Laugan

@Ruey Tracey, how is your daughter Elle finding Duncraig High School? We are moving to the area as soon as we find a rental property in the area and have chosen the school for our 14 year old daughter, who'll be in year 8? We are currently living in Victoria but had a reccy around the school back in May, unfortunately, it was a student free day so didn't get to see much of the school or the students, my other daughter won't start the school till next year for year 7. We moved from Scotland 2 years ago, thou I'm English and my hubby is Scottish. Debbie

I remember telling my youngest, she was 9, and she burst out crying. At that point thou we had a rental house in place and a school so straight away showed her the house, her bedroom and school online which helped bring her round. She was fine after and now loves it here and has some great friends as does my older daughter who was 11 at the time we moved. I wouldn't worry either, your children are still young and will adapt very quick.

Hi, we are on a 457 and took cover with Bupa, thou not the pregnancy cover. We've been with them for almost two years, we have up-ed our cover with them twice as we initially only took the basic bronze cover but since moving out we now have gold cover with hospital for expenses like dentist and my kids also now get free dental check ups. I have to say when applying for refunds with Bupa we've always got ours pretty quick. but I don't know how Bupa compares to other providers.

Hi We moved to Victoria from Scotland last year and I was in contact with a few schools regarding enroling my children before we moved out. We had to wait till we arrived in Australia before we could enrol them. We had to show the school a copy of our visas, medical records and last school report on the day we enrolled them. Check out http://www.myschool.com.au it shows how well schools perform.

Hi, when we were approved our 457 visa last year my husband received an email confirmation listing him as the main applicant and below listed myself and children. At the same time he also received 3 other emails for myself and my children confirming our visas, which we printed off and brought copies out for jobs, school admissions etc. ?

Hi,I live in Victoria and I also have a bad spider phobia. I did wonder how I'd cope living here with all the types of spiders and took precautions to stop any coming in the house, I even worried at night time in case I stepped on one in the dark or one crawled in my bed. Didnt help that days after moving to Oz the gardener told us how Huntsman can flatten and can crawl into even slightly opened windows, I searched the Internet and YouTube and came across stuff you just don't want to read about.....But after 9 months of living in Australia I'm so much more relax, I've on seen 2 biggish spiders and they were outside, one on our garage door and one on our car but I make sure I never park under trees anymore. We only get really small spiders in our house. There are bug bombs which you let off in your house and Mortein spider sprays that kill spiders almost in a instance and also spray the outside of your house, you can buy these anywhere supermarkets, DIY stores. We just try and keep our house tidy and not leave things on the floor. I have to say thou its pretty interesting seeing spiders and bugs you don't get back home. I don't worry half as much now. I have Aussies friends who have only seen a few Huntsman in their entire life, don't worry :biggrin:

Hi Devon67 I think I met your wife a few weeks ago on an Epipen course in Maffra, just waiting to hear whether I get another position as an Aide for 2013 :biggrin:

We play Australian and UK DVDs thru our Xbox.

Hi Loopylou13, We drove thru Bairnsdale last weekend enroute to visit Lakes Entrance for a few hours, the sea is so blue there and my kids really enjoyed Ramond Island near you as well. Can't wait to experience summer here : ))

We are new to Medicare as well and our card needs renewing in a years time as well, if that helps?

Hi, We moved to Sale, Victoria 2 months ago from the UK (Scotland) and only driven thru Traralgon a few times so don't know the place. A winters day here is pretty much like a summers day in Scotland so looking forward to having a decent summer here. There are lovely beaches nearby but wish I lived nearer to a city, which is a good 2.5 hour drive away but coming further out gets you more house for your money, $380 a week rent gets us a large modern detached house. Good luck if you decide to go for it and come to Gippsland : ) Aussiechick2006 Where is the local tenpin bowling? We drove to Morwell today and couldn't find one, is there one in t'gon?

Hi Thistles and gum tree, Just came across you from your post about moving to Sale, Victoria and see you have moved on now. We have just moved from Stonehaven, Kincardineshire to Sale two months ago. How did you find the town and schools?

We were in the same position but due to the terrible exchange rate we decided to rent our house out and pay the estate agent a fee to maintain our property and do regular inspections. Six or seven years ago our house back home would of got us a $750k home here, now only $450k! Imagine moving back home and the exchange rate going back up to 2.50 dollars to the £, how much you could potentially lose!!! We only brought $10000 with us a a full container and got a loan in Australia to buy a car. The tax man has suggested we buy a house within two years rather than waste money on renting but too many houses for sale in the small town where we live in Oz and imagine if we had to move it wouldn't sell too quick, so many of them are rented out because they don't sell!!

We have just moved to Victoria and I have the same worry as well, I hate spiders!!! Just don't search anything on YouTube cos it could put you off!! You need to be aware of Redbacks and White tailed spiders but I have seen any yet. We did have a baby huntsman on our garage door but that's it so far after 2 months of being here. Best to get experiences of locals, most will probably say they have only ever had one or two Huntsmans in their house ever, and they like to be on walls or ceilings. I have heard that Huntsman can flatten and fit thru hair line cracks!! There are sprays and bug bombs that can get kill them and also spraying your house can help keep them away. After 2 months I far more relaxed and don't think of them as much.....until I see one!!