runslikeafish

Hi Rachel, There are plenty of poms in and around Hobart of all ages - probably the younger ones aren't on poms in oz though! Good luck with your move - November is a great time to arrive here, just in time for summer and festivals.

Welcome to Hobart Dorkymum!

I agree with Skani! Sandy Bay and Blackmans Bay are probably my two favourite suburbs although a large house with a nice garden in a good part of Sandy Bay may be expensive. I would include the eastern shore suburbs of Bellerive, Howrah and Tranmere as well.

If you're not worried about coverage outside of "Greater Hobart" or "Greater Launceston" then Yes Optus or Vodaphone will do nicely. A couple of friends use both with no problems. If you do want coverage outside of built up areas then sadly Telstra is the way to go in my opinion.

If it is a large amount of money, it's worth contacting a few (Travelex, HiFX, CurrencyOnline etc) to see what's the best deal you can get. If you let them know you are speaking to a few brokers you will possibly get a better deal - depending on the amount.

Kingborough is a great place, you'll love it there. Blackmans Bay in particular is one of my favourite places that we'd want to live in. We've made loads of great friends here which has really helped with the homesickness. I think you can second-guess yourself for ever on whether you should move or not. Ultimately you won't ever be 100% sure, we certainly weren't. One thing that was very clear to us though was that if we got as far as we had and didn't do it we'd regret it for ever. I'd say go for it. If it goes wrong then you can deal with it a number of ways - including ultimately move back if it comes to it - but if you don't try you'll never know. One other thing, keep reminding yourself of all the things you'll do when you're here. Do you have the Tasmania DVD from the government people? I forget where it was from now but if you don't have it I'll look it up and post a link. It's great and we watched it about 100 times before we moved! Good luck.

Hey CML1410, if you're after good news stories, have a look here http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/news-chat-dilemmas/193833-positive-emigrating-australia-true-life-stories-6.html

Tasmania, like Australia in general I suppose is full of contrasts, particularly when it comes to employment. In a population of around 500,000 around 200,000 live in "Greater Hobart" and Launceston has a population of around 100,000. There are other population centres (Burnie, Devonport etc) but these two are the main ones. I'm reasonably happy that I could find employment in Hobart if I needed to in my industry (IT). If I was living in Orford for example I wouldn't be so sure. I just picked Orford off the top of my head - there are plenty of smaller places! The point I'm making is that % unemployment rate is likely not spread evenly throughout Tasmania. You are more likely to find work in the larger population centres, Hobart and Launceston.

Thanks for that Pam! Yep, we're very happy here and have settled in really well.

I must admit I have come across that although you can find a good percentage of Tassie businesses online in certain industries. I work in IT and from what I can gather, more and more companies are creating an online presence so hopefully the situation will improve soon. Are you in Tassie? Word of mouth is a large factor in business promotion here!

Sorry, not really. We used Grace who were very good but we didn't move any pets. I'd contact them as a starting point. We've also fallen in love with Hobart though!

I agree with what Baz said. If you're after a relaxed lifestyle and think you were born 100 years too late, Tassie will he heaven on earth!

I don't really have any ideas on Tee Tree sadly. As far as similar areas are concerned though, I can recommend the Huon Valley. Easier to get to Hobart and you'll certainly be able to get some acres there. To be honest, there are a LOT of places where you will easily find acreage, so it depends if you're happy to be more remote or not. I hope you enjoy your visit!

I didn't know that so I will be adding it to my slowly increasing Tasmanian trivia collection!

Fantastic! Good luck!

Took a trip to one of Tasmania's best locations last week. Have a look at my blog (link below in the signature) for a report and a load of pics. Here's a pic that didn't make it to the blog post...

Are they UK Shares or Aus shares? ...and are you in the UK or Australia?

Great idea for a second "recce trip". Good luck!

Fantastic! Good luck.

The idea to move to Aus crept up on us really. We were looking semi-seriously at Canada and New Zealand but neither really ticked all the boxes. We started looked at Aus more in earnest and knew that we didn't want to move to one of the hotter places - so we were somewhat unusual in that we were looking for colder places in Australia. We narrowed our search down to Victoria and Tasmania and came on a recce trip in late 2009. My wife had never been to Australia before and from the first morning, wandering jetlagged down to the sunny St Kilda waterfront to have breakfast, she loved it. In the time we spent in Melbourne though, she didn't really feel like she wanted to move there, despite really loving the city. We took a couple of trains out to the eastern suburbs and traveled to Geelong and whilst I was already sold, my wife wasn't. That changed about 2 minutes after flying into Tasmania. Whilst we we still walking off the runway I had the clear thought "this feels like home" but I didn't say anything. On the way from the airport to the city, we were just going over the Tasman Bridge and my wife lent across to me and said "this feels like home". So we stayed in Tassie for a while, fell in love with it and decided to actually make the move. The visa process was lengthy and frustrating. Or rather I should say that the skills recognition process was lengthy and frustrating. It felt like we weren't making progress for ages but when the skills recognition came through the actual visa progressed quickly. My wife was also able to secure a job before moving via a telephone interview which was fantastic. The last few weeks before moving were very strange. We made a few shipping mistakes, essentially caused by not being careful with our in-flight luggage weights, which meant that we threw away or gave away quite a few things at the last minute. It was a very busy and emotional time and saying goodbye to friends and family was hard. When we arrived in Hobart, after a 40 hour trip door to door we were both utterly done in. On day one we sat in Nandos in North Hobart staring into space and feeling very alone and cut off from everything we knew. I know I was having serious doubts about whether we'd done the right thing at that particular moment. We were so tired that day we went back to our rented apartment and went to bed at 6:00 PM and woke up around 8:00 the next morning. That next day after a good sleep was totally different and as we walked around Hobart we were very quickly reminded of why we had come here. We had lunch down at Salamanca and walked along the waterfront and I can truthfully say that neither of us have looked back since. My wife's work went well and she was quickly offered a promotion. I got a job after around a month and a half and I also quickly moved into a different role. We also started to do a lot of the things that we'd looked forward to doing when we were planning the move. Things like watching the end of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, going to The Taste Festival and, crucially, joining CrossFit. This gave us an instant circle of friends and this probably more than anything else has helped make the move the success it has been. Pretty much every week we do something social with some friends, whether that's go for a beer, have people over for dinner, go camping or as is more frequent now, sit around eating and talking about babies! We've done so much since we arrived here it's impossible to recount it all. We've seen all manner of wildlife, including more than once seeing dolphins from our balcony. We've visited Sydney, Brisbane, The Sunshine Coast and lots of Tassie. We've made genuinely fantastic friends and have a completely different lifestyle from that which we had back in Cornwall. Of course living in Australia still has a lot of the same issues as living anywhere else, you still have to go to work, pay bills, repair your car etc. Having said that, I was having a really bad day at work last week and I said to myself, "I may be having a bad day but on the bright side, I'm having a bad day in Australia!". I don't think our move could have gone much better for us to be honest and we have topped it off recently by having our first child in Australia, now 9 weeks old. If you're thinking of moving here I'd thoroughly recommend giving it a try. I write a blog about our move, Australia in general and advice for people thinking about moving. The first post was in 2011 before we moved so you can see the change since then. The link to the blog is in my signature below. ...and very lastly, here's the view from our balcony where we live in Tassie.

Blackmans Bay is certainly a great area. You may not get land in Blackmans Bay (although it's not impossible) but you can get a fantastic view. Also, as you point out, the schools are very good. Personally, Blackmans Bay would be in my top 2 or 3 places to live near Hobart and I wouldn't be surprised if we move there in the next 2 or 3 years. Once you're here, if you did want to live somewhere more rural, you'd be able to find somewhere suitable easily. There are a lot of rural locations here that are with commuting distance of Hobart so you'll be able to see which ones you like. ...and just to echo Skani's point - don't apologise for asking questions! That is the whole point of the forum!

My mate who lives in the Huon valley has never had ADSL (bit odd as he works in IT!) but tethers his iPhone as his Internet connection and that works fine. ...that doesn't completely ​answer your question I know!

Yep, that sums it up! Good luck!

The only thing I could advise job-wise would be to try and get in contact with potential employers or employment agents early. Are you going to go on a "recce trip"? That's the perfect time to arrange to meet some employers/agents. Meeting them face to face shows them that you're serious, speak good English, are professional etc etc. Good luck!

Your UK house does have some consequence in Aus - it is taken into account when deciding your assets etc when applying for a mortgage for example. I agree that an Aussie bank shouldn't be able to make a claim on it though. Back to the original post, yes you can certainly have a UK and Aus mortgage at the same time. We have.