Lynseylou

Hi, There are some seasonal jobs on the Rural Enterprises website. I don't know if you have any farm experience or not so they may not be suitable but worth a look. Enjoy your travels

Hi, we are looking at Movecube. What size container did you have Pegg? Did you get any wooden items treated? We were looking at taking our sofa and getting it sprayed which I think costs about £300, but the man I spoke to at Movecube said on landing in Perth any wooden items in our cube would be destroyed. Are you supposed to have wooden items sprayed in the UK before shipping? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I think we will contact them tomorrow and officially accept the offer. Unfortunately we are not currently in the position where we could keep the house on and move to Oz but job prospects for hubby in farming are much better than UK, considerable increased earning potential in farming plus house, car, ute, meat, water and electricity and 60-65k salary. He also has joinery which he could fall back on if farming jobs don't work out or are too rural. It's easy to look at job location on map but I think until you visit the more rural areas it would be difficult to commit, 300k east of Perth is a bit of a thought! Hope the house sells soon and the job hunting is going well. Thanks again for your input

It is a big saving Very Stormy. We are just a bit disappointed as it is £10,000 under the valuation and normally in Scotland you get over the valuation. We are probably going to accept it though the sale could go through in six weeks. When it is accepted it feels like things will start to happen e.g. visa for me and firming up jobs for my husband. Not looking forward to packing up the house we live in but at least the tenanted house will be straightforward. That just reaffirms why accepting that offer is the way forward. Thanks for the message Very Stormy. Hope you are settling in to the UK okay. Did you get your house sold in Australia? It is a lovely house

Thanks Takeme2Oz. We have received an offer below valuation on the house, now just to decide whether to accept it or not. It would certainly speed things up for us as it is from our tenant and would save putting it on the market. Decisions, decisions......

I would agree with the others and say go where the job offer is. Sydney and the surrounding areas are beautiful and there is plenty to do, but it is a lot busier. My husband is also a carpenter and we are currently in visa process for me, as he is Australian. His immediate family are all on the East coast but he has cousins in the West. We have spent some time in WA but lived in Sydney for a year. Housing is more expensive in the east but probably earning potential as a joiner is higher due to demand. There are lots of good areas. His family are in Camden/Bowral/ Elanora Heights and Wollongong and we have friends and family in Sutherland shire. It will all come down to budget and job location. Hope that helps. Pm me if you want more info on locations as my in laws came back from East coast last Monday. Hope this helps

So I finally told my parents and in laws this weekend. As expected my mum and dad were supportive but I think may be devasted. .... My mum said she didn't sleep the night after I told her, my parents are so close to the grandchildren. I am so sad to be leaving them too but we are not local to them currently so hoping a move would allow us more concentrated time together e.g if they come out for a month instead of occasional trips during the school holidays. We Skype regularly and call so that wouldn't change. We are currently 4hrs away from them. The in laws were surprised but supportive of us going to Australia but were dead against WA as they are from the east coast, and that is where immediate family live. They were saying "Perth is the most isolated city in the world" I don't think they have been there for 20 years and have no idea what it is like now. We were there 10 years ago and spent a bit of time with family and really liked it. The cost of rent is much higher in the Sydney area and to be honest we are not going to be living on the doorstep of either sets of grandparents. They are just back from NSW last week and love north NSW. Oh well, it is a relief to have it out there. Let's just hope the house sale goes through quickly ?

I totally understand how you feel. When we were in oz before and my mum left I cried a lot! at the airport and my hubby had to quickly usher me out the airport. My dad had already left as he only had two weeks and I felt so bad leaving her when she was flying back on her own. It's tough at the time but it will pass

Same for us. Would depend on location and date as we are in the north of Scotland ?

We are not there yet but hope someone on here can help out. It's good to have a support network when you have a new baby, even if it is just someone to hold the baby for 20mins to let you enjoy your coffee while it is hot. Some toddler groups do bump to baby so you can go while you are pregnant and meet other mums in the area before baby arrives. Might be worth checking out local community centres or churches as they both normally have the best groups Hope your pregnancy is going smoothly and you are not too tired

Good on you girls for organising a meet up. Maybe one day I will join you when VISA is through. I have a 7, 5, 4 year old. Have fun in the sun this weekend. We are still at 4.5 degs in Scotland. Can't wait to be out without wellies, waterproof jackets and layers of clothes!! ?

Sorry to hear that. All the best, hope it all works out for you soon ?

Totally feel your pain Pegg. Love your positive attitude though and I like to think I am a bit like that myself. Life is meant for living, life is short, and just now we are stuck in a rat race. Hubby working seven days a week. Life is just flying by. I want to dip my toes in the ocean! To see my hubby go to work without 3 layers of clothes, then a boiler suit and then waterproofs and wellies. I know the heat can take getting used to but when we lived in Oz before he did some roofing and coped fine with the heat. He even got sent home when it rained! Just dreading telling the family though...... I don't want to break my mum and dads heart, but I feel it is the right decision for our family. We currently are about 4hrs away but they come up every couple of weeks and we go down during the school hols. I just don't want to have this conversation. We will probably have more time together as they could come out for blocks of time and stay with us but I suppose it is just the thought that we could be there in a couple of hours if need be. So, so hard x

Hello Cath! Thanks for taking the time to reply and for all the information. I will look into all of these options. My hubby's passport is up for renewal so we just need to get a time for him to go to London to get his new one. Will look into whether the kids are eligible by descent. Their grandparents are Australian and obviously my hubby was born in Australian and lived there till his parents moved here for work. The whole Visa thing does seem to be a bit of a jigsaw, just need to work out how to put all the pieces together!. It appears that I have to apply for a 47SP Application to Migrate to Australia and then my husband will apply for a 40SP as my sponsor and then we can apply for the actual visa as I need a Transaction Reference no to apply for visa and this is the only way of getting that number! I have contacted Go Matilda for my free appt so just waiting to hear back about appt times. Thankfully, the children are all ours, we have no criminal records and the only time I have been in hospital was to have the kids *touch wood! Thank goodness I don't have to sit IELTS as that seems to be a bit of a stumbling block for some. Maybe one day we will share a coffee and chat in Mandurah Cath. I remember visiting a lovely ice cream shop called Simmos and having a boysenberry sorbet, memories.... have a great weekend x

Thank you for the reply Rossmoyne and for the kind welcome. I will look into Go Matilda. We currently have a tenant in our house and he wants to buy it. We live on site for my husbands job so can stay in this house till everything goes through. I have been surprised by the cost of visas. Just for visas and flights we will be about £10,000. Hopefully once everything is sorted we will be able to get a rental fairly quickly as don't want to overstay welcome with family. I know all this will be a long way off but trying to look into things a bit. Will I need to sit IELTS?