maya12

BigD - My partner went to Uni in England so has a Bachelor of Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering, equivalent to Dipl Ing. Thanks for the info TheStevensFamily, will check out the website. His specialisation is in quality engineering. Where have you settled in Australia?

Glilly65, if it's a 20ft container then it sounds a very good price. The cheapest I've been able to get is £3700 door to door. I would just check all the small print to make sure it's all in order first though. ​

Thanks for this Candygirl, very helpful. This is what concerns me, not knowing what costs lie ahead in Sydney when we get there, hence I'm thinking go with a package now. Would be interested to hear who you've gone with as it sounds like a really good price and, like you, we'd prefer to pack our own things. Is your quote for self load too or just self pack? Perhaps you could PM me the details? Many thanks ​

The cheapest quote we've had for a 20 ft container self pack and load is £1421, from our house to Sydney port. It works out so much cheaper, providing the extras like port charges and a trucker in Sydney aren't too high. I've googled but struggling to find what charges we'll have at the port and how much they cost. Anyone know?

Hi all, we're in the process of getting quotes for shipping to Sydney, and making the decision as to whether we do it ourselves or go for the 'all in' package. It would seem general cost saving is around £1100 which is a big saving, however I'm just wondering how true this is, in terms of 'hidden costs'. For those that have self packed/loaded a 20ft container, what did you roughly spend on packing materials, ie. boxes, bubble wrap, strapping for the container etc? What about fees in Australia and costs of transporting contents of the container from the port to your home? These are the costs I'm concerned may quite easily swallow up much of the cost saving, making it not worth the extra effort. Would be grateful to hear any of your experiences please.

Sorry Katy, just read the rest of the thread and realised you've explained it all already, thanks. Will give them a call.

Hi Katy, Would you mind telling me which company you're using (can PM me if prefer) as we're looking into self packing for our move in September. Many thanks

Hi all, We are moving to Sydney in September and have my parents visiting in Dec/Jan. My Dad, an avid cricket fan has already discovered the ashes tour will be in Sydney in Jan and of course he'd love to go and watch the Poms thrash the Aussies-his words not mine :-) I'm after some advice about whether its best to buy tickets in UK or Oz and when they become available. Any other tips would be greatly appreciated thanks.

I'd also be really interested to hear more about self packing as it seems so much cheaper so definitely worth consideration.

That's good to hear, thank you. He'll be attending a state school. Hopefully he'll also settle in well.

Hi all, apologies if this has already been covered but just wondering how best to prepare my 9 year old for school when we move over in September. Is the curriculum very different? What languages are taught in NSW schools? Is there anything anyone would suggest I start to do with him to prepare him for new subjects etc. What about PE, roughly how much time do they spend doing sport each week. Lots of questions I know but but will look forward to some responses. Thanks

I'm with HSBC .

I've just notified my lender as we're renting our house out for a year or two. It was no problem to stay on the same mortgage deal, thek a just sending me a letter confirming the house will be rented. It will be reviewed annually and at some point they make request a change to buy to let. We just need to change insurance to buildings only.

Hi there, will look out for you on the Facebook group as I'm looking to meet families with older children also for my son who's 9. He'd love to be in touch with kids his own age before we head over in September as he has very mixed feelings about going. Is your eldest a boy or girl? How do they feel about going?

Hello! We are also heading to Sydney. Flights booked for September. No jobs to go to yet and no idea where we'll live but exciting all the same :-) Keep in touch, it will be good to hear your progress.

Hello All We are moving to Sydney in September on a PR visa obtained through my job as a nurse. My partner is a qualified engineer and as I am on maternity leave currently, he will be the first one to look for a job. I'd like to ask for advice from anyone who may know what sort of opportunities there are for qualified mechanical engineers, where the most jobs are, do you need to have skills recognised in Australia before being able to work etc. From what little research we've done so far, a lot of the engineering jobs, particularly automotive which is his area, are in Melbourne rather than Sydney. My partner is a native German speaker, which has helped in his current job whose main customer is Audi. Again, it seems German cars aren't as popular in Australia so there may not be the opportunities there for him which would make him more marketable to a company. It's a bit early yet to start applying for jobs so just thought I'd get some views or pointers from this site first. Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Hi Jules and Polly I'd also be interested in keeping in touch as we will be arriving in Sydney in September and plan to settle around the upper north shore area. We have 3 children, aged 9, 2 and 4 months. I know the early days will be quite lonely so would love to get to know a few people in the same boat beforehand. Melissa :-)

Hi, I bet it does all seem real with furniture about to go. Are you planning to rent for a while first? Have you secured jobs yet? We're also considering the hills area so will be interested to hear how you find it.

Hi, thanks very much for the info, it's given us a few more things to think about and areas to consider. We would be looking to be based away from the hustle and bustle of city life but close enough to get the train in on a weekend. I wouldn't want anywhere too remote so the north shore/northern beaches area seems a perfect choice- except when you get down to the cost of houses there. I think if we're looking northern beaches, it could well be a beach shack we can just about affoard! I've seen a few people mention Cronulla so we'll definitely be looking south when we arrive. Like you say, it would be helpful to find a job first before committing to an area as we really wouldn't want a long commute. However it seems to be quite hard from what I've read for people to secure jobs before emigrating (unless sponsored). Maybe we need to focus more on this first and then build our search areas around potential work. It's good to hear that your children are open to the move, albeit the concern about leaving family behind. My eldest son, Thomas is 9 and he's got quite mixed views about the move. He's also concerned about leaving family and friends behind but I think he'll adjust really well. We'll have to keep in touch as if we end up in roughly the same area, it would be nice to meet up, especially if we have boys the same age.

Thank you so much for the information. I'll certainly have a look at the website to get a better idea of how the various schools are doing. We have a 175 visa so I believe that public schooling would be free and this would be our preferred choice. We're going to do an online search of areas in Sutherlandshire and then also north Suburbs as these are areas we'd like to focus on. I think final decision will have to rest on where we are able to find work and also where we get the better feel for in terms of meeting our requirements once we get to Sydney and are able to look around properly. Really appreciate your help and will be in touch once we're a bit further down the line with areas we want to concentrate on.

Hello SydneyAnne How do you know if a school is more sport or more academic focused? We are moving to Sydney in September and are at the point of deciding on areas to look at closely. School's would be a big factor for us in determining where we settle. I have no idea about the school system in Sydney as yet so any advice would be welcomed. Many thanks

Thanks for that Tallie. So which areas are you looking at? I've heard the south is nice but can be very quiet. Its very hard trying to narrow it down when you've never visited an area and I very much need to get a feel for a place. How old are your children and are they boys or girls? My son has very mixed feelings about going so I really want to pick an area that he'll settle in too.

Hello to everyone who has posted on this thread. We are heading to Sydney in September- flights booked last week (exciting but very scary!). We have 3 children, aged 9, 2 and 3 months. Would love to keep in touch with you all as it's so good to hear other people's plans and experiences and of course to have some familiar faces once we get to Sydney. Talieandtribe- would love to hear more about your reccie of the northern beaches area as we would like to be around the Frenchs Forest / Belrose area but haven't had the opportunity to look at the areas in person. I spent a year in Sydney 10 years ago staying in Seaforth so know the Northern Beaches to a certain extent but I'm sure a lot has changed since then. We have no jobs to go to as yet so are taking a huge gamble but hopefully it will work out ok. Thanks and will continue reading this thread with interest.

Thanks for your response Rupert. We've picked the areas we like before finding work which is a little daring but hopeful we'll find something fairly local. My partner is a mechanical quality engineer working in the automotive industry so we're hoping he'll find something along those lines. He currently works for a German company, and being German himself, the bilingual skills come in very handy. Our dream would be to find a German company that need a quality engineer in Sydney!! Is there more industry north or south of Sydney as we need to think about where he is most likely to find work. So far, our searches are indicating that there's not a great deal in Sydney and that Melbourne would be the place to go but we really want to give Sydney a go. Thanks.

We are going in September. We got allocated a case officer shortly after I found out I was pregnant so we had to delay proceedings. However as soon as our daughter was born in October we recommenced. For us, the first contact we had with a case officer was to request we proceed with medicals and police checks. Checks took 2 weeks, results from medicals were completed in 10 days and we were granted our visas a week after that, so very quick!! You may not have long to wait ...