Huntersmummy

Just offering my opinion. The opportunities here compared to MY situation back home are sh*t. You know I'm happy that your kids are thriving over there. Thats the ultimate goal isn't it? The kids happiness. Obviously our situations are different. You don't know the ins and outs. There might be sh*t going on behind the scenes. Blah Blah Blah....you can only read so much from a post. And can i just say, i used to say OZ was crap and omg, people would be down your neck! Then you say the UK is crap and the same thing. I LOVE the UK. MY situation back home was crap, working 50+ hours on FA wages living with my in laws. Enough to make you take a gun to your head. THATS what i meant by "Ive heard its crap back home" Chill pills all round!

I would stay personally if I were if your situation. I mean from a parents point of view, you answered if yourself in the reasons. Your 19y/o loves it here, Your sons 16 (difficult age as it is without moving and starting again) and i presume loves it. The opportunities here are awesome! I would go back but my children love it here. I know when i go back next year, it will be the last time i see my nan alive. She's a feisty old git but even she's starting to slow down at 70. All that smoking weed and playing tomb raider games....yes, seriously! Like you with your dad, you don't know how long he has. Are you maybe feeling like you HAVE to go back because your old job post is closing and thats almost like "If i don't go back now, i won't have a good enough job and have to start again?" Hopefully you'll get where I'm coming from but my family is my husband and kids, yours in your kids and wife. What they what matter and my happiness, to go back, its out the window. I wouldn't risk my kids future if I'm being honest. Ive heard its crap back home, my mums a qualified nurse with letters behind her name and she's having to work part time in a petrol garage for £6.50 an hour! I would stay. For your kids. Good luck in what you do thou!

Awwww, i LOVE babies! Congratulations! Not sure if this applies to your with your visa but with ours, on a 489, they have basically said as the centrelink (as i did ENQUIRE about help when first moving to the land of crocodile dundee) that because your new, you are entitled to *drum roll* NOT A DAMN THING!!! You have to wait 2 whole years. Christ. I think savings need to be your safest bet and budgeting your day to day life. I couldn't find a job for 6 MONTHS! Apart from in a massage parlour.......We manage off small wages because we are tighter than a ducks butthole.........anything from petrol to shopping we spend as little as pos! I do know though my 2 year has had free hospital treatment, MRI and blood tests because you have to earn under a certain threshold. Im sorry I do mumble on. Ignore what i said and best phone the immigration office your dealing with Good luck!

Ahh thank you kindly for your kind words! And yeas Skani thanks for pointing that out, i proof read it AFTER and it i knew i ballsed up. It WAS extra, not less. I'm a spac, i can't type! I can't remember who but someone once posted Darwin was a hick town........mmm yup! Hahah, everyone knows everyone! Everyones know about shiela's aunts boyfriend who got drunk and ran over a kangaroo and got chased by shane from woolies nephews dad!! Thats exactly what its like! Hahahaha About the dental, I have asked but on our visa (489) we are entitled to sweet FA for the first two years! Which is crap regarding dentist help but benefit wise.....people get so much help over here. It would be nice but at the same time, we paid for everything ourselves. Back home, they give you money! Especially if you wear burberry and talk like this innit! Its all good....glad to see everyone is doing well with their Australian life. And Pom Queen.....hahaha....(_o_)(_o_)

Good afternoon my english/aussie beauts! Bloody hell I haven't been on here for a while. Been enjoying the lazy life too much i think! I was contemplating whether to do this post or not. Been seeing the same old posts pop up....whats Australia like? Where do we start? Are there crocs, snakes and spiders everywhere? Yes actually, theres a croc called shane that lives in our toilet. :twitcy: For all those who are actually interested in finding out a bit more, i did write another post called "So you wanna move to Oz?" As always, below is my own personal HONEST experience/feelings. Don't take it to heart and don't be offended. Its been nearly a year (8 days to go actually) since we moved to Darwin. For the first week, the jet lag is a bitch!! We stayed in the travelodge in darwin city. Had a browse at Ray White and seen a house that looked "meh ok" Went for a viewing on the monday, done checks and paid the bond within 2 days. Couldn't move in for a month due to the fact we paid a month at the lodge. If your not fussy about having a pool, massive garden, huge kitchen....average weekly rent is $450-550. I must admit we were VERY lucky our landlord is such a nice guy. He let us decorate, put new doors up, build veg patches in the garden.....he is a man who gives zero f**ks! LOL Which I am compelled to say, a friend of mine who moved over a month later. When she moved out, she had to pay $300 for 2 SMALL PICTURE HOLES! So ask before renting what you can and can't do. Some places you can't do anything! Which sucks because you move away from home and can't make the pace you live in, a home and it sucks even more because the homesickness hits big time! (That was a mouthful) The other big thing about darwin/palmerston area. This place is NOT a application form/CV place. Its a case of "who you know" I put posts complaining about not being able to find a job, even a job off gumtree because a lot of ppl, will hear your accent and think "NOPE BACKPACKER!!!" and not give you that chance to explain, hand on, i moved here!! I got lucky after 6 MONTHS only because i bought my area managers treadmill off gumtree and got chatting to him! LOL No lies, he got me an interview and eventually I started. It makes all the difference! I had 40+ rejections.....it gets to you after a while. Taking in mind, this is a retail job....you'd be fine in healthcare or trade. Darwin is like trade central. With beards. Our weekly shop back home was £60. Meat, tins, beer, veg.... Here....we only have woolies, coles and IGA (Which you pay in gold bars and unicorn tears) We spend $200+. Thats just on meat, tins and veg. I don't drink and thank christ i don't. Smoking here is .....sorry I'm laughing.....the cheapest menthols I used to smoke are nearly $30. Ive seen guys go in and spend $100 on 1 PACKET OF FAGS! The big packs but still....Basically, shopping isn't cheap. Theres casuarina shopping centre, which is half hour away from palmerston. Its just opened a new outside dining area. Which is nice. Big shopping centre. Clothes shopping is....i find it difficult because i WAS really fat. I LOVE city beach but if your a size 6, you'd be ok. Target, Big W, Kmart do ok clothes. Quite expensive. You need to get out of the "primark mind frame" Theres no cheap ass shops here. Id sell my husband to go shopping in primark again. I have found new look and next ship to Australia thou! The whole tax and medicare system here is confusing as a new years diet!!! So back home, only self employed people who do their tax. Employed, wed have national insurance and tax payments taken out of our wages. Didn't need to worry. Here, self employed or not, you NEED to do your tax. We use H M Block accountants. Best to shop around, some charge different etc. We've had no problems with H & M. Basically, keep receipts of things you do for work related. Shirts, steel toe boots, courses you know you can claim a portion of all that back. Think of it as a savings account. If your a trade coming over, get your self into a tax accountants quick and get a log book for milage. They don't do petrol receipts here. Over 5,000 miles, you can claim all that back. Anything over you can get so much to the mile. Or Km even. If you earn $18,200 or less, even though they take tax out, you get it all back at the end of the tax year, which is June. I'm hopefully ,gonna earn $28,400 this year. So they would NOT tax me for the first $18,200 but something like 20 cent for every $1. You also get a, whats it called???? If you live in a certain zone in the NT, you get a automatic tax reduction. I got $338 off my tax. Plus you pay something called a medicare levy, depends on how much you earn but its basically a lump sum for using the medicare system. I didn't pay anything because i was under the $18,200. My accountant did tell me, someone earning $100,000 would pay maybe $1,500. Also, if you plan to earn LESS than $180,000, its not worth getting private insurance. It'll make the tax situation worst. Don't ask how, i just asked about getting it and they said don't bother... We don't pay for blood tests. I haven't paid for hospital appointments with the surgeon. I do pay private to see the rheumatologist which i get $60 back anyways as if you go to the docs and get a referral, they CAN keep changing your appointment. Dentists.....hahahahaha. $80 per patient. $40 per X-ray. My husband had 2 molars removed and 1 X-ray and 1 script for painkillers. Cost him $900. So yeah, I haven't been, neither have the kids because we simply can't afford it. "But your husband spent $900 on getting his teeth out" i hear you say. Yes, he did. And it nearly killed him. Literally. He ended up catching meningitis AND chicken pox. Missed weeks off work and nearly died. Im not at all blaming the dentist because we don't know where he caught it from. He just got it after having his teeth out but we have mozzies....who knows. So the moral of the story is because he spend so long in hospital, we're slowly building our savings up and with day to day living...its taking us longer. No sympathy needed thank you. This is was just a shi**y thing that happened. BUT, we had no one. So think, if you come here and you don't have family, you need to have a plan. My pom friend helped but when we found out what it was, i didn't wanna run the risk of her kids getting ill so i took the world on my shoulders and dealt with it myself. I think I've written enough. Or bored everyone to death. I HATED Australia when i arrived. It was too hot, then it was too wet. I couldn't find a job. I found it hard to make any friends. I was alone day in day out with the kids, hardly any money. No car. I wanted to go home. It caused a very big problem with our marriage because husband wanted to stay. I almost took the kids away from him when he was at work to get a plane home. Fast forward 1 year. Finding a job helped a LOT! I made a few friends although they don't get the british sense of humour.....the dry season was lovely. We spend at least twice a week, going out and doing stuff with the kids. Even the free water park, you can do stuff and not spend anything! We're financially better even though we only bring in $1800 a week between us. We have a twin cab and a car. The gym costs $37 a fortnight and i get free creche so the kids mingle with other kids. We have a nice home, pictures up, phone calls back home every week. No ones come to see us yet but its a long way and a lot of money. Were saving to go back next year to see if i really wanna go back before we look into taking a mortgage out on a hahahaha....a BEACH HOUSE! Land and house with an indoor beach! $500,000 (£250,000)ish....I never thought id be lucky enough as no one in my family owns a house or a mortgage. I don't hate being here now.....id still go home BUT there would be things id think about first unlike a year ago, I would of swam back to the UK!! I would of kicked jaws a$$ if he got in my way! Its tested our marriage to breaking point and beyond and we pulled through. He's getting better btw, he's lost his hearing in one ear but thats a good thing he says. Doesn't have to listen to my sh**e. Bahaha. My kids adore here. Best decision on their parts. Love to you all. Don't give up! Give it a proper go. Just to say....the march flies and the dodgy tan lines? I hate them. Those are sh*t.

Hey.....have a hug for your loss xxx It sucks when people gotta go but try and look at this way......you'll be together one day and you can fill him in on all the good Ol Aussie stuff ya got up too Drinking beer and getting them dodgy tan lines! Sorry, I'm the kind of idiot that tries to make light out of a sad situation. Sending love to ya thou xx QUOTE=Gbye grey sky;1936949061]My own father died a couple of weeks ago (bladder cancer) age 82. He was diagnosed a few months after we left for Australia and was given a maximum of 12 months. In the event the cancer was very aggressive and he lasted only 6 months. I agonised over it but did not return. We spoke on Skype over the months but unfortunately he got stuck in hospital for his last weeks so all I got were bulletins from my brother of his decline in hospital. It was also his wish not to have a funeral so there was not this to return for. You have to do what you feel is right by you and your family. I sympathise.

**** Sorry to hear matey You gotta do what the ol noggin and beatbox tells ya! Its not like your dads going on holiday or moving house, you'll regret it it so much! My old man died and I never got to say cheerio. Even 13 years later and it still sucks. If I could do it all again.....id rather miss school work, holidays ANYTHING to tell that old git I love him than live with a lifetime of regret. Sending ya hugs xxx I forgot to add too, my dad died of liver related stuff due to drinking and he wasn't the same man I remember. I dunno about other people, but you focus on the bad stuff like he looked at the time BUT......I remember my dad throwing me coppers under a huge oak tree when i was 7 or how he cooked roast tatties in a plastic container for 2 hours.....even if you don't go as you don't wanna see him how is.....the good times will come through eventually. xx

Thanks love Its spending 29 years being used to one way of life then changing to the aussie way of life.....its so redneck and laid back. At least darwin is anyways! People defy have to give it a proper long go before judging. Good now I FINALLY got myself a job too! Anyways, life/home is where you make it

Honestly, the moment i arrived, i HATED Australia. 3 months in and I still hated it. HOWEVER....6 months in and I'm slowly changing my mind. Its not that bad. I'll definitely preach "Don't judge a country by its cover!"

Hi My credit rating was ruined by bad money decisions, loads at a stupid young age and a dodgy ex husband. I went with CCC (a debt agency and have been paying off £5 per 2 debts for years......citizens advice says as long as you pay the debtors SOMETHING, they can't annoy you) I applied for Aqua with a £250 limit and it got increased after making 4 payments. Then I applied for a ..... Capitol One, thats it for a "just incase" card. Its worth getting a Aqua card to build your credit rating up. It'll take time but good things come to those who wait!

Hiya! We went with Immigration2Oz Visa's £1800ish for husband. £900 is for me. £500 each for 2 kids. Flights: Night flights with Malaysia Air £2000ish? 1 month accommodation with hotel club.com in a travel lodge £1000 for a month. £15000 savings and £5000 cash. $3000 on a car. $10000 on 4 months upfront rent and deposit. Basically, A LOT! $30,000 should see you comfy. Oh and we changed money up every month and put it away when the exchange rate was awesome so we couldn't spend it on crap.

Ah i feel for you pom queen! Id happily swap you the ants for the roaches! I'll even throw the husband in too

Yeah we have them too but I'm not bothered by them. The little black teeny ones are Singaporean ants?? *Spelling?* Roach Bloke says Mortien Gold works for 3 years!!! Now and again you just spray the doorframe lighty and voila! Heading to bunnings to buy me some later!

Ah yes they do....we use northern rock. It hasn't cost us anything but the first call obviously they paid for and they said 3 weeks they could come out and do a free re-spray. Seeing as its the 3rd time, next time (hopefully won't be) will be free. Its just hilarious my agent says "tough. Get on with it, you live in OZ now. We can't keep paying for overtime you see a cockroach!" Fair play, when the cockroach moves his family, his family cousins and next door's neighbours roach in the house, its a different story!

Hope everyone is having an awesome day.....despite it being burny hot, humid and sweaty! So the "Roach Bloke" was out again. 3rd time lucky and all that. The real estate were moaning AGAIN because they had to pay for it. Since we moved into our "castle", we've had roaches. Not them little smelly ones you get but the hulk hogan of roaches! Roach Bloke told me: "You live in Oz now, your gonna have to expect them in the house" Me: "Yeah, fair enough but when theres 10+ dead in the living room plus more some days and even crawling on us when we're watching tv, sleeping or even showering????" Roach Bloke: "I see your point, No dramas" My estate agent are getting annoyed with us as its a old, smelly dirty house but the rent was cheap. Landlords gonna tear it down after the mortgage is paid anyways! We spent weeks cleaning it properly and making it semi ok. And apparently it's $300 a pop each time. We have had up to 50 roaches in one day! And they can't get into the roof space as there's no loft hatch! Which is illegal as there's electrics apparently. I'm not moaning but how many roaches are ok to live with before it's deemed feral???

Hiya! Yup, as Calgary said, skilled sponsorship would be the best way to go but if you don't managed to get sponsored, husband is on a 489 skilled visa (no sponsorship) but easily found work via gumtree. Driving round sites and purely asking about work too helps. Best phone an immigration place. We used Immigration2Oz and they were nothing short of the dog's nuts! Brilliant! Good luck <3

Ahh you know i think thats the 125,000 KL and if we go over.....ahhhh.....see? A little bit of help and you make an old girl like myself not worry So thank you Taz! xx

Ahhh no no we don't. Well the council part anyways. Excuse me for being thick but is there a difference between water rates and water bills?? Because if not, I'm getting swindled somewhere if i don't have to pay water but i get a bill??!! *confused*

See upon reading the Power & Water website, can't understand much of the electric side of it but with the water bill zooming its way to us, we on our housing contract get 125,000KL of water before we have to pay (Ive never heard of that before, pity it wasn't "Free beer"!!) So calculating, you should pay roughly $2 per 1000 litre of water. In the NT anyways. So ours should be if we used all of it and more, is $250....My maths wasn't brilliant but somewhere around that amount. I did phone the water company and they said to take readings down after every bill to make sure your not getting ripped off. (We've had a leak on our outside tap since we moved in thats just been fixed a week ago and that was filling up an 8 litre tub PER DAY) Adds up! Give me a tent in someones garden with a topless bloke holding a leaf fan and a hole in the ground for "daily deposits" anyday

Would you mind me asking how you don't have a water bill to pay???? I kinda get here certain bills to what we're used to in the UK don't exist here (TV license, council tax etc) Don't things work out different to a rented and bought property??? Thanks for the replies thou!

G'Day My British/Aussie Sweet Treats! More of a question today instead of my usual "I wanna go homeeeeeeeee, whinge whinge whinge moan moan moan" Thread... So the idea with the cherry being popped is not a sexual one I'm afraid. My cherry is well and truly decomposed on my first loves dusty shelf! The cherry in question is we got our 1st electric bill through. We paid the initial instalment fee of $111 something something 2 weeks after moving in. We moved in ......12th? November and we got our bill today so *counts* 4 months.... $565 Now not having a electric bill yet, it said we're below the average Darwin resident in consumption which is good but if we're below average, does that mean there are higher bills out there!!!??? Being paid by some other poor bugger???!!! I'm dreading the water bill in that case. Sweating more = more showers. Does anyone want to help a frighten old fart out by disclosing bill amounts out??? <3 <3

Just to chuck my 2 cents in..... i go to a private rhuematologist here which she charges $300 for initial appointment then $160 after that. I normally get a cheque through for half back but recently, she's stopped charging me and bulk billing me instead! Apparently with private specialists, it's entirely up to them if they WANT to bulk bill or charge you. I must either be an awesome patient or she feels sorry for me also, she said younger doctors charge more because of insurance purposes. So might be worth sniffing out a Dr that's been about for a long time.

Medicare is as confusing as a man trying to understand a woman! In Darwin at least, what i found is that some doctors can chose WHO they bulk bill. They don't bulk bill kids here but my doctor choses who to bulk bill and who not to. It depends on how often you go which is unfair as hell! The more you go, the more chance you have of being bulk billed. Good thing is to have a good scout around for X-rays, specialists etc etc and listen to recommendations. Some doctors here just give you pills and push you out.

Your incredibly brave sweetness. I know it sucks ducks nuts to be somewhere where you heart doesn't belong but you making the most of it, well done. Especially doing it for your children. I know in life you wanna be that little bit selfish and as a parent, its hard because you have to wrestle between kids and yourself. Just because your a mum doesn't mean to say you have to lose your identity and not be happy. You have a wonderful sounding husband, beaut kids, a life that most people would give their right testicle/boob for AND AND AND you get to visit home! I know what I mean to say in this post but I'm a mong. Basically, have a hug and good on you. xx On a side note, at least in OZ you don't have to put up with the sheep sh**ging jokes