My husband, has been offered a fellowship post at the 'Royal Melbourn Hospital' to start next August 2019. We are from Scotland and this is quite an adventure for us and as I know nothing about Australian life and it's going to be quite a challenge. There is a lot of work involved for me with getting over as we have three young children aged 3, 5 and 6yrs old and I wondered if you had any advice for moving over (initially for 1yr) with a young family. If we love life over in Australia we have every intention to stay and make it work especially if it is right for our Children. What suburb areas are good for kids/families, good schools/advice, transport etc with good commuter routes to the hospital? I think we would hope to rent a car (mainly for me and the kids) so public transport from our rented house to Royal Melbourne for my husband would be a must with not too long a commute... I think it may also be better for us to buy a car as the car rental for the year looks expensive? Do you know if it is fairly straightforward to buy a second hand car and get insurance etc? Would I need to do additional driving tests or need an Australian drivers licence?
How is best to prepare for this huge change and what are the biggest changes we would face?
Is it straightforward to register the kids with a GP/dentist when we get there or do we need to look into private health care? Do public schools cost? Are there any fees you can think of that we may incur compared to living in Scotland?
I would also hope to have activities for the kids. Are there any fun Australian Sports/Must see or do that you recommend?
Are there family clubs or anything like this for golf, gym, swimming polls etc where the family can all be members and use?
Any advice you can think of would be much appreciated.
Many thanks.