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Five weeks in Perth


scarlett

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In the two years it took us to get our visa I found this section of the forum the most useful so now it's my turn to try and give something back!

 

Husband and I were both born and bred in Birmingham, UK. We lived (owned) in a three bedroom, mid terraced house in a deprived area of Birmingham, gangs of young adults in track suits swearing, drinking on the street were a norm and to be honest no longer intimidating, just a way of life. When our daughter came along we decided we wanted to try and offer her something different to this. We considered moving to other areas of the UK but thought, we're young and able to, so let's give Australia a go. We can always come back!

 

We left the UK on boxing day, so the emotional goodbyes happened on probably the most difficult day of the year-Christmas day. My parents are deceased and I don't have any siblings so no significant family members to say goodbye to, however my husband has a very close knit family and taking a son from his mother and a grandchild from her grandmother is possibly one of the hardest things I've experienced. Lots of tears and second thoughts!

 

We flew with Singapore airlines who were great. I brought a cabin sized suitcase full of toys and activities for our three year old, but she didn't touch any of them! The in flight entertainment was enough to keep her occupied. My only slight complaint was, on the 12 hour flight we were only served 2 meals, on a normal day, during the hours of our flight I would have eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner. But otherwise they were fantastic!

 

We had a 3 day stay in Singapore, perhaps a day more than we needed but we enjoyed ourselves. Be warned though, we found it very expensive there.

 

We arrived in Perth on 30.12.11. We have been very fortunate, our close friends moved out two months before us and I have a good amount of family here so a good support network was waiting for us. We also secured the first rental we applied for and my husband found a job within five days of arriving. For us Perth has proved challenging, we love the outdoor lifestyle, park, beach and aquatic centre and all the attractions but its the little things that get you. We know this will get better with time, we've spent thirty years in the UK so don't expect it to be plain sailing.

 

Little things such as travelling to a large shopping centre on a Sunday, only to find its all closed! Sunday opening not established in all suburbs here. We have also locked ourselves out of the house, had to get family to fetch us, take us to the real estate for spares (30 years in the uk, never did this once!) In the two weeks we been in our rental the air con has broken down, we've lost electric twice due to fires in the area and spent a weekend without gas and hot water. Oh and our second hand car has been back to the garage for repairs! The motto of the story is-moving to the other side of the world is challenging and at the time you can't help but think 'what have we done' but working through the challenges gets you one step closer to the dream. We now live in a detached, four bed house with two bathrooms and a double garage in a nice cul de sac. We pay £100 more per month for this than we have rented our house out for in the UK, and yet the differences in the two houses and areas are MASSIVE! We are also able to make ends meet on one income here, although I intend to find part time work this would never have been an option for us in the UK- we were caught up in the rat race and both worked full time and our daughter in full time childcare.

 

However, I have also learnt the UK is not all that bad and we had actually achieved quite a lot there in terms of careers and family life. Who knows what the future holds for us, but for now we are glad we are giving this a go and striving to reach our dream, although I think we are still working out what exactly the dream is! I take my hat off to all those contemplating making the move and those who have done, it's one he'll of an achievement :biggrin:

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Thanks, we are in rockingham. Didn't like to include this in my post as its a suburb that gets very mixed reviews! It's a suburb with amenities we have become accustomed to the UK (take always, cinemas, Sunday opening, etc). We have no reason to complain so far :cute:

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Hi, he is a bricklayer but he got it through his best mate who came over just before us. Having said that though, the newspapers are full of jobs and could spend hours trawling through the jobs online, there is just so many of them. Wages are better here too, for example I'm about to apply for a part time job in a children's daycare centre, it's advertised at 25 dollars an hour, in the UK you would just get minimum wage for this role. I believe that over here, where there's a will, there's a way. Also, I think that here you may even work harder but you can definitely play harder. My husbands day starts at 5am now instead of 7am and he probably only gets home an hour earlier than he would have in the UK, but the wages are better and so much more to do with our weekend.

Hope this helps x

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Guest The Ropey HOFF

We loved Rockingham, it is a city, because over 80,000 live in the surrounding area, its like no city i know, it is so small if you blink you will miss it and that appeals to me even more. Really great post and thanks for sharing your great experience with us.

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In the two years it took us to get our visa I found this section of the forum the most useful so now it's my turn to try and give something back!

 

Husband and I were both born and bred in Birmingham, UK. We lived (owned) in a three bedroom, mid terraced house in a deprived area of Birmingham, gangs of young adults in track suits swearing, drinking on the street were a norm and to be honest no longer intimidating, just a way of life. When our daughter came along we decided we wanted to try and offer her something different to this. We considered moving to other areas of the UK but thought, we're young and able to, so let's give Australia a go. We can always come back!

 

We left the UK on boxing day, so the emotional goodbyes happened on probably the most difficult day of the year-Christmas day. My parents are deceased and I don't have any siblings so no significant family members to say goodbye to, however my husband has a very close knit family and taking a son from his mother and a grandchild from her grandmother is possibly one of the hardest things I've experienced. Lots of tears and second thoughts!

 

We flew with Singapore airlines who were great. I brought a cabin sized suitcase full of toys and activities for our three year old, but she didn't touch any of them! The in flight entertainment was enough to keep her occupied. My only slight complaint was, on the 12 hour flight we were only served 2 meals, on a normal day, during the hours of our flight I would have eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner. But otherwise they were fantastic!

 

We had a 3 day stay in Singapore, perhaps a day more than we needed but we enjoyed ourselves. Be warned though, we found it very expensive there.

 

We arrived in Perth on 30.12.11. We have been very fortunate, our close friends moved out two months before us and I have a good amount of family here so a good support network was waiting for us. We also secured the first rental we applied for and my husband found a job within five days of arriving. For us Perth has proved challenging, we love the outdoor lifestyle, park, beach and aquatic centre and all the attractions but its the little things that get you. We know this will get better with time, we've spent thirty years in the UK so don't expect it to be plain sailing.

 

Little things such as travelling to a large shopping centre on a Sunday, only to find its all closed! Sunday opening not established in all suburbs here. We have also locked ourselves out of the house, had to get family to fetch us, take us to the real estate for spares (30 years in the uk, never did this once!) In the two weeks we been in our rental the air con has broken down, we've lost electric twice due to fires in the area and spent a weekend without gas and hot water. Oh and our second hand car has been back to the garage for repairs! The motto of the story is-moving to the other side of the world is challenging and at the time you can't help but think 'what have we done' but working through the challenges gets you one step closer to the dream. We now live in a detached, four bed house with two bathrooms and a double garage in a nice cul de sac. We pay £100 more per month for this than we have rented our house out for in the UK, and yet the differences in the two houses and areas are MASSIVE! We are also able to make ends meet on one income here, although I intend to find part time work this would never have been an option for us in the UK- we were caught up in the rat race and both worked full time and our daughter in full time childcare.

 

However, I have also learnt the UK is not all that bad and we had actually achieved quite a lot there in terms of careers and family life. Who knows what the future holds for us, but for now we are glad we are giving this a go and striving to reach our dream, although I think we are still working out what exactly the dream is! I take my hat off to all those contemplating making the move and those who have done, it's one he'll of an achievement :biggrin:

 

Can I ask how you pay just £100 more a month in Perth than in Birmingham. I pay $500 a week in Perth for a 4x2 decent house and rent my house out (4 Bed detached in UK) for £700 a month. Perth rentals are crazy prices and I only earn $10K more here in Perth than I did in the U.K. I may have to head back to Blighty. The costs are killing us here in Perth.

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Guest patsyf

Hi Scarlett

We are from Birmingham too and we will be arriving in Perth beginning of June. We will be living in Baldivis with my husband's brother until we find something of our own.

We were in exactly same boat - both of us working full time, nursery/childcare for kids - its not how I wanted it for my kids when I am too tired to help them practise reading or writing on the evening because we are all too tired! I have just taken voluntary redundancy so enjoying some time with the kids for a change. I am hoping just to work parttime for extra money but also to meet people.

Glad to hear that your husband found a job so quick - my husband is a welder and is constantly checking for jobs and we have contacted some companies so it shouldnt be too long before he finds something.

anyway best of luck

patsy

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Hia, thanks for the post Scarlett, it's really nice to hear how people are getting on once they arrive in Oz.

 

We're arriving in Rockingham on 8th May and my OH is too a bricklayer so it was nice to read that your OH has managed to find work.

 

Tracey x

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