GoldcoastMAD

Twin Waters is popular with families. You could look on AirBnB and maybe find somewhere hinterland-ish if you'd prefer that to the coast but there are stacks of hotels on the Sunshine Coast too so if you prefer those have a look at booking.com or lastminute.com etc.

 

Here's another site that has more 'up market' places to stay -http://www.beautifulaccommodation.com/sunshine-coast-luxury-accommodation.

 

We personally had a few days in Noosa and stayed on a houseboat. They provide you with a little Tinny to travel into shore etc and we loved it - http://www.luxuryafloatnoosa.com.au/

 

Cal x

oooo thanks Cal...I like the houseboat

Anyone ?

Hello,

I'm planning on taking a trip to the sunshine coast in August for a few days on a reccie from the Gold coast, I'm going to look around buderim,Yaroomba,Alexandra Headland and Noosa as potential places to live...if a job was to come up .

Any recommendations for a really nice B&B or hotel to stop at ( 2 adults & 2 children). Its a bit of a treat ,So i don't mind splashing out for a really really nice place.

Also if you had a 2 day visit planned to the sunshine coast what would you do, where would you visit and where would you eat?:daydreaming:

out of interest which agent are you using?

Sorry , your first post mentioned them..Visa Bureau.

Cant be to careful, as I've seen plenty of posts on here about peeps been ripped off by agents. But Visa Bureau , are all good

Thank you all for the great advice we will be patient!

The visa agent we are using told us it could take up to 14 months to issue this was only last week.

Have done all we can for now.

:wink: xxx

out of interest which agent are you using?

:huh:now im confused ...hearing conflicting info:arghh:

Yeah that post confused me , once your visa is granted you you will have one year from the date (which ever was first ) that the PCC or medical was done, to visit OZ and activate your PR visa ( presuming your going for a PR visa) . You must visit or move to OZ within a year of the Medical or PCC ( which ever was first) . The PCC or medicals are valid for a year ( i think), but this is only relevant to the date the visa is granted ...its relevant after.

Thank you so much for your reply.

We are scheduled to move July 2017 as we have organised schooling for our two teenage children.

If we are looking at 14 months for the visa to be granted this would definitely put us under pressure as we have organised schools for our children and are in the process of lining up work.

Just wondered if there was anything we could do to take the pressure off.

Many thanks again!

I'd wait until July if i where you, at least then you will have a year to move, before your visa expires.

Are you sure about 14 months...that seems a very long time, ours took 4 - 5 months to grant the visa after applying...and i submitted the medials and PCC after applying when requested by the case officer.

Hi everyone

We have just submitted my other half's partner visa with Visa Bureau.

Can we get his medical and police check done before he is invited as we have been told the current processing time is up to 14 months.

If so, how does he go about it?

Many thanks in advance.

Barry and Debbie :wink:

you can get them done at any time, just bare in mind that the first one you do... starts the clock ticking for the year you have to activate your visa. For example if your PCC was done tomorrow, then you would have one year from tomorrow to first visit OZ and activate your visa.

Police check can be done online, and doesn't cost much

https://www.acro.police.uk/police_certificates.aspx

medicals ; can be done at most private hospitals, check you local ones

personally I'd wait until you submit your visa ...unless your in a rush.

Hi everyone I am so confused and stressed can anyone help.

 

2 dogs have been for their rabies blood test weeks after vaccine. The vet is government approved and she told me they send the bloods to their labs, who then send onto the government approved one.

 

my questions if anyone can reassure me are:

 

 

• We are not planning to leave until 2017. Have I started the process too early? I did speak to lady at Pet Air who said to go ahead but after reading some stuff on here, I'm not panicking that I will have to redo the whole process

• I have read on the fb forum of someone whose dog failed the ehrlichia test 45 days before heading off. Is it worth me getting a heads up on this test as we have taken both dogs to France one of which had a tick bite:sad:

 

 

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated

 

thanks

IIRC the rabies tests are valid for two years

If you don't mind me asking how much did the Australian transport side add up to. We are moving to Sydney and had thought about maybe driving to Melbourne to pick them up if they allow you to do that. I know it's one hell of a drive but was thinking of a bit of a road trip as a long weekend or week away.

 

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

Pretty cheap I thought , for collection from PEQ, transport to Melbourne airport and flights to Gold coast total cost, for two dogs $473

Hi all we are in early stages and was wondering if anyone has a rough idea on the price off transport our dog and cat from uk to Australia.

Thanks

Hi Whizzer,

We're flying our Jack Russell and chihuahua over in august. Including all the vets fees, quarantine fees, Kennels, transport, 2 flights ( International and Internal ) its cost us about £4500

Yes am using petair scotland, but they told me they cant book a flight until they have the details. I want the flights booked fairly soon as I need the dogs to be dropped off at petair the same day we fly, and I am worried they wont be able to do that if we leave it too late. They said there needs to be someone there whose address and phone number we can use, so dont know how to get round that.

do you know anyone in Australia, who's address and phone number you can use temporary . I used a friends, and will update PEQ when i land with my address and OZ phone number

I was actually thinking exactly the same thing- I just look looked and it is about £120 for travel insurance by just putting 1 way on STA and DUISURE- OUCH!

I know, its about the same for us! I'm sure the reason is something like "the trip must start and end in the UK" for standard Insurance..I'm sure someone will confirm this. Go walkabouts seems to be the cheapest for us

This has kinda got me thinking ( sorry to hijack the thread) - What's the actually difference between one way travel insurance and normal travel insurance and can we just purchase normal insurance and be covered?

Its seems adding the word "Emigration" to insurance policy increases the costs by 4 to 10 times more than normal travel Insurance and the polices seem to cover less. And Looking at the policy for Go walkoutbouts here http://www.go-walkabout.co.uk/wordings/GWEmigration2015KeyFacts.pdf - it still states that you must be a UK Resident: "Are a resident* of the United Kingdom or Channel Islands" *We define a resident as being someone who has their main home in the United Kingdom or the Channel Islands and has not spent more than six months abroad in the year beforebuying this policy.

my bad, should have been DUinsure

a few others as well :

go-walkabout

insureandgo

essentialtravel

I'd try travelsupermarket as well for more options

Hi Marie,

Were moving in August and this is something I need to sort out as well. I was going to get one way travel insurance, via Dinsure or STA travel as recommended by a few on here. But i didn't see the point in getting any cover in Oz as we have a PR visa....and should be OK to register for Medicare immediately.

Australia doesn't do "best" lists - tall poppies are chopped off at the knees. Get a rental in a place you are happy living in and the suburb will be reflected in the local school. If you're happy living there then chances are you will be happy with the school.

I have found this website very useful when looking at primary schools, you can compare academic performance http://bettereducation.com.au/CompareSchools/primary/qld/compare_qld_primary_schools.aspx

Hi,

Could someone familiar with Gold Coast tell me which state primary school is required as the best (and it's closest contenders) - I've a seven year old girl and want to locate ourselves in the same area as the best school? Going to be moving from N.Ireland and working in Southport. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thx.

Hello,

Depends were you live for state schools, as they have catchment areas and most of the school enrolments are managed... see here http://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/maps/edmap/

Hay I am going to be doing my IELTS in June just wondering if anyone knew of any good revision material to help me prepare. I have been told it's all about understanding how to pass the test rather than worrying about the questions.any help welcome

this helped me pass

http://ielts-simon.com/

Can you recommend any studying material or sites? Thanks for your help by the way Where are you moving to?

I found the the IELTS simon website better that he official book

ielts-simon.com

moving to Gold coast this august

Thanks. Worries me a little English was never my strong point especially spelling. Is nothing given for scoring below 7

Can anyone tell me how the points structure works with IELTS. Eg: how many points would I get if I got sevens on my test

7s = 10 points

8s ( and above) = 20 points

but be aware that you must score the minimum in each Reading , writing, listing and Speaking. its not the average combined. for example if you got 8 in speaking 8 in listening, 8 in reading and a 7 in writing then you overall score would be classified as a 7 .

Does no one just sort it themselves? Contact the airline and defra for paperwork and talk to Melbourne quarantin??

Good thread here on DIY shipping....to be honest if you were to compare DIY with golden arrow, I'm not sure you would save a great deal.

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/pets/214692-emigrating-pets-d-i-y.html

If you work in IT and live in the Gold Coast , Brisbane or Tweed Heads areas, I would like to connect with you on LinkedIn as I'm relocating to Australia soon. Please connect with me https://au.linkedin.com/in/mtdmitchell

Really not sure what the issue is here?

 

I never claimed that my cost was "normal". In fact I'm trying to point out that there isn't a "normal" as everyone has different circumstances and will need different things. What is unarguable is that the "true" cost to emigrate is probably going to be higher than your expectations. We did budget carefully in the sense that we did a pretty thorough audit of what we expected to spend. And now - 4 weeks or so into living in Oz - we have blown past that budget. Not because the money we spent up to a week or so after the move was higher (in fact we spent less) but because of the higher than expected spend in Australia. All I am saying is that when you budget leave contingency in your finances for unexpected spend because I guarantee that no matter how careful you are you will have unexpected spend. I am lucky enough that I was able to absorb that extra but if your financial margins are tight it can be much harder to deal with a few hundred dollars of unexpected but vital spend that sideswipes you so it's prudent to leave a "misc." category in your fund for just such an event. Not hard to understand, I would have thought?

No issue, I wish you all the best...just trying to make my point and not put the Op off migration