Ive arrived!!!!!....

[emj1986]

...well, ive been here 2 weeks now but wanted to wait until our pets arrived so I could share as much experience as possible!

 

So, after a VERY long wait I finally arrived on the Gold Coast on September 8th! We are on 457 visas following my partner being offered a job over here last July and the company sponsoring us. He has been here since the end of February this year while I stayed in the UK to sell up. We got our visa's waaaay back in October of last year and a lot has happened in between - there were more than a few times we thought it was game over. First, after putting our house on the market in early November we had the worst winter ever and in addition to some serious leaks in the house, not a single person came to view until March! My mum got seriously ill over Christmas with pneumonia and just as she was starting to recover, my OH's dad got it too. We thought he would get over it as my mum had, but he wasn't so lucky and unfortunately passed away 2 days before my OH was due to fly out here in February. At that point we really had to take stock of what we were planning to do - after a lot of soul searching and positive support from our family we decided we would still go ahead. The OH rebooked his flight for later on in the month and we carried on as planned. Finally in June, we sold the house. Unfortunately the buyers employed the worlds most pedantic solicitor who had no empathy whatsoever to my situation and we didn't even exchange until the day before I was due to leave! We completed on the sale last Friday so that's that chapter of our lives officially closed and we are free to enjoy the start of the next chapter!

 

I flew out with Singapore air - 23 hours travel time total with just over a 2 hour stop at Singapore. Everyone is different but I found the flight ok - managed to sleep pretty much the entire first leg so arrived in Brisbane refreshed and with my body clock pretty much reset. Ive not had any jet lag (lucky me!) and fell straight back into my usual routine of up at 5:30am and bed before 10pm, which suits the lifestyle here pretty well.

 

My OH found us a rental in the insanely beautiful Springbrook National Park. 3 beds, 3 baths with just under an acre of land unfurnished for $450/wk. More than a few teething problems - first off the place clearly hadn't been cleaned despite this being a requirement for tenants on exit. The carpets are stained to the point where no amount of cleaning will save them. There was a gas cooker provided for us which leaks and we are still waiting for a replacement to arrive 2 weeks later and ive had to resentfully resort to microwave cooking. We were told there were heaters provided - there were none and it gets bloody cold up here in the mountains at night! Finally, after 2 weeks of being bitten to death by what I assumed were midges or mozzies, whilst sitting in the lounge last Thursday morning a flea decided to hop up on to my leg!! This was 2 days before our animals were due to arrive (who ironically had been meticulously kept free of every insect and parasite under the sun for the past year just to comply with ozzie quarantine rules!). This was the last straw for me and I played holy hell with the estate agent. Pest control came out the following morning, we have a gas heater and we have been promised a new electric cooker this week. You have to be really firm with the agents out here - know what your rights are and don't let them push you around or they will walk all over you. Other than that, it is a nice house - really big, the garden is great for the dog, gorgeous views....but once our 6 month lease is up I don't think we will be staying. We were struggling to secure a rental so literally just had to get what we could in the end. It is a good 20min from civilisation (there is only a very small convenience store here and a couple of tourist focused restaurants), we cant walk the dog anywhere locally as its illegal to do so (as its a national park), the farmer next door sets poison baits for the wild dogs regularly, which worries me if the cat or dog managed to get out one day, and because its so remote the chances of making friends are pretty limited. Oh, and ive had 2 huntsmen in the house and saw an eastern brown snake on the drive home the other day!!

 

We had a $10k relocation fund from my partners employer which we kept for our flights and then to furnish the house. We got our furniture from SuperAmart, electricals from JB Hifi and homewares from KMart and Target and managed to get enough for the 2 of us within budget (we managed to get discounts everywhere as we were spending big bucks so its definitely worth asking) - we just bought enough for the 1 bedroom and no dining furniture. Cant see us having visitors for a while so pointless spending money on rooms which are going to be unused in the short term.

 

We do the grocery shop at Coles and I can get to within £50 of what my shop used to be at Tesco but that's only by buying own brand stuff which I never used to do back in the UK - theres no question its a lot more expensive out here. I have seen signs for a few markets nearby though on a Sunday so will try them out over the next couple of weeks as im sure meat, fruit and veg etc will be cheaper. You cant buy booze at the supermarket in QLD so you have to go to the off licence which they call a bottle shop. I think ill be going tee total here or im risking bankruptcy! Everything I normally drink is anything up to double the price. So special occasions and treats only! Weve been to a couple of restaurants, some expensive, some reasonable, all pretty good, so if you take a proper look around you can find a decent place to eat out for not too much money. Its fairly obvious that the further away you stay from the tourist hotspots, the cheaper things get.

 

Loving the lifestyle out here. Not been overally lucky with the weather and have had a fair bit of rain since ive been here but ive been for plenty of walks (I can recommend doing the twin falls circuit up here - pretty spectacular), paddle boarding, bought some fishing kayaks and took them out on hinze dam for the first time yesterday afternoon - its everything I wanted and more. Everyone is really friendly and helpful too which is refreshing.

 

So far ive applied for 40+ jobs. Ive heard nothing. One asked for more info but ive heard nothing since, one rejected me within about 4 seconds of my application. I did get offered some casual work as a bikini waitress which was pretty good money but don't think the OH will be too supportive of that one lol.

 

Now...to my pets! I have an 18 month old chocolate Labrador and an 8 year old moggy. I used Golden Arrow Shippers and I cannot sing their praises enough. Not only were they one of the cheapest but they kept me informed every step of the way and no question was too ridiculous for them. They gave me step by step instructions of what needed to be done and when and even my vet commented on how easy they made the process for everyone involved. Taking into account the initial expense over a year ago for the rabies vacs and blood tests, pet passports, then subsequent shipping costs, vet bills for insecticide treatments etc etc it cost in total just under £7k. The nearest quarantine facility for us was Eastern Creek in Sydney, so I then had to organise domestic transport to get them from there to here. I used Pet Carriers. I wasn't overly impressed with their customer service but they were the cheapest and my babies arrived safe and sound at the end of it all which is the main thing. Ideally we would have got a door to door service but as it was a Saturday, there was a massive surcharge for this which took the price to over $1200, so we decided to pick them up from the airport ourselves. The cost for the domestic shipping was just over $400. We collected them from the toll air express building which is separate to the main airport and pretty easy to find. They were out within 30min of the flight landing. Now, not to scare anyone but I want to be completely honest about my experience and everyones experience will be different but I have to say that when I saw the state of my dog I broke down. She had lost A LOT of weight and condition, she was moulting like crazy, covered in dandruff, dull coat and could barely manage a half assed tail wag - not the over excited jumping around like a banshee greeting we were both expecting. I can only assume this was a mix of travel stress, poor quality food and no human interaction in quarantine. My cat, on the other hand seemed to have come through it all unscathed. In case anyone was wondering, as I did, you can either keep their travel crates or the guys there will dispose of them for you. We kept the cats crate but would never have fitted the dogs in the car. We got them home and have given them non stop love and attention for the past 2 days. Ive been feeding them good quality beef and kangaroo steak in addition to their regular diets and can see their condition improving already which is a relief. They are both more or less settled in already. My only concern is that my once bomb proof confident dog now suffers from some pretty serious separation anxiety to the point where if both of us so much as leave the room she's yelping, which is going to cause a serious issue when I start work and she has to be left alone. Hopefully some back to basics training over the next few weeks will improve matters.

 

Sorry if ive rambled!! Ive really valued the advice and support ive had on here over the past year and just wanted to give back :wink:

 

If anyone out there is about to embark on their journey, im happy to help in any way I can - feel free to drop me a message.

 

Its early days yet but im so glad we stuck it out and can see us being really happy out here, its pretty awesome :cool:

[shirleyt]

A great arrival report, we too have been here for two weeks and although it's a big shock to the system, are loving it! Glad your dogs have arrived safely !

[emj1986]

Thanks Shirleyt - whereabouts have you settled?

[jasepom]

Yep stick it out, don't look back.

[calNgary]

Great report and i totally agree about real estate agents, its also worth doing everything via e-mail,,, just out of curiosity ,who did the entry inspection ? I ask as if hubby just did a quick look an signed the paperwork, they may try and hold you liable for stains on the carpet etc when you come to move out, so i would sort this now by requesting they come out to acknowledge the stains and other stuff and sign something stating it was that way when you entered, better to do that than try and argue for your bond back in 6mths time..

 

Springbrook is lovely but i understand what you mean about being a little 'out of it' ,try Tallai or Mudgeereaba as they are a tad more built up but not like suburbs across the highway.

 

As for markets, your not far from Carrara ,so definately pop down there one Sunday and check things out.

 

Cal x

[Suzukiscottie]

Good report. Extra kudos for the Chocolate Lab!

 

We pick up our new Choc lab puppy on Friday!

[maidensarah]

Great post and good luck, sounds very exciting. Hope your dog settles more soon

[ceddy]

Great post, Always interesting to hear how others are settling, could you please keep updating especially regards your dog, I leave for Oz January same time as my dogs, they are also going through Golden Arrow, it was your previous write up that swayed me, I will be very anxious during the time away from them.

[shirleyt]

We are staying in a short term rental in Mindarie, Perth but are moving into our long term rental in Churchlands which I'm looking forward to as it means the kids can start school. We've just been out today to buy a car as the hire car runs out on Friday. It's crazy, the amount of things that need to be sorted in the first couple of weeks!

[emj1986]

Thanks for all your comments guys. Latest update is that we are now moving out of our rental in Springbrook - the final straw came following a pretty horrendous hailstorm on Saturday afternoon. We got absolutely soaked through - problem is we were sat on the sofa at the time lol. House sprung about 4 leaks, luckily aside from the dogs bed, none of our stuff got ruined. They are charging us to break lease which I find shocking after all the issues we've had with the place but don't think we have a leg to stand on - seems very much on the side of the landlord out here.

 

Ive got a few places shortlisted, my fave is on the Heritage Gardens Estate in Upper Coomera - now, ive done a lot of research into areas around here and Upper Coomera was always on my no list with regard to crime. You only have to do a google search to see the list of arson, stabbings, car crimes etc. But then ive read some reviews online saying that Heritage Gardens specifically is a really nice place to live? Anyone have any hands on experience of Upper Coomera? Really want to settle now, im not the biggest fan of moving house every few weeks, especially with the pets! Speaking of which, they have settled in great now Ceddy - Aria (our lab) has put weight and condition back on and is loving our trips to the beach and the dog parks! She is completely bemused by surf boards and terrified of the local wildlife, especially as the birds around here have taken to dive bombing her lol. It has taken until now for her to get back to near normal, so a couple of weeks - pretty good really. She's ok left on her own again now which is a relief and she hasn't been to the toilet in the house again since. She barks a little more than usual but think she is just getting used to all the new sounds and smells. Our pussycat, Chase, settled pretty much immediately. Used the litter tray from day one, eating and drinking normally, and enjoying having a bed to curl up on again. Happy campers all round!

[Keris]

Wow I am very envious of you and your new life in Oz, don't worry: you aren't missing a thing here in the UK; today is 7th Oct and it's been raining for 2 days, freezing cold and everyone has a cough or flu (ok not everyone but majority lol) Shops are blasting xmas music and it really is the pits! I wish you well for your new life!

 

Oh can I just ask: I have a dog and when I hopefully move to Oz, I would want to take her: how did your dog seem to be with the plane journey? Was he/she ok and how long was the quarantine for?

[Tina2]

Make sure your dog has a tick collar lots of ticks around and they can kill your dog, you can get tick collars from the vet or supermarket. Not sure if the cat needs one as I dont have cats.

Ormeau and Pimpama are nice areas but on the other side of the freeway.

[emj1986]

Wow I am very envious of you and your new life in Oz, don't worry: you aren't missing a thing here in the UK; today is 7th Oct and it's been raining for 2 days, freezing cold and everyone has a cough or flu (ok not everyone but majority lol) Shops are blasting xmas music and it really is the pits! I wish you well for your new life!

 

Oh can I just ask: I have a dog and when I hopefully move to Oz, I would want to take her: how did your dog seem to be with the plane journey? Was he/she ok and how long was the quarantine for?

 

Thanks Keris :wink:

 

Yeah spoke with my mum on Skype yesterday and she has a cold lol. As for the xmas stuff though, that's over here too - finding it odd though walking about in shorts and t-shirt browsing xmas decorations!

 

As for the dog, I cant say for sure how she was with the main journey from the UK to Oz as I wasn't there to meet her - she was whisked straight off to quarantine. When she got off the plane from Sydney to Brisbane she didn't seem that great and was pretty stressed but don't know if that was the journey, the quarantine stay, or a mix of the two - but like people, all dogs will cope differently. She doesn't travel that well in the car either. But shes fine now so its not had a lasting effect on her at least. Quarantine is for 10 days over here now so not too long to be separated for. Now that im here and its all over and done with I think I would have felt worse leaving her behind than feeling bad for putting her through a few weeks of stress for the greater good to be honest.

[emj1986]

Make sure your dog has a tick collar lots of ticks around and they can kill your dog, you can get tick collars from the vet or supermarket. Not sure if the cat needs one as I dont have cats.

Ormeau and Pimpama are nice areas but on the other side of the freeway.

 

Thanks Tina - One of the first things I did was get a few months supply of treatments, collars and tick removers - before the pets were even in the country! Heard all the horror stories and I was already a bit OCD with it all even back in the UK - not nice having critters all over your house and pets! Would be devasting to lose them over something like that.

[JULIE RYCROFT]

...well, ive been here 2 weeks now but wanted to wait until our pets arrived so I could share as much experience as possible!

e

 

So, after a VERY long wait I finally arrived on the Gold Coast on September 8th! We are on 457 visas following my partner being offered a job over here last July and the company sponsoring us. He has been here since the end of February this year while I stayed in the UK to sell up. We got our visa's waaaay back in October of last year and a lot has happened in between - there were more than a few times we thought it was game over. First, after putting our house on the market in early November we had the worst winter ever and in addition to some serious leaks in the house, not a single person came to view until March! My mum got seriously ill over Christmas with pneumonia and just as she was starting to recover, my OH's dad got it too. We thought he would get over it as my mum had, but he wasn't so lucky and unfortunately passed away 2 days before my OH was due to fly out here in February. At that point we really had to take stock of what we were planning to do - after a lot of soul searching and positive support from our family we decided we would still go ahead. The OH rebooked his flight for later on in the month and we carried on as planned. Finally in June, we sold the house. Unfortunately the buyers employed the worlds most pedantic solicitor who had no empathy whatsoever to my situation and we didn't even exchange until the day before I was due to leave! We completed on the sale last Friday so that's that chapter of our lives officially closed and we are free to enjoy the start of the next chapter!

 

I flew out with Singapore air - 23 hours travel time total with just over a 2 hour stop at Singapore. Everyone is different but I found the flight ok - managed to sleep pretty much the entire first leg so arrived in Brisbane refreshed and with my body clock pretty much reset. Ive not had any jet lag (lucky me!) and fell straight back into my usual routine of up at 5:30am and bed before 10pm, which suits the lifestyle here pretty well.

 

My OH found us a rental in the insanely beautiful Springbrook National Park. 3 beds, 3 baths with just under an acre of land unfurnished for $450/wk. More than a few teething problems - first off the place clearly hadn't been cleaned despite this being a requirement for tenants on exit. The carpets are stained to the point where no amount of cleaning will save them. There was a gas cooker provided for us which leaks and we are still waiting for a replacement to arrive 2 weeks later and ive had to resentfully resort to microwave cooking. We were told there were heaters provided - there were none and it gets bloody cold up here in the mountains at night! Finally, after 2 weeks of being bitten to death by what I assumed were midges or mozzies, whilst sitting in the lounge last Thursday morning a flea decided to hop up on to my leg!! This was 2 days before our animals were due to arrive (who ironically had been meticulously kept free of every insect and parasite under the sun for the past year just to comply with ozzie quarantine rules!). This was the last straw for me and I played holy hell with the estate agent. Pest control came out the following morning, we have a gas heater and we have been promised a new electric cooker this week. You have to be really firm with the agents out here - know what your rights are and don't let them push you around or they will walk all over you. Other than that, it is a nice house - really big, the garden is great for the dog, gorgeous views....but once our 6 month lease is up I don't think we will be staying. We were struggling to secure a rental so literally just had to get what we could in the end. It is a good 20min from civilisation (there is only a very small convenience store here and a couple of tourist focused restaurants), we cant walk the dog anywhere locally as its illegal to do so (as its a national park), the farmer next door sets poison baits for the wild dogs regularly, which worries me if the cat or dog managed to get out one day, and because its so remote the chances of making friends are pretty limited. Oh, and ive had 2 huntsmen in the house and saw an eastern brown snake on the drive home the other day!!

 

We had a $10k relocation fund from my partners employer which we kept for our flights and then to furnish the house. We got our furniture from SuperAmart, electricals from JB Hifi and homewares from KMart and Target and managed to get enough for the 2 of us within budget (we managed to get discounts everywhere as we were spending big bucks so its definitely worth asking) - we just bought enough for the 1 bedroom and no dining furniture. Cant see us having visitors for a while so pointless spending money on rooms which are going to be unused in the short term.

 

We do the grocery shop at Coles and I can get to within £50 of what my shop used to be at Tesco but that's only by buying own brand stuff which I never used to do back in the UK - theres no question its a lot more expensive out here. I have seen signs for a few markets nearby though on a Sunday so will try them out over the next couple of weeks as im sure meat, fruit and veg etc will be cheaper. You cant buy booze at the supermarket in QLD so you have to go to the off licence which they call a bottle shop. I think ill be going tee total here or im risking bankruptcy! Everything I normally drink is anything up to double the price. So special occasions and treats only! Weve been to a couple of restaurants, some expensive, some reasonable, all pretty good, so if you take a proper look around you can find a decent place to eat out for not too much money. Its fairly obvious that the further away you stay from the tourist hotspots, the cheaper things get.

 

Loving the lifestyle out here. Not been overally lucky with the weather and have had a fair bit of rain since ive been here but ive been for plenty of walks (I can recommend doing the twin falls circuit up here - pretty spectacular), paddle boarding, bought some fishing kayaks and took them out on hinze dam for the first time yesterday afternoon - its everything I wanted and more. Everyone is really friendly and helpful too which is refreshing.

 

So far ive applied for 40+ jobs. Ive heard nothing. One asked for more info but ive heard nothing since, one rejected me within about 4 seconds of my application. I did get offered some casual work as a bikini waitress which was pretty good money but don't think the OH will be too supportive of that one lol.

 

Now...to my pets! I have an 18 month old chocolate Labrador and an 8 year old moggy. I used Golden Arrow Shippers and I cannot sing their praises enough. Not only were they one of the cheapest but they kept me informed every step of the way and no question was too ridiculous for them. They gave me step by step instructions of what needed to be done and when and even my vet commented on how easy they made the process for everyone involved. Taking into account the initial expense over a year ago for the rabies vacs and blood tests, pet passports, then subsequent shipping costs, vet bills for insecticide treatments etc etc it cost in total just under £7k. The nearest quarantine facility for us was Eastern Creek in Sydney, so I then had to organise domestic transport to get them from there to here. I used Pet Carriers. I wasn't overly impressed with their customer service but they were the cheapest and my babies arrived safe and sound at the end of it all which is the main thing. Ideally we would have got a door to door service but as it was a Saturday, there was a massive surcharge for this which took the price to over $1200, so we decided to pick them up from the airport ourselves. The cost for the domestic shipping was just over $400. We collected them from the toll air express building which is separate to the main airport and pretty easy to find. They were out within 30min of the flight landing. Now, not to scare anyone but I want to be completely honest about my experience and everyones experience will be different but I have to say that when I saw the state of my dog I broke down. She had lost A LOT of weight and condition, she was moulting like crazy, covered in dandruff, dull coat and could barely manage a half assed tail wag - not the over excited jumping around like a banshee greeting we were both expecting. I can only assume this was a mix of travel stress, poor quality food and no human interaction in quarantine. My cat, on the other hand seemed to have come through it all unscathed. In case anyone was wondering, as I did, you can either keep their travel crates or the guys there will dispose of them for you. We kept the cats crate but would never have fitted the dogs in the car. We got them home and have given them non stop love and attention for the past 2 days. Ive been feeding them good quality beef and kangaroo steak in addition to their regular diets and can see their condition improving already which is a relief. They are both more or less settled in already. My only concern is that my once bomb proof confident dog now suffers from some pretty serious separation anxiety to the point where if both of us so much as leave the room she's yelping, which is going to cause a serious issue when I start work and she has to be left alone. Hopefully some back to basics training over the next few weeks will improve matters.

 

Sorry if ive rambled!! Ive really valued the advice and support ive had on here over the past year and just wanted to give back :wink:

 

If anyone out there is about to embark on their journey, im happy to help in any way I can - feel free to drop me a message.

 

Its early days yet but im so glad we stuck it out and can see us being really happy out here, its pretty awesome :cool:

Hi I have just read ur thread on quarantine ect, my 4 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback flies to sydney the end of next month and im worried sick, we are also with golden arrow who so far have been great, so am i right in saying that they dont bring ur dog to you, do you have to collect it yourself ??. My dog has to fly to Perth to us after 10 days in quarantine in sydney. I just want it over with now, thanks for sharing your experience

Juli

[srh82]

Hi I have just read ur thread on quarantine ect, my 4 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback flies to sydney the end of next month and im worried sick, we are also with golden arrow who so far have been great, so am i right in saying that they dont bring ur dog to you, do you have to collect it yourself ??. My dog has to fly to Perth to us after 10 days in quarantine in sydney. I just want it over with now, thanks for sharing your experience

Juli

 

 

Yes your feelings sound familiar. You generally have to arrange domestic transport for your pet in Australia. We used Dogtainers for our cat and they were fine - communication in transit not amazing but they got him up from Sydney with no issues.

 

We we visited our cat in quarantine in Sydney and we found this helped us a lot and he seemed very happy to see us - it was a 30 day hold in Eastern Creek. He is fine now and we have him an Aussie lady for company ;-) but it's been a hard expensive and emotional slog. We are happy to be through it.

[JULIE RYCROFT]

Hi thanks for the reply. We're going to Perth so won't be able to see him till he flies to us. Do they bring them to our door or do we have to collect him ourselves

[srh82]

It depends what you have agreed with your domestic shipper.

[House Biatch]

Its normal for you to collect, however most domestic pet shippers have an option of delivery to your door. If you can avoid a Saturday, make sure you do as it will cost twice as much!