Warnbro

Raising a family on two part time wages will be pretty tough, even with the savings you mention. You would have to fully fund your own education and pay your childs education costs as well. Plus, as Verystormy says, you could well end up having to come back at the end of your studies. If I were you, I would study in the UK to extend your skills so that you have a chance to qualify for one of the permanent visa classes in a few years time.

I've done six x one day moves in the last 15 years and all I can offer is that it comes down to planning. Pack up all of your non daily stuff a few weeks before the move, pack everthing else you don't need for the last night on the day before. Sort out what takeaway meals you are going to have for breakfast, lunch and supper (don't try to cook on the day of the move). Get up really early on the day of the move. If relatives are staying with you, that's a bonus for them and you because they will feel as though they have contributed to your new life and they will have a great story to tell when they get back home. Simple fact is, it seems hard when it is in front of you but it will be behind you before you know it.

Mandurah covers a pretty large area so some bits are better than others. It all depends on your budget, but if you can afford to either rent or buy in Halls Head, you will be fine. I love Greenfields but I wouldn't raise a familly there. If you are worried about the kids, put them in private school. That's what we did (enrolled them in a Catholic School in Rockingham). Although the socialist in me doesn't agree with private education, for a new migrant kid, it pretty much removes the possibility of being bullied or excluded in school. I should point out that neither of us are practicing Catholics. It's not a requirement or condition over here (otherwise the school wouldn't get any state funding). Both our kids are at Uni now, but their primary currently charges $5,500 a year for a single child and to be honest, it was worth every cent. The Mandurah equivalent of where my kids went would be http://www.assumption.wa.edu.au/ It's a brilliant school and we have friends in Golden Bay who have three kids there. Good luck with the move and remember, you only live once.

I'd say you were a lot more likely to have problems in Mandurah than in Peppy Grove. I know Mandurah very well and have spent a lot of time there. We had a stilt house in Halls Head as a holiday home when I was a kid back in the '70s. I spend a lot of time in the estuary now and we are thinking of buying a place on the river in Greenfields for when I give up work (maybe in a year or two). But for a new migrant, Mandurah is a bit too "ocker" and very far flung from Perth. It's a culture shock coming here. Nobody can argue with that. As you get closer to the city, you are more likely to be living amongst others who have migrated and that tends to temper things a little. Your kids will be going to school with a better mix of locals and migrant kids and there will be some pommy kids just like them. I love Mandurah and my other half talked about us moving there when we migrated but after spending a bit of time there, she changed her mind. I wouldn't even consider living where I live now if I were a new migrant.

If you can put down a months rent as deposit and pay a months rent in advance, you will secure a place no problem even without references.

Why Mandurah? Don't get me wrong, I love the place, but it's not where I would settle as a new migrant. As a place to visit, Mandurah is lovely but it can be a bit of a rough place to live in and it has more than its fair share of social problems. Try to set yourself up a little closer to the city if you can. Maybe try somewhere like Beeliar which is closer to the city. Renting anywhere shouldn't be an issue at the moment as vacancy rates across the city are quite high and landlords are pretty desperate for tenants. Best advice would be to rent for about a year to gve you time to suss out which suburbs suit you best.

You sit down in front of a computer terminal and tick some boxes on the screen. I was in and out of that room in less than two minutes with a 100% score. When I did mine, there were some people who failed but they were all non native English speakers. They were given a bit of time to revise in the waiting room and then allowed to re-sit the test. The main thing to remember for the interview is to take as much paperwork with you as you can. There is a checklist on the interview appointment letter.

That has dragged out a lot. My test and interview date came back after about a week. I can only assume that the vast numbers of people who arrived during the resources boom years are now qualifying and creating the backlog. Don't stress about the test. It's easy as pie and you only need to digest a few pages of information. My favourite question was about the name of the national anthem. One of the multiple choice answers offered was "Australians must advance more fairly". I wonder how many people chose that?

Henderson is pretty easy to get to if you locate south of the river. Depending upon your budget, areas to look at would be Beeliar, Coogee, Spearwood, Rockingham, Port Kennedy and Secret Harbour. If you locate north of the river, the commute would be a bit of a nightmare (you've got to cross one of a couple of very busy bridges in the morning rush hour). Basic rule of thumb is that the closer to the beach you are, the more expensive the house. Beeliar bucks this by being closer to both Fremantle and Perth with good transport links. Commutes to Henderson are about 15 minutes from Beeliar, 10 from Speawood and Coogee, 25 minutes from Rockingham, Baldivis and Port Kennedy. Secret Harbour is about 40-45 minutes. All suburbs have good shopping nearby and a train link to the city within a ten minute drive.

It's already four years of residence as you rightly say. It was three years but that changed in 2007. Maybe the key word is PR? When we arrived in 2007, it was three years residence with at least 12 months as a PR. If they change the PR requirement to 4 years, you could have lived here on a 457 for a few years but still have to wait a further 4 years after your PR was granted? Who knows? My Citizenship (2011) took only few months from application through to ceremony and back then, you had the option to have your ceremony fast tracked (in the offices in Perth without all the fuss). My wife did this as she had to go back to the UK for a visit so she only waited 3 weeks from application to full citizenship. The kids and I waited for the next Rockingham Town hall ceremony.

My big regret is not bringing as much as we could. Sure, clear out your old junk, but bring all your pots and pans and kichen stuff, power tools, hand tools, jars of nuts and bolts and all the other useful stuff you have accumulated over time. It hurts like mad when you have to buy a new adjustable spanner for double what you would pay in the UK, knowing that you sold a perfectly good one at a boot sale for under a quid just before you left.

It very much depends on what trade you are in. People in mining construction services did very well up until early 2015. Big money was made and if people were sensible, they would have squirreled a bit of that away. I'd say the downturn has hit those who didn't plan ahead the hardest. I know quite few people who earned big and spent bigger who are now suffering. I have one friend who went on a grand 6 week world tour in 2013 which cost him and his wife over $100k. She paid someone to do the housework and the ironing and they were always popping off for luxury mini breaks in places like Margaret River on his week off. He's was laid off once the job he was working on finished, and now he's earning around $70k a year managing a shop. Now $70k a year is not bad for a couple with no kids, hardly poverty. But they are in dire straights. They have a pretty big mortgage on their house and can't downsize because the house isn't worth as much as they paid for it. The fact is, if they'd been a bit sensible, they could have been mortgage and debt free before he was retrenched. Younger people have also suffered a bit as well. Kids were leaving school back in 2012 and walking into low skilled jobs paying $80k a year. Not the case today. Perth has been through the old boom and bust cycle before and no doubt it will happen again. The trick is to recognise when you are in a boom and make some preparations for the bust.

I agree. Some of our best workers are new arrivals. I suppose it makes sense. Lazy people don't up sticks and move half way around the world for a better life. I think some of the problem is that there is this perception that the newly arrived Pom may well decide they have made a mistake and decide to turn tail and go home. The longer you have been here, the less this is a concern for potential employers. You can't claim benefits for the first two years, so you lose nothing by doing a bit of unpaid voluntary work. I didn't do that myself, but I know an ex civil servant from the UK who came over on his wifes visa (Nursing). He volunteered to clean the windows at the local aged care facility and also did three days a week at the local Good Sammy sorting through donations. He's now manager of maintenance at the aged care facility. In my first week, I took my forklift ticket and paid the instructor some extra to let me play around on it for a couple of hours to hone my skills (I was a bit rusty). I signed up with a couple of labour hire companies and took anything they offered even if it meant travelling 50kms for half a days work. I got myself a reputation for never turning anything down and always being on the other end of the phone. They could ring me at 9am and I would be on site at 10am. My first full time job was pretty rubbish with long, unsocial hours but I used my free time to write off for things I wanted to do. Eventually, I got myself into what I am doing now. I think Vicky87's hubby may have also struggled last time around because they were on a working holiday visa. I expect being here on a PR next time will change things a bit.

FIFO probably wouldn't be an option anyway for a new arrival. The FIFO jobs tend to go to those who have done it before. But the plus side is that when a FIFO project starts, it creates vacancies in Perth. As for finding work when you first arrive, it's best to just take anything you can get so that you gain some local experience. I started out doing forklift work through an agency. A day or two here and there to start with and then one of the contracts turned into a full time job. The longer you are here, the easier it becomes to find work (employers are reluctant to take on people who have just stepped off the plane).

I wouldn't get too carried away with this story if I were you. In comparison to the period 2010 to 2014, these projects are chicken feed. Back then we had all of the Iron Ore and Oil and Gas majors building some of the worlds biggest projects all at the same time. Ports needed expansion, rail networks had to be built. The huge influx of new people created an unprecedented demand for housing and wages went through the roof. Big projects blew out their budgets and a lot of lessons were learned. This is not what is going to happen this time. Of course, there will be job opportunities but they will generally go to those who have done fly in/fly out work before (FIFO). FIFO is a pretty hard game to get into especially since FIFO worker welfare became a major issue. The big miners would rather employ someone who has done it before than take the risk on a newbie. However, every FIFO worker who is currently doing something else, will leave behind a job in Perth. These newly vacated jobs will become easier for a new arrival to walk into.