madcatjane

Hi Lyndalou74 I echo what Debbie has said above. I have a couple of friends who are family daycare and they are always busy. I live in Albany Creek and love it here. Where are you moving from? Do you have kids? Jane

Hi there, we've lived in both cities and overall I prefer Brisbane for it's proximity and stuff to do. Perth has the better beaches close to the city. It's cheaper to live here in Brisbane too and it's not dominated by the mining industry like Perth. We live in Bridgeman Downs, North of the city and my husband gets the bus to the city for work, it takes about 35 minutes. I have 3 young kids and my 7 year old will be in Grade 2 at Albany Creek SS next year and I can't recommend the school enough, it's fantastic. I also run a Facebook Mums group if you want to look us up, we meet regularly. It's called Brisbane Northside Mums. Good luck with the move and if you need anything else please shout, always happy to help.

Hi there, feel free to join my Brisbane North facebook Mums Group, we meet up reguarly at parks and have the occasional weekend meet up and bbq. It's called Brisbane Northside Mums. Welcome to Brissie.

Hi there, good luck with the move. We've been here nearly 2 years and live in Bridgeman Downs, my hubby gets the bus into the city and it takes 30-40 mins and is a really easy journey so that's an option to consider too. I have 3 kids and my son will be in Grade 2 at albany creek state school next year and it's a fab school, although the schools have catchments in this area there is never an issue getting in around here as it is well serviced with schools. I have a 5 year old girl who has just finished kindy year at a C & K kindy in Arana Hills and that too was fabulous, if you want your 2 year old to go to kindy you would be wise to per the name down now, look at the C&K website. With regards to surrounding suburbs that you mentioned I would steer clear of some parts of Bray Park, some parts of Strathpine, Zilmere, some parts of Lawnton. I would definitely consider Albany Creek, Bridgeman Downs, McDowall, Eatons Hill, Ferny Hills, Arana Hills, Everton Hills and you can get the bus from a lot of these suburbs rather than the train. The areas further away from train stations seem to have lower crime rates. I thoroughly recommend any of these areas and their proximity to all the facilities you could want, schools, leisure centres, shopping centres, etc. etc. Good luck and feel free to ask if you want to know anything else.

Totally agree. I started there as a backpacker, ended up being sponsore, married an Aussie and stayed. I loved it at first but I felt like there is only so many day trips to Wave Rock etc you can do. If you want more variety and perhaps aren't beachy or sun people then perhaps its not for you but I also believe in giving things a go. We spent 5 years in Edinburgh before coming to Brisbane a year ago, now in my opinion Edinburgh is a fantastic city (and I'm not Scottish lol!!) and we wouldn't have left if it wasn't for hubby's work.

I lived on Perth for 7 years and Bunbury for a year, i went to all the places you can go to like York, wave rock, swan valley, kings park, freo, lancelin, marg river, the pinnacles, royal show, spring in the valley, nights out in northbridge, busso, mandurah etc etc but after loving Perth at first and thinking that's where I wanted to live forever after that amount of time I felt I was going stir crazy. I went on hols up north and down south and covered all of WA and I worked in Subi. The cost of living.there started to go up dramatically too. I felt like you had to drive ages to get somewhere that wasn't really that different to Perth. I felt it was quite inward thinking, no daylight savings, some stores like Aldi won't go over because of thetrading laws. I do respect everyone has their own opinion and I understand what suits 1 person doesn't suit another, we chose to leave instead of staying and whinging like I'm sure some people do.

Precisely but that's because Perth isn't Honolulu! It takes too long to get anywhere by car if you want a weekend away. It's too faraway from rest of Oz and if you don't like the beach or hot Summers there isn't much else to do!! IMO of course!

Hi there, thank you for the comment! Myself and Debbie13 plus other Mums meet up regularly! Would be lovely torment you when you get over. I have a 5, 3 and 1 year old. My 5 year old goes to Albany Creek State School. I also run a Mums meet up group ance meet regularly, most of us are in the same boat. Please feel free to pm me or ask on here any questions you have. Regards Jane

HHi there, check out my original response 1 above your request. Albany Creek State High School has a good reputation if you were in this area. Also lots of private options.

They must have changed as i phoned and linked my old visa to new passport when we came here in October. The form sounds simple anyway.

is your visa still valid? I didn't need to get a new visa just got it linked, but as you lost your passport it might be different....

You can call immigration and they can link your visa to your new passport.

We got our kids citizenship by descent and then an Aussie passport, worth doing even if you just get the citizenship papers and not the passport as that way they have it, just in case they change the law in the future. Then if they have kids there is a minimum amount of time they have to have lived in the country for their kids to get the same thing, e.g. think it's about 2/3 years. Hope that helps.

Hi there, we moved to Brisbane 9 months ago and have 3 young children. We live Northside in Bridgeman Downs which is about 13km's from the city. I would thoroughly recommend this area and surrounds: Albany Creek, McDowall, Eatons Hill, Ashgrove, Arana Hills, Ferny Hills. All are great areas with good State Schools and Kindy's. It's easy access to the city, Sunshine Coast, Chermside Shopping Centre and there are great facilities close by. I hope this helps. Please feel free to PM me if you want to know anything specific that I might be able to help with. Good luck with the move.

I'm on the Northside and unfortunately at that time of day after school pick up and with the traffic I probably wouldn't get there but if you ever do one this side I would love to come along.