To think we would be silly to turn this move to Australia down?

[wanderingwillow]

Long time lurker, first time poster; i hope it's alright to post here and get some opinions.

DH is a licensed aircraft engineer, I am unlicensed. DH has been contracting for a while, and has been approached a couple of times for work abroad. Most of the time, he's said he wasn't interested and wanted to stay in the UK. The other week, he got a call and was just generally pissed off with life, so he listed to what the job was offering.

It turned out to be rather interesting. The position is in Melbourne for AUD$125,000 a year. They are also recruiting unlicensed positions in the same city for AUD$55,000, which I've had the odd email about, but again never really taken seriously.

I think we could make a go of this. We have a 4yo DS, and I lived in Melbourne (Coburg) for 2.5 years between 1998 and 2001 when I was younger. I loved it, and always wanted to go back.

I think we'd regret not at least trying; we're 25 and 27, no debt, reasonable savings (saving for a deposit) but no mortgage. We've nothing to lose, surely?

Am I being reckless? I've read all the forums I can on the subject, which bemoan the expense of general living, but I can't get a good marker on whether our wage would cause us problems. Every opinion forum I've seen has championed the state education (I remember it being good from personal experience), the lifestyle and the weather.

AIBU and living in a dream land? I think DH thinks I am, but I really think we could do this.

mimi yes, renting an apartment looked to be about AUD$800 a week for a 2 bed place! Double what we pay now. Also, I've seen having to pay 400 per year but not 4k for a place in a state school; that's pretty crazy, but fair enough I guess.

Oh gosh, Toulouse and Hamburg are amazing cities.

Is there online food shopping in Melbourne? Could you plug in your weekly shop and see what it comes to? I did this when we were thinking about moving here, it was useful.

dreaming thanks I'm doing that with Coles as we speak

Fairly sure it's a lot more than $400 a year for non-citizens or people without PR... they might be the government school fees which apply to everyone, Australians included. Each school can set their own. My son is in first grade this year and his school fees were only $125 but DD's, who started high school this year, were $925 ( not including uniform).

oh cool, tell us what you find out

Yes there's no NHS, but there is Medicare- you pay a levy through the tax system (sliding scale adjusted based on your income, and whether you have private health insurance), then when you go to the GP, you pay part and Medicare pays the rest. Same with prescriptions the cost of them is reduced with Medicare but no where near what the NHS does. Hospitals: both public and private. Public you pay nothing but expect to wait on a wait list for surgery etc. private slightly covered by Medicare then depending on your level on health insurance determines how much out of pocket you will be.

I think food in Melbourne is quite cheap, especially eating out (compared to W.A).

Electricity and gas is expensive but I am basing my experience on W.A).

Real Estate: remember it is more spread out living than the UK so you may be looking at really central areas, rather than out in the suburbs where it does not cost as much - have you looked further out? I wouldn't know what median rent ranges are though sorry. Have you looked on the property management websites?

Public school (government) system is free, most schools now wear uniforms too- but a little more casual than the UK, think shorts/ dresses/ sand shoes. No grey pinafores or trousers etc. private school system ranges from really quite affordable (that is mainly the catholic system ones) to obviously very expensive, expect most to have waitlists like you would in the UK.

Melbourne is wonderfully multicultural, beaches are lovely, there is a lot to see and do, and the country towns are not too far away either. Do expect changeable weather though- its normal to start out raining in the morning and then very sunny by the afternoon.

Does that help?- I'm from a different state (and have currently been in the UK) so can't give you anything more specific, I have been to Melbourne several times though. I do think an income of 175k is quite reasonable and you should have a good quality of life with it. Does the company help you with relocation expenses- that can be expensive.

mimi when I was there (I went to a state primary) my parents paid $110 for the year. Obviously this was 12 years ago though!

But for the facilities we had; ie sports and art provision, it was well deserved.

Go for it you are crazy not to!

I thought you'd be entitled to Medicare due to the reciprocal health care agreement between Aus and UK?? Could be wrong though.

I've totalled $195 for the food shop but this doesn't include alcohol or cleaning products, which I do monthly at the moment anyway in a separate shop to get better deals.

Looking at the prices that'd probably be another $200 a month on top of that, so in a 4 week month that's $1000 on groceries, which is about what I thought.

idocrazythings I really appreciate that, how kind of you to get back to me.

Everyone is being so nice

But good God; $48.50 for a case of 24 Budweiser?! $20 for Australian wine?! Seriously?!

This is a schedule of fees for students without PR or citizenship in Victoria.

www.study.vic.gov.au/shadomx/apps/fms/fmsdownload.cfm?file_uuid=23335506-E6D3-4F8E-8A7E-532321D1F04C&siteName=deecd

So it really depends on what kind of visa the company is offering. If it's a 457 visa, then you would probably have to pay these fees. But if the company is offering to sponsor PR, then you probably wouldn't. What sort of visa did your parents have? Was one of them Australian?

[[http://www.study.vic.gov.au/shadomx/apps/fms/fmsdownload.cfm?file_uuid=23335506-E6D3-4F8E-8A7E-532321D1F04C&siteName=deecd
]]

mimi bloody hell, I might fire off an email to them in the morning; so we could have to pay $1000 a month for a state education?

Really depends on the visa that the parents have but we've known overseas parents who have gone private because they would only be paying a bit more than for a government school.

Is that not because it is an international school though?

No, these are fees for regular government schools. It's actually a bit less in NSW which I am a bit shocked by

In NSW, there is a different fee structure under the "Temporary Residents Program" where the fees are basically half that. I am sure Victoria has a similar Program.

www.detinternational.nsw.edu.au/media-assets/trp/fees.pdf

But that's crazy; the internations website says;

"Public schools are schools that are free for all students. Families have to pay prices for new textbooks and uniforms. The language in the classroom is English..."

Then it goes on about international schools and their fees being really high, but suited to expat kids if they're moving around a lot.

That's so strange. I've fired off an email to the guy at the bottom of your link, because there is such a gap in what different websites are saying. Surely if it costs £10k to educate an immigrant, then more websites should be warning you?

ITts confusing based on the official sites but based on a cursory forum search, perhaps there's no need to worry...

britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=696886

Yes that's the impression that I had originally, however I've just emailed the people on the bottom of the link. It looks like that is for International Schools, but if I have to pay 10k for a basic education then I'd rather know that know so DH can see if he can get it factored in if he does apply for the job(s) going.

Grab it and go. No need to worry about private education, there are plenty of international kids in Australian schools.

Just make sure they are paying for relocation.

Unless Victoria is vastly different to NSW there is no way you will be spending anything like a $1000 a month on education.

I probably spend about that a year including uniforms, books, fundraising, band etc.

So Australia is more expensive for some things then the UK - you will adapt, a joint income of $180k in Melbourne will provide quite a nice lifestyle.

Do check Medicare but I think coming directly from the UK you should (depending on your visa) be under the reciprocal arrangement.

I think what you are suggesting sounds feasible. Post on living overseas for more info but we are in Perth (more expensive than Melbourne according to the people at Dh work who have relocated here from there) and your income would be fine here although perhaps tight at times. It is v expensive to buy property, esp in better more central areas, but renting is more affordable.

I spoke to HSBC before we left uk earlier this year (we were customers in uk) and they have branches here so they could have opened us an account here for 50 quid and used our uk credit history.

As to whether the move is right for you is the million dollar question! Australia is not the promised land many make it out to be but there are advantages of life here!

I think whenever living overseas (with kids) regardless of which country you are coming from/going to it is a good idea to keep at least the cost of flights for all of you home in a separate account somewhere, you just never know if you will need to dash home at some point so keeping a buffer can really provide reassurance.