kevsan

Yep - thats all good. We used a movecube and it was brilliant. Only issue we had was the UK end where it came on a trailer about 60cm off the ground and had to leverage the fridge freezer in! Aus end the truck had a tail lift so all good. We would certainly use them again.

It does rain and does have wind - and can really rain when it wants to - its currently precipitating it down outside! but the seasons are much more defined and has more sun and brighter days and can get really hot in summer - generally high 20's mid 30s for most of the time is very nice. Although a couple of days at 40 degrees - which was a bit of a shock to the system last year, but it is much dryer and doesnt feel as hot as the Uk when it gets into the 30's if that makes sense.

Yes you can do all that in and around frankston. We have just bought in langwarrin on a plot twice the size of our UK house, for $450k. We liked langwarrin as it was more open and leafy than Frankston, and yet is only a 10 minute drive to the beach. We previously rented in Seaford which we loved, but couldnt make the budget work when we looked to buy. Look on realestate.com.au and there are plenty of prices listed to give you a feel. I work in the city, and drive to seaford station (15mins) and then an hour on the train to the CBD. - Its doable. Key is work location, and then make decisions based on that.

Thats what i took from it, or taking it further, maybe it was deliberately left like that to protect loved ones left behind from persecution. - whether the claim was legitimate or not.

Which is fine - but on what proof was used to ascertain lying- Facebook? Really? I rarely use Facebook, only to stay in touch with people overseas, but my profile still says i live in the UK. Does that mean my tax return with my Melbourne address is a lie/fraud. Will the ATO be after me?

Apparently looking for a Workload and Cloud Architect based in Brisbane, and a Midmarket Business Development Manager (whatever the hell that is) But we also are always on the lookout for people. - It is easier for some roles if you are happy to travel interstate on occasion as most of the key work is in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. I've worked in Melbourne onsite , but currently have projects in Perth and Sydney and about to start a new one in Canberra. Didnt have to travel to Perth (yet), travelled to Sydney for an hours meeting! and Canberra might be a couple of days a week for a while. That kind of thing suits some people, not others. That being said, one of my colleagues worked in brisbane for 7 years either from the office or from home and has only just in the last month had to go to Sydney. I only met him face to face when we went on a work junket to Singapore in May. PM me with your CV and i'll happily pass it on.

What jobs? Who are you applying with? Perm or contract? Permanent roles for Architect type roles are fairly strong at the moment, and that usually indicates markets picking up. I am in Melbourne and we are recruiting as are the clients we work with. We currently have about 50 roles nationwide across security, networks, architecture, Wintel, DBA's, Mainframes, storage, ESX,CRM, and guys i know who work in IT are also recruiting in webapps and testing as well.

seems i have been horribly mislead, i shall have words with the wife this very evening!

Bisto gravy granules! You can only get the powder in the shops and tastes horrible. and Paint (not that you'll be able to ship it) but it seems to be over 3x the price for comparable amounts/brands

Do you have a source for this? Just interested - the only figures i can find are on the border website, and dont have any departure figures for the latest year. Their 10 year historical trend shows between 30 and 40% returning to the UK comparing to coming in. Of course this doesnt take into account visa type / demographics etc ie did they leave because of whv/temp visa expired or couldnt get another job, or they wanted to retire in the UK, or permanent migrants that couldn't make it work. Just interested in what figures are out there.

Exactly this. Pretty much what i did. I work for an international IT company. We applied for an independent state sponsored visa (190) to give us the safety net of being able to change jobs if required so our family wasnt tied into something, or reliant on being able to fit in with work. We got the visa in October 2014 and then spoke to my UK manager about options and he looked into HR and what needed to be done. At the same time i contacted my managers AUS conterpart and sounded him out about options. I let them know i would be coming out that Easter if they wanted to 'interview me' to see if i fit. We came out at Easter to validate the visa and met with a few people (also had some other interviews lined up just in case). They were pleased that they didnt have to go through the sponsorship headache as it meant less hassle for them. They had to get management sign off, but in the end it was just a simple payroll transfer from their point of view. We arrived 27 August (a year on saturday!) and i started in the office on 28th! A permanent self funded visa may take more time and expense personally, but it gives you a form of freedom and insurance should the worse happen. Same as anywhere in the world, when looking for a job, the easy and more painless you can make it for the employer, the more favourable it'll be for you. just my 2 cents.

We took the view that if we didnt try it, we would regret it. With kids its more complicated than that, but a year in we have no regrets and our kids are well settled and love it here. To add to / counter some of marisas points: The job is key and the thing most people underestimate = you talk about similar industry and friends in Perth, is this where you want to head to, it isnt clear from your post??? Finding out what visa you can get and where is key and drives most other decisions. Housing is expensive, but again you cut your cloth to suit your needs. We live in melbourne and we live an hour away from the cbd by train. We were renting, with a 10 minute walk to the beach, and now own a house 10 minutes drive to the beach. That was part of the choice we made, a longer commute for 'affordable' access to the beach. In order to work out cost of living, i calculated yearly income vs % spent on items. We had a 4 bed house in the midlands and spent about 20% on gross income on our mortgage. We rented a 3 bed unit near the beach in seaford and rent was 26% of my aussie income. Our 3 bed house with rumpus room on double the land size is again about 26% of income on the mortgage. There are a bunch of other costs / expenses that dont factor in the UK, all schools have some form of fees or contributions (more so than the UK) And i have walked from the station and met the family on the beach for an hour and watched the sun go down, so it can be done. On the plus side, although hours are similar, i dont work away from home in hotels like i did in the UK, and despite having the same job in the same company, am home every night for bed time, and mostly for dinner time. So for my situation my work life balance is much better, YMMV! 20 days leave does suck, and i'm saving all mine up for a return to the UK at Christmas which means less holidays during the year, but that doesnt seem to matter as much as you can have more outside time at weekends and bank holidays that it seems to work out. In the UK we had times where we yearned to get away for a holiday in the sun. But as Marisa says, it is what you make it, and kids are kids wherever, and simply changing the location wont change that, you'll need to change you mindset and outlook as well and embrace the opportunities that you have. Definitely visit if you can make the finances work, in order to get a feel for the place you are heading to. but try and imagine living there (its a lot different being on holiday) and see where that leaves you.

we had our friend travel with them in June to Melbourne. She said it was fine, not the greastest by any stretch, but that it was worth the saving. Ghangzou airport was pretty ropey for a layover of 4 hours thou.

I do wonder if they factored in cost of living, how different the results would be

HI any airline that goes through Singapore. And as Snifter say, the longer flight first 'works' better for us. Always try and go Singapore Airlines as well, can be a little more expensive sometimes, but you do get what you pay for!

HOw old are your children? We always go through Singapore - i've heard that Dubai doesnt have much options for kids/parents for keeping entertained. We love singapore. There is a bunch of stuff in the transit lounge that is kid friendly - the carp pond/butterfly garden, cinema etc. Also there are 3 transit hotels within the terminal so you dont have to go through security, that allows some sleep / a shower etc to help break things up. The hotel in terminal 1 (all the terminals are linked by the skytrain so you can access them all within the security cordon) also has a swimming pool on the roof that you can use, which was brilliant for breaking up the journey. for travelling with youngish kids (7 and 4) it was a no brainer and for a 4 hour stopover we go in the pool, have a shower etc and grab some food. Having a 30-45 minute fuel stop barely gives you time to get off and go to the loo before having to get on again. it doesnt break up the journey in any meaningful way hope that helps

Didnt i read somewhere that there are plans to do a non stop LHR to Perth flight? The only issue is lack of alternative airport in range to land at if bad weather etc

As i've stated above, ours was door to door from uk to aus. No problems or extra charges at all. In regards to the size, best advice is mark out the size of the container and pile your stuff in, you be amazed how much you can fit with clever packing. And yes, king size bed will fit easily.

Im not a tradie but an enthusiastic DIYer and took most of my tools (powered and hand) with me. It would have cost a small fortune to replace what i had and i reasoned some of it might not be avaliable. Some things to be aware of: How are you shipping? by sea can take 3 months - will you need the tools right before you leave/right after you arrive. By air can be expensive for heavy things and tools tend to be a very heavy.. You will need to change the plugs to AUS sockets (or, as i have done, take a bunch of 4/6way extension leads and change the plugs on those.) Can you get replacement blades/heads etc that fit here easily? Make sure they are very clean, drown them in jeyes fluid so that customs can see your not bringing any dirt etc in include your toolboxes in this . It'll be an expense and compromise whatever you do, but i dont regret bringing my stuff, and only regret leaving some of the stuff that i did.

Bob's blog.... not melbourne based, but pretty much the go to blog for anything and everything to do with migrating to and living in Aus. http://www.bobinoz.com/

We live in Langwarrin, which sits just behind Frankston, having moved from Seaford. Never had any problems, great beaches, train links to the city, access to the peninsula. Whats not to love? Some crappy bits here and there, same as anywhere really. Historically had a rep, but havent seen anything day or night that would suggest any worse than anywhere else - the plus point of that is that you get more house for your money than further up or down the bay..

I have a pay monthly sim with optus - really good 4g coverage in Melbourne. Includes 8gb data, unlimited calls and texts in aus, 150 international free talk minutes a month, unlimited international text to selected countries (inc UK) for $50 a month. Cant fault them really

Agree with the sentiment its the conclusion we have come to. The whole saga has shown some of the darker / nastier sides of friends that we always thought were pretty happy go lucky.... we've had numerous requests for people to come and live with us, think quite are few are not tongue in cheek now

Be interested to know who here actually got to vote or not. We are registered to and received nothing. The guy i work with received his polling card yesterday, and a number of others have reported not getting anything. I would have thought that 'migrants' outside the UK are by and large more pro migration/freedom of movement than those in the UK. A missed opportunity?

Still not sure i agree with the sentiment. We have just bought in Melbournes outer suburbs, a 3 bed 2 bath house on a plot 2.5x the size of the one we had in the UK, it needs some work, but we'll get there. We had our deposit from our UK sale and now have a 90% mortagage and our monthly repayments are $12 a month less than our rental. Its not unaffordable.