rosiew

Well plenty of people do it. But it is not a suburb, it is a nice, small country town. You could well be bored stiff - stuck in a new estate quite a way from the shops. It is different if you have a family and have local friends. It is a bit far to regularly go to Melbourne for nights out etc. There are plenty of people there in their 20s but they probably grew up there or close by, work locally and play in the footy team. Which will not be your life. I'd suggest going for a small property closer in - say Altona. I appreciate that rents are considerably cheaper for a lot of house in Bacchus Marsh but its all relative - you are paying for the lack of amenity. Try not to compare rents to the UK. Perhaps work out what you expect 30% of your net incomes to be and work around that figure as a guide? Best of luck with the move.

I would try a small local moving company. Look in the advertisements in your local free weekly newspaper. Most people who work for small removalists work casually for an hourly rate and the removalist will either offer you someone by the hour to help, or tell you the name of one of their workers who is after a few extra hours. I think this should work. Good luck! (and welcome)

If you email the agent through the link on real estate.com.au of any house you are looking at they will email you back the rates on that property with no problem.

Rates are set by the local council so it depends where you end up buying. It is based on value - cents per dollar of value. As a guide on a house worth about $600,000 the rates could be about $2500. Very rough guide. Others will chime in...

Nice to know I am not alone - I worked out last week that Rupert was not a boy and Mary Rose took ages.....

By the way, you can also give birth quite happily and safely for free on Medicare, just as you would on the NHS.

There is a 12 month wait on your private health insurance to claim any hospital treatment for pregnancy. Private health insurance covers the cost of your time in hospital and the doctor's charges for delivery and when he sees you in hospital. Your medical treatment (appointments at the doctors, scans, tests) are refunded in part by Medicare. However you will almost certainly be paying a few thousand out of pocket that you will not get back from Medicare or your private health insurance and you need to be prepared for that. You need to be very careful when getting private health insurance that you select a level of cover that will provide for pregnancy and cover a lot of the cost - otherwise it is not worth it. Also, read the fine print to make sure you don't have to be resident. Premiums differ according to the state you live in, so you will at least need a local address. You will also need to find an obstetrician who will take you on late in the pregnancy. They are busy people and most have a big patient load already. You will also need to be booked into a hospital early if you want any choice - and the obstetrician does this. The airlines have cut off dates for flying and whether you will fly comfortably depends on your physical condition at the time. Only you can decide if the maternity pay is worth all the bother - particularly as you will need to find somewhere to live after you arrive and babies sometimes have their own ideas about when they will arrive! You also say that it is your visa - what will happen if your husband is unable to get a job - can you live on your maternity pay? Best of luck - lots of decisions to make!

In Australia you usually buy anti histamines over the counter at the chemist. We do not get such a wide range of things on prescription - often only things that can only prescribed by a doctor. As your little one's allergy is not life threatening (by the sound of it, sorry if it is) then the doctor won't be involved - and Claratyne comes in child strength. Go and have a chat to the pharmacist at your local pharmacy. You will pay retail. That is I suspect what the doctor was trying to explain to you.

Caulfield Grammar is an excellent high achieving school (and really closer to St Kilda than Caulfield). It will have the structure you are looking for I expect (and it easily tram - able). Co-ed, so that's a bonus

$9 a pint in my local microbrewery (Holgates). Perhaps you need to go on a beer holiday in Victoria where we may have a bit more competition keeping the prices reasonable.

Actually I know an awful lot about beer. I was not trying to infer that YOU drank Fosters or thought it was a good beer. In fact it is tragic that in a land where good beer is easy to come by, so many people fell for the marketing that got Fosters where it is today. You will be pleased to know that on this year's consumption figures bitter at least is making a comeback in the UK - a small step...

Given that Fosters is that second highest selling beer in the UK, it might be fair to say that you think a fair bit of the beer in the UK is shite too....:biggrin:

You are right. If the same proportion of Londoners lived in large detached houses their relationships with neighbours would probably be different. Also the greater reliance on car travel here does not help either - you are not running for the bus with the same people every day.

To be fair, most people approaching or in middle age are not actively recruiting new friends anyway. A lot of people on here complain about Australians seeming unwilling to make an effort to make new close friends - but when they were in the UK I doubt that they were going out of their way to befriend lots of new immigrants either.

If you have dinner at home, talk yourselves out of brussels sprouts and parsnips - really out of season here at Christmas and therefore hugely expensive. Try to make some new traditions for your family rather than just trying to reproduce everything you did at home. I come from Melbourne and had never been to the beach on Christmas Day in my life until my English husband came to live here and assumed that's what we all did. So for several years we had the big family traditional Christmas but went by ourselves to the beach in the evening. That was our new tradition - and very refreshing after a big roast dinner on a warm day. Ask your children what they would like to do - or get them to plan the day.

Don't forget you are close to Phillip Island - beaches, walks, nature parks, koalas etc etc etc

Just restricting my answer to the school books part - at most schools you do not HAVE to use the school book supplier. You can fill the list yourself over the summer at bookshops, ebay, second hand book sales etc. The stationery can also be accumulated as you go. Or you can walk into the retail outlet of the school book supplier and fill the list while you wait. You should call the school or ask a parent.

There have been many posts on here about this - timing is everything. Even as a citizen he will need to pay international fees until he has passed a time period to reestablish residency ( 2 or 3 years - someone will tell you). So if you want to leave now he could complete A levels in the UK whilst waiting out the time, or else take a break before studying. Even domestic fees are quite steep in the UK these days, so you will have time to plan. There will be plenty of advice on how to manage this transition. Best of luck.

St Michael's has a reputation as a caring and creative atmosphere - great theatre, art etc. Tries to produce well rounded nice children and takes pains to be seen to give back to the community. It is a prestigious school. So is Wesley, which has been around a long time and has lots of tradition. It was originally a boys' school. People always seem proud to have gone there - and it is quite sporty. There is also Melbourne Girls Grammar in Sth Yarra which is excellent and so is Loreto Mandeville Hall in Toorak. Both are girls schools and academic. Mandeville Hall is Catholic which means the fees are cheaper. Good luck - it's not easy - and how the schools feel to her may be the deciding factor. My daughter is leaving her private school in the country to go to the new science school at Uni High for Year 11 - so I am doing the reverse to you! Luckily she is self motivated, but I will bear your comments in mind when that TV is on a lot next year!

I'm assuming that you live close in to Melbourne because you are in the Uni High zone. Top quality co-ed schools are scarce near the city - most are single sex. Contact St Michael's Grammar in St Kilda or you could try Penleigh and Essendon Grammar in Essendon (they are single sex schools that merge for Years 11 and 12 - your daughter would initially go to Penleigh) - but you may not find a space there. You could also try Wesley College (In St Kilda Rd) - it is also co-ed. Good luck - and I hope you enjoyed the year off school fees because they will be back with a vengeance!

You'll need to be a bit more specific. Do you mean the snow resort mountains (Falls Creek, Mount Hotham etc), The Grampians or the nearby hills (Mount Macedon, Mount Dandenong). That will help people make suggestions for you.

Suburb surveys are often heavily weighted for access to public transport and access to jobs close by. Caroline Springs does not have a railway station and most people have to drive some distance to work. It is also a fair distance to a hospital. All of these things affect suburb ratings. I don't live there, but I do not live that far away and it has always struck me as a pleasant place to live. It is all very new and planned but if that appeals, you will have no problems at all. But count on having a couple of cars! Best of luck.

it's not Ryanair - there's a lot more give and take

If she's only 18 the most straightforward way may be to go back to school (or a college for adults) and complete Year 12. That will only take a year and will be a much more direct (and no doubt significantly cheaper) way into University. It will also ensure that she has the skills they are expecting in people starting the course.

If you are in the west, there are large ones at Highpoint (maribyrnong/ Footscray) and Sunbury