i want to move to sydney australia

[bellow]

Hello to all Australian mumsnetters! Getting fed up with life in London and the English weather - we are thinking of moving to Sydney as dp has Australian passport and we loved it there when we were single. Would we love it with a 2 year old? We would need to find a home, work and make friends - do you think it would be terribly hard?
And I want another baby within 2 years! HELP!

[noddyholder]

I went to sydney for 6 months years ago and found jobs,flat and friends very easy moreso than here.Put me in your suitcase!

[Davros]

My nephew moved there a few years ago with his wife before kids. Now have a 3yr DD and 1yr DS. They love it but I am cross with nephew as I miss him! They have their own business and, despite always talking about the lifestyle, they spend a huge amount of their time working. SIL just came back and had a good time but was desperate to get home...... If you can make it "home" then I'm sure you'd be happy. Maybe now is the time to try, before kids?

[gingerbear]

Perth would be my choice
or Brisbane
or Melbourne

[bellow]

Thanks for this - sydney is our choice because of the weather and because it is a vibrant exciting young city, the others seem small and provincial and the weather not so great. We already have a toddler, we are merely planning for no 2. Would I be bored in Sydney after 1 month? Would we need to be very rich to have a nice standard of living? Help, help.

[eidsvold]

Brisbane has better weather than Sydney - although can be a lot hotter in Summer. I am in Brisbane. Dh ( english) and I moved back here last year with our dd. Brisbane and Perth are much cheaper living in terms of real estate, and shopping etc. Whilst I have not been to Perth - from my understanding lots of people from the UK move to Perth ( don't they suzy )

Sydney is very vibrant and happening but ohh so expensive.

When we emigrated, dh did not have a job although I still had the house I had bought before I moved to the UK so we at least had somewhere to live. In less than a month he had found a job and in fact is on his second job already ( more his sort of thing) We are lucky as real estate boomed after I left and so having the house means we have a small mortgage and repayments. Dh earns a good wage and I am able to stay at home with our 2 children. We have a decent standard of living - comparable to what we had in the UK with two wages.

You will get homesick - you cannot come to the other side of the world and expect thing to be the same. Common mistake made by some who figure as we were founded by the British and have a somewhat anglo saxon culture that things would be the same - nope. If you look on it as an adventure where you will need time to assimilate and settle then you would be fine. It will be hard at first.... no question about it - you are taking on a major life change - no just across the channel but around the world. BUT personally - I think the benefits far outweigh the struggles.

Other mumsnetters who moved here might be able to help more with the love it etc... for me it was just coming home.

As to making friends etc - you have a toddler - they help you make friends by being out and about doing activities with them. Aussies tend to be very friendly ( maybe I am biased!) although they love to 'bash' the pommies - do if you can take that you should be fine.

hth

[eidsvold]

melbourne - small and provincial ?!?!?

Brisbane - small and provincial... (most insulted you feel that way about my home town )

Have you ever been to Australia???

Might be worth taking an extended trip first to see a bit of the country etc.

Does your dp have australian citizenship?? Or dual nationality? It is quite a process to get visas to move. Can be expensive and time consuming. It might be worth getting australian citizenship for your 2 yo as they would be entitled to citizenship by descent. Just need to fill out a form and send in some documents. You can download this from the net. That way you would be the only one who would need a visa. Our dd has dual nationality and we applied for her aussie citizenship not long after she was born. That way only dh needed the visa.

[Sorrel]

hi bellow, we have considered moving back to sydney many times (we are both from uk but lived there and were married there).neither of us can mention the word Australia without getting wistful and nostalgic. However we now have a 9 year old and really have decided not to return for the following reasons:
dd has two sets of living grandparents, countless cousins, not to mention friends. it just would not be fair to any of these people or dd to remove her from such a strong family unit.
dh would easily get a job in his field, but I would have to take a backseat as my work is closely related to the UK.
the life we had in Sydney was when we were both single and childless.We both a great jobs lots of cash and a fab harbourside apartment. life with a mediumsized child and one income 12,000 miles from every person we know would be difficult.
Havingsiad all that i know how you feel and honestlycould'nt rule out never going back. i think the time has to be right and only you will know when that is.

[suzywong]

oh god yes eidsvold, it's absolutely crawling with Scots these days
(we got Foxtel today [grin})

[nailpolish]

well that can only be a great thing suzy

[suzywong]

jsut read down... small and provincial, Melbourne???
sounds like you need to have a long think about Australia at all! [shock}

[suzywong]

tee hee NP
it's bloody lovely at the moment, still in the low thirties an very fragrant

[nailpolish]

i havent thrown away my residency stuff, suzy its just on hold

still addicted to looking at property websites!

[suzywong]

you can get a LOT for your money over here in the West can't you?

[nailpolish]

bellow - sydney schmidney

perth is the place to be

[nailpolish]

suzy it is UNBELIEVABLE

and they are just dying for nurses (bad turn of phrase?) it wont change in 10 yrs im sure

[suzywong]

it really is
oh they love nurses, bloody love them.

www.daleallcock.com.au is a good one

[suzywong]

that's wrong try here NP

[nailpolish]

oh jjesus, the rivervbank swoon

[eidsvold]

ahhh foxtel suzy.... dh said the minute he got a job he was getting foxtel so he could watch his beloved football team - Chelsea.... ( good incentive for him to get a job - which he did within a few weeks of being here ) and of course nick jnr is brilliant for dd1 - she loves Hi-5 and we can get it on nick jnr at least 4 times a day - when I need half an hour to do something.

[AussieSim]

I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier. I really must defend Sydney . I am a country NSW girl who moved to Sydney in 94. In 2002 I moved with my german DH to Germany for nearly 2 years and have been back in Sydney now for 10mths. I had my DS in germany and he is now 2 and no. 2 is on the way - due July. It is great here. It just came 5th out of 215 in the most recent Mercer, best cities to live in Survey. See Australian rankings here Aussie results .

I have made a pack of new friends, my DS is thriving, and my DH and I take advantage of all the facilities that Sydney has to offer, theatre, concerts, fab food etc etc and all much cheaper than back in Germany. We live on the Northern Beaches - near Manly, which has a lovely ambience. It is like being on holidays every day. Our local park is across the road from the beach. I have to drive past the beach to go to the supermarket etc etc. My DH catches the Jetcat across the harbour to go to work and therefore we only need 1 car. I caught on to a mothers' group and they have been fab. There is a big expat contingent over this way and I am sure you guys would blend right in. No one would say it was cheap to live here, but people from all socio-economic levels seem to manage quite nicely. Public transport is good, beaches and weather are free! It is amazing what a positive impact good weather can have on ones psyche. I was flat as a tack when I lived in germany with its grey skys, cold and snow.

The property market has bottomed at the moment here so it is a great time to buy and the rental prices have come down substantially from what they were when we left in 2002 - alas it is not such good news for our investment properties .

It is drier, hotter and more humid in Brisbane but I don't think that that necessarily makes the weather better there. I love Melbourne - the shopping, restaurants, atmosphere etc - but the weather is very changeable and can be quite cold. I was open to moving there but my DH preferred to be near Sydney beaches. Perth is great but hot, isolated and small.

You can Cat me if you want more info. HTH

[suzywong]

small is beautiful

[bellow]

hello, what a lively lot, exactly what i like. i liked Sydney a LOT because it reminded me of Italy, I am Italian but I have lived in London since I was 15 and I am in my 30s now. Anyway: my main worry is that we would have difficulties in finding work and that we would feel isolated. We only have a small flat in London which we could rent out for 600 quid per month I think, would we find a decent flat for this amount at least until we have jobs? I would probably stay at home looking after ds (ie stay on the beach) and dp who is for the time being the main breadwinner would need to find proper work, and as he freelances in the film industry it might take him a while, and by then we may have spent a lot of our savings which if we carried on living in London would be used to buy a bigger place. I am basically after nice weather and good quality of life for my family. And want to meet some nice people.

[suzywong]

Film industry is Melbourne isn't it? Could be wrong though.

Don't forget the weather can be prohibitive, ie, too hot to be on the beach all day; we've had to be in all day because it's 40 degrees today and have only just been out to play from 4 to 5.30.

Finding friends depends on how much you are willing to put in to it, you could make friends in any city if you put the effort in.

It is lonely at first even if you do know people, it all takes time and having a child is a good way to meet people so you are ahed in that respect

I don't know how much 600 quid would get you on a rental in Sydney, there must be a web site you can check it out on.

If your dp has an Australian passport, you can expect your application to be processed in under a month, providing everything else is in order, but remember that the Eastern States are oversubscribed in terms of migrants so it may take longer or you may be asked to settle elsewhere initially. And once you do get your PR visa you will have to make the move within 12 months.

It is a bloody long way and IME the best thing to do is mentally prepare for the break and don't mark time in terms of when you will be returning to Europe for a holiday, have the mindset that you are in Australia for the forseeable and any trip back is a treat.

Because your dp is a citizen, you will be eligilble to apply for benefits and child benefits initially, if you start to earn enough to take you over the threshold your benefits don't stop you just have to pay back the difference at the end of the financial year (june 30th)

IMO, freelancing in the film industry may have to go on hold while you establish yourselves, just speaking form experience, what I mean is don't get hung up on doing the dream job, that will come in time and emigrating is stressful enough anyway, unless you have super contacts already and can walk in to that kind of job

And as for you question will you get bored of Sydney after a month?..... I'd feel very sorry for you if you did!

welll that's all from me, hth

[bellow]

thanks suzywong - more ideas,thoughts are welcome.

[cori]

Well, I am from Sydney. I live in London. I have no intention of ever returning permanently.
I dont think I would be able to afford to live anywhere really nice, like the eastern suburbs( where DH grew up) House prices are comparable to London (when you take earnings into account)
The thought of having to live in the surban sprawl fills me with depression.
For me personally, I have traded in good weather and proximity to beaches for the ability to travel to Europe (and many other places) without breaking the bank.
I think to say it 'life there is like being on holiday all the time is to give a false impression'. Australia has as many social problems as the UK albeit on a smaller scale.

However good luck on what ever you decide.
Many many people have emigrated to Australia and did not have the problems we did when we went back.