DAVIDSON 4

Hi, we are moving back to the UK and have some furniture for sale leather suite for $250. The 2 seater is 1850mm long and the 3 seater is 1850mm long. Both are 960mm deep. The suite is very good condition. (available immediately) top loader washing machine - 4 months old. $350 (cost $600) (available Tues 29th) fridge freezer - 2 months old $700 (cost $1200) (available Tues 29th) outside table and 4 matching chairs - aluminium $50 (available immediately) 2 double bed frames and mattresses (4 months old) $200 each (available immediately) box of dishes, mugs, baking trays, tea, coffee and sugar jars, kettle - $40 (available immediately) Everything would need to be uplifted by Tuesday 29th Jan Thanks for looking If anyone is interested, please PM me

Hi, we move back to uk in a week and have 2 leather sofas for sale. There is a 2 seater (1850mm long) and a 3 seater (2130mm long). Both are 960mm wide. We are in Cleveland. $250 for the two. Very good condition.

Hi Diane, I have sent you a PM. We are in the same boat

Hi, i would advise not coming on a 457 visa. We did, only to find out that my husbands company had no intention of keeping him on after 6 months (only found this out the day before the 6 months ended). Turns out it was cheaper for them to bring us out and get all the systems in place for the job as they had no-one to do this. We are now in our 28 day notice period to leave the country and it isnt easy trying to find work to stay, organising a move that you dont want to do and consoling 2 teenqagers and a dog who have only been here 3 months. We are down by more than £30k which will rise once we have paid for everything to go home. We have heard of this happening to quite a few others, some who have lost their job before their container even arrived. Dont let this put you off coming to Oz. Oz is fantastic and we would love to stay. Just be prepared and make sure you have sufficient money to get home if the visa doesnt work out. As for schooling, Queensland are the only state i believe that give free schooling for 457 visa holders (apart from contributions). Some other states can be quite high fees. I know people who are cheaper sending their kids to private schools rather than state schools. If you plan your trip you can manage in the timescale you have. We came out for a 5 day rekkie as it was all the time we had. Hope all goes well

Hi My OH moved on a 457 and we followed 3 months later. We set up base in one town and he does FIFO (Fly in fly out) a month at a time. Can i just say to make sure that you know everything about 457. My OH job is under threat and we will have no option but to leave the country if this happens. You need to make sure you have sufficient money to pay for all your belongings, animals, etc to get back to the UK. The company only has to pay for flights. The month you are given before the visa is cancelled is not a long time to find another job with sponsorship. Dont want to put you off, as we love Australia, but we now know of quite a few people that this has happened to. Luckily we can just about afford to ship everything home but know of others who cant. Heres hoping it doesnt happen.

Hi Cleveland has a nice beach at Raby Bay. About 30mins drive to brisbane. On the train line too, with a regular service. Plenty of other smallish towns in this area that are definately commutable to brisbane.

Hi, fed ex will move the equivalent of 3 large suitcases for £400 door to door and it only takes 2 weeks max.

Hi, we were £4,500 for a 20ft container from Scotland to Brisbane. We went with Crown relocations and had an excellent service. They included all fees, so there was no AQIS fees to pay at Brisbane. We had 3 quotes and they were all in the region of £4500 to £5000.

Hi We will be coming on Sunday. Amy is definately coming and Sarah is hoping to come. The kids will be bringing their swimming stuff too. Amy is 14 and loves company and is looking forward to meeting your daughter. They managed to start school as soon as we arrived in October so it made a big diffrfence with meeting people before the summer holidays. Looking forward to seeing everyone again. Morag

Hi, i would leave behind the tumble drier and bring my extra fridge/freezer. Even when its raining the clothes dry quickly in the garage. Pack toiletries in every little space. Quite expensive but it also gets you started for a while when you have a lot of other outlays like schools, cars, etc.

Crown relocations is their full title. www.crownrelo.co.uk

Forgot to say that Crown include AQIS fees in their price. Most others dont and you have to pay this over here. Sometimes that is the difference in the prices quoted. They also have a depot at the docks so this avoids transporting your goods to a customs warehouse then a depot for delivery.

We had a brilliant service with Crown from Carnoustie all the way through to Brisbane. We cleared customs exceptionally fast with no extra fees. Everything was in the same condition as when it was packed. We liked the fact that Crown can offer their own service all the way. No sub-contractors at this end. Everything that they promised, they delivered. Worth haggling a little on the price. We did and got a slight discount.

We offered to pay 4 months rent up front and this really helped us to get the house we wanted

Hi, we had a lovely time. Really nice to meet some new people and everyone was very welcoming.

Hi, my 2 girls are at a Qld state high school and dont pay any fees for international students. They pay the same as everyone else - student resource fees $270 each, laptop hire $200 each, booklist $150 each. These are prices for years 10 and 11 and for the subjects that my girls take. Its cheaper for junior or primary years. You also need to budget plenty for uniforms as they are expensive compared to the UK. I was over $1000 for the 2 uniforms.If you can bring over black leather enclosed shoes/trainers you will save a fortune as they are much cheaper in the Uk but are compulsory here. Uniform policy is very strict in all schools that i looked at. I've also heard about a parental contribution that is to be paid, but i havnt been asked for that from the school as yet so dont know how much that will be. Subjects can be quite different from the Scottish education system, but my 2 love the choice that they have and have found themselves doing subjects that really interest them rather than ones they had to do (eg) french, german, etc. I was worried about them settling into a new school at 14 and 16 yrs of age, but they have settled in really fast and made friends already. Any other queries please just ask and i will try to help or find out if i dont know. We have only bveen here 7 weeks so everything is quite new and it can be quite daunting. Morag

Hi, our container arrived and was cleared customs within 10 weeks. Crown have a depot at Brisbane docks (not sure about Melbourne) and we got our container much quicker than others that were all due at the same time. Not sure if we were just lucky or if crown are highly regarded by AQIS. Not one box or item in our container was opened or checked and we brought a lot of tools, etc. Good luck

Hi Jon, we moved to Cleveland in October (about 5 mins from Mount Cotton). There is a football club with teams for all ages and both sexes called Redlands United. They have a website. They are based in Cleveland but people from all over the redlands area train and play. Cleveland State High School also have a soccer academy if you have any teenagers looking for a team. Not sure about cycling clubs but there are loads of people out cycling so there must be clubs around. Plenty of cycle shops about too Anything else i can help you with, please just ask Morag

Hi Sarah We have just moved from Carnoustie to Brisbane and used Crown relocations. Excellent service. Same advice that other have given. Pack stuff inside other stuff (cutlery in jugs, egg cups in bread box, bedding in underbed storage, towels in linen baskets). This saved us having to fork out for a 40ft container. We even left dvds in the bookcases on removal companies recommendation. I can also recommend Kilmarnock removals (as a Killie girl originally, our family have used them on many occasions and my old neighbour works for them) Morag

Plenty to choose from here but i filled a box with them and included it in my container due to the cost.

Hi, myself and 2 teenage daughters would like to come and join you. Arrived mid October and dont know many people yet. What makes it worse is that hubby is working away for a month at a time so finding things to do and people to meet is proving harder than we thought. My daughter will wear her bright orange Dundee United top so we should be pretty easy to spot. If anyone sees us, give us a shout (we will probably be lost)

Crowns price included the AQIS fee, but i know other quotes we got stated that we had to pay for it when our container cleared quarantine. I'm not sure if we actually got told how much it was and i tried to find the paperwork but i have filed it away and for the life of me cant remember where it is

Hi, i havnt heard of the company you are mentioning, but i have had a very positive experience with crown relocations. We did not have a lot of time to get organised and they were able to get a container packed and onto a boat in no time at all. They have sole use containers and seem able to get the containers onto boats leaving Grangemouth at least weekly.

We bought loads of new summer clothes and shoes at the end of summer in the uk for our move. Just take all the labels off and remove any original packaging and you should be ok. None of our stuff was even opened. I would definately bring them with you as trainers, etc are quite expensive here

We used Crown from Scotland and they were great. We managed to condense everything into a 20ft container by packing everything that had space in it with smaller stuff (eg) linen baskets with towels, jugs with cutlery, quilts into underbed storage drawers, chest of drawers with bedding, clothes, etc, flatpacking anything that could be flatpacked, keeping dvds in bookcases, etc. We eventually saved over 300cubic feet.