scubacam

Hi again everyone, I just wanted to drop back on here as our activation holiday is now looming this April. We are staying in freshwater next to manly , Sydney. We will have a car and plan on travelling a lot up and down the coast exploring places. We are going to check out Wollongong, Newcastle, central coast and maybe even Byron Bay. A few people have now mentioned Newcastle and I’m wondering if anyone can pls give us an idea of where to look / not look for areas in which we may want to settle / look for properties when we do actually move. We are looking to be coastal or a 20 mins drive to beach max really and not too in the sticks as my hubby is a project manager so will need to find work within 1 hr commute. We have a child so somewhere with a community feel , decent schools etc. I know that living outside London there are just towns to avoid, and towns which are fine and towns which are great. Any knowledge to refine our trip and save time is great! Thank you !

Right I’m with you now. Our visa is granted and we are activating with a holiday in 4 months [emoji4][emoji4][emoji5] So I think we just sponsor our own child?

Hi Vicky, I haven’t looked into the visa part but if you had it here in UK couldn’t you just sponsor the baby? That’s what I *thought* we could do. Why would you do your quick trip over and back?

Ive put this in another topic too but just in case it doesn’t get seen by the right people I’ll put it here too. Hello everyone , 
I’m hoping someone or a few with different experiences will be able to jump on here and give me some advice. 
My husband and I are in the UK until 2020 . We want to have a second child at some point and what I’m wondering is , what does Medicare not cover? If I arm myself with insurance will I still have to pay out of pocket and then try to get it back? Or is it better to get on the baby train now with the nhs backing us. 


Yes Newcastle is on the list to look at too. I’m a special needs teacher and my husband is project manager in plumbing heating and air con. I don’t know if we’ll get jobs in Sydney - we are currently just outside London but our jobs aren’t in London but we like having it semi nearby

Our property hasn’t changed in value since referendum just not sure what the future holds. And the pound is at its highest in 2 years

Hi guys I’m jumping on to this for some advice. We are on the fence about whether or not to sell. We purchased our home in 2015 for 460,000 and have lived in it ever since. We’d possibly consider renting it but hugely put off by the idea of filing tax returns and capital gains. I think right now it’s worth 500-515,000 but hopefully more in 2 years time. Am I better to rid myself of the property than do the capital gains and tax return stuff ?

Surely we are just bringing our lump some over once we’ve paid whatever tax is payable in the uk, not sure how it’s different to if we bought the money over if we sell it when we go

I’m sorry if I’m being stupid , why does it it matter about knowing the tax law In Australia with regards to renting our property here until we are ready to buy in aus ?

Unfortunately my father in law is an accountant but he’s also hell bent on us not going and very old school accountant too. I have to admit I don’t understand the tax stuff

Also in a totally BIZARRE turn of events my husband Nic went to help his parents (the difficult in-laws) chop down a tree yesterday whether his act of kindness rubbed off I don’t know but they were chatting about Australia as they try weekly to put us off with what a terrible country it is (having never been) , what animals lie in wait to kill us etc etc , Nic told them about our recent findings (thanks to this site) about cats - I don’t mean that sarcastically I truly had no idea what it is like over there I thought dogs were the issue . And I’m very grateful for everyone’s opinions - whilst part of me remains firm I can’t lie when I say that lots of people on here have made me wonder what their life will be like where and how it will effect us trying to settle in a nice place with our son. Anyway - BIZARRELY, they offered to take the cats for us???? Now they have never owned cats , they know our cats but baring in mind they wouldn’t have us to stay this baffled me completely. Nics mum is very easy going so the actual difficult one is my father in law , he didn’t disagree just simply rolled his eyes - this is usually a yes as a no is met with a flat out no. So now I have a dilemma - yes this isn’t a definite answer from them but they wouldn’t mention it if it wasn’t an option. However they are pushing for us to keep the house and rent it out - taking out some equity to give us what we need to pay a bond, a month or so rent , cheap run around car etc. Now I know them - this is purely because they want us to return having not succeeded as they think we will be back - something I can’t categorically say won’t happen but I wanted to financially cut ties with the UK because if the house is here ready for Us i can imagine returning instead of fighting the hard times of adapting to a new country . Am I crazy? Is renting our house out the better option having removed some equity? Nic did some figures and the rates are good at the moment so if we removed some equity after renegotiation Our mortgage on the new rate would stay the same as currently so we’d be able to secure about £500 a month from renting it which we’d have to keep by for maintenance of our property etc The minute another idea gets thrown around I start to wobble on what’s the best idea - as you can tell from the above I haven’t got a clue.

Thank you that’s helpful, I realised I never replied to you about areas. The truth is that we don’t know yet. We visited in 2014 and stayed in Avalon , northern beaches and fell in love but I’m not made of millions. We scouted central coast a bit but when we come in April we will be looking at Wollongong , central coast more and drive up to Byron bay to have a look.

Hi , we are also heading to outer Sydney (Wollongong or central coast) I think it’s really difficult , our dog doesn’t like other dogs and just wants to sleep so we aren’t worried too much. Yes she loves to run but I know it’s safer for her not to over there and as she gets older I’m ok with that. She would be a mess without us and I can’t guarantee that someone else would put up with all of her quirks. People do have dogs there so other people will also be going home to get back to kids , dogs , relieve babysitters. Bella is what also makes our home home so we have to take that into account. We went to an immigration show last weekend who estimated £1000 for flight plus £500 domestic between Melbourne and Sydney, £1000 for quarantine . Vet bills are obviously another matter. We paid £150 for rabies

Yes we are going with one dog instead of 2 because we waited for one to pass

Morning guys thank you for all your responses , our cats are very attached to us , whenever we move into a different room - the two of them suddenly appear where we are. Yes we rescued them when they were kittens from a cat hoarders home but we’ve been their constant for 8.5 years. I totally get that perhaps we are being selfish but this move is going to be hard regardless because of what we are leaving behind - our animals are just not something that we can imagine rehoming making the whole thing even more upsetting. I don’t view it as making our life more difficult because we have always had animals . Not having them is alien to us. Yes I do think about what their life will be like there but I don’t know what their life would be like here. They’ve already got most of their jabs . What we’ve decided to do is talk to estate agents in April when we visit and see what their experience has been and what it would take to get a decent place with 3 animals

I definitely feel that in my own property I could try and sort it but how do I get a nice rental with three animals ? I thought the dog would be a problem

Thank you for your understanding ; I’m now worried about what type of property I’ll find that’ll allow them and what if their life there is way worse because of how cats are treated / viewed by the public

And they are our babies ; we have had them for 9 years and they are also rescues . One is nervous - I can’t even imagine rehoming them and then how I and they would cope with it . They are all we know

1-2 hours, Wollongong /central coast

Everyone’s input is really helpful - it’s all so foreign to me because it’s so different here. Makes me feel sad as well because I have owned cats since I was a child and can’t imagine not but how does everyone keep their cats indoors especially if you have doors open house which in summer here we do ; I understand air con is used but with kids and parities/visitors it doesn’t seem sustainable. That’s also the problem- I couldn’t take an undesirable place ; the move will be tough enough without our surroundings being horrible

Might sound like a silly question but will I know with my contract if I’m going to end up paying extra income tax if I don’t take it ?

Thank you; I understand the pension super bit but it’s whether or not you’re entitled to an ambulance in your health package etc etc

Interesting because surely all cats are different; ours used to be a nightmare with frogs but now older and lazy, like to sunbathe , eat and sleep!

Wow ; lots to take in and understand and also understand what’s included and not included in salary etc, so what to look out for - I’m not good at reading and understanding insurance / any type of important documents where they use jargon I don’t understand . Are you going back to Australia ?

Hose I can understand , domestic yes but it’s innate for cats to roam and climb in order to roam.