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Hi there Our little girl (4year old) currently goes to Havitat in Ferny Grove, really nice kindy, friendly staff ect. Have a look at that though I believe there is a waiting list for it. Our boy (6 year old) goes to Patricks Road state school in Ferny hills, fantastic school, very friendly. hope that helps a little

Thats not true at all, for example back in the UK we paid around £150 per month gas and electric in Brisbane QLD we pay under $100 per month. Very similar usage. I was going to comment on the rest of the post but all of your information is so far removed from the truth I really didn't know where to start.. Cost of living Australia is generally cheaper than the UK in some cases by a lot in some by not much at all. Do a search for my posts previously where I put down typical costs to get an idea of budgets. You should factor in a 2.2 times multiplier so what costs £1 in the UK if exactly the same cost of living would be somewhere around $2.20. We live as a family of 4 in Brisbane, when we moved over here we read all the horror stories on here about cost of living and were terrified we were going to really struggle, in fact it's the opposite. We spend so much less on food and bills here than the UK. Electric: $100 per month Water: $15 per month Food: $800 per month 2 Mobile phones, unlimited ADSL2 and home phone: $100 per month Last weekend I bought a new pair of work shoes good quality for $50 down from $100 in the sales, a really nice pair of jeans for $50 and 4 good quality work shirts for $100. In the UK I would expect to spend £50 on equivelent shoes, £50 on the jeans and £60 on the shirts(probably more on the shirts to be honest) The posts on here claiming how expensive everything is over here really irritate me since they ahve zero basis in fact, please feel free to show us proof that equivelent living here is more expensive than the UK. I can 100% guarantee that I can prove living in oz is cheaper.

In the Uk I supported a family of 4 on £30k in Leeds, here in Brisbane up until May I was on $70k inc super Over all I would say the money allowed me an equivalent lifestyle in Australia to back in the UK In support of the 2.2 argument the price of food here is about 2 times but depending on what you buy and when can vary hugely. Fresh food is very seasonal here, where in the UK we have become so used to importing all our food we expect equivalent pricing all year round. This argument is endless, you always get the people with unrealistic expectations and the others with doom and gloom no one can live on this kinda money ect ect... at the end of the day you live to your means, if you earned £30k in the then you can live the same here on $70inc super which is about $63k. Assuming you don't move to Perth, the economy there is crazy right now and you need more like 3 times your UK salary to amount to the same thing. I know this because I live here and have been earning pretty much 2.2 times my UK salary for the past year. My wife got into this same argument on Saturday with a load of her expat friends, they were all "oh how expensive everything is here" and will never listen to reasoned arguments because they just don't want to hear it. There will never be a resolution to this argument until people are willing accept evidence based arguments which frankly they are not. Example 1. Bread oh it's sooooo expensive here compared to back home.. bread in the Uk varies from about 50p to £2.50 per loaf, in Australia it varies from around $1 to $4 For anyone worried about cost of living over here, just remember it's not cheap it's pretty much the same based on average salaries. Here ar my comparisons: New Mazda 6 UK 2007: £14500 New Mazda 6 Australia 2012: $31k New Kawasaki er6f UK £5999 New Kawasaki ninja650r(same bike) $9999 Weekly food bill UK: £120p/w Weekly food bill Australia: $200p/w Gas/electric UK: £50p/w Gas electric Australia: $25p/w Petrol UK: £1.35 per litre Petrol Oz: $1.40 per litre Car insurance and road tax uk: £700 per year Car insurance and rego australia: $900 per year Mortgage at home £700 per month Rent in Oz: $1440 per 4 weeks New shoes for work UK £50 New shoes for work Australia $100 Mcdonalds meal UK: £4 Mcdonalds meal Australia: $7.95 I could go on and on forever with evidence and proof or the correlation of pricing and still there will be people on this board saying I live in cloud cuckoo land and that the figures aren't true... Anyway I hope this helps someone to see the truth behind cost of living and not the doom a lot of people try to portay.

The government expect companies to make up the difference this is ridiculous. So here are 2 people doing the same job in the same situation on lets say $70k per year, 1 is Australian and 1 is a temp 457. The Australian gets 50% rebate on childcare the 457 doesnt. The 457 gets Lafha the Australian doesnt. In my case this means Australian: $70k paying $40k in childcare a year gets a 50% rebate so pays $20k 457 (me): $70k paying $40k childcare gets no rebate but gets Lafha amounting to $12k a year We pay exactly the same amount of tax otherwise yet with the scrapping of lafha I will be $20k worse off than the same Australian worker doing the same at the same money. So in order for me to get the same money as the Australian the company has to pay me somewhere near $97k to cover the difference. Not in a million years will this happen. In my opinion this change will hit families like mine the hardest with the execs who it was meant to hit just shrugging their shoulders and moving to another part of the world. Since arriving in australia we were thinking on the possibility of applying for PR after 2 years depending on how things go, however, the way it stands we won't be here for those 2 years as we cannot afford it. The net result here will be to discourage the families that Australia needs to migrate here from ever coming here in he first place and the families that are here to leave.

We are renting but our costs are: 1. Life Insurance (2 adults, 2 children) No idea sorry 2. House/contents insurance : $250 per year 3. Gas/Elec: $230 per quarter 4. Council Tax Equivalent? 0 5. Water: $35 per quarter Do you get any (standard) child benefits (for people who ARE working!) Assuming you are not on a 457 you get 50% of your childcare paid for by the government and you also get child benefits but they are means tested as far as I am aware. Do you have to pay for medical healthcare like our NHS? Is it called Medicare? Yes and Yes it's not that expensive though.

Not as bad in that case you get a 50% rebate on the child care plus you get some child benefit as well not sure how much though. New sums $175 child care, $400 rent, $250 = $825 so you have $275 for everything else. Can your other half get a job?

Have to say you will have no chance of doing this if you are coming on a 457 visa, you wont get any child benefits and you wont get any childcare back. PR would give you a 50% rebate on the childcare. Being realistic if you spent $350 on Childcare, $400 on rent and $250 on weekly shop thats $1000 gone leaving you $100 for everything else.

We have 2 children in daycare one is 2 and a half one is 4 and a half and we pay $759.50 per week on childcare This is pretty standard you can get it slightly cheaper or more expensive, back in the UK we had one child in daycare 1 day a week and paid £42 a day which would equate to being even more expensive than Australia. Not saying its easy but it's the way it is for families.