runslikeafish

Well snow I can give you - on top of the mountain.

Beautiful winter day in Hobart

Hello! I love Manly and the Northern Beaches, such a great place to live

Great site and great quiz! There's a lot of misunderstanding about "left" and "right" and that site explains it all very well I think. On Aussie politics, I think having the very short electoral cycle of 3 years is the biggest barrier to long term good policy regardless of who is in power.

This site is great for sure, with a lot of very helpful people on it. I got a lot of help here prior to moving. I do tend to not read the topics that quickly descend into arguments or sniping but there aren't too many of them anyway.

I work with 3 guys who play soccer for local teams (well done for not calling it football ) - it's pretty popular here and getting more so. Just down the road from us is a pitch and there must be 3 games on each weekend, plus floodlit midweek training.

If you're sporty I'd recommend joining some kind of sports club as soon as you can - that way you get an instant circle of like-minded friends. My wife and I joined CrossFit which helped us settle in immensely. Good luck!

Probably obvious but this score is based solely on the ability to walk to things you need, not the quality of the suburb at all. So, where I live currently scores 60 but is a really nice area with fantastic views and a beach as well as a good number of shops. Where we moved from in Cornwall scores 92 but is a really low socio-economic area, with high unemployment etc. It scores highly because there are loads of shops (a lot of which are boarded up) and services within walking range. Just be aware that a high score doesn't necessarily mean a nice place to live.

We are letting our UK property and last year at this time I had a lengthy conversation with HMRC about the capital gains tax liability for the house. To cut to the chase, as it was our principle place of residence and we weren't in the country, we would not be liable for UK capital gains tax on that property - at all. As far as CGT in Australia goes - no idea unfortunately but I will have to find out soon! If you do speak to Alan Collett and the advice is general enough to post, it would be really helpful if you could add it to the thread

Hello to a fellow Cornish person! We moved from Cornwall to Tasmania in 2011. Yep, you can upload the documents after the payment as Tickled Pink says. Good luck.

MovingtoTasmania makes a really good point but don't forget that you can hire furniture reasonably easily once you're on Aus. Sites like Mr Rental cater for short-term furniture rentals which can work well for filling in the gap before your shipment arrives. Another alternative is to see if you can rent a short term furnished accommodation which is what we did. Coincidentally, my last blog post (link below in my signature) is about exactly this subject if you're interested. Good luck

Hi Dave, Probably the first thing you should do is chick to see which visas you are eligible for. The DIAC site is the starting point for this. You also need to check the occupations in demand lists to see if your occupation is in there. With respect to emigration agents, in general terms I would say that if your application is "straightforward" then you can do the process yourself reasonably easily. If your application has something complex in it, for example a health issue, then seriously consider using an agent. Of course, many people use agents with "straightforward" applications and many do more complex applications themselves. It depends how comfortable you are with the process which you can read through on the DIAC site. As was mentioned above, there is whole wealth of information on the forum about the application process and the pros and cons of an agent. Personally, I would start with the DIAC site and go from there. Good luck - and just reiterating, there's no such thing as a stupid question!

You can complete your tax return online if you like - we did this last year and it's not too bad. There's a lot more that you can tax deduct here as an employed person than in the UK. If you're in any doubt, get in touch with an accountant who will be able to advise. In general terms, if it's specifically to do with your work, you may be able to tax deduct it. So for example, I work in IT and often work from home. A percentage of my home Internet connection and my home laptop is therefore tax deductible. As I don't drive specifically for work, my car is not tax deductible. Also, as mentioned above, if you haven't worked the full tax year then you are likely to get some tax back from your ordinary income tax over-payment.

I'd say that we've made a success of our move too. I agree with a lot of the comments about expectations, particularly around work. When I was first applying for jobs here I couldn't even get an interview for what I was doing in the UK and eventually (within 2 months of arriving) got a role a couple of steps down the career chain. Once in a job though I have been promoted twice (back to what I was doing in the UK) and made a lot of friends and connections in the industry. My wife has also had two promotions since we've been here in her industry too so I'd say (in my experience) that if you have talent and ambition then you can get on here. We've also made a lot of very good friends which I'd say has been very important to our successful move. My recent blog post (link below) "Reasons to be Cheerful" elaborates more on this point. We've just had our first child, 6 days ago, who will be brought up as an Australian - except for perhaps at Ashes time . I cannot see us leaving and returning to the UK. Life is too good here. Like someone else said earlier, I'd move states before moving back to the UK. Lastly - expect some wobbles. Our last few weeks in the UK were hard and the day we arrived was very strange. We were both in a daze, wondering whether we had done the right thing. If you expect some wobbles early on then you can hopefully get through them better. For us, after that initial wobble we've absolutely loved it. ...and absolutely lastly I remember mentioning to my wife when we were getting ready to move: there are a large amount of people who never go on forums like this after moving, simply because there's no need as they've made the move successfully. Given that this is a forum designed to help people who are moving or who have moved to Australia, it's reasonable to assume that a relatively high percentage of people come on here are questioning the move or have problems. Good luck with your move.

Tassie is cheap for houses and land for sure although not everywhere. The wages are lower than in Sydney and Melbourne obviously but in my experience not too bad. It has to be one of the most affordable states I would think.

Welcome! Melbourne's a great city. If you haven't already, get yourself an AFL team

Good point! The light beam was brilliant but I only got to see the skywhale from a distance when moving the car. ...and yes, a very small amount of sleep last night. We're starting to get into a bit of a routine I think. He's eating and sleeping really well which is great.

I'd absolutely agree with Skani - and not just because she mentioned my blog! Thanks Skani! We've found there's loads to do here, certainly as much as we would want. We're just finishing up Dark Mofo which was brilliant by all accounts (I only saw a little bit as I've had other things on!) and there are a surprising number of pretty large acts that come here. As an example, two of my childhood musical heroes, Afrika Bambatta and George Clinton, have both played in Hobart so far this year. We've also seen Bill Bailey live about a mile from our house. There aren't loads of nightclubs, but there are some. There is a good vibe around in the evenings though and there's always a lot of live music around. You can definitely see a good standard of live music every night if you want to. The Republic in North Hobart in particular is very good for live music but there are loads of other venues. As far as study is concerned, the University of Tasmania is actually a world-class university in certain areas. Particularly environmental and Antarctic research. It's a thriving uni and a great place to study. I've also found that there are lots of really cool things going on that only locals know about What sorts of "things to do" are you looking for?

Wow, thank you very much all! Just got home today, mum and baby doing very well. He's absolutely fantastic! :wubclub:

"Yeah no"

I wouldn't call it music Skani! Sound yes, music no. You'll hear it as soon as you're anywhere near the Cenotaph.

I can't give you much detailed information on Launceston but I know there are lots of beautiful areas to live around there. The whole of Tassie is pretty beautiful to be honest. It's very difficult to say how much salary is needed to live comfortably without doing some pretty detailed analysis. What I would say though is that the highest median household income in a Tasmanian suburb (Taroona in Hobart from memory) was around $60k PA. In theory then, anything above $60k would be comfortable and I would think that a draughtperson would earn more than that themselves quite comfortably. I know that's a bit glib but I would say a joint income greater than $100k would mean that you could live reasonably comfortably. As far as jobs are concerned, there are a lot around - although I'm based in Hobart. You'll often find that jobs aren't advertised and are A LOT easier to get once you're here and know a few people. I would recommend getting in front of an employment agent as soon as you arrive. Also cost of living; I wouldn't say it's high at all. The petrol is slightly more expensive than "the mainland" but not by much but other things (houses for example) are cheaper. As far as catholic schools are concerned, sorry I can't help you there. You can have a look at the top schools in Tasmania to give yourself an idea of how state schools compare (I've linked to secondary but primary are on the same site). Quite a few of the best schools are state schools. Sorry I can't give you much specific help! Papers will always say the economy is bad, especially around election time! In my experience the economy is a lot better than in the UK although I can't comment on Ireland. Good luck with whatever you choose to do. If you have any more questions just ask

Has anyone been to look at the lights by the Cenotaph? Very spectacular and the sound really adds to it. I have a video but it's too big to post really. Here's a pic though:

Sunrise over the Derwent in Hobart Same view a couple of days later (apologies for the rubbish iPhone photos!)

Just adding to the voices suggesting a holiday to see Aus for yourselves. I would also suggest that if you can, you treat it more like a "recce" trip and try and organise a visit to a company in the industry you or your wife will be working in. If you're able to, a visit to an immigration official is also extremely helpful. This doesn't mean that the decision is made but it does give you more information to base your decision on. I'd also strongly suggest setting up Skype (it's free) and getting your wife's family to do that too. Being able to talk "face to face" has made such a huge difference to us in how we've been able to settle in. You can Skype call from anywhere so you'll be able to see how it works in the UK as well as Skype from Australia if you take a recce trip out here. I did a blog post yesterday about our recce trip (link in my signature below), you may find that interesting or useful. Good luck with the decision