LittleLakeGirl

Redo it, that's very low you would be amazed when you think about replacing what you've bought how much your stuff is actually worth. In the end I went with something like double that for a two bed house & we took relatively little, just under half a containers-worth.

Hi All A quick Q and a recommendation. First off the recommendation. I don't know if anyone's highlighted it here, if they have I'm sorry if I'm going over old ground... but if you're looking to ship single items & want multiple quotes from different carriers I have to say http://www.interparcel.com is very useful. I had a not bad quote from them for a 15kg bag to Sydney (door to door). Also, everything on their site branded 'interparcel' shipping is actually UPS. Now, I'm flying Singapore Airlines economy on a 457 visa, which means standard baggage but does anyone know if I can pay to add an extra bag at a sensible cost. All I can find on the website is per kg excess baggage at loopy rates of about $50 (£35) per kg. I know Emirates & I think BA allow you to pre buy extra baggage allowance even on economy but I can't find any equivalent for Singapore.

Moving to Sydney in 3 weeks to join my OH who's already out there! He's currently near Camden but I suspect that's too isolated even for him (as beautiful as the dawn views are) so we'll be looking at moving back in. We were looking at the 'Hills' suburbs but I wonder, does anyone have experience of living closer in to Sydney central and commuting (driving) out the other way towards Glendenning? That's where he's working but I suspect central Sydney will be better for work for me.

Hi All I'm not sure if this has been shared here before but I ran across it on the Aldi website and thought it might be of interest to people here who might be looking at volunteering as a way to get involved in their local communities... http://www.dosomethingnearyou.com.au/ Hope it helps someone (I know there was some interesting stuff there for me in the area local to where my OH is currently). Cheers

Thank you for this post, It does put my mind at ease a little, I'm worrying about my Henry (I don't think the shippers took the bag out of it as they packed it before I got a chance). It was cleaned fairly recently before then but you never know. If it was a Dyson I doubt I'd have bothered to take it they take so much disassembling. I know what you mean about feeling mentally ruined, Jin, I was poorly for a week after our stuff and my husband left I was that stressed out.

Hello All I'm after your advice, the main bulk of our stuff has been shipped but as I'm still here in the UK and [i will be] joining my other half in Sydney in February I still have quite a bit of stuff here; too much to pay for extra baggage allowance on my flight out but not enough for a container, not even enough for a 1/4 so I'm after suggestions for the best and best value alternatives. I'm flexible in terms of the length of time my stuff will take to get there as it's non-urgent stuff. Thanks in advance. EDIT: & I have a crazy question, I have a horrible feeling the bag is still in our vacuum cleaner, I didn't take it out because it was my intention it would be the last thing to go in so I could give the hall stairs an once-over but the movers packed it. As the stuff is now in transit we can't get it taken out before it reaches Australian customs, any thoughts? Our service is a door-to-door service rather than a pick up from port.

My advice, give yourself lots of time and think about this now. Start inventory-ing everything you own, every last little thing, assume you are going to take all of it, you can always remove stuff from the list you decide isn't going to go and don't assume that because your shippers offer inventory services they will do it all. Also be sure to consider the cost of replacement of every item in Australia for insurance purposes, you'll probably be shocked at how much your stuff is actually worth.

I'm going to ask this here as a trawl of Google.com.au is bringing up nothing. Given the hugely competitive rental market in Sydney and other parts of Australia and my OH's increasing frustration with it at a time when he's a. alone in a new country, b. unable to pay huge amounts upfront to secure a rental & most importantly c.desperate to make a good impression on his new (& I have to say very understanding) employers / sponsors, I've been doing my bit here in the UK to try and help him find somewhere suitable to live. I've been trying to think 'outside the box' (I hate that saying but you know where I'm coming from) and one of the things I did come up with was Guardianship. You may or may not be aware that there are property management companies operating in the UK and Europe who provide their clients with live in guardians for their empty properties. These properties might be commercial, they might be residential or they might be something all together more unique. There may be numerous reasons why the property cannot be let as a traditional residential rental. Perhaps it's been earmarked for demolition, perhaps there's a planning application to change its usage ongoing, perhaps it's simply failed to be let for commercial purposes in a desired period of time... anyway, I digress, suffice to say that as a guardian you get the opportunity to 'live' in the property, sometimes at markedly lower cost than a traditional residential rent and often without incurring any of the other associated costs. The only stipulations are that you have to be prepared to move into and out of the properties at short notice, live alone or as a couple at maximum and undergo appropriate background checks to establish your trustworthiness. The thing is, as I say I've trawled Google and have thusfar been unable to come up with any similar companies / schemes in operation in Australia (I did find one in NZ). I've even contacted the UK companies to see if they might be aware of anyone but so far no dice. (I did have one person very kindly reply to my on spec enquiry but she drew a blank too). Does anyone know if there are any companies who do this in Australia or, alternatively, has anyone had any luck negotiating with agents for 'alternative' accommodation i.e. commercial or industrial space which might have been on their books for a while & does anyone have any ideas re the laws governing 'retasking' of such properties.

@Elevate, what if you've been paying a mortgage rather than renting? Will you accept mortgage statements instead of a landlord's reference?

Please, someone give me some positive feedback on renting out their UK properties as I'm about to embark on renting ours out. In a way I'm lucky as I'll have an agent in place who I've known in a professional capacity for some time but I still seem to be hearing the horror stories more than the good (isn't it always the way)? I really hope you get some recourse in the situation, Millers.

Brilliant, that's great, so it was cost rather than availability that was the issue, I knew I'd read something but couldn't remember what. Thinking if we've got room I might stock up. Though if Aldi is anything like over here then they might sell them too??

My apologies for posting this as I'm sure I've seen it mentioned on the boards before but I can't find it via the search box: Do either I or my husband need a prescription to bring over the counter hay fever tablets into Australia? I tend to keep them in the first aid kit as they're useful for other things (like sand fly bites etc) but I was sure I read you can only get them on prescription over there. If it is the case I'll leave them out of the first aid kit and pop to my Docs for a prescription before I leave. Thanks

Quite

Thanks for the info, all. I've sent the form, just hope I've judged it right!

Thanks, all. I'm stressing a little as the shippers (********) want the insurance valuation form before they come to collect (Monday) & I really don't know how to put a value on some of this stuff, especially when I'm a queen of the sales and almost everything in the house was bought at a discount price. We have comparatively little furniture, just one sofa, 3 drawer units. It's all the odds & ends that are mounting up. Especially when you add in our musical instruments, my OHs work tools & our bikes! You're right about underestimating the value of what you own. Looking at electrical & audio visual equipment things like that seem a little cheaper in Aus, would I be right to say that? I noticed for example that the brand new Samsung 55" Smart TV is around $2498 dollars where as it's £2599 here. I think it's possible we wouldn't replace the whole collection of CDs etc, especially as much of what we have is in MP3 format & backed up to the cloud. I'd say we'd be more likely to replace DVDs but as technology moves on & things like Netflix etc become available down under we'd be less and less likely to go out and buy hard copies of things.

Cheers, Chaps IYM, the valuation form reads Is this fairly standard? As far as CDs, books etc go it's one of those situations where I'm not 100% sure what we actually have so if anything happened I doubt we'd be replacing like for like anyway, and most of our stuff is in MP3 format & backed up to the cloud anyway. & I like that idea about using the Sky+ box as a spare backup drive, I have an enclosure doing nothing it would fit.

Urgh! So the adventure begins & this definitely isn't the fun bit. The OH is in Italy 'training' which in reality means watching other people do the job, and I'm left here to sort our stuff and to be quite honest is causing me a headache. I've had to put the shipping company off until Monday as there was no way everything was going to be ready for tomorrow but the insurance inventory (not the customs inventory, the movers will fill that in) is driving me to distraction. My question for you is this: Books, computer / console games / CDs, what ballpark figures did you put on them. If I'm honest I started sorting before I realised I had to count numbers and now they're so far back in the mound of stuff in our lounge there's no way I could count them. I'm going to put a best guess figure in, which I don't think is unreasonable but what replacement value (at location, i.e. Sydney) do I put on them? Any suggestions gratefully received. We have good number of CDs, around 500 -600, around 250 DVDs and probably 50 games. Cheers all! EDIT: Oh, do Sky+ HD boxes, take or leave?

Fish, thanks so much for the suggestions. You've given me lots to mull over! I really appreciate the feedback and I'll let you know what I (eventually) decide. Cheers once again, all

TBH I'm really getting the impression it's comparable. We're looking at our move to Sydney in terms of a move to the South East of England, the earning potential is much better - than in Northern England - in terms of what we both do (the fact my OH's starting salary will be comparable to our combined salary here tells you all you need to know) but the costs (especially property) will be higher. Still, I know my brother and his girlfriend have managed in Brighton for a long time now on a pub manager's and civil servant's salary so I'm sure we'll manage too and I think that, eventually we'll be better off in the long run, if only in terms of having the things we love (good beaches etc) on our doorstep and therefore not having to shell out to travel to them. Aside from being the ridiculously, annoyingly proud northerner I am, one of my favourite places in the UK is the South West and before we set our sights on Oz it was always our destination, but industry there is non-existent and ask all but the richest local and they'll tell you that to live there means to be poor but happy. I'm hoping Sydney will be a little more than that.

Nope , I think if you go on complete novice software dev wise with a. theoretical knowledge of stuff like usability and interaction and b. good business process experience gained from setting up and improving systems (think processes rather than applications) in small business rather than medium to large enterprise that'd be me. I'm looking at a long term shift in career but building on existing skills, knowledge and interests rather than something that's going to happen in the short term. TBH I think even if I'd finished my degree my software dev skills would have been (almost) no existent as rather than a pure computer science degree much of the focus of the course was business processes (project management, HIC, HR, Quality Management JIT manufacturing etc and how all these things interact and integrate with IT systems). As I say much of this seemed quite dry in a lecture and even a simulated project environment (it felt like we were playing at it) but once I got out into the real world and got a degree of autonomy over my jobs, mostly because no one else wanted to take some of this stuff on, it made sense. As an example of what I have achieved, at my former employer - an engineering firm - Working with an external audit consultant I put into place an ISO9001:2000 accredited QMS, which documented and tweaked existing processes, including computerising some using existing software. Ty, happy birthday for tomorrow! That's two of us at 35 but I definitely think you're much further ahead of me in what you do IT wise, good luck getting to Oz, I guess I'm lucky in that respect because I'm piggybacking (Although I helped my OH loads with the business side his AQF & his NEBS course to get this far so I must've learned something, now to prove it!) Thanks all for your feedback so far, it's been really helpful, especially with regard to the ITIL, as I'd never heard of that (told you I've been out of it a while) last time I looked it was all about ECDL, which I find hugely frustrating because I've been put off applying for local authority jobs over here (UK) as they've asked for it as an essential prerequisite when it's (IMHO) way below my skill level.

Hello All I'd like to pick the brains of any IT experts on the boards regarding in demand for skills in the IT industries. As you may or may not know my OH recently accepted a job offer in Sydney and our 457 Visas have just approved, all good. So, he's all sorted with a job but I'll need to get one and I've been thinking about what I might be able to do over there. Of course I can continue what I'm doing here (general secretarial, P.A. some project work, quality management etc) or I can take the opportunity to try something different. Long story short(ish): I have a background in business & IT, with emphasis more on business and have been well out of the IT game (aside from being unofficial first line tech support wherever I've worked) for more than 10 years. I studied but (for one reason or another and to my detriment) didn't complete at degree level. At the time I didn't think I'd learned an awful lot but ten years of real world experience has gone to prove that actually I did (especially with regard to general business functions, quality management and business systems) so what I'm now looking to do is try and get back into 'the game' with that experience behind me; as such I'm looking for suggestions as to what hard IT skills it would serve me best to learn. I've always had an interest in web technologies and dabbled a little in design but being outside the loop for a while my knowledge isn't what it was, especially as technology has moved on so far. I think I'm probably looking at the software side of things rather than hardware but again, having been out of it for so long I'm not sure what it would serve me best to learn (programming) language wise, and what languages might easily transfer into other languages if need be. Due to work commitments here I'm not heading out to Sydney for a few months and of course I'm realistic about what levels of skill and experience any potential employer might be after but I'm hoping to perhaps start learning now so I may be able to continue once I get there. Thanks in advance for any input you may be able to provide.

I'm not sure I understand the term 'recruitment costs' in this case, is the potential employer suggesting you pay their costs of recruiting you? If so it doesn't sound much of a good deal. There is a cost involved in converting the 457 visa to a 186 employer nomination visa but I don't think it's much (The cost listed for your employer to make the nomination, on the immi webpage is $540, I can't see that there's a further cost to you as the visa applicant but it may be that the employer might expect you to pay that?)

Hey all, thanks for the congrats, TBH we were pretty amazed at how quickly everything went through (so was the OH's new boss as it's a while since they've brought people over and they even had to get their accreditation reinstated before the application could be lodged). To answer your questions: My OH is a mechanical fitter, he's going to be doing new build work to start with but I think part of the reason he's got through so quickly is the company he's going to work for hope to set up an apprentice scheme bringing through local labour and that's where he comes in. I was fretting about medicals but we didn't even need them (nothing really to worry about but if I can imagine it I'll worry about it ). We used IMAN for our health plan, which I'm paying for on my card but by all accounts we should be able to register for Medicare right away because of the reciprocal health agreement with the UK, though we will keep some private healthcare topup for ambulances / dental etc. It was very easy to apply online and processed within a couple of days. We've not had to sign up for a 12 month contract, I'm pretty sure you can cancel it at any time. With regard to PR, I can't find the link right now but from what I've reading on the government immigration webpages the process seems to have been made an awful lot easier (& cheaper) via the 186 visa (Oh, hang on, linky here ) On a personal note my OH has to stay with his employer 4 years otherwise the advance they've made to him for relocation will have to be paid back so it's in his (our) interests to make it work. We are expecting to have to pay for PR but it might be one of those things he can negotiate in lieu of bonus (or something???) I can't believe it's happening, after 3 years of messing about with state sponsorship that was causing us no end of heartache we've finally got a chance! & with the first person my OH contacted speculatively too. BTW, Trucktech, I see you're in Brighton, that's my little brother's neck-o-the-woods, you don't drink in the St James' do you?

Eep! So, my other half accepted a job offer from a company in Sydney in the middle of August, their agent lodged the visa application on 30 August and it was approved on 7 September 2012, valid for four years. We're off to Sydney folks )))) (& fingers crossed we've managed to get our mortgage consent to let issues sorted too).