Thinking of emmigrating to australia..........

[sugarpear]

Hi this is something hubby and i have discussed a number of times off handedly. As in when we have more savings when the kids are older.................etc.

But now its come to the point of hubby really wants to do it asap.

We have looked at the website where you get a preliminary answer as to applying for visa'and they said a defiante yes as hubby is a carpenter by trade. We have our own business although hubby would have no problems working for another company.

But where in australia? We have five kids, 13 down to 3 1/2 yrs old. Our 7yr old is deaf and has a cochlear implant would that affect anything?

Our kids are very outdoorsie and i think australia would be perfect for them.

Im not overly close to my family so leaving them would not be a major issue. I have lovely friends but my childrens happiness comes first. And they can come for a holiday anytime.

Hubby and i could go over for a week or 2 and look around but which part of australia do we start. I dont want to be in the outback and completely restricted but i love the idea of a lovely little town/village rather than a big city.

With the equity in our house,savings etc we would have about 100k to our names to move with.

Any advice would be very gratefully recieved. Thankyou :-)

no real advice to give, but one life and all that.

however just wanted to respond to your comment " I have lovely friends ....And they can come for a holiday anytime"

in reality, this isn't possible to oz. my close friends have just moved to sydney. For the 4 of us to travel is best part of £5k.
With 2 children we wouldn't go for less than 2 weeks, so with school holidays that leaves Easter, Christmas, Summer. Summer hols = winter in Oz. Christmas so so so expensive to travel and difficult to be away. Easter is the only option and weather sometimes dodgy in Oz then too.

just wanted to give that perspective. not that it should change your plans, but my friends who went were expecting to be inundated with people wanting to visit, they are great great people, but in reality it isn't that easy!

Australia is great, some similar issues as the UK though such as crime etc when you compare the populations. I am from Sydney but also loved in Melbourne. I now live in the UK. If you want a great lifestyle you should try Bendigo in Victoria. Its a country town but is quite big and only an hours drive to Melbourne. The towns are desperate for tradesmen and you could buy a house for 100k (pounds). The local schools are very good and your kids would have a very carefree life. Moving to another country is a very big move and although I have done it, you have to be 100% sure you want to do it together. If you do, go for it.

Didn't a lot of bendigo get burned down by and large in the fires last year? I have a mate from there (lives here) and a lot of his friends lost their houses

Did you see location locationlocation from Australia this week? They are doing a couple of episodes, might give you an idea of where to start. On channel 4

Agree that even the best of friends may not visit. As an expat, I have had just one friend from home come to see us, in 17 years.

With 100K you will have to avoid the cities but chossing a great country town will offer lots. My partner came from Grafton a large country town on the north coast of Australia - heading towards Queensland. This is the type of town which has two good state secondary, lot's of primary schools. Every known sport on offer. Good shopping centre. Only an hours drive to the beach. Plenty of work if you are willing. A really lovely feel about it - much like Bendigo or lot's of other country towns in OZ.

I do agree with the two week trip being very short, you would really need to know which state you want to move to, to avoid wasting the trip.

Living outside of a major city might help with finding work as well - Melbourne is a really popular city, much smaller than Sydney and I think you'll find it more affordable. Queensland, again has cheaper options just outside of the city.

I think it's a great idea and once you are settled I'm sure you'll love it - especially if family ties aren't pulling you back here. Feel free to ask anymore - I've lived in a few places in VIC and NSW.

No the fires burnt Marysville, this is a small town but Bendigo is a larger town. I love Melbourne, and you can find plenty of smaller towns around Melbourne that have a country town feel. Sydney and Melbourne are very expensive cities to buy houses in you need at least 300K (pounds) to buy a decent house in a nice area so the country towns are def. a better choice with 100K. Australia cost of living is quite high and food/clothes are similar if not more to the UK. Feel free to ask any more questions. We are moving back to Australia in October after three years in Europe.

We moved to Australia 2 1/2 years ago with our three kids and our only regreat is that we didn't do it years ago.

I would agree with what other people have said - avoid Sydney as it is REALLY expensive. I just read in the paper that house prices went up another 5.2% in the last quarter; 100k sterling would buy you half of a a one bed apartment where I live, and do be aware that it is amazing how much money gets eaten up along the way in the process of emigrating. With a limited budget you would end up living somewhere really grim (and there are plenty of grim suburbs around) which isn't exactly the Australian dream. If you are looking for an outdoorsy life without too much pressure you would be much better off being more rural. Can't help with specific areas though as we haven't done much exploring yet!

With regards your husband's job, you should have a look on the britishexpats website which is full of excellent advice and you can get info from people who have already made the move. You do need to be careful with trades as the unions here are very protectionist and many a tradie has arrived to find that they can't lift a tool without going back to TAFE for Australian qualifications, or they need to get licences which take ages and cost money. I would have thought that carpentry would be a bit better than something like plumbing or electrics, but I'm sure there will be different regulations somewhere. Good luck.

Hi everyone and thankyou for the replies.

Dh's business is loft conversions. should have said dh is a plumber too.

We have heard of getting a sponsorship from an emplyer from over there which is one option we are thinking of.

at the moment everything is just " thoughts " but the more thoughts we have the more we want to do it!

I know it will be a long process but its nice to actually get some feedback from others that have emmigrated.

Also dh said we would be goin gover with about 200k once everything is sold and all removals flights etc are paid so im hoping that puts us in a better position. And we could well win the lotto before then!!! Nice dream!!!

Will definately look into things a lot more.

Thankyou again everyone

I live in an outer Melbourne suburb and love it. There is a definite country feel to where we are as there a fields nearby with horses, cows and sheep in them. But we also have large shopping centres, schools, playgrounds, swimming pools etc within 5-10mins drive too. It takes about 30 mins to drive into the city from here too.

We have just moved into our new home 3 weeks ago - we bought the land and had a building company build the house. The house took 15wks to build and cost all up just on $300k inc the land. We have a large garden with planty of space for swingset, trampoline, sandpit and lawn (when we plant some)-approx 16mx15m.

I have absolutely no regrets at all about moving back here (after 10yrs in the UK) with DH so our DC would have a better life.

Melb is a great city and I think there is everything here that you need. We have also had loads of visits from our UK family and friends over the past 2.5yrs. Luckily our house is has 4 bedrooms and a designated spare/guest room!

There are loads of British tradesmen here too - we had new fences put up last week and the fence guy was from Buckinghamshire. He's been here 10yrs and would never go back to the UK - his words not mine.

You should definitely come over on a fact finding mission and have a good look around before making any decissions.

Do let me know if you want any more info though.