Sapper59

Shayne, I absolutely agree with the posts above - it is such a personal thing and everyone has different experiences. There is no black/white, yes/no to this. 'Making the right decision' for one person/family will undoubtedly be different for others. From our (relatively short) experience, we have made the right decision to move to Perth. I suppose that only time will tell whether that will remain the case, although I am reasonably sure it will. There are negatives to moving to the other side of the world, without a doubt, but for us, weighing up the pros and cons, especially work/life balance and family time/activity opportunities, the pros win! I concur with the advice of listing your +ve/-ve points, in priority order and weigh them against each other - that should give you a good idea of whether you should come. Also, running through a few 'worst case scenarios' would be worthwhile, as suggested by ali. For us, it has been expensive, time consume and emotional getting here, but everyday that the sun is shining and we are enjoying family time and outdoor activities over here, we say 'Yes, it has all been worth it'. Good luck with your decision making and the visa application process if you do decide to come to 'Wonderful WA'! Regards, S.

I certainly hope so, Kate. Thanks for the pm. Have a really good evening. Regards, S.

Absolutely! I reckon that you are spot on. I am especially enjoying spending more time with my wonderful daughter than I was ever able to in UK. In fact, it is nearly time for the school run!! Thanks for the encouragement. Love the African proverb, by the way. Regards, S.

Great to hear that things are going well for you. We arrived in October and things are going well although I am continuing to find it hard, like your hubby to find a job. Life is good, however, as our daughter has settled really well into a fantastic school (and has enjoyed 2 Summer Hols, like your children). We have a reasonable amount of savings, but don't want to eat into that too much as we want to buy a house fairly soonish - I really must get a job! We, like you, I think, have gone through the majority of a fairly traumatic process (which we probably underestimated) and are now really enjoying life here in Perth. I think that they call it 'Living the Dream'!! Have a great day. S.

Hello, All, We are unfortunately now not going to be able to make it this evening. Hope that you enjoy the evening and thank you to the organisers for their kind offer. Have a good one! Regards, S.

Hi, Sianyc, Sorry that I haven't responded earlier - our container took about 7 weeks including customs clearance. It arrived much quicker than we had been told and we had to pay for storage for a few weeks whilst we confirmed our rental. We had our stuff delivered last week and the chaos has just about subsided in time for Christmas. Good luck with your container and Merry Christmas! Regards, S.

Ktee, Could you please confirm that children will be welcome at this meet? If so, please book me in for two adults and a child. Thank you for the generous offer. We use Moneycorp and have found it to be very useful. Regards, S.

Hello, CDM, I think that you would be very lucky to find a reasonably priced furnished 6 month rental property without booking and paying on a nightly fee basis (expensive!). It is really dependant on where you want to stay in Perth and how much you are happy to pay in rent. There are a number of websites for short term accommodation - stayz, AirBnB and rentals on real-estate.com.au are all worth a look and will give you some idea. Relative to UK, we find rental accommodation to be 'cheeky'. Hope that you find what you are after. Regards, S.

Ali and All, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and the best of wishes for a successful and prosperous 2014. Furthermore, I would like to add my sincere thanks to all posters and mods on PerthPoms - it is an excellent site which we have found very helpful in reducing the inevitable uncertainty and stress of moving to the other side of the world! We are moving into a longer term rental today after 2 months in (small) holiday rentals living out of our suitcases. Our 'stuff' (40ft container) will be delivered early next week. It will be so nice to be more settled before Christmas. Woohoo!! Had a really nice day in Mandurah yesterday. Life is good. Regards, S.

Guys, There definitely is a Santa - I saw him last night on a float on St George's Terrace! S.

Redsquare, I am on the Amaysim $40per month package - I wasn't aware of the 6c per minute to UK - I'll have to check it out. Many thanks, S.

Akasully, Broadband packages are similar to UK in terms of data plans - but more expensive! You can either pay less for a certain amount of monthly data or go 'All You Can Eat'. As my daughter loves watching Hannah Montana and other such excellent (!?!) videos on youtube, we will probably go for an unlimited package. Regards, S.

Hi, Darren, Our quest to choose a car took longer than expected (but I think that we are close to success), so we unfortunately couldn't make it yesterday. It sounds as though everyone enjoyed it, so well done for organising it. We'll try to make the next one. Regards, S.

Hi, Celts, If you and your family have iPads and/or Apple computer/laptops, Facetime is superb over a wireless broadband connection. We use it for my daughter to have video calls with her grandparents back in the UK and we have found the video quality to be much better than Skype and it is free (once you have spent a small fortune on Apple products of course!). Hope this helps. Regards, S. P.S No shares in Apple, but I find it all just works better!

Hi, Darren, We are on a mission to find a car to buy today, but might pop along to Burns Beach to say hello after 1pm if that's okay. Regards, S.

Congratulations to you all on getting your Visas! It seems as though there are a gang of you coming over Christmas and early into the New Year - you will love it here!! There is loads of helpful advice on here regarding what to do when you arrive - bank accounts, medicare, driving license etc that is well worth a read. Although we have only been here 2 months and got all of our stuff sorted, including WA driving licenses, police checks etc, we have been told that things slow down over Christmas, so you may have to be prepared to be a little patient. Patience is a good quality to have when you embark on these administrative process, by the way! It is already getting nice and warm here, so I agree with everyones advice regarding shorts etc - hats with brims, sunnies and loads of high factor suncream are a must. We were here in February this year to validate our visa and it was 40+ most days - it took a while for us whiteys from Blighty to adjust! Anyway, congratulations again and I hope that you are all finding PerthPoms useful - we have certainly found it excellent in planning for our move and now that we are here enjoying life in Wonderful WA. Regards, S.

Shresthaz and Skit78, As most people have said, temporary accommodation can be very expensive. We have stayed in 2 separate 2 bedroom places - an apartment on Scarborough Beach and a 'modest' (read tiny!!) townhouse in Mosman Park. The rental has been around the $160-180 per night mark, which over 8 weeks is eye-watering! We have used Stayz, Airbnb and realestate.com.au all of which are good. Gumtree has some properties on, but seems to be mostly rooms to let in shared houses - relatively cheap, but lacking privacy/freedom. It depends what you are after and how much you want to spend. Unless you have friends to stay with here, you will probably have to book a short term (expensive) place for a couple of weeks whilst you find a longer term rental property. In our experience, the competitiveness for rental properties that we had heard about from a few months ago seems to have reduced - there are plenty of vacant properties around with only a couple of families at each viewing we have been to. We are moving into a 6 month rental next week, so have been living, breathing and sleeping the whole property thing for the last couple of months. Glad to provide advice if you have any other questions on this. Regards, S.

Good Morning Fellow PPers, Another wonderful morning in WA! I wonder if anyone could help with a little advice. We are moving into a rental for 6 months in Woodlands and I am investigating broadband internet (and maybe TV) package options. Does anybody live in the area and know which service providers have coverage and decent speeds there? I am considering the Vivid 4G mobile broadband option - does anyone know if I am likely to get a good signal and decent speed in Woodlands? Many thanks and have a great weekend everyone. Regards, S.

Respect. Nuff said. Regards, Sapper.

Another vote of thanks to Portlaunay for some really good BBQ info. I have been watching this thread and found it very informative. We have a BBQ from the UK in our container (after mucho cleaning!) and I am looking forward to using it a lot more over here than we ever did in the UK. It is quite a biggie from Homebase/B&Q or similar and was fine on the odd occasion that it was used in UK, but I may find that I get 'BBQ Envy' over the Webers! Regards, S.

Congratulations, VS. Well done on a pretty productive day as well, Mr Achiever!!! Regards, S.

Great News!!! Congratulations, CandyGirl - really pleased for you. Regards, S.

All, Yes, we are looking forward to unpacking our stuff when we eventually get somewhere to live more permanently. We are hoping to buy a lovely place in Freo, but need stars (and finance) to align, otherwise we may have to go into a rental for a year (which we had hoped to avoid). We should know one way or another in a couple of weeks and can them make a decision on unpacking the container. Until then, it is more living out of suitcases, but life is still really good! Odies, I think that you do have to pay customs fees on everything - I think that it was included in our contract with Crown. Regards, S.

Weston Clan, It cleared really quickly - Crown Relo informed us by email on 8 Nov 13 that the container was due to arrive 'over the weekend'. I emailed them the completed customs form on 13 Nov 13 and we were informed that it had cleared customs on 19 Nov 13, so 6 days to clear customs. The whole process was quicker and less painful than we had expected. Our Container left our old house in UK on 27 Sep 13 and was here and clear of customs on 19 Nov 13 = 7.5 weeks - not bad! Regards, S.

We have been informed by Crown that our container cleared customs with no dramas. The scrubbing and use of copious quantities of Jeyes fluid were worth it. Unfortunately, we don't yet have a house to move all of our belongings into! Oh, well, mustn't grumble - we are in Perth and it's great! In terms of advice for those packing up in UK, I would say read the rules and consult the forums on here and PIO - no untreated wood, no pine cones in christmas decorations, clean and disinfect all items that have been outside and you should be fine. Happy days, Regards, Sapper59.