kevsan

Hi Planning a road trip to coffs harbour next year in the july holidays (approx 2 weeks). Looking for ideas for stopping off points etc, things to do / see / places to stay. We will have 2 kids and a dog so a freeway blast is not the preferred option. Was looking for scenic routes and options for stop overs. Initially thinking Eden and Lake Macquarie as overnights, but happy to break it up differently and take a different route back. Probably basing around Toormina for a few days in the middle. Any thoughts?

We just had a hire car - NIssan Dualis / qashqai 5 large suitcases 1 cabin suitcase, 1 backpack, 2x trunkie cases plus the kids were in car seats. it was VERY tight, almost to the point where i thought that i would need to take some stuff back to the terminal and leave it in a locker, but managed 3 suitcases in the back, wife between the kids and 2 suitcases in the front seat and hand luggage scattered wherever. not the best, but we managed for the hours drive.

Nope. I have Ankylosing Spondylitis, a cousin of RA and have been managing for 10+ years. It was barely mentioned at my medical and nothing ever came of it. If its costly to manage now or ongoing is where there might be an issue

Its not too bad here in Melbourne. We live in Langwarrin, which is 'outer fringe' and is a bit more open and green. Our house backs onto a reserve and creek and there are snakes in there apparently, we've never seen any. you just need to be a bit careful and we warn the kids about walking through long grass in the summer. When we go to the beach at seaford we cross the foreshore reserve and there are snake signs everywhere, I also run through there with my running group and again nothing. As long as you are aware that you share the space with others you'll be fine. Spiders. Yes we have them, 3 redbacks so far. There were 2 in the shower, (at the same time) when we moved into the house, but i put that down to the previous owners not cleaning anything ever. We got the house sprayed which is a yearly thing, and we are overdue this year, but have not seen a single spider in months, the other redback was dead in the shed. We do get huntsman, but they are easy to catch if you are quicker than them, but stick them in the garden and they'll keep the nasties away. I think there has been 1 in the house in the last 18 months. No kangaroos in the garden, but it is nice to sit out and watch the possums playing on the fence, although they have become rather partial to the grapefruits on the tree.

HI Rob as with all these things, it will depend on your circumstances. The bank is only looking to make sure that you can meet the repayments. We arrived Aug 2015 and had a mortgage agreement in Feb and settled in May. At the time that was 90% LTV with Bank of Melbourne. When asked he didnt seem to think pushing to 95% would be a problem. Not that you would necessarily need to. We were keen to get on the ladder sooner rather than later. We bought a 'DIY'ers Dream' so had more scope to add value, whether that made a difference or not, who knows, but given our house has gone up $150k in the year since we bought it, we made the right choice at the time

Good stuff. I really like your idea of a ' nice to fit in if we can pile ' - that was my biggest regret. despite measuring and planning, i still had space left over and ending up running around trying to find more things to throw in. I shudder to think of all the stuff that i had got rid of/sold/gave away that could have fitted and i've had to buy again here. Hey ho. - good luck, it will all go pretty quick from here!

nope, you are all good. only need to change the plug

if you can get an early bird offer its about $19 a day. If you dont, over 3 hours is about $90... even at $19 plus fuel, $8 for a metro ticket return is a no brainer

thats the train, and the stopping all stations slow train through the loop - i could easily take the 45 min express but i'm happy to take the slower one as the office is 2 minutes from parliament station on collins st. Gave up on the car as the cost of parking was prohibitive rather than the journey time.

Well it took me 75 minutes this morning as usual from Seaford. I did get a free stress ball at parliament station though!

We have 5! Five! in the drawer in the kitchen. not counting the however many we got rid of before we left the Uk. FIVE!

Check out the thread by @BadgerLady here: 'Booked a storage unit and parking space in Bankstown, which will cost $515 per month: http://www.rentaspace.com.au"

we lived in carrum for a month before settling in Seaford, and then buying in Langwarrin. Never noticed any smell. It used to be fantastic getting up and going for a run along the river as the sun came up and getting to the beach! We still go to the river regularly and love it, just couldnt afford to buy there. - prices continue to go nuts which might restrict you (or not) Oh, Shavans at the Patterson lakes shopping centre does a reasonable effort for a curry if thats your thing.

Good for what? Whats your definition of good? They are close to the frankston line, approx 45 minutes into the CBD on the express train. Close to the beach and amenities. Good access to roads and down to the mornington peninsula. Good mooring /launching options on the patterson river if you have a boat. State schools seem reasonable, and options for private as well.

the one thing we did was take a trip around a home make centre to cost up furniture / gadgets / household items to see what was worth taking or buying new. i wouldnt spend more than a morning or afternoon doing it though - after 3 hours i had lost the will to live! other than that, just take a look around at the area, depending on your location there is plenty to do and see.

http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/C9BB87D69ED1F607CA2574560014D1DB?OpenDocument The Characteristics of Recent Migrants Survey (CORMS) is conducted triennially in November throughout Australia as part of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) household survey program As CORMS is collected as a supplement to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), persons excluded from the LFS were also excluded from this survey (see Explanatory Notes of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) for standard LFS exclusions). Additional exclusions from this survey were people living in Indigenous communities in Australia and people in non-private dwellings such as hotels, university residences, boarding schools, hospitals, retirements homes, homes for people with disabilities and prisons. TIMELINESS The Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Migrants Survey was first conducted in 1984 and triennially there after up to 1999. It was collected again in 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 and the latest survey was in 2016. The name of the survey was changed in 2007 to Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Recent Migrants Survey, and again in 2010, to Characteristics of Recent Migrants Survey to better reflect the scope of the survey. Data from the survey are released approximately six months after the completion of enumeration. ACCURACY CORMS is designed to provide reliable estimates at the national level and for each state and territory. The number of completed interviews (after taking into account scope and coverage exclusions) was 42,185, of which 2,965 were recent migrants or temporary residents. This sample was achieved by obtaining a response rate of 91% from the Monthly Population Survey.

well, my postal voting slip arrived last night. 48 hours to return to the UK..... nothing like leaving it to the last minute

Yeah sorry - the pound sign doesnt work on my aussie keyboard anymore. Most likely you will rent to start regardless. Check out realestate.com.au for the suburbs you want and the type of house. that will give you an idea of the prices

depends on visa costs, plus a whole bunch of other factors. Assuming you can get a PR visa (186 or 190) your looking at $3900 for main applicant, $1800 for 2nd plus $900 each for the kids. If you use an agent, factor in another $2k plus all the other costs, police checks, medicals etc. That gets you your visa (assuming you are successful). Other visas will have different costs Then you have migration costs - flights, shipping costs, temp accommodation, car hire, food, spending money etc - ~10-15k Then setup costs, house rent, car purchase, school fees, furniture to buy while you are waiting for your stuff to arrive. All the other things you forget about - ~20k for 6 months. how longs a piece of string. $50k should do it, you can do it for less (we spent about 35k all in) but alot depends on your circumstances, you'll need to write it all down and make some educated guesses, and then add 10-20% for unforeseens

As has been covered above, if you are not here, you are going to struggle. I work for a Global IT company, and our team are actively recruiting for Network admins in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra. We are struggling to fill roles, so the jobs are there. You may have better luck with speculative applications to companies rather than recruitment agents.

although i didnt think uber accepted phone calls, so you need the app (although you could ring for a cab in emergencies) A battery backup charger is worth its weight in gold.

Frankston.................

Agree with this. It was on the cards for us for a long time, having first visited in 2007 and having friends here that came over for 4 years. When we started getting serious we went to a migration roadshow ran by one of the agents and had speakers from Immigration, removals, NAB etc to give people an idea of what to expect. It was a joint NZ/AUS roadshow and probably close to 150 people there. A rep from tourism NZ asked the room how many people had been to NZ or OZ before? Me and the wife and another couple were the only 4 hands that went up. that was the scary part, that all these people were seemingly desperate to leave the UK for a better life without really knowing anything about it. I asked one guy why he was looking into it, the response - "it must be better than here"....

thats a pretty vague question. - what are you wanting to know? there is a still a market, people are still recruiting, projects are still ongoing etc etc.Its getting to EOFY so some put a freeze on recruitment (perm and contractor) others prefer spend their budget before the year is up, horse for courses. I've personally just finished a project for the state government where i was screaming out for resources across exchange, Skype, Win10, Oracle, networking, IDM, MDM amongst others.

This was pretty much the approach we took - and used what we had. We did have a number of similar sized box from our previous house move, but that was more luck than judgement, the tv went in its own box, my bike went in a bike box i borrowed from a friend etc. The sofa and other items were just bubblewrapped and shoved it. if you plan in advance and have the luxury of a movecube sized space to pre stack you can make it worth your while.