Onward

Hi everyone, I’m moving shortly to work in Victoria on a 482 Visa.

I have a wife and three children. We’re looking for a top-tier plan.

Knowing what I don’t know… I don’t know one insurer from the next… I don’t know if different insurers have access to different groups of hospitals or doctors.

Basically, what I do know is actually very little. I am also Canadian, so we have no Medicare reciprocity.

Allianzcare sowed up in Google search. 
 

Which are some of the better companies / plans to work with? Thank again!

9 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

I'm interested to find out what you are going to be doing in Geelong. I go there a bit to visit clients, Geelong seems to have two industries.

Vineyards and Gov departments displaced from Melbourne to share employment out into the shires.

Its a lovely place, second biggest town in Victoria (but 18 times smaller than Melbourne), only an hour on the train to the big city though, and just 1.5 hours on a plane to a proper world class city in Sydney from Avalon airport.

I really liked Geelong, but it's too small for us, we are London/Toronto/Sydney CBD dwellers

We're not really big city people. I lived in Toronto for a few years when I was a young man and it was a lot of fun at the time. Even then the traffic was absolutely dreadful, now it's even worse. Big cities come with a substantial cost of living. I remember having to pay to park multiple times per day, even just to the grocery store or to pick up dry cleaning. Basically, there was only time during the weekdays to work and commute. Depending on your line of work, the frenetic pace in Toronto can be really motivating, however.

Sydney is absolutely a fantastic world-class city, so I'm not going to say that I wouldn't want to live there, only that I can't. 

My family and I absolutely love the beach and ocean. Living in Canada, I'd work 48 or 49 weeks out the year and the rest of the time, in the winter, we'd travel to a warm locale like Hawaii with a beautiful beach to recharge. 

Moving to Australia is a little bit of flipping that ratio around. Why not live in a place that has what you really want rather than visiting the beach a few weeks per year? :)

We're lucky to be going on this adventure and will appreciate and enjoy it as long as it lasts.

15 hours ago, Marisawright said:

They need an address to put on their paperwork, so you give them the address of the AirBnB.  Then when the goods arrive in Australia, they'll contact you to confirm your details (and there's usually some customs duties to pay).  You will then give them your correct address and they'll deliver it.  

You cannot rent a house until you actually arrive.  Most agents won't even consider it, which is why they're not replying to you.   Even if you can find one that will allow it, it would be unwise.  The photos on real estate websites are extremely misleading and you could find yourself committed to living in a dreadful dump for a year. 

Selling up everything in Canada seems like a brave thing to do when you've only got a temporary visa, but good luck with it.

Thanks for all of that info! 

We were very fortunate with our timing. Even weird things like there's actually a furniture shortage in North America at the moment. Same with cars. 

I’m moving to work in Geelong on a 482 visa in July.

We’ve sold our house in Canada and there are a few logistical challenges I had not anticipated.

First, we’re looking to rent and it seems that it’s very difficult to rent a house until we actually arrive for a variety of reasons. Even then, the rental process seems reasonably complicated compared to Canada.

Without being able to secure a long term rental, we have no physical address to ship our stuff too. We’ve sold or given away all of our furniture, but we still have some personal items to ship from Canada.

It seems that it’s not possible rent a storage unit remotely?

Also, I’m not accustomed as a professional to not even getting a response when sending property rental inquiries from realtors. Is there something I’m missing here?

We’d be fine with renting a house a month before we arrive, but that would create insurance issues as here in Canada, you have to have your property checked every 72hrs when you’re away.

Also, we can’t even seem to get a post office box prior to arrival as it seems you have to present in person and show id. This leaves us without an address to forward our mail.

Our current plan is to rent an Airbnb house for a month or two, but that still leaves us without a shipping address prior to leaving.

Any help with navigating these challenges would be greatly appreciated. :)

On 27/01/2022 at 20:19, Alan Collett said:

I commute to my office in Melbourne CBD from South Geelong by train 3 days a week ... it's really not a long way!

And there's free car parking at South G.

Best regards.

What are some of the nice areas to live in Geelong for a family? We like the idea of living close to the ocean. I’m married with young children. We’re going to be renting to start off with.  Our budget is flexible. Rental prices are listed “per week” which is unusual compared to Canada (per month is standard). We could end up spending anywhere from $600 to $900 depending on what’s available. Of course, coming from the frozen tundra, we want a house with a pool though I do realize they are very rare in Geelong.

I also have no clue about mortgage options until I obtain PR or if it’s even feasible before that?

On 24/01/2022 at 21:05, Marisawright said:

Be careful when talking to the people of Geelong, then.  Calling Geelong "outside Melbourne" is like calling Montreal "outside Ottawa", and might get you a biff on the nose.   Geelong is a city in its own right, the second largest in Victoria and something like the 10th (?) largest in the whole of Australia. 

Geelong used to have a reputation as a dull manufacturing town, but that has all changed in recent years.  As Melbourne has become more and more crowded and housing gets too expensive, young families are moving to Geelong.   It has all the amenities of a city but with cheaper housing and it even has a beach.  So you're lucky to have found a job there.  

Don't worry about spiders. Most of what you read about Australia refers to the tropical and sub-tropical regions.  The further South you come, the less numerous the spiders and insects   For instance, cockroaches are the bane of people's lives in Sydney, but they're far less common in Victoria, so I've never seen one in Melbourne in the 6 years I've been here.  

Redbacks are the only spiders you really need to worry about and they rarely venture indoors.  Huntsmen are huge (like wolf spiders) but even I can handle the rare Huntsman that ventures into the house, and I'm a terrible scaredy-cat where spiders are concerned.   They're not aggressive so they'll just sit there.  Go and get a big glass bowl and put it over the spider, then slide a piece of paper between the bowl and the wall so the spider is trapped inside - then dump the bowl in the garden and run away.  

Thanks!
 

How are the mosquitoes in Geelong? We have terrible mosquitoes where I live in Canada during the summer months.

On 27/01/2022 at 17:58, Dan Not Dale said:

I know nothing about west of Canada, but you won’t find Geelong cold. However, when we first moved here we had no heating in our first place. I found winter here harder than England because inside wasn’t warm. 
Heating and double glazing is still not compulsory in a new build here. I had to build a house to ensure I had double glazing throughout. With double glazing and heating winter is a doddle here.  VIC gets below 0. Make sure you get a place with heating. 

Internet/Wifi - again, don’t know Canada, Aus has improved with the NBN rollout, but I believe this is still being rolled out. We have it and it’s good. If you don’t, your internet will be poor by worldwide standards. 

TV - Free to air Australian TV is appalling. Some good stuff can be found on SBS and ABC, (mainly British stuff) they do their best for somewhat impartial news coverage too. Your channel 7, 9, 10’s news coverage neglect that a world exists outside the capital city you happen to be watching it in. Foxtel is the paid service, it’s not bad, potentially essential if you want certain sports. I would guess you will revert to streaming services most days!

Spiders - barely seen any in 8 years.

Geelong is nice - but your questions make me think you are not outdoorsy? Could be wrong? Beyond a beach and a shopping centre, not a lot to do. You may likely find yourself going to Melbourne to find something other than walking, eating or drinking coffee . 

I have considered living there, we stay at partners uncles some weekends and it’s lovely. But potentially boring long term.

Thanks!

We live in a city with a population of a million which is large for Canada.

We don’t do that much big city stuff. Our kids love going to the zoo, aquarium, science center, stuff like that.

We definitely plan on spending weekends in Melbourne. I can’t wait to spend a weekend at the Hamptons apartments Port Melbourne.

I enjoy golfing, mountain biking, surfing and skiing. 

In Canada, I work hard all year long to take a week off here or there to go somewhere with warm weather and a beach like Kauai, Maui, San Diego, or Miami.

The idea of living in a place with much warmer weather (than western Canada) and endless beaches is irresistible.

Most people (I talk to in Canada who have lived in Australia) lament the cost of living which is apparently higher in Australia.

For example, we have a weekly cleaning lady that we pay $25 cdn / hr and a full-time nanny that we pay $20 cdn per hour.

We also hire a gardener to maintain our lawns/trees and snow removal in the winter.

I’m not sure how wages compare in Australia for those services?

We’ll be looking for a 4 bedroom house to rent initially. They seem to have heating for what we’ve looked at.

Wow. Great responses.

Thanks everyone for the great advice.

The area is Geelong. Where I’m from, well, we just had a run of -30 Celsius.

Winnipeg is “Winterpeg.” One of the coldest cities in Canada.

What you think is cold, you have no idea  -2 Celsius is skiing in a t-shirt weather for Canadians.

It’s an employer sponsored visa. Still in progress.

I’m a big guy, but when I come across a spider the size of my hand, I’ll also be standing on a bar stool.  

Hi everyone,

I’ll soon be moving from western Canada to Australia.

What’s crazy is that Covid 19 is preventing me from visiting Australia first. I’ve never been.

Honestly, the spiders freak me out a bit. We have the odd daddy long legs or wolf spiders, but that’s it here.

Covid and a winter climate is a brutal mix. The allure of endless beaches and *warm* weather is drawing me to Australia.

Keep in mind, while Melbourne is cold by Australian standards, it’s warmer than Vancouver, Canada.

Questions.

1. How’s the Internet, Wi-Fi, and cable TV compared to Canada?

2. How soon do I need to make friends with a rugged Aussie dude neighbor in case of a spider the size of my hand appears in my house?

3. anything else I should know before moving myself and family?