MrsLZB

Hi we moved back 7 months ago. Most lenders wouldn't lend us any mortgage, even the bank we had a buy to let mortgage with while in Oz for 5.5 years. However with a broker we found the Halifax have lent us the necessary to put an offer on a house. It is tricky, my best advice would be to get a broker as they know where to look and save a lot of hassle and time .

Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay in giving you all an update on how things are going. I can't actually believe it's been nearly 4 months since we got back! Well where to begin?! We left Perth after a manic few days. I'm still not sure we got everything all done before we left!! I know we left our friends with a couple of errands to do for us. I was almost looking forward to the journey just to sit and have a rest!! Our (then) 10month old daughter was an angel on the flight. We were so proud and even more so when fellow passengers congratulated us on her behaviour! We arrived at Heathrow terminal building at 6am and had some family there waiting for us, it was lovely. I cried, and surprised myself. I suddenly realised I had tears rolling down my cheeks, don't help that my sister in law was sobbing too. But happy tears, relief I think! We had made it!! We headed back to Suffolk, I think I smiled all the way home. That day and the following few days was all about seeing family and getting my daughter back into a routine again. We did do a trip to the supermarket and I was once again amazed at the choice available and quality of foods, fresh and otherwise! From there we got busy getting our old house redecorated and new flooring down. It turned out that our previous tenants idea of clean was a little far from our expectation, but we got there in the end. Luckily my brother in law and his wife said we could stay with them for as long as we needed. We had great fun kitting out the house in all the bits we needed from the second hand shops and with lent or given things. We moved in a few weeks later once we had enough to be able to function! Our crate was still on an ocean at this point!! Moving back into our old house was odd, comforting as it was ours, but it soon became clear that having left it as a couple, and coming back as a family of 3 plus our big dog, it's not going to be a long term situation!! For now though, it's home. My husband quickly became employed back at his old job although will be starting back in a different department. He is back in retraining at the moment which he is enjoying. I had an interview and was successful in September but STILL waiting for HR to get their act together and give me a start date. It's been a little absurd but I am secretly enjoying the extra time with my daughter and have spent a lot of well needed time with my mum, which brings me onto my next bit of news. So as some of you know my step dad had been really poorly just before we flew out from Perth, well he rallied for our return it seemed. We had some beautiful weeks of weather and quality time with him. Sadly he lost his fight against bowel cancer just over a month ago now. He said all along that the timing would be be perfect, and it truly was. Everything fell into place. He went into the hospice on the Saturday and went to sleep that night and didn't wake up. Which is exactly how he wanted it. He even said it would be bright and sunny on the day of his burial, and it was even after a week of it being very unsettled. Totally him, in control until the end. So it was even more right that we came back when we did, for him, my mum and us. My OH's family, another of our reasons for returning have proved once again that the timing is right, as if we needed anymore proof!! His mum has been formally diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and since we have been back his dad has had another heart attack. We have been able to have family meetings with his siblings and just be here for support. I think that has meant so much to the family, it's another set of people to take on the caring role that is becoming increasingly needed. With regards to settling in, it's really been a lot easier than I thought. Friends have welcomed us back like we had been away for a holiday. We have been making good use of the babysitters available and my hubby and I have had some good quality time together - which didn't happen in Oz after the arrival of our little one. We have celebrated our daughters first birthday and all the family have witnessed her taking her first steps. So precious and wonderful wonderful memories. Now it's the countdown to Christmas in the cold and I can't wait. We couldn't be happier, Australia seems a distant memory now. I still speak to my girlfriends back there probably once or twice a month now, and I hope that will continue. But as for the house, the city etc that chapter is closed. Whether I will long for it in the depths of the winter months? Who knows!! But for right now, home is definitely where the heart is and totally where we need to be. I'm sure I could go into a heap more detail, but I thought I'd start there! I'll try not to be a stranger now. I know you all understand that my time has been needed for more important things.

Lovely read, Lady R! I had a smile on my face as your situation over the last 6 weeks has been very similar to ours. Good to hear it is all going well.

We have just moved back, we eventually went with Wridgways as they did a good deal with HIFX for $ transfer back to UK account. We had quotes from Key Bros, Grace, Transglobal as well. We went with a part consignment, as we didn't have a huge amount coming back with us. Just look at what furniture you intend to bring back. Unless its sentimental or worth a lot of money, it isn't worth the shipping costs. We also made the mistake of assuming our Aussie queen sized bed would be a standard size... this is not the case! So now I am stuck with a bed that won't even fit into our bedroom that I can't buy sheets for!!! expensive lesson learnt, sadly. If you decide that you will leave the furniture, look at the "move cubes" as they are much more economical for a few boxes. Good luck!

We did almost 6 years in Perth, and we have been back in the UK for 6 weeks now. Absolutely no regrets about going or coming back. We did what was right for our family.

Can you be a little more specific... Do you have a house to sell in Oz? How much stuff would you likely need to bring back to the UK? Where abouts in the UK would you be moving to... As obviously different areas would generate different rent prices. Have a look in the local paper for your area perhaps? Good luck!

Hi Fourcorners! Congratulations, that's super exciting news. Yay!!! I sort of feel qualified to help you out as I recently had a baby in Oz. I'm sorry you had such an experience at the GP's. such a shame when they are like that. And doesn't help the reputation that they are all about the money, sadly. So in Australia you have a couple of options for having your antenatal care and having the baby. You can either stay under the care of the GP and midwife and be at your local public hospital and its all under Medicare. You will pay for your blood tests and ultrasound scans with the Medicare discount etc and your stay in the hospital is all free. The other option you have is to go under the care of a private obstetrician if you have private health insurance and it covers obstetric care. My experience was under the care of a private obstetrician. Very very different to how it would be back here in the UK. I'm happy to answer any questions you have or share my opinions! If you want to PM me that's fine too. Wishing you well x

Good to hear all is well, hasn't it been just glorious being back, and I don't mean just the weather!!! Yay for you and your family. I haven't posted a "full report" yet as we are still with relies and very much still living out of a suitcase. Heading back home in the next few days I hope. Best of luck with everything and look forward to hearing all about it soon

Hang in there Chocolate Orange, it really will fly. Great advice to use the time to get selling and sorting! Another thing that we did was take a lot of photos and videos of our neighbourhood and local parks and the beach etc. our daughter was born in Australia and is technically Aussie so we really wanted to be able to have some footage and pics of where she lived etc. its something you could do with the children, and then do a scrap book or something to bring back with you. A piece of family history and memories to bring back with you! Good luck with it all. The time does fly, we decided in March we would return and 5 months later we are back, it can be done x

Hey there, I asked my Aussie GP for our medical records to be put onto disc and I've brought the discs back with us for the GP we have registered with here. Word of warning though, check the discs! I made the mistake of not checking them until we got back, I checked the disc for my daughter and there was nothing in it! And mine was missing an important discharge summary for my private maternity care which I would have liked to have my GP here have a copy of. I was quite surprised that the GP surgery didn't even charge for the discs (although incomplete) to be made up for me.

Oh GOOD LUCK!!! You will be back here soon and it's so so so worth it. I was exhausted by the time we left and I'd lost about 5kgs in weight (no bad thing!) with all the running about. I feel for you. You are almost there now. Wishing you all a safe journey back and look forward to hearing how you are settling in x

Hi again, the Broker my husband used was Adrian Flux. He didn't say there was a huge payment on top of the insurance itself for using the broker. Hope that helps

Hi there, just literally had recent experience of this. My insurance company sent me a letter stating my no claims in % - this was unacceptable with the insurance company I went with. I had done a little shopping around and it was actually cheaper for me to go with a company and disregard my previous history in Oz which is a shame. My hubby had his certificate and it had the no claims listed in YEARS and this was accepted. We were advised to go with a broker in the UK, and get them to do the searching for an insurance company that accepts no claims from Oz as there are only a few that do. Hope that is of some help....

Both myself and the OH did exactly the same jobs in Oz as we did (will do) in the UK. Both of us worked 40 hours a week, basic with some overtime on top of that. With both of us shift workers, I found our work/life balance seemed a lot worse in Oz as it did in the UK. I would have my roster at least 6 weeks in advance and he wouldn't get his until the week before, sometimes two. So this meant I could never roster my days off to coincide. It was rubbish! A day off together was rare.

My goodness, where to start! We have been back 2 weeks and I am still doing bits and pieces!! Get all your stuff you don't want to bring back on gumtree now! We ordered a skip as well, for all the detritus we couldn't be bothered to sell, or was just rubbish. Start running your kitchen cupboards down and donating things like herbs and spices to friends! Run the freezer down. I would advise doing a mail redirection, Aus post do an international one. It will help you weed out all the important addresses changes you will need to make. Any work qualifications or certificates you need to get for a new job do it while you are in Oz. Ring centrelink re child benefits. I got all of our medical records put into disc to bring back to the UK. Can't think anymore, it's late! I'll come back to this when I think of more! good luck!!!