SJT

Hi Jenpen, we are in Scarborough. We had a short term let in Wembley when we first arrived, which we loved and were in the catchment for Churchlands Senior High School, so we wanted to stay in the area, but unfortunately we could not afford the million plus price tag for a house big enough for the five of us, so we jumped across Scarborough Beach Road, we live 5 mins walk from the beach, which is great as we tend to walk down there most nights for a stroll and people watch, but it also means if we want a drink we can and then walk home. I use to be found often at the Squires Fortune drinking a crushed apple cider before my op . I am recovering well and even feel back to my old self today, I'm struggling with not being able to do anything, I am not use to this sitting on the sofa doing nothing, but I have finally watched all the Breaking Bad seasons. Two more weeks then I should get the all clear to drive and do gentle exercise, thank you for asking. XX

We used the same company as well - Insureyourmove.

I agree with Ali, your first friends here are people you meet through sites like these, to start of with they are like minded people that have gone through the same process so understand how you feel, and you must not underestimate how you will need to discuss these things with people who have gone through the same thing, I found I needed their help more after the move, than before (well women do anyway). Then as you become more settled you start to widen your circle. I volunteered at my daughter's school just so that I had people to generally chit chat with, then I started to form friends with the mums at school and they are Oz people, born and bred here in Australia and they have become really really good friends and people that I have a laugh with and can rely on. I recently had a stay in hospital and I'm at home recuperating, and it was my Oz friends that came to see me in hospital, made dinners for Pete and the kids and now between two of them are doing the school run as I am not allowed to drive until half way through the Easter holidays. We have also joined our local Sportsmen club, we have played a couple of games of bowls there and quite a few of the Oz men took to my little family and helped them out by showing them how to play properly, giving them tips, having a laugh with us and then saying we should join the club and they would nominate us and every time we go they come up say hello, ask how we are doing and generally having a laugh, which is something I never really experienced in the UK. On the whole I have found Australian people to be very very friendly, most will go out of their way to help and I have always found someone to chat to if I want to make the effort. I also live in an area where there are hardly any English people, it has a mixed culture but with a lot of Australian people, I do not know if this makes a difference or because where I live is a lively place, but from my experience they are very friendly and welcome new friends. I'm still very close friends with one of the people I met on here before we came out and I see them as my new extended family and there are a few others that I really enjoy their company (you know who you are), but unfortunately due to distance and family commitments we have not seen each other for a while, but I plan on rectifying that once I am up and out, Thursday mornings at Mullaloo for a start.

We never went with the removal company and saved 600 pounds, we used the list of items inventory that Anglo Pacific gave us, it made it very simple to go through the house and just write prices next to everything, we had to quote in AUD so simply knew the UK price and doubled it, we kept that inventory and had it in our papers that came on the plane with us, just is case something happened.

@mattsheed, your story about coming out to validate sounds very similar to ours. I knew hubby was unsettled and unhappy in the UK and knew that we had to do something about it. Even though moving to Oz was never my idea and I could take it or leave it, I went through the motions. When we came out to validate instead of seeing what a beautiful place I was in and seeing it as a holiday, everything I did was geared to moving, so we would be driving out in the car and I would be panicking that one day I would be driving here and get all stressed, every night I cried myself to sleep and I remember getting quite upset and saying to my husband that I could not believe we had found a new home for my furbabies as there was no way I could live in Oz, at that point he said just like you, that to just treat it as a holiday, relax and if when we got back to the UK and I really felt I could not move, then we would not, and the pressure was off and I had a fantastic holiday and really did not want to go home. Even though when sorting out everything for the move, we sold the house, closed bank accounts and just left one bank account open, we closed our business and left at the end of our company UK tax year, so we had no financial ties left in the UK, we had made provisions that if one of us really hated our new life, we would go back to the UK, which was great as it was there in the back of my mind, when I would cry myself to sleep every single night for about two/three weeks after we got here, and even though I would have my moments about going back for the first year, I knew that Perth was a much better place for us. We have been here two years this July and even though there have been moments when I wish I was back in the UK, we are all very settled here and enjoy our life. It is worth everyone who wants to give it a go trying it, as it could be the best thing you have ever done, and if it's not, the World is a very big place and I think once you make the decision to leave the UK, there is nothing stopping you achieving what you want, if Perth does not work out, you have the whole of Australia to explore, and again if that does not do it for you, then the whole World.

HI Jo, I fine, thank you for asking, just have to rest and do nothing for six weeks, which is easier said than done when you have a family. Mind you I have just finished watching Breaking Bad and now moving onto Game of Thrones. XX

it's good to see an old thread being brought back to use. This thread made me laugh lots of time when it first appeared and I am sure it will help lots of newbies out there who have never seen it. Actually whilst I'm housebound I think I might read it over again, just for a bit of light reading.

I think anyone can make it work here as much as they can make it work in the UK or anywhere else, you just have to be realistic and understand at times it is bloody hard work and I'm not taking physically and you will have days when you wondered what on earth you have done, and then on other days it will be the best decision you will have ever made. To not give it a go, would be a shame, as long as you are aware of the emotional side of things and accept that some days you will need a very large glass of wine/beer to help deal with that, as it does help. The one thing I would stress you do when you get here, if you feel lonely or down, is to get on here and say so, so many people will give helpful advice, offer to meet up for a coffee and mainly tell you what you are feeling is normal. I remember my first weeks, I was so low, crying all the time, really wanting to go home, the rest of the family were fine and thoroughly enjoying themselves. I looked on here to see if any one had felt the same, but could not really find anything, so I posted a new thread, saying how I felt. Well the response I got was fantastic, not especially on the thread, but all the PM's I got with people saying they had felt the same and gave me some great advice on how to deal with it.

I love living here in Perth and even though it has been extremely hard financially and emotionally, we have been here nearly two years and financially we are still not where we were when we left the UK, but we do get to spend more time as a family and lots of thing here are free. I struggled and sometimes still do with leaving family behind and that is the one thing I miss about my life in the UK and here is the big BUT, I was not close to any of my family and the in-laws were there for birthdays, Christmas and Easter but nothing else, we had no support, no help emotionally from family and none of this just popping in for coffee to see each other. If you are very close to family and have a great circle of friends, I would presume it would be very difficult to leave that support behind, the guilt I have with my children is that they miss out on special celebrations with family and I worry about their 18ths, engagements and weddings etc without family and as I have said we were not close with them. When you first get out here you are on your own and it is bewildering, luckily I had this page and I was a member of a Facebook page, which is where I met my new friends, it takes time to meet friends here and you can go through a lot of coffee mornings, to find some people that are on your same wave length and you just learn to do things differently like at Christmas and Birthdays. I would never tell anyone what to do as the decision is only one that each individual can make, but as Verystormy says, you still have to work, housework still needs doing, the kids still have to go to school and do homework, I have found it's only our social life that as changed and that is because of the weather, we can walk to the beach most evenings and take a stroll, the kids can play outside for hours on end not just during summer, but you will find it is just you and your small family to start off with until you make those friends. If I'm being 100% honest, if I had a very close and loving family I would have been back on the plane going back to the UK by now. I found it very hard this Christmas, as I now have a lot of Australian friends who are fantastic and have made me and my family a part of their lives and they have done and will do anything to help us out, but to see them getting excited about going to relatives for Christmas, or having cousins coming over for the day made both my children and I very sad. We cannot afford to go back to the UK for Christmas, and to be honest, it is just one day, as everyone else still have their lives to live. It was only our second Christmas here so I cannot say if it will get any better. We have already decided that we are spending next Christmas Day will all our new English friends here, as they feel exactly the same way we do. There is no harm in giving it a go and seeing how you like it, but be prepared for the pain of leaving family behind, I'm not trying to scare you or put you off, but just trying to being realistic, as you will both have bad days, and you need to think of the bigger picture when those days arrive, try it for two years, and give it a go as it could be the best thing you ever did, just be realistic that it may not work and have a contingency back up plan, make sure you have enough funds for the flight back. We always knew if we hated it we could go back and had the funds there for flights home, we never needed them, but I don't know how it would feel, if you felt like you were trapped. Being able to make informed decisions about whether to stay or go takes the pressure off, we always knew as we had listened to what advice other people gave, that the first two years are the hardest and we never planned on going back to the UK during the first two years. Now I'm here and settled, even though I still have my bad days, I won't go back to the UK, there are other places nearer to explore and see, and Perth is a wonderful place to have family visit. Good luck with everything.

For food shopping I do use the big chains, more convenient and less time consuming, but I was like that in the UK, if I passed a greengrocer I would some fruit and veg, but only for that day as I found it did not last long, but did not have the time to go food shopping every couple of days, but for coffee and restaurants I prefer to support independents. I've discovered I love Squires apple crush cider, and even though we have a new Squires bar opened up by us, and it is lovely, most of the time we still choose to buy a bottle of Squires cider from a local cafe up a few doors away to help support the independent stores.

Annjean, pets become family members and become important in our lives. I've just spent a week in hospital and even though we have only had our puppy since Sept, she has been by my side all day every day since then, so I really really missed her, and she missed me, luckily the kids could come and see me, but Cara had to wait until I came home and to be honest I cried a bit when I came home and could cuddle her. You will have to grieve for her and have good and bad days and you must realise you will burst into tears when you walk into a room and expect to see her there or do something that reminds you of her, unfortunately that is the downside of owning a pet, but the pleasure they give when they are with us is unbelievable. I do feel so sorry for your loss big cyber hug.

@JenPen, that is exactly what we enjoy, we have not eaten a meal (other than breakfast) inside our home since Nov, all lunch and dinners are eaten outside and it's lovely.

We wanted more family time and that is what we get. I see a lot more of hubby, of course there are times when he is extra busy at work, but we sometimes meet up for lunch during the day, we could never do that in the UK as he commuted into London everyday. Here because we live close to his work he can pop home and see the kids plays, assemblies, sports days etc. Also the weather makes a difference as we walk down the seafront a least a couple of times a week in the evening, sometimes we just walk, other times we grab a coffee or glass of wine.

Go Walkabout was the only company I could find that did one way insurance and went beyond the customs gate once you landed, you also get to choose how long you want the cover for from 7, 14 to 21 days.

Yep like Porty, nearly everyday. I was at Matilda Bay on Thursday, just having a coffee at the tea rooms, watching the boats on the swan and I said to my in-laws who are here on holiday, that I felt like I'm on holiday and they laughed and said that I was very lucky as I live here and can do these things every day of the week. The skies this week have been spectacular of an evening and a wonderful thing to see sitting by the Indian ocean, a cider in one hand and thanking my lucky stars that we moved here. Also on a health point of view, I saw my doctor two weeks ago on a Mon, who felt that I needed to see a specialist, I had a scan the next day, specialist appointment a week later, and I am now booked in for quite a lot of major surgery in two weeks time, so all in all, it will be four weeks from seeing my doctor, to having an operation being done in the public sector and that was a wow I'm glad I live here moment. Now I am not slating the NHS, but I do feel that it is very over stretched, as some of my problems should have been dealt with when I was back in the UK, but they just kept coming up with different solutions, where as this specialist took one look at me, and said it needed sorting now. You still have to work here, do the washing, kids still have to go to school, you still have your worries, but when things get tough, a quick walk along the beach, clears the mind and puts things back into prospective.

@odies, I have brought all our medical records and until recently presumed I had wasted my time, as the doctors here were not interested in them, but I needed to see a specialist this week and having my old notes made his decision a lot simpler as he then had the facts that I had been suffering a while.

Honestly I would bring as much as possible. It is much better to make do in a rental with stuff you already own, then going out and buying stuff, that may or may not fit the house you will eventually own. We ended up spending about $10,000 on furniture we needed when we got here, and none of it I want to keep long term, it was just making do. As we live in an expensive area, we cannot afford a huge house here and so to be honest the stuff we had brought, we might not have been able to use in some of the houses we liked and we would have had to sell it after only owning it a year. I do know lots of people that buy off gumtree when they first arrived, but we have never found anything we like, although we have sold stuff through gumtree since being here quite easily. They have an Ikea here, but it is slightly more expensive even with the exchange rate than the UK one, and apparently it is more expensive than the other Oz stores, because apparently they put up the price for shipping it here, now I do not know if that is true, but that is what a member of staff told me, when we went to buy my daughter's chest of drawers as it was $10 more than the advertised price on-line. Jo its getting so close for you now.

Put everything you do not want to go into the container, into a separate room or corner if possible and make sure the guys know that area is not to be packed, those guys pack things up so quick, if you shut your eyes you might miss it, then relax and maybe go out for lunch. There is nothing you can do once they start and you feel like a spare part. This is a very exciting part and you may have mixed feelings, we were very excited and it made it seem very real, but we had already moved out of our family home a year before, and we were living in rented, so there were no memories to feel emotional about. Good luck with it all.

That is what we are here for, it is not always happy feelings and sometimes you need to tell someone. I found it very hard when we first got, I think I cried myself to sleep nearly every night for months. I still gee have been here a year and half now, and I can say hand on my heart, I love it here and feel settled, don't get me wrong, I still get upset at Xmas, Birthdays etc, but I can see the benefits of living here for us as a family, outweigh the emotional side. Whereabouts are you living at the moment and may I be rude and ask roughly how old you are? Just for those people on here that maybe in your age range and would like to meet up or can help suggest where to look. I am 43, but have a mental age of a 12 year old. There are nearly always meet ups going on for various ages, and groups and I use to hate just turning up at a cafe trying to find someone I had arranged to have coffee with, but unfortunately until you are working, it might be the only way to get to meet people which you have something in common with, and from there grows great friendships. Also what ages are your children, it took me quite a well to get to know the mums at school, but again over time I have built up a good selection of friends from the school. On Facebook there is a Poms in Perth page and there are always met ups being arranged, there is even a new one set up off that page for the over 40's, which I have just joined and I will be going to the coffee mornings soon. It does get better but you just have to ride out the roller coaster of emotions until you settle in properly, I always found an alcoholic beverage helped me through.

I still read every message put up, after a year and half here, PP, can still take up a lot of valuable time, but it's something that I cannot give up, and to be completely honest I do not want to. I try to offer advice if and when I can. Unfortunately sometimes the advice you give, maybe not advice, but even your experience, can be taken the wrong way, and unfortunately I upset someone one day regarding what is the best time to start high school here, when leaving the UK, and this was based purely on mine and my year 10 son's experience, I had even spoke to him whilst I was writing the message and said what do you think, and he gave his side, which I felt was important as it had affected him much more than it did me. I ended up upsetting someone, which was never my intention, so to be honest I tend to hang back on my experiences now

Not trying to teach you to suck eggs, but have you thought about training before you leave for her timidness. There is a trainer here who is fantastic with nervous, scared, hyper, well to be honest every type of dog you can imagine and her work is excellent, so there might be one near you, that could help calm her and get her on track. Only a thought but it might make bringing her a bit easier for you to handle, or even if you decided to leave her behind, you might be able to equip her with the knowledge she will need to help her settle into a new family.

We have been here been a year and a half, and we rehomed our two cats a year before we moved out here, purely because Missy was such a nervous cat, we thought the flight we do more harm than good, whenever she was put in a cattery she would stay under her blanket the whole time, never coming out for food or a cuddle from the owners of the cattery, and at the time there was a longer quarantine period. It was the worse decision of all, especially for the kids, and to be honest they still have not forgiven us about it. The move here was so traumatic for the children, that to have their fur babies arrive a few weeks after them would have made the world of difference, and that is the only thing I would do different out of the whole experience. We now have two pets, a black rescue cat and a cavoodle, who we all adore and love but we still miss our original babies. If your children really are attached to your dog, then personally I would bring her, as a few weeks of upset for her, which she would still have if you rehomed her, but its two weeks out of her life, then she gets the most important people back in her life. Also dogs are a big part of life here, lots of cafes provide water bowls and treats for them. All the parks around me are full of dogs meeting up with other dogs for play dates, I know that sounds daft, but it really happens here, so you might find your baby will help a bit with your social life here, as you may meet like minded people on her walks. Cara our cavoodle loves the beach, she is too young to be let of the lead yet, but she loves to run around, playing with the other dogs, running in and out of the water, just having fun. As Vstormy says you just adapt during the summer, Cara stays indoors during really hot days and tends to sleep lots, come the evening time when it gets cooler, she runs around like a loon. Good luck with your decision, but from my experience, which is what you have asked for, try and bring her as it may make your life a little bit easier for when you first get here.

@Keefo What you have achieved is a very big thing, and even if you were back in the UK your wife would be nervous about starting a new job, let alone after dealing with all the emotional stuff over the last few months as well as finding a new long term rental. I have been here a year and half and I can honestly say it is only now that I have started to stop worrying and relax and enjoy life a little bit. It does get easier, you have done the hardest bit. Please send your wife my wishes for tomorrow and I bet she will find everyone really friendly and willing to help her out and it is the start of her new life here.

Hi Porty, I think you are doing it just right too. I was having this same discussion today with friends and I came to the conclusion that I am very happy in my little house, with just enough room for us five, with no swimming pool, no boat and no fancy cars. I did not come here to clean a big house, maintain a pool and the up keep you have to do on a boat, not saying that if I won the lottery I would not buy these things, as if I had that much money I'm sure I would have a housekeeper, pool man etc, but I have learnt since being here it is the little things that bring me pleasure, and I came here to get away from keeping up with the Jones'.

I am not sure where you have got this information, but we do not earn near $180k and we no longer get child benefit. We did get some type of child benefit, not any other kind of benefit, when we came over in July 2013 on a 176 pr visa we knew we could not claim anything for the first two years and had not planned on doing so anyway, but were advised we could get child benefit this was in the Nov, after being here for four months. Hubby was in no rush to find work, and we had made financial plans to enable him to take time off when we first got here to help settle the kids, find a family home and then find a job that suited him. It took Pete 7 months to find work, so we were effectively living off our savings for 7 months which was fine. When Pete started work in the Feb the child benefits payments dropped to less than half what we were getting and then from July the start of the new tax year all payments ceased. Everyone's lifestyle is completely different and so what income they need to "survive" is different. At the moment we are financially worse off than we were in the UK, but that is ok, as we get more family time which was the whole reason for moving here. Back in the UK Pete was out the door by 6am in the morning, home around 7.30 to 8.00pm, have dinner, then sit in the office doing paperwork etc for work until the small hours. Here we have a much better work/life ratio and I have hardly spent any money during this long school holiday, as you don't need to, picnic lunch and the day spent on the beach or at the park, the weather does make a difference as during the whole school holidays there has been no rain, and if its too hot, we have spent the day indoors playing games, then gone to the beach in the evening. We are very lucky where we live and at least two/three times a week we walk down to the sea front, when Pete comes home from work, take a gentle stroll along the sea front then sit and people watch whilst having a coffee, all very relaxed and laid back and the exact reason why we moved here.