Captain Ron

2 hours ago, alaina14 said:

no one??

bubble shooter

I managed to find a few myself.  A lovely lady got back to me with very thorough information. I ended up not needing a cattery in Melbourne in the end, sadly my Cat passed away 4 days before her flight.

If you would like some info let me know and I will share with you.

Can anyone recommend a cattery in Melbourne for my indoor cat.  And one that can collect her from quarantine?  Unfortunately our flight out before her has been cancelled.  So we are now considering letting her still go ahead but it means we will need help before we get there.

Any help is appreciated!

3 minutes ago, jimmyay1 said:

Mostly Bayside from Hampton through Sandringham to Black Rock and Half Moon Bay.

 

The bottom ones are down at Chelsea / Bonbeach and Seaford. 

 

Don't agree that either the sand or the bay is generally "dirty".  We've dolphins. whales ( last weekend) all manner of bird and sea life. The beaches are pretty clean and also mechanically regular cleaned.  The water is often crystal clear particularly in summer.  I avoid St kilda beach.  Anywhere South of Middle Brighton is pretty awesome in terms of cleanliness. 

 After storms like anywhere it gets churned up, but to say we have a city of 5 million people around its shores and a river flowing into it,  i think it's pretty good. 

If you want the ocean its only an hour's drive. 

I really love the bay. its moods and light are absolutely fantastic and ever changing. the sun sets over the bay from bayside suburbs and its honestly as good as santorini at times.  Sorry to derail the thread! 

You haven't derailed the thread at all Jimmy it's great to have your perspective.  If I wanted perfect beaches I would move somewhere that offered just that!  I would take what you have there over our pebbled beach/shipping lane any day of the week!  

Happy to say Im so excited to get to Melbourne and experience all it has to offer  

4 hours ago, Parley said:

Are you planning to buy or rent? Do you know your budget if buying?

I'm also in Eastern Suburbs but closer in. All depends on your budget.

Hi Parley, we will have to rent for some time before buying.  As for area we like Cheltenham, Sandringham, Camberwell and surrounds, Brighton. etc but will have to get there first and have a good look around.  Also have schools to consider.

3 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I’m used to proper Australian beaches with wide swathes of soft sand and clean ocean beaches. I’m scared of big waves but the Bay water just looks a bit dirty and uninviting. 

You don’t come to Melbourne for the beaches anyway. It’s not a beach-obsessed place like other Australian cities. Too many other interesting things going on

Yes true- we are definitely not moving to Melbourne for the beach!  

But I"m sure my kids will appreciate the sand and warmer water when we do get to one!

Yes, flying 4th November hopefully!

I did read this very briefly on a FB group - thank you for the confirmation!! 

Lol!! If only I knew which beach was which?? 

This gets me very excited for our move - thank you so much!!!

3 minutes ago, Nora said:

I would recommend Melbourne Eastern Suburbs. They are quite nice, and probably 38-45 min from Melbourne CBD.

I.e.: Croydon  Mooroolbark, Ringwood, or even the Yarra Valley area. Have a good look.

 

We lived in Croydon for.3.years and loved the life stlye we had qith two school kids. Bjt we always wanted to moved up back to Qld because of the weather. 

Great, thank you!

8 hours ago, bicek said:

Yeah I think that's the generic guidance for qantas and does not apply to repatriation flights unfortunately. 

Oh okay, got you!  If I hear anything ill come back to add.

Hope the packing going okay  

On 30/08/2021 at 13:08, bicek said:

Did you travel with children at all? Just wanted to confirm what the baggage allowance is for infants/kids on these flights. 

I saw this earlier on in this thread:

2 hours ago, Chris 2020 oz said:

 

We also have 3 kids and are heading to Melbourne. Hope your pathway back was not a stressful as ours. 

I will let you now closer to the time, lol! We might end up with the DFAT flight too if our Nov is cancelled! 

That is why I started the thread on here "Moving to Melbourne" haha so that we could compare notes!!!

11 minutes ago, bicek said:

Do you know how we are supposed to book our connecting flights from Darwin? 

I was advised on here not to worry about those flights until you are in quarantine and the staff are able to tell you your exact exit date then you will know when to book your flight out to Melbourne.

5 minutes ago, bicek said:

Yes I saw them come in luckily and we booked our flights for the latter date. They were all gone really fast, less than 30 minutes. I couldn't see any premium or Business flights, just seemed to be economy available for the 21 Sept date. 

We now need to pack up a bit faster as it's brought our moving date forward by a week! 

So relieved we finally have a confirmed date to work towards!! 

So happy for you!! Now you don't have to worry about your October flight not going ahead!! Hope your cat gets sorted too.

All the best!

Sounds like the winter weather we had in Cape Town  Its freezing in winter and central heating is not a thing!! 

As for summer in the UK - we have not had one this year yet and we are at the end of August already!  We followed Melbourne's weather and it has been better in your winter than our 'summer'! Don't get me wrong, I've had some of the best summers here.  But sadly this year was a dud   We have spent so much time indoors since the Covid outbreak here last year, combined with home schooling and lockdowns and now a rubbish summer it really is the icing on the cake! 

On another note:  Im sure through my kids school we will meet and make friends but what, in your opinion, is the best way of meeting people there? 

2 hours ago, Marisawright said:

The beaches in Melbourne don't have waves either, because they're all inside a huge bay which has just a small opening to the open ocean.   Of course that's good for kids swimming because they're not going to get caught in rips or knocked off their feet, but at the same time, the enclosed bay and lack of strong wave action means the water isn't always as clean as you'd like.   Having been used to living on the East Coast of Australia where all the beaches are like "Home and Away", I'm very unimpressed with Melbourne's little beaches!   And of course, the weather is so unpredictable here too.  On the plus side, I think that's why Melbourne has such a wealth of indoor activities compared to some other parts of Australia. 

Where you live will depend on your budget and whether you're renting or buying.  Also whether your husband needs his car for work or could commute by public transport.  You'll find Google Maps very handy - just set the day and time to the time he'd need to get to work by, and you'll get a pretty accurate picture of how long his commute would be. 

Ive heard about the weather in Melbourne and it did/does bother me but we don't have a choice at this stage to be anywhere else other than Melbourne due to work.  But at the same time, i live in UK and the weather is rubbish here most of the year so it can't be that bad in Melbourne in comparison!! 

9 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Brighton is multi-millionaire's row.  Poms are drawn to Bayside because the Australian dream has to include the beach, right?  But you're coming to Melbourne, which is nothing like the rest of Australia. Bayside beaches are not on the ocean like a "proper" Australian beach, they're on a huge enclosed bay with no surf, dirty sand and lots of seaweed.   If you want a beach lifestyle with a family and have flexibility with work, I'd be moving to  Geelong instead.  You could look at the Mornington Peninsula but it's a horribly long commute if you have to work in Melbourne.

  I assume you're aware of the Homely suburb reviews https://www.homely.com.au/search/suburbs-in-melbourne-greater-victoria

 

My husband's office is in Melbourne city centre   Living near a beach would be nice but we don't need to be within walking distance of one, if you know what i mean! Im happy to live further away and take a drive to a beach when we feel like one!  Currently we live in Brighton in UK, our beach has no waves and no sand only pebbles, Lol!!! Im South African living in UK for the past 9 years. Never been to Melbourne so i'm very grateful for any of your information! 

1 hour ago, bicek said:

We are booked for early October. I'm not convinced we will stand a chance of our flights going ahead, when they're only letting 6 or so people onto economy on each flight. We are considering booking backup flights but the earliest available are end of jan/Feb. Crazy! 

Oh wow you also have a lot of juggle too, it's incredibly stressful when the kids education is involved isn't it. Trying to time it in a way that is the least disruptive to them feels quite impossible in the current circumstances. We haven't approached schools yet as we just don't know when we will get there let along where we will be able to find rented accommodation. Hoping to buy somewhere quite soon but we have the added complication that we are both self employed so getting a mortgage in a new country with no credit or employment history.....we may have to wait a while. 

I think we will de-register our eldest from school and home school them until we get to Australia. It seems the only option available to us as we will likely have to move in with family for a bit if we can't get on our flight, and they live 3 hrs away. 

We are also moving to Melbourne, but currently booked to fly into Sydney. Are you flying into Melbourne for both November and January flights? What areas in Melbourne are you thinking of moving to? 

Wishing you the best of luck and that we both make it there before Christmas! 

I emailed 2 schools few months ago and not much to offer unless you live in the catchment area, so it really is a wait until you are there situation and once you know the area you want to live in then you look at the schools in the area.  I think it must all be virtually done currently due to closures and lockdowns.  

Our Singapore November flights are to Melbourne. We are booked with Quantas for January also in to Melbourne. We also registered with DFAT but decided to book a back up flight for January because so many thousands will be trying to frantically book DFAT and i cannot handle the every minute refreshing and then try and book for 5 people, Lol! And with more flights being cancelled now im sure any Jan/Feb flights that are left will be gone soon! Its all a big mess really!

Not sure where we will be living yet in Melbourne we have never been there, lol!! We like the look of a few areas but will have to sus it out further once there.  Hampton, Brighton, St Kilda, Sandringham etc 

I created this thread on here to try and talk more about Melbourne

Oh gosh! When are your flights for?  We also have flights with Singapore, for 4th November.  But we also booked for 4th January as a back up! But we really, really hope to get the November flight!!  

We also have 3 kids.  My youngest is 2 and have to find a nursery, a junior and a high school.  We also have a cat flying. But we made the decision for her to stay in a cattery and fly after us by a few days.. 

We are also stuck with the school situation if we have to stay here past November! Both boys are not down anywhere. My eldest just finished Yr 6 BUT because of when he was born/age, he is due to do YR6 again in Australia (which is fine if we get there) but if we stay in UK and he has to attend school it means he will start YR 7 here then get taken out and go back to YR 6 in Australia!  I have looked at home school etc but that is not my ideal situation having experienced it during lockdown, lol!  

We are fortunately renting and although we have given in our notice we have also mentioned the current situation with flights and that we might be here longer (than we want to be)sigh!!

Congratulations on your newborn

Where are you guys heading?  We are moving to Melbourne x 

3 minutes ago, bicek said:

Every time my phone pings with an email alert I have a mini heart attack. This situation is doing nothing to help my stress levels! 

Oh dear! Are you trying to leave UK too? What is your situation currently?

6 hours ago, bicek said:

It seems a little unusual they haven't been announced yet this month. I'm wondering if they'll be offering fewer flights as there's no time for people to get organised for earlier Sept dates now. Hopefully they offer a few dates, as there is such huge demand now. If they only offer 1 or 2 dates they will sell in minutes I would have thought. 

Do people know if old codes can be used or must the new code in a new email be used for the upcoming dates? (if they even announce any) 

And Singapore Airlines have also started cancelling flights now, up until the 10th of September so EVEN MORE people will be trying for the DFAT flight!!! 

6 hours ago, bicek said:

It seems a little unusual they haven't been announced yet this month. I'm wondering if they'll be offering fewer flights as there's no time for people to get organised for earlier Sept dates now. Hopefully they offer a few dates, as there is such huge demand now. If they only offer 1 or 2 dates they will sell in minutes I would have thought. 

Do people know if old codes can be used or must the new code in a new email be used for the upcoming dates? (if they even announce any) 

Yeah, ive heard new code needed

Thank you @Marisawright I too hope you are out of lockdown! Fingers crossed it all works out for us both!  

Very true about location etc, we were actually discussing that point.  The  internet can tell you one thing and you can experience something completely different.  

I agree it is important to find the right location first.  It is also good to have an idea on schools in the area however, because I have three kids of different ages, i'm looking for a junior school, high school and nursery. 

I liked the look of Sandringham. Brighton also looks lovely.  But we need space being a family of 5  

Thought it would be nice to chat to anyone else that is doing the move to Melbourne soon. We are hopefully leaving on the 4th of November from UK.
I have searched areas and schools for my kids. Was hoping to have a good look around but not sure how possible that will be this year but will have to see what happens!

How are you getting on with your plans so far and anything you would like to share

2 minutes ago, BeauVinyl said:

Regarding our Singapore flights, we downloaded the Singapore Airlines app and signed into it. I checked the flight statue 6/7 times a day and found the app pretty good.

Good idea! 

3 minutes ago, Craig Colas said:

I might have a look at booking a Qantas flight as a back up as well then. What is their cancellation policy like? How do you check how many are confirmed? It says mine are confirmed but cannot seem to find anywhere to show total amount. TIA.

We booked for 6th January with Quantas (as back up) , for 5 of us, £4600 - we chose the flexi option i think it is called where its fully refunded.  The other option was i think £1000 cheaper BUT any new changes thereafter were £75 per person plus £500/£600 to cancel so we just went with the more expensive option so if our November flight goes ahead we can be fully refunded with Quantas.  (They do give you the info on their website with the two different booking options)

Yes, you will be confirmed on your Singapore flight but you can check the actuals seats booked of ALL passengers, here is the link - https://www.expertflyer.com/

PS - we also registered with DFAT but also only for the 4th quarter so we had to make a call on the January flight before they all go!!