davewilton

There is nothing balmy about 10C living in the equivalent of a shed which most Melbourne houses appear to be. I was never as cold in London as I was here in winter

I use halo financial a lot. You get about 1.5 cents under the exchange rate on the day and a $25 charge per transaction by NAB here (regardless of who you bank with). I also opened an account with NAB online before moving. I can't see you'd get better than that exchanging cash over there

It's bloody cold in winter in Melbourne! Keep that in mind. June July August I'd want to be further north

I have Telstra 100mb cable and it's always over 100mb tested speed (normally about 110mb down and 2mb up, Fairfield). The one time I had to support they were good, did some speed tests and tuning over the lines and speed jumped right back up again. But $100 a month. And then an extra $20 to remove the artificial speed cap from 20mb to 100?! Seems way more expensive than it was in the UK, but then I didn't get cable broadband there.

They put our beds up but they will not do childrens beds they are not insured to. They assemble anything else that needs reassembling but for us it was not much more than beds. They were paid to unpack but basically what this means is they will take everything out of the boxes and put it on the floor/side. We opted not to let them do this as it would have just made unpacking harder

One thing to consider not mentioned here is can you manage without the items for two months? For example a bed; if you ship it what are you going to sleep on? We shipped everything the day before we flew* and have to manage with all we could fit into three suitcases (for four of us). Rentals are not furnished here at all like many are in the UK so as soon as you get a house you will need that bed. So if like us you have family prepared to let you stay for over two months (for us it has been two months shipping and another 7-10 days to wait for quarantine) then it is an option to ship everything. But if you are going to need those things in the two months then don't ship, you will be forced to buy anyway. *this is very stressful!

Just discovered I can track the container on a map! Mine is the MAERSK GIRONDE just off the south of Australia. Two days to go! http://www.maerskfleet.com/#live-map

Whipper snipper - an edge trimmer. I laughed and laughed when my wife told me that. I said why? Well it whips and it snips. Now I feel stupid.

Hello, I'm a Brit moving with my Australian wife and two children to Melbourne on the 5th of February from London. We got through the visa processes on our own without an agent with only one glitch which was their fault (they didn't bother to tell us they were waiting on my new born sons citizenship before proceeding, thanks!). Anyway 100 permanent residence visa was granted in November last year and Flights are booked. Shipping is booked with PSS, we don't have that much stuff quote came in at £2800. Currently I'm very stressed about Australian quarantine so I've been searching the forum for info about that. Site has been useful thanks, Dave

Can I ask if customs take a disliking to something will they charge you to destroy it? If so what have people been charged for various items? New user moving on 5th to Melbourne on a 100 visa with wife and children. Dave