Phil-99

You will need to just move onto an Australian provider. I had EE in the UK, they assured me it would work here. It does, but man the charges for some things are beyond madness. If you stupidly send an email in Singapore on the way, it could cost around 30 pounds, for one email. ALDI in Australia has some excellent offers, no mucking around, just go to an Aldi, get a sim and you can have long calls to the UK immediately with no lock ins etc. I don’t work them, don’t get anything for saying this. They also use the Telstra network on 4G and it covers about 98% of Australia. It is a lot to cover. You can check it out online before you leave.

Just a salient note on this Freedy, Some things to think on. We had a bad experience, no particular people to blame except the dock handlers. Went like this. We we’re suddenly moving with a couple of days notice, we then had to do the insurance estimate. Estimate the whole value of all of your stuff in 30 minutes. Being completely honest I’m thinking, how much are my second hand clothes worth, etc etc. I didn’t want to overstate the value of my things so put honest prices on them. I put $1000 on my amplifier which is what it cost new. The same item in Australia was $3000. So we get a call from the shipping company - there is some good news and some bad. Your container has arrived. The bad news, it was dropped in the Brisbane River. They held it unopened for three days in 38 degrees, then opened it. At this point I was accompanied by a loss adjuster (a captain from P&O). I recorded the whole conversation by accidentally leaving my video recorder on. It went like this, each item’s value was questioned, because if you undervalue an item by 20%, they then reduced the payout by 20%. So my amplifier, undervalued by 60% is now paid out as being worth $400. I asked the loss adjuster how much the amplifier would cost in Afghanistan, he had no idea, so how was I to know how much they were here. Anyhow, I luckily have a friend who is a specialist maritime lawyer. He said, do not engage any arguments, just tell them to pay the full amount, or get ready to go to court. I said my valuation was in good faith and asked if they would like to talk to my lawyer. They didn’t and paid out the full amount. So if you reckon your Spurs jersey is worth $200. Don’t hold back on the valuation. Good luck with your move.

I completely get what you are saying. I have decided to just sell my present car here with a bit of a heavy heart. It performs like new with only 46k miles on the clock and full dealership history. The worry is always that I'd part with this and end up with some lemon over in Oz and will start comparing. I understand about parts my uncle in Perth had to park his car for 6 weeks when his tyres wore off to illegal levels as they were being shipped from Korea. What I will probably do is buy a run around and use it while I sus out what the cars over there are about. Can $5k get me a decent motor to use for about 6 to 12 months? You should check out Carsales com.au . What you and I consider a decent motor may differ quite a bit. I recently sold my immaculate Mercedes, 9 years old with 62k miles on the clock. With full dealer service history sold for $9000. So very sorry to see it go, but the next service was going to be over $2000. I also didn’t need two cars. Cars don’t rust here, but will suffer sun damage to paintwork and upholstery and rubber seals on windows. In some states there is is no “MOT”, so my Nissan Patrol has never been inspected since the day I bought it in 2011. I do get it serviced so I rely on the mechanics to keep me safe. $5000 will get a reasonable safe car, but $6500 may be better. You’re probably going to want air con too! Exciting times ahead for you! good luck

There’s a lot of good advice from the other members, so you need to work through this. Just a couple of things to consider. If he stays, forget about the poor lonely guy stuff, just warn him to be on his guard against the females that will no doubt try to rescue him. Not all of them will be altruistic or even single. If he goes, think about whether he is going to be the person you love if he does dislike being there and always longs to be back here in Australia. It may be difficult to see the person you love if they are depressed despondent or unhappy. Plan to deal with that. Good luck.

I hadn't thought about it that way. It seems if you are working there and buying there you are okay. The worst thing is bringing UK money over to spend on a car there. I guess I may just have to by a banger for a bit when I get in until I start earning Oz $. Sounds about right? Unless your car is a collectors item and toy for use on Sundays it may not be worth doing. Personally imported cars could be harder to sell because of identification plate issues and the big issue is that, although the same model car may be on sale here, there can be differences that makes picking up spares not so easy and may require an overseas order. For example we recently hired a brilliant Hyundai i30 in the UK which was super economical, performed very well. Checking back here it is not available with the same engine. You only need a slightly different part number from the same manufacturer for it all to fall apart. You may find some popular European cars are relatively cheap here because if you think you are going to pull into a Peugeot dealer in Mount Isa to get a headlight replaced or worse still a water pump, you may be disappointed. Check out John Cadogan on YouTube for some insights or at least for a laugh.

Funny thing about winter in Brisbane. You start living in denial that it could actually be cold, and just go out with a shirt and shorts, on the basis that it will warm up later. So even though it’s 6 degrees, it can’t last. Sometimes it does, but not that often. I have 30 year old jumpers I bought in Canberra that get out once every few years. You sure ain’t going to wear out your warm clothes in Brisbane. So our winters are glorious, there are about 6 weeks of hot humid weather around Jan-Feb, but you can feel sorry for all those folks in the southern capitals that have extreme hot weather which is rare here. Brisbane - great choice!

I agree with Lou entirely and I don’t live there yet. Here heading back into Manly in early February.