has a secondary school with a great reputation. The secondary school isn't an issue now as our daughter is only 7 but thinking more long term it will become important.

This is my first post on POI We arrived in Melbourne 2 weeks ago and for the next 2 weeks we are staying in a 2 bed temporary furnished rental in Apsendale right on the beach (quite literally!). http://www.homeaway.com.au/holiday-rental/p404377557?cid=E_OWNERINQUIRY_DB_O_20110803_thumbnail_image_LPROP#utm_source=O_DB&utm_campaign=E_OWNERINQUIRY_DB_O_20110803_thumbnail_image_LPROP&utm_medium=email&utm_content=thumbnail_image_LPROP&utm_term= I have a Job in Mulgrave and initially My wife and I were looking finding a bayside rental between Aspendale and Beaumaris. Back in the UK we lived just outide Portsmouth and wanted to look for somewhere close to the sea. After loads of hunting on realestate.com.au and lots of just driving around we finally settled on Glen Waverley which is nowhere near the beach but a nice suburb close to work for me with decent schools for our kids and only 30 mins from the beach. Aspendale is great but in the end we decided that we could get more space for our money elsewhere. We found it difficult to do proper research on houses until we actually touched down in Oz. www.realestate.com.au is great to get an idea of whats available but its much easier once you are here and can get some viewings under your belt! We found our new place in GW very quickly but some of the places we viewed looked nothing like the photos on Realestate! A good site for info on schools is http://www.myschool.edu.au/ we've used is for all our schools research so far. The site has links to the actual schools websites and most of them offer tours around so you can take a look before enroling your kids into school.I guess if you are arriving in December then you'll hit the start of the summer holidays which run form the 22nd until feb 1st 2012. Good Luck