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I completely agree that the survey is not a real view of how liveable a suburb really is. Take my suburb for example, it is rated poorly due to things I wouldn't consider a problem. From Warrandyte, my wife's takes the bus to the city and I take the car to get to work. I drop the kids off at daycare and school on the way. The nearest large shopping centre (Eastland) in Ringwood is 15 mins away by car. Warrandyte is a leafy, peaceful and not densely built up like many other suburbs to feeling claustrophobic. So what that is lacks a train station or major shopping centre. There is a library with not a too bad selection of restaurants and cafes. It does lack boutique shops though which is a shame. In conclusion take this survey with a large pinch of salt as what each person considers liveable is variable.

I know, from what I can see the scores comes from cafes, walkable, culture, public transport, tree cover, retail and crime. My own suburb Warrandyte scored roughly in the middle due to poor public transport and lack of retail but scored higher than the 2015 ranking due to more cafes.

I recently seen there is an updated suburb liveability ranking list posted on Domain and just linking here for anyone interested. https://www.domain.com.au/liveable-melbourne/melbournes-most-liveable-suburbs-2019/melbournes-307-suburbs-ranked-for-liveability-2019-898676/ I must say that I do take these rating with a pinch of salt as liveability can mean different things to different people.

Just a quick note. Tokia Marine seem to be struggling somewhat in the UK and I think they may have closed their Manchester office as after recently calling the Manchester office where my claim was being handled, the number no longer works and had to call the London office instead. I am now having to chase for the claim payout as the person handling the claim has left the company. I also found this article related to Tokio Marine from their own news release dated June 2019. http://www.tokiomarinekiln.com/news-views/news-releases/tokio-marine-group-shifts-tmk-focus-to-lloyd-s-business/

Last update: There were a few damaged goods so we contacted Letton Percival to put forward a claim. The first thing we noticed is that Letton Percival are just a insurance broker with the insurance and claim actually was handled by a company called Tokio Marine. It did take some time for the claim to process but submitting the claim was straight forward. We submitted the shipping paperwork including the delivery note as well as photos with description of the damage and an estimate to replace or repair in Australia.

Getting in and out of Warrandyte in the morning is not bad. I work in Hallam and head along Springvale road and it isn't too bad as most people would be heading towards Melbourne. Which areas of Warrandyte are you looking at? Property prices are somewhat high. Take a quick look on realestate.com.au and domain.com.au to see prices for property and also look at past sales to get a feel. Warrandyte is quite a nice place, it is quite leafy and there are there are some good walks along the Yarra river. The town centre is good as it gives Warrandyte a hub which other suburb can lack so it actually feels as though you are part of a town. There is a local IGA which is decent and convenient although some things can be pricey. There are a few doctor surgeries here and other services so a lot of things are conveniently located here including schools. Public transport is ok with frequent busses to get around although three is no train station here so travelling by car is the best option. Overall we are glad we moved here. N.B. Warrandyte is administered by Manningham council, however north Warrandyte is administered by Nilumbik council. Warrandyte is located in a bushfire overlay zone. NBN has just recently arrived in Warrandyte in the west with other areas in Warrandyte planned to be connected later this year.

Hello, Sorry for the late response, we have been busy relocating from Brisbane to Warrandyte and only arrived the other week. We haven't done much trekking out yet except for a couple of times at rush hour. I would say it wasn't difficult to get from Warrandyte to the M3 at around 7:30 but I was heading towards Dandenong. I did see a lot of traffic on the opposite side of the road heading towards the city.

Just a another quick update since I have not posted in while. Our goods arrived in the port of Brisbane at beginning of March and thankfully passed quarantine without issue. Unfortunately we were not ready to have our goods delivered since we did not have a house to have our belongings delivered to. In fact, our house hunting did not go well at all and the after staying in temporary accommodation for a few months and getting nowhere with a house and not enjoying Brisbane we have decided to give Melbourne a try instead. We have just purchased a house and waiting for the settlement date in August. It is a shame really as I found work in Brisbane after only a couple of weeks although the Brisbane climate and culture hasn't rubbed off on my wife. Anyway back to the main point we are now moving our undelivered belonging to Melbourne with Allied Pickfords and extending our insurance with Letton Percival. We really hope all is going to work out for the best this time round.

Hello, We have just purchased a house in Warrandyte. However before we take possession we want to contact a couple of builders for quoting some renovation work. No extensions at this stage more of a reconfiguring of the current plan, meaning knocking down some walls and re-purposing some rooms. Does anyone have a recommended builder I could contact? Best regards,

Thank you for the recommendation. I have engaged Mountain conveyancing for our house purchase.

Thanks for this. I will check them out.

Hello, We are looking into purchasing a property in Warrendyte but first we want to have a conveyancer lined up. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks in advance, Best regards, Steven

Just thought I would check in and update. We arrived in Brisbane just over a week ago, I will be in touch soon with the movers handing our goods on this side. In the meantime we now have to wait until about mid March when our container will arrive. We went with Letton Percival for insurance despite unfriendly notices from PSS to take theirs instead. We were quite detailed in everything we listed for the insurance just to be on the safe side, a lot more work but probably worth it if anything does happen. We are hoping to secure a property by the time the container arrives to have a place to move our belongings into.

We didn't get a quote from PSS in the end. We were advised that we could insure individual items or everything. But from reading these forums we decided not to even try the all under one roof solution as others have had headaches if items were damaged. At least with our insurer they wanted everything to be covered. For the whole house (3 bed house) contents minus work tools cost just over £1000. Best regards,

Thanks I am really annoyed with them with this scare tactic. I guess they are hoping I will just go with their insurance instead, how pathetic. Best regards,

I might as well mention that the shipping company we are using are PSS international and insured using Letton Percival. Up until this point the service from PSS has been overall good and I picked them over other shippers as other members on this forum have had positive experiences using them. Did anyone else have this experience?

The time has come for our move to Brisbane. Our belongings are now in the shipping container and we are now on a short break before our next flight to Oz. We decided to use a third party insurer for our goods. After I sent this to the shipping company we are using I received an email to sign an attached disclaimer form. Most of the form basically tells that I decided to not use their insurance telling us over many paragraphs how great their insurance package is and that we decide to use a cheap insurer, blah blah blah. The last two paragraphs however did catch my attention I will paste it below. I removed the name of the company. I confirm that I have declined the Shipment Protection to cover the handling, packing, removal, loading, transport, shipment, unloading and delivery of my household and personal effects from my home in the UK to my new home overseas. I understand that I cannot hold "REMOVAL COMPANY" and/or its agents responsible for any delay, damage, loss or anything else resulting from the full door to door removal and shipment of my household effects. I accept that all business transacted is subject to the Standard Trading Conditions as printed on the reverse side of the removal acceptance form and I accept that "REMOVAL COMPANY" are only liable under limited liability conditions. By signing this I feel as though I am giving them permission to be careless with our belongings and for them to take as long as they like to ship as they would no longer be responsible.

Thank you for all the input. I will certainly keep all of this in mind and will now be checking if the brick is actually just veneer, ideally I would be looking for a solid brick house since whenever I have read about termite infestations they are expensive to put right. I had a look at the belong website, The prices are certainly reasonable.

Thanks for the comments. We had a quick look at Corolla from Southside Toyota in Brisbane, a 2017 model for c$22k, not a bad price, so we will definitely consider it after we arrive in Brisbane. Could anyone recommend a reliable surveyor? We are hoping to purchase a property in Brisbane but if we get less from the sale of our property in the UK we are looking to buy in Jimboomba. Apparently they have reputable schools in the area.

Hello After nearly 5-years of waiting, we are finally ready for the big move. Our house is on the market and hopefully it gets sold before our move in mid November. We will be staying in an airbnb till after Christmas. Thanks for the forum, we will be using PSS for shipping our belongings. We opened the migrant account with commonwealth bank. 1) cars: We are after a small, low maintenance car, something like vauxhall corsa or ford fiesta in the UK. We've seen fiesta online from ford garages in Brisbane, just wondering if anyone knows they fall in the low maintenance category there as well. We read that garages usually want to sell finance to customers but we are not interested in that. As such realistically how much would they be willing to knock off the asking pricing if we haggle. 2) houses: We noticed that a lot of the houses in Brisbane have external wood panelling. How often does it need to be treated? Also, we would be grateful if anybody could offer any tips or things need to be aware of when buying properties in greater Brisbane areas. What's to look out for etc. 3) Sim only contracts: we will be taking our phones with us but just wondering what are generally good deals in the area. We read on the forum that people took out Aldi contracts? Thanks for your help Steve

Sorry for the late reply, its been a busy week. I had a reply from the immigration office in Victoria. They said something along the lines of they expect me to stay in Victoria as I signed the declarations but at the same time they understand that finding work is key to surviving. We have the International movers coming this week to take a more detailed inventory. I am guessing its not going to be cheap. Also just had to send off for a 101 visa for my daughter as she came along after being granted being granted our 190 visa, again not cheap.

Sorry for the late reply, we've been busy, busy. I hope so, but I reckon I would have to start low to middle and work myself back up. It is possible I may get a better a better passing job but will be waiting longer and fighting harder to get it.

Good to know, thanks. btw, I like message in your signature.

Thanks for the feedback. This is quite a relief and had been weighing on my mind (staying in a place which I applied which I initially thought was good, turning out to possibly be a bad move)

Mostly is would be time with spent with the family and a decent house. I will probably be downgrading my car from what I had in the UK but a good house would be a necessary.