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Day two - Tuesday - Quite a busy day again. Out early in the morning to set up our NAB bank account. Rose who is part of the NAB migrant team in Brisbane CBD, Queen Street branch is lovely and very helpful with things not even relating to banking. From here we set off for a couple of house viewings in Albany Creek area and then onto Albany Creek State School. I came down to Brisbane in May for a couple of weeks (work related), however I spent all of my spare time, driving around and must admit, do prefer the North side of Brisbane. Anyway my wife's first impression of the North side was very positive as we are both rural / country people and this ticked the boxes there and off to a good start. During the tour of school, we got a really good feeling from it. The teachers and staff were very nice and you could see that the children were happy in their environment. This school had now moved up to first on our list over Belmont State School. We then viewed a couple more houses in Albany Creek / McDowall area in the afternoon. Some of the houses that are put out on the internet do not look like they do in today's day and age. I think the Real Estate companies either take old pictures and post them from years ago or take pictures in away that is 'trying to do the property justice' when in fact it's really run down and falling apart. Our budget is not low - $400 - $550 PW. We also decided to cancel school viewings on the South side of Brisbane due to our mutual preference of the North side. Schools cancelled - Gumdale and Carina SS. Day 3 - Wednesday Today was our busiest this week, with 3 school viewings and 4 property viewings... not too bad if it was just the wife and I, but our two boys have really lost interest on living inside the car everyday. Our eldest Ewan (5 1/2) is doing really well and is enjoying looking at all his potential new schools and houses, however our youngest Noah (4), is playing up and wanting attention all the time. I think this is down to him having a cold and being disrupted from his normal routine in Brunei. Anyway our first visit was to Patricks Road SS in Ferny Hills. Our selection for this school was pretty much an after thought after we were quite set on looking in the Albany Creek area. Both my wife and I are so glad we visited this school as it most certainly lives up to its reputation on the internet / local word of mouth etc... After 5 minutes of being at the school, we got that instant feeling of... 'this is where we want our children to go to'. The setting of the school / the surroundings / the warm family feeling / really happy children .. the list goes on... Now the rest of the schools lined up, need to beat this one. Also on the plus side is the huge amount of conservation area and the mountains.. The next school we visited was Aspley SS... hmmmm ... Not really sure what to say about this one. Nothing positive at all. On arrival, we met who I presumed was the Deputy Head. She never introduced herself to us. After walking about 50m on our tour of the school I knew that I wanted out straight away and what was funny is that as I turned to my wife Sam to give her the look... she did the same to me that we both wanted out ASAP. The children appeared to be quite unruly and there was lots of rubbish / graffiti / lunch boxes all over the place. I think that I will leave the rest of my comments to myself, as I do not wish to upset anyone who may go to this school or know of anyone that goes there. On a positive note - The Coffee Club just down the road does really good coffee and hot chocolate with marshmallows for our boys. Our final school was Eaton Hills SS. For a big school (average 1000 kids) you would not even know that it had this many children. It is a lovely school, very clean, children looked really happy over their lunch break, apart from the rain. There was a good feeling from this school and my wife and I are most impressed with the schools new hall, whereby it has a full production stage. We've only ever seen this in High schools. The assistant Deputy Head was a great guy and gave us a really good detailed tour of the school, which was wonderful. Last part of the day was viewing a couple of houses in Albany Creek area again, however we are now shifting our attention to Ferny Hills / Ferny Grove / Arana Hills / Upper Kedron / Keperra area for houses due to Patricks Road SS (no catchment area), being the clear winner so far. Tomorrow is our last school viewing at Albany Hills SS, so it has to blow us out of the water for us to shift focus again back to Albany Creek area. Fingers crossed by end of tomorrow we will have our selection for our boy’s school. Day 4 – Today This morning we had an appointment at Albany Hills SS (approx 750 children enrolled) and what a lovely school it is. The school is set over a large area and has a mixture of old and new buildings. The Deputy Principal who showed us around was really lovely and covered a lot of areas in detail, to which left my wife and I with no real questions to ask. This was a real positive. We visited various classes whereby children were being taught at different school years. All of the classes we visited were full of colour, imagination, well behaved and happy children. We got a nice feeling from the school but felt that it was lacking something. They do strive on Academic excellence and music which are real strengths, but we were comparing to Patricks Road SS that we saw yesterday. My wife and I both mutually agreed that Albany Hills SS was better than Eaton Hills SS. Now it was down to us making our decision as to which school we would like our children to go, Patricks Road SS or Albany Hills. We both like the Albany Creek area and feel that there is more for us to do there, so decided to drive over to Ferny Hills / Grove / Arana Hills / Keperra to get a sense of feeling from this area. Once we had a drive around the area, I took a drive out to Camp Mountain / Samford Village / Mount Glorius / Mount Nebo. Wow, beautiful scenery, rolling hills, countryside, woods, nature trails and parks… HOME !!! After our drive we took lunch at Mount Coot-ha which is always lovely to visit and the view is magnificent. From here we drove back to Arana Hills for a house viewing later in the afternoon, so decided to spend a couple of hours in the parks / footy field with the boys, soaking up the winter sunshine and getting a nice warm fuzzy feeling from the area. So as our week is coming to an end, I think we have achieved our aim of school selection. The school if you haven’t guessed by now is Patricks Road SS in Ferny Hills. Not really had any luck on the houses, but to be honest knew that it was a long shot. At least we got a feel for the properties within our budget so all is not lost. Tomorrow is our last day in Brisbane before we move down for good on 1st August in a few weeks, so we are either going to go to the Sunshine coast (weather permitting) or have a little jolly around the river / CBD / Southbank etc.

Day one has been completed on our little Recce visit. Today we visited Belmont State School, which appears quite good but my concern is that it is quite a large school. I'm not sure if I'm comparing it to other schools that we know of outside of Australia. We also viewed a house in Aspley. Tomorrow is much more of a pact day with visits to more houses and Albany Creek SS. We also received great news today... Our visas have been granted, :biggrin:

My 457 Visa for family and I came through today. filed 26/06/13. Good luck to everyone.

Just spoke with my wife and we have also lined up Albany Hills SS for a visit. What is the area / School like? I think our main aim is to visit the schools and get a feel for them and if we fall in love with one, then will look in the area for a rental property. We would like to have our son in school ASAP, even though he has already completed his school year in Reception, here in Brunei. No rest for the wicked :-) I was in Brisbane in May, for a couple of weeks and spent a long time driving around the areas and chatting with local colleagues / locals to the areas of interest. If we did find a house, (we are glued to the real estate websites...) would it be possible for a colleague to collect the keys on my behalf, prior to 31 July if all the paperwork has been signed? or can we provide a few months rent up front, including the security bond to help guarantee a property. Thanks.

My wife, I & 2 boys (5 & 4) will be arriving 6th July for a week on a Recce visit of Brisbane. We will be moving down at the end of July, but the aim of the week is to identify a school for our boys and hopefully a property for the end of the month. We have visits lined up at some schools - South East side - Carina / Belmont and North Side - Eaton Hills as I will be working in the Valley. Are we being too ambitious for this week? Any help / information will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Lee

Our Visa was lodged 26th June and we have just had medicals today. I've been told a decision should be 3 - 4 weeks from application, as we are due to fly down on 31st July. Fingers crossed for everyone, ourselves included.

thanks for the info xx

thanks for the advice xx

we'll be coming down in about 4 weeks for our reccie. I am looking at Wakerley and Gumdale State which looks on paper really nice. I hope you move goes well....

Can anyone shed any light on Wynnum State Junior School the new one which was opened in 2011, does it have a good reputation? Why were the other school made in to 1? The website is great and I would like to go and visit but would be interested in a personal opinion from anyone that goes there or knows of someone that does? Also I can't really get any info on Manly State Junior School, what is this school like? The website isn't the best and doesn't have much info on their curriculum, clubs or special programs, again if someone could provide a personal insight or info I would greatly appreciate it. Also what would be the commute in to CBD? Thanks in advance. Sam

Hay thanks for the reply. The more I look at Ormiston state the better it looks I just hope it lives up to expectation when we go visit. We are hoping to be down by Sept and I worry we won't get places for my boys. I have also looked at Wellington Point State School which also looks like a nice school, did you visit there? If so is there a major difference between it and Ormiston? Trying to find a rental in Ormiston is proving to be a little more difficult than Wellington Point... heres hoping something comes up when we need it. Thanks again for your info. Oh and I am a Sam too lol

Also looking into Ormiston, any views? ​

Hi, we are looking for information on primary schools in Cleveland, Thornlands, Wellington Point, Birkdale areas. We have a 4 and 6 year old boys who have been attending an international school in brunei for the last 3 years. Schooling is a massive part of the move for us and as we know nothing about these areas are relying on the help of you fine people!! I know its all personal preference but advice is greatly needed. I have read some non flattering stories about Alexandra Hills is it as bad as all that? What are the nicer areas? We have looked at Ormiston College but the fees are steep for us at the moment but would definitely think about it when the boys are older so staying around this are would be advantageous. Any info and personal feedback would be great. Thanks in advance guys. ​