Alaska

I would venture to say that a move abroad can be a bit liberating from unhealthy family relationships. I hope you can keep moving forward and not let this drag you down. x

"Those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it."

It's will all depend on what they check in your container. I know people who have got whole wicker sets of furniture in and other "contraband" simply because it wasn't checked. I have also known people who had to pay a fortune to have things cleaned/destroyed. We did clean everything with Jeyes fluid and scrubbed all the soles of the shoes. We were also told that they don't like rust so that was a good excuse to get rid of some old tools and bikes.

So sorry you are going through this. Do they not realise that even if their appalling behaviour worked and you stayed, your relationship would never be the same. I completely understand they are upset but it is not ok what they are doing to you. x

It's true it's not always asked for but it's worth preparing "just in case" otherwise you could find your application held up for a fair while whilst you try and get it ready. It really does take a bit of time!

I agree with fish.01 - you will get more in those type of suburbs than in somewhere like EH. I love Albany Creek/Eatons Hill but they don't have much "atmosphere" and the café scene you might be looking for. They do have good schools though and are good family areas.

Most agents will do a free assessment for you without any obligation so that might be a good starting point. I got into contact with a couple on here - one in particular was very honest and told me that we weren't eligible for an independent visa and only a 457 at that point.

We were told by the tax office when we left that we didn't need to fill in the P85 because it would all be clear when we did the self assessment. Sure enough it all worked out then as all the information you provide then means they can work out the tax correctly.

Hi Diane. I think you are right and that is the danger on flights etc. The article I posted the link to above (national geographic) gives this scenario with Ebola. Which certainly makes it sound pretty easy to catch, certainly compared to HIV. "The world won't be free of Ebola 2014 until West Africa is free of it. Even severe restrictions, barring entry to anyone traveling from West Africa, would not make it impossible for the virus to get into America, or Europe, or wherever. To understand why, consider what I call the Nairobi Tabletop Scenario. Imagine a doctor who departs from Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, feeling fine, on a flight to Nairobi, Kenya's capital, in East Africa. In transit he begins suffering a headache-nothing terrible yet, just discomfort, but it's the first hint of Ebola. At the Nairobi airport, in a café, the Liberian doctor coughs onto a table. Five minutes later, an American businessman touches that table. He rubs his eye. He departs to Singapore and spends three days there, in good health, discussing finance for his project in Kenya. Then he flies home to Los Angeles. To the screeners at LAX, he is an American businessman arriving from Singapore, with no history of recent travel in West Africa. But he's now infected with Ebola, carrying it into the United States. How do you defend against the Nairobi Tabletop Scenario? By doing everything possible to end the epidemic in West Africa, and thereby to ensure that the Liberian doctor is healthy when he visits Nairobi." I am not really worried about it at the moment but I am surprised when I read reports that it is "unlikely" to reach Australia as it doesn't seem too unlikely to me.

It seems to be much easier to catch than HIV - for example you can't catch HIV from kissing etc. I think ebola IS zoonotic Pom Queen. I think that is how it goes into hiding amongst humans for ages but is still resident in animal populations and then comes back. This is a good article I think: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141015-ebola-virus-outbreak-pandemic-zoonotic-contagion/

NAB have a good borrowing power calculator that it is worth googling. Fixed rates are around 5% at the moment. Your income will allow you to borrow quite a lot but I don't know what you would get for $500 a week. Remember as well that monthly outgoings will be a fair bit higher you own a house as you are liable for water, rates, building insurance and repairs. We have budgeted another $400-$500 a month for those things on top of the mortgage.

Do you mean people worrying about class sizes in Australian schools? If so, yes they are smaller than we experienced in the UK. However there is a lot less Teacher Aide time once they leave Prep. My son's school in the UK had 30 children compared to 24 year but a full time TA for every class in the school.

When we left we phoned up and they said that the next tax return would take care of it. In the tax return we filed online we had to say where we lived, when we left the UK etc. Then we got a tax rebate. That's all we had to do. The only issue that I forsee is that it looks like you didn't take yourself out of the self assessment system which can have financial implications even if you don't owe anything.

We stayed in the Tribeca Apartments in Spring Hill when we arrived for a few weeks. Nothing fancy but convenient and reasonably priced.

I have given up trying to work it out. Ours are over $600 despite being out mostly in the day, not using air-con more than a couple times in the quarter, no tumble drier etc. We have compared bills with friend with a pool, friends who always have their air-con and tumble drier going, and ours is higher. We even unplugged the extra freezer to see if it dented it but it didn't. We are moving soon (and will have a 3kw solar system) so hoping to see a bit of a reduction.

Good luck Cathy. I think that volunteering etc is definitely the way in. Also be vocal about your availability and be as flexible as you can (not incredibly easy I know!) When I moved I sent lots of emails and made lots of calls to schools but no one replied or called back. Since volunteering, I have had plenty of work. I have had a further 2 job offers since starting at my current school (my job is quite specialised) so getting your face out there will help tremendously.

I am a TA in Brisbane so might be a little different. The Cert III isn't complusory here but it is becoming more encouraged. I had lots of UK quals and over 10 years experience but Quoll is right - it is who you know. I did the Cert IV to show willing and also to get a foot in the door and local experience. This worked really well for me and led to casual work and then a contract at another local school. I don't really agree with Quoll about the pay, it is ok - around 2.2 times what I got in pounds I believe. Certainly wouldn't want to be working in Maccas instead of my job! ETA: I was on a 457 and noone batted an eyelid for casual or the contract. They only wanted to check my right to work.

It is possible but remember that a lot of those people bought real estate before the boom and are probably paying 50% or less on a mortgage than a new migrant would. I think on those wages, as a new migrant, you might end up renting in an area or property that wouldn't necessarily be that great.

I am not someone who thinks you need 120,000+ just to survive in Brisbane (which I have read on here and heard in real life numerous times) but the figures you are talking about would be a real struggle. We worked out around 80.000 would be the minimum for a family of four and maintain a reasonable lifestyle (not extravagant but the odd take away, camping weekend away and meal out with friends). You mention sponsorship which makes me think you are talking about a 457 which means no entitlement to child benefits etc so no help on top. I think that would be difficult and even if your other half got a job there is no childcare rebate/benefit on a 457. I wouldn't move a family on those wages.

It is even true that they "flood into the UK" over other countries, or is it a media creation? I just had very quick look at some figures and it doesn't seem to be the case particularly. Number of refugees seems to be higher in France and Germany. And the information of refugees per native person is higher in a lot of the other European countries including France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Norway. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_refugee_population Would like to look into this to check the validity of the figures when I have more time. Is interesting though.

Kakadu!

Not exactly the same situation exactly but I had a problem with finding out all dates due to a lot of trips. The first thing I did was spend a LONG time looking through old digital photos with time stamps and also checking all emails for flight confirmations or info. Then I filled in Form 80 with dates (I seem to remember you had to fill in every part - day, month and year) and in the additional notes at the back of the form I wrote something along the lines of "Due to multiple trips into Europe some dates are approximate".

About class sizes - the classes are smaller here than the UK but that's not the whole story. I would say DS has about 23 in the class but there is very little Teacher Aide time (after prep). In the UK, DS's school had 30 in each class but each one had a full time TA. Also one child had CP and had a full time carer who also did a lot of general TA type duties (don't think that would be in her job description but she did for whatever reason). So that made the ratios a bit different.

DS only had 6 months of UK education and I LOVED the school and the teacher so it was a bit of a shock coming here to a massive school after a small one in the UK. It has grown on me though and the new principal is implementing a lot of good stuff. There are good extension programmes, music, sport etc. There is a lot more "freedom" which freaked me out a bit but actually turns out to be a good thing for them and learning responsibility and doing the right thing. They also have some great strategies for dealing with bad behaviour. One thing I'm really impressed with is the emphasis on confidence and so many activities where they talk in front of the class. My son does "show and tell" every week which has done his confidence no end of good.

DH had to travel to the USA urgently which our 186 was being processed. We were on a 457 at the time. Didn't occur to us to do anything and he came and went on the 457 with no issues.