New series of Wanted Down Under

[sailorsgal]

I think it starts next week.

What I will never understand is why people have this obsession with moving to a country they have never been to.

Yep. I understand daydreaming about somewhere you fancy but go there on holiday don't bloody try and move there! I want to go to Hawaii and wear a grass skirt for a living.

couple of things,we do need heating here
australia has an excellent public health system (NHS equiv)

Tbh Id like to move to Melbourne. Been a few times, but I know at this point in my life its daydreaming. I know what my restrictions would be....how can these people not know any of that stuff?!

different It was pointed out on a previous show that heating wasn't as big an industry in Australia as it is in the uk, not that it doesn't exist iyswim. I was surprised the guy hadn't thought of that. He was told cooling was the better bet.

Is it a free holiday though? The application form stresses the fact that the days are long and potentially stressful due to the filming.
Added on to that: you'd have to rustle up some friends and family to go on TV and ideally cry about you leaving; you'd have to tidy and clean your entire house - possibly installing a few feature walls; tell the nation what you earn, spend, eat, own; feign desire to have a walk in wardrobe - and say the obligatory "this will do me, but where will you keep your clothes DH, hahaha".
Think I'd rather pay for a proper holiday thanks.

IAmAPaleontologist I don't get that either....

We intend to move to Oz in the next 4-5 years, but I'm Australian so not so many extra factors to consider ...

Many air con units here also heat up, as heating is definitely needed here in winter. I actually know a guy who did heating in the UK but does air con units now, so it must be a realistic career transition.

The health service here is way better than the UK and Ireland in my experience, and if you go to a bulk billed surgery it's free at point of contact. My local one is amazing, it has an integrated dentist and you can walk in. As for hospital care, when my son had a burst appendix his treatment was fantastic, the childrens' hospital had a massive free games arcade on the top floor, a teenagers den, a recording studio, each child had their own games system or DVD player with as many DVDs as they liked, fantastic food, as well as first class health care, all for free. So please don't diss the health care here, it's way better than the NHS. My son says hospital was better than any hotel we've stayed in, and he wishes he had another appendix so he could get it removed again!

You're right Legs Install a feature wall? No thanks.

I don't see anyone dissing the australian health service. In fact I would say it's the other way round. Personally a hospital is still a hospital at the end of the day not a hotel and my son was treated every bit as kindly and well on the nhs as he would have been elsewhere. Unfortunately he died at the end of it but absolutely no health system would have made any difference. Personally I think as with anyplace there are pros and cons and you need to have investigated thoroughly before making the decision to move half way around the world.

I'm very sorry to hear about your son buffyp. Of course a hospital is still a hospital though and I'm quite sure the treatment on the NHS is just as good, I had a difficult and dangerous birth on the NHS and credit them with saving my life and my son's. But in my personal experience the hospitals here are better resourced, so when I see people here comparing aussie healthcare unfavourably to the Uak, well I beg to differ.

I love this programme,
I have 2 friends, one decided her and her DH and 2 kids were emigrating to Aus , they had never been there! went for all the medicals, visas etc and she decided at the last minute she couldn't leave her parents

The other friend did indeed emigrate to NZ and hated the first 2 Christmases as it wasn't 'Home' they moved house/area so many times, and now 13 years later she is still there but is now divorced

for buffyp.

I wasn't getting a burning desire from today's husband to go to oz. nothing like mrs Brendan anyway.

They won't go in 5 yrs as their eldest will be 20.

I get it's not a holiday but it's probably the only way a family of 5 on a modest income can get a trip to oz without some serious saving.

I felt sorry for the eldest today as I felt they got his hopes up. It also made me sad that's he's 15 and sharing rooms with a 5 yr old. I also felt for the middle child as I hate hot weather! Must be so tough for him.

I know nothing about healthcare but on WDU revisited they had a couple who made the move. He had a heart attack in yr1 and they weren't covered for ambulance via their insurance policy so were hit with a huge bill. Can anyone explain this to me? If Australia have an nhs why was there ambulance costs?

The system here isn't the same as the NHS. Ambulances are separate from healthcare and you take out ambo insurance, ours is 72$ a year. For the family. If you don't have ambo cover, you will get a bill if you need an ambulance. It's pricey if you don't have insurance, so most people have the insurance in my experience.

I'm not dissing the healthcare system, when I worked out there I got sorted with a medicare card and it worked well. However, that doesn't mean that you will get all the treatment you want free of charge just because you have decided to go and live there. Which in many respects is quite right. It is just something that the couple didn't seem to have considered, that living in the UK they had full access to the NHS but that they needed to consider how healthcare worked in the country they wanted to move to and how long it takes to make contributions/get insurance cover/how GP surgeries work and so on and so forth.

Thanks for explaining Glastokitty. Sounds like $72 a yr well spent!

I think what surprises me about the show is how little thought and research some of the couples put in, its all about the nice house and lifestyle but maybe they think they will tackle the boring bits when they get there.

You have to pay ambulance costs here. You can be insured via your private health cover, pay for insurance directly or (as far as I recall) some states offering it with utilities costs (so you pay a little extra - pretty sure I haven't drempt that bit)

But yes, if you are not covered, you do have to pay. Stops people using them for daft things, I guess.

Legs Wise words. Surely none of these families did their homework ahead of time. I know i didn't consider the tremendous fuss of having to install feature walls and drumming up relatives to emotionally manipulate via Skype.

The NHS does have it merits and I get why people are so passionately supportive of it, but sometimes you have to experience healthcare in another country to really appreciate the NHS's shortcomings.

I like the sound of wanted sideways about Canada.

love this programme, love how people supposedly have researched for months but know nothing or pick one of the hottest places to go then say it is too hot and why they all think they can have a holiday lifestyle when working or they both have to work is beyond me.

so many of their wishes (except the weather) could be met in the UK.

Having said that I did seriously plan to move out there to work for a while when I was younger after spending 6 weeks there but then I met hubby and never went. I loved the places I went to, I loved the attitude of the Australian people, the space and smaller population etc. Beautiful country, friendly people.

I didn't think it was ongoing health care costs for Riley that were holding today's family back.

It says
It soon became clear, however, that Riley's condition meant the cost of getting appropriate medical tests could become prohibitively expensive. Fearing they could spend a substantial amount of money only for their application to be unsuccessful

so I read that to say that they'd have to speculate a lot of money on having extensive tests not knowing if the outcome would allow him a visa or not.
The didn't want to take the risk of spending the money only to find he wasn't permitted to go anyway.

Our of interest why do people on this thread call Nicky Nicky pompodol or something? Just wondering. I think phil spencer shud present.

Nicky Pop Idol. She was originally on TV as a judge on the reality show, way back when. She worked in the music industry originally. HTH.

I did wonder that about secret harbour - glasto my friends friends are all expats and no native Australians or even 2/3 gen expats.