Angela820

This is a fantastic car, still under Honda's new car warranty, and just had it's 30k service. We've owned it from new, and it is in excellent condition, on the road since November 2011 only. Over 3 1/2 years of the full Honda warranty & roadside assistance remaining (through to November 2016). It has a full service history with fixed price schedule of service costs. Includes Honda Civic official accessories including: Alloy wheels, Bluetooth, Floor mats, and Tinted windows. We've bought a second car and hence no longer require this one. Location: Canberra Price: $17,000 Please PM/Email if you are interested. Serious offers only.

Hello We moved to Canberra 18 months ago from the south of England and we bought a great Honda Civic sedan, brand new from a Honda dealer. We live near the city so only need one car now so we are selling this car. Its a bargain as its still has over 3 years Honda manufacturers warranty and roadside assistance, full service history (set price services), along with other extras like tinted windows and alloy wheels. Its always been kept in our garage and has only been used by myself for the school run and general getting around. We have it on the a car sales website. The link is here if you would like more details. Pm me if you are interested :-) http://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/honda-civic-2011-14610686?base=1216&vertical=Car&cr=6&eapi=2&__N=1246%201252%201247%201282%204294965322%204294965250%20897%201216&num=15&silo=Stock&sort=default Angela Watkins

If I lived in Belconnen I would live in Aranda probably and like Quoll prefer the inner north and south. Schools and where you work will drive your decision along with cost.

Ig you can afford it I would send your kids to governemnt Primary (a good one though) and private high school - but then I would say the same being back in the UK. there are a few good high school here in Canberra and I do think Peach is right in that 50% send their kids to the private sector because of the demographic here. There are good government schools and good private school - as there are poor ones. Best advice I can give is to visit them which is what I did. Janet gave you the link :-) Thanks janet!

Really pleased you got so much sorted out I hear good things about the bi lingual programme at Yarralumla.. I am pleased you sorted it all out and am glad to be of help Angela

I would really agree with Claire. We arrived in November and thought like lots of people, lets go north as everyone else has gone there but actually we lived centrally for a month and really had a good look at schools and areas and commuting distance etc. I think the school may drive your decision.. and despite yours kids being small, I do think its important to look at a "good" school as its not just the standard of teaching but also the friends you may or may not wan t your kids to make. I know that may sound a bit controversial but I do think the schools can be quite different in their approach and also the kids that go to that school and this can be driven by the type of area you choose. its no different to being back in the UK in reality. I think everywhere in Canberra is easy to get to also so if you are southside and you make freinds in the north then its still not THAT far and people tend to meet in a central point like civic anyway for big nights out. We chose Campbell to live in - we pay a premium for this but this is offset against not having to buy and expense another car, not paying $50 a week in parking in civic and having a happy husband who is not in a bad mood after a rubbish commute on public transport from a distant suburb to and from work(which is what we left when we left London). We were in Ainslie to start with and I like all of the inner north for its easy access to the centre of town. Campbell is a 15 minute walk for us to the city and my husband walks or bikes to work. I love the inner south as it has a lovely "feel" about it. The downside is thats its pricey. There are good things and bad things about most areas and I dont hink you can decide until you get here. Dont feel you HAVE to go north just because it seems everyone else from England seems to do that as it really may not suit you.. also, you are coming all the way to Australia and some may feel its actually better having moved so far away from home, to actually be immersed a bit more in Aussie life rather than look for where the other Brits have moved to and go there...but some may rather be nearer other people from the UK. Canberra really does not feel like a city like in the UK. Al of it is like a country town in reality so I think you just need to find an area that suits you and your family.. it all feel fairly suburban compared to Sydney for example. How old are your kids? Angela

Hi and thanks for the message Your kids are the same age as mine:-) I have a 5 year old sone and a 3 year old daughter! First of all - are you thining of government or pricate schooling for the kids? I have visited both. The inner south is where you want to be if you want private as the grammar school are based there, but I would think about getting your kids on a waiting list if thats what you want. All the good government schools allow kids from their catchment so where you live will determine where your kids are likley to get a place in a school. the inner south is the most pricey place to live in Canberra but very nice :-) The Inner north is very pricey too and also nice as are other places, however my hubby works in the city and so he did not want to commute so we live next to the city (and pay for it!) Did you know that Yarralumla Primary school is Italian/bilingual. They teach 50% in Italian and 50% in English so your kids may be suited here? Yarralumla is a lovely place to live here as is Deakin. The shops in Deakin are great and there is a Fitness First there too which I go to after I drop the kids off at school. I think that your plan is an excellent one and its what I did. In fact we did not even look at houses until we had shortlisted the best schools and then looked for a rental in the areas where we like the school. I would try and write and call the principal as often they did not respond. Garran and Chapman will not allow a visit unless you already live in their catchment as they are very good and popular schools. Regarding your daughter, you are in the same position as me. My daughter turns 4 in July and the deadline here is the 30th April to turn 4 before you can attend pre school. They are vvvv strict about this and we have appealled twice to the government to allow our daughter to attend school here as we are on a temporary visa but they will not allow it unless you are on a 2 year visa. You can try but thus far Mia is going to school later than she would in the UK because of this. She goes to The Montesorri Pre school which is next to Yarralumla Primary and on their grounds, 2 mornings a week at the moment and this is EXCELLENT and they take them from 3 (waiting list also but is accessible). The Catholic schools are also good and there is St Peter and St paul in Garran, The Catholic school in Curtin which is good also (cannot recall name..). Curtin Primary is a good school esp if you child is artistic but I did not go for this as I was looking for a school with ceratin focus for my son who has a gifted maths ability. Garran Primary is EXCELLENT but driven by catchment and I would strongly reccommend this school but they are strict on catchment. Yarralumla, Deakin and Red Hill are good schools in the Inner south - but I have not visited them but have heard from other parents. They are not the best (if you are just looking at NAPLAN results) but they are in a good demographic area so benefit from that I think. There is of course the Grammar schools in the inner south which have excellent results but is a costly option. We did not opt for this because we came to Canberra with little notice and my son needed to start school straight away but I did look round them and they are good. We live next to one of the campuses actually. Torrens Primary is also another v good school that I visited and thats in the Inner south. The inner North has some good schools. Emmaus Christian school I liked alot (waiting list), If you are going further north Aranda Primary was good also. To be honest I shortlisted the good schools (NAPLAN results) so cannot say I saw one that I hated but I did have preferences. For example I felt Curtin was excellent but very chaotic in style and my son would not have thrived in that environment. It has an excellent gifted scheme though and a focus on ART so some kids (like my daughter for example) would fare well there I think. Write and Ill answer any questions you might have :-) my email is angela820@hotmail.com Angela

We tried that and said no. We have been looking around and its actually quite quiet. I have had 4 agents say its been a v quiet start. Apparently its becasue there are less govvernement postings this year, more student housing available and people are buying as prices are stable... dunno. Rents are def higher. We have applied for a place in Campbell and if we dont get it we will stay put till November as I have got to a point where I just want my stuff! Nice to hear from you! Angela

Thanks v much. Ive been looking on allhomes and all the rents seem higher than when we first got here in Nov and Im wondering if rents are actually higher per week at the moment becuase they can just demand more? Does anyone know? Angela

It looks like the owners of the house we are renting in Ainslie want to sell. they have told us we can break the years lease early and find some where else to live by end of Feb if we wish OR we can stay in property till November 2012 and find something then (or as early as Sept if we wish). Pros for leaving are it means we can find a place nearer my sons school and our stuff is not yet here from the UK so we can find something else before it gets here and then have it all delivered to a long term rental. Cons are that we are moving at the WORSE time of year - or is it? We want inner North, Inner South areas and Garran/Hughes/Curtin at a push. anywa dvice on this as we are sitting on the fence and have not yet made up our minds what to do. Are rental prices higher during this times of year. some people have said we will have more choice now - but I dont want us to end up with NOTHING by end of Feb. We arrived Mid Nov and that was busy but Im not sure if it will be the same or busier? Can anyone advise?????

What is the meet time? Angela

We got a company sponsored 457 visa and from it being lodged at the visa office it took 10 days. You do have to have all the bits for them to lodge it though and that took a little bit of time. We were told anything from 2-8 weeks. We got here at the start of Nov 2011 Angela

We are not going to Sydney any more so I think we can now make it :-) Angela and Matthew and kids

Hello again One thing to note is that "Better Education" website uses 2009 figures. This is kind of why we were happy with North Ainslie but when you look at the 2010 figures (which is not taken into account in this list), North Ainslie Primary dont do as well compared to others. They are good but certainly not the best - in fact Ainslie (not featured in the better school list) scores better in 2010 than NOrth ainslie which I only discovered afterwards.... maybe Im taking it all too literally. I would love to hear any opinions n the NAPLAN score as all schools were pretty critical of it and Im not sure why or how they are measured but used it as a guide alongside the better schools list.

Which are the good gov and non gov high schools in your opinion? Was just thinking of that the other day! Angela

There seem to be a few questions on here about Primary Schools in ACT and we have just gone through the process of researching, visiting and choosing a school so I though I would share my findings with anyone who is interested I did a load of research first from the UK in terms of "good" schools - alot of info came from this forum and alot came from other forums. I have a son who is gifted in Maths so I really wanted a good school for him. I do think you need to visit the schools when you get here if you can and alot of this can be arranged before you get here. Its well worth the time. I printed off a map of Canberra and put it next to my computer and shaded areas where there were the "target" schools and their catchment. I shaded area private schools differently. Jut this visual aid helped in me narrowing where we may be looking for housing and also allowed me to further research commute times and bus routes.... The list of schools I visited were: Gov schools: Curtin Primary North Ainslie Aranda Kaleen Torrens Private schools visited: Emmaus Christian School Holy Trinity , Curtin St Peter and St Paul, Garran Montsorri, Holder Girls Grammar School I wanted to visit more. Garran and Chapman Gov schools will not let you visit unless you have a confirmed place to live and paperwork to prove it in their Catchment. They must get innundated! Both are EXCELLENT schools with excellent NAPLAN results but I could not visit them. If we decided to live in either of these areas we were prepared to take a chance on the schools but nothing happened to be suitable and available at the time and this is a key thing as the rental market here is a nightmare. Will maybe post findings on this separately if people are interested. There were more private schools I also wanted to visit but they were full and therefore did not want even a speculative visit for going onto a waiting list. You can check the results of a school my going to http://www.myschool.edu.au/ and finding the school you want and clicking on NAPLAN on the left hand side. I would look at results in "numbers" as the graphs and others are confusing. I would also not take the results completely to heart as its a relatively new thing - but I do thnk its fairly good indicator of things and is a good benchmark - some may disagree. I just wanted schools that were above or exceptionally above average in most of the areas tested as this was a promise I made to myself on moving here in that I just wanted an excellent school for my son. All the Gov schools I visited were good and I would not be worried if my son went to any of them however not all were best fit for him - some had an Arts focus and were creative, some focussed on other areas etc...but once I had a short list of favourite schools we narrowed our search on houses to certain areas. I have to say if you look at the "ranking" of the schools I visited, they all had relatively good results so Im not sure how the other schools I did not visit were so cannot comment... All schools in Canberra (and rest of Ox I think) received a massive grant of around $1,5 million dollars when the world went into recession, to inject money into the local building trade so they all have a new gymnasium, library or hall or something. This applied also to private schools. In comparison to the Private schools, I would say places like the grammar school are in a class of their own but I did not choose it as they had this strange policy of wanting to put my already advanced son back a year into Pre School instead of Kindergarten which is where his age allows him to be, simply because he was a boy and therefore may not be "mature" enough!. Im sure if I pushed it they would have said ok to Kinder but it was not for us in the end.. I really liked Emmaus and have put both my kids on the waiting list there and my son will go to North Ainslie in the meantime. Some private schools are definately better - just better equipped, better results, seem better organised, facilities are newer and the libraries are lovely. That said Torrens primary had a gorgeous library and I though this was an EXCELLENT government school and was definately in my short list and would have chosen this over some of the private schools I saw. its all a matter of taste and what your child needs. The problem with the very good private schools is that they all have MASSIVE waiting lists and I mean a 2 - 3 years long at least and so we did not have any choice. If I did I would have chosen Emmaus. I like Holy Trinity Catholic school in Curtin but Curtin Primary which is a government school was just as good in some ways (if a bit chaotic). If we lived in Curtin I would have chosen Holy Trinity simply on the fact that it was smaller in size but eveything else was the same and Curtin has a good "gifted" scheme. When we arrived we looked at houses in ALL areas (except Tuggeranong) and we looked at things like commute to Civic/public transport as well as the area of the shortlisted schools. We loved the space in the massive houses in Gunghalin but when I did some research, the schools results near to houses we looked at were not great, this was only in a few of the suburbs and we decided it was too far so did not research too many of the areas here.. We wanted to try and get away with having one car (Cars are EXPENSIVE) hence choosing the Inner North in the end. We liked Belconnnen and looked in Aranda but no houses came up in the time we were here and looking and I think this is what you also need to consider. I think you need to have a few areas to consider as had we found a house in Aranda we also would have moved there.. but nothing came up.. My husband came on a 457 visa and we were advised my Saskia Hancock at the Dept of Education here that unless we were on the SOL list, we would have to pay an annual fee of 9.9K$ for going to government school. Some private schools are cheaper (the catholic ones) but the problem in some of the good ones is getting a place. Holy Trinity, St Peter and St Paul had space, Radford who I approached did not, Emmaus does not, St Josephs who I approached did not... There are many which do have space of course but you will find that the ones with excellent results will not (much like the UK) As it happened, my husbands work is on the SOL list so once we had found a property on a long term rental, we emailed Saskia Hancock stating we wanted to register Ethan at North Ainslie as we were in the catchment. She issued us a waiver, told the school of this and we enrolled him directly with the school. It is worth taking time to research and people talk about more than 50% of the population put their kids in Private schools and this may scare lots of people off and make you think that the gov schools are terrible. I do think you have to chose carefully and do your research. Definately some gov schools have problem kids there who may have been chucked out of all the local private schools... and this is a difference in that gov schools have to take kids in their area even if they are full and cannot select whereas the private system can. Look at the demographics of the area, the houses etc..I think this is often a good indication of the school overall. Definately the facilities in the private school are better, but there are good gov schools. Most private schools have lower fees also than the government imposed $10K. (The grammar is around 11K so you may as well consider this if you have to pay the gov fee. private schools are generally around 2-4K a year so not that expensive. Just find a good one that has a spot. Hope all this helps...happy to answer any questions Angela

Hello Well, I did a load of research first from the UK in terms of "good" schools - alot of info came from this forum and alot came from other forums. I have a son who is gifted in Maths so I really wanted a good school for him. I do think you need to visit the schools when you get here. The list of schools I visited were: Gov schools: Curtin Primary North Ainslie Aranda Kaleen Torrens Private schools visited: Emmaus Christian School Holy Trinity , Curtin St Peter and St Paul, Garran Montsorri, Holder Girls Grammar School I wanted to visit more. Garran and Chapman Gov schools will not let you visit unless you have a confirmed place to live and paperwork to prove it in their Catchment. Both are EXCELLENT schools with excellent NAPLAN results but we could not visit them. There were more private schools I also wanted to visit but they were full and therefore did not want even a speculative visit for going onto a waiting list. You can check the results of a school my going to http://www.myschool.edu.au/ and finding the school you want and clikcing on NAPLAN on the left hand side. I would look at results in "numbers" as the graphs and others are confusing. I would also not take the results completely to heart as its a relatively new thing - but I do thnk its fairly good indicator of things - some may disagree. In the end I just wanted more than just "reputation". Schools sometimes dont like to discuss the results (even if they got good results) but I found it a good guide in terms of where to focus my efforts in terms of arranging visits. All the Gov schools I visited were good and I would not be worried if my son went to any of them however not all were best fit for him - some had an Arts focus and were creative, some focussed on other areas etc...but once I had a short list of favourite schools we narrowed our search on houses to certain areas. I have to say if you look at the "ranking" of the schools I visited, they all had relatively good results so Im not sure how the other schools I did not visit were so cannot comment... All schools received a massive grant of around $1,5 million dollars when the world went into recession, to inject money into the local building trade so they all have a new gymnasium, library or hall or something. This applied also to private schools. In comparison to the Private schools, I would say places like the grammar school are in a class of their own but I did not choose it as they had this strange policy of wnating to put my already advanced son back a year into Pre School instead of Kindergarten which is where his age allows him to be, simply because he was a boy and therfore may not be "mature" enough!. Im sure if I pushed it they would have said ok to Kinder but it was not for us in the end.. I really liked Emmaus and have put both my kids on the waiting list there and my son will go to North Ainslie. Some private schools are definately better - just better equipped, better results, seem better organised, facilities are newer and the libraries are lovely. That said Torrens primary had a gorgeous library and I though this was an EXCELLENT government school and was definately in my short list and would have chosen this over some of the private schools I saw. its all a matter of taste and what your child need. The problem with the very good private schools is that they all have MASSIVE waiting lists and I mean a year - 3 years long at least and so we did not have any choice. I like Holy Trinity in Curtin but Curtin Primary which is a government school was just as good in some ways. If we lived in Curtin I would have chosen Holy Trinity simply on the fact that it was smaller in size but eveything else was the same and Curtin has a good "gifted" scheme. When we arrived we looked at houses in ALL areas (except Tuggeranong) and we looked at things like commute to Civic/public transport as well as the area of the shortlisted schools. We loved the space in the massive houses in Gunghalin but the schools results were ok but not great and the area looks like a building site. Plus it would be a massive commute for my husband and we wanted to try and get away with having one car (Cars are EXPENSIVE) hence choosing the Inner North in the end. We liked Belconnnen and looked in Aranda but no houses came up and I think this is what you also need to consider. My husband came on a 457 visa and we were advised my Saskia Hancock at the Dept of Education here that unless we were on the SOL list, we would have to pay an annual fee of 9.9K$ for going to government school. Private schools are cheaper but the probelm is getting a place. Holy Trinity, St Peter and St Paul had space, Radford who I approached did not, Emmaus does not, St Josephs who I approached did not... We just did not want to take a risk! As it happened, my husbands work is on the SOL list so once we had found a property on a long term rental, we emailed Saskia Hancock stating we wanted to register Ethan at North Ainslie as we were in the catchment. She issued us a waiver, told the school of this and we enrolled him directly with the school. Hope all this helps... Sorry for the rambling post, happy to answer any more questions you might have... Angela

Hello We have been here 2 weeks. My husband was on the SOL list (457 visa) so we got a fee waiver on our school fees. I have done a load of school visits to both private and gov schools and Cathlic schools. You dont have to be Cathllic to go to all the Catholic schools but some are really full and have waiting lists and give priority to those who are Catholic. I would say all the "good" private schools have waiting lists and we have put our son and daughter on a waiting list which could take 2 years before they get a place. I did the schools visits first so we could then focus our housing hunt in catchment areas where the gov Primary school was a good one. Let me know if you have any questions as I was wondering exactly the same things before I got here! Angela

Hello Yes We will be there. We have been here 2 weeks now and would love to meet you all. We will bring along our 2 kids (3 and 4) hope there are others there with kids!! Our two are very "active" Angela and Matthew

Hello We have just moved to Canberra last week and are facing the daunting task of finding a rental property. we have seen a few few already - some fine, some awful - ALL expensive (in my view) we did expect this though... We are going round in circles at the moment in choosing or narrowing areas and wondering if people could respond if they commute into Civic by car or bus in the morning and where from and how long this takes. we are in temporary accomodation at the moment and of course viewing properties during the day when there is less traffic and would like to know the realistic commute times from different suburbs. Thanks so much in advance! Angela

We are finally arriving in Canberra this week and will be staying in Short term acccomodation in Civic. We are a "foodie" family and I want to know where the best and cheapest places are to shop for fressh food and meat etc. I dont mind a "trek" anywhere - which are good markets - and are supermarkets vvvv expensive. we tend to shop in Tescos here in Blighty and I go to a local markst for fresh veg and fruit - but NOT the overpriced farmers markets here in England - Im talking about a proper market. I then go to to ethnic stores for my specialist spices/herbs/condiments etc. We dont really shop in "farmers" market here in the UK or dlis are they are all too expensive but we eat well. Any advice on this would be so appreciated. The hardest thing for me about shipping all our stuff was saying goodbye to all the spices and cooking things I have built up and collected over a number of years. All went to a good home but I want to start rebuilding the collection without breaking the bank. Are the markets in Canberra - like the overpriced farmers markets here? If anyone could advise that woud be great. We arrive on Tuesday!! leave tomorrow.. Places to avoid would be great to hear about too and is Costco worth joining. Whst kind of things can you buy in bulk. We do buy some things in bulk - rice, pasta, flour for breadmaking etc... but not sure what the costso there sells. We have a massive chest freezer being shipped so we stock up on bargain meats here in the Uk - where is good for this - and fish??? Angela xx

We are arriving in Canberra at the start of November and the cost of buying a car is kind of making our eyes water especially after the cost of the actual move... We were looking at possibly renting a car on a longer term? Is this possible or is it a really expensive way of doing things? We just thought rather than sending a load of money and losing on rubbish exchange rate, we may rent for a bit? Does this make sense. Does anyone have any experience of this or got a great car hire deal from a good website or locally? Also - are auctions a good way of getting a car or not worth the risk? Angela

Well this whole moving thing is a bit stressful. We got our visa after only a 1.5 weeks wait and time just slips away after that with booking shipping and flights and then having to clean everything:elvis: Anyway - we are arriving on 8th NOvember and staying in temporary accomodation till we get something more permanent We have 2 kids Ethan aged 4(5 in Jan) and Mia aged 3. Would love to meet up/make freinds with others there! Angelax

Well this whole moving thing is a bit stressful. We got our visa after only a 1.5 weeks wait and time just slips away after that with booking shipping and flights and then having to clean everything:elvis: Anyway - we are arriving on 8th NOvember and staying in temporary accomodation till we get something more permanent We have 2 kids Ethan aged 4(5 in Jan) and Mia aged 3. Would love to meet up/make freinds with others there! Angelax

We got our visa - it took only 1.5 weeks!!! Anyway - we are travelling to Sydney on the 6th NOvember with two kids aged 3 and 4 and LOADs of luggage! What I wanted to know is what the the best way to transfer from Sydney to Canberra central? Cost is less of an issue but its more about which is the less stressful?? We would need to go through customs etc (how long does this take) and then either transfer to the domestic terminal and check in and fly from there or would it be easier and less time overall getting a hire mini bus type thing? Any advice on this would be great as we are holding off booking this transfer as we cannot make up our mind which is easier and quicker? Angela x