Tjsmum

@Marisawright Thank you for the info, much appreciated

@Marisawright my apologies, I thought everyone in the UK received the Govt pension, I didn’t realise there was a private fund like Aus has (superannuation). I would like to know about my UK govt pension that I was making voluntary contributions into

@Marisawright, from what I understand, you have to have paid a certain amount into your UK pension to be able to access it? My mum’s best friend finally hit retirement age and was told she didn’t contribute during x , y, z years therefore she didn’t have enough to be able to receive her pension ?!?! Those years she didn’t contribute because she wasn’t working, she was doing motherhood duties

Thank you for your input, please keep me informed of how the who process goes for you

@InnerVoice Thank you for the info,.. Its sad that the fees have to be high, I suppose it’s to deter people from withdrawing? Sadly mine isn’t a small fortune either, doesn’t sound like it’s worth the hassle, I was hoping to recover what I had sunk into it over the past few years that I had been doing overseas payments

Afternoon group, Does anyone know if it’s possible and how to transfer Uk pension to Aus superannuation? I stopped paying into my Uk pension around 9months ago as I had decided I would never move back home… Now I’m wondering if and how to do it? I am an Aus/Uk citizen and have lived in Australia for over 10 years surely this would be grounds enough for them to release what I have paid into my Uk pension to transfer to my Aus super Many thanks

@InnerVoice I have to say TSV is one of the worst places to live according to my friend who moved away from here to there, crime is insane and it’s Soooooo dry! Brownsville they call it. I don’t live in Atherton per se, I live in a town on the Atherton tablelands and it does get lovely and cool there in the winter but it’s still uncomfortably hot the rest of the seasons, I prefer Atheron weather to cairns that’s for sure! It’s so bleh! Every time I go down there, the humidity is constant, day and night….

@rammygirl I’ve always got sunscreen on! It makes it even hotter sadly, but I can see the sun damage on several parts of my body, I can’t handle wearing long clothes for the majority of my short lived trips outside, mainly driving for less than 10mins, but if I don’t wear sunscreen my skin sizzles like bacon!

@Marisawright Thank you for the map, yes Tas does look perfect for avoiding the severe UV but we have crossed Tas off the list altogether (sad face) Yes, every morning I listen to the news on the radio and it mentions the UV index will reach 13> which is extreme and I sigh! Over my decade and a bit here my skin has definitely gotten damaged, silly me didn’t wear much sunscreen in my first 2 years here, back the the UV didn’t affect me, however now I’m always wearing sunscreen, I’m pretty sure I’ve even worn it in winter, mainly in and out fo the car several Times a day for no more than 10mins and if I fail to put on sunscreen my skin sizzles!

We have had the same situation in our town, Times change, society changes…. Some people I know who have lived in my town all their lives (60+ years) have said that as our town has expressed so has the criminal behaviour, it is everywhere sadly, no where is exempt, for us it is best to gauge which behaviour is the “worst” and how high the status show as for it to be a common occurrence. I have watched prospective residents as about our crime stats on our local community page, and most of us are honest, crime has sky rocketed in the past 2 years, with break and enter and car theft being the highest, this scares off some, others have moved here, I have been victim to theft 3x in those 2 years, but I am grateful it was petty theft, however they once tried to steal our quad which was chained to the carport shelf, by dragging it, I don’t think they had many brain cells, ha ha. Rhere have also been many nights where I’ve left the car unlocked with purse on display (doh!) and It’s still been there the next day… as this was before we got the dog. I would rather live in a town with petty theft than people running around off their face on drugs trying to break into my house to murder me

Where we live we’re used to cars being stolen and on the occasion, torched to “destroy” evidence but hearing that a car parked in a hotel getting torched makes me rather concerned..

I reckon I could handle the dry heat better than the humid heat of up here, I work a physical job so the moisture in the air adds more to heat and I sweat stacks more…. We will eventually take holidays down there in the “worst” of the seasons, summer and winter to see if it’s “doable” and is the better choice weather wise

@rammygirl Thank you for your input, I’ve been in dry heat and Uluṟu, it was nicer than up here in FNQ! Is the Adelaide heat a skin burning heat? I know it’s a weird question to ask but it feels like withibk 5mins of me being outside (without sunscreen on) my skin is sizzling! I’m hoping to escape that, for the past 2 summers we’ve had up-to 43*c and it’s oppressive! Can’t be outside for 5 mins without sunscreen, can’t really be outside from 8am-4pm becuase the sun is insane! Cold mornings sound nice to me!

@Bulya At first I thought “I’m sure it can’t be that bad, we’ve had a spike in crime here in the past 2 years” then I googled Shep’s crime stats and saw that whilst their crime has dropped by 4% in a year, the worst crime is at its highest in Shep, it’s top 5 crimes are all something I couldn’t handle at the rate they have, Shep is definitely off the list

@Marisawright Bendigo isn’t an area I’ve looked into yet, thank you for the suggestion, if you’ve lived in Ballarat, what would you say is the difference in the weather? Other than hotter or cooler? Much rain? Dry summers?

@Skani Every summer without fail here it’s the best part of 30*c just a month ago we had 2weeks of 40+ so we are used to it but it’s not the kind of weather we want to live in As others have said, Shep is a flood prone area so we will be avoiding it altogether, but thank you for the info I appreciate all the insider information I can get

@Bulya Shep or Ballarat?

@Quoll this is good to know, thanks! I’ve got a list of the most bushfire prone areas

@Marisawright thank you, our best bet is to find parts of country Vic that are atop of a mountain, where we live in Atherton tablelands is atop a mountain, we do get local flooding but it isn’t in Brisbane’s scale, our bridges go over, certain low lying roads go over but nothing high enough to reach the front door step or drown the cars. I will make it part of our trips next year to figure out where is the least disaster prone, yet affordable and not remote places to live in tas and Vic Our good friends are moving down to country Vic at the beginning of next year, yay! At least we won’t be on our own, where they are moving to isn’t known yet but we will hope to move near them.

@calNgary thank you for the link, I’ve found this very useful, comparing affordable houses to where the flood areas are/waterways. I feel for people living in brissy, they don’t seem to catch a break with floods, and yet their housing prices are phenomenal! And their flooding isn’t just a bridge going over it’s houses fully submerged

@Quoll I can’t find the article where I read Ballarat had flooding but I found this one: https://amp.theage.com.au/national/victoria/before-and-after-aerial-imagery-reveals-early-impact-of-victorian-floods-20221018-p5bqos.html Shepparton is another place we are looking at but it has floods last year too

@Quoll Ballarat is one of the places where we’d like to move to, but it’s flood prone and has flooded in the past year, I don’t fancy moving to flood prone areas, could you please ask your rellies how often it’s flooded since they’ve lived there?

@Marisawright The weather in Vic sounds like my kind of weather! Cool and fresh! I’ve seen the list of places to not live due to bushfires but looking on the flood map seems like all the places we like and are affordable are flood prone and have flooded recently.

@Skani Could you describe the difference between the two? Dry heat, humid heat?

I just want to thank everyone for their input thus far, I guess the next steps from here are: 1. Which state has the cooler weather all year round? 2. What areas are “safest” (crime wise) to live in in each state? 3.Job availability, and schooling 4. Which towns are closest to the airport in each state. So far country Vic is looking most affordable for renting.