Did you stay in the place in Oz you intended to, move on, or go home?" (Covered all the bases)

[MARYROSE02]

I was thinking, "7th December, 1978, or possibly the 8th, was the day I arrived in Sydney by coach from Adelaide, having landed at Fremantle in WA." When I was making my plans to come to Australia, I intended to go to Queensland, Townsville for some reason. But then I found what seemed to be a good deal, flying from Gatwick with Dan-Air (remember them?) to Singapore, then by Russian ship - "Turkemenia"(?) to Fremantle.

So, I intended to go to Queensland, but changed my mind, landed in Western Australia and loved Perth but could not get a job. Got the Greyhound to Adelaide, staying for a week but disliked it so much I nearly went back to Perth. (Nothing against Adelaide but I'd spent a month in a hostel in Perth and made some friends). "The Adelaide Kid is coming back" someone put on the notice board in the hostel.

Then I met two Swedish guys who were going to Sydney  and I thought, "If I go back to Perth I might go home without seeing the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Bondi Beach" so I changed my mind again. I met those two Swedish guys on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

I stayed in Sydney for eighteen years, then went back to England for a "holiday" after I lost my job, and stayed for twelve years, then did almost another twelve years in Sydney.

Now I'm finally in Queensland where I intended to go, although not Townsville - Surfers Paradise, and perhaps "living the dream" for the first time. So, as I said in my title, if you can see it, I "covered all the bases".

PS, just remembered, that I was supposed to be coming here with a mate but he backed out to get married. I sometimes think that had he suggested we come for six weeks (my leave from my job with Hants County Council) I'd have gone for it.

[ali]

Yes we did.  Came to Perth without having visited before, got a 12 week furnished rental in a suburb we'd never heard of before - I didn't want to be living further than 30 mins travel time as my job included night duty and a late shift then finished at 10pm - so wanted to be home for a reasonable hour.  We bought in the suburb we rented in as the children had really settled into the school and we wanted to keep them there.  Put an offer in on a house within 3 weeks of landing and moved in the week our rental lease expired.

[Bulya]

Schoolboy so SA it was.  Then to Melbourne later to NSW then to the ACT.  Time working, holidaying, or working on race teams in all the other states/territories.  More than enough moving for one lifetime especially after our continual moving in Europe. 

[calNgary]

We had planned for QLD, and hubby managed to secure a job with the same small company he worked for when a backpacker so we also knew we needed to be in commuting distance to Gold Coast. 

We landed in Brisbane November 2006 and stayed for a week in a neighboring suburb. We rented for 6 month but bought a house in March 2007. Its nearly 2021 and we are still here, it's less than an hour into the city, less than an hour to the Gold Coast beaches and everything else we need is closeby.

WA was our back up plan, but we have never needed it.

   Cal x

[starlight7]

We planned to go to Queensland too but it didn’t work out so we ended up in Victoria which is where we have stayed except for a year in Tassie in the 1980s. We started off in a rented flat in St.Kilda ,then a rented place in Glen Waverley. After that we stayed in the Eastern suburbs and bought a house where we stayed 17 years. We moved when our eldest got married and have been in our current house nearly 30 years. We have travelled all over Australia except the Kimberleys and I guess with Covid we will be doing more Australian travel though the thought of having to quarantine is off putting so we will stay in Victoria for the next 6 months

[Eera]

Intended to go to Kalgoorlie of all places (I like big holes in the ground).  Missed the job I was going for as I was travelling in Tanzania when the interview came up.  Ended up staying in a convent in Sydney, couldn't get a job in any of the cities, ended up in the regional tropics, been here 16 years now.  Every time we go back to visit any of the major cities I'm very glad I'm where I am - can't image living in one now.

[Freemantle]

I settled in northern WA initially and then my OH took very early retirement  and we moved over east. 7 years ago his company asked him to go back to work so he FIFO'd for that duration, Covid struck and we were encouraged to move back to WA. OH fifo's now but its a 2 hr stint instead of 12 hrs round trip. I am happy in Perth and managed to secure employment with no problems.

 

 

[MARYROSE02]

21 hours ago, ali said:

Yes we did.  Came to Perth without having visited before, got a 12 week furnished rental in a suburb we'd never heard of before - I didn't want to be living further than 30 mins travel time as my job included night duty and a late shift then finished at 10pm - so wanted to be home for a reasonable hour.  We bought in the suburb we rented in as the children had really settled into the school and we wanted to keep them there.  Put an offer in on a house within 3 weeks of landing and moved in the week our rental lease expired.

May I ask the name of the suburb? I like to Google them.

[MARYROSE02]

10 hours ago, Eera said:

Intended to go to Kalgoorlie of all places (I like big holes in the ground).  Missed the job I was going for as I was travelling in Tanzania when the interview came up.  Ended up staying in a convent in Sydney, couldn't get a job in any of the cities, ended up in the regional tropics, been here 16 years now.  Every time we go back to visit any of the major cities I'm very glad I'm where I am - can't image living in one now.

It sounds unusual to stay in a convent though I guess all sorts of places offer accommodation ( 2 "c"s, 2 "m"s!) . I stayed in the YMCA in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney. I still stop to take photos of the building in Pitt St and the little room on the top floor where I slept. I think the Quaker building in Devonshire St, Surry Hills does accommodation too.

I never planned to live in Sydney but I spent 30 years there in two stints. I treated it like a village though, spending most of my time in my 'burb - Surry Hills. I do much the same in Surfers Paradise.

[MARYROSE02]

20 hours ago, starlight7 said:

We planned to go to Queensland too but it didn’t work out so we ended up in Victoria which is where we have stayed except for a year in Tassie in the 1980s. We started off in a rented flat in St.Kilda ,then a rented place in Glen Waverley. After that we stayed in the Eastern suburbs and bought a house where we stayed 17 years. We moved when our eldest got married and have been in our current house nearly 30 years. We have travelled all over Australia except the Kimberleys and I guess with Covid we will be doing more Australian travel though the thought of having to quarantine is off putting so we will stay in Victoria for the next 6 months

I think I did have a plan to move to Melbourne, having been in Sydney for over a year when I lost my first job in February, 1980. Maybe we were supposed to move around on a WHV? But then the Aussie govt announced its amnesty for illegal immigrants. I wasn't here illegally but I was inside the cut off date for the amnesty, as was one of my brothers, and the other got sponsored by his employer.

Into my fifth month in Surfers Paradise and I have the feeling of slowing "becoming" a local. I bought a birthday card for one of the girls in the surf club. In another bar the manageress gave me a hug when I said goodbye, yet another called out my name as I passed a bar and said "Come and join us." It's a nice feeling, one of "belonging". The same thing happened when I moved back to England but to a different village to the one where I grew up.

[MARYROSE02]

"Less than an hour to Brisbane and less than an hour to the Gold Coast beaches?" Does that mean the Gold Coast "Hinterland?" (I don't know anywhere else that they use that term??)  Is Toowoomba too far? (I met a couple in the Surf Club from there - Preston - and a young guy in one of the bars who is here to study at Griffith (or maybe Bond uni).

I have not really explored in my five months in Surfers  one trip to Brisbane with my brother - like going to Sydney, one little "adventure", tram to Broadbeach, bus to Nerang Station, train to Ormareau (got out expecting to find shops but just a vast carpark), train back to Helensvale, into the mall, tram back to Cavill Ave.) My brother likes driving places but I'm not so keen. I love the tram line and the walking distance convenience of Surfers Paradise.

[calNgary]

2 hours ago, MARYROSE02 said:

"Less than an hour to Brisbane and less than an hour to the Gold Coast beaches?" Does that mean the Gold Coast "Hinterland?" (I don't know anywhere else that they use that term??)  Is Toowoomba too far? (I met a couple in the Surf Club from there - Preston - and a young guy in one of the bars who is here to study at Griffith (or maybe Bond uni).

I have not really explored in my five months in Surfers  one trip to Brisbane with my brother - like going to Sydney, one little "adventure", tram to Broadbeach, bus to Nerang Station, train to Ormareau (got out expecting to find shops but just a vast carpark), train back to Helensvale, into the mall, tram back to Cavill Ave.) My brother likes driving places but I'm not so keen. I love the tram line and the walking distance convenience of Surfers Paradise.

Just at the far edge of the Hinterland to coast 

 Cal x

[MARYROSE02]

11 hours ago, calNgary said:

Just at the far edge of the Hinterland to coast 

 Cal x

From the bedroom in our first apartment we had a great view of the hinterland, as far as Mt Warning in NSW I think, then we moved apartments on the same floor and have a 180 degree view but "just" up and down the coast.

[Eera]

14 hours ago, MARYROSE02 said:

It sounds unusual to stay in a convent though I guess all sorts of places offer accommodation ( 2 "c"s, 2 "m"s!) . I stayed in the YMCA in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney. I still stop to take photos of the building in Pitt St and the little room on the top floor where I slept. I think the Quaker building in Devonshire St, Surry Hills does accommodation too.

I never planned to live in Sydney but I spent 30 years there in two stints. I treated it like a village though, spending most of my time in my 'burb - Surry Hills. I do much the same in Surfers Paradise.

My auntie was the congregational leader of the Sisters of Mercy (basically head nun of her faction in Australia), and because there's not many of them around these days they had spare room.  It was cool because she's one of those get-out-there-and-help-the-community sorts and had set up a drop-in centre for indigenous and islander people in Mt Druitt, with a bush tucker garden and storytelling area - so the indigenous youth could reconnect to the elders and their heritage  - though it was open to any ethnic group who wanted to be part of it.  I volunteered there while I was unemployed and met some wonderful uncles and aunties.  We also got the local supermarkets to donate their day old bread and damaged tins etc instead of throwing them out so that anyone who needed food could come and get some.  

[ali]

On 08/12/2020 at 16:13, MARYROSE02 said:

May I ask the name of the suburb? I like to Google them.

We live in Leeming

[MARYROSE02]

11 hours ago, ali said:

We live in Leeming

I may have been there. Bibra Lakes sounds familiar.

[Graham Fletcher]

Lived in Perth, as planned, on arrival. Various suburbs over the ten years I was there. Since then I have been to Townsville in N.Queensland, a few years in Darwin and just coming up to a year out in woop woop on the Queensland/New South Wales border. In a few years I will retire to Thailand... I guess I'm a bit of a wanderer!

[Paul1Perth]

Came to Perth as we'd seen it on TV during the Americas cup. Thought it loòked nice then later, when we got serious about emigrating, did a lot of research in the Australian Embassy in Manchester. They had a great library, staff were really helpful and they had video tapes you could borrow.

Me and the wife had a pretty good idea of what we were looking for. We both loved warm sunny weather, beaches when we were on holiday, the once a year one when we had a timeshare on the Algarve. Depression used to hit going back through the clouds into Manchester Airport.

We rented for a year while we had a good look round beachside suburbs we could afford, which meant moving North or South. Cottesloe and City Beach were way out of our pricerange, even in 92. 

We found a suburb we loved, went a few times to have a picnic or barbie at the beach park. Had a couple of weekends looking for houses and saw one we liked, at the right price, pretty quickly. Been in the same house and suburb for 20 years and still love it.

We use the beach and local surf club a lot. Most of our big social group we've met through that, mostly when the kids were in. Now I'm retired I'm down the beach every morning for one training session or another, followed by coffee and back home by 9:00am. My wife trains with some other ladies a few times a week. All free of course, no need to join gyms, classes, everyone just volunteers for organising stuff.

Kids still love it, both have done well and have good jobs.

It's been everything we hoped it would be.

I've travelled a lot with work and the only other place I'd consider living would be the Sunshine Coast. Sydney is nice but too expensive, Brisbane too far from the ocean.

[MARYROSE02]

4 hours ago, Graham Fletcher said:

Lived in Perth, as planned, on arrival. Various suburbs over the ten years I was there. Since then I have been to Townsville in N.Queensland, a few years in Darwin and just coming up to a year out in woop woop on the Queensland/New South Wales border. In a few years I will retire to Thailand... I guess I'm a bit of a wanderer!

Queensland/NSW border? I stayed overnight at Goondiwindi once, Queen Victoria hotel perhaps, with a huge balcony outside the rooms. I remember one of these young guys I met in the pub, whom I thought were on a bucks' night but it was "just" the pre wedding drinks, saying, "Come on Pop, I'll buy you a beer."

I also crossed the border north of LIghtning Ridge (where i overnighted) then stayed at the Cobb & Co hotel in St George. Come to think of it, I crossed the border out of Bourke, and overnighted at I think Cunnumulla. So is your Woop Woop any of those places?

My brother is interested in retiring to somewhere in Asia but I think his preference would be Malaysia where he says you can "drink the water" and the hospital care is first class. I think I shall just retire here in Surfers Paradise.

You sound a little like my brother in that you can settle down anywhere but then move on too? I get attached to places and don't want to leave. I've not been to N Queensland nor Darwin.

[Quoll]

We stayed in Canberra by accident. It offered the best opportunities at the time. We had a couple of potential moves - to Ok Tedi and Broome - but circumstances didn’t quite turn out that way. Back then, when moving on might have been viable, it just wasn’t the right time with the right opportunities. When we were young we would have taken opportunities anywhere if they were better than what we had but we were doing pretty good.  Would I move? Possibly, if we get a better offer by being somewhere else but at the moment I can’t see anything on the horizon. Nowhere is screaming “move here”.

[MARYROSE02]

40 minutes ago, Paul1Perth said:

Came to Perth as we'd seen it on TV during the Americas cup. Thought it loòked nice then later, when we got serious about emigrating, did a lot of research in the Australian Embassy in Manchester. They had a great library, staff were really helpful and they had video tapes you could borrow.

Me and the wife had a pretty good idea of what we were looking for. We both loved warm sunny weather, beaches when we were on holiday, the once a year one when we had a timeshare on the Algarve. Depression used to hit going back through the clouds into Manchester Airport.

We rented for a year while we had a good look round beachside suburbs we could afford, which meant moving North or South. Cottesloe and City Beach were way out of our pricerange, even in 92. 

We found a suburb we loved, went a few times to have a picnic or barbie at the beach park. Had a couple of weekends looking for houses and saw one we liked, at the right price, pretty quickly. Been in the same house and suburb for 20 years and still love it.

We use the beach and local surf club a lot. Most of our big social group we've met through that, mostly when the kids were in. Now I'm retired I'm down the beach every morning for one training session or another, followed by coffee and back home by 9:00am. My wife trains with some other ladies a few times a week. All free of course, no need to join gyms, classes, everyone just volunteers for organising stuff.

Kids still love it, both have done well and have good jobs.

It's been everything we hoped it would be.

I've travelled a lot with work and the only other place I'd consider living would be the Sunshine Coast. Sydney is nice but too expensive, Brisbane too far from the ocean.

I was thinking, "I missed a post" but I see you only just submitted it. I never thought of researching the way that you did. I know I went up to London a couple of times, probably to the embassy as well as, probably Queensland House/ Western Australian House?? I was going to QLD but then changed to Perth because of the deal I mentioned before - fly to Singapore, overnight there, then a seven day voyage to Freemantle. Most of my research was borrowing books on Australia from the library and subscribing to "Australian Outlook?" (I think that is RIP now?)

Come to think of it, I did have some brochures about WA, though whether they were aimed at tourists or migrants I cannot remember. Looking back now, I would have just stayed at the hostel in Newcastle Street not worried about a job and waited till after Xmas to see what happened. (I arrived on 3 November, 1978). I would not have done 36 hours on a bus to Adelaide either, or 26 to Sydney. What can you do? What is that other phrase I've heard recently? "It is what it is."

I went to Sydney to see the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Bondi Beach, before going home, and I stayed "forever". Eighteen years in Sydney, twelve in England, another twelve in Sydney, and now six months in Surfers Paradise. My  brother is talking about Noosa but I think I shall just stay here.

[Paul1Perth]

34 minutes ago, MARYROSE02 said:

I was thinking, "I missed a post" but I see you only just submitted it. I never thought of researching the way that you did. I know I went up to London a couple of times, probably to the embassy as well as, probably Queensland House/ Western Australian House?? I was going to QLD but then changed to Perth because of the deal I mentioned before - fly to Singapore, overnight there, then a seven day voyage to Freemantle. Most of my research was borrowing books on Australia from the library and subscribing to "Australian Outlook?" (I think that is RIP now?)

Come to think of it, I did have some brochures about WA, though whether they were aimed at tourists or migrants I cannot remember. Looking back now, I would have just stayed at the hostel in Newcastle Street not worried about a job and waited till after Xmas to see what happened. (I arrived on 3 November, 1978). I would not have done 36 hours on a bus to Adelaide either, or 26 to Sydney. What can you do? What is that other phrase I've heard recently? "It is what it is."

I went to Sydney to see the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Bondi Beach, before going home, and I stayed "forever". Eighteen years in Sydney, twelve in England, another twelve in Sydney, and now six months in Surfers Paradise. My  brother is talking about Noosa but I think I shall just stay here.

We didn't research that much TBH. We had to go to the Manchester Embassy to submit the application and only then discovered they had the library and videos. We had already got our hearts set on Perth.

We moved for the lifestyle, not a thought about career or jobs. We both gave up good jobs to come, in the middle of a worldwide recession. My wifes a nurse, so were pretty confident she would get something pretty quick, which she did. I was out of work for 5 months but bought a bike and used to go off exploring with the 2 year old on the back, round the miles of bike paths. Glad when I scored a job though.

We had loads of friends tell us we were crazy. A few have been out on holiday and now tell us what a smart move it was.

[TiaCapan]

Started in Perth, as I have family there and the intention was to stay there. 18 months in and I moved over East for a work opportunity to regional NSW/Canberra region. Then I met the OH, and I relocated to one hour from Sydney CBD. I want to move near to the coast....it could take a while to convince him 

[Bulya]

21 minutes ago, TiaCapan said:

Started in Perth, as I have family there and the intention was to stay there. 18 months in and I moved over East for a work opportunity to regional NSW/Canberra region. Then I met the OH, and I relocated to one hour from Sydney CBD. I want to move near to the coast....it could take a while to convince him 

You moved, and for poms it’s a rare thing to do once here. 

[Jessica Berry]

Planned to come to Adelaide and that is where we have stayed.