BluePoppy

I'd like some recommendations too. Used John Mason from UK to Oz. Wridgways unpacked at Aus end and were awful. I did complain but didn't escalate it, as was just glad to have our stuff. Due to this experience I'd appreciate an alternative to Wridgways. An idea on cost would be great too. I think we had a 30ft container to get our stuff here. Probably less stuff to take back as there's some we could ditch.

I sold my sky box on ebay before we left. The joker who bought it was meant to collect from North London - as clearly stated in my listing. It turned out after he paid via paypal that he lived in Scotland and had no intention of coming to collect it! So, the moral of the story is sell it on ebay, but do it with enough time to relist it if it goes wrong! Aus TV is pretty bad. The ads on normal TV are frequent and long. - I don't have Foxtel, maybe I should look into getting it!

Oh dear. I'm reading the Moving Back to The UK section as I've been homesick since arriving in Melbourne in January and wondering whether I should drag the family back to the UK. The consensus on the forum seems to be that if your feel it quite strongly the homesickness never really goes away. I'm torn between sticking it out and waiting for it to get better and persuading my Aussie OH to pack up and return to London. We've given everything up in the UK and have two kids, so moving back would not be easy. Jabba, you've definitely given it enough time after 4 years - and not going back for holidays. The Melbourne winter isn't so bad itself - but the quality of the heating and insulation in the houses is. Our rental house is terribly cold - with only one gas fire for heating and a couple of second hand electric heaters we've bought. But this is not uncommon. I have friends renting in a similar situation. And I'm told even the newer houses are not well insulated. But hey.. I'm rambling. Perhaps if you can find a job in another hospital - where natural birth is promoted and midwives have more authority - would make all the difference. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Hi Chris & Nindy I moved to Melbourne in January with my husband, 5-year old daughter and 3-year old son. I recommend Playgroups Victoria http://www.playgroup.org.au/ to find a local playgroup. Also try your local church and/or community centre which may run playgroups or occasional care. I found my local playgroup just be walking past and calling the number on a sign on the door. But they are affiliated with Playgroups Victoria. When you arrive in Melbourne put your little one's name down for 3-year old kinder (pre-school). If your child gets a place is some welcome free time for mums, but it's also an opportunity to meet people. The pre-schools encourage you to volunteer once or twice a term to help out at the pre-school, plus there are working bees and fund-raising activities that are sociable. There's a UK mum's playgroup in Hampton. I haven't been but I'm sure you can find out more online. Also try Poms in Oz's sister site "Life in Victoria". Best of luck. Sasha

Hi I've arrived with my two kids to join my husband and finally move into our own home. Flew in Wednesday night from NSW. Rental commenced and shipping delivered Thursday morning! It was chaos. I'm free this Thursday (Australia Day) if anyone wants to meet up. I'm in Cheltenham. My husband has to work, and it would be nice to spend my first Australia day here with some other people, rather than just the kids. PM me or reply to the thread. Thanks! Sasha

Hi Guys, We've finally arrived and moved into our rental home in Cheltenham. My husband arrived ahead of us and stayed with a friend until the house was available and our shipping arrived. It all happened on Thursday. Unfortunately, my husband has to work on Australia Day. So, it may be short notice, but a meet up this Thursday would be great! I should have the car so I'm mobile! Please reply to the thread or PM me Sasha

Hope you guys all enjoy the meet-up on Monday. My family and I are moving into our rental home in Cheltenham on Thursday. If you have any more meet ups I'd be keen to join. Especially before school starts again. I need to entertain my daughter (5) and son (3). Sasha

How sweet! My 5 year old daughter brought some cuddly toys in our luggage. Her favourite ended up in the shipping and they'll be reunited next week hopefully! She's acquired some new friends at some garage sales in the meantime! My 3-year old boy has been sleeping with his favourite Meerkat soft toy that we brought with us since we arrived. So she must bring her favourite(s).

Hi all I'm moving to Cheltenham with my husband, daughter (5) and son (3) in a couple of weeks. I'll be keen to meet up too. Sasha

In the public system you don't pay school fees, however you do pay a yearly fee for "essential items" to cover stationery, books etc. It's $200-300 and can be paid in instalments. Some schools also expect "voluntary donations". I don't know about TAFE fees or fees for beauty courses, but I suspect there would be some costs involved. Has your daughter considered staying in the UK with friends or family to finish her course? It may be more financially viable if her studies are free in the UK!

Hi. Our family is in the process of moving to Melbourne from the UK, via a stay with family in NSW for December. My husband I and left the kids with their grandparents for a few days at the start of December to check out accommodation in Melbourne. We found the real estate agents generally unhelpful when it came to seeking rental accommodation. No-one wanted to register our details in order to contact us with suitable properties. None of them wanted to call us back when we made enquiries. The onus was totally on us to contact them. As many have recommended on this forum, check out realestate.com.au for suitable properties, all the agents advertise there. Then call the agents to view the properties. Saturdays are good for open houses. You might be able to view half a dozen properties in a day and pick one. You really need to see any property you're going to rent for 12 months in person for yourself. Most properties we saw were available immediately. We found one that was still tenanted and we move in after the current tenants move out the middle of next month. It's certainly not easy to arrange without being there.

Start getting rid of stuff as soon as you no longer need it. I left it pretty late, sold stuff on e-bay and advertised to give away stuff on Freegle, then people haven't collected. One idiot on ebay bought a collection only item from me in North London. He's in Scotland and there's no way he could collect. He even paid via paypal. I ended up posting it (expensive as it was a large and heavy item) at my own cost. He agreed to pay costs on phone, but it remains to be seen if he'll cough up!

So I'm curious now. What was the outcome of the Christmas decoration? I assume the problem was that it was a wooden item, not declared. Did they just tick you off for not declaring it? Did they fine you? Did they destroy/confiscate it? I'll be filling in out our AQIS declaration tomorrow. Makes me think I've got to be very thorough!

We'll be packing up to leave soon and I notice that for shipping personal effects you have to declare to AQIS all items less than 12 months old. How detailed or thourough do you have to be regarding this declaration? Is it best to declare a few token items or can we just say nothing is new? Do we really have to check every single thing that might be less than 12 months old? Will we be charged duty/GST on everything we declare? We have kids, so there are definitely toys and the odd bits and pieces that are less than 12 months old. It's not as if we've bought a load of new stuff intentionally to ship out to either avoid Australian tax or pay a cheaper price! I'm thinking of things like toys the kids received for birthdays in the past year - so I might not even know the price of the items. Any advice/tips appreciated. Thanks.

After I got my spouse visa in 2002 (de facto at the time, as we weren't married then) I only lived in Australia for about 9 months before coming back to the UK. This was before we had kids. Now we have two children, both born in the UK. I want them to grow up in Australia. In some ways I wish we'd stayed. Second time round I have to make it work. We hope to go next month! I was granted RRV two years ago after my permanent residency expired, even though I am living in the UK and at that time had with no fixed date to return to Australia. My situation is that my husband is Australian and our two children have Australian nationality. This demonstrates significant ties to Australia, so I was granted the RRV. I've always found that the official Australian Immigration website has comprehensive answers and documentation about visa status etc. I've also found that the staff are really helpful if you email them with an enquiry if you can't find the information online. Good luck whatever you decide.