lancashirelass

We had a nightmare recently, we called immigration to ask if we could have a replacement visa label inserted in a new passport and they said we didn't need to because it's all electronic now. Never doubted it as we are now in the 21st century and all but when we got to the airport they told us they needed to see the label and we should have brought our old passport, we had to wait whilst they called Canberra to verify our visa status, must say they were very snotty about it and had my young son in tears when they said he may not be able to travel. So like you say, just make sure you have your old passport with you with the visa label in just in case.

We have been in Australia nearly 5 years and have loved life here, we are so proud of ourselves for giving it a go and think that the life experience we have given ourselves and our children is priceless. But it is not for us long term, the Country you live in is not what makes you happy it is about the opportunities you create for yourselves and being with the people you want to share your life with. For us we have done everything we wanted to do here but we feel more excited about a future in the UK than here. Our children are getting older and parks and beaches are not enough for them anymore..the coastline is amazing but once inland it is mainly suburbs with a shopping mall every so often with not much more to offer. Older kids do much the same at weekends and nights as in the Uk and we see a lot of bored teenagers getting into trouble because there is nothing to do and is so expensive for them to even go to the cinema. Our kids now want theme parks and will soon want cheap European holidays, music festivals (within a couple of hours away) great shopping and City breaks...that's not something they can get here. The isolation gets to you after a few years, we are in Perth and it is very quiet and isolated and you do feel you have gone back in time. After giving ourselves and our children such a great opportunity I don't want to then limit us forever to a small City. They say life is a journey and we want to keep exploring.

Many Australian schools do have class sizes of over 30+ students much like the UK, some amazing schools some very poor in both Countries. Lots of schools teaching out of portacabins in Australia too and many, many issues within the schools. You try to find a good school and then try and buy/rent in that catchment area for that school, same in both countries. What amazes me though is how many private schools there are in Australia and what huge waiting lists they all have, does paint a picture of the quality of some of the state schools here that people would rather pay thousands and send their children private....of which most of the class sizes are also 30+ students. I can see over the next 10 years private schools becoming more popular in the UK just like in Australia.

Hi, we moved over a few years ago and my hubbie is a brickie. After a few weeks of phoning numbers out of the paper he got a start with a gang, we came at a bad time though as they were all closing down for Christmas. He had to say he'd been here 2 years because most want at least a year or two WA experience or they put the phone down on you! You also need a blue card before you can start (think it may be a white card now) but you can do that on-line and you get a rebate. Expect to get $250-$270 per day, was $300 when we arrived but rates have dropped. He set his own gang up after a while and had work, but with workers compensation (even though you are a sub-contractor to the housebuilders you are responsible for paying workers comp insurance to insure your subbies, we paid nearly $9k a year!), public liability, gst (VAT), money aside for super, tax, holiday pay, mobile, fuel etc. just wasn't worth the hassle and problems he had with housebuilders trying to screw him down on rates or forgetting to pay him! Plus, the winters here can be wet and windy so expect to have a few rained off days. Try and have a look on The West Australian website, it's the local paper here. Usually a lot of brickies jobs in there on a Saturday, thats how most find work but you do need to call from 5am, any later and the jobs have gone. Good look with your move, there are a few new suburbs being developed around Secret Harbour so plenty of building work going on it's just a bit slow at the moment.