Why are you going ?

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

My cousin lives in Townsville and he said it is brilliant, but he has only lived there 10 years so he hasn't probably seen all of it.

[Guest guest36187]

All valid opinions.

[tonyman]

And the point of your post is....??[/quote

 

shame you didnt get a sense of humour for Christmas pal..........:no:

[allthatmullarkey]

I can't blame you for wanting to get out of Townsville. I had the misfortune of having to live there for a year whilst at JCU. The cattle ship was heart breaking- shipping those poor beasts up to Asia for live slaughter. The whole place is pretty feral, in my opinion, (apologies to all those who love the place) ....Even most of the locals seemed to be there as they had to be rather than through choice. Stockland was probably the most depressing shopping centre I've ever seen and the town centre of a few , mainly boarded up , shops was bleak in the extreme...

 

haha yes your so right. I have worked there with lots of other english nurses and most of them either leave within a few months or just managed to finish there contracts.

The only thing I miss about Townsville is the great people I worked with.

Personally I found it to hick!!!!

[Guest guest32776]

haha yes your so right. I have worked there with lots of other english nurses and most of them either leave within a few months or just managed to finish there contracts.

The only thing I miss about Townsville is the great people I worked with.

Personally I found it to hick!!!!

 

Yep, it's certainly a little red around the neck line... There were alot of international students on my course , mainly American and Canadian, who had been lured to the tropics. After failing to transfer out without financial penalty had literally jumped on a jet plane and got the hell out hours after the final exam !!

[Guest The Gold Gang]

Just to add to our own list of why we are going, this week discovered termites in the house for the 100th time, cars damaged by golf ball sized hail and house entrance hall and spare downstairs bedroom flooded. Other than that it's been a great week. :laugh:

 

We've been trying to decide whether to go and have an adventure in Aus for years now, got our PR visa in 2007 and it will expire in 2012 unless we do go. There is always something to stop us it seems, but now its probably just concerns over finances and our own lack of courage! Our house is sold and I've given up my job in favour of a well paid 6 month contract to earn some cash to finance a move, so we don't have to use too much of our capital as the x rate is now so dire that I think we will have to leave our money here in the UK.

 

Is there anyone looking at this thread who has been on the Gold Coast and is now heading home to the UK? As maybe I am wrong but it always seems like people are happy on the GC (providing they have work of course).

 

I've read this entire thread and I am now put off going to Australia! We are all happy in the UK and everything is going well but I don't want to retire here as the winter really gets me down! We can downsize and get a share in a place in Spain so we can spend some time there but my OH and I are not the same age so we can't retire together, which is why we thought somewhere like the GC where he can work in Brisbane and I can retire, would be a better option than the UK/Spain split where I could go for weeks at a time but he couldn't.....

 

I am taking account of all the good info regarding the cost of living but from everything I have read previously, not a lot of people decide to return to the UK having been on the GC? Or am I totally and utterly wrong? Please tell me....thanks.:confused:

[landv]

And the point of your post is....??[/quote

 

shame you didnt get a sense of humour for Christmas pal..........:no:

 

 

 

No, I didnt find it funny at all. It was more like taking the pi$$ of people on a thread where they talking about genuine reasons to go back.

 

 

Feel free to start your own "funny and humourus" thread.

[Guest guest36187]

Dear goldGang,

 

Id be looking at a list of pro`s and con`s. You obviously had huge plans to be here as you applied for a visa. Re-examine the reasons that you want to be here and then look at the reasons you dont.

 

Dont for one minute let a thread put you off! Blimey! They are peoples opinions on what life is like here. Some are facts and some arent but all are just opinions. You need to make your own opinions on the facts that you know.

 

I have been in Brisbane for 6 years now. I can tell you the following:

 

- Costs have gone up in the last 6 years.

- Weather is not always nice! You are living in the tropics! Its wet......a lot!

- You will not have australians knocking on your door to be your friend. You have to go out there and find them!

- Work for me has been better since coming to Australia. I am earning more and working less hours.

- My OH is earning more and working more hours( bout 6-8 more per week!)

- Quality of life here is better for me.

- we have more time together as a couple

- Financially we are better off.

 

Hope that helps. Shout if we can do anything to help.

[Guest chris955]

I agree basically with what Joanne said, don't be put off by anything you read on here. You have to look at the pros and cons and decide whether it is for you.

I have no idea how many people leave the Gold Coast to be honest, I don't see any real reason the % of leavers would be less than other places. To me it is a place to take the kids for a day out but I wouldn't want to live there are beaches don't figure in my important things list.

You really MUST make the decision based upon what you and your family want and not what others find. For us this country isn't giving us what we want out of life but that isn't to say it is the same for others.

[Guest Guest31881]

Hi Goldgang,

 

You must remember that a lot of opinions expressed on the site are just that, "Opinions" they are not right, they are not wrong they are simply what a few people who subscribe to this site feel.

 

The vast majority of members who move to Australia fade away from the site once they are settled here as they have no need to post on the site anymore. If you look at the sites moving back to the UK threads you will find that most of the time it is the same people posting all the time and if you look at the pro Australia threads again you will find the majority are regular posters. So please do not take any of the threads as gospel or even truthful as a lot of members tend to exaggerate their experiences. What amazes me is the amount of members who have "friends or relatives" who have personal experience of everything you could possibly ask for. I would recommend that any opinions expressed on this site be looked at carefully and a large pinch of salt is used with a lot of them.

 

Personally I moved here because my wife is Australian and when I retired from work due to health problems I brought her home, at the moment we are curators/caretakers of a local history museum, we live on my pension from the UK and the pay for the museum consists of no cash but we live rent free in a cottage on the site. Some things in Australia are expensive others are comparable with the UK some are cheaper. We feel better off in Australia and we enjoy our lifestyle. Everyone should look at why they want to move and see if the lifestyle they are after is achievable, if it is go for it. if you are after too much then think long and hard to make sure the move suits what you want from life.

[Guest The Pom Queen]

To me it is a place to take the kids for a day out but I wouldn't want to live there

 

Is there anywhere in Oz you would live lol.:wink:

[Guest chris955]

:laugh:

 

. What amazes me is the amount of members who have "friends or relatives" who have personal experience of everything you could possibly ask for.

[Guest chris955]

I have always said that since moving from Victoria Brisbane is the only place here I would want to live.

 

Is there anywhere in Oz you would live lol.:wink:

[Guest The Pom Queen]

I have always said that since moving from Victoria Brisbane is the only place here I would want to live.

 

Can't understand that as to me Melbourne is more like the UK than any other state in Oz.

[Guest chris955]

That's fair enough, it's just not for us. We don't really want to live somewhere that is like the UK :wink:

 

Can't understand that as to me Melbourne is more like the UK than any other state in Oz.

[Guest guest36187]

I agree with Kate. WHen we looked at Melbourne, we saw everything taht we had just left! We wanted a change in lifestyle and we got that in QLD.

[calNgary]

We've been trying to decide whether to go and have an adventure in Aus for years now, got our PR visa in 2007 and it will expire in 2012 unless we do go. There is always something to stop us it seems, but now its probably just concerns over finances and our own lack of courage! Our house is sold and I've given up my job in favour of a well paid 6 month contract to earn some cash to finance a move, so we don't have to use too much of our capital as the x rate is now so dire that I think we will have to leave our money here in the UK.

 

Is there anyone looking at this thread who has been on the Gold Coast and is now heading home to the UK? As maybe I am wrong but it always seems like people are happy on the GC (providing they have work of course).

 

I've read this entire thread and I am now put off going to Australia! We are all happy in the UK and everything is going well but I don't want to retire here as the winter really gets me down! We can downsize and get a share in a place in Spain so we can spend some time there but my OH and I are not the same age so we can't retire together, which is why we thought somewhere like the GC where he can work in Brisbane and I can retire, would be a better option than the UK/Spain split where I could go for weeks at a time but he couldn't.....

 

I am taking account of all the good info regarding the cost of living but from everything I have read previously, not a lot of people decide to return to the UK having been on the GC? Or am I totally and utterly wrong? Please tell me....thanks.:confused:

 

Hi Guys

Moving here sure is alot tougher now a days than it used to be but it can still give you a fab lifestyle once settled.We are just over 4 years in and wouldnt return to the UK or Spain in the forseeable future. The majority of the migrant familys we have met are happily settled in and around Brisbane and only a couple of familys we have met returned to the UK.

We half lived in Spain before moving here and there is no comparrison, Spain was good but the Gold Coast is fab. Yes you have the beaches and the tourist strip, which is what most migrants label as the Gold Coast,,but if you take time to actually drive around and visit the rest of the coast and the hinterland there is a suburb of the Gold Coast to suit every taste, from large acerage properties in green forest surrondings to built up urban apartments on a hilltop, not forgetting the Eco Village which is another great place to settle.

Read the 'going back' threads and use them as a guide to try and prevent you falling into the same traps some of the other members have,they may seem depressing but they can be useful to you.

 

Good Luck with everything

Cal x

[Guest chris955]

I meant we didn't want somewhere 'like' the UK, we want the real thing. I have nothing against Melbourne as such, it just doesn't suit us and what we want.

 

I agree with Kate. WHen we looked at Melbourne, we saw everything taht we had just left! We wanted a change in lifestyle and we got that in QLD.

[Petals]

We have lived in Aus for 35 years now. Long round about story how I got to be in Aus originally. However my parents also lived here but nowhere near me. They went to Perth and I went to Sydney where I lived for a few years and then moved to Melbourne which I much prefer for many reasons. My parents on the other hand lived all over the place, they lived up in the Kimberly for a long time and mainly kept to the more tropical areas with small stints, in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra. When they retired they came to live in Melbourne as they had had enough of the heat.

 

I know people who have returned to the UK but they then turned around and came back here to live. Laid the ghost and once that has been done they settle fine.

 

We have been very lucky and we are very very happy. We spent nearly three months in the UK this year and were pleased to come home to Aus, it is our home.

 

Incidentally my home is always where I am living its never where I used to live

[Guest The Gold Gang]

Dear goldGang,

 

Id be looking at a list of pro`s and con`s. You obviously had huge plans to be here as you applied for a visa. Re-examine the reasons that you want to be here and then look at the reasons you dont.

 

Dont for one minute let a thread put you off! Blimey! They are peoples opinions on what life is like here. Some are facts and some arent but all are just opinions. You need to make your own opinions on the facts that you know.

 

I have been in Brisbane for 6 years now. I can tell you the following:

 

- Costs have gone up in the last 6 years.

- Weather is not always nice! You are living in the tropics! Its wet......a lot!

- You will not have australians knocking on your door to be your friend. You have to go out there and find them!

- Work for me has been better since coming to Australia. I am earning more and working less hours.

- My OH is earning more and working more hours( bout 6-8 more per week!)

- Quality of life here is better for me.

- we have more time together as a couple

- Financially we are better off.

 

Hope that helps. Shout if we can do anything to help.

 

Thank you Joanne, I am feeling a bit more positive now...yes, we had huge plans as you say...it took a couple of years to get the PR visa and we first visited Aus before we had it. My OH and I went all over and decided on Perth. Then the next year we went back and took all the kids (4 of them) with us and decided we preferred the Gold Coast! I've not been to places like Surfers Paradise, I've been to the suburbs like Carrara, Coomera, Robina etc. We liked the lifestyle we saw on offer there and we have friends who are in Carrara and love it. We also loved Brisbane, stayed there twice and I have a cousin who has been there 17 years now.

 

Mind you we also liked Melbourne and Sydney too, but we don't know anyone in either place...

 

We work in IT and from what I have seen of Brisbane wages, we will earn more or less the same as here - perhaps less as the tax is higher there, plus we will lose our child benefit and childcare vouchers. We can earn more in Melbourne or Sydney but Sydney is more expensive to live and I want a house with a pool and the weather to use it, does Melbourne have that lifestyle? I don't think so or not as much as Queensland but people here may tell me I am wrong!

 

Our lives at the moment are about bringing up our kids, working, school, after school stuff, running the house, going to the gym, the usual things families do, that won't change wherever we are and I don't expect to have more free time than I do now. It is more about providing a comparable standard of living to the one we have here, having an adventure for the family in a new environment, and if it works out well, providing for a future where my OH and I can be together in a better year round climate - so no I don't mean it is ALWAYS better there than in the UK as I know we will suffer in the summer humidity, but in winter it will not be bone chilling as it is here. I will admit that I am scared by the thought of severe weather conditions though, like storms, flooding etc. I guess it has also been severe here in the UK, its the coldest winter on record, but I know how to deal with the northern hemisphere weather at least!

 

I'm already 51 (OH is my toy boy at 38) and I think its OK to be thinking about where and when to retire even though I'd prefer to wait and see where we are in another 10 years but if we leave Aus more than another 17 months, the opportunity to live there will be lost to us as there is no way we would go through the process again even if we did still somehow qualify!

 

Its soon or never for us! If we don't come then I'm concerned it will always be a 'what if we had gone?' when we are older and have let the chance pass us by....and if we do come and don't like it, we can come back again and carry on as now.

 

Anything you want to say to me, please do!

[Guest The Gold Gang]

Hi Guys

Moving here sure is alot tougher now a days than it used to be but it can still give you a fab lifestyle once settled.We are just over 4 years in and wouldnt return to the UK or Spain in the forseeable future. The majority of the migrant familys we have met are happily settled in and around Brisbane and only a couple of familys we have met returned to the UK.

We half lived in Spain before moving here and there is no comparrison, Spain was good but the Gold Coast is fab. Yes you have the beaches and the tourist strip, which is what most migrants label as the Gold Coast,,but if you take time to actually drive around and visit the rest of the coast and the hinterland there is a suburb of the Gold Coast to suit every taste, from large acerage properties in green forest surrondings to built up urban apartments on a hilltop, not forgetting the Eco Village which is another great place to settle.

Read the 'going back' threads and use them as a guide to try and prevent you falling into the same traps some of the other members have,they may seem depressing but they can be useful to you.

 

Good Luck with everything

Cal x

 

Hi Cal,

 

Thanks a lot for this. You might see from my later reply to Joanne, that I liked the GC, not for the touristy stuff as I never even got out of the car in the main tourist areas, other than Dreamworld, but for things like the Carrara market, and Coomera Waters and Mudgeereba...I am thinking of renting a house at Varsity Lakes as I would like to get my kids into the school there. Had we come over in 2008 when we first intended to, I could have afforded to send my kids to Somerset College, but those days are behind us now and we have a lot less to spend.

 

Where did you live in Spain if you don't mind saying? I like Spain but my OH isn't keen on it, also it would be very costly to try and maintain two homes somehow, all we could manage would be to get a share of a spanish place to use for holidays and as a winter retreat. We think it would be better to get a reasonable house on the GC and not take too many holidays elsewhere.

 

What is the Eco village please? I have not heard of that....

[Guest guest36187]

Gold Gang, you sound like you know what you want in life, a bit like we did!!! If I were you, Id be giving it a go. If you are in a position to do it, go for it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Life is short enough without wondering.what if???

[calNgary]

Hi Cal,

 

Thanks a lot for this. You might see from my later reply to Joanne, that I liked the GC, not for the touristy stuff as I never even got out of the car in the main tourist areas, other than Dreamworld, but for things like the Carrara market, and Coomera Waters and Mudgeereba...I am thinking of renting a house at Varsity Lakes as I would like to get my kids into the school there. Had we come over in 2008 when we first intended to, I could have afforded to send my kids to Somerset College, but those days are behind us now and we have a lot less to spend.

 

Where did you live in Spain if you don't mind saying? I like Spain but my OH isn't keen on it, also it would be very costly to try and maintain two homes somehow, all we could manage would be to get a share of a spanish place to use for holidays and as a winter retreat. We think it would be better to get a reasonable house on the GC and not take too many holidays elsewhere.

 

What is the Eco village please? I have not heard of that....

 

Mudgerraba is lovely,a world apart from Surfers heh?lol hubby would happily move that way on tomorrow if i wasnt digging my heels in,lol. The Eco village is an estate near Mudgeeraba and to live there you have to abide by a certain criteria, all the houses when being built have to be eco friendly, with building materials, energy use etc. Well worth a visit when you get here.

Varsity Lakes school carries a very good reputation, catchment is apparantly quite strict so make sure your definately in the right area when rental searching.

 

We lived in a small valley just outside The port of Mazarron about 100kms south of Alicante airport. Again it was lovely semi rural area and we were going good with our spanish classes but when we knew we could possibly get a visa for here we lost heart a little with Spain,,once we had our visa for here we sold up in both Uk and Spain and settled here. Its easier to mix due to same language being spoken, although dialect can be totally different,lol.

 

As for holidays, yeah you dont need to go far when you live in Qld,lol, we try to get to new places everytime we go out for the day and when we have weekends away but i've never really got the 'need' for a longer term holiday like i yearned for when in the UK.There are so many places to go, things to see etc etc ,you could explore this great country for the rest of your life and still not get everywhere,lol.

 

Cal x

[Guest Andy]

Gold Gang, you sound like you know what you want in life, a bit like we did!!! If I were you, Id be giving it a go. If you are in a position to do it, go for it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Life is short enough without wondering.what if???

Exactly, people cannot be influenced by threads like these, obviously there are some extremely negative views on here due to the title of the thread but they are by a small minority of people who for whatever reason have not found Australia what they perhaps expected, they are more than within there rights to post those but they should be put into context by those reading it.:yes:

[Guest madplumber2]

It also helps if people know what they're talking about:biggrin: