What would u ship over from the uk if u left again?

[Marisawright]

9 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

My first inclination is to ship it all.  If we end up where we need more than half because of a few items I will rethink.

The tricky bit is when to ship.    Everything will be in transit for 6-8 weeks.  You'll be booking a holiday let for your first 4 weeks while you look for a home, so that's 4 weeks when you won't need any of the stuff.  But that still leaves 2-4 weeks when you have to manage somehow. 

It's often easier to ship 2-4 weeks early, because it's usually easier to "camp" in your old home.  After all, there's bound to be some furniture, towels, bedlinen, kitchen stuff that's not really worth shipping, but you can make do with for those last couple of weeks.  Perhaps don't ship the beds, so you have something comfy to sleep on.  Of course, if you have family that can lend you stuff, that makes it even easier.

On the other hand, you can ship at the last minute and then camp in your new place.  Perhaps buy a nice outdoor setting which you can use as a dining table, buy some inflatable beds for when you go camping etc.  

[Sea breeze]

Thank u all some interesting points so far 

I wil definitely be taking winter wear ! That caught us out the first time we moved 

we started in Perth and it rained for 28 days straight, I had to ask my mom to send jeans socks etc over as NAB bank had kindly lost our new bank cards ( it wasn’t the best start) 

although that was a travel/ live type of experience which lasted 6years and we have been back twice since so we are familiar with everything 

we don’t have much decent furniture tbh we have always lived temporarily unfortunately and are going to rent out our house as part of a pension pot 

we will prob end up with a load of Kmart specials again !

 

 

 

 

[Graham Fletcher]

We shipped our entire 3 bedroom house-full and when it arrived it disappeared in the 4 bedroom house we rented on arrival. Ended up buying a whole load more stuff just to fill it up.

If you are getting a standard 4x2 home in Australia it will probably be huge compared to a house in the UK!

In retrospect I probably would have sold everything and started afresh on arrival

[Marisawright]

1 hour ago, Graham Fletcher said:

We shipped our entire 3 bedroom house-full and when it arrived it disappeared in the 4 bedroom house we rented on arrival. Ended up buying a whole load more stuff just to fill it up.

If you are getting a standard 4x2 home in Australia it will probably be huge compared to a house in the UK!

....another argument for having an open mind about choosing a smaller city as your first destination.  These days, migrants arriving in Sydney or Melbourne are going to find themselves squeezing their furniture into a home the size of a cupboard, unless they're willing to go out to the distant suburbs.   I don't know how much that applies to the other big cities, Gold Coast etc, but house prices have gone up a lot there, too.  

Edited February 2, 2021 by Marisawright

[bicek]

4 hours ago, Marisawright said:

....another argument for having an open mind about choosing a smaller city as your first destination.  These days, migrants arriving in Sydney or Melbourne are going to find themselves squeezing their furniture into a home the size of a cupboard, unless they're willing to go out to the distant suburbs.   I don't know how much that applies to the other big cities, Gold Coast etc, but house prices have gone up a lot there, too.  

Where do you consider the "distant" suburbs to start and end? 

UK House prices have gone up considerably too, so prices in some of the UK cities are comparable to Melbourne and Sydney. We are not that shocked by house prices over there. But then we are looking for a "tree change" which is more affordable over there. Buying in the countryside here (in the South of England) is only an option for the wealthier lot. 

Edited February 2, 2021 by bicek

[Jon the Hat]

1 hour ago, bicek said:

Where do you consider the "distant" suburbs to start and end? 

UK House prices have gone up considerably too, so prices in some of the UK cities are comparable to Melbourne and Sydney. We are not that shocked by house prices over there. But then we are looking for a "tree change" which is more affordable over there. Buying in the countryside here (in the South of England) is only an option for the wealthier lot. 

Indeed, we are in West Sussex in a new build very close to countryside (over the road) but a village or rural property the same size would be out of reach.  That said we probably going to spend a similar amount in Perth as we are selling for here ~ $1.1M.  Won't get us a huge house where we want to be but similar to now at ~200m2.  Also means we can move further out in future if we need more space.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Jon the Hat

[ali]

We'd do the same as we did then - brought everything we needed

[ramot]

18 minutes ago, ali said:

We'd do the same as we did then - brought everything we needed

So did we, if it wasn’t broken we brought it, then bought new as and when needed, and were familiar with the shopping areas, and spread out the financial outlay. 

Yes we brought our tumble dryer, it’s well over 20 years old and still going strong, it can rain here for days and so very useful.

Edited February 2, 2021 by ramot

[ali]

42 minutes ago, ramot said:

So did we, if it wasn’t broken we brought it, then bought new as and when needed, and were familiar with the shopping areas, and spread out the financial outlay. 

Yes we brought our tumble dryer, it’s well over 20 years old and still going strong, it can rain here for days and so very useful.

We slowly had to change electrical stuff, still have some stuff that we've had over 30 years

 

[Jon the Hat]

15 hours ago, Marisawright said:

The tricky bit is when to ship.    Everything will be in transit for 6-8 weeks.  You'll be booking a holiday let for your first 4 weeks while you look for a home, so that's 4 weeks when you won't need any of the stuff.  But that still leaves 2-4 weeks when you have to manage somehow. 

It's often easier to ship 2-4 weeks early, because it's usually easier to "camp" in your old home.  After all, there's bound to be some furniture, towels, bedlinen, kitchen stuff that's not really worth shipping, but you can make do with for those last couple of weeks.  Perhaps don't ship the beds, so you have something comfy to sleep on.  Of course, if you have family that can lend you stuff, that makes it even easier.

On the other hand, you can ship at the last minute and then camp in your new place.  Perhaps buy a nice outdoor setting which you can use as a dining table, buy some inflatable beds for when you go camping etc.  

Yes indeed.  We are about to complete on our sale in the next few weeks, and might have to move into a Air Bnb as we can't find a rental nearby at the moment. If we think 2 weeks Q plus 3-4 weeks in a temp apartment you are only looking at a few weeks either end.  Manageable!

[Marisawright]

13 hours ago, bicek said:

Where do you consider the "distant" suburbs to start and end? 

UK House prices have gone up considerably too, so prices in some of the UK cities are comparable to Melbourne and Sydney. We are not that shocked by house prices over there. But then we are looking for a "tree change" which is more affordable over there. Buying in the countryside here (in the South of England) is only an option for the wealthier lot. 

I enjoy the city amenities too much, and anyway I find a lot of the outer suburbs to be soulless, dusty dormitories. If I were going for a tree change in Melbourne these days, I’d go for the Dandenong Ranges, Mornington Peninsula (v pricey) or join the horde of young families heading to Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo

Edited February 2, 2021 by Marisawright

[Paul1Perth]

On 31/01/2021 at 05:25, Sea breeze said:

Hi guys 

its been forever since I posted on here so hello!

after 6 years of living back in the uk we are moving back to Oz. We have had enough of the weather and  the situation 

my question is what would u ship over if u knew then what u know now?? 
 

We shipped over loads of stuff that we never used. Some of it still in boxes in the attic after nearly 30 years. No idea what's in them.

One thing I left behind and regretted was my decent road bike. If you have good road or mountain bikes they are worth shipping. If not there are some really good buys second hand here.

[Paul1Perth]

On 01/02/2021 at 11:20, DrDougster said:

Depends a lot on what you spend money on I guess. For me only a few high value items that are kinda luxury lifestyle ones. I'd just buy a tumble dryer for $400!

For example the big Mac screen that is sitting on a desk in our UK house while I have a less aesthetically pleasing Dell one here that I bought. Also the Tacx Neo that is boxed up in my garage in UK has had to be replaced by a second-hand KiCKR here.

I'd also probably have shipped my touring, MTB and TT bike if I knew we were going to be staying. Jeez, you've got me started now - I miss some of my stuff!

It's pretty easy to get tacx stuff. I have one from wiggle and last year we had our niece and boyfriend visit us from China and he ordered a tacx that connects to the internet so he can "race" other people online.

They ended up back in the UK for months while covid was kicking off but are back in China now teaching. I'm sure he's got plenty of use out of it.

[Paul1Perth]

On 02/02/2021 at 17:45, Jon the Hat said:

Indeed, we are in West Sussex in a new build very close to countryside (over the road) but a village or rural property the same size would be out of reach.  That said we probably going to spend a similar amount in Perth as we are selling for here ~ $1.1M.  Won't get us a huge house where we want to be but similar to now at ~200m2.  Also means we can move further out in future if we need more space.

For $1.1m you can get yourself a mansion in a lot of nice suburbs.

[Freemantle]

I bought everything over, I could think of nothing worse than having to shop for all and sundry again. All good quality European items that would cost a fortune to replace here. We drank from my husband's vegemite jars until the ship offloaded!

[DrDougster]

5 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

It's pretty easy to get tacx stuff. I have one from wiggle and last year we had our niece and boyfriend visit us from China and he ordered a tacx that connects to the internet so he can "race" other people online.

They ended up back in the UK for months while covid was kicking off but are back in China now teaching. I'm sure he's got plenty of use out of it.

Yeah, the KiCKR was just being sold by someone out in Palmerston who didn't know what it was and I thought I'd try how the other half live. I was glad not to have to return to that street.

[Paul1Perth]

1 hour ago, DrDougster said:

Yeah, the KiCKR was just being sold by someone out in Palmerston who didn't know what it was and I thought I'd try how the other half live. I was glad not to have to return to that street.

We used to pop into Palmerston shopping centre for lunch as just about all our work was at Robertson Barracks. The foods OK on base but a change to get off base for an hour.

Not the nicest place is it, we always stayed in the Holiday Inn with the swimmimg pool when it wasn't full.

Have you been to Nirvana in Darwin? It looks a bit seedy from the outside but is great food, cheap beer and a bit of an alternative crowd gets in. They have an open mike night a couple of times a week that's really good.

Had a few good nights there. Work was a bit hard the day after though.

[Bulya]

43 minutes ago, Paul1Perth said:

We used to pop into Palmerston shopping centre for lunch as just about all our work was at Robertson Barracks. The foods OK on base but a change to get off base for an hour.

Not the nicest place is it, we always stayed in the Holiday Inn with the swimmimg pool when it wasn't full.

Have you been to Nirvana in Darwin? It looks a bit seedy from the outside but is great food, cheap beer and a bit of an alternative crowd gets in. They have an open mike night a couple of times a week that's really good.

Had a few good nights there. Work was a bit hard the day after though.

RAAF Darwin boozer was it for my month there, 6 months after the cyclone.  When they lobbed glasses/bottles into the overhead fans and yelled ‘incoming’ I knew it wasn’t a place I wanted to stay long term.  Never been so glad to get back to Williamtown (Newcastle) in my life...

[Jon the Hat]

10 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

For $1.1m you can get yourself a mansion in a lot of nice suburbs.

We are bit biased towards those we know, which is around South Perth and Applecross.  Plus Maylands, but never liked the mosquitos over there!  We will be looking around other really good schools, so Churchlands, Carine as well.  We are clear that this is probably a decision between nice big house further out and townhouse etc close in.

We might also decide not to spend that much.  Would be happy with a nice $700k house if we can find one!

Edited February 4, 2021 by Jon the Hat

[bicek]

1 hour ago, Jon the Hat said:

We are bit biased towards those we know, which is around South Perth and Applecross.  Plus Maylands, but never liked the mosquitos over there!  We will be looking around other really good schools, so Churchlands, Carine as well.  We are clear that this is probably a decision between nice big house further out and townhouse etc close in.

We might also decide not to spend that much.  Would be happy with a nice $700k house if we can find one!

I used to live in Applecross in the 90s. It had good schools back then (no idea about now), and access to the city and the river was great. It was a little pricey then, but even more so now. A lot more mansions have sprung up since those days! We had the cheapest house on the street

Our budget is similar to yours. We will decide how big a mortgage we want once we're there etc. Location is important for us, so happy to compromise on the house itself a little if we need to. 

[Jon the Hat]

3 hours ago, bicek said:

I used to live in Applecross in the 90s. It had good schools back then (no idea about now), and access to the city and the river was great. It was a little pricey then, but even more so now. A lot more mansions have sprung up since those days! We had the cheapest house on the street

Our budget is similar to yours. We will decide how big a mortgage we want once we're there etc. Location is important for us, so happy to compromise on the house itself a little if we need to. 

My Wife grew up in Applecross, and we rented there in 2004 - our little old cottage is now gone and replaced with a magnificent home on the full 1/4 acre block.  Several million at least.

[newjez]

4 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

We are bit biased towards those we know, which is around South Perth and Applecross.  Plus Maylands, but never liked the mosquitos over there!  We will be looking around other really good schools, so Churchlands, Carine as well.  We are clear that this is probably a decision between nice big house further out and townhouse etc close in.

We might also decide not to spend that much.  Would be happy with a nice $700k house if we can find one!

Duncraig is a good school and a nice area. Most houses are 80s style, sunken lounge, arch doorways etc, and not as open plan. But they can be easily renovated.

[Paul1Perth]

11 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

We are bit biased towards those we know, which is around South Perth and Applecross.  Plus Maylands, but never liked the mosquitos over there!  We will be looking around other really good schools, so Churchlands, Carine as well.  We are clear that this is probably a decision between nice big house further out and townhouse etc close in.

We might also decide not to spend that much.  Would be happy with a nice $700k house if we can find one!

There's some serious money in those suburbs. We have friends who live in Applecross, stayed with them when we arrived in 92. 

They have an older house on a quarter acre block in Alness st. We arrived in February, left a cold damp Manchester, landed at night and our friend was waiting for us at the airport.

They are both teachers and went out to work the following morning and left us asleep. We woke about 10:00am to a gorgeous day, took the youngster who was 2 for a walk, found the river front, thought we'd landed in heaven.

The suburb is much the same but a lot more mansions where older houses used to be.

Their kids, both girls, went to the local school, then Penrhos. One is an Engineer for one of the mining companies and the other a lawyer. Their Mum is from Cumbria and is really left wing socialist in her views. When it came to bringing her own kids up though she was realistic.

My eldest is a year younger than their youngest and the kids have always got on really well, which was great as we knew no-one else here. We spent a lot of time going out with them and rented in Como for a year. We always wanted to be near the Ocean though and those suburbs were way out of our price range. We moved into the house we're still in in December 92. Love where we are, about 30km North of Perth, 10 minutes by car to Hillary's boat harbour, beautiful beach 2 min by car away, 5 on a bike, 10 walking.

Our eldest went to Ocean Reef public school and did fine. Youngest went to St Marks as he has autism and they had a "special stream" for kids with learning difficulties. 

We thought both were good schools and suited our kids for where they were at. Eldest loved sport and not so keen on academics. Ocean Reef was pretty laid back, had good sporting teams, a surf lesson before school 3 times a week, trips to the Abrolhos, good swim team, footy team and very little homework. Least that's what he told us. Always said he'd done it at school. His best mate at the time was at St Marks and had homework every night and weekends. We found that out when our youngest went there. Way too much IMO.

There are lots of good schools all over. They've both done well and have good jobs. Eldest is an instrument/electrician, works on oil rigs at the moment, had several FIFO positions and spent just about all his 20's saving then having months off travelling. He's had some great adventures and been to places we never had the chance to see. He lived in Whistler, Canada for a couple of years too.

Great money and opportunities that he would never have got in the UK. Best move we ever made. 

We are as close to living the dream as we ever dreamt could happen, even after all these years.

Your $1.1M would get you a mansion with Ocean views in these parts.

[Paul1Perth]

15 hours ago, Bulya said:

RAAF Darwin boozer was it for my month there, 6 months after the cyclone.  When they lobbed glasses/bottles into the overhead fans and yelled ‘incoming’ I knew it wasn’t a place I wanted to stay long term.  Never been so glad to get back to Williamtown (Newcastle) in my life...

Been to Williamtown too and worked at the base there. Stayed in Port Stephens which was nice. Stayed in Newcastle too once for a change. Bit of a trip to the base either way but nothing much around Williamtown itself.

Newcastle could have its rough pubs too. Not as much as Darwin though, I think the climate affects people up there.

Darwin is a lot calmer and nicer than it used to be. A lot of money has been spent round the port. Good pubs, restaurants and flash apartments, along with the southern hemispheres biggest wave pool. Decent enclosed swimming area, water is always murky though, never see very far down. Always feels a bit spooky. Decent 500m swim round the perimeter though.

[Bulya]

37 minutes ago, Paul1Perth said:

Been to Williamtown too and worked at the base there. Stayed in Port Stephens which was nice. Stayed in Newcastle too once for a change. Bit of a trip to the base either way but nothing much around Williamtown itself.

Newcastle could have its rough pubs too. Not as much as Darwin though, I think the climate affects people up there.

Darwin is a lot calmer and nicer than it used to be. A lot of money has been spent round the port. Good pubs, restaurants and flash apartments, along with the southern hemispheres biggest wave pool. Decent enclosed swimming area, water is always murky though, never see very far down. Always feels a bit spooky. Decent 500m swim round the perimeter though.

Too humid for me.