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Hi We have now purchaced a house in Kuranda, Cairns. We will have to ship our things soon or we will have nothing when we arrive in October. Can anyone recomend any good shippers. We are all boxed and ready to go. Cheers Tony

Rented from Avis at Perth airport for convenience on arrival. No problems recommending them but they are expensive. Our Holden station wagon was not available so we were upgraded to a big Nissan 4x4 which was great for all the luggage. Swapped out to Bayswater car rental who run a fleet of new Toyota Corollas at a much lower cost than Avis and are quite close to the airport. Their spin is that getting a taxi from the airport to their place is still going to save you money compared to renting from a major at the airport. They do satnav too for $5 a day but I don't think they do child seats (we already had a hire arranged for ours separately) Only "issue" is that they will charge the insurance excess to your card at the start of the hire and refund it when you drop it off so there good be a currency gain / loss as a result, but if a Corolla is big enough for your needs then definitely give them a shout.

Hi, I previously posted a thread on whether good grades matter to get into private schools, and from the majority of replies i get the feeling that they do. So i now need to know if anybody knows of any good Public schools that are able to give extra help to students with special needs? Attention Deficit Disorder and possibly Aspergers Syndrome. Obviously i have to do my own research but reccomendations always help. Its not that he needs a special needs school, its just that he struggles with working alone all of the time. many Thanx Jen x

Can anyone recommend a good hairdressing salon? I have been here since 1st March and the time has come to experience my first aussie haircut :unsure:. I had the same hairdresser back in Scotland for years so would appreciate any recommendations for good salons in the Melbourne. I live in Berwick but don't mind travelling into the city. Thanks Fiona

Hi all PomsInOz, We are moving fairly soon to the Bunbury area and are looking at schools in the area. Kids are 4, 6 and 9 and to be honest I don't even know where to start. Help! Happy to fee-pay if that means better education. My 9 year old is introvert and likes his maths, my 6 year old is pretty good at reading and writing, would like to be an 'author' and write bout science, that tells you enough, and my 4 year old hasn't gone to school yet but loves scribbeling and singing and drawing.... Any good advice is welcome. AlandEs

:yes:Hey are there any people from Stoke out there about to make the plunge? Would be good to chat and maybe meet up for an oatcake and glass of vino lol! Put application in end of Jan subclass 175 . Hubbie and I are just getting a bit frustrated at mo as life is on hold and would be great to chat to some like minded people who are around the stoke area.

Hi everyone, i have a chance of a job in Wooroloo which is about 45km in land from Perth. i have been looking at house prices in Ellenbrook and the close surrounding areas, but i know very little about the place. Does anyone know what it is like, for crime, are there any good high schools, is there plenty of things to do, good shopping centres etc. i would appreciate it if anyone could give me any help and just how far is Wooroloo from Ellenbrook and how long would the journey take by car. cheers for any information, jim & helen. 175 visa lodged 10/3/09

for me its a good thing,its an oppertunity to mix,and blend with other ideas,and custums--not a bad thing to unite the world:wubclub:

Need to put my car through a service and wondered if anyone had had a good experience in the past and could recommend anywhere. Thanks for your help and advice in advance! Ta! Ian

Hi We have been here for appx 2.5 years now and thought I would pass on some of the good and bad experiences so far. General Info Before you set off.... Make sure you have a job to come to, low unemployment means not much to go after and a lot of competition, especially for part-time. Also to maintain your same standard of living you will need appx twice the salary you are earning in the UK - 95% of stuff is appx twice as expensive here - salaries are appx 1.5x here. If you are bringing your DAB radio make sure it is DAB+ otherwise it will not work. TV's - my friend works in TV broadcasting and says "won't work due to different number of lines that make up picture" - good enough for me, we did not bring ours and some reasonable bargains to be had on new here. (Several good electrical outlets - Harvey Norman, Bing Lee, J&B Hi-Fi - so plenty of competition) It will help to pack a multi-gang socket extension lead in your hand / hold luggage - remember all those gadgets (phones / ipods / laptops etc) with ac adaptor type power supplies, where are you going to plug them in when you arrive ??? find your nearest Bunnings and buy an bag of Aussie plugs for appx $3each Books are horrendously expensive, so yes heavy and take up room - but if you have space in your container - bring them. In fact make sure your container is full to bursting, because "we will buy that when we get over there" will hurt your wallet. Do not throw away you winter clothes - it does get "cold" here - it may only be 5C overnight in winter, but most of the houses are so poorly insulated it will feel much colder, likewise they do not retain heat so heating costs can mount up. No joke sometimes you put you jumper / jacket on to go in the house!! When you arrive Parking - roads are marked very well for where you can or cannot park, a 4P sign means free parking for 4 hours, but also 4P with "ticket" in small text - so be careful. You have to park facing the direction of traffic (1970's UK?) but I do not know how strictly this is enforced. In the city parking ranges from free (if you are lucky enough to find one) to $10 per hour and $15-30 all day at weekends - again worth weighing up public transport cost option. Sign up to "stardeals / groupon" on the web, excellent daily offers - just landed a diving course for half price. Been meaning to get open water certificate for years. The Entertainment Book" is a good buy (appx $65) you get a mass of vouchers for all sorts and easily pays for itself - any makes you get out there and try new stuff."It is available via schools and other organisations Good Weather (obviously) People - generally very friendly and helpful, but strangely lacking in manners - must be a city thing? (If someone lets you out at a junction, they are probably British) Facilities - when you start to find where things are - I am not a great shopper but there are some massive multi-level shopping centres (got lost several times) if you are. Plenty of gyms available and reasonable costs - like everything quite a variety and shop around. Also bartering is the norm so shake off that reserve and ask for a discount in almost anywhere - even small purchases - my wife just purchased an alarm clock which was priced at $24.90 and got it for $22. Food - The quality of the food when you eat out is better here generally than the UK but there are not the range of places to eat, a cafe will generally provide a very good meal (not the dried up leftovers you sometimes get in the UK) but there is not much difference between the "cafes" and "restaurants" - unless you spend big bucks. Service - The customer service is much better than UK when eating - genuinely please to serve and NO TIP expected (are you listening USA) so if you are more then happy you can leave a tip for that extra mile. Public Transport - The public transport system is excellent, efficient and reasonable price - use buses with a "ten-use" multi or single zoned ticket (cannot remember real name) and save more. You cannot often pay cash when in the city so better to have ticket to hand. Car Travel - Overtaking on the inside - brilliant! the UK should have adopted this years ago, no more "middle lane hoggers" (forget your years of lane discipline, quite often you will get over to the left only to find "lane ends in 200m sign" - very common on A/B roads) mostly automatic gearboxes of course - also good. Festivals - Again excellent (it's not called the city of festivals for nothing) something different in the city almost every weekend - and mostly free, you can find all day parking for $10 if you shop around. Bad House Prices - Purchase prices are bad enough but rental, as most of you will be doing at first are even worse. We had to raise our budget to over $650 PER WEEK to find anything half decent - it really is a sellers / landlord's market due to the shortage of housing Prices - OMG it is expensive here (I though I had done my research) If you are coming over make sure you are going to earm at least twice the amount you do in the UK. The only exceptions are, petrol, and BBQ's (that we have found so far) on average everything is double the price. I guess the UK economy and rubbish exchange rate / growing Australian economy has something to do with it but the urban myth of "well everything has to be shipped so far / we only have 20million population....." wears a bit thin when goods from China still cost twice as much than good old/bad Tescos would charge. Example - we were paying appx £35/month for broadband+phone - including all national calls and 10 international destination for 1 hour calls. We have just signed up for broadband+phone with some bundled calls (but expensive call rates) for $89/month (but obviously you can shop around & we didn't want to do 24mth commitment, which most of them are). Customer Service - Things like sorting out phones etc can be difficult because of being "department shoved" or people not returning calls - the warning of what is the difference between mobile phone salesmen and cowboys........very true. Since our original problems on broadband installation - I must say Optus customer service was pretty good. Real Estate Agents - As one of your main priorities when arriving is to sort out where you are going to live (and you will probably be renting first) then sorry but you will have to go through the horrible system here. You are treated like second class citizens by most agents and you have to compete for 90% of properties with many others, so when eventually you find a place you like - shop around again, huge variation - you may not get it and have to start over. Of course, the higher the rent, the less competition and agents start being more accommodating. It may sound obvious, but get a few properties you are interested in and do a drive by, you will not have time to waste on the day trying to decide which one's you are interested in. Roads - Car travel is pretty slow, we are from a village, but I used to travel extensively throughout the UK (but not so much in cities) the roereads are wide, but the combination of lower speed limits, lots of speed / red light cameras and so many sets of traffic lights - (American road grid system) mean do not expect to travel around quickly - in the UK you can work on an average of 50MPH, here it is probably 40KPH. Many major routes have toll charges, you can pay cash (but not always) but if you travel regularly then you have an "etag" - fix it to your windscreen and away you go. Luckily my company pays for mine as each toll point can cost $2-3 which can add up if you go through 3 on your way to work - also my sat nav (god-send of course) gives me the options and to be honest I have tried both toll and non-toll routes and there generally is not much difference in travelling time. Ugly Nothing really, but at first sight the dumping of stuff outside houses looks horrendous - you have 2 occasions per year (I guess it varies by area) to put unwanted stuff, furniture / diy projects etc out the front of your house. But when you get used to it, it is probably a better system than everyone making short trips to the tidy tip and it is a free for all - if you see something you like, just take it (some half decent stuff gets dumped - you could almost furnish a house!) It may be obvious, but the commuting is pretty bad, we only live 25kms from Sydney centre, but my wife has appx 1.25hours each way on the bus - and quite often does not get to sit down. General Stuff Thanks to some people who made our transition easier John Mason removals UK - a very professional service and we were kept up to date this end of our stuff arriving (by Wridgeways - Aussie counterparts) Lisa and Darren - you know who you are, thanks for inviting complete strangers into your home to offer some word of advise - Darren's "the first 3 months can be ****" very true !! (about 1 month for me) - stick with it and soon it becomes "normal" I hope this helps if you are unsure of what to expect, it might seem a daft comment but it is a BIG country so expect your general travelling to be longer Aussies will say "ah yeh, it's just down the road" = 100km.

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.

Ive been a member of an adults only naturist club for some years now,its realy liberating i find. Theres nothing better than sitting around with a few freinds having a beer and a game of pool without the restraints of clothing. Ok some of the older members put you off your meals a little bit tbh but im not perfect either. I particularly like the open air badminton games,theres nothing like feeling the earth/grass on your feet,the wind in my hair,leaping thru the air like a salmon towards the shuttlecock and cracking a shot off over your opponent:wubclub:. Any other naturists out there or people with an opinion on it?good,bad,natural or pervy?:wideeyed:

Hi guys- hoping people in Oz have woken up by now! :rolleyes: Just looking for people's opinions on schools in the shire-- any personal experiences? I need ( as we all do) a good primary for my kids-- somewhere they will feel at home(they are coming from the Uk) , where they will feel welcomed and happy, and a good place for academic excellence. An after school club will be great if present. Not too bothered about sports as my son couldn't care less. Public or Catholic schools are both ok-- just that it should be a good school. I would be grateful for people's opinion, and please pass on any hearsay as well:biggrin:!

Is there anyone out there that is currently or has used Silver Trowel in Perth to study. My son was initialling thinking of using ST for a two year bricklaying course as their web site is very convincing. However, having read various formus on other Expat sites now he is not so sure. Some people are very disappointed with ST and said they dont offer anything like they suggest. Also it appears bricklaying is the main choice of a lof of people and many brickies, builders are on the forums saying there is no work available once you have completed the course anyway. I would like to hear from anyone who has used ST or is on a course at the moment in Perth as any advice would be invaluable as their courses are very expensive. Also, which course is the best to take, is carpentry less saturated with applicants and is there is a better chance of finding work once the course is completed.

Can anyone recommend a good dentist in Melbourne CBD, Richmond, South Yarra or Prahran area? Not that keen on full-on, hard-sell cosmetic treatment dentists - I'm looking for very good, painfree dentistry, pleasant dentist, reasonably priced, trustworthy. Cheers.:elvis:

The Expat Explorer Survey focuses on expats’ experiences when bringing up children abroad. The report looks at which focuses on six key global locations the best opportunities and experiences for their children. Expats rated childcare, education, ease of integration, costs of raising children, time spent outside, and time spent taking part in outdoor activities. In addition, they also rated the relative ease in which they were able to do the following in their new country of residence. Read The Full Report Here Expat Survey Full Report Key findings One in three of the expats surveyed (31%) have dependent children (children under the age of 18) living with them abroad in a total of 26 different countries around the world. Of the top six countries (UAE, US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia), expats in Singapore are the most likely to have children who currently live with them (46%), while just a quarter (24%) of expats in the UK have dependent children. Generally, 37% of expats have experienced an increase in the quality of family life since moving abroad. Of the top six countries, Australia had the largest proportion of expat parents (55%) who reported an improvement in the quality of family life compared with where they used to live. Some expats reported that moving to the UK can have a negative effect on their family life – 45% reported a decline in quality compared with only 16% who reported an improvement. Australia Takes Best Overall for Children Of those countries surveyed as part of the Offshore Offspring report, expats living in Australia feel the country provides the best environment for healthy and active children. For example, parents report that these children are the most likely to spend more time outdoors than in their previous country. Children in Australia are more likely to have increased the amount of time spent playing sports (68% vs. 44% globally) and are also the most likely to spend less time watching TV and to eat healthily when compared with their home country; making Australia the best place for children to adopt a healthy way of living. Read The Full Report Here Expat Survey Full Report

Hi all, Can anyone recommend a good migration agent that doesn’t cost the earth? I have contacted a few but I’m getting the total costs back as around £7000 :-/....... I am looking at going for a 175 visa. Any replies would be gratefully received, Mark

I've read loads of threads of people complaing how bad Oz tv is. How true is this, Do you get the usuall imported programmes from US & UK?

Hi, We are flying out to Perth in November and would love to take our 54 Plate Audi A4, could anyone recommend a good company for doing this. Thanks

Went to my local Homebase today to buy a few extra nice bits to put on the tree for our last UK crimbo and they have stacks of 6 hole bauble boxes, presumably what they are shipped to them in. They are very strong and free to take, but I guess it might be nice to buy something:wink: We bought enough for 3 boxes but loaded the kids up with another 12 ready to pack up all our baubles for the big move next year. Go get some while they last :wink:

Hi All, We've been quoted $103pn for a 2 bed self-contained unit in central South Perth. We're considering booking this as our arrival accommodation in April 2012 and was wondering if anyone can offer advice on whether this price is good? It seems the cheapest we can find for the type of accomodation we're looking for but I can't be sure. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks, Robyn

PM me if you want. Thanks!

Evening all, Right thats it for me no more news, i tuned into the 6 oclock news this evening and after 5 minutes of it was ready to top myself :shocked:, i have never heard or seen so much doom and gloom and i for one have had enough so i am going to do my level best to ignore the news on the radio and the tv and buy a newspaper that does not print proper news, so in other words i will carry on buying the one i nearly always do :laugh:, no but seriously the news can do one :mad:

I say 'new' because it's been open for a while but I'd never really been in there until today. I think they are still doing work anyway as I saw a few 'tradies' sitting out on the mall eating their lunch. The dining area was absolutely PACKED at lunchtime with both office workers and shoppers. David Jones on Castlereagh is linked up to it as is Myer between Pitt and George. David Jones has its nativity scenes up and running in a line of shop windows. It seems a little incongruous seeing all the 'snow' but the kids love it. I think I know the city well but each time I go there I see new buildings, pubs, cafes, shops and I feel like a tourist.

Afternoon, I was flicking through a couple of books about travellers experiences in Australia that my dad had kindly dropped round to me and Bill Bryson's Down Under is one of them, in this book Australia is described like this, " the people are cheerful, extrovert, quick witted and unfailingly obliging, their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water, the food is excellent, the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines " After just spending a month there i can honestly say that that description is spot on :yes: Anyway just thought i would share that with you :cute: