Any Sydney mums around?

[thatsnotmymonster]

I am getting pretty excited as it is looking increasingly likely that dh is about to be offered a job in Sydney (should know by next week). However, whether we are able to accept or not all depends on the salary package, particularly with th school fee issue- has anyone else moved and had the company pay the school fees?

We live in Scotland and so ds is in P1 but he will be 6 in March and dd1 is due to start school after the summer as she will be 5 in July. I don't know whether they should go into Yr 1 and 2 in Oz from when we move or whether they shoud go into Yr 1 and kindergarten. Do most people wait until the year the dc turns 6 or send them the year they turn 5?

The office is in Pyrmont and we are hoping to rent in a nearby suburb- I have been looking at Lilyfield, Five Dock, Drummoyne...can anyone recommend any other nice suburbs in that area or tell me if there are any to avoid?

Anything else I should know? If this happens we will be moving around April.

Thanks!

[thatsnotmymonster]

Flights are pricey but then I suppose £700 return is the very cheapest you can get them here and with salaries being higher in aus it probably balances out. We may save money and then use it to help my Sis and family come and visit us.
Dh is working from home today cos ds was sick last night but it means I am mumsnetting on the iPod which Is a bit tricky!

Dh talking to other company tonight so will let you know how that goes!

[thatsnotmymonster]

DH just had chat with guy from the other company and it went well. He is going to pass dh's cv to all the offices but is very keen to consider him for the Newcastle office!

Thumbwitch (did you change your name half way through this thread?)- you live near there right? What are your thoughts on the Newcastle area?

[thumbdabwitch]

I did - in support of Hugh Fearnley Wotsit's sustainable fish campaign

Newcastle is 40 minutes away from us; cjdamoo lives almost in it, so she might know more - but then my DH is a local from this area so will be able to help with good and bad suburbs, as it were. Newcastle city itself is a bit of a ghost town, unfortunately - the central shopping area has gone steadily downhill over the last few years and now the big department store is pulling out as well, which pretty much signs the death warrant for the area. The further out shopping malls have killed it - that and too-high shop rent and rates. Stupid of Newcastle council really - they should have tried to entice new business in, not tried to make as much money as possible from the ones left.
But there are nice places around Newcastle - and it has a lovely beach area, good for surfing etc., lots of ships/boats to watch (it's a commercial coal port, rather like in England!)
So one thing you would have to look out for is how close to a coalmine some of the places are.
Newcastle does have its own airport and it is on the main train line to Sydney, so that helps - I guess it depends on whether you prefer big cities, little towns or little cities. There is decent nightlife in Newcastle still, it has its own theatre and cultural places, is on most "tours" for music, drama and gallery exhibits - and there are two very large shopping malls a shortish drive away, as well as numerous smaller ones.

Newcastle is the second largest city in NSW after Sydney - so there are a fair few people who think it's an ok place to be!:)

[thatsnotmymonster]

Ok thanks!

We have never lived in a big city so we won't miss it and I am used to going to out of town shopping malls. Shame about the city centre though. What about parks and things to do in and around Newcastle?

Would be great if you could ask your dh about good areas etc. I had a look at rentals and entered loads of suburbs in to the search and it only came back with 3 4bed properties!! On the plus side, maybe it would be easier to secure a rental

[thumbdabwitch]

Do try sending cjdamoo a private message as well - I will certainly ask DH his opinion for you, but she is on the ground up there now so will be better placed to answer questions about what it's like to live there and what stuff there is to do.

[thatsnotmymonster]

I have sent cjdamoo a message so hopefully she will get back to me though I'm not sure she comes on here that much.

I like the look of the Port Stephen's area though

[sunnydelight]

I see you're probably going to Newcastle now TNMM, but I thought I would just pass on my thoughts about Manly for families. Obviously each to their own, but we know four families now who started off in Manly seduced by the obvious, and with DHs keen on getting the ferry to work (it must be one of the best commutes in the world), but who moved within the first year. One family actually broke their (very expensive) lease after three months as they couldn't bear the noise from the drunks staggering home late at night anymore. I think they were particularly unlucky, but they said they loved it during the week but dreaded the weekends. Manly is a very popular party venue.

It seems to be fantastic if you have one or two pre-schoolers, much as I imagine it was for me in Brighton with little kids, but with sunshine, but when you have older kids space becomes much more of an issue and you don't get much for your money in Manly. The reality of a family of school age kids means that having a big garden and possibly a pool is a much more attractive proposition than an apartment or small house, no matter how nice the views are. By the time you get the kids home from school and do homework the last thing you will want to do is pack up for a trip to the beach every night, and if you're only going at weekends you probably won't mind a bit of a drive instead. A lot of older kids who didn't grow up here hate swimming in the sea on the Northern Beaches as the waves are really rough, yes they can join Nippers which looks like fun - if they are older than around 6 the Aussies will fall around laughing at their standard of swimming. My 8 year old was put into a "remedial swimming" group at the local swim school even though I thought he could swim really well because he couldn't do 100m of butterfly!!!! I don't know a single non-Aussie family with older kids in Nippers who don't face a storm of tears and "why do I have to" every Sunday morning.

We've been here nearly four years now and my kids are 7/12/17. We all LOVE Australia but one of the best things about it for us is the space and the pool. We're still on holiday and I had three kids for playdates yesterday as well as my younger two - they spent most of the day swimming or on the trampoline. My 17 year old brings his mates home and they swim and hang out on the deck or do the same at someone else's house. If they are bored with that they come and watch tv/play PS3 in the family room. There are two other living spaces so they are not bothering anyone else. I don't know how old your kids are but remember, after a while life here is still same old same old just in a different location. There are lots of places you could fall in love with here (I still have dreams of that terrace in Paddington I will buy when my kids have left home) but they have to work for you. Sorry this is so long btw, haven't been on in ages!

[thatsnotmymonster]

Thanks Sunnyd, that is actually really helpful. I have been coming round to that conclusion myself. Basically a large house with a pool means that there is instant entertainment any day, any time for kids and adults! My kids are little and don't really like swimming in the sea anyway but they would LOVE a pool at home and be in it all the time which would help them learn to swim.

DS is 5 and can swim but not more than a few metres without stopping! Here he is quite advanced but I'm guessing over there most 3yr olds can swim?

It also means that dh can come home from work and go straight in the pool and we don't need to go anywhere or spend any money.

We found out that dh didn't get the job in Sydney, after all that as it went to a local. We are disappointed but hope that something else will turn up. He is speaking to a couple other companies still. We are trying really hard to be patient as these things don't happen overnight and there isn't really any rush!

I can't remember which suburb you are in Sunny? At this rate we could end up absolutely anywhere...

[Astrophe]

sorry to hear DH didn't get the job tnmm. Was that the Pyrmont one or the Artarmon one? Hope the right thing comes along soon...

[thumbdabwitch]

That's a shame TNMM - but I hope that something comes up for him soon.
If he gets the Newcastle one, there are plenty of places around that are on Lake Macquarie - so even if you can't get a house with a pool, you might be lucky enough to get a rental lake-side - several of my friends have these, and the lake is ok to swim in (with a lot more care than a pool, obviously, but still)

Have you looked at Newcastle on google earth? might be worth a go if you haven't yet.

[thumbdabwitch]

Port Stephens is a longish way from Newcastle, driving time wise, btw. (I seem to remember you mentioning it before) Will check with DH in the morning how long. There is only one decent road up around us, that's the F3 - it's the only motorway (freeway) and it stops around Newcastle.
The Pacific Highway around our area is a pile'o'shite - goes through lots of towns, is kind of like the A3 going into London in that respect, so not exactly a speedy road. It improves north of Newcastle, where it links through from the F3 (so if you're going past Newcastle instead of into it, the road remains fast) and turns into the freeway itself again.

I'm only boring you with this detail because it makes a difference - looking at distances doesn't necessarily tell you how long it takes to get anywhere, because of the different type and quality of roads.

[thatsnotmymonster]

Hi! Hope you all had a good weekend?

It was the Pyrmont job he didn't get Astrophe. The one that's in Artarmon is the same company that is now talking about Newcastle. Had an email from them today saying they were sending his resume to the Newcastle office and now a 3rd company have said they are sending his resume to their Sydney office for review...so more waiting

Thumb- thanks for the details, those are the kind of things you just wouldn't know otherwise.

DS asked this morning whether we had a house in Australia yet . I said that Daddy didn't even have a job there yet so we don't even now if we'll ever be going, lol. He's already told his teacher that we're moving!

[Astrophe]

wow, what sort of work is your DH in TNMM? (obv don't say if youd' rather not!). Sounds like he is hot property! Hopefully it will be worth the wait(s).

[sunnydelight]

Oh sorry to hear he didn't get it; much less hassle to get a local unfortunately. If he's in IT and you really want to move here I might be able to help. DH works for a consultancy and he brings quite a few people over on 457s if they have the right skills. Really senior positions always go to locals though as expats just don't have the necessary contacts, no matter how good their overseas experience is.

[thatsnotmymonster]

DH is an environmental consultant specializing in Contaminated Land. He is Principal level over here (12+ yrs exp).

Fortunately people with his experience are needed over there. Not sure whether it's cos the UK is slightly further ahead in environmental issues or not but apparantly most mid-high level positions go to overseas candidates...certainly most of the people dh has spoken to over there have been British or American.

Sunnyd- thanks for the offer but he's def not any use with IT .

No more news as yet.

[thumbdabwitch]

Aha! There's a lot of contaminated and potentially contaminated land around Newcastle, from the opencut mines and other industries. Although currently there's a fair amount of contaminated land in QUeensland as well, thanks to the floods - but I still wouldn't try and go there as housing would be a nightmare.

[thatsnotmymonster]

Yeah Newcastle would be good and Dh has experience of dealing with mining and steel works land...

There's contaminated land everywhere though so it's a good job. Environmental regulations mean that any piece of land/property that is to be decommisioned or developed needs to be tested and any issues need to be dealt with. All the companies are global so although he would be doing local work he would be involved in projects all over Aus and potentially NZ and Asia too. Good experience!

DH doesn't think the floods will cause much problem re: housing MEN!
Doesn't matter that hundreds of people's homes have been lost or damaged and they will all need to find rentals in the meantime...still won't be a problem according to him!!!

[ninedragons]

Just a quick word on the pool issue if you have young DCs and particularly if you are looking at renting - make sure (ie get it in writing from the agent, and cross-check it with the regulations yourself) that the pool fence complies with the LATEST code.

Fencing codes aren't retroactive, as far as I know, so particularly in older suburbs you will find pools with no or inadequate fencing.

You should always be mindful that your neighbours may have unfenced pools, so if your DC are of wandering-off age you should make sure your own property is secure and they can't get off and find their way into a neighbour's garden (ie don't leave windows or doors unlocked).

Some councils do helicopter patrols and order people to rectify unsafe fencing but certainly not all. I have a friend with a completely legal, completely unfenced pool in her back yard, because that was the standard when it was installed in about 1974.

Not to sound alarmist, but there are always terribly sad stories in the paper about toddlers who drowned. Indeed my mum was telling me last night that I nearly did - wandered off when I was about two, was found standing in the harbour, one step away from going underwater.

[thumbdabwitch]

ninedragons - I didn't realise the pool regulations weren't retroactive! Thankfully our pool is fully up to standard (apart from the life-saving poster not being attached to a fence because all its corners are busted - it's still there though)

TNMM - also at your DH's belief that housing won't be in short supply in Queensland! I'm sure there will be some available but probably only at the top end of the rental market, paying waaay more than you want to!

[ninedragons]

I don't think so. I doubt the pool in our complex is up to current code. But the committee won't spend the money to upgrade it - they told me that it complied with the codes from when it was put in, and that's the end of their legal obligation

Nevermind that any kid in the neighbourhood could get into it.

I think it was in Freakonomics (which should possibly be renamed Freakyououtonomics), but I read that if you have both a gun and a pool on your property, your child is WAY more likely to be killed by the pool than the gun.

[Astrophe]

interesting you should be talking about pools and kids - yesterday we were at a friends pool and I was sitting just out of arms reach of DD2 (18 months) and she toppled from sitting position off the edge and into the pool. I was just a second away, so she was totally fine, but it struck me that in that second she feel in SO QUIETLY and then just floated on her tummy, face down. No splashing, no shouting...I mean, it was literally i second before I fished her out, but they always say drownings of toddlers happen silently, and I don't think I ever really believed it. It was very eerie to see.

Personally, I would never want to live in a house with a pool for two reasons - 1 being drowning, and 2 being pool maintainence. If all my kids could swim well, and we could afford a pool guy, then I'd consider it.

[thumbdabwitch]

That would have been very scary, Astrophe - just highlights that we all have to be ultravigilant where small DC and pools are concerned - I am utterly paranoid about DS because of the silent drowning thing.

We don't find the maintenance difficult, tbh, we don't have a pool guy - our pool has a "creepycrawly" cleaner in it, a good pump and filter system and a cover, so it's not too hard to maintain - and every now and then DH takes a sample down to the pool shop to have it analysed to see what chemicals need to be added to keep it balanced.

[Astrophe]

'utterly paranoid' is a good way to be with pools and kids though :) Many friends have and love their pools of course, but DH (and I) are lazy re home maintainance, and I am paranoid (currently am pressing DH to put a side rail on DDs bed as am scared she is going to fall out of it and out the window - she is 6 and never falls out of bed, but still...).

Anyway, back to TNMM's moving saga...:)

[thatsnotmymonster]

I would definitely want a fenced pool- may that I've seen on the rental market seem completely open I understand the pool paranoia. My brother's friend's stepbrother died in a pool on holiday when he was 5- the pool was surrounded by sunbathing adults . Never forgotten it.

As for maintentance- most rentals advertise as pool maintenance included.

So for those of you who don't have pools- how do you cope with the heat? To me a pool seems essential for cooling off!!

Oh and in the summer here when we have the paddling pool up I can't leave the dc's alone in the garden. Just as easy for a child to drown in a paddling pool as anything else.

No back to watching 'Wanted Down Under'

[thatsnotmymonster]

Now!