thejeffreysinscotland

Thanks Sully. I hope you are settling in well to life in Canberra and getting ready for your family to join you. I assume you have found a house in Franklin which also looks a nice area. We arrive in Canberra next Tuesday so will be looking around the areas as soon as we are unpacked! Thanks for the info on Bonner primary - surprised to hear it is only half built. Will check it out next week. Thanks again ​

We are moving to Canberra next weekend and are considering/looking at rentals around the Bonner area. I know a new primary school opened in February in Bonner and I was wondering if anyone has heard from parents/children as to the facilities, teaching so far. I realise it is early days but was just wondering if there was any feedback yet. ​

We fly out this Saturday with Emirates and have the 45kg weight allowance. We were exactly the same as you ie joined with ANZ to get the one way migrating flight price and additional baggage allowance using a link from ANZ. When we got the e tickets it too stated 30kgs so I rang customer services who said they were unaware of this offer - I asked to speak with a supervisor and gave them the url link which came via ANZ to show them that they do indeed have a landing page for this specific offer. With that they could not argue and upon us sending via email copies of all our visas we received an email acknowledging that we did indeed have the 45kg weight allowance. This is all printed off and will be produced at check in so they cannot deny. Good luck and I hope you too get your justified weight allowance

Thanks everyone for the advice you've given us. Feeling slightly less worried now. My only worry is that we'll fall in love with a house but won't get it due to the competition having all the info and references on their applications - hey ho that's life I suppose. What I have got from reading your posts is that we still have a very good chance of getting a rental - thank god! Can anyone tell me if the month of May is a quieter time in general for rentals? We will be looking in Canberra so unsure if that makes any difference?

We arrive in Brisbane on the 29th April staying with family and move down to Canberra on the 10th May where we are staying in a central hotel for 10 days. We intend to fly down to Canberra prior to that to get the ball rolling and try to secure a rental for the four of us with the hope of moving in mid May. I have been taking a look at the estate agents websites and their renting section, downloading their application forms which has now worried me slightly. They are wanting info on previous rental agencies you've been with which we do not have as we have always owned our properties so we fall down there immediately! How can we get around this? I have emailed the solicitor who dealt with the sale of our house to ask him if he would write a reference letter regarding our house sale - will this hold any weight???? We are on a 190 visa and the husband has yet to get employment (I am bringing my business with me so will be able to show funds coming in) and he is the main applicant. We therefore do not have verification of an employer and income for him as yet. Any suggestions how we get around this? What we will have is money in the bank that would show we could financially make the rental payments for a year or more - would this suffice over employment?? We have no problem getting references all of which are from "professionals" and we have statements for our old mortgage of 10 years that shows we never missed a payment aswell as utility bills and council tax. We will bring all this out with us but does anyone know if this will be enough for us to compete in getting a good rental?? Anyones advice, experience and knowledge would be greatly received!!!

Many thanks for providing this info MaryRose02. What is most obvious is that we will need to secure a rental as soon as poss after we land so that we have a residential address to show them so that we can get the car registered - I assume staying at the Crowne Plaza will not be sufficient ;-). I can feel the stress levels rising all ready.

Hi My car is currently in transit and will be arriving in Sydney in a couple of weeks time. I already have my Vehicle Import Approval and have paid the quarantine inspection fee. What I am struggling to find information on is what needs to be done once the car arrives and how do get it registered tobe able to drive it away etc. If anyone has any experience or help it would be much appreciated

Hi Rachhart - we are arriving on the 10th May in Canberra, staying at one of the cities hotels for the first 10 days. We have a 9 year old daughter aswell as a 7 year old boy and are also planning to look at the areas you mentioned. Bonner also has a new primary school which I am interested to learn more about. It would be great to hear how you get on when you arrive.

Thanks Sunshine for the great news - we will definetly take a trip to Woolies and Gold Creek. I was interested to hear you can bring food into the country as I had been told by those that watch the Australian Custom programmes on Sky that you couldn't bring any form of food in your luggage into the country. If thats not the case, I'll be bringing a stash of chocolate - again for the kids ofcourse to keep them happy ;-). If anyone has any orders let me know.

Thanks Wendee for the invite. We will definetly come up and have a look around.

Thanks Blooroo that is great and I will certainly call them when we arrive. My daughter is used to the whole horse care experience which I believe is the way it should be so they learn all about horses and how to care for them. Thanks again.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post. This has been so informative and with only 6 weeks to go until we fly - it is all becoming so much more real. We are feeling very positive about the move and are looking forward to settling asap. Finding a good rental is my main worry - as you said there are some shockingly awful rentals that I see nightly on the websites and right now the brand new homes up in Bonner seem rather appealing. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are staying in a hotel for the first 10 days when we arrive with the plan and hope to try and secure a rental within that time - wish me luck!!! I have read so much about the areas but I think I just need to get in the car and start driving around as soon as we land. The car leaves us this Friday to join our furniture in the container so fingers crossed it arrives safely and clears customs easily. As our house sold and the visas came through in the same week we have moved to suffolk to stay with Granny until we leave. The kids had to then go to the local village school and have since made great friends and are now loathe to leave this school aswell - feel awful taking them out yet again to then move to Canberra where hopefully we will get them settled into a good primary. I am so pleased for you that you were able to find a good rental that took dogs - I have not really allowed myself to think too much about my girls with all that is going on but I know they are now happy and settled in their new home which is all I can ask. Does anyone know of some good stables that my 9 year old daughter could go to as she will want to get started asap and can't normally go a week without being in the saddle!! We can't believe how bad the exchange rate is and are trying not to think about what the rate will be when we take the plunge and transfer our funds over. Yes, I have already decided not to compare £ to $ but as long a the wine is not too expensive I will be happy :biggrin:. One question, do you get Cadbury chocolate? Not for me, for the kids naturally. Thank you for your kind offer to provide us with any help - I may well take you up on the offer and I will ofcourse get some macaroon for you to keep you going for a while!

We opened up a bank account recently with ANZ who have a special offer with Emirates. We have just booked our flights from London to Brisbane via Dubai and have qualified for the 45kg baggage allowance and slightly cheaper air fare. The only issue is you cannot do a stopover with this offer. I would contact ANZ as to whether it is available for those in Dublin.

Hi Ben, Thank you so much for taking the time to post. This is really informative for us and I've taken onboard all you've said. We are considering moving to the north side and will need to start looking at areas and schools shortly. Our house sale goes through next Friday, packers arrive this coming Tuesday, the dogs have very sadly been rehomed (but I hear are really happy there even though we are missing them so much) and we fly out at the end of April when the adventure really starts! I may well take you up on your offer for further advice in the coming months!! Thanks again Pamela

Hi Bazinga Thank you so much for all this advice which I have taken on board along with everyone else's. It is so good to hear from people who have already experienced what we are planning which is quite overwhelming but makes me feel better reading all your posts. Our current plan is to stay a week in a hotel in Canberra (have lots of hotel points to use up so will help a little with costs) where we can get over jet lag and start to find our way around. We then plan to move into furnished accommodation for 4 weeks - do you think this is long enough to find a rental in this time or will we need longer in the short term rental? Does anyone know on average how long it takes to secure a rented 3 bed house? Thanks again for all your help