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Hi my hubby is about to do his aqf3 and is a ceiling fixer 22+ - what is the job situation like over there would anyone advise to get the visa or the job first? Can we apply for our visa over there? loads of questions - just want to get out there :daydreaming:

hie all members am a new member. We will be moving to the sunshine coast on a student visa end of April.Hubby will be studying at the Sunshine Coast University.I would like to know how we can get rental accommodation as we do not know anyone there.I would like to know other peoples experiences. How easy or difficult is it to get part time work.

Hi all, Long time stalker, first time proper posting! Was hoping to see how many British ex pats are located here on the Sunshine Coast and also whether a group of people would like to meet up at all? My wife's originally from the West Midlands (I'm Australian) but also lived in the West Midlands briefly as well. The wife is missing home dearly and I'm sure if there is a local gathering of some Poms on the coast, we'd love to meet up! We currently have a 2 year old and one due in July we're in our early 30s. Love to grab a coffee at a local Cafe, which is our favourite pass times! We're located in Birtinya and we spend the majority of our time between Caloundra, Maroochydore and out to the Hinterland towards Nambour, Landsborough and Beerwah. Looking forward to hearing and hopefully meeting you all! Cheers

Hi there We are doing a Validation visit to Adelaide in July/August. We're a family of 4 and the 2 little ones are age 2 and 7. We have currently booked a few days in Glenelg and a few days in Stirling to get a feel for the different areas. We are wondering on the 3rd area we could visit and need some help. Should we also stay in the CBD? Should we stay more down south like Brighton or Seacliff? Maybe Norwood or more north of the CBD? We are trying to find out what suburbs are nice to live in, not too cramped and not congested (we're from the UK so not interested in too many queues ). We need to also look for good Primary schools. Once we move, our final destination will need a good sized garden, along with a view of some sort (sea or hills), it just boils down to space and views but not too far out with lots of traffic. Not asking for too much are we! . Has anyone got any advice on where this 3rd holiday stay could be? I am thinking of Norwood, Brighton or going 40 mins north or south from the CBD, but don't have any idea on how remote they really are. We both need jobs, so don't want to make it difficult for ourselves xxxxxx

Beaumaris Another affluent suburb on the Port Phillip Bay Coastline which is popular amongst the Upper Class. It is located on a headland that surrounds the majority of the suburb. Beaumaris is only 23km from Melbourne CBD or 10km South of Brighton however the median house price is a lot more achievable unless you are trying to get a foot on the property ladder. The population in 2016 was 13,349. Of which 72.6% were born in Australia, y.3% England and the remainder split between China, Scotland, New Zealand and South Africa. Just like Brighton, the workforce is predominantly White Collar workers with only 3.3% being manual labourers. Nearly half of the property in Beaumaris is owned outright with no outstanding mortgage. In fact over the last 3 years property prices have risen by over 35%. You will find that the majority of residents are lobbying to keep the natural history and architecture of Beaumaris as well as protecting the green open spaces that currently exist. In fact in 2017 they were successful in changing the council plans for the Councourse Village Square managing to keep the area in its natural state instead of installing play equipment, shelters and lighting. Beaumaris is a suburb that is popular with stay at home mums who can be seen taking a morning stroll along the cliff tops or sipping coffee in the village. Beaumaris has a lovely village square called the Concourse Shopping Centre, this can be found off Reserve Road. Here you will find a Super IGA, Cafes & Restaurants and a large number of boutique stores. Don’t worry if you are not within walking distance of the local shops you will find a central car park which adjoins a large shady reserve that fronts Reserve Road with lawns and picnic tables. Other corner stores can be found along Balcombe Road. If the local stores don’t have what you are looking for then don’t panic just up the road, 3.5km or 5 minutes car journey is a shoppers paradise with 129,180m² of shops and restaurants not forgetting the 16 screen multi screen cinema complex at the Westfield Southland. Southlands as it’s known to the locals is home to over 400 stores, 3 department stores and 3 supermarkets. You also have Chadstone Shopping Centre a 20 minute drive away or the DFO Factory Outlets and Costco in Moorabbin just 10 minutes away So with the beach and shopping on your door step what more could you ask for. No wonder the women choose to stay at home and let their husbands work. Once the weekend comes the beachfront of Beaumaris comes alive with young and old enjoying the coastal scenery and fantastic beaches. It is also here where you will find Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary (RPMS). At 115 hectares in size, it stretches over 3 kilometres along the coastline between Table Rock Point in Beaumaris and Quiet Corner in Black Rock, and 500 metres out to sea. It is ecologically valued for both its diverse marine life and migrant and resident bird populations. Families spend hours playing amongst the rock pools or snorkelling in the shallow waters. There is ample car parking with refreshments being served at the iconic beachfront Ricketts Tea Rooms which have been part of the Beaumaris foreshore Reserve for over 50 years. Nearby there is ample parking and shady lawns with picnic and BBQ facilities. Education Even though you are within a stones throw of Melbourne’s most elite schools one would be a fool to overlook the two local primary schools. Beaumaris Primary School and Beaumaris North Primary School. BPS has the better reputation of the two but personally I would say they both rank higher than other state Primary schools in the area. Secondary schools could be a little more difficult. If you want an average school then Sandringham College (this is the zoned secondary school for Beaumaris)will be absolutely fine, otherwise I would look at Kilbreda Catholic College in Mentone or the more exclusive Firbank Grammar in Brighton which is also a combined school meaning it caters from prep to year 12. Although the fees can reach into the high $30,000 once your child reaches year 12.

Hi there my family and myself have just been granted our 175pr visa and i am intending to travel to Australia asap on my own initially just to make sure there is sufficient work around and to convince myself that it is all going to work !! i realise its just after xmas/summer hols and some people arent back to work till the end of the month but i need to get the ball rolling , i intend to be out by mid-feb/early march by which time any slowdown that would have been contributed to xmas etc should be over (and if its not then who knows )i have friends/family in gold coast,brisbane and sunshine coast and intend to travel to all three checking them out ,so what im after please are any email or telephone contact numbers (preferably landline cheers) of either any of the forum members or of anybody that you think would be useful to me to contact prior to me coming out there,i am a time served bricklayer with 21years experience and with a variety of construction jobs/processess under my belt as well as some management experience and qualifications. I am looking for full time work and also would be gratefull of some temporary work on my initial visit for a few weeks to tide me over! Thanks for any help or replys!

Hi there Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of living on the Gold Coast. Do a lot of people commute to work in Brisbane? I really wanted to be near nice beaches but do people in Brisbane get to the beaches in good time? Do people in Brisbane regret not choosing to live nearer the beach? Do people in Gold Coast regret not choosing to live in Brisbane? I know everyone is different and how long is a piece of string and all that.. but just a few views would be nice. By the way i like reading negative posts as well as positive as its all information. Hubby is a forklift driver/production worker so work wise is it going to be difficult on the Gold Coast and probably need to commute? Southern suburbs may be near enough for work to the Gold Coast or am i wrong as the commute could be long?? Thanks Georgie

Hey I moved over in January to live with my girlfriend and her son and now I am getting cabin fever as the work isn't coming my way and the social side is being missed! If I am honest, I want to go home, so much! But, I want to give this lovely place a good try, so anyone in the Central Coast, maybe Gosford, and would like to go for a drink or a coffee, or even has any tips. Even someone to talk about football or England would be quite nice Jake

Hey everyone, I'm a Pom living on the Central Coast (I'm 25) - I've got an Aussie partner who has just been deployed and we've not been here that long, so would love to make some new friends for wine time!! X

Hi, was wondering if anyone on the Gold Coast could recommend a good dentist to me. I've just chipped either a filling or part of my tooth away, and have to get it seen to. I went to a dentist when we got here, but he had worked in the NHS and seemed to hate the UK and everyone from there, very patronising, AND expensive. Runaway Bay is the nearest suburb to me, but if anyone knows of a good one I'll travel:notworthy:. Cheers, Jo x

Im moving to Queensland March next year, but I am rearly confused as to which is the best place for work as a Wall and Floor tiler please can anyone tell me the best one to head for Thanks Very Much Chris

Please can anybody recommend a chiropractor on the Sunshine Coast, preferably in the Maroochydore/Mooloolaba area (although we're willing to travel for the right person). We're looking for an experienced, qualified chiropractor to continue treating a compressed disc. Thanks very much.

Allo All , just wondering if anyone has their children in private schools on the Sunshine Coast ? We are looking to enroll 2 boys 9&6 into a school in the Buderim area around May/June and was wondering if anyone could recommend a school and why. If anyone has a preference for a particular school over another , the info would be greatly appreciated. There seems to be a really good choice of quality schooling , however we are not biased about public education either , just prefer to know what schools not to go to .if anyone has had any experience good or otherwise it would be terrific to know , as this is a very important decision for us . Great forum this , best to all JohnyE:cool:

hi i am looking to migrate to oz asap - my wifes sister lives on the sunshine coast so she does not want to live too far away from her, but i need to know where the work is and is it in commuting distance? please help?:chatterbox: i am a fibrous plasterer / suspended ceilings by the way!

Hi there, my name is Vanessa. We have two boys, 3 and 5 months. We've just moved to Terrigal and don't know a soul! We moved to Australia a couple of years ago, have had several moves but this is our last hopefully. Really enjoying the Central Coast, but would love to meet other families around the Terrigal area. Are there any mums out there with a toddler and a bub who would like to meet up?

Hi All, Am just wondering if all you Central Coasters could possibly give us Wannabe Central Coasters a clearer picture of the cost of living there????? :confused: Week to week living, monthly outgoings etc etc. Eg. Electricity, Gas, Phone, Childcare, Health Ins., Car Ins., Contents Ins., AirCon etc etc. :arghh: I know alot of the above will have variables, dependent upon family size, location, plans you go for, servers etc etc, but I think just a rough guideline would be good and we could average it out. FYI - we are four - one school going - one infant - one car family. ANY INFO GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!! If we could start a listing even better..........It would make the already frustrating decision making, less confusing - I HOPE!!! Cheers guys!!!! Big Hugs.:hug:

Hi we are in Oz in August on a recciein August and are looking to how we will get around- car hire is very expensive, so we are looking at train travel. Our biggest journey we need to do is from Caloundra to Surfers Paradise- how easy and costly will that be with 2 young children, and all our bags ? any website addresses we can look at for train times etc Thanks

Hello everyone For those of you that haven't bumped into Koala Konnection yet let me tell you that Gill and I run this web site dedicated to "Poms" and other migrants coming to live on the Sunshine Coast. Since Tim's been on our forum telling everyone about his excellent forums, I thought I'd do the same. You have excellent forums Tim! :biglaugh: Koala Konnection is a full blown web site plus a forum. As a result we have photographed and offer information on different parts of the Sunshine Coast - from Caloundra to Noosa, Nambour to Maleny, and there's plenty of documented material to digest - from healthcare, a property build diary, actual property and businesses for sale on the coast through to motoring issues and a very important schools league table, to name just a few. Now the schooling information will be of utmost importance to those of you looking to have your children settle down in the right place and that's why we've compiled it into a sensible form and added it to our site. It's often asked where the best schools on the Sunshine Coast; here's your answer. You can visit our site at http://www.koalakonnection.com.au We have lived on the Sunshine Coast for just over two years now, emigrating from the UK, and have met plenty of UK migrants living in the area. It really is a special place to live. Cheers. Paul & Gill.

We are thinking of send our 2 children 7 & 11 to Currimundi State School. We went to see it on our reccie last year and it seems really nice. Does anyone have children at this school or know what it is like. Also does anyone know of any other good schools in that sort of area. Any help would be appreciated as getting the school right is the one thing i am worring about the most. x

Hi everyone, I am a mental health OT, and my boyfriend who is a chef are coming over to OZ on a WHV in July '11 - just in time for winter!! :goofy: We are both in our late 20's and we are planning on working (duh!), surfing, making friends and enjoying some nice weather hopefully! Any ideas on where in Oz it would be best to head to? We are starting off in Darwin but don't plan to stay there to long as there is a lack of surf. We are thinking maybe Perth or the Gold Coast? Any suggestions would be great! Thankyou x

Hey There, Im 28, from Liverpool/Wirral originally and now living on the Gold Coast. Been a ping pong pom for 11 years because my family moved here 11 years ago, but only back for 18 months. Love it here but do miss home also. I have amazing friends back home, met some lovely people here, looking to meet some like minded people, maybe from home so hopefully on the same wavelength! I love a laugh, easy going, like a night out and the odd cheeky drink! Been known to have a pint of cider watching the footy, a glass of wine with a nice meal or a couple of vodka's watching a band... just generally like a good time with good friends.

Hi I thought I would give an update of our 6 month anniversary. Very long sorry. Some of you may know, we originally sold everything in UK and made the move to Gold Coast in Jan 09. Well we only lasted 6 weeks as hubby hated it. The main reasons were, he never researched anything about Queensland. He did have a look on internet at Adelaide as his mum had visited there and he listened to some of her stories. He thought he was oing on holiday and also his boss from UK was phonin him every couple of days telling him to come back cos they all missed him. Well in the 6 weeks we also flew to Adelaide and stayed a few days. Sorry but i really didnt like it there. Far too quiet. Well 6 weeks later we returned back to UK and stayed with my mum & dad. Got our boys enrolled in new schools in the area. Had a real struggle getting a place for our eldest. I had to go an see an MP and have an appeal. Well he got in. A few months later, hubby decided he would like to give Oz another go. He went on his own and stayed 10 weeks. Loved it this time but really struggled for work and with christmas approaching he came back. Well we saved and saved and finally made the move on 27th november 2010. We flew with Singapore airlines and they were good. We arrived on Sunday evening and stayed at Ashmore Palms. We bought a car on Tuesday. We had medicare sorted, bank account, driving licence already so no need for us to stress about them. We planned to stay at Ashmore Palms until after christmas and booked for 8 weeks. Our boys met the friends they had made previously who live permantly at Ashmore. Hubby got a job and started on 21st December. Well we were set on Pacific Pines so looked at a few rentals. Everytime we went there, it didnt feel right. Also lads at hubby's work put him off saying how rough it is. Friends of ours who lived there told us that high school is rubbish and that primary school is full of bogan kids. Locals on Ashmore Palms also didnt have anything positive to say about the place and I think it really put us off. We visited Sunshine Coast a few times and everytime we loved it. Loved Mountain Creek. Hubby had applied for a job in Caloundra the last time he was over. Well, just before christmas he got an email off them asking if he wanted a job there. We felt it was fate and that we belonged on Sunshine Coast. We secured a lovely rental in Mooloolaba, it was a waterfront house with pool for $430 per week. The house was a little tatty but the location was amazing. We moved in on 21st January and our boys started Mountain Creek high and state schools in years 10 & 4. Our youngest loved school in UK and here he was really struggling. It was a big school with 1200 pupils. Most days he would have an headache or tummy ache and didnt want to go. Eldest never into school in UK or here. He was same. He would go in school and then they would telephone me to say he is ill and send him home. In the meantime hubby was commuting daily to his job on Gold Coast as the Caloundra job still hadnt happened. It was a 4-5 hour round trip every day setting off at 4:30am and not getting home until 6:00pm. He was exhausted. Eventually Caloundra job called for him to start. He took a week's holiday from Gold Coast job. Well he did 2 days at Caloundra. They offered him $25 per hour for 3 months then review. On his first day, they said they had made a mistake and it was $19 per hour. A total joke. Well he went back down the road again to Gold Coast. I managed to get a job but with our youngest struggling at school, I felt really guilty. Hubby colapsed at work and was taken to hospital who said he was suffering with exhaustion. We decided as there were no jobs on Sunshine coast and my wage was rubbish, we would have to move back to Gold Coast. We broke our lease and moved back to Gold Coast. We stayed a few days at our friends at Coomera Waters. Wow, its brilliant there. Its a secure estate with security patrolling, gym and 2 pools. We would have loved to live there but its too far out. I wouldnt be able to get boys to school as I dont drive and no shops nearby. Shame because it was very nice. Well, we went back to Ashmore Palms and are staying in a new cabin there. We are doing month to month. Its very modern and spacious and we have put some of our own furniture in. Got the boys enrolled at Ashmore State school and Benowa High school. Well our youngest is a different child. He is so withdrawn and sad. He cried every day going to school and hates it. Hubby took him last week and he was shaking so much, he brought him home. We have contacted school and well they not bothered. He is not going back there and we have withdrawn him. Oldest doesnt really have much to say about Benowa but thats just him. Hubby is still in same job and really busy. He is working 14 hour days and weekends so we dont see much of him. We have decided that we will be returning to UK before start of new school year in September. I have contacted UK schools and they can both have there places back. We like Australia but just dont feel its for us. Maybe moving about has done it but we really dont like the Gold Coast. We feel the grass isnt always greener. Jill xxx

hi everyone, as a way of "giving back" to this forum and to the wonderful people who helped us so much when we were planning our move over from London, I thought I'd outline our experience and observations thus far. If anyone has any particular questions, I am more than happy to help. We did the "sell the house, ship our stuff and send the pets" thing. House: in London, took 4 months from the date when offer was accepted to the date we finally moved out. The house sale was probably the most stressful part of the whole "leaving" London part of the journey. Stuff: we shipped a 20 foot container on 15th June, and our local shippers advised us earlier this week that it is due to arrive in Brisbane on / around 22nd July. We used PSS and they were absolutely brilliant (though we are yet to see whether everything makes it over ok!) We have also shipped our two vespa scooters in the same container. Cats: We flew our two cats over - they were collected on 10th June, arrived in Sydney 15th June and were flown up to us on 15th July. Both are absolutely fine for the experience, they were back to normal in hours of being with us. We used Golden Arrow in UK and Dogtainers in Oz (to fly them from Sydney to Sunshine Coast) and highly recommend them both. Observations on arriving in Oz and trying to get organised: I suggest that after you sort out somewhere to stay for the first few days, the next thing to do is get a mobile phone. A couple of tips: 1 - be aware that to get a prepaid SIM card, you still need to show photo ID and give an Australian address (you just need to give it, not show proof of it). If you don't have an oz address when you get here, see if you can give a friend's. Its only for a prepaid card. 2 - bring an unlocked mobile phone with you. Even an old one will do - this will save you loads of money. And its way easier to unlock phones in the UK than in Oz, from what I have gathered. Another suggestion: internet access. I suggest if you can, you bring a laptop over with you. When you get here, you can buy a USB stick / dongle like they sell in the UK, from say Telstra. Again, you need ID and address (but not proof of address). This will work out to be cheaper in the long run than using internet cafes (if you can find one), and is probably way more convenient. if I think of more observations that might be of help to people, I'll add them. Any questions, fire away, regards sg

Hi I am a 30 yr old nurse married with a little boy (4 yrs old) I have just applied for a 175 PR visa and I am after some info on the Gold Coast and the Sunshine coast including job prospects for a nurse, lifestyle, suburbs and schooling for a young family in these two areas of Qld. We visited the Gold Coast last year and fell in love with the place but since coming back to the uk I have heard that the sunshine coast is a great place to live too. If anyone has any info or experience it would be great to hear

My family and I have recently moved to Central Coast - and are staying in Terrigal. My OH is a bricklayer and is working in and around Central Coast, my son is 16 and will be starting Terrigal High School in January, but has got himself a summer job in a local fish restaurant, and I have a part time job in a local hotel. Anyone got any tips as to what goes on in and around the area regards to meeting friends and getting to kbow the "neighbours". It would be great to hear from anyone in the same boat, or anyone who has been here a while and can show us the ropes !:unsure: