ADAWN

We had PSS, Doree Bonner and Crown round for quotes, Doree bonner was lowest but could quite trust the guy. Crown were the highest but included all things like Asquith and any tailor made wooden crates need, PSS charge £150 for each crate they make and we needed 2 so taking that into account PSS and Crown came out about the same. We paid just under £5000 when we included all the insurance for a 20ft sole use, it came really quickly, door to door in less than 8 weeks, we had no breakages and the 2 guys who unpacked were really hard working and helpful. We had friends who shared a container, it took nearly 4 months to arrive, by that point you have nearly bought everything they needed so ended up with 2 of everything.

I haven't read all the posts and I can well imagine it gets heated. I would Australia is not the land of milk and Honey it once was and I would urge anyone to get a job before coming out, this could be the difference between make and break. to the OP My Husband was also a Project Manager in Contruction on large London based projects. He came out on an interview/job seeking trip first to Brisbane as it was our first choice, he couldn't even get an interview despite lining up agent contacts before arriving. he had a 6 week trip planned and we thought best to cut our losses and move on before he wasted the whole 6 weeks. 3 days in Perth, 4 interviews, 3 job offers and a 2nd interview requested from the other. Seems WA is a world apart from Qld or the rest of OZ who are feeling the pinch

Oh, I forgot to mention the car we initially bought a new Ford Focus which was costing us $850 PM repayments, over 3 years and with no deposit we have now exchanged this for a Dodge journey due to needing a bigger car, we now pay $1150 pm

It it always best to budget an outside amount so any surprises can only be pleasant, we budgeted $600 per week rent (not in the Quinns rock area) but still thought we could get something suitable for $500 judging by the realestate.com.au website, turns out we are at the top end of the budget and this is a very basic house. Groceries- you maybe surprised at the price of some individual items, when you do't get much under $5 the bill soon mounts up, saying that you maybe fine, I am still learning the prices and where to get the best deals.

I have 3 buses to choose from which all go to the city in 10-15 mins, getting buses to the city seems easy but getting a bus to a suburb slightly east of West is not so easy. I can also walk 15 mins to train station and it is 2 stops to Perth

We are NOR in Mount Hawthorn, love the area. I think you do get more for your money SOR, there is a real North, South divide, not sure on exactly what basis.

Thought it about time I did an update with more of the practical aspects of the move addressed. We have now been in Perth for 3 months, All in all we are pleased with what we have achieved in that time, financially, socially and emotionally. The hardest task by far as some will know from my previous posts is finding a house to rent, a lot relies on this, especially where children are concerned as this will determine where they go to school, when looking at houses you need to know which school catchment the house is in, if this is important to you, don't rely on asking the agent as a lot of the time they don't know or if they do some seem to try to be as unhelpful as possible. Some agents are actually are ok, generally speaking they are more helpful when fewer people turn up as they might have to actually try their hand at selling. Any properties that look really good on the Internet will attract large numbers to the viewings so the chances of having a successful application against other applicants who have a past rental and credit history in Australia are slim, unless it would seem you are prepared to pay over the asking price or six months in advance which we simply couldn't do. The house we were successful with, I almost didn't view, they didn't have many photos up online but what they did have somehow managed to show the houses worst features, thus keeping the masses away, upon inspection I found, yes- it has a very rusted front fence, yes - it has a scruffy but large back garden, yes - it has an ugly 70's dark wood veneer kitchen complete with patterned tiles but it also has 3 large freshly painted airy bedrooms, a large living space, newly polished floor boards throughout, it is a basic house but it is all we need to get started. With the all important box (location) ticked, we could then move on. We managed to get my son in to school for 4 weeks before the end of term, this was extremely important as otherwise I could see the long summer holiday dragging on with my son being out of contact with his own age group for over 4 months, which is what my daughter has been faced with, as it is we have managed to make some friends from my sons school who we have met up with over the holiday, some have younger siblings who my daughter can play with. With OH back at work, no car for myself and not yet having as many friends or family around, the holiday has started to feel rather long. Financial costs of the move - as this may interest people looking at moving: We didn't come with a huge lump sum of money but it has still cost us to get here We have rented our house out in the UK, the rent doesn't quite cover the mortgage plus we have management fees insurance and tax to pay, so realise we will have to send money back to make up the shortfall We sold our car for £3000 which we used some of to get the house in order for renting and left the rest in the UK to cover any shortfall in rent giving us time to find our feet before having to send money back We transferred $3000 to AUD for my husband to use on his 6 week trip for interviews, accomm, eating, transport, this didn't include flight, he managed to only spend $2000 He started working before returning home, so we have been managing with his salary ever since, which has been stretched to it's limits for his first 3 pays, with buying extra furniture, white good etc. birthdays and Xmas which have been low key but cannot be ignored. We spent £4500 on shipping - a 20ft container with Crown, excellent service, arrived in good time, with no breakages. We spent £1688 on airfares for myself and 2 kids with Cathay pacific. Excellent service as always. Husband spent £680 on airfares as he went on ahead. Flying through Hong Kong airport is good as they have trolleys in the departure area, because we weren't entitled to any extra baggage allowance we had full 7kg hand luggage for the two kids and myself meaning I was only able to carry my daughters bag, not her, should she become tired. Heathrow doesn't have trolleys so we just had to wing it there which wasn't helped by the security staff checking not one but two of my bags which they emptied and left for me to repack with tired kids and to much to carry in toe. Household expenses are: $575 pw rent in a nice location 5 km from the city, basic 3 bed house $115 pm Telstra - wifi broadband 200mb, phone line with local calls and Tbox digital tv box no extra channels $50 pm Alinta gas $92 pm Synergy electricity (first bill only, expect more next month with aircon and fans $50 pm contents insurance $70 pm car insurance $56 pm swimming lessons for each child I would recommend getting a portable wifi dongle, we got a Telstra one from Kmart for $70 with 5gb of data, this was enough to tide us over until Telstra got around to delivering our bundle, for some reason this does take an uncertain amount of time, the "WA way" apparently. Cafes don't tend to have free wifi like they do in the uk and being without any can make things very difficult when trying to find out about your area, activities, shops etc. We budgeted $300 PW on groceries and despite prices seeming exorbitant I struggle to spend the full $300 in the one weekly shop but I do have to pop to the shop for top ups midweek and these little trips for milk, bread, fruit what have you really do mount up and not forgetting any thing spent at the bottle store should be included in this budget. This week it totalled $250 last week it was definitely $300 so it must all even out. In the UK we would spend between £90 and £110 PW for a family of 4. Something's seem super expensive like salmon which we all love and regularly used to get whole kilo sides from Tesco for £8, now we are looking at $12 for 230gm which wouldn't even feed the family once, grapes were $19.99 kg, have dropped to a reasonable price during season but will shoot back up in 2 months time. I like to think I have coined a new phrase "$2 is the new 50pence" you know that small amount of change that you don't mind wasting on something frivolous like a children's ride or treat, not sure how that will catch on though. This move for us was all about the adventure and never really intended as a forever move, (unless life here offered us so much more) And although we are really just trying to enjoy our time here as much as possible for how ever long that maybe, I for one cannot stop analysing and comparing. Returning to the uk once we have done everything we want to do is the plan but then I get a glimmer of some part of life here which may make it very hard to leave, and believe me there are many glimmers. Only time will tell??? Sent from my iPad

I used hypnosis for my 2nd child after a lengthy induced labour with loads of medical intervention with my first child who was 15 days over once he was born. Hypnosis is more about coaching yourself into relaxation it really helps to keep you relaxed and focused on breathing fully in and out, not holding your breath which will make you tense up and in turn make things more painfull, it will also help you accept things should they not go to plan and some medical intervention should be required. My 2nd was born in under 4 hours at home, into water, there were no complications and although I could feel every contraction I had no problem breathing and relaxing through them. i would recommend it and will do it again should I get the chance.

Beatty Park and will probably enrol the kids for lessons there as We can get the bus there if we need to and the facilities look great although it is not quite finished yet, we have been going over to the Terry Tyzack my son loves it there as it has a deep pool and he likes to practise diving. not sure of our plans for Xmas day, I'm sure we will venture to the beach at some point. I have heard NYE is great down the beach, watching the sunset

Sorry I haven't been on here in a while, seems getting broadband in WA is no easy feat, Telsra make BT look like saints in customer service and communication, still have possibly another 2 weeks to wait for the proper connection so have opted for a mobile dongle to fill the gap. Things are looking much better since we got into our house, so it is not the nicest house around but is within our original budget and will give us a chance to find our feet and learn what living really does cost us here, We have now been in the house 2 and a half weeks and our shipment arrived last Monday so only 1 week of roughing it with camping equipment and airbeds. Having our own things certainly helps and being in the house means we can now plan activities and join the kids to groups or clubs We have settled for now in Mount Hawthorn which seems to be a lovely area 10-20min to the city depending on whether you drive or get public transport, we have some essential shops and cafes a few minutes walk away, my sons school is a 5 min walk, beach is 10min drive. The area is leafy with a mix of old and new buildings but by far the nicest thing is the real community feel of the area. the mums at my sons school have been most welcoming, introducing me to other people, including us in activities planned. I got chatting with a lady in a local shop last week and it turned out our daughters will be starting kindy in the same class next year so we have already got them together for a coffee morning. My son is settling well into school and has already been invited home by friends for play. Despite all the ups and downs we have been getting out and about, we have been to the beach 5 or 6 times, we have 2great leisure centres near by one has 3 outdoor pools and 2 indoor pools one of these has some fun features, the parks here are really well equipt OH took our son canoeing on Sunday for a birthday treat, we haven't been to Kings park yet but it is near the top of our list and will probably go over the Xmas break. The first few weeks really are tough and it does make you question your motivation for coming, it does feel like we are starting over with nothing and it will be some months before we can buy everything we need for the house, with all our birthdays piled in before Xmas it is already an expensive time of the year for us.

Thanks a bunch for the really unhelpful comment, luckily I hadn't seen it til now as we have yet to get Internet connection in the new place. I'll also have you know I have been researching for close to 2 years and have researched areas intently before coming but there are some things that no amount of research will help with, like how an area seems and feels when you are in it and how the transition will feel, with many obstacles to hurdle, like dragging kids around to endless house viewings while OH is working and children should really be in school. all the pressure on me alone to find a house suitable, find it quickly to avoid children being out of school too long and avoid staying in grotty dive and also get accepted on one of these houses when so many other people are trying for it, it doesn't really surprise me that it was all feeling a bit much. AND, I am no stranger to moving countries, If you had bothered to check your facts first you may know that I moved from NZ to UK on my own in my twenties. Harder in some ways because I knew no one to start with and we didn't have such great Internet facilities to research with then, easier in other ways because I didn't have a family depending on me us to make this work. Thank-you to everyone else who comments have been most supportive. we are now in the house, roughing it a bit until our shipment arrives which should be anytime soon, spent the first day at ikea, Kmart and target, buying some essentials, people probably thought we were planning some camping trip, little did they know we were actually furnishing our house albeit temporarily. My son started school, it appeared to go well, he came home happy both days so far, he seemed very confident and brave and just got stuck into it. will keep all positive peeps posted on developments

My two children 8 and 4 and I flew into Perth 3weeks ago today. Flights with Cathay went smoothly with a 5 hr stop in Hong Kong. OH picked us up from the airport in Perth as he had already started work here but had arranged to have the day off. We were all at different stages of jet lag which delayed everyone's recovery but by the weekend we were all pretty good. we were lucky enough to be house and dog sitting for the first two weeks in a lovely house in a great location. So now the area and house hunt could begin. I spent the first week driving around areas and going to open homes in areas I knew we liked, the next week we put two applications in which we were unsuccessful on. We thought we had a healthy budget of $600 a week but hoped we wouldn't have to spend it all, we quickly raised our search range up to $650 then $700 per week. I looked at a huge amount of houses that were just not suitable, I have also looked at some very nice houses, anything nice draws a crowd and with no rental history in Australia we are never at the top of the list for the landlord or agent, whoever decides. our expectations are somewhat lower now, I check the house for space, functionality, ignore all 70's kitchens or bathrooms as long as they are tidy and if the area suits with good school, decide whether I can live in the environment for a year. A year seems like a long time in some of them. Most of the agents I have found to be pleasant and talkative if engaged in conversation, I have only come across 2 grumpy agents. The thing is, every agent works differently and there are so many you can't possibly know the rules, some start processing applications as soon as they hit their desk, some wait for the all to come in, but none will show you alone, they seem to think this is more fair for everyone to see it together. Last week we moved into the short let apartment that I had booked from the UK, What a dive!!! The corridor had an overpowering ciggarette odour and the apartment was filthy, all of the windows were open so the apartment didin't smell, that night we had to close the windows and the smell of the smoke filled the apartment and left me bunged up and my youngest coughing, the kitchen was so dirty I didn't want to touch anything or let food touch anything, I cooked the kids the simplest dinner all in the one pot I could get clean but we had no choice we had to stay, this is how someone's surroundings can spiral them into depression, I found myself snapping at the kids over nothing. I rang the owner in the morning she said there was no smoke smell I just didn't like the basic ness of the apartment, I told her I didn't like the grubbiness. She didn't want to argue but said if she re let it she would refund our money. We moved to an apartment in Fremantle which is more money due to it being short notice but the relief was palpable as we walked in to find it was not only clean and fresh but spacious too. We put 2 more applications for houses in on Friday and Monday both places appeared to have no real competition, one came back quickly and said yes, it is not beautiful but time is of the essence we are now paying a nightly rate, I can't bare another weekend to go by when the agents can give you no answers, and as I look across Fremantle port from our window I can see lots of containers and one of them is ours, which will be ready for us any day now, we need to make sure we are ready for it. Other things that can now progress are - son can start school on Monday, great school. we can start doing fun things on the weekend instead of an endless house hunting. do we like Perth? Jury is still very much out I find many thing frustrating like I don't automatically know what shop to get something ffrom the supermarket ladies pack my groceries 2 items to a bag all roads are busy with any main road being dual carriageway. everything looks so expensive in the shops that It puts me off getting things then find I have to go back again. money seems to be flowing through my hands like water. Rioja is too expensive here, but I knew that. I don't really think about it all too much as there is still so much to be done but I wonder once all settles how we will feel?

Called Kensington Primary school yesterday and the house we have been offered is out of the intake area, such a shame because the house looks really nice, a good price and we would avoid all that rental competition. The school intake area the house falls in to is Millen Primary School doesn't look great, looking at the myschool website. Does anyone know about it or other school we maybe able to get in to.

Looks like the house we have been offered is just out of catchment for Victoria park primary school, Kensington primary school looks fairly close, does anybody know anything about it.

I have been researching areas and schools around Perth for a while now but haven't had much time as it comes closer to the move, we leave today! If I say what I bit of what I have researched then people can tell we their advice on it First of all we are a family of 4 kids 7 and 3 I really like the sound of Bassendean with older houses and larger gardens (garden is essential) options on school don't seem to be huge but Eden Hill seems ok, anyone know of it? Dianella- have heard really good things and some really bad, seems to be a couple of good schools Duncraig seems very popular with lots of good schools to choose from, closer to the beach but small gardens if at all and I expect huge competition for rentals puts me off a bit. to throw a spanner in the works we have been offered first refusal on a house in Victoria park, which would be great to avoid the rental rush but not sure on the area or which good schools are around We would be looking for a 3 bed house for max 600pw, OH will need to get to city, looking for a good state primary school and a nice preschool. look forward to hearing everyone's advice and opinions