JustJoe

Sound advice and something we have been thinking ourselves. I’m leaning towards Brisbane for all the reasons you stated. Apprehensive about the mozies, they love me, it’s not reciprocated. Never been at that time of year so not sure how bad they are but guess it depends where about you are…

Any recommendations?

Thank I did not know about those times, we’re gonna get the ball rolling with this so it’s not a blocker later.

The guy I spoke to went over on a 482 and now after 3 years with the same employer has just got PR, it sounds like most employers would offer a 482 and circumstances are similar to his so fingers crossed PR would be an option, I love the idea of giving our kids due nationality, even if we decide to return, so fingers. That said we would as you suggest rent our house here until we knew we could and wanted to stay. Take it as a 3/4 year adventure with a possibility of staying or returning at the end. It seems likely my wife could also get sponsored on a 482. So another option is we all come over on that and I look for work as a contractor, which is what I do here in UK. Work may well end up dictating it but we want to know where to start looking for work, if we don’t find it in our first choice we may have to look elsewhere. Thanks for all the advice everyone.

No but it might mean being able to live in a suburb that feels less city but is still in commuting distance, a bit of a change of tacked I know.

I’ve just had a chat with someone who works in the same industry as me who move to Melbourne a few years ago and discovered my salary is likely to be 50% higher than I was banking on! Off the back of that our potential budget just went up and Melbourne is back in the running, he thought a lot of leafy suburbs feel more like towns in them selves… back to the drawing board.

Brisbane is our first choice at the moment, for all the reasons you’ve mentioned. Any recommendations of suburbs around Brisbane that are rural (ish), good schools, nice cafes, nice feel? Ideally walking distance of a beach but realize we may have to compromise on this. We just want to bear water so close to a nice lake might work too, if that’s a thing?

I’m looking into moving to Oz with my wife, 2 kids (3 and 5) and cat. We’re trying to decide on a location and it’s got my head spinning. I work in railway engineering and my wife’s a PM in utilities. There seems to be quite a lots of opportunities for both of us, mainly if not exclusively in the main urban centres and seems likely one or both of us could get sponsored. The issue is we’d like to live somewhere fairly rural, a town not a city, near the beach, but within commuting distance from city. Don’t want to be much over an hour away. We’ll rent initially but want to be somewhere we can afford to buy once settled. We’ll have between $800k and $1m to spend on a 4 bed ideally with a garden and pool. Currently considering areas around Melbourne (have a relative there) and Brisbane (cheaper and better weather). Would consider Sydney but don’t think we can afford it. With the possible exception of Perth (with I feel is too isolated) everywhere else will likely be too small to sustain work. Any idea would be appreciated!