Petkula73

Your age and visa status is also important. If you are a PR and over 31 you will get "Lifetime Loading" for every year you don't have private hospital cover. So, the longer you leave it the more you pay when you do decide to get it. You are exempt if you register for a plan in your first year of PR, so to give an example, we were 40 at the time we got PR, but have no lifetime loading as it was not applicable until the PR visa kicked in. Had we left this, it would have gone up to 20% loading in the next fiscal year. You pretty much have to have it once you get to 31, otherwise the additional tax you pay for not having a private plan can outweigh the cost of the plan itself. It's also worth it for the peace of mind, although in all honesty compared to UK private health it's a pile of crap. I had a minor day patient op last year and despite the Medicare and BUPA payments it still cost me around $1000. I had BUPA in the UK and didn't pay anything whenever I had treatment. However, if you are not PR and are under 31 don't bother. And personally I wouldn't bother paying too much for extras cover. We pay $60 a month for extras and two years in we have paid in $1200 and got a benefit of $500, so really not worth it.

The first time I heard this was when I arrived in 2011. No-one in the Europe or US had ever referred to it as the GFC. I had to ask my colleagues what they were talking about - they must have thought I was an idiot.

Broadband here is a joke. Expensive, slow and terrible service. Unlike the rest of the developed world, it's normal to have a contract limiting you to a set amount of data per month. Be careful with this. 100Gb sounds like a lot, but if you have Netflix, send a few photos and so on you'll breach it. If you do (we did) you'll be stuck in dial up modem speeds until the next billing cycle with not much you can do about it. We are now on an "Unlimited" tariff. I use the inverted commas as it's not unlimited at all. The "fair use" policy can still hit you, so despite promising one thing, the Telecoms companies don't need to honour it. We're with Optus by the way. I won't recommend them as they are a shower, however they are no worse than the rest and are cheapest for fibre optic (if you call $90 a month cheap). For that we get an unreliable and slow fibre optic broadband link - allegedly 100Mbps but in reality no faster than 10Mbps, a home phone which we never use (use the free calls on mobiles and an VOIP company for calls to the UK at $0.002 per minute), a poor wireless router and a really crappy "Fetch TV" box that's on a par with something from 15 years ago in the UK. Not really a problem for us, as Australian TV is undoubtedly the biggest pile of rubbish going, unless you like dross like My Kitchen Rules, My Block Rules or My Masterchef Rules. Get used to hours and hours of puerile, poorly made, cheap filler TV, with extremely loud background music. I think (outside of sport) we watch around 1 hour a week of TV that's not on Netflix and even then that's a programme they imported from Denmark called "The Legacy". Until you experience it, you won't know how bad television can be... So, all in all a complete rip-off, risible levels of customer service and technology that's 15 years out of date, but hey this is Australia and everything is backwards and expensive. By the way, I absolutely love it here!

You can do it through Auspost - check their website to see which has a UK Passport service. One thing to consider though, the applications go to Wellington, NZ. We applied for a passport for my daughter in 2013 and it took something like 8 weeks to sort out. The reason for this was they had a query and then misread one letter in my email address, sending it out to the wrong email address. No-one chased it up, despite having two telephone numbers (and presumably a bounced email) and it ended up with me needing to call a premium rate line in the UK for an update. Not so impressive, and it was expensive.

I find recessions to be red herrings. If you read the doom and gloom about the 2008 credit crunch in the UK (I really don't want to use the term "GFC" - find it a completely pointless Australian acronym), you'd be forgiven for thinking every man and his dog was out of work and the country was on its knees. But what happened in reality? Well from a personal point of view, we became considerably better off than in the boom years. Our mortgage went from 6.99% to 0.99% in the space of around six months, and it's remained there ever since. So a net saving of around $90K in interest payments alone. I didn't lose my job, neither did my wife or anyone in my family. Nor did any of my friends despite many of them working in the finance sector. Retail prices were also held in check, so we had more spending power than before (some huge discounts were available). The public services we actually used were more or less unaffected (or at least there was no noticeable effect). The bits of the NHS we used were unchanged, the bins got collected and the parks and swimming pools remained open. Some people were affected, that's true. A lot of public sector jobs went, as did a lot of public spending, but a huge amount of this was waste. I remember having an argument with a friend who worked for the local council (she kept her job) about the closing of a youth club. Her point was how bad it was for the community, my point was if it was that important then keep it running without the handouts - i.e. take some ownership and organise it without the council's money. If there's no drive or appetite to run it privately, why do you assume the tax payer should fund it? So all in all, despite the BBC telling us night after night that the end of the world was nigh, very little actually happened of any real consequence to a lot of people in the UK. Sure, it hit some people extremely badly, but as a percentage it's a lot less than people who were unaffected. Australia will survive... Actually, with poxy 2 bed flat in the part of Melbourne we live in costing north of $1M, it'll be very welcome.

Gulp! As a first place to visit abroad, Melbourne is one of the easiest ones for a British person. My suggestion is hire a car and go out and see Victoria. It's wonderful. Great Ocean Road, Mornington Peninsular, Philip Island, Wilsons Prom, Yarra Valley, Dandenong Ranges. All within a day trip. Have a look in Time Out to see specfically what's on. You're coming at the right time of year too. You'll think "hmmm, this is nice and warm" when it's 20C, then it just gets warmer and sunnier for the next four to five months.

We took the Sevenseas insurance at about a hundred quid. It doesn't insure you for damages though, only loss of he cube. Pack it well and you'll be fine. All that got broken for us was one crappy old photo frame and we had wine glasses, crystal, porcelain etc packed in. Use loads of bubble wrap and box everything fragile and you're laughing.

Depends on what you mean by homophobia really. In Melbourne there's no issues as it's a very cosmopolitan and tolerant place. There's a huge festival in St Kilda each year that's well received and no-one is going to take much notice about two men being in a relationship. What you will find here though is people are a bit less politically correct, and I say that in a good way. Anyway, good for you for adopting a child. I take my hat off to people like you.

Looking forward to seeing Nigel Farage's bottom lip wobbling at about 3pm tomorrow afternoon!

We used to get the occasional ready meal from Waitrose on a Friday night back in the UK. However, we took one look at the ones in Coles and Woolies and were determined we'd never buy them. I work in the food industry and you'd be surprised what junk goes in to the cheaper end products. All starch, fat and salt.

Much cheaper (and healthier) to make your own though... Ever wondered where those two horses from last year's Melbourne Cup ended up?!?

That's not correct. You are still liable for tax on your UK earning. However, if you do PAYE you will have withheld tax based on your projected earning from April to April. Therefore, your total earning up to the date of departure would have overpaid your tax bill at that point (as your free pay amount would have been calculated on 12 months not 6 months). Tax residency in Australia will apply after six months, so the AU tax liability will get backdated to the date of entry (October), which will be no problem as there are no UK earnings beyond this date. So, when she submits her tax return to HMRC in 2016 she a rebate of some of the tax paid. She will also need to declare her overseas earning on the AU tax submission in 2016 and have them credit back the tax paid in the UK. Tax is an absolute nightmare here in Australia. Completely ridiculous and bureaucratic and best done through a good accountant.

In all honesty, I have to agree with the other posts on here that you're being unrealistic. As a new migrant, it's a huge leap of faith to assume you'll get a 95% LTV mortgage. If you are being offered this, what interest rates are you being quoted? Normally, anything under a 20% deposit needs an additional guarantee payment on top of your deposit and you'll pay much higher interest to offset the risk the bank is taking on you. Unfortunately, $65K is a pretty modest salary here. The average wage may be quoted as something like $50K, but that also includes lots of people who live at home, flat share or have a spouse earning more. You'll be left with under $4K a month after tax and you'll need to stump up at least $1K a month on normal living expenses, $500 on bills, $500 to keep a car on the road, $200 on medical insurance (or pay the same in the Medicare Levy Supplement), so take out your mortgage payment and you're likely already in the red before you've even begun to do anything outside the basics. It's a bloody expensive place. Sorry if this is harsh, but better to hear the truth now than six months in to a mortgage you can't afford.

Ouch! That's a lot of money.

Depends... The thing to remember about IT jobs is there's no real value or money to be earned doing the technical side of things. Anything that can get outsourced and off-shored generally does. This isn't unique to Australia. Where the money and demand is greater is for people who can manage these outsourced relationships. So things like Project Management, Service Delivery and Business Analysis are better skills to have than, for example programming skills. It's a bit of a cliche, but programmers, developers and support people are ten a penny in places like India. However, getting them to do what the business requires is where the skill comes in - i.e. designing the functional spec rather than coding. If you've experience as a PM or BA and can translate what the business wants in to something tangible you're definitely in demand, not just here in Australia, but in the UK, US etc. I've 20 years experience in IT and my best advice is if you don't particularly like IT you'll get on much better in your career than someone who does - i.e. IT is a means to an end for most companies, not the reason they are there. Push yourself more towards the business side and away from licking the wires if you want better job opportunities.

Nah. Customs inspectors are not looking for crumbs in your toaster. More important things to do. However, you should clean them properly to avoid mould.

It's not got cold yet though - what do you pay in June-Sept?

I think you are way off to be honest. Take in to account that all Australian houses are Jerry built and concepts like double glazing and insulation don't occur to people here. As an example, we live in a 4 bed house, there's three of us and we're pretty energy conscious, yet our bills are $180 a month electricity and up to $700 every two months for gas. Even in summer this is $100. Also, don't assume that because you're looking at a new house in Point Cook it'll be any more energy efficient that a rickety old house. Houses here are not built for the long haul. They put up a McMansion in about 6 months, basically a wooden frame with some panels nailed on to it, badly rendered over; then ten years later the house is falling to pieces, so they rip it down and build another one to the same poor standards. As an example of the lunacy here, Melbourne can be really cold in winter, yet our house has three inch gaps at the top of all the bathroom and toilet windows. All that covers them is an insect screen. The heat just poured out until we boxed them off. Same with ventilation bricks. We have 12 on a house built circa 1980 with no open flames. Completely unnecessary - all now boxed off. Don't expect your central heating or water heating to be efficient either. Things like condensation boilers are unknown in Australia. We have a big water tank that sits there sucking up money whether we need the hot water or not. The same with the heating - no-one has radiators, it's all ducted heating, which quickly heats up the house, but does nothing to retain it. The irony is this is the same country that introduced the carbon tax, yet people here are truly clueless about energy conservation. So, slap on a tax which kills your economy to be green, yet do nothing to actually reduce the energy you consume. Nicely summed up by the soon to be defunct Australian car industry. Why build an energy efficient car, when you can shoe horn a 6 litre V8 in to a Holden Commodore? And they wonder why no-one else in the world wants them! For reference, our bills in the UK (4 bed semi) were something like 80 pounds a month combined. Then again we had double glazing, loft insulation, doors that actually fit the frames and so on...

Hi - I've got asthma and passed the medical without any issues. I can't guarantee it won't be an issue, but the medical is not as strict as you might think. Are you currently in Australia?

If you love the UK that much, why don't you live there? You also claim "Cameron is selling the NHS". Care to elaborate here? The introduction of PFIs in to the NHS was done by the last Labour government. Private provision of service in the NHS is not the same as selling the NHS!

All beef in Australia is pretty good. What's noticeable here is the cheaper end is still high quality. For example, we often buy "chuck on the bone" for stews and casseroles. Needs to be cooked a long time, but it's full of flavour and very tender. We pay $5 a kilo for it - hardly any fat either. For a treat we'll have some rib eye with the bone in. Never pay more than $20 a kilo and it's amazing. Same with legs of lamb and chicken. Provided you don't eat any fruit or veg you're quids-in! A great place to be on the Atkins diet!

Mentone is fine, but I agree it's a bit quiet and boring. However, if you genuinely like living in London you're probably in the wrong Australian city. Sydney is a lot more like London, with all the positives and all the drawbacks.

The comment was more about house out in the sticks now costing seven figures. I'm sure South Frankston is fine, I just wouldn't want to live an hour away from the city centre and pay $1M+

A million dollars to live in Frankston? Gulp!!

Do you find Aldi here is pretty crappy compared to the UK though? We don't shop there any more as we got sick of the overall poor quality. Aldi in the UK is great - some very good quality stuff, but here we noticed the quality was a lot lower. Meat, veg and dairy are noticeably a lot worse in my opinion.