Guest jtrd Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Hi, I am not sure why but we have spent a long, long time no knowing where we wanted to live in Australia and today someone mentioned Geraldton to us and for some reason I feel like that is where we 'need' to live but I know nothing about it (slightly weird, I know). I did think I could search the internet but then thought this forum is such a wealth of information, I'd try here first. All views greatly appreciated :cute: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windswept Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 It's a regional town, a good four hour drive from Perth. Great if you want to live on the coast and don't mind being in a small town. Other than that I can't really help but I'm sure someone will be along soon! Jen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orlaandjoe Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 hey there!myself and my family are moving to Geraldton in December, didn't know much about it to begin with but did lots of research into it and it definately seems like the place for us. Its coastal, great weather, lots of activities and seems very child-friendly. We have never been but have done as much research as physically possible from the internet, and spoke to a few friends who have been and said it was fab. Its approx a four hour drive to perth or a one hour flight, not too bad. It ticks all the boxes for us. when are you hoping to move over to oz? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jtrd Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Hi Orla and Joe, We are planning on going mid January. I spent last night trawling through any information I could find and it does seem that it's perfect for us too. I am a nurse and hoping to get work in the hospital, hubby is a retail manager but is happy to turn his hand to anything. We have 2 kids an 11 year old an almost 4 year old (guess I should start looking at the schools too). Am so excited to finally know where we want to go. Can I ask about you? Why did you choose there? What do you do? Do you have jobs lined up? Where are you moving from? Have you looked at schools etc.? Have you found accommodation for when you arrive?....so many questions, sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orlaandjoe Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Hi Orla and Joe, We are planning on going mid January. I spent last night trawling through any information I could find and it does seem that it's perfect for us too. I am a nurse and hoping to get work in the hospital, hubby is a retail manager but is happy to turn his hand to anything. We have 2 kids an 11 year old an almost 4 year old (guess I should start looking at the schools too). Am so excited to finally know where we want to go. Can I ask about you? Why did you choose there? What do you do? Do you have jobs lined up? Where are you moving from? Have you looked at schools etc.? Have you found accommodation for when you arrive?....so many questions, sorry Hey!I am a midwife and have had a job offer from the hospital in geraldton, and they are willing to sponsor me so I am abolutely over the moon about it!my OH is an electrician and my son is 6 years old..we have decided on bluff point primary school for him and have emailed and spoken with the principal there, it looks like a great school!about 10km from the centre of geraldton. we have shown him pictures of the school and told him about it and he seems very excited. We are moving from Ireland, have never been to australia before but we are so excited to get there. We just felt geraldton was for us from the minute we looked it up on the net!can't exactly put my finger on why but it seems like it will be a great fit for us, and we have only heard good things about it!no accomadation booked yet as we don't know when we will be arriving, but hopefully the first week of december. How about you, where are you moving from?are your little ones excited about the trip? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jtrd Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 We felt exactly the same. We went to the down under live event in London yesterday and spoke to a woman from the WA government, I mentioned that I was a nurse, she mentioned Geraldton and it was like a light bulb going on and we just 'knew' that was it. We live in Sussex in the UK but I am originally from Australia. I've lived over here for most of the last 14 years though. We have known for a while that we wanted to live in Australia (especially for the kids) but just couldn't decided where we wanted to go. My hubby is in the process of being recruited by a huge DIY chain over there but it seems very long and drawn out and while we weren't bothered before we now think that if I use my nursing degree we could (hopefully) choose where we live and we'd choose Geraldton. I just need to wait and see if the lady we spoke to comes back to me with further information. How did you go about getting a position there? Hmm the kids, the young lady doesn't know what's going on although we keep mentioning moving to a new house and our 11 yr old is a bit ambivalent - he's just started high school here and is loving in, in Aust next year he'll go back into Yr 6 because of his age but he has always known that this move was on the cards and he has been to Aust on holiday many times, so he'll be fine once we get there. We are still waiting on hubbys visa which should be through end of Nov, early Dec so we are planning on mid Jan. Are you getting help with relocation? I was wondering if the hospital would help with accommodation on arrival. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orlaandjoe Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 What part of australia are you from originally?I'd say youre delighted to be getting to go back home! Hopefully the woman from the expo gets back to you soon!I applied for job on seek.com.au and it went from there..not sure about the relocation help at the min still in the early stages of the process at the moment, so will find all that out soon hopefully. so excited to get there now we just can't wait!looking forward to booking flights, etc when we have a definate date! I'd say your son will be really happy when you get there, and its great that he's only just started high school so he won't be too settled in when you are moving to oz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jtrd Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 May have a look at Seek just to give me something else to look at! I'm from Adelaide in South Australia. It is one of my favourite places on earth, but I haven't lived there for so long now I don't want to go back as I know I'd be trying to fit back into a life that doesn't quite fit me anymore. I am desperate to go home to Aust., but am also happy for the 4 of us to try somewhere new. Have you sorted your registration? It's a bit of a nightmare by all accounts, even for me who did my degree there and has previously been registered in Australia - oh well, all part of the fun I guess. My hubby keeps wandering around the house saying 20 degrees in winter - great motivation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orlaandjoe Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 lol thats all we keep telling our friends and family to entice them to come and visit!its a big difference from freezing cold Ireland!got my AHPRA registration sorted, wasn't too bad, took about three months, I think I was lucky though that it went through so quickly. Are you working as a nurse in england at the moment? I'm working here but its temporary and could be let go at any second! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jtrd Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 I am working at the moment but it's a bit odd. I work for a software company who have a programme that is used for Electronic Patient Records throught England. I help with the design, work with groups of clinicians to see what they need and if it's viable and then make sure that the end product is clinically sound and I then train the clinicians to use the system and spend time with them doing their transformation from whatever they are using at the moment to the new system. What I don't do, is go anywhere near patients which is something I need to look at. I am thinking to contacting my local hospitals and seeing if I can pick up any bank shifts just to get back into the clinical side of nursing a bit. Not too sure when I'll fit this in, but think I may need to try. Do you know which removals company you are going to use (if you're using one). I think I'm going to get a quote from Pickfords as I've read somewhere that they ship directly to Geraldton, rather than having to ship to Perth or Freo and pay another grand to have it transported up - but will see when I ring them in the week...so much to do, but at least its for a good cause. Quite gutsy moving to a country you've never been to. I did the same (ish) when I originally came to the UK, didn't know a sole here but I had a job and I was off, but I had a return ticket because there was no way I was staying more than 12 months......ahhh best laid plans and all that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyman Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 ive only spent one day and one night in Geraldton but drove through it a few times ..........great to be on the coast , good jetty for fishing .........the town was like a ghost town but could have been early closing ,im not too sure , but i do think it was well before 5 pm ........i know one of the local policemen there , so if you need to know anything about the bad side im sure i can help ..........a good place for fishing and god place to reach Kalbarri , coral bay ,ect just takes the edge off the driving ........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jtrd Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 ive only spent one day and one night in Geraldton but drove through it a few times ..........great to be on the coast , good jetty for fishing .........the town was like a ghost town but could have been early closing ,im not too sure , but i do think it was well before 5 pm ........i know one of the local policemen there , so if you need to know anything about the bad side im sure i can help ..........a good place for fishing and god place to reach Kalbarri , coral bay ,ect just takes the edge off the driving ........ I think what I'd most like to know is, is this a good place to raise my kids? (Although happy to hear about the fishing!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orlaandjoe Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 I am working at the moment but it's a bit odd. I work for a software company who have a programme that is used for Electronic Patient Records throught England. I help with the design, work with groups of clinicians to see what they need and if it's viable and then make sure that the end product is clinically sound and I then train the clinicians to use the system and spend time with them doing their transformation from whatever they are using at the moment to the new system. What I don't do, is go anywhere near patients which is something I need to look at. I am thinking to contacting my local hospitals and seeing if I can pick up any bank shifts just to get back into the clinical side of nursing a bit. Not too sure when I'll fit this in, but think I may need to try.Do you know which removals company you are going to use (if you're using one). I think I'm going to get a quote from Pickfords as I've read somewhere that they ship directly to Geraldton, rather than having to ship to Perth or Freo and pay another grand to have it transported up - but will see when I ring them in the week...so much to do, but at least its for a good cause. Quite gutsy moving to a country you've never been to. I did the same (ish) when I originally came to the UK, didn't know a sole here but I had a job and I was off, but I had a return ticket because there was no way I was staying more than 12 months......ahhh best laid plans and all that! It's either gutsy or mad i don't know which yet :laugh: It'll be an adventure either way, and we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by going. Your job sounds interesting do you enjoy it? would you want to get back into the hospitals when you come over to oz or look for something similar to what you're doing now? not too sure about the shipping company to use yet, we don't have a lot of choice of these companies in Ireland, but gonna get a quote from a few over the next few days. wedon't have too much to ship anyway so not too bad. That's good to know, i wasn't aware that some companies didn't ship to Geraldton, something to watch out for!have you been on the geraldton tourism website lots of info on it: www.geraldtontourist.com.au Orla x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fitzpaddy Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 About 45 UK train drivers and their families will be descending on Geraldton over the next few months, so there should be plenty of Brits over there. Geraldton looks a fantastic place, it`s a city on the up, plenty of job opportunities due to the mines and the port development. Hopefully we can meet all meet up over there sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jtrd Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Orla - I love my job here but am realistic in the fact that I would be wishing on a star to find the same or similar in Aust., at the moment I'd just be over the moon to land a nursing job so that we could say we had something to go to. We did say that one of us needed to have a job lined up before we would go and the other can organise the house, kids, schools and then find a job - I was sort of counting on the one with the job not being me though :daydreaming:! Fitzpaddy - count us in :biggrin:, handy to know we're not the only new 'kids' on the block - and really good for our kids too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orlaandjoe Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 exactly, in our case Im the one with the job and my OH is gonna organise house,school,etc then get himself sorted with getting his electrical licence. Its good though cuz im not a great planner but he is very organised! Fitzpaddy count us in too.. there will be so many of us heading over quite soon thats great to hear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emfitz Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Hi all, I'm currently living in Geraldton and have been since May this year, in my opinion its a great place to live... At first i was a little unsure as I was in Sydney on a WHV and my OH got a job and sponsorship over here. Big change from Sydney but it's so laid back and the weather is fab!! From what i can tell its a good place for families, lots of schools, parks, plenty of beachs!! The weather is great, It got a little chilly over the winter but nothing compared the the norm in Ireland, its starting to warm up now and im almost dreading to think what it will be like in summer. Plenty of shopping and that too but i prefer to wait and head to Perth every now and again to gt the essentials. Its only a 4.5 hour drive which is really nothing here on West coast. Kalbarri is 2hrs north and great spot for a weekend away. Geraldton seems to be the place everyone is moving to at the mo, we've met alot of people here after moving over from uk & Ireland!! At the moment we've no intentions on leaving, plenty of work, living across the road from the beach and loads of sun sun sun!! For Jobs Midwest jobseeker and seek are good ones to look at and also the geraldton city council website. If anyone needs any advice on the area just ask and I'll try help, its so hard making the move to a place you've never been!! :biggrin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jtrd Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Hi Emfitz, thanks for the above. Any information is great at this point. Can I ask what you and your OH do for work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emfitz Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 I'm an accountant and he's an engineer. I spent a year and half in Ireland looking for accounting roles, got a couple of offers here within 2 weeks. Happy days.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orlaandjoe Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Hi all, I'm currently living in Geraldton and have been since May this year, in my opinion its a great place to live... At first i was a little unsure as I was in Sydney on a WHV and my OH got a job and sponsorship over here. Big change from Sydney but it's so laid back and the weather is fab!! From what i can tell its a good place for families, lots of schools, parks, plenty of beachs!! The weather is great, It got a little chilly over the winter but nothing compared the the norm in Ireland, its starting to warm up now and im almost dreading to think what it will be like in summer. Plenty of shopping and that too but i prefer to wait and head to Perth every now and again to gt the essentials. Its only a 4.5 hour drive which is really nothing here on West coast. Kalbarri is 2hrs north and great spot for a weekend away. Geraldton seems to be the place everyone is moving to at the mo, we've met alot of people here after moving over from uk & Ireland!! At the moment we've no intentions on leaving, plenty of work, living across the road from the beach and loads of sun sun sun!! For Jobs Midwest jobseeker and seek are good ones to look at and also the geraldton city council website. If anyone needs any advice on the area just ask and I'll try help, its so hard making the move to a place you've never been!! :biggrin: Hey emfitz It's really great to hear from someone already living in geraldton and loving it!what part of ireland are you from originally?are you planning to stay for long in geraldton? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emfitz Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Hey emfitzIt's really great to hear from someone already living in geraldton and loving it!what part of ireland are you from originally?are you planning to stay for long in geraldton? Hey Guys, I'm from Tipp originally. Left home last Aug to head to Sydney on a WHV for just one year and should of went home last month again. Now we're planning on staying here for next year or 2. Going home for a visit in 3wks so will assess the situation then. But it doesnt sound good.. We both have work for forseeable future here so I really dont see the point in heading home just yet. Where abouts are ye from, when do ye plan to make the move. Geraldton really is and up and coming town!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jtrd Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 I have sent out copies of my CV this morning (x3) and 4 emails for jobs...fingers crossed! Got the money, visa (well OH and almost), place to stay when we arrive, just need a job to go to and I will be the happiest camper ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orlaandjoe Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 I have sent out copies of my CV this morning (x3) and 4 emails for jobs...fingers crossed!Got the money, visa (well OH and almost), place to stay when we arrive, just need a job to go to and I will be the happiest camper ever! yay!fingers crossed it will all come together for you!:jiggy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orlaandjoe Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Hey Guys,I'm from Tipp originally. Left home last Aug to head to Sydney on a WHV for just one year and should of went home last month again. Now we're planning on staying here for next year or 2. Going home for a visit in 3wks so will assess the situation then. But it doesnt sound good.. We both have work for forseeable future here so I really dont see the point in heading home just yet. Where abouts are ye from, when do ye plan to make the move. Geraldton really is and up and coming town!! We are from Louth, but work situation isn't great for either of us here. We are hoping to be over there the first or second week of December, so much to do before then though! Geraldton just looks fab so excited to get there!:v_SPIN: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emfitz Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Sounds great!!! You'll be coming straight into the warm weather.. Best of luck with everything, any question s on Gero just ask!!! :biggrin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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