wallywombat

SOLD! Hi, We have 40 x Ikea hangers available: http://www.ikea.com/aa/en/catalog/products/10161083/ and 9 x http://www.ikea.com/aa/en/catalog/products/80173308/ $30 ONO. We are located in Pearsall WA (6065) and the hangers come from a smoke fee, pet-free and clean home and only had for 1.5 years . Rosie

Hi there, If anyone is looking for a brilliant driving instructor in the Northern suburbs, I can highly recommend Robbie Madden based in Hocking. I'm a late learner and recently passed at 41 years old and can't recommend Robbie enough. She is fun, positive and focused on getting you to become a safe driver AND focused on preparing you for the test. I think she works with a lot of new immigrants as well so well worth a try if you are having to take your test again if coming from countries where you can't get a straight swap for the license. Just thought I would share this in case someone is looking for an instructor in the northern suburbs. Thanks, Rosie

Hi Keefo, I have the smart Rider card and whitfords to perth is $3.98 one way.

G'day! Just checking in to see if anyone who is on the Visa 190 has actually received a survey from Immigration after their 6 month stint. We have been here over a year now and haven't had any contact from the government asking us to complete any survey. However, it all seemed like a bit of a farce when we registered with them and after being here a year, with a better understanding of the WA way....I doubt we will ever hear anything. Curious to know and look forward to hearing from other State Nominated Visa holders! Rosie

Hi there, I thought I would share the info I researched a couple of weeks ago. Spent a few hours working through it but thee info is all find on ATO (eventually!!) . So here goes.... From what I understand, there are 3 medical charges to be aware of: Medical Levy (ML) Most taxpayers pay this and it is 1.5% of taxable income; exceptions include low income and new residents in their first year.( http://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Medicare-levy/) Medical Levy Surcharge (MLS) This is in addition to the ML. This is the one you will pay if you earn over a certain amount and don’t have private health insurance (and I think this is the one people say they get stung with!!) If you earned a joint income of $168K, you would have to pay a MLS of $2,520 for the year if you didn’t have adequate private insurance. This is where it’s usually your best interest in taking the private insurance. http://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Medicare-levy/Medicare-levy-surcharge/ Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) This isn’t directly related to your tax issues but rather an overall government initiative to encourage people to take private hospital cover. Basically, if you are over 30 and don’t have private hospital health cover, if you decide to take it at a later date, they will charge you a LHC which is 2% loading on top of your premium for every year you are aged over 30 (and will charge this for 10 years). If you are new resident, you have a year’s grace if your are over 30 to take the cover, but if you were to decide not to take anything now and take it later, they would calculate the LHC from your age and not from the time when you first landed. All of the information is here: http://www.privatehealth.gov.au/healthinsurance/incentivessurcharges/lifetimehealthcover.htm I hope this helps breaking down the various charges. I have yet to take a tax course here but did find all the information through the ATO website (and some might think I am odd to enjoy looking things like this up but don’t like the government to get one over on me....or I like to know exactly how they are getting one over on me!!). I have been misinformed on many occasions by colleagues here and I think there has obviously been a huge campaign over the years here to making everyone believe that private healthcare is a no brainer. However, from a tax/financial perspective, it isn’t necessarily the case. Obviously there are health issues to consider as well and everyone has different priorities but I am just attacking it from a purely financial perspective. Off to the boat and fishing show to dream of owning a yacht and to pick up a fishing rod so I can catch me some dinner.

Yikes!!!Has anyone watched the "utopia" documentary? I always take these documentaries with a grain of salt but can't help but feeling absolutely disgusted. I have since read so much more about the history of Rottnest and not sure I want to visit there either. Anyone feel the same?

Hi Akasully2, We are childless couple and have always kind of lived by following our gut feel so probably won’t have sensible answers that you are looking for!! I think when it comes down to it, we want the tropics and just feel at home over there. We thought Perth might’ve worked for us as it does offer a beach lifestyle and some great camping but all in all , there isn’t enough variety for us close by. We thought that we would be making more money here as well which would compensate for the isolation and we would have $ to take trips to different places but that’s not the case. I think you love it or you don’t and we just don’t. I can see the attraction for families though. As for work, the Perth market isn’t a bonus for us here either. We came on a 190 visa and I was the principal applicant (Accountant) but have had to take a step back career wise. I did anticipate this would be the case but now that I have 8 months WA experience, should be able to start getting interviews for more challenging positions. My husband is self taught web designer and photographer and would have more opportunities out east. He has been doing ok in Perth but we aren’t sure how sustainable it would be. I was supposed to be the bread winner while he built his business but things are a bit tight as I am not earning as much as I thought I would be....but I think that will change once I have completed the CPA program. As for cost of living, our biggest expense is rent and judging from realestate.com.au rents look slightly cheaper but it can vary depending on where you live. Our move to Australia certainly wasn’t motivated by our quest for financial freedom, but rather for the love of the land and to enjoy the bush and coastline in our spare time J. Did you visit QLD as reccie scouting out potential places to live? Where are you now?

G’day! Just thought I would put up a post about our recent road trip North over the Christmas holidays . The company I worked for decided rather at the last minute that the market was slow so as a cost saving measure closed the office for an additional week over the holidays....so with 3 weeks off, we weren’t going to hang around Perth all that time (although I could think of many worse places to HAVE to hang out during the summer months!!) So off we went in Mitsubishi Magna and camper 12 trailer tent with a vague plan to be in Exmouth for Christmas and be back in Perth for 13th!! The drive up was pretty cool (not literally). Of course a long drive with nothing in between and I did find myself getting excited when a road sign was coming up. But we truly gained a sense of the vastness of WA. I think the whole drive really confirmed that we made it to AUSTRALIA and we spent much of our time grinning to ourselves. Anyhow, we ended up staying our first week at the Yardie Creek Homestead campsite which was absolutely brilliant. It is the last electric site before entering the Ningaloo Park. Basically every day we drove to a different beach for a snorkel or swim...the snorkel conditions weren’t great so wasn’t overly impressed with that side of things but the whole experience of just hanging out up there is fantastic. The campsite wasn’t that busy so it was perfect over the holidays. It did get hot but there was always a wind when we were there. I won’t say breeze as most time there were gale force winds. Crazy. But I think that saved us from the heat. It was hot but because of the winds, you didn’t completely collapse. At night we would sit out (no flies), drink wine and star gaze. We thought we would be having early nights but because it was hot at night, it was wonderful just to sit out late at night. The site had loads of roos and emus too and when you got up in the middle of the night to walk to the look, there were roos all around the campsite. It was bliss. The flies only got bad for about an hour between 5:30-6:30pm and they were dreadful when we went far inland too. Anyhow, we ended up driving to Tom Price and Paraburdoo for 2 nights as we wanted to experience real heat...and we did...hence only staying 2 nights. The drive from Exmouth to Tom Price was BEAUTIFUL though. Can’t wait to go back up there in winter months. It was incredible to feel the heat there – the ground was hot too and you couldn’t hold a rock for long either as it was so hot. It was neat for us to experience as we hadn’t experienced heat like that before. And the flies.......but the red rock was worth it. I can't get enough of those colours. On the way down, we spent 5 days in Shark Bay. Gale force winds again at Denham but that area was lovely too. We were limited where we could go though as we don’t have a 4WD. Oh! And we also stopped in Coral Bay for 2 nights when we were waiting for the roads to open to Tom Price after the cyclone; we couldn’t wait to get out of there as the campsites were booked solid and it was a shock after coming down from Ningaloo. Monkey Mia was ok but couldn't bare to listen to the rangers telling you what you couldn't and could do. We waited until after "the feeding" and the dolphins hang around anyway so that was pretty neat. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't as commercialised up there as we had expected it to be. Refreshing. All in all, we loved the atmosphere up there over Christmas and would highly recommend it. So many people advised us not to go as they said it would be too hot and uncomfortable but to be honest, if you just want to relax and hang out and enjoy the outback and coastline, I would highly recommend it. Santa even came to the campsite on Christmas Eve....well, he flew over in a Cessna and threw bags of sweets into the field (seriously!!!) It’s funny as over the ‘Straya Day weekend, we went down to Albany and felt claustrophobic on the campsite – and found it bloody freezing. Oh... and something else we have learned living in WA....when someone gives you an opinion on a city or town....be sure to ask when the last time they visited....as we have often found that they haven’t even been to the place in question and just advising on what they have heard from other people!!! Anyhow, just wanted to share in case anyone is interested in exploring north of Perth but not sure what to expect because of all the stories from people!! That was our first long road trip with our camper trailer and learned a lot about what to bring and not to bring so happy to answer any questions anyone has about that too. Feeling hot now so against professional advice, heading to the beach at prime sun time J Have a great day, Rosie

Hi, We haven't decided but likely Sunshine Coast/Brissie/Gold Coast; I think we will decide once we are there. We are hoping to drive across the top and down to Brissie first and take it from there. We have visited and did a 3 week trip in September 2012 from Cairns down to Brissie but it's so hard to judge where to live when on your holiday. One thing we have learned from our move to WA is that no matter how much research you do, you never know how you will feel about somewhere until you are actually there. Brisbane is just a great base to work from as we love to get out and about on the weekends and there are many accessible places from there. Have you been? QLD is very different from WA - that's what I love about this country though. The land itself it just amazing.

G'day! We are an easy going couple (40 & 47) looking to meet with others planning a move to tropical Queensland. We arrived in Perth on a Visa 190 in March 2013 but have come to the conclusion that WA is not the state for us to settle in and plan to be Queensland bound in June 2015. As we have now made the decision and started saving, we are feeling in somewhat limbo again (remember that feeling of waiting for the visa and keeping a secret?!!) ; would love to hear from anyone else in the Perth area in a similar situation. Rosie & Elliott

Ah! Je comprende! Not to worry- with fresh eyes this morning - it's all clear to me now. The 2% applies to the healthcare premium. I guess we just have to work out if it's really worthwhile. If we didn't take something out next month and decided to at a later date , we would pay a 20% loading rate. and if we took the insurance for 10 years, that would be a total of $4800(Premium $200x1.20x10years) extra we would have paid. However, if we took insurance now for basic hospital, ($100/month x 12months x 10years) it would cost us $12,000 over a 10 year period and we might not even use it for the next 10years....... I guess a benefit of taking it is that it spreads the costs out over time- even though the net cost is not necessarily favourable. Sorry for the thinking out loud!

Hi Nick/Lynn, It sounds like my husband and I are in a similar situation to you but I am still undecided whether or not to take the hospital cover to avoid the LHC at a later date. I don't quite understand which premium the 2% for each year is applied to. Is that an increase of 2%(for each year over 30) on the medical levy or the premium if you were ever to sign up for private healthcare in the future? At the moment, we all pay a 1.5% medical levy on our income (unless below threshold) but would it then be 3.5% if one was 31 or 5.5% if 32 years old? Or is it 2% or 4% increase on a private health care premium. We are both 40 and 47 so have to consider this carefully as we are coming up to our 1 year anniversary of emigration, but after being spoiled in Canada with Employer paid extended healthcare, I don't really find great value in benefits when I have to pay the full premium myself. However, that might change if we were to ever start making more money. (at the moment we won't have to pay the medical levy surcharge). I have just spent 2 hours reading up on all of this on the ATO site and then realised the LHC is something different to the medical levy and medical levy surcharge! ahhhh! It'll all be good once we get through this first year. hope you can help! Rosie

Seattle??! Brace yourself....when the sun shines here......it does for days....for weeks!! We moved here from Vancouver, BC last March and haven't stopped smiling all summer. The winter was a bit of cop out and we actually found it miserable last year as it went on for months (we weren't expecting that)....but people say it was an unusual winter. But the great thing about the rain here is that it ignites the eucalyptus scents and you can actually make out cloud formations - it isn't a grey blanket in the sky. Good luck with the move!

Hi Rossmoyne, That would have surprised me when I first arrived but I have to say that 9 months down the line, it is what I have come to expect in WA. What makes me laugh though is when the salesperson acts like it's completely normal and doesn't seem to acknowledge the absurdity of the situation. I think the heat helps me to cope with these things as I am often too hot to care. BBQ's Galore in Edgewater ran out of gas last weekend- how can a BBQ store run out of gas??!!! Bunnings next door sold out too ....and guess why...."Because BBQ Galore ran out!" Life in WA............

Hello, We have some friends coming over next January who are keen to rent a room/apt walking distance to Cottesloe beach for a week. Does anyone have specific recommendations? I know the regular sites to look on but was hoping for personal recommendations. Look forward to hearing from anyone WW