Australia: It's now a reality

[dejags]

We have been here a few weeks now and DH received a firm job offer with an offer of sponsorship on Monday.

So it's looking almost 100% certain we'll be moving down under (Melbourne).

We have a minor hiccup in that another company in Brisbane is really interested in DH's and have setup an interview for him on the 14th of this month.

So it's all a bit up in the air for the minute and we have to wait for the Work Visa application which normally takes 4-8weeks.

It feels surreal after our mammoth fact finding journey that we are nearing our final decision (for those of you who don't know, we are currently on a round the world journey, with the ultimate goal of finding our place in the world). We intend on finishing the trip, we'll be leaving Australia at the end of August to spend a month in China. Hopefully we'll know more about our visa status by then.

So Aussie (Brisbane and Melbourne) Mnetters, if you have any advice on schools and in particular the areas associated with good schooling, we'd be very grateful.

TIA
dejags
x

should read interested in DH's skills...

depends where you want to live in Brisbane - variety of private ( public) or government schools. Generally junior school children attend the local one - but you can enrol them at other schools. High school/secondary - we have a number of schools that are schools of excellence in things like sports, dance, fine arts etc so chidlren can be enrolled outside of their area iyswim.

Won't want to live south of the river north is so much nicer!!

When you come to Brissy for the 14th - should try and get to the Ekka - experience - like a county fair only bigger. If you are staying in the city - only a train stop to the Ekka - lots of rides, animals, shows, displays - fruit, veg, flowers, art etc, shows - woodchopping etc very country.

info here

I live north of the river and have never lived south - rarely venture south - except to drive through to the gold coast Commuting isn't too bad - we live on the northside and dh commutes into work - border of the CBD. catches the train - so means we only need one car.

thanks Eidsvold. Will deffo book accomodation north of the river then .

dejags we are learning more and more about Melbourne all the time so if you do end coming South let me know and I can do some research in particular areas for you, did you have anywhere in particular that you liked ( I think you spent some time here didn't you?) Good luck and enjoy the rest of your travels!

Hi Melbournemum,

we love all the really pricey areas - in particular we love Brighton, Kew, some parts of Prahran, S. Yarra, Toorak and all the suburbs in this area. We went out to Geelong today to see if any of the suburbs along the motorway would be possibilities but we didn't really see anything we liked.

DH will be most likely be working in Brunswick, so we'll be looking East tomorrow to see if that suits.

oh, should have said, we love the pricey areas but sadly cannot afford them

our major priority is good schooling for the boys but there are so many schools it's like a minefield.