Peachy

Phew. Our Coles must be a smaller outlet. Will explore other supermarkets and markets as a priority ☺

Just settling down to kids favourite tea of crackers and cheese in front of the tele. However we have a choice of cheddar or Edam. Help! Sod the issues with the summer what are we going to do without decent cheese ? Christmas tea won't be the same without a cheese selection. Where can I get different cheeses? My husband is holding out hope that Wensleydale may have a niche market here :-)

We have only just moved. Without the full support of my husband it would have been hugely stressful. There is so much to organize and it costs a fortune! Spending a large chunk of our savings had to be a family decision. Until you make new friends you will be on the other side of the world with only your family unit to rely upon. I cannot imagine doing this without all 4 of us completely on board! In particular I think that the kids need to be ready and willing to make the move. The other posters have made some great suggestions. Think very carefully before you any further and see if there is scope for a compromise. We love Australia but don't think that if you can get them on a plane then they will fall in love with place upon arrival. Relocation is so much more complicated than that.

I called an insurer about your first point this morning. You need to have the letter from medicare confirming that you are a recent migrant There is a number to call on the letter that you get from medicare with the card. The letter you need for insurance purposes takes 7-10 days to send out . I have been told to email this to the insurer and cannot apply online. Sorry can't help with the other points

I suspect I will struggle a bit for your reasons Marisa. I am not one for lounging by a pool and have never done sitting on beach type holidays. However, if I can enjoy the outdoors for 10-11 months of the year I can catch up on my reading in an air conditioned room when it gets really bad.

Really useful to hear your experiences. I can manahe a week or two of unbearable heat . Plus I work in an airconditioned building so can put in some long days then use the flex when it gets cooler :-) Although not planning to buy until this time next year thought we would look at some properties in December/ January in local area to see where would be manageable. We are out in Ferny Grove so not a hope of sea breezes!

Hi Been here a couple of months and absolutely loving it; however a lot of people I meet comment on the Australian summer and how I will be lucky to survive it! How horrific is it? Once we have survived the summer ; -) we hope to buy. We are in brick built low set which keeps nice and cool on sunny days. What are other people's experiences of brick v Queenslanders in the heat?

My OH had similar issue with turning 40. Got in contact with organisation explaining desperate situation and unlikely to be able to apply if wasn't done by x date (put v politely of course!). Turned it round v quickly. Other thing I would suggest is getting in touch with migration agent - they are likely to have contacts at the assessment agency.

We found Singapore Airlines very good with children. Timing of flights worked well - 11.30 am from Heathrow so kids slept at tail end of first flight and a few more hours for the second. We arrived at 7.30 pm in Brisbane and kids went straight to bed. Is more expensive than other airlines but very good baggage allowance and excellent staff - particularly getting the kids extra drinks, snacks and bringing them sandwiches when they slept through meals. We had 2 hours in Singapore - pleased we didn't stop over as feel it just prolongs the journey rather than adding to the experience.

My OH is a social worker and is really enjoying work in Australia. Hours fine - 8.30 - 4.30. If you go down this route look into it very carefully - I am pretty sure a degree is required and must include days in practice. Good career if you have the people skills and heaps of patience. Pay is pretty good here for experienced social workers.

That is useful to know...

Just to clarify - if I have the private insurance do I have to use it should I need an op? Could I bypass it and go for the free option, say in the scenario that you mention above? (obviously taking the risk on the long waiting time v paying the 'gap' (if that is the correct terminology!)

I think you make a good point. If we start now and get a insurance history behind us will be worth it on the long run when we need joint replacements and the other big ticket items. Just seems a lot of money to pay out when we are all in good health.

Most policies seem to allocate amounts within the major dental so $150 for prep for root canal and $150 say for the actual root canal so getting $1000 would take some doing!

Done a little spreadsheet to work out the costs v rebate to us - I am struggling to see how we would save costs with getting the cover. If we get hospital (basic - to avoid the levy) + decent optical and dental, which are the two areas where we will incur costs, cost for the policy of the course of a year is about $3,500. Unless we have a dental disaster, I just can't see how we will get the money back - I am not sure that a policy even gives peace of mind because of the cap on overall claims. Hmm I am even less clear what to do now. Anyone else worked out the costs v rebate and it comes out in your favour or are you going for monthly cost v big bill!

Thanks for all the suggestions. Have now spent ages looking over the different policies and not much further forward. Now that I have looked into the costs of things all seems a bit pointless - root canal cover under most of the policies is about $200 but the total cost could be nearer to $2000 and for orthodontics / braces the cover is about $800-$1000 but the real cost will be $3,000 - $5000. Tricky to know whether worth the cost of the policy. Dental treatment and glasses not cheap in UK so have to look at it that way - just not sure what level of cover to get - slightly unfortunate that 3 of us wear glasses and our 2 children may very well need braces!

Hi I am looking into private healthcare and want to get dental and optical only, for 2 adults and 2 children. 3 of us wear glasses. We don't need ambulance because we are in Queensland. I have gone onto the government site to compare policies and there are hundreds of them!! In the UK I knew which were reputable firms but here I haven't a clue. Policies range from $108 a month for all of us to $300 + a month for comprehensive cover. Obviously I will need to research what they offer but it would be good to know what other people pay/ companies are good. Who are you with and are they are any good when it comes to paying out on the policy? Many thanks

I would definitely recommend the decluttering too. It may be better to leave some furniture and go with a 20' unless it is very special to you. Things aren't expensive over here (certainly not in our experience) and you can also get great quality furniture from gumtree - some people sell their nearly new furniture when they come back to the UK so you can fit a whole house out for less than $1000. You would have to have really nice furniture and good quality tools to make it worthwhile paying £7 - 8,000 for shipping.

Yep has worked out that way. Although to be fair this was the first job I got from UK so just pleased to get something in Australia in similar area of work. In longer term who knows but for now I am very happy to trade the level of pay I was on for lifestyle here. Should probably get off the internet now and enjoy my free afternoon ;-)

Can't answer the first bit of your post but definithe second - have taken whooping 30% pay cut but absolutely love my job. Am now on flextime which is fab. Previously worked long hours for more money. Used to enjoy my job but now my quality of life is even better. Taking the afternoon off today because I can:-)

Hi very stormy I am currently looking into dental and optical for 2 adults and 2 kids. Do you mind saying who you have gone with. Thanks.

Thanks for clarifying! Just got out our policies to make sure after slight panic! Dealer threw in the CTP and our fully comp on 6 yr old Subaru was $556. Trying to keep track of everything is proving tricky :-)

Sorry to be dense but what do you mean by 2 types of insurance? We were advised by finance chap at dealership.

3 months - my notice period. Wasn't expecting to get job so quickly so although had been to expo and had shippers in mind etc had nothing sorted. Was a swift turnaround but worked for us and just condensed all the admin. You just need a v good "to do" list!

About the same. We are with Allianz and paying $570 I think. They don't seem to need your no claims info - Allianz and RACQ didn't want it. It was worked out on how long we had been driving which is a bit random!