Guest stanoggs Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 Hi there, We are a British family of four - two adults and two children (aged 7 & 4) who have just arrived in Australia. We are currently staying in a holiday home on the East side of the lake whilst waiting for our belongings and dog to arrive from Blighty. We are looking for friendship with any like minded familes in the Lake Macquarie area who have been through or are going through the same trials and tribulations you face on arriving in this magical land. Thank you for taking the time to read this post. Regards The Mackie Family (Newly escaped from Ellesmere Port, UK) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sue du Rose Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Hi is that near Newcastle ? we are from Formby and are flying out to Oz 2nd april 2012 poss to the Newcastle area around the Lake . how are you settling i hope it is everything you where hopeing for we have 2 children Sophie 12 and Mark 9 OH is a carpenter have you found it easy to settle must say i'm stressed to the limit at the moment.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stanoggs Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Hi Sue du Rose, Great to hear from you yes we are near Newcastle about 20 miles south, we have settled in a village called Nords Wharf on the East side of the Lake , it just perfect for us right on the lake and 2 minutes drive to the coast our nearest beach being Catherine Hill Bay. We have been here for nearly 12 months now and have settled in really quickly, the people here are really friendly and we have a lovely circle of friends. The kids really like their school which is Nords Wharf Public School, it is tiny with only having 80 kids but i think this has contributed in them settling in quickly. I can remember those stressed days very much so we had only 8 weeks notice that we were moving and xmas was in the middle of this - all i can say it is worth it and if i can be of any help then please just ask. Does your hubby have a job here? Have you got any where to live when you arrive, i would recommend holiday accomodation when you arrive just to give you a base as choosing somewhere to live is a bit daunting. We went in to a Holiday resort called Raffertys Resort at Cams Wharf for 8 weeks whilst we waited for our container to arrive. Dont look at the prices on the website as if you contact them direct you can get a good rate of about $400 a week all in electricity, aircon and all that. Then i would say explore all the areas before making your mind up. The one thing we diint do which i would recommend is create a leasing portfolio, as competition is quite tough for good rentals and you need to show yourself to be better tenant than other candidates without having any history in the country. Include things like a mortgage statement to show you are good payer, get an Experian credit check done yourselves, get a charater reference from your employers and if you still own a house a letter to prove you our landlords. We did not do any of this before arriving and it was very stressfull getting them all together from here. The other piece of advice i would give is if you are shipping your stuff over here, bring everything as we got rid of bits and bobs that we should not have done and you then regret it when you have to replace them here and be warned the silliest of things are really expensive i.e. bed linen, crockery and glasses... No matter how much you think you are going to fill your container we still had lots of room. We also shipped a VW camper van and flew are dog over if you need any advice. Well i have probably bombarded you with too much info so i sign off by saying, if you need any help and would like to meet up on your arrival then just get in touch. Kind regards Liz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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