Belle1

Hi Just wondering if there is on here currently living in the Bundaberg area? We currently live in central Sydney, but my husband is looking at an internal transfer to Bundaberg. We have been to Bundy before and we know it's very small etc compared to Sydney, we have also lived in other much smaller places than Bundy - so that doesn't bother us. However we are interested to find out what the community is like, any recs on suburbs to look at and recs on primary schools (we have a 6 yr old in Yr 1) Any advice appreciated! thanks in advance

Hi all, just wondered if anyone could give me a heads up on primary schools in Brisbane. We currently live in Sydney and our son is in a state school which is academically focused. I have looked at the school listings for 2015 and my school, but would love to get a feel from people actually in the schools there. We are keen to keep our son in an academically focused school. We think we will be transferring to Brisbane in the near future and are looking for school & suburb recommendations. The suburb needs to be less than a 1 hour commute from cbd, we will rent initially but want to move to a decent family suburb where we can ultimately afford a 3 bed house around the 700k mark. So ideally looking for a suburb which has an academic primary and fits our buying criteria. A friend has recommended Sandgate or Wynnum but they don't have school age kids so we dont know much about the schools in those areas. Another friend recommended Bardon, but we think that will be out of our house buying capability.. Any other suggestions on where to look? We are doing a reccie trip next week, so grateful for any tips!!! Thanks!

Hi all My husband had a crazy moment and is applying for the Red Bull Billy cart race in Sydney. We have another family joining us, but we are trying to build a team of 4 dads, so need a couple more crazy people who are up for a laugh and making some new friends. The application needs to be in next week (so ideally looking to get everyone together for an hour or so this weekend to complete application), race day is in November so the cart will be built on evenings or weekends between now and then. Send us a message if up for it!

Thank you, this is exactly what has happened to us and I just heard from someone else on a facebook group it happened to them too. Apparently this is due to us staying in NZ for a while. Doesnt matter how long ago you left UK, if you live in NZ in between this happens. On plus side we found out it does mean we are exempt from medicare levy, which goes towards the cost of the increased private healthcare costs.... Thanks for all the advice

Yep thats the gist of it they consider us NZ resident but we are not, woman kept saying just show your NZ passport!!!!!!!!. Therefore we have to hope we don't need any medical treatment!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks but thats the point! We have UK passports and are not resident in NZ!! They still refused!!

Thanks Cal, we are bemused. NZ has a full reciprocal agreement and assuming we had PR or Citizenship there we would be able to just show passport!!! We kept saying we are British citizens not NZ. They said no you lived in NZ so you are not UK residents. They then told us to fly home and come back so that they could then say we had been in UK before moving here??!!!!! I think perhaps we go back and fill the form in saying we were in uk before coming here!!!!!!!!

Hi Wonder if anyone can advise on this. We moved to Sydney recently on 457 visas, went to register for medicare this am and we were refused. They are saying we are not entitled under the reciprocal agreement because although we hold British passports we lived in New Zealand as temp residents for the last 2 years. They claim this means we are not entitled to UK reciprocal medicare registration? Has this happened to anyone else and is it an issue? thanks!​

Thanks for that! Brilliant, really appreciated and Oatley def worth a good look.

Humm he might be!!!! I will re investigate Oatley!!

Ah I mean just city life. We live in the middle of nowhere at the moment. I mean literally!!! Its about 30 mins to an hour from Chch CBD and has nothing. No shop, cafe, swimming pool or anything. We are city people so I just mean being around other people and having facilities!!! We looked at Oatly/Mortdale but my OH is not keen on being further out from city. We think the Sans Souci/ Monterey area is probably about right for us. Although I have been chatting to a friend of a friend in Sydney and she also recommended Gymea.

To the OP, I would just think very carefully and probably I would take the holiday in hindsight. I didn't move to Australia, we emigrated to Christchurch NZ without having been here before. Now we are moving to Sydney, but the whole thing has cost us a huge sum of money! Dont get me wrong, we have enjoyed our time here, but not visiting before was a mistake. I felt bad about the situation here but disliked Christchurch from the min I arrived, we stayed 2 years but ultimately that feeling hasnt changed. We have friends and family in Australia - we should have just gone straight there really. Each to their own but to give you an idea our move from UK to NZ cost about $80k and now we are spending another $30k moving to Sydney (both of those moves had full relocation packages, but it still cost that to get set up) Spend wisely, but my advice would be visit first, but as others said try to live your visit as normal life. Get up in morning and try the commute etc...

Yeah I did look at Surry Hills, but its out of our price range unfortunately. So we looked at a 45 train ride plus bus/car/walk up to an hour commute from CBD(based on our requirements) We are considering some other areas like North Ryde, but ultimately we will need to look at it all when we arrive in April. As I suspect with many people, we thought we had a huge budget - but in fact its prob average for Sydney!! We are trying to find an area where we can buy after the first year (that narrows it down alot once you consider purchase prices!!) But we are city people and having moved from city life in UK to Christchurch we need to get back in the action!! Having said that, anyone who hasn't visited South Island as a tourist absolutely should, amazing place to visit and support the re growth of the City post quakes. We have been here for 2 years, had a fantastic time but time for us to move to somewhere more dynamic!

Thanks - lol re airport noise. Commute isn't issue we knew it was bus and train, OH will leave stupidly early in morning or go in late to avoid the worst of traffic.

Hi all, after alot of faffing about!! We are transferring from Christchurch NZ to Sydney (which we are very excited about!!!). We have looked at lots of different suburbs but are now focusing on Sans Souci/ Ramsgate/Monterey/Brighton-Le-Sands area. We will rent initially and those areas seem to fit in our budget, plus primary schools look good. (we have a son who will be in school) Is there anyone that lives in this area who could give us some realistic info on what they think of: commute to CBD (vis bus & train) primary schools? any areas to avoid? how bad is airport noise? (my husband is concerned about this!!) the social life in this area (we will be keen to get out and about meeting other families and building a social life, having emigrated before, we are aware of how important integration to local community is!!) Much appreciated!!!