WayneM Posted August 18, 2018 Share Posted August 18, 2018 My EOI invite has come through for my 189, and it feels like time to start getting more serious on planning my family's big move. I've read a lot on this forum, posted a little, and it also feels like posting an introduction as a hello would be a start in getting more involved here. I have so many big and small questions whirling round my over-analytical mind. So, I work in software engineering and am very experienced. My wife is Indian and has lived in the UK for a decade so is one step ahead of me in experiencing international migration. Her occupation is less well defined, as she hasn't had a serious managerial position in 10 years as she slotted building the family in alongside getting a few more masters degrees, but her background is in healthcare management. We have two young kids, one just turned 6, the other almost 4. The biggest, most complicated thing to try to zone in on is where to land and start our new life. I want to get that right rather than whizz kids around different schools and lose money in moving around, the factors we're trying to weigh up from the UK in choosing a destination revolve around house prices, career opportunities and climate which are all probably common scenarios. Having lived in a small Lancashire town for a long time, we've learnt to try to be somewhere with more work in my field, and that we would benefit from being in an area with a larger south-east asian community than here. So far, we are zoning in on Queensland and Brisbane as the most likely spot. I'd be interested to hear how people have gone about comparing employability in different cities, in the absence of any better data, I've been looking at job boards, counting the number of opportunities advertised that match my skills, then dividing by some population figure to work out number of jobs available to me versus the presumed competition! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 (edited) It's a big job if you have no preconceived ideas about where you want to settle. If you're coming from the North of England, anywhere in Australia will have a warmer climate than what you're used to. The question is, what climate are you looking for? Personally, I live in Melbourne because I find everywhere from Sydney northwards unbearably hot and humid in the summer. However, there are plenty of other people who relish the hot weather. Only you can decide what your preference is. One important thing to check is housing costs. Melbourne and Sydney have a housing affordability crisis and coming from Lancashire, you may simply not have enough equity to buy a home in either of those cities. Check out domain.com.au and realestate.com.au for house prices, and bear in mind that real estate agents tamper with photographs. Also in both cities, the selling price may be $50,000 to $100,000 more than what it says on the site (it's supposed to be illegal to under-quote but agents still do it). Check homely.com.au for information on the suburbs. Also check Google Maps and use the day and time options to check commuting times at peak hour. In the big cities, the commuting time at peak hour can be two or even three times as long as non-peak. Seek.com.au is the main site to research job vacancies, if a job is going to be advertised it will be on Seek. When it comes to actually looking for a job, LinkedIn is worth utilizing. Edited August 19, 2018 by Marisawright Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s713 Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 I work in IT, Sydney and Melbourne are your best bet for employment opps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickyNook Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 Totally agree. Sydney and Melbourne are the only cities which have a decent IT industry. All the big banks, insurance companies, telcos etc are in one or the other. Brisbane has - um - Suncorp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 In terms of recent migrant influxes, I see a big difference between Sydney and Melbourne. Sydney has large Chinese, Vietnamese and Middle Eastern communities. Melbourne has Indians, Pakistanis and Sudanese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWMOY04 Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 4 hours ago, WayneM said: . Having lived in a small Lancashire town for a long time, we've learnt to try to be somewhere with more work in my field, and that we would benefit from being in an area with a larger south-east asian community than here. So far, we are zoning in on Queensland and Brisbane as the most likely spot. I live in the Northwest too! trained in Preston as a nurse at UCLan... I spent some time in Oz this June and July as we activated our 189s and (in my opinion) QLD was too hot (for us at least)... we were literally swimming in the ocean, on a winters day (for them)... and the kids loved it.. water was on the warmer end of being cool, but not enough to put one off having a frolic for a good 20 minutes.....I can only imagine what their summer was like! we had people staring at us walking around town in shorts, flip flops and t-shirts... then someone just walked up to us and said "you're from England aren't ya?" I asked how he knew and he said the dressing sold us out... if that how warm it was in the winter, I wondered how hot it gets in their summer... We then cancelled all plans for QLD and settled on Melbourne and its neighbouring cities as our next home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 (edited) 17 minutes ago, SWMOY04 said: I spent some time in Oz this June and July as we activated our 189s and (in my opinion) QLD was too hot (for us at least)...if that how warm it was in the winter, I wondered how hot it gets in their summer... Every time I say Queensland is too hot for me, I get people posting to tell me I'm talking rubbish, the weather's great, or it's only hot for a few weeks a year - but the point is, heat is a very personal thing. Some people hate hot weather, some people can't stand the cold. I think because we grow up in the UK yearning for warm weather, we're conditioned to think "the sunnier, the better". For some people, that may be true, but it's not true for everyone. One clue is to think how you react to the heat at the height of summer in, say, Seville (the coastal cities in Spain don't give you much idea because they're cooled by the sea). Edited August 19, 2018 by Marisawright 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Areyousure Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 I would say Sydney and Melbourne has much hotter days than Brisbane, brisbane is warmer on average but it doesn’t go to the extremes. So for me it would be the perfect weather. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallyman Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 4 hours ago, Marisawright said: Every time I say Queensland is too hot for me, I get people posting to tell me I'm talking rubbish, the weather's great, or it's only hot for a few weeks a year - but the point is, heat is a very personal thing. Some people hate hot weather, some people can't stand the cold. I think because we grow up in the UK yearning for warm weather, we're conditioned to think "the sunnier, the better". For some people, that may be true, but it's not true for everyone. One clue is to think how you react to the heat at the height of summer in, say, Seville (the coastal cities in Spain don't give you much idea because they're cooled by the sea). Coming from the uk it will take a bit of time to acclimatise to the weather here in Australia , it’s very diffrent to the uk we live in hunter gets very warm here in summer but I quite like it now , I have got used to it if we had come straight here from uk I think it would have been too much , it gets cold here in winter though was down to -4 last week which I also enjoy ,it takes time to adjust not going to happen over night Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 45 minutes ago, Areyousure said: I would say Sydney and Melbourne has much hotter days than Brisbane, brisbane is warmer on average but it doesn’t go to the extremes. So for me it would be the perfect weather. That’s the point really. Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth all experience days with temperatures 40+ in summer whereas Brisbane doesn’t. But we get several weeks in summer with temperatures in the low to mid 30s every day and nights where it doesn’t fall below 20. And afternoon/evening showers are not uncommon and beef up the humidity which can make it uncomfortable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Gbye grey sky said: That’s the point really. Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth all experience days with temperatures 40+ in summer whereas Brisbane doesn’t. But we get several weeks in summer with temperatures in the low to mid 30s every day and nights where it doesn’t fall below 20. And afternoon/evening showers are not uncommon and beef up the humidity which can make it uncomfortable. I'm always hearing about Melbourne and Sydney hitting 40+. I lived in Sydney for 30 years and don't recall ever experiencing that. 2017 was a record year for Sydney with 12 whole days when it got above 35, the highest since 1926. I've experienced a few hot days in Melbourne since arriving here but the great thing is that (a) it's not humid and (b) the day starts off cool, so you can still go out for a walk provided you're back indoors by lunchtime, and then it cools down again at night. And from what others tell me, there's usually only a handful of days when it gets over 40 - and some years it never does. I think we can all agree that one or two weeks of excessive temperatures out of a full year is manageable. At the same time, recalling the fact that you hate the cold, you'd be miserable in Melbourne! Edited August 19, 2018 by Marisawright Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 2 hours ago, Marisawright said: I'm always hearing about Melbourne and Sydney hitting 40+. I lived in Sydney for 30 years and don't recall ever experiencing that. 2017 was a record year for Sydney with 12 whole days when it got above 35, the highest since 1926. I've experienced a few hot days in Melbourne since arriving here but the great thing is that (a) it's not humid and (b) the day starts off cool, so you can still go out for a walk provided you're back indoors by lunchtime, and then it cools down again at night. And from what others tell me, there's usually only a handful of days when it gets over 40 - and some years it never does. I think we can all agree that one or two weeks of excessive temperatures out of a full year is manageable. At the same time, recalling the fact that you hate the cold, you'd be miserable in Melbourne! I just knew that Sydney experienced temperatures in the 40s last summer but wasn’t aware it was so unusual. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-07/sydney-hits-its-highest-temperature-recorded-in-79-years/9309552 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Gbye grey sky said: I just knew that Sydney experienced temperatures in the 40s last summer but wasn’t aware it was so unusual. My own perception is that Sydney has been getting steadily hotter over recent years. It is a fact that there are now quite a number of Queensland fish off the coast of Sydney now, because the water is so much warmer than it used to be. Edited August 19, 2018 by Marisawright Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneM Posted August 19, 2018 Author Share Posted August 19, 2018 (edited) Thanks for all the feedback everybody. As per your initial comment Marisa, we've already sunk quite a bit of time looking around on homely/realestate.com. You are right, after wisely buying my house 6 months before the big crash in 2007, we're only just back in the position now where we have any equity to speak of and it's not much. Based on this, we dismissed Sydney and Melbourne quite quickly. Sydney would be good from the perspective that my wife has quite a few university friends and distant family there, but as much as we love camping, we would really like to be able to buy a house! Melbourne looks cheaper and is less daunting from a climate-change-shock perspective, but still worryingly expensive (though probably a great investment). I've seen a few posts here of people in IT struggling to find work in Melbourne. In the UK, I see a lot of people from my wife's hometown moving to London and I wonder why they do it. House prices are crazy compared to elsewhere, and the salaries don't seem to make up for the mortgage problem. I put it down to a lack of research and I guess people see London and England as the same place, and wonder if I am viewing Australian capital cities in the same way. We looked at Adelaide which appeared to have cheaper housing and sounded like a nice place, but reading about the 'brain drain' put me off as did some analysis on seek, which is where we started looking at Queensland. Whether it would be too much of a climate shock is difficult to say - I am cogniscent of the fact that it would take time to acclimatise and the only way of knowing how you feel after acclimitisation is after you've gone through it! As per this thread, mixed reports on the climate though for most it seems to be great until the height of summer, terribly humid in the summer. Edited August 19, 2018 by WayneM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneM Posted August 19, 2018 Author Share Posted August 19, 2018 (edited) 10 hours ago, SWMOY04 said: I live in the Northwest too! trained in Preston as a nurse at UCLan... I spent some time in Oz this June and July as we activated our 189s and (in my opinion) QLD was too hot (for us at least)... we were literally swimming in the ocean, on a winters day (for them)... and the kids loved it.. water was on the warmer end of being cool, but not enough to put one off having a frolic for a good 20 minutes.....I can only imagine what their summer was like! we had people staring at us walking around town in shorts, flip flops and t-shirts... then someone just walked up to us and said "you're from England aren't ya?" I asked how he knew and he said the dressing sold us out... if that how warm it was in the winter, I wondered how hot it gets in their summer... We then cancelled all plans for QLD and settled on Melbourne and its neighbouring cities as our next home. This sounds like me when I visit my wife's family in India. When I go in the summer, we're all dressed the same way, though people tell me I look like I am struggling in the heat. I went once in January, escaping the snow and ice, to find nice 20 degree days. There I am, sunbathing in the garden wearing only shorts, next to where construction workers are building a house, wearing jumpers on their cold January day as they hammer in heavy bits of metal on the roof. Edited August 19, 2018 by WayneM learning how to use the quote on this website! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramot Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 6 minutes ago, WayneM said: This sounds like me when I visit my wife's family in India. When I go in the summer, we're all dressed the same way, though people tell me I look like I am struggling in the heat. I went once in January, escaping the snow and ice, to find nice 20 degree days. There I am, sunbathing in the garden wearing only shorts, next to where construction workers are building a house, wearing jumpers on their cold January day as they hammer in heavy bits of metal on the roof. We gently laugh at visitors to the Sunshine Coast. We went for a great walk by the river and beach today, it was a lovely day about 24/25’ with a good breeze. I was wearing long trousers and a jumper, passing visitors in swimming costumes!! we moved here from Brunei, and my first ‘winter’ I almost moved further north I was so cold. We installed reverse cycle aircon bought a few heaters, and have adjusted. It’s only cold for about 6/8 weeks, the days are beautiful with cold/chilly nights, we locals think it’s the best time of the year, but it has been hotter than usual this year. Summer is hot and humid, but again realistically 3/4 months at the most. Fans and aircon make all the difference, and you need to buy a house with good airflow and open plan helps, we all survive!!!! You can spend plenty of time outside under a covered patio. I find it harder to cope with the heat in Sydney than here in summer, 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallyman Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 On 19/08/2018 at 21:31, Gbye grey sky said: I just knew that Sydney experienced temperatures in the 40s last summer but wasn’t aware it was so unusual. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-07/sydney-hits-its-highest-temperature-recorded-in-79-years/9309552 Lived there from 2010- 15 every year we would get a short spell of 40 plus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneM Posted August 22, 2018 Author Share Posted August 22, 2018 On 19/08/2018 at 03:29, SWMOY04 said: QLD was too hot (for us at least)... Out of interest, how do you find the UK during a heatwave? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newjez Posted August 22, 2018 Share Posted August 22, 2018 44 minutes ago, WayneM said: Out of interest, how do you find the UK during a heatwave? Radar? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneM Posted August 22, 2018 Author Share Posted August 22, 2018 Just now, newjez said: Radar? Maybe Google Maps still works, so long as your device doesn't everyheat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newjez Posted August 23, 2018 Share Posted August 23, 2018 6 hours ago, WayneM said: Out of interest, how do you find the UK during a heatwave? Seriously? The days are nice but the nights are uncomfortable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newjez Posted August 23, 2018 Share Posted August 23, 2018 6 hours ago, WayneM said: Out of interest, how do you find the UK during a heatwave? Seriously? The days are nice but the nights are uncomfortable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWMOY04 Posted August 23, 2018 Share Posted August 23, 2018 11 hours ago, WayneM said: Out of interest, how do you find the UK during a heatwave? it's ok..... nothing extreme about it... I always laugh when the newscasters go berserk about "heatwaves" in the UK.. and I think to myself, they need to try a Southern Californian heatwave before they was lyrical.... and then the typical "it was hotter than Ibiza today in Stoke-On-Trent!!!!!!!!!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulya Posted August 23, 2018 Share Posted August 23, 2018 On 19/08/2018 at 21:31, Gbye grey sky said: I just knew that Sydney experienced temperatures in the 40s last summer but wasn’t aware it was so unusual. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-07/sydney-hits-its-highest-temperature-recorded-in-79-years/9309552 40+ in western Sydney eg Parramatta isn’t unusual. I know I used to be there every week and with the higher humidity than I was used to it was bloody uncomfortable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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