Davo453

An update and end to this thread, we arrived back in Australi last November we travelled around for a while and took delivery of our goods in March. We have settled into Bundaberg and are really happy with our choice, I urge you to consider it if you don't want to be saddled with possible huge housing debt in the major cities and traffic to deal with. There is work in Bundy (but prepare to be flexible) and a really great climate even the winters are warm. Brisbane is 4 hours to the south so whilst remote it's not that bad and Bundaberg has everything you need. Our move to Australia using PSS was a rather bitter one, all went OK to begin with apart from a very rushed packing experience in the UK. We paid for secure storage in Australia and went with PSS's recommended insurer this was a big mistake. To "maintain cover" we were made to pay an extortionate premium every 2 weeks after the goods arrived in Australia and until the goods were delivered and in actual fact, we might as well not have bothered we would have been better off ending it when the stuff had cleared customs. We were told that the container packed in the UK would be the one that arrived at our door in Australia, not the case, it was unloaded at least twice. A full to the rafters container in the UK arrived 3/4 full in Australia, some settling I guess but some missing. Do not be fooled by the "container is all yours" line, in the rushed of packing (caused by the need of the packers to travel 4 hours each way on both days even though we lived near Birmingham) we put a few things into the container at the last minute, they it seems we're not entered into the manifest which in the panic we missed. Those goods did not arrive in at our address in Australia and PSS refused to even acknowledge our concerns. When you go through the insurance valuation process you are lead to believe that you are insuring the goods for the value you write down but this is not the case its just so they can write a premium to that value. For example, a commercial microwave oven valued at £150 (much less than a new price) on the form was totally trashed and they paid out £40. At the end of the day after working their magic, they paid just 10% of our very conservative claim and with no appeal. Moving country is always a hassle but we have done it three times before, this time was by very far the worse experience, I doubt that we will shift country again but we could not recommend and would certainly not use PSS again.

So an update we have now been back in Australia for 4 months and in most of that time, we have been travelling across from WA in a caravan. If you get the opportunity buy a caravan and do the trip it is amazing to discover just how big the country is and what a diverse landscape it has. We wish we had done the trip many years ago. We still liked WA a lot and have many connections to it but that was too easy and we decided to travel east looking for a home. None of the big cities have suited us but of them all Adelaide came close, possibly followed by Canberra the others are too big, we did traffic to death in the UK and don't need anymore if we can help it. We travelled right around the bottom of Australia and have finally settled in Queensland, to be exact Bundaberg. Bundy is a really nice city with a good climate it has most services that you could wish for having a catchment of some 100,000 people. Everywhere that humans live has its problems and Bundy is no different in that but not to any noticeable extent. It is over 4 hours north of Brisbane but we have no compulsion to go back there but if needed it is doable there and back in a long day. So we have purchased a house (settles soon and in 30 days start to finish!) 1.2 acres with a 4 bed home and sheds for $260,000 not on a flood plain 11 minutes to the city 6 minutes to the beach could not be passed over. So here we will live for at least the next few years and who knows maybe forever.

Not so much missing out is just that we lived in WA for decades and have sort of out grown it I guess. So far as are half way through Victoria and have liked most of the places we have past through, with the exception of port Augusta but we had 2 days of 48deg there which put us off rather.

It is actually some 19 years since we lived in Perth we lived in Albany/Denmark for a few years prior to the UK and yes the changes are pretty staggering even the satnavs have trouble keeping up Google is your friend there. The road infrastructure is amazing apart from the upgrade to Reid hwy etc when did the extension to the kwinana freeway happen! It almost goes to Busselton now amazing stuff. But Perths old suburbs are still there and quite similar Ellenbrook is vast we objected to that year's ago as it used some of our land. It is as predicted just a dormitory town which is fine I guess and has a great Bunnings We could easily live in Perth we know the basic layout and finding a job for me at least would be no problems but it would be too easy to stay, so we are even now heading East.

What's bad we'll that's very hard to judge isn't it. It depends so much on where you live both in the UK and Australia, how much money you have and where your family or support base is. For us we felt that to be honest we wasted the 11 years in the UK, financially at least we would have been much better off staying in Aus. However we had many adventures in europe but we had to work and making money this proved to be a real battle. Nothing is cheap in the UK especially in the cities housing and the general cost of living always goes up and wages are quit a bit lower than aus. Then there is the weather, all i can say there is i didn't have bad arthritis before we went and rightly or wrongly i attribute that to working a market stall in mid winter. So it's horses for courses really but I wish we hadn't gone.

So after a week back in Perth we are still in the honeymoon period i guess but my it's good to be home. We lived in the uk for 11 years having gone there for just 5 to spend time with family, life and business just got in the way really. There have been many changes in Perth in the intervening years and not for the worse that we can see. There are a lot more people but unless you do something daft like joining rush hour traffic or going to Ikea on a Sunday morning you wouldn't really know. What is staggering is the difference in prosperity between WA and the UK they honestly don't know what a down turn is here. Sad to say that the UK is in a bad way right now no matter how much they fudge the figures. We are not staying in WA though, we are doing a road trip to the East and will see if we like it but if not we will be back and will not be going back to the UK.

Fingers crossed, all gets collected in about 3 weeks

Nope have gone with PSS for a full 20ft door to door. What with everything else to worry about it was a step too far really.

$45 a month https://www.aldimobile.com.au/plans/xxl-value-pack/#

Tricky isn't it Good to hear that are alternatives and we can change later if necessary. The aldi xxl pack is probably what I will go with 20GB the data roll over is attractive and unlimited calls to uk.. Doesn't look like international texts are included though?. But we use whatsapp mostly anyway. Someone has told me that aldi is only 3g is that correct? I have a friend that will post a couple of sims to us in the UK so we have them ready when we arrive.

Can agree with that very different attitudes. Even more so when you take in country people and places and city people. Country for me......

Apparently the smell of disinfectant is a good idea our place stinks of Jeyes Fluid at the moment. I'm taking a lot of tools probably a third of our 20 foot container.

Thanks for the reply that's great just the info I was looking for. My present mobile is only just out of contract and has been extremely good so i will keep it for a while and go for the Aldi Sim. I just wish there was an Aldi in the center of Perth I wonder if they sell them elsewhere....

I've searched the forum and can't find this topic but it must be there somewhere.... Which mobile phone SIM to get. I need pretty good rural coverage loads of data min 30gb sounds ok and would like international calls Aldi mobile XL plan looks interesting does anyone have that? Any recommendations appreciate.

A bit of good news today the buyer (the one holding things up) have had their mortgage approved, so with a good lump of luck maybe next week for contract exchange. Might get my life back then

Thank you for the reply what was the spot rate when you got those quotes? for example https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/ (my favourite site) is as of today quoting a spot rate of 1.8548 Need that to work out the margin percentage you see. I'll drop into my local branch and ask them about it anyway.

Any idea what margin HSBC charge when doing that? I can't seem to find any info on it.

interesting re the HSBC accounts do you know what margin they are taking on the exchange? In my experience the margin that banks demand is pretty huge but i'd love to be proven wrong and if it wasn't much i'd do it too.

It amazes me the UK seem to think they are world leaders in so many things, my major observation after living here for 10 years is that they are pretty rubbish at administration be that housing, social security, the law, government, Industry standards policing even politicians expenses. Australia is a bit too good at it in many ways not perfect by very far as we are over governed but better at it generally. I just want to go home and not feel bitter about my time in the UK but this is beginning to feel like i'm trapped.

This is just a complaint about the status quo really can't do anything about it just wait. Anyway we bought and sold homes and other property in Australia maybe 10 or 12 times before we came to the UK. It was relatively easy really and never took more than 6 weeks in some cases as little as 2 weeks. So now we are selling up in the UK to go home, our house has been "Sold subject to Contract" for nearly 10 weeks. It sold very quickly and all looked good for a quick settlement, then the solicitors get involved and it drags and drags. It doesn't matter how much you pester them they will not be hurried. If one solicitor sends a letter to another expecting a reply it is about a week to move on to the next stage. Then all of a sudden just as we are about to exchange contracts someone early on in the chain has their mortgage knocked back! I mean we are talking 10 weeks in here they must have applied for it sooner than this. So something else has gone on maybe a bit of gazumping or something. So now we wait while they apply again to another mortgage company. All of a sudden it looks a lot like we will be spending another winter in this joint something we really wanted to avoid.. Everyone here agrees that the chain system and the delay before (and practical none existence of) unconditional contracts is a terrible system but it has apparently been like this for ever. The only winners in this are the solicitors and surveyors if we pull out now we still have to pay them the full fee. Come on UK fix it it's too late for us but fix it for heaven's sake this is torture.

So we have had our quote for a full (to the brim) 20' container to Perth PSS have come in with a competitive quote and they offer in addition a "Free" unaccompanied 25kg bag to your destination airport. Has anyone used the offer of sending a free bag? They mention them but are not specific about inbound charged, what could we expect? To go door to door it's an extra £80, it that worth it? Thanks in advance Dave

Yep point taken you have to have a tiny shock to trip the Earth leakage (important to have an earth wire) but you will not get a major jolt. If you don't have RCD (hard to believe these days) get it asap and they do wear out so testing is a good idea just occasionally.

Uk King size bed = Australian Queen, UK Super king = Australian King, we bought an Oz king and Queen back to the UK several years ago and we still use them mattresses have been replaced with the UK equivalentent no problem. Actually both beds are going back to Oz with us in November...... In WA (we lived in Perth and Albany) it got damn cold in the winter, as i understand it so do the southern states in the East, those marvelous looking open plan houses are great in the summer but a bugger to heat in the winter. We used to burn a lot of firewood for heating and still we were cold at times but that's ok just burns more calories...

That is what an RCD is supposed to protect you against and for the same reason Aus plugs don't have a fuse built in.

Don't think that will work in my case as we are Australians returning home.