adele244 Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Oh my! this may not be the right time to post this as possibly too early but boy am I pinching myself!!! Do we actually live here!!! We flew with Etihad Heathrow to Brisbane 1 stop. for some reason exactly the same flight this seemed to drag a lot longer than our visit last year. We were over on the kilos with suitcases but they never said anything, which was good (and it was a full flight) So fast forward 2 weeks, we are still in our Airbnb but have got a 6-12 month rental and are moving in on the 14th (but have just been told our container is delayed till the 10th plus 7-10 days quarantine so we are certainly going to be without our stuff but no worries. With regards to the rental we were told the reason we got it out of the 4 applications was that we offered 6 months paid in full, so with this in mind we got the first rental we applied for. Although I think we panicked and was a bit premature as I have seen nicer ones since. We have bought 2 cars, the kids started school on Monday and love it. Uniform pricey!! One major clanger I dropped was that I was so determined to get kids into Chancellor State College was I checked the catchment (as they are very strict on this) and the High school confirmed it was in catchment, so went off and signed our lease for the rental. Goes to Chancellor Primary to enroll young son and was told the High school catchment is much bigger than the primary (which I totally forgot about) and his catchment is Mountain Creek, so I have to drop the kids off at totally different schools opposite ends which is a bit of a pain but it is what it is! So remember that Primarys and High schools have different catchment zones! Our rental is in Buderim but there is certainly no way we could afford to buy here the properties are way too pricey. Sippy Downs or Mountain Creek look more in our price range. Hubby started his job on Monday too (same day as kids) he was so lucky to get offered this job prior to us coming out, although the wage is not great, he should be getting a raise in the next few months. It is winter here and we are boiling - which is slightly concerning! ha ha! but it is freezing in the morning and at nights and that is inside the house as they are so not insulated!! I am not wanting to start work just yet as I want to make sure the kids are settled in and I am going to try to lose the half stone I put on before coming due to parties, meals and more farewell parties!! So I had a fast walk down the beach and it was simply stunning! We have done so much in 2 weeks, transferred our driving licenses, got medicare cards, got a rental, 2 cars, uniforms, bank cards and accounts set up - phew!!! By far the most paperwork was enrolling the kids at their schools - it was quite unbelievable the amount of paperwork I had to fill in. I am so happy though, the teachers have already picked up that my young son is behind which I already knew this and his UK school seemed to disagree with me. They have mentioned special help which after only 3 days of being there is fantastic!! On the other hand my daughter in high school is complaining that she has already done most of the work and is bored, however, they have had a few tests and she is getting top marks plus they have an excellence course so hopefully she will get on there. How can two kids be sooooo different!! So to sum it up, I cant believe how lucky we are, the ONLY downside is the price of the properties here, which will leave us with a much bigger mortgage than we had back home and that is AFTER selling our business and house! For an average 4 bedroom house (nothing fancy) you are looking at between $500-$600 - I had budgeted $450k - in fact we were in Hervey Bay (2.5 hours north of here) and there was this most beautiful 2 storey huge house with massive gardens and all modern inside totally gorgeous guess how much???? $420,000!!! My next task is to convince hubby that a two hour plus commute to work aint that bad!!! Love it, love it, love it - if it change down the line I will let you know. Hope this has been helpful to some people - I know Poms in Oz has been my biggest help by far so thank you x x x x 17 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toots Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Lovely positive post Adele. You have done a lot in 3 weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Ravens Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Congratulations, Hope you and your family enjoy the future ahead in Australia! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyHose Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Great to hear this. Worrying about the 6 months paid up front for the rent, I thought that might be the case but wasn't sure. I know we won't be able to afford that in Sydney when we arrive. Was it easy getting your drivers licenses and Medicare? x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adele244 Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 No not really, the reason for this is because the amount of identification you need to obtain one we simply didnt have. We went to the bank to order our bank cards but these took a week to arrive and the license required a bank card, medicare card and proof of address (again we were given temporary medicare ones but they wouldn't accept them). The real break through was when we got the lease agreement signed - that seemed to open the pathway as this was an acceptable form of proof of address (as we had no utility bills) The rent situation may be a little different here to Sydney as it is soooo touristy and people come and go people are fighting for rentals. Don't be disheartened Im sure it would be different in Sydney x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack91 Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Hey Adele. Glad to hear everything is going well!! If you need any help, husband wants a beer then please don't hesitate to contact me. We're locals.... now anyways! What is your Husband doing for work and what are you aiming to do? Who is he working for etc? Cheers, JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starlight7 Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 The first time we visited the Sunshine Coast we were gobsmacked at how beautiful it is. It is still easy enough to avoid all the touristy mob, too. You are lucky duckies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adele244 Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 Hi Jack, that's very kind, he is really missing his drinking buddy (well one night a week) we had an electronics repair business back home, and he repairs everything from Plasma Tv's to High end studio music equipment. He got offered a job by a guy who ownes Brockies TV's as he has bought a business which does exactly what we did. It is great that he can come home at a normal time and we are not talking about the business 24/7. I think eventually I would like to go back to admin work which I did at our business...but not yet!! Im enjoying life too much at the moment!!! Where are you based? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egor Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Wow! That's great! Waiting for photos of such a good house 420k is not too much, you could check Sydney's prices! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adele244 Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 6 minutes ago, Egor said: Wow! That's great! Waiting for photos of such a good house 420k is not too much, you could check Sydney's prices! Well that is what I budgeted for, but in reality on the sunshine coast they are between 500-600k however at Hervey Bay (a lot further up) they are much cheaper - that is where I saw the $420k one and it was really lovely....will try and post the link. I can only imagine the Sydney prices and I bet they make your eye water!!!!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarahjanetim Posted August 24, 2017 Share Posted August 24, 2017 So nice to hear. We are just starting our application and the Sunshine Coast is where we would love to end up hopefully things time next year. Keep us posted I have 2 kids as well 6 and 3. Enjoy yourself sarah x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samday13 Posted August 24, 2017 Share Posted August 24, 2017 Lovely to read your journey so far! We are planning to go to SC when our visas come through. Saw a lovely house in Mountain creek we would have loved to buy if we'd been there, so will look out for more updates!! Hope it's still as idyllic now Sent from my iPhone using PomsinOz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metoo Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Congratulations Adele244, it sounds like you have everything in order. i hope everything continues to go well for your family. while you wait for your container to arrive, try visiting second hand shops for stuff to tide you over. When we first arrived we bought a nearly new fridge and a 50" telly for not a lot of $$. You can even get second hand games consoles to keep the kids entertained while they wait for their toys to arrive. The fridge is now our beer fridge and the telly is still being used. A trip to Costco was worth it, we had 2 fold up tables and some plastic chairs, replacement chargers for our iPads and iPhones and we bought several pairs of shorts and T shirts (it's all you seem to wear in Queensland) and hubby bought a small selection of tools so we could make small repairs and a retractable hose pipe which I can honestly say gets used every day. When all your own stuff arrives it's like Christmas. Good luck, glad you are loving it X 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themaccas Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Great post! It's hard doing all that with kids too, I came over on my own for the first two months and got everything set up for the family it was good just getting on with it without distractions, I started work 10 days after arriving so had to do everything quickly. One bit of advice about getting a rental (we live in Sydney).... I knew getting a rental would be very competitive and we would probably not be strong candidates, I decided to put together a one page 'newsletter' for prospective landlords, introducing us as a family and included some photos. I got the first rental I applied for and was absolutely over the moon, it was a stunning house with river views. The real estate agent told me the newsletter swung it for us, the landlord didn't really want kids in the house but when he read the letter he immediately offered to us! We stayed there for 3 years and loved the place, we had to move out as he wanted it back to renovate and move into and I didn't blame him! We are building a house at the moment so in another rental while it's being built...house prices are crazy in Sydney, our build will cost around $840,000 when it's done with land and build costs but buying an equivalent already complete would have cost us $1.5m at least. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dec05 Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 Hi there, just arrived in Sydney also and have secured a rental fairly quickly. I just wanted to say that two estate agents told us that August is the quietest month for renting - we should make sure we had a rental before things got busier in September - so anyone arriving in the next couple of weeks should focus on getting a rental asap - hope that helps some one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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