MsJulz Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Hi Everyone. I read so much on PIO before moving out here and what I found most useful were people’s real life experiences of the first few months. So here is my account. We moved here 5 weeks ago from Edinburgh, OH and 2 little ones (4 & 2). We moved into a furnished holiday let in North Curl Curl, Northern Beaches. I felt it was quite expensive but was great to be so near the beach and important to feel comfortable, especially when first arriving. Our first few days covered the usual – car hire, tax file number, Medicare, bank account etc. (oh, and I had pre-ordered an online shop from Coles which was delivered the first morning we were here, was brilliant). We had hired our car for only 2 weeks so made it a priority to buy a car pretty quickly to save on long term expense. Next was where the heck to live, Sydney is massive (compared to Edinburgh). We visited quite a few areas including the Hills. I had read a lot on here about it but after driving there it felt very far out. No offense to anyone living there but for me personally I felt like we could have been anywhere, it was a bit like a giant housing estate. My priority, I realised, wasn’t the huge house but to feel like I actually lived in Sydney, or my expectations of it anyway. We also carefully considered Sutherlandshire, which was great, but I think my heart was set on the Northern Beaches. After scouring domain.com and realestate.com every day we found a 3 bed house in Collaroy, Northern Beaches. It’s a tough rental market and moves fast but thankfully our house had been on for a couple of weeks so the fact we didn’t have jobs didn’t seem to matter. We did offer 2 months rent up front as an incentive but wasn’t required. OH (accountant) joined a few agencies and after 2 interviews now has a job, great. Takes the pressure off as there are a number of initial outlays. Next tasks for me (apart from making some pals!) is to find nursery places and a part time job. Bit tricky as the good nurseries have long waiting lists so need to enroll them but don’t want to commit to a certain number of days without a job that fits in? Bit of a catch 22, sure it will all work out. Anyway, hope this is of use to some people. Oh and btw, it’s totally beautiful here. Weather is great, even in winter, we’ve been to the beach most days. There are parks and playgounds everywhere and people are helpful and friendly. Loving it. Good luck to all those in the process, it’s definitely all worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabo Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Collaroy - lovely spot! Well done - very envious. We will be down North Curl Curl tmoz for Rugby - the local fryer does Deep Fried Mars Bars - in case you ever feel homesick. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ClaireStanway Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Sounds like ur finding your feet. Sydney is a great city and you will really enjoy living there. I hope to be back there soon too. All the best for the future x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoiam Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 A big thank you for your lovely post. I too enjoy reading posts from those who have just made the move and are finding their feet. Gives me an idea of what to expect.:biggrin:. All the very best for your future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mansawant Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Hi, we r also moving to North Sydney in August and hoping to find nice rental some where in Neutral Bay or Lane cove area. ...Mansawant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murta Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 ms julz great post thanks!! sounds a lovelyt spot..how long does it take your oh to commute (if he does).how much was the rental? my oh is a fund accountant and we both hope to work but sydney scares us expenses wise and exactly how you say dont want to live where we could be anywhere. we have 6 and 2 yr old so need to settle where we want to live as dont want o change schools once there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellathedog Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Lovely post MsJulz!! My daughter is in Russell Lea at the moment, but looking for a place to buy either in North Curl Curl or Collaroy. She was outbid recently on the 'perfect' house and is finding it difficult to find anything to match it now. She has a 2year old boy and baby number 2 is due in October, so your findings with the nursery places are of interest to me! I know, she did put her name down on every list where she is now, until she found a lovely lady for childcare. Occasionally her name gets to the top of the lists and she is offered places, but they don't seem to mind if you say no. I guess there is always someone to take up the places? Anyway, good luck with your new life there, maybe pass each other in November when I visit, ha ha ha. Cheers Pam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest71686 Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Collaroy has always looked nice when i drive through every day to work, only ever stop to get a pie from the most famous pie shop in the southern hemisphere oh and we had a meal out there once best of luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deelydog Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Hi Everyone. I read so much on PIO before moving out here and what I found most useful were people’s real life experiences of the first few months. So here is my account. We moved here 5 weeks ago from Edinburgh, OH and 2 little ones (4 & 2). We moved into a furnished holiday let in North Curl Curl, Northern Beaches. I felt it was quite expensive but was great to be so near the beach and important to feel comfortable, especially when first arriving. Our first few days covered the usual – car hire, tax file number, Medicare, bank account etc. (oh, and I had pre-ordered an online shop from Coles which was delivered the first morning we were here, was brilliant). We had hired our car for only 2 weeks so made it a priority to buy a car pretty quickly to save on long term expense. Next was where the heck to live, Sydney is massive (compared to Edinburgh). We visited quite a few areas including the Hills. I had read a lot on here about it but after driving there it felt very far out. No offense to anyone living there but for me personally I felt like we could have been anywhere, it was a bit like a giant housing estate. My priority, I realised, wasn’t the huge house but to feel like I actually lived in Sydney, or my expectations of it anyway. We also carefully considered Sutherlandshire, which was great, but I think my heart was set on the Northern Beaches. After scouring domain.com and realestate.com every day we found a 3 bed house in Collaroy, Northern Beaches. It’s a tough rental market and moves fast but thankfully our house had been on for a couple of weeks so the fact we didn’t have jobs didn’t seem to matter. We did offer 2 months rent up front as an incentive but wasn’t required. OH (accountant) joined a few agencies and after 2 interviews now has a job, great. Takes the pressure off as there are a number of initial outlays. Next tasks for me (apart from making some pals!) is to find nursery places and a part time job. Bit tricky as the good nurseries have long waiting lists so need to enroll them but don’t want to commit to a certain number of days without a job that fits in? Bit of a catch 22, sure it will all work out. Anyway, hope this is of use to some people. Oh and btw, it’s totally beautiful here. Weather is great, even in winter, we’ve been to the beach most days. There are parks and playgounds everywhere and people are helpful and friendly. Loving it. Good luck to all those in the process, it’s definitely all worth it. Ms Julz, thanks I love these posts too.....we on our way over in sept...me, oh and 2kiddies.....8 & 5. Excited and nervous.....good luck and keep the posts coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest trasi Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 thanks for taking the time to do this post, i find these threads very useful as moving Erina way end of aug. Can i ask how much car hire is out there, as i will be looking to do this until i ? salary sacrifice a car (or rent). xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shellyk666 Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 These are by far my fave posts - thanks for taking the time to share your experience. Everything is sounding really positive! I'm so jealous!! If you had to say something is there anything you wished you'd done differently? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveshellybeach Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 A huge thank you for that wonderful post. Great to hear it's all worth it. We are just packing up at the moment and things are stressful to say the least! All the best x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoiam Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Just waiting for the day when i can make such a post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsJulz Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 ms julz great post thanks!!sounds a lovelyt spot..how long does it take your oh to commute (if he does).how much was the rental? my oh is a fund accountant and we both hope to work but sydney scares us expenses wise and exactly how you say dont want to live where we could be anywhere. we have 6 and 2 yr old so need to settle where we want to live as dont want o change schools once there Hi Murta. OH job is in St Leonards, North Sydney. The drive is about 25 minutes with no traffic but about 45 with traffic. Public transport takes over an hour. Our furnished rental worked out about $850ish per week as we stayed for 5 weeks and got a bit of a discount. http://www.beachhousesydney.com. Definitely worth spending a bit of time deciding on an area you like. Maybe try to come over in the school holidays so you can have a couple of weeks to look round before they need to start at school. Good luck with it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsJulz Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 thanks for taking the time to do this post, i find these threads very useful as moving Erina way end of aug. Can i ask how much car hire is out there, as i will be looking to do this until i ? salary sacrifice a car (or rent). xx Hi trasi. We used a company called bayswatercarrental.com.au. By far the cheapest we found in Sydney. You can hire Sat Nav and car seats from them too if required. They are no frills and all their cars are white Toyota Corollas (!) but were easy to find and hassle free. They do online quotes. Hope this helps. Good luck for Aug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murta Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 thanks a million, will look into that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsJulz Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 These are by far my fave posts - thanks for taking the time to share your experience. Everything is sounding really positive! I'm so jealous!! If you had to say something is there anything you wished you'd done differently? Thanks Hi shellyk666, There really isn't anything major we would have done differently. Maybe had a better idea of where in Sydney we wanted to be so didn't have to drag the kids all around for days on end looking at areas but then this did give us a chance to see the city a bit. And there is only so much research you can do from home. Maybe also, dont worry about it all too much. OH and I both spent ages worrying about where we'd live, if we'd get jobs, etc etc before we came over and, as it is for most people, it usually all just works itself out. Amazing what you can achieve in a short space of time. P.S We did have a couple of small mishaps - youngest daughter managed to dislocate her elbow whilst in the customs queue at Sydney airport before we even entered the country, we then had to go straight to Sydney Children's Hospital! Although first experience of Aussie Medicare was first class! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Hi shellyk666, There really isn't anything major we would have done differently. Maybe had a better idea of where in Sydney we wanted to be so didn't have to drag the kids all around for days on end looking at areas but then this did give us a chance to see the city a bit. And there is only so much research you can do from home. I'm not sure you can work out form afar where you want to live. You can research transport options and house prices, but you can't research how you'll feel about different areas and that's really important. Best you can do is try and make a shortlist, but I think you have to accept a fair bit of slogging around, don't you? Glad it seems to have worked out for you. I was up at Collaroy yesterday, walked out to Long Reef with my son to try and spot whales (fail!) - and then back for tea. Beautiful day out there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsJulz Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 I'm not sure you can work out form afar where you want to live. You can research transport options and house prices, but you can't research how you'll feel about different areas and that's really important. Best you can do is try and make a shortlist, but I think you have to accept a fair bit of slogging around, don't you? Glad it seems to have worked out for you. I was up at Collaroy yesterday, walked out to Long Reef with my son to try and spot whales (fail!) - and then back for tea. Beautiful day out there Hi northshorepom, totally agree, as I said there is only so much research you can do from home but until you are actually there and get a feel for a place you cant really make a decision. We saw a large pod of whales the other evening about 500m out from Curl Curl beach - was spectacular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mansawant Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 We have booked Meriton Serviced apartment for 3 weeks and will find the rental in Neutral Bay or Lane Cove as public schools in both areas are very good (checked school report for last couple of years) and also checked transportation from both areas to St Leonards as wife is a nurse and will be working for Royal North Shore Hospital and can't drive so has to depend upon buses. We thought its better to narrow down the search for rental to specific areas instared of searching everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Getting from Neutral Bay or Lane Cove to St Leonards is very easy. Lane Cove will probably be very much cheaper than Neutral Bay Don't write off other local areas either though. The schools in Greenwich and Cammeray I know are supposed to be really good, I would be surprised if any around there aren't but I haven't personally checked. Also Artarmon and Naremburn are very close. It is better not to try and search everywhere, but on the other hand in that 3 week period there might only be 4 or 5 properties come up for rent in each suburb and if none of them are suitable or you don't get them, then, well, you need to look elsewhere anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mansawant Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Getting from Neutral Bay or Lane Cove to St Leonards is very easy. Lane Cove will probably be very much cheaper than Neutral Bay Don't write off other local areas either though. The schools in Greenwich and Cammeray I know are supposed to be really good, I would be surprised if any around there aren't but I haven't personally checked. Also Artarmon and Naremburn are very close. It is better not to try and search everywhere, but on the other hand in that 3 week period there might only be 4 or 5 properties come up for rent in each suburb and if none of them are suitable or you don't get them, then, well, you need to look elsewhere anyway Thanks for the advice Northshorepom. Yes my first priority is to Lane Cove followed by Neutral Bay, Artarmon, Chatswood as there are buses available to St Leonards from all these areas. Aatrarmon is walkable. So if nothing found in my preferred areas then I will consider the other areas and will try to go for six months lease instead of 12 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest scozzies Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Hi there, some great info there, we are moving down from Noosa in 5 weeks, been in Oz for 5 years( came from Glasgow) and also looking at that area. So all helpful hints appreciated as I hear its hard getting accommodation . Can I how you managed it and how much you pay and is it a small house? As I heard you don't get much for your money down there. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsJulz Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Hi there, some great info there, we are moving down from Noosa in 5 weeks, been in Oz for 5 years( came from Glasgow) and also looking at that area. So all helpful hints appreciated as I hear its hard getting accommodation . Can I how you managed it and how much you pay and is it a small house? As I heard you don't get much for your money down there. Thanks Hey scozzies, wow, Noosa is lovely. I've PM'd you some details. Julie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest scozzies Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Hey scozzies, wow, Noosa is lovely. I've PM'd you some details. Julie Hi there I have been doing more research and would love to stay where you are, if there are any rentals you hear of could you PM me , hubby starting work on Monday . How is your things arrived safe and well? Karin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.