Guest ScoobyRoo Posted January 26, 2010 Share Posted January 26, 2010 Hi All - My family and I moved to Avoca Beach on the Central Coast NSW in June 09 from the UK with no jobs thinking, shouldn't be too hard to secure a place with an employer..... Boy were we dumb or what! Why does the NSW Government make it so hard for anyone to get a job? Other States more lenient. OH passed the skills assessment to get into Australia (apparently his trade in demand...) then only to find his skill as a Plumber needs a license which will cost you $$$$ and 2yrs night school, but in the meantime you still gotta have a job to fund that! But whatever job you try to get - guess what.... You gotta have a certificate or license..... What's the point of the assessment? It's mad :realmad: Are they just money grabbing? Anyway enough of that. We have 3 children 12yo boy, 7yo girl and 5yo boy. Still settling in and finding our feet - things are so very different here :confused: but the Aussies are great. We had it so easy in the UK on the whole really! It would be great to meet up for chats / barbies. Good friends are so hard to find. All welcome to reply, hope I haven't put anyone off by ranting..... Hope to have a chat soooooon :hug: xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest woods99 Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Welcome to Oz, don't worry too much, things will work out. If you are from a church background, try visiting Terrigal Uniting Church, not far from Avoca, they have several services each weekend and are a very welcoming bunch, people from all nationalities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HeatherDawnKeane Posted May 14, 2010 Share Posted May 14, 2010 Hi ScoobyRoo I know you posted your thread a while back, but thought I would drop a quick note on here to see how things are going now. We are moving to Central Coast hopefully mid September time, looking to settle somewhere around Terrigal/Erina/Avoca Beach area, so any advice would be gratefully received. We came out back in April for a holiday so were able to have a look around to get a feel for the different areas, although we only had a couple of weeks there so couldn't fit everything in. My OH will be studying when we come over so we are coming on student visas, he has been told though, that the university should be able to sort him out some work after his first semester, so hopefully that will be ok. As for me I plan to have a few months just settling in etc, although will probably need to get a part-time job at some point, even if its just a way of meeting new people. We have a 15 year old daughter who will probably be going to Erina High School (do you know anything about the school at all, although I note your kids are a bit younger!). As we are coming on student visas, there are only a certain number of schools in the central coast area that she can attend and Erina is one of them, probably the closest one to Terrigal and that area. Anyway, if you can think of anything that we might need to know or might be useful to us, I would be really grateful. Hope you have settled in now and have had some success on the job front! Kind regards, Heather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debbie2302 Posted May 14, 2010 Share Posted May 14, 2010 Hi, We are on our reccie in two weeks time and staying at Avoca Beach and hopefully looking to settle there eventually when we move over. We have our 175 visa, but have not sold our house and hubby not got a job, so going to reassess things after our reccie. We are hoping to visit Terrigal High School whilst there, have contacted the school and they have told us to call them on arrival. Will let you know how we get on. Debbie xxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HeatherDawnKeane Posted May 14, 2010 Share Posted May 14, 2010 Hi Debbie, Hope you have a great time, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. What is lovely is how places such as Avoca Beach, Terrigal, Erina, etc are all so close together, there really is some wonderful beaches around these areas too. We have decided not to sell our house in the UK now (its been on the market for ages, but its so slow at the moment!), so we are going to rent it out now. We are going to be renting in Oz for a while anyway, just hope we can find somewhere we like once we arrive as we were told when we were visiting in April, that larger properties are quite hard to come by and are snapped up really quickly. I have heard really good things about Terrigal Schools, so hopefully you will like the school when you pay a visit. Anyway, let us know how everything goes, good luck, Heather P.S. We found a really nice Tapas restaurant in Terrigal which is worth a visit one evening Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debbie2302 Posted May 14, 2010 Share Posted May 14, 2010 Hi Debbie,Hope you have a great time, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. What is lovely is how places such as Avoca Beach, Terrigal, Erina, etc are all so close together, there really is some wonderful beaches around these areas too. We have decided not to sell our house in the UK now (its been on the market for ages, but its so slow at the moment!), so we are going to rent it out now. We are going to be renting in Oz for a while anyway, just hope we can find somewhere we like once we arrive as we were told when we were visiting in April, that larger properties are quite hard to come by and are snapped up really quickly. I have heard really good things about Terrigal Schools, so hopefully you will like the school when you pay a visit. Anyway, let us know how everything goes, good luck, Heather P.S. We found a really nice Tapas restaurant in Terrigal which is worth a visit one evening We too have thought about renting our house, will do if absolutely necessary but wouldnt consider going with no house sale or no job, hubby hoping to speak to a couple of people about forthcoming jobs on our reccie. I have a friend who emigrated last year to Avoca Beach and she has just moved today but has struggled for some time to find somewhere else to live as properties seem to be very scarce at the moment, especially as you say the larger ones. I have been told that Terrigal High is a good school in the area but you have to be in the catchment area to be able to attend, will let you know what I think of the school on our return. Keep in touch. Debbie xxx Will keep in touch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HeatherDawnKeane Posted May 14, 2010 Share Posted May 14, 2010 Hi Debbie, Well will keep my fingers crossed for you on the job front as well as the sale of the house. So has your friend stayed in the Avoca beach area or has she moved away from Central Coast? I meant to ask you if your reccie was just to that area, or are you visiting anywhere else when you are out there? If your friend in on PomsInOz I wouldn't mind her getting in touch with me to give us some advice if you think that would be ok. It would be great to be able to contact someone who has first hand experience of the area and who has actually been there for a while now. Enjoy your reccie, you won't want to come home!!! Speak soon, take care Heather xxxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debbie2302 Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 Hi Debbie, Well will keep my fingers crossed for you on the job front as well as the sale of the house. So has your friend stayed in the Avoca beach area or has she moved away from Central Coast? I meant to ask you if your reccie was just to that area, or are you visiting anywhere else when you are out there? If your friend in on PomsInOz I wouldn't mind her getting in touch with me to give us some advice if you think that would be ok. It would be great to be able to contact someone who has first hand experience of the area and who has actually been there for a while now. Enjoy your reccie, you won't want to come home!!! Speak soon, take care Heather xxxx Hi Heather We are staying in Avoca Beach but will look around other suburbs just in case the commute is too much from Avoca to CBD where hubby will most likely be working, as he is in IT. My friend is on here and her name is NIKCI, she has been there just on 12 months now, just moved to another house in Avoca Beach, she absolutely loves it there. Just send her a PM and tell her I passed her name onto you, im sure she wont mind filling you in on any details you want to know. Speak soon Debbie xxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ScoobyRoo Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 Hiya - if you want to know anything about avoca beach or surrounding areas, just pm me and i'll do my best! we have just moved to copacabana as we couldnt find another suitable rental at the right price in avoca.... kids still go to Avoca primary though even though copa has a primary too! they just love it there. most of the public schools are good. and avoca is about 50% uk based! copa is a quieter community than avoca or terrigal. all the beaches are equally as good as each other. people are friendly and helpful. good luck with your plans. keep in touch. love michelle xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debbie2302 Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 Hi Michelle You say your children still go to schools in Avoca, do you mind me asking is your 12 yo still in primary or in secondary, my three children will be in secondary and going to look around Terrigal High when we are over in a couple of weeks. How are you finding Copacabana compared to Avoca?? Debbie xxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ScoobyRoo Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 Hi Debbie Yes my 12yo does attend a high school, its the public one in Kincumber as this was the catchment one... I would prefer to send him to one of the many private ones located around but funds wouldnt allow - may be in a year or two. He is happy there and says he doesnt want to move as his friends are there too. Kids don't understand. Time will tell. You can see how good a school is now (wasnt available when we started looking). Its located at www.myschool.com.au . Terrigal school is good so I hear, more pupils than Kincumber HS. Terrigal HS is more a performing arts school whereas Kincumber HS is more sports orientated. Thats what swayed me. My son catches the local free school bus from Copa at 7.28am and is home by 2.45pm. Kincumber starts at 8.15am and finishes at 2.30pm. I dont know about Terrigal. School uniform over here is so much more expensive that UK. All boys wear shorts all year round and girls skirts (which look very short!!) In the public HS they dont seem to wear sun hats like they have to in private and primary schools. If you go private you are looking at about a min of $1000 p/term (which is usually 10wks long) right upto double that! And thats just in school fees, then you have uniform which is quite expensive. They would also have to wear a particular type of school shoes as well. Hope all that helps. When are you thinking of coming out? I do still love it hear 10months on and my kids settled in right from day one. What are the ages of yours? Take care Michelle xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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