Croft

Make that almost zero insulation. In the UK it get's below 16/17 you turn on the central heating and leave it there for winter. Here there isn't that option so it's 6 degrees outside, it's 6 degrees inside. However, it doesn't stay that way and it'll climb to about 19-21 in the depths of winter during the day. You'll need duvets, pyjamas, dressing gowns etc, but during the day a light jacket and long trousers is perfectly sufficient, and by mid-morning you're likely to be back to short sleaves.. I know plenty of people who do continue to wear shorts year round. They just put up with being a bit cold in the morning. Don't forget winter is dry season here.

Under 12 months? I take it things really haven't worked out.

You may think it's mercenary, I am looking towards the future and opportunities not only for ourselves but also for our child, just like my parents did. My parents still travel extensively so even when we were in the UK we did not see them often. People have different situations, and I know that my parents not only have my sister but also the financial ability to be comfortable. For me it is more important to be somewhere where I'm not having to travel 1.5 hrs each way to get to way and can spend time with my family, even if it's not my parents. All our situations differ - it's just how it's panned out for us. Just edited to add, I was surprised that I could get flights so easily and I realise it probably isn't so easy at other times of the year. We have a good sized contingency fund, both here in Australia and back in the UK, for these kind of emergencies. Again, I realise this is not a situation most people would have. The point I was trying to make was that compared to 30, 40 years ago when it would have been inconceivable to return, now it is possible at a fraction of the comparable cost it would have been when I was growing up.

While Australia has benefited us, one of the main drivers has been the benefits it offers our child and our time with him. We are looking to the future, just like my parents did. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, moved to Spain after her daughters had left home so I guess you could say it was for herself. Her choice is the one thing that gives us concern being on the other side of the world, so it's not always about the child 'abandoning' the parent. Come to think of it, my paternal grandfather, after generations had farmed in the same area around Darlington, joined the RAF and moved away. That makes me a 3rd generation nomad I guess!

I worked on a Government IT project back in the UK and I was told that you don't actually need a passport to get into the UK, just a way of proving who you are and that you have the right to enter the UK. Of course, a passport is the easiest way to do this. Now Australia does say you have to leave and enter on an Aussie passport but I've known people in situations like yours who've managed to get out and back in again, admittedly with a bit of hassle attached. The problem is the airlines, who have to ensure that you are eligible to enter Australia otherwise they have to foot the cost of repatriating you. If you front up without a visa or passport, they have to get hold of immigration to see if they'll take you and with time zone differences that can be a real problem. I'd play safe and get a same day passport here before you fly.

My parents-in-law were going to emigrate to Canada when they were young in the late 60s. His mother fell 'ill', and they decided to stay to look after her. She lived for another 40 years. I've heard other stories like this and I sometimes wonder, and please don't think I believe this is the situation in the majority of cases, if there is a touch of emotional blackmail going on. Perhaps I'm being too harsh?

I've been considering your and others post. The point has been made that in the past it was a one way trip. You had no option to to go back. My parents spent virtually their entire working lives as expats (and still do travel extensively in the 70s as my Dad keeps on getting contracts in the Middle and Far East). They took me abroad in 1970, pre the UK entry into the EC. At one point we were living in the near Marseille - 1972 and a two year waiting list for a landline. No TGV. No Autoroute. It was almost a different continent let alone country from northern France. It took several days for word to get to my Dad, by telegram, that his Father had died in the UK, then several more days to get a flight back (air travel was nowhere near as pervasive). You had to book international phone calls with the operator and often even then you'd be connected to the wrong number. My childhood was spent remote from our family so, to me, our move to Australia is almost normal. Even when we were living in the UK our family lived all over, so it was actually difficult to visit and the only time we got together was for Weddings and Funerals. Compared to my childhood communication with relatives on the other side of the world is orders of magnitude easier, and flights are regular and relatively inexpensive. A quick look on Skyscanner gives me plenty of flights leaving over the next few hours back to the UK in the low $900 range (one way), and in the high $1600s if I'm prepared to book a return on a definite date. This is incredibly cheap by comparison (and considering the distance) and relatively plentiful. The issue of course is if your parents require ongoing care. Fortunately for my parents there were siblings who lived close to their parents to be able to provide that kind of support. For me, my sister, at 41, still lives at home (and shows zero inclination of leaving) so it'll be down to her. The bigger worry is my mother-in-law who in 1998 chose to move to a remote part of southern Spain with her partner who has since died. It was that which opened our eyes to how different the Spanish healthcare and legal system is, and how mercenary many locals and expat Brits can be when someone dies. We have had to say that it is her choice to be there and hopefully she has put in provision to take care of herself if she does get poorly. Unfortunately she is a soft touch for animals and hard luck stories and has a near menagerie at her rented property. We have tried to convince her to come to Australia (she absolutely refuses to go back to the UK) but she won't leave without her animals and that would be prohibitively expensive (horses, dogs, cats, ducks, chickens etc etc).

There's 2 ways of getting your TV to work here. 1. Don't try and just retune the TV when you get here - it won't pick up anything. Do a complete reset from the menu (to the point where you can choose the country you are in). Some TVs will actually have Australia listed, otherwise chose Netherlands or Denmark (I think those are the two that are compatible with Australia). Then tune. You will get most channels if not all. 2. If that fails, get a freeview box from somewhere like Big W or JB HiFi. $40 last time I looked. You definitely get all the channels and far cheaper than buying a new TV. As has already been stated, DAB doesn't work over here, only if it's DAB+.

Been looking at this with interest. My parents aren't getting any younger, but I just worked out they were living abroad for all bar one of their parents passing away. They made their decision to look to the future, to my sister than I, than to the past, to the previous generation.

Another thing to do your research carefully on. Depending the time of year your children were born you may find that your children would go into a different school year as the cut-off not only varies from the UK but even nowadays from State to State. For instance in the UK my son would have started school in Sep 14. Here he just started last month (school years run the same calendar years here if you are not aware).

Sorry, just thought I'd pick out a couple of point from your post as you appear to have had a really bad experience. Wow - though I didn't even think Centrelink did this. We went to a local GP and they did it within a few days, all free of charge. I think some Kindys also operate a policy that if your child is not immunised against something and there is an outbreak in the Kindy they have to be taken out immediately - it is not an automatic bar from attending. Top of ours was damaged when we first arrived. Phoned Brisbane City Council who said leave it outside and 3 days later it was repaired. Again, a few days for that but when they came they just connected it up and then didn't tell us even though we were in waiting for them! We were surprised at how poor the staff/child ratio was, from 1:4 to 1:20 I think it was, or something equally horrific. Our 3 year old took a long while to settle, I think mainly because of the lack of personal attention but we wanted him to stay in there to get integrated. A couple of months later though he moved class and got on a lot better with his new teacher. We completely underestimated how much he would miss his friends and his old kindy at such a young age. Also, here in QLD they seem to prefer bare feet and it took ages for my son to accept this having been in the UK with shoes or closed toe sandals! Quality seems to vary incredibly between different places too. Hmm, I was pleasantly surprised how much quality programming there is on here. Some of the unimproved older housing has more traditional layouts. Is that the same in other states? Where were you so I can avoid it?!

I guess gherkin lies the difference with Brisbane, which has no beaches in it's immediate vicinity. Everyone therefore spreads north up to and including the Sunshine Coast or down to the Gold Coast. The traffic can be horrible on the Gold Coast around Surfers Paradise but the beaches are wonderful and I've personally never seen them particularly busy. Same with Noosa. Traffic bad and busy (but not packed) around the flags on the beach, but the rest of the beach was virtually empty.We prefer going up to Bribie Island on the calmer land facing side where we can take our now 5 year old swimming and launch our canoe. No problems parking or on the beach. We did meet some recent expats there once but she could only keep her teenage kids there for half an hour before they wanted to go back to their house and play video games. Sad.

We moved in with my parents for the last couple of weeks before we left. It was disastrous. They kept on telling my wife "it's not too late to change your mind." which really started annoying her. They kept on worrying about our (quite sensible at the time) 3 year old going around the house, constantly saying one of us needed to be watching him even when they were in the room. When we asked for them to look after him for an afternoon so we could pack our bags without interruption it was like we had asked them to move heaven and earth (funnily enough they took him out and had a really good time). When we had last minute hiccups with the hire care that the sponsor was providing to get us to London we got a load of grief and "oh, we would have organised it ourselves and not left it up to them". Same with a problem with a DD charge on our bank account. It proved VERY stressful. Maybe this is what your husband is trying to avoid? During that time we spent a couple of days with my wife's Aunt and husband. Oh, so much more relaxed and I really wish we'd spent the time there!

The Brisbane area rarely reaches 40 (and by rarely I mean not every summer) and if it does it only lasts a day or two. We don't have the blast furnace winds from the centre like the southern cities do. For those looking to come over, be aware that with Medicare there are GPs who charge a gap payment (pay the lot up front, get some back on medicare), but you can also find some who 'bulk bill' (especially for children) so you don't get charged anything. The thing with Medicare is that the government set a rate that they say the medical profession can deliver a service at, and the medical profession say no, and charge you the excess. Up side is that you can get a doctors appointment within an hour or two any day of the week (you can go to any GP or Practise). Even stuff like CT scans and MRIs can often be done the same day (and these are generally bulk billed). I've been to the doctor in the morning and had an MRI at lunch time, all bulk billed. As we got gold plated medical insurance, which we have needed to use, a few months after we got here I can't comment on how Medicare operates in secondary and tertiary care. I have got to say that the NHS is one of the big things that the UK does well, despite all its detractors. It's not until you live abroad that you realise how lucky we were to get cradle to grave care, free at point of delivery, irrespective of income.

With a young child we have found everything is a lot more family orientated. Yes, there are lots of activities in the UK but you have toi pay for them. Here an awful lot of stuff is free. For instance there are 3 artificial lagoons set up in and around Brisbane, all free to use. We went to the free screenings of Christmas movies there before Christmas, staying to watch the nightly fireworks show floating in the lagoon. Brisbane is a busy, cosmopolitan city but within 20 minutes you can be in the hills with not even a hint you're near such a large city. As for work, I've seen little difference. Everyone still works hard but they start earlier and finish earlier. Houses are undoubtedly bigger and you can still get something amazing if you're prepared to travel to work. As everywhere, the closer you get to the centre the more expensive it tends to be, but I do have to remind myself that if I was living in the UK I would be spending a lot more to live in a nice area near the centre of a major city. Private schools are cheaper if you want to send your child there. Even the elite schools are half the price of an equivalent in the UK, while private Catholic schools are incredibly inexpensive. Our circumstances are very different to most people though. My wife was sponsored straight into a well paid job. I retrained over here as a primary school teacher but I'm able to stay as a relief teacher as whatever I bring in pays for the nice extras. We have been extremely fortunate and at the moment are very comfortable. This may change however if we decide to take the plunge and buy a house. While you'd be amazed what you can buy for the money, mortgages here are hideously expensive.

As Quoll says, the Australian one is the priority, as you'll face significant problems trying to get your child on the flight back from the UK to Australia otherwise (ie proving to the airline that they have a right to travel to Australia as their UK passport would not have a visa etc). You may also then face questions as to why they left Australia other than on an Australian passport as they are an Australian citizen. Concurrently you could look at getting the UK passport as it does make travel so much easier in the EU.

Our situation was relatively straightforward admittedly, but we did have our problems (we were caught on the changeover from manual to an online process). Once you start getting into the process I found it reasonably clear with plenty of information available both on the website, with a google search or with an E-mail/phone call to the immigration department themselves. Now if you want the model of a clear, unambiguous and well thought out process take a look at NZ. A paragon of simplicity by comparison.

Hi Jo - have you spoken directly to the APS about the 10 year limit? There seems to be a degree of ambiguity in their FAQ about the matter. There also seems to be an option to do a 4th year plus a Masters to get to the required standard. I would suggest, however, that the partner visa will be far quicker and cheaper to get.

Just to remind you, and I'm sure you're aware, you do not need an agent to help you. You will be providing the same information to the agent that you would have to provide if you did it yourself and the process is designed primarily for you to do it yourself. Having said that many people find agents helpful and can suggest different visa categories and guide your through the process.

We'd never contemplated Australia. A few years ago we has Residency Visas for NZ all set up and activated but by the time we were ready to go and GFC had happened and, with good jobs back in the UK, we felt it was not a good time to go. A few years down the line we were coming to a point where we had to decide whether we'd re-apply for NZ or move in the UK. The main draw for me in NZ was to reduce commute time and better outdoor opportunities. That was when my wife happened to be chatting to someone about Australia, exchanged some E-mails, had an interview and a couple of years later we were in Australia. It was one of those opportunities we couldn't turn down. All Visa and medical fees refunded and flights and a 40ft ISO container with all our worldly goods paid for. We had PR straight off and citizenship 90 days after arrival. With our child only 3 at the time it was a good time to move (or so we thought - we had underestimated how much a 3 year old would miss his friends and Kindy back home). Australia has been good for us. We love Brisbane, my son has settled and has a good set of friends and my wife has a good job with the employer than sponsored us over. I have changed career direction completely and retrained over here. The key thing I always say though is that we had no expectations of Australia. We knew the streets were not paved in gold and it had it's problems. The draw for us was that it was a new opportunity at very little risk to us. Both our parents were also living outside the UK and we'd been used to moving a lot too.

Or not as the case may be. You have an Aussie license now and you're in the Aussie system. Nobody gives two hoots if you have a UK one or not.

Remember, if you do have you ceremony before you go back to the UK you'll need to get an Australian Passport before you leave as your Visa automatically terminates following the ceremony (and they're pretty hot on it). As a citizen, you need to leave Australia on an Australian passport. If you try and leave on a British Passport you may have problems (as your Visa has been terminated), as well as the hassle of trying to get the airline to let you board when you fly back.

In QLD no. You fill ina single side of A4 form, show your UK Driving License (I don't recall if they took a copy or not), they ask you if you need glasses or not to drive, they take your photo, and you select how long you want the license (up to 5 years - the longer you want it, the more you pay). You keep your UK license, and incidentally you do not need to notify DVLA of a change of address if you are moving abroad. Your mileage may vary in other states.

We also bought with a UK license as we needed cars before our Queensland Licenses came through. It was a bit of a hassle and it would have been far simpler with a local license. The other vital card you must get ASAP is your Medicare card. Be warned though, if you are not on a permanent visa you may not be able to get a local license. We have friends in NSW who were only able to get a 6 month one, and here in Queensland you need one(note the use of the word need - I don't know if you can get one voluntarily if you don't fulfill the criteria) if you have been here for 3 months and hold a resident visa which is classified as "a permanent visa or special category visa under the Migration Act 1958 (Commonwealth). These visas allow a person to stay indefinitely in Australia. These do not include temporary, business or guardian visas." Can anyone else comment? As we had PR straight off we had no problems getting a license.

Fantastic Austrial! I went back to my TV and after some experimentation selection "Auto Start-up" on my old Sony. Only then did it give me the choice of selecting another country (I chose the Netherlands) and I got most of the channels. Some it knows are there but says are "not tuned" - our Aussie bought freeview TV gets them now problem. Many, many thanks. I shall make sure I pass this on to other people.