Red Rose

There is something peculiar about Perth. I lived there for two years and really struggled with the people and others had similar experiences to me. Not just ex-pats but Aussies from Eastern states struggled with to fit in and make friends. You hear it so often on this forum too. I don't think these people are outliers, they are noticing something about the place that stands out to them. I personally noticed an undercurrent of aggression with people there, not sure wny. I can't talk about my experiences in other cities except for Sydney which I found so much friendlier. I will always love Sydney. 

4 hours ago, Chortlepuss said:

I came over after I got a job here In Brisbane. I was on a 457 Visa so a dodgy thing to uproot my family. After a few years, my company sponsored me for PR (lucky because by that time I was too old so ‘special’ case made). Hubby got a job he loved, kids got settled and they all grew to like it here. I always wanted to come here & feel really lucky to have got citizenship. I loved it at first with a passion! But it was never meant to be forever - I love my pubs, National Trust buildings, gardens, cathedrals, the countryside European travel and the quiet (despite not much to do in Brisbane it is never quiet!). I’m still close to my family and lifelong friends at home and chat often. And now I’m stuck here. Only myself to blame. I made us come! Unemployed - at 58 I’m probably never going to work in IT again as I’m ‘overqualified’. I’m so lucky cos investments & hubby’s work means that we can have an OK life here although we’re not rich . When I overthink it, I’m puzzled that I’ve allowed myself to get trapped in a place with no real friends, no work and not even able to be outside much cos it’s too hot! I don’t really like driving yet I have to drive every day to the pool, the gym, the shops, the GP etc. In my village in the UK in the South Downs most things I needed were just a short potter away, and I got to listen to birds and spend time in the countryside instead of constant traffic, DIY, or building noise.....I can’t imagine growing old here, it’s just crept up on me....I feel so daft for not having a proper exit plan - if we’d stayed out four years and returned, we’d have had nothing but brilliant memories of Australia....

The south downs is beautiful. Was your village anywhere near Lewes?

3 hours ago, Snoozy said:

Hi ali, No I've never been before. In 78, I knew nothing about Australia. I came with my son and ex husband who had been here before and loved it, and assured me I would too. I have tried so many things, joined groups etc. I just feel I have never fitted in here, and Aussies are not so friendly. Sorry, that's been my experience. I've never been able to afford to move back without some help. My family were not welcoming to the idea of me coming home to them again. 

Sounds like you have lived a lifetime in Perth. Has it changed for the better since you arrived in 78? Are there parts of Perth / WA you do still like?

Look at what people say about the quality of life in Perth on the numbeo site, it’s pretty enlightening  

I love Australia, but if you keep scratching the surface there is just not as much underneath as the UK. I don't want to use the word sterile, but I just don't think it has as much depth as the UK. I had to live away from the UK for 10 years to realise how much I actually took it for granted. 

On 18/09/2020 at 06:51, SeanCRM said:

At a real crossroads now as to whether to move back or not. Given Covid, and that I'll be travelling with a dog, this is a life changing decision. I can't afford to become a "ping pong pom".

After nearly 5 years and a huge pull towards moving back to my family and friends, I feel I need to decide whether this is for the best long term, or whether it's just severe homesickness. It's not like I can just go for a holiday at the moment and explore how I feel, but currently going through a tough break up with my Australian partner and feel that maybe it's time to go. 

How many of you moved back and regretted it as soon as the novelty wore off? How many of you are glad you took the dive? 

A lot comes down to whether you have a relationship / family in Perth. If not, and you are by yourself, then you are possibly in the worst place on Earth to be: Perth is isolated and if you are not building a future there, then quite frankly you are wasting time. Life goes by so quickly, so don’t waste it living from day to day somewhere where you know in your heart of hearts you have no future. 

On 18/09/2020 at 06:51, SeanCRM said:

At a real crossroads now as to whether to move back or not. Given Covid, and that I'll be travelling with a dog, this is a life changing decision. I can't afford to become a "ping pong pom".

After nearly 5 years and a huge pull towards moving back to my family and friends, I feel I need to decide whether this is for the best long term, or whether it's just severe homesickness. It's not like I can just go for a holiday at the moment and explore how I feel, but currently going through a tough break up with my Australian partner and feel that maybe it's time to go. 

How many of you moved back and regretted it as soon as the novelty wore off? How many of you are glad you took the dive? 

This is a really easy question to answer.  

All you need to do is ask yourself one simple question:

Does the thought of coming home excite you to any extent? 
 

Life is so weird. It took me 7 years of living in Australia to realise how much I missed the UK. Coming home has felt like getting back into  an old pair of slippers and it’s so good to have Waitrose again  

Never too hot, never too cold, doesn’t rain that much (not like Vancouver anyway), hardly snows, September is always beautifully sunny, we do have occasional flooding but nothing extreme. If nothing else, it is fairly variable. I lived in Perth, WA for a couple of years and granted it’s a lot sunnier but the weather there was mind numbingly boring because every day was the same: blue sky, no clouds, big yellow blazing ball of sun, day after day after day!!!

7 hours ago, Susan from Moneycorp said:

Hi everyone,

The avg rate of the past three years has been 0.5606

Whilst the AU$ economy looks to be in a much stronger position right now than the UK, we have the escalating trade tariff war with China (& the Australian journalist they have arrested/imprisoned) which could impact the AU$ regardless of how well Australia is doing compared to the rest of the world.

The UK has a brexit deadline coming up and their economy/gvmt is not handling the covid fallout well. Or even at all.

America continues to implode: not really at any point until after the election is there any reason to buy the USD - which is the only reason for GBP strength at the moment - it's not based on buoyant activity in the UK economy or UK purchasing manager's confidence.

If you have a rate in mind that you'd like to achieve, remember that you can always leave that rate as an order with your FX provider and they will contact you when the rate is reached ~ that way you can go on with life not having to monitor it every hour/day.
Leave the ulcers to the professionals  

Thanks Susan that was the information I was after. The market is extremely volatile at the moment but I’ll wait a bit longer to see if the rate of exchange get inch closer to that 0.56 level -  

Hi all Probably pretty subjective but would you say around 56 pence to the dollar is a good rate of exchange? Its currently sitting at 55.1 pence which seems OK but I’m hoping it might go up. Just waiting for the right time to bring my AUD back to the U.K. 

thank you! 
 

Hi all, 

So arrived back in the UK March 2020 after 7 years in Oz. I was unemployed for 2.5 months and decided to apply for jobs outside of London, and applied for one in Cambridge (I have never been to Cambridge!) and got offered the position. Still working from home (well my parents' home) until such time as I relocate to Cambridge later on this year. Started earning UK income from 1 June 2020. 

Rookie mistake when I got back btw was getting rid of my Aussie sim (well the Vodafone guy took it when he gave me my UK sim) and it was a nightmare setting up ATO accounts again, as my OTP (One Time Password) to log into the system is sent to my Australian number. 

Now that I have logged into the ATO, I need to submit a tax return. I permanently moved back to the UK, so do I need to declare the one month's UK income with the ATO for June 2020? 

My assumptions are: 

* I declare myself an Australian resident for tax purposes for the tax year 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020 

* I declare my UK income for 1 to 30 June 2020 even though I have already paid tax on that in the UK. 

Is that correct? 

Thanks Rammy Girl yes good point, ANZ only charge a $30 fee but their exchange rate is crap and even after I factor in transfer wises much larger fee, I still end up with about £600 more in my bank account going through transferwise than bank to bank. 

Hmm so the daily limit is $25000 so if I do the transfer via transfer wise I would need to do four seperate transfers. If I factor in their fee over four transfers, I’m not sure how much I’ll really save compared with just transferring the whole lump sum bank to bank 

1 minute ago, Marisawright said:

Can't you just arrange the transfer there and then?

Through TransferWise?

Thanks both I’m just on my way to a branch by the airport to arrange for them to increase the limit as I want to transfer up to six figures and want to minimise costs by doing it in smaller multiple transfers 

Hi all, 

I'm returning to the motherland after 7 years in Oz, flying today from Sydney. 

I have no knowledge at all of the best way of transferring AUD to GBP. 

I plan on transferring all my savings from my ANZ account to my mum's account (as I don't yet have a UK bank account).

I rang ANZ today to check their rates for transferring bank to bank and I would save about 1k using TransferWise. 

I have left it too late now to go into my ANZ branch to organise this as I fly this afternoon at 5pm. 

Will there be any issues transferring my AUD from the UK, using someone like TransferWise? 

Thanks!

25 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

I did my research on the Carsales site and found lots of people saying not to judge by the prices you see on there.   Carsales encourages people to advertise their cars at unrealistic prices and it doesn't mean they sell for that price!

@Red Rose, I suggest taking it along to a car dealership and ask them how much they'd give you for it.  We were pleasantly surprised by how much we were offered - not much less than the our make/model was being advertised on Gumtree.   We found it was worth losing a few hundred dollars for the convenience of keeping the car up until the last day.

Marisa thanks I might do that actually; selling to a dealer would definitely save a lot of hassle 

Hey guys 

would you let someone test drive the car with you in the passenger seat? 

3 hours ago, Wa7 said:

Get it on Carsales ( $60 till sold ) and gumtree (free) 

I am currently on Carsales site and just had a quick look at 2014 fiestas (obviously not sure what model yours is)  going for around $10000 but you need it gone so advertise for $7900 and be prepared to let go for low $7ks  give or take  ( yours is low kms so should get good interest ) 

Dont tell anyone your living the country or you will be getting terrible offers.

If you took it into a car yard you would probably only get $2/3k for it so keep this in mind if you do get any interest........

Dont bother servicing just make sure oil level etc not low.

Thank you!

All, 

I need to sell my Ford Fiesta and hope 4-6 weeks is long enough as I want to leave Sydney (for the UK) by Feb. It is a 2014 model, I’m the only owner, and it’s only done 21,000 km. I have never sold a car before...

A couple of questions: 

It was last serviced in Feb 2019, and is due another service in a couple of months. Would you bother getting it serviced again before selling? 

Are there any other tips you guys have for selling a car in NSW?

On 26/11/2019 at 19:52, Dennyboy said:

Thanks , will contact them  , also my Brothers having a word with the landlord .

How’s the move going Denny?

Are you in the UK yet?

Do you think you will ever return to Oz?

I think I’m going to sell mine and not bother shipping it. Only thing is, I’ll be lucky to get a quarter of what I paid or it. I paid 2k AUD 2.5 years ago for it and it is now out of warranty. I reckon I’d be lucky to get $600 for it now. 

21 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

If you're shipping a really small amount, you can ship individual boxes.   You must use standard-sized "Tea Chest" boxes which are 61cm (height) x 51cm (depth) x 41cm (width) - and get them from the shippers.  The ones you can buy in Officeworks or Bunnings are far too flimsy to ship on their own.   Maximum filled weight is 30kg per box.  We used Seven Seas (the same company that does the Movecube).  They will give you a quote if you ask them.

I wouldn't order the small Movecube if you can't fill it, because things will get damaged if they can rattle around. 

The only problem I can see is that the TV won't fit in the standard box.  You can get special TV boxes but I wouldn't even try shipping it individually, the chances of damage would be too high. 

Thanks Marissa, the TV is a tricky one, it is curved, which makes it difficult to pack. I may have to take a hit and sell it for about 40% of what I paid for it....

Hi guys

I will be shipping from Sydney to East Sussex about 8 boxes of personal effects and clothes and a TV. No furniture or anything else. By the looks of the small move cube, I don’t think it will be even more than quarter fill.

Is movecube still the best value even for very small moves?