wild rose

Well, I used a large Movecube from Nottingham to Perth and have been really pleased with the entire service. It does take a bit longer to reach us than having a full size container to yourself but it was within the 87 days quoted at the beginning so that was fine by me. We must have packed it well because we had no breakages at all and no damp/mould even though we didn't do anything to prevent it. We updated our details with Seven Seas once we'd moved into our rental a couple of months after the cube was collected and had a mobile phone number to give them and it was no problem. If you have any questions I could help with feel free to ask xx

Ahh I see, no rebate - that would make it quite expensive. Yes you're right, school starts later here and the age cut off is at a different time (1st July instead of September). My DD was 4 in July and started in Foundation full-time in September 2014 in the UK for 2 months before we left. In Perth there was nothing for her to do without me being present unless I paid for Daycare. She was eligible to start kindy from February 2015, she can start full time at Pre-Primary in February 2016. There is a calculator online somewhere, you put in your child's DOB and it tells you when they can start school in WA. It's a pain but not a lot we can do about it so just make sure you factor it in. I'm not familiar with Rockingham/Baldivis so the situation regarding availability of Daycare might be very different down there. I'm in Murdoch, about 15 minutes South of the city. Good luck with everything x

I was a compliance auditor for the Ministry of Justice in the UK. There are lots of jobs advertised and once I started applying it didn't take too long to get one. If I were you I'd definitely start contacting places and applying before you leave the UK to save time. Hubby found it pretty easy to find work as a joiner. How old are your children @Mrskelly2014 and where are you heading? My daughter turned 4 in July so we secured a kindy place at school starting from the new school year at the beginning of February, but we did it before we left the UK in October. Schools can take children from outside the boundary as long as they have space. It is free but it's only part time (2 days one week, 3 days the next). This was no good on it's own for someone who wants to work full-time so I also needed to secure a kindy place at a daycare centre for the days she's not at school. They couldn't do the alternating weeks so I have to pay for 3 days in Daycare each week and as the hours are more convenient than school (and I'm paying for it anyway!) Ella will go to school for 2 days and daycare for 3 days each week. After taking into account Child Care Rebate (everyone gets 50% of child care costs from Centrelink and it can be paid directly to the provider) I pay $165 per week for the 3 days she's there. I'm sure they have places become available during term time, I would suggest getting in touch with some local daycare centres before you go out there. If you know you will definitely be starting work straight away I would try and secure a place before leaving the UK, you could even reserve a place at a couple of places so you can pick the one you like. You can always cancel the place if your plans change. As for before/after school and holiday cover, a lot of the schools do OSH Club (Out of School Hours club). At our school it covers from 7am until 6 pm. The cost is $18.50 before school including breakfast and $25.50 after school including afternoon tea. Don't forget that you can claim Child Care Rebate for this as well so can have 50% of these costs paid for. They also do a holiday club although this is based at a different local school and I'm not sure about cost. I'm quite lucky really. My sister doesn't work yet and has offered to help with the school run as her children go to the same school. My hubby starts and finishes work a lot earlier than me and with his early finish on Friday it means he can collect them that day at least. Plus the job I've secured offers 'flexible' working. I'm yet to test how flexible it is but I'm going to try and negotiate that I work 3 longer days, 1 normal day and 1 short day so I can take and collect the kids from school on that one day. If at all possible I'd like to have regular personal contact with the teachers etc. I haven't seen anywhere or anyone mention a childminder, I'm not sure that it's big over here but I could be wrong.

We've not been here long, only 3 months. I have found that the stresses of applying for the visa and waiting were replaced by the stresses of setting our new lives up again once we were here! But that was short lived and now everything is back to normal. There have been a couple of days throughout the entire process (visa application and after moving) when I didn't feel supported enough but I think that's more to do with the dynamics of our relationship than anything else. My hubby decided to use our arrival as an opportunity to give up smoking. A new environment and new routines etc, I'm so proud of him as I know it's something he tried to do before but couldn't manage it. He was pretty grumpy in those first few weeks when I could have done without it and it didn't help that we didn't have our own place (I am eternally grateful to my sister for putting up with us for so long) but the longer benefits of him not smoking made it worthwhile. Now he doesn't think about smoking and I have ticked everything off the boring but necessary to do list things are much more rosy. I'd say our relationship is very similar to before, it's everything else that is different!

Hi everyone, It's been a while since I posted, I've been soo busy!! I made the move over to Perth from Nottingham at the end of October 2014 with my husband and 2 children (aged 7 and 4). The goodbyes were tough, especially my parents, but so far I haven't found it emotionally difficult at all. I can't say I'm really missing anything. I think this is probably what I'm most surprised about and I imagine you'll never know how you'll feel until you've actually done it. Everything I put in this post is of course my own personal opinion, your experiences and opinions may be very different to ours and that is ok. We arrived on a Friday afternoon, my sister collected us from the airport. She moved out here in March 2014 and our families are incredibly close. It was so lovely to see them again! The kids were really good throughout the plane journey even though they only had a few hours sleep. I arrive in Perth in a bit of a daze and the journey to my sisters home felt surreal, I couldn't quite believe we were finally here! My first impression was that I was surprised by how many trees there are and by how wide the roads are. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with my sister for as long as we needed to, in the end we were there nearly 8 weeks before getting the keys to our own rental. We enrolled our kids in the local school before leaving the UK, Ella secured the last kind place but for every other year from pre-primary upwards as long as you live within the boundary they have to take them. Compared to the primary school in England I personally prefer Winthrop Primary School so far. They appear very well organised and the teachers we've had so far have been great. Harry hasn't found that he's miles ahead or behind the rest of the class and the report we received for the last few weeks of last year suggested he was in a similar position to where he was deemed to be in the UK. The main difference for me is that there appears to be an awful lot of 'gifted and talented' programs. I'm still trying to get my head around it all but first impressions are good, they seem to recognise talented individuals and do something about it. This is an area I need to understand better though. Neither of us had a job to come out to. My husband, a joiner, responded to a few Seek adverts with his CV whilst we were still in the UK and secured some interviews for the week after we arrived. He was offered a job at the first interview and started work 3 weeks after landing. The work is not as high quality as he's used to and the people he works with don't appear to be particularly talented but he's happy to be bringing a wage in for now. We decided I would take a few months off, to settle the kids into school, find a house and get all the jobs ticked off. It also meant that I could have the kids throughout the school summer holidays and not have to worry about childcare and also I'd be off whilst my parents visited for 3 weeks in January. I had decided that I wanted to start work full time around the middle of February giving the kids a couple of weeks to settle back at school after the holidays. I starting actively applying for jobs in January, mainly government roles which often offer flexible working etc. As in the UK the government recruitment process is slow! I also applied for a couple of jobs advertised privately on Seek and following my first interview on Wednesday they called me on Friday to offer me the position. I start on Wednesday! For this job, and another government position that I wasn't shortlisted for, they commented on the large number of applicants having received over 50 applications. The role isn't for as much money as I think I ought to be on as I earned an above average salary in the UK but I'm happy to have gotten my foot in the door and it doesn't stop me continuing to look. Our combined salary will enable us to live comfortably and save a bit too. Leave Loading (where they pay you 17.5% more when you're on annual leave) and Salary Packaging (a salary sacrifice scheme where you are able to pay for some things directly from your salary before tax has been deducted) appear to be pretty common here. From my limited experience I'd say that 4 weeks annual leave plus public holidays seems to be normal (although I've got 5 weeks with my new job). I'd heard that daycare often get's booked up quickly and I have found this to be true. I visited 4 Daycare centres in November to secure a place from February and they had either no or very limited places left so this is definitely something people need to consider. If I had left it until I had secured a job to find a daycare place I'm not sure I could have found one. All public school students, including kindy, have a list of stationary and books to buy for each school year which adds up to a fair amount. I found it surprising that this stuff isn't provided by the school. At our school there is then 'voluntary contributions' of $100 per student and 'excursion fees' of $90 for each year. I was also surprised at the cost of school uniform. At our school you must wear the polo shirt with the school emblem and a particular type of shorts or trousers. They're pretty expensive when you're comparing it to Tesco or M&S. A school dress is $55/$60 and 1 polo shirt is $24 for example. Overall I don't find that cost of living in Perth is very different to that in Nottingham, with the exception of rental payments. For a family of 4 I spend around $250 - $300 on our weekly grocery shopping. I do a big shop at Spudshed and then a smaller shop at Woolworths or Coles. This isn't very much different to what I used to spend in the UK which was £130-£150. I've found that the range and cost of furniture to be pretty good to start us off. We bought a large Move Cube and decided to buy most thing again. Super Amart, Furniture Bizarre and Ikea are all pretty cheap and have started us off. The houses are so much bigger and are often more open plan. Apple products work out a bit cheaper over here too. I find most electrical items to be good value, the only thing I thought was expensive was fridge-freezers. I find entrance fees at attractions are generally good value when compared to those in the UK and there is plenty of free stuff going on. We've got solar panels and bore reticulation so hopefully our water and electricity bills will be ok. We pay $70 a month for an unlimited landline and broadband with TPG and they've been find so far, it's a lot cheaper than some of the others at the moment. We have a Pre-pay sim with Optus and pay $30 per month for 1G of data, 250 minutes and unlimited messages which is plenty for us, the cost of a months contract wasn't worth it for us. In the weeks after we arrived life was a bit like a whirlwind! We tried to find a balance most days of doing something for the kids and ticking something off the 'to do' list. We set up our Anz accounts from the UK and had to attend in branch to activate it and receive our cards etc. The service was good although the lady made a mistake on my debit card meaning I wasn't able to use it to pay for anything (that was embarrassing!) and I had to go back in branch, she'd checked the wrong box. I used TorFX to transfer our money. It felt wrong transferring such a large sum into their account following nothing more than a couple of phone calls but it was very easy and simple with no problems whatsoever. I was pleased with the exchange rate at the time. There was medicare, buying/registering cars, mobile phone contracts, centrelink and childcare. We've registered with a local GP practise although I need to read more about how medicare works cuz I don't really get it at the moment. If you're bringing a child under 7 be sure to get a copy of there immunisation records as it is needed to determine what catch-up program is needed and a copy is provided to the Immunisation Register. There were 2 that my daughter (4) hadn't received in the UK, Hepatitis B and Chicken Pox. She's already had chicken pox so the Dr was happy to confirm to the Immunisation Register that that one isn't needed due to a natural immunity but she's had to start a course of 3 injections for Hep B. Centrelink won't pay you any family assistance (including child care benefit or child care rebate) unless you are up to date with the Australian vaccinations or on a catch up program which is interesting. Moving into our rental made a big difference for us. Until then it kind of felt too much like a holiday. It wasn't as difficult to secure one as I thought it might be. It was the quality of the houses on offer that had me most worried! We were looking at a budget of up to $650 per week. A lot of them were in desperate need of an update (and a good clean!). On the odd day when the temperature approaches 40 degrees I'm grateful for the air conditioning in the evening and it can feel too hot to do very much at all unless it involves a pool. Although I am surprised by how quickly you become accustomed to the warmth. I love it that I now have day after day of sunshine, anything around 30 degrees is my fave. I'm not sure that the novelty will ever wear off for me. I very much prefer to apply suncream every day rather than getting wrapped up in coats, scarfs and gloves. I prefer sun hats to woolly hats lol. We're all really happy here so far and have no regrets. I can't believe we actually live in this beautiful place! Sorry this is so long, well done if you've made it this far! If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help

Have you had a look at the Vetassess website? I recall the joiner practical assessments were listed on there but as they were so few and far between hubby decided to do a technical interview instead! That came through pretty quickly though. I'll keep everything crossed xxx

That's what I have done @cutchibear I've filled cabinets and drawers with clothes and things, then wrapped it with bubble wrap and will then do the shrink-wrap. I've marked the container size with masking tape in the spare room and have started piecing it all together. We'll add the majority of the big things this weekend and then the cube is coming on Monday. I'm going to label the boxes up and complete the inventory in advance too although I keep thinking I'm going to run out of time!!!

Exciting!! What occupation are you applying for a skill assessment through Vetassess? xx

Haven't really thought much about damp but I've bought a few rolls of bubble wrap and will be wrapping all the furniture in it to try and stop it being damaged. I've also bought a roll of shrink wrap so everything will then get some of that as well! As we're packing it ourselves I was thinking it's got to be better to be a little too protective rather than not enough. Not really sure what packaging could help stop damp though. If it's wrapped in plastic it might do more harm than good maybe?? What were you thinking of doing?

http://www.det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/earlychildhood/detcms/school-support-programs/early-childhood-education/home/calculator.en xx

This might help http://www.det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/earlychildhood/detcms/school-support-programs/early-childhood-education/home/calculator.en

Same here, we uploaded colour scans of the originals but they weren't certified and our visa was granted without query x

Are you going on a PR visa? Surely if you're a PR there would be no need to have 6 months left on your passport before it expires but it's not something I'd want to take a chance on tbh. Did you use an agent to get your visa? If so I'd definitely be giving them a call. Otherwise I'd be on the phone to your airline. In fact I'd probably email the airline so I had something in writing and if they say it's ok I'd take a printed version with me to the airport. Worse case scenario is that you'd need to pay extra to get an fast track passport, maybe have a look at the UK Passport website so you have a back-up plan and know where you stand. Hope someone in the know can confirm 6 months isn't needed xx

We're using vac packs in our Move Cube although I wasn't going to bother putting them in a box. I was just going to label the pack and include it on the inventory, that way I was hoping they could fill some of the narrow gaps that are inevitable! I hadn't thought about the silicon sachets though, hmmmm might have to go get some. I'd put them inside the vac pack. My large cube is coming on the 20th October - not long now!

There's something on their website where you can enter the dimensions of an item and see if it will fit in x

I imagine it might be more difficult to get insurance if you've packed it yourself??

Wow! How exciting. Your adventure begins in just a few more hours :-D Enjoy every second and be sure to let us know how you're getting on xxx

My niece and nephew like 'Bounce' although I'm not sure where it is (or where you are!) x

With the Move Cube through Seven Seas I paid a small deposit of £150 when I booked then the balance is paid on collection of the packed cube. I'm not sure how much you're planning on taking, and/or whether Seven Seas have other services available that are paid for in the same way??

@immiBees @ninny @jac2011 Have you got your results yet? I've been keeping my fingers crossed for you all xx

Hi My hubby's a joiner and for his skill assessment we sent certified copies of his certificates rather than the originals. We sent certified copes of everything. We sent a couple of photo's of pieces he made in the workshop but they didn't show him in them and I doubt they made any difference to the application. Good luck x

That's right, no bag can weigh more than 32kg - see 'Baggage Weight Limitations' here - http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/travel-information/baggage-allowances/ Although it confirms on their website 30kg checked in allowance each if you email them and ask if you can have an increased allowance for a one-way ticket on a unused PR visa they confirm you can have 40kg each.

Best of luck! You'll soon be there and all the hard work of gaining that visa will be worth it xx

Wow what a flight to experience your first time! It's quite a lot better than your average Easy Jet journey We are flying out 4 weeks today. Most of the big stuff is dealt with and we're now at a stage where we're sorting all the detail. This alone is enough to make me feel quite nervous but I've also starting experiencing some of my 'lasts' which is weird to say the least. It was our last big family get together last weekend with my husbands family and is my last day at work on Tuesday. My car is being collected next Friday and then that weekend will be my last proper girls night out for a long time. They're coming thick and fast now! Eeek! It'll be here before we know it. Good luck

My daughter was 3, son was 6. They did photos, height and weight, basic eye sight test. Harry at 6 had to do a wee sample but Ella at 3 didn't. They listened to their chest, felt their tummy, looked at their hands (??), looked in their eyes and ears, felt their throat. They didn't have to go anywhere on their own and it wasn't anything that worried them. Ella was really interested in my blood test so I let her stay with me and she watched close up asking loads of questions (whilst I looked the other way lol). Definitely no needles for the kids though. Hope it all goes ok x