Hello Everyone, just thought I would say hello to you all.

[KoalaPOM]

Hi Everyone, 189 visa submitted 26th December for myself and my wife,

 

I'm tagging along as a very grateful husband lol Wife has 75 Points IELTS test result of 9.0

hopefully we are making the right decision, neither of us have been to Australia before so big risk, but following in the footsteps of previous family members who moved out here but returned to UK (which they say is the biggest mistake they ever made, now too old to come back) thinking either eastern Melbourne or Eastern Adaliade Hills, currently no children but looking to start a family before we get too old.

 

Thanks KoalaPOM

[NicF]

Welcome to the forum. There are a fair few people that move over without visiting first, although my OH is Australian and we came on holiday several times first so I can't quite imagine what it would be like to move somewhere you had never been.

[scooterdan]

Hey! Welcome to the forum... we mad the move without ever visiting first.... still the best thing we ever did! We have been here for nearly 9 years now, no plans for a family but still having a wonderful life!

 

Dan

[KoalaPOM]

Hi NicF, scooter dan, thanks for hello, yes a bit daunting but it's an opportunity of a life time I'm 42 and my wife is 33, so we want to emigrate before we get too old lol, I guess you only live once still not sure where to live, we'll probably go to Melbourne and drive up to Adalaide, to see what the areas are like, we like the idea of a Mediterranean climate, we go to Ibiza a lot and really like the warm dry weather, I hear Brisbane gets really humid, anyone know if there's much difference between Adalaide and Melbourne weather wise?

 

Thanks in advance

koalaPOM

[snifter]

Hello and welcome

 

Very different choices of areas to settle but you've given yourself options which is good.

 

I think making the move unseen if you don't have kids in tow isn't a bad thing. I've moved to countries/places before without ever visiting them and either liked it and stayed longer term or packed up and moved on when I worked out it wasn't for me. I think if you have children its always a better to be a little more cautious as there are so many other factors to take into consideration.

 

Depending on what you both do, it may be easier to find work in or around Melbourne but then property can be much more expensive (to rent and to buy) and mean you are perhaps a long way off from where you'd actually like to be living. Adelaide the job market can be tough to crack but some people find a job relatively soon after arriving, others it takes longer or they have to change their line of work perhaps.

 

Climate is different. Melbourne is known for the 4 seasons in one day thing. Crowded House even wrote a song about it Adelaide is situated in a gulf and has those lovely golden beaches and stunning blue water coastline. Not to say the Melbourne area is without beaches and lovely coastline but the weather can be more unpredictable there it seems. And cooler, though it can have its very hot days.

 

Hubby likes Melbourne a great deal (we did consider moving there but opted for Adelaide as he didn't want to move back to Aus to then be 10 hours away from family and friends still, at least not for the first few years ). We have family living there who are lucky they live in a really lovely area and whose kids are older so they don't need to worry about upsizing in their home anymore.

 

Adelaide is not without its faults but I tend to be able to cope with those (just as I coped with the faults of the areas I lived in in the UK and elsewhere) as they are outweighed by the positives for us being able to live our lives. If and when we feel we need to make changes we will. If that means moving to another city or country, so be it. While we hope to be here long term, both my husband and I are pretty easy going in terms of moving about so have never made this an all or nothing thing or that our only option is to return to the UK. In fact, right now, the UK would probably be at the bottom of our short list of places to move to, not sure it would even make it on it if it really came to it.

 

If you want big city living (although perhaps living quite far out due to costs) then Melbourne may appeal far more than Adelaide. And work options may prove better. If you are open to a smaller city where you can live closer to the CBD, though work may be more of a challenge to secure, may not), then Adelaide may tick boxes. Visit both, get your bearings in them and see what you like. Nothing to stop you moving between cities if you find the place you start off is not for you.

 

This forum has lots of info and the search function can be useful to use. Or ask away and we'll try to help. Also if you are over on our sister site Poms in Oz we have state specific areas of the forum and lots of members in and around Melbourne. Also a state forum (bit like PIA, so quieter and not so many members) that may be of use for Melbourne related stuff. Keep in mind the amount of people posting on PIO can mean you'll get very differing opinions as to migrating to Australia and all that

 

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/

 

http://www.lifeinvictoria.com/

[KoalaPOM]

Hi Snifter,

 

Thank you ever so much for your post, that's really helpful, we currently live in the Worcestershire Countryside so where ever we moved too we'd like to be outside the city, from what we've read people seem to like living in the city which is difficult to grasp as that would be like us living in Birmingham our closest city. There must be something good about it though as two people I know have emigrated and never returned to the UK they went to Brisbane and Perth.

 

Job wise my wife wife is a research scientist and I work as a designer but I work for myself and would hope to bring my work with me to Oz. We have cats so they would come too. I guess initially we would need to rent somewhere, if we get accepted, we will come over and spend 3 weeks in Australia maybe a week or so in each city/state.. Even if it didn't work out and the Australian lifestyle didn't suit us 'I know it's highly unlikely' I'll at least be glad we tried to make a go of it, these opportunities don't come around very often and we may never get the chance again.

 

If it didn't work out here I'd agree with you 100% the UK is a no go, we can't imagine any kind of future in this Country lol.

 

Sorry if this worded badly nightmare on iPhone lol.

[KoalaPOM]

Oh and cheers for links I've joined PIO under the same name.

[snifter]

Hi Snifter,

 

Thank you ever so much for your post, that's really helpful, we currently live in the Worcestershire Countryside so where ever we moved too we'd like to be outside the city, from what we've read people seem to like living in the city which is difficult to grasp as that would be like us living in Birmingham our closest city. There must be something good about it though as two people I know have emigrated and never returned to the UK they went to Brisbane and Perth.

 

Job wise my wife wife is a research scientist and I work as a designer but I work for myself and would hope to bring my work with me to Oz. We have cats so they would come too. I guess initially we would need to rent somewhere, if we get accepted, we will come over and spend 3 weeks in Australia maybe a week or so in each city/state.. Even if it didn't work out and the Australian lifestyle didn't suit us 'I know it's highly unlikely' I'll at least be glad we tried to make a go of it, these opportunities don't come around very often and we may never get the chance again.

 

If it didn't work out here I'd agree with you 100% the UK is a no go, we can't imagine any kind of future in this Country lol.

 

Sorry if this worded badly nightmare on iPhone lol.

 

If you don't want city living then Adelaide may suit. But then so might Melbourne on the outskirts somewhere? I don't know it to have any real idea of what it may entail or offer in that respect.

 

What I do like about Adelaide is there is a definite boundary to the city when you go east into the hills. So you can find some lovely little towns up there and still not be that far from Adelaide itself. I love Stirling and Bridgewater but we couldn't find a house when we were looking to buy. Also like McLaren Vale down south but its too far south for us. In terms of south and north, those are much more suburban and sprawling and may not appeal (south seems to go on a long long way these days in terms of housing). We didn't want to live in the city or stuck in the middle of the metropolitan area or suburbia somewhere so opted for the very outskirts of a hills suburb and have the countryside on our doorstep pretty much. Its lovely and we have the local facilities but are surrounded by gum trees, wildlife and all the things we enjoy. Yes we like the beaches and coast but are happy to just visit them when we want. If we lived in a coastal suburb we'd not be beachfront anyways so it'd be a car drive to get to it still from wherever in the suburb probably. Happy to have a 10-15 minute drive and to make use of them when we want.

[KoalaPOM]

Hi Snifter, cheers for that, I'd seen Stirling as we'd looked at Aldgate which seemed really nice, something with a little bit of land, we keep chickens so be nice to have somewhere with a bit of space, Also our cats go out, as were not near any main roads, although not sure about oz because of snakes. We also like the idea of what produce we could grow like citrus trees etc. I know the wine areas are supposed to be lovely for a visit.

 

Cheers for for all the info : )

[KoalaPOM]

Sorry I meant, not sure if cats will be ok to go out because of snakes

[snifter]

Cats have a bad rep here with lots of people. Mainly for the killing wildlife aspect and the sheer amount of feral cats around.

 

I'd be cautious in a rural or semi rural area with cats that go out a) because of the risk of injury or death to them but mostly because of b) the risk to native animals from the cats. Personally I'd not have a cat here anywhere unless it was an inside cat or kept confined to my own back yard with proper cat escape proof fencing. I love the native creatures we have in and around our garden and would not want harm to come to them from a cat. I found a young blue tongue the other day with two fresh bite marks in its head. Thankfully survivable but still, a cat or small dog had sunk their teeth in. Not our dog as he doesn't go near them and it was out the front at the time and our dog was inside. Plus even though he is small the bite marks were closer together making me think cat over small dog.

 

Also far too many skinks and other small creatures I'd want to be sure were left alone. Same with the birds. Plus lots of people here keep dogs in their backyards 24/7 and I'd not want the worry.

 

Also noticed quite a few locals don't seem overly fussed about cats as pets and tend to view them as vermin. In rural areas they are and I've seen many dead on the side of roads when we've been in the country. There are millions of them living wild.

[philkin]

Hi KoalaPOM,

 

Welcome,

 

We are new to the forum and are in a similar situation although we have been to Australia some years ago, I think if you have the opportunity you have to go with it or you will regret it.

 

We are heading to Adelaide as it seems to tick all the boxes for us and we also will be arriving with our pet dogs.

 

 

I think this forum is a great place to get valuable help and meet some good people.

 

Best of Luck

 

Phil

[Blossom]

We have three cats and they are house cats (with an outdoor run). Unfortunately many people HATE cats here. I know people who will serve their car at them on purpose and people who have shot them.

if you can keep them in your property they would be far safer.

From what you have said it sounds like Adelaide would suit better. :-)

[KoalaPOM]

Hi Snifter, Blossom,

 

Thank you for the info, with our cats were very responsible, we never let them out at night, and with cats being more nocturnal they tend to sleep around the house in the day which limits the time they spend outside. Initially our idea would be to rent somewhere while we found our feet and then out cats would be permanently kept indoors, once we buy somewhere with land we would section part of it off maybe half an acre and cat proof it so as you suggest this limit them to attacking anything although our cats are pretty good around other wildlife, we like to encourage wildlife like blue tits, sparrows, wood peckers, green finches, gold finch etc.. and we have 5 chickens who walk around our cats without any issues, Your right about the feral cats as a problem most them tend to be male which are not neutered and very aggressive, there is one locally to us, that's tried to attack our maincoons several times, we have a girl and the other two are boys.

 

One year we spent over a £1000 on vets bills due to this feral cat attacking our female. So we completely understand the resentment, we have found some information that the government will be culling the feral cat population by laying poison for wild feral cats, a type of poison that stops oxygen getting to the heart, bait is laid inside a type of sausage that cats are attracted too. Although this could kill other wildlife if they eat it. Best practice will be on just keeping them confined to our land where they are safe and they can't attack any native species.

 

Hi Philkin, we used to have gun dogs red setters, labradors etc.. until we were introduced to a friends maincoon, he was really cool, they are totally laid back, easy going, great with dogs and actually have all the attributes of a cat but with the personalty of a dog!

thanks for the kind words, you are right if we don't take this opportunity we'll regret it. Have you moved yet or are you still in the process of moving?

[philkin]

Hi Philkin, we used to have gun dogs red setters, labradors etc.. until we were introduced to a friends maincoon, he was really cool, they are totally laid back, easy going, great with dogs and actually have all the attributes of a cat but with the personalty of a dog!

thanks for the kind words, you are right if we don't take this opportunity we'll regret it. Have you moved yet or are you still in the process of moving?

 

Hi KoalaPOM,

 

Yes we love the gundogs and have 3 golden retrievers all girls, they are very friendly and well behaved with lovey personality's. Are you using the quarantine at Melbourne? and no we are still in the UK but preparing to leave very soon.

[KoalaPOM]

Hi KoalaPOM,

 

Yes we love the gundogs and have 3 golden retrievers all girls, they are very friendly and well behaved with lovey personality's. Are you using the quarantine at Melbourne? and no we are still in the UK but preparing to leave very soon.

 

Hi Philkin,

 

Yes we will use the quarantine facility in Melbourne, you'll have to let me know how you get on, will your dogs be in for 10 days? we've read you can visit your animals everyday, our cats don't get put into a cattery so won't be happy when there in quarantine, only just submitted our visa so it will be a while before we can come over subject to passing Medicals fingers crossed.

[Jessica Berry]

Welcome to the forum, always good to hear from new people.

 

I have lived and worked in Melbourne previously. I came over in the 90's on a working holiday visa, travelled around a lot of Australia and lived and worked in Melbourne for a fair amount of time. I liked Australia so much and it certainly created a lasting impression on me that 10 years later I emigrated. Our visa entitled us to live and work anywhere in Australia and we chose to come to Adelaide. My OH had never been to Australia until we emigrated, but he was happy to trust my judgement that Adelaide would be a good match for us and almost 9 years later the OH still thinks I made a good call!!

 

I have no doubt that if we had headed to Melbourne we probably would have earned more money and there probably would have been more career opportunities for us. In Adelaide we have a good standard of living and find living here pretty easy going and I am not sure we would have achieved the same in Melbourne. However everyone has different needs and wants, so what suits one person may not suit another.

[snifter]

Hi Philkin,

 

Yes we will use the quarantine facility in Melbourne, you'll have to let me know how you get on, will your dogs be in for 10 days? we've read you can visit your animals everyday, our cats don't get put into a cattery so won't be happy when there in quarantine, only just submitted our visa so it will be a while before we can come over subject to passing Medicals fingers crossed.

 

I don't think you can visit while they are in quarantine. It's 10 days and while they used to allow it over the 30 day period, over the 10 days now they don't.

 

 

http://www.agriculture.gov.au/cats-dogs/quarantine-facilities-and-fees/post-entry-quarantine-facilities?wasRedirectedByModule=true#visiting-and-exercise

[KoalaPOM]

Hi Snifter, thanks for correcting my post we must have got our info mixed up.

[KoalaPOM]

Hi Jessica,

 

Thats really interesting thank you for your post, still not a 100% on where we're going to live, wherever we go it will be somewhere outside of Melbourne or Adelaide, somewhere between the hills and the east of each city, I think we're attracted to Melbourne by its European look and feel, well this is what we've read, whereas Adelaide has that Mediterranean climate choices choices lol. We'd also like somewhere with a strong community feel, this is almost lost in the UK I guess we would get this if we lived in the Adalaide hills or somewhere outside of a city small village or town.

[Jessica Berry]

As your wife has a fairly niche role without knowing the specifics of what she does (sometimes this can be an advantage and sometime not!), research the job opportunities between Melbourne and Adelaide to make sure there are the job opportunities available.