Hi we are a family of 3, with a 3 yr son, and we are currently in the process of migrating to Oz in July next year. We had intended to locate ourselves to Perth but due to family and the cost of living there we have decided to relocate Brisbane. I am an engineer and have work in Murarrie, QLD 4172 area of Brisbane. To be honest i know very little of this area as all our efforts were put into the Perth area.

Any advice on suitable areas to locate a young family would be greatly appreciated. I dont mind travelling upto 45 mins and have looked at the Gold Coast, but i am unsure as to whether this is just too far to commute from each day. My son loves the sun, water and the out doors so areas offering this type of living would be great. We dont require 4 bed houses as there are only 3 of us, schools would be an issue obviously as our son would becoming up to the age were he would be required to go. Also any indication on prices for rented properties would also be greatly appreciated as we intend to do this for the first couple of years until we are absolutely sure were we would like to settle.

Many thanks Brian & Lin

 

Bayside

We are quite biased towards the Bayside suburbs of Lota, Manly, Wellington point Cleveland. There is no beach as it is protected by Moreton bay but the Bay offers plenty of water sports opportunities. Sailing, windsurfing and kite surfing are a huge favorite. There is parks aplenty along the Eslaplande. Imagine Mandurah, Rockingham in one. I find the area to similiar to Freemantle on a smaller scale.

Both Jason and I worked at some point at Murrarie and it was a quick 15 minute commute through back roads so not busy at all.

Schools are good in this area, both public (comp) and private. Childcare is hard to get into at the present. The news is full of ABC learning centre going into recievership and they are/were the largest childcare providers. I had my eldest in at Butterfly childcare in Manly west and they were fabulous.

There are other suburbs such as Bullimba but this is quite pricey (also the Prime ministers home town). Bullimba has the benefit of being on the river so trips into the city can be done in comfort on the city cat on the river.

Hope this helps a little
Karen

 

Hiya if your still undecided when your due to leave ,feel free to check out our accommodation. We offer short-stay furnished accommodation for when you arrive ,so you have a few weeks to drive around and check out suburbs for yourself. We can then help you secure a longer term let in the area you choose.
Cal x

 

Cleveland and Wellington Point have small beaches, suitable enough for a 3 year old.

Like you I am biased towards the Bayside area too But I am a bit further out, in nice and quite Victoria Point.

 

Thanks people for that info, much appreciated. I am how ever a little undecided as to weather move nearer GC of Brisbane central. Our decision will probably come down to rental costs. Any help on those would be greatly appreciated. How much is a 3 bed house to rent around the GC and Brisbane suburbs?

Cant wait to get out there.

 

Hi Brian & Lin

I live in Helensvale, Gold Coast and commute to Capalaba every day which takes between 50min to 1 hour. Helensvale has primary and high schools with the beach approx 20 mins away and the theme parks on the doorstep. Good train service from Helensvale to the city and airport and south to Robina. We love the Gold Coast as it offers plenty to see and do and also the M1 closeby makes commuting easier.

Hope this helps
Paula

 

Paula, many thanks for that info. To be honest i would like to be located in Brisbane city while my oh prefers GC. I dont mind traveling an hr a day to get to work if the life style and location are great especially with having a 3 yr old son. Do you have any info on average rental costs for the GC area you mentioned for a 3 bed family home? One of the main reasons for not going to Perth were the high real estate prices and from what i understand GC rents are high compared to Brisbane rental prices.

With my occupation we can get overthere on a 175 while we process the 475 visa, we are just in the process of selling our house (hopefully it wont take longer than 6 months even in the current climate) and raising enough capital to survive out there to start with. We anticipate renting for between 1 and 2 yrs which we will give us enough time to decide exactly which is the best area for us. So rental prices are of real interest to us, we have used a couple of internet sites but we are unsure as to whether these offer value for money and also whether rentals are advertised in different ways out there, ie newspapers, agents etc

Brian, Lin and Adam

 

Guys

From what I know from colleagues travelling from the gold coast to Lytton (where your job is) it takes 1 hour on a normal day. I often would here from the guys it had taken upto 2 hours on not so good days, which for me is not what i wanted from my move. 30mins was my max requirement for a daily commute but thats a personal thing. You also have to factor in the cost of fuel for such a commute and the mileage on your vehicle.

Who are you looking to work for as I may be able to give some feedback, being an engineer and working around this area for the last 2 1/2 years.

I am sure you have been pointed in the direction of www.realestate.com.au before, it probably is the best source of information of this type. Good rentals are at a premium at the moment around australia, aparently brisbane has 1.2% of unoccupied rentals which is the highest in Oz. We rented a 3 bed with a pool in manly for 1 year for around $340 / week which was a good price. You should be budgeting for between $300-400 per week depending on what you want.

On a location - Remember you can travel to the gold coast and the sunshine coast in a hour from brisbane if you want to do the beach thing. Whereas from the bayside its 30mins into the city and 15mins to murrarie......it really depends on what you want!!! I have a lot of friends in Perth who live close to the beach but hardly use it, coming from the UK I understand its one of the wish list items, like the pool and a boat for some.

My suggestion would be to look around a couple of places before deciding. If you can afford it spend a week at the gold coast and a week around brisbane before starting work, this way you will get a feel for what you are in for. Remember not to get carried away with one particular aspect as it is not always what we continue with.

We turned up in Brisbane and spend a couple of weeks looking at rentals in our chosen area (having previously rekkied the area's of interest), be prepared to view a lot of crap and not being the only people viewing. We were lucky enough to have family around to put us up in the short term until we rented.

Anyway, good luck with it all. It is an exciting time, and given my choice again between Brisbane and Perth (even if house prices were comparable) I would choose Brisbane again!

 

We are in Rochedale and have a 3 bed house with a small pool in the yard
We pay $385 a week at the moment

You are gonna be looking at nearly $400 for a decent 3 bed to be honest

We are 25 mins via the busway from the city centre and we are a half hour drive from the GC
It's a nice spot.

One thing I have found though that being this far from the city can make the days feel very long (It's around an hour door to door) - I certainly wouldn't want to live any further from the city if I was working there every day!

 

Seriopusly look at the commutes before you commit as it can WIDELY vary! A friend of mines 30 minute commute took 2 hours the other week!

When people say an hour on a normal day.....define a normal day! LOL!

 

Hi JKESA,

many thanks for the reply much appreciated. Sorry for late response but we have all had the dreaded lurgy of here with the appalling weather! To be honest from the feed back I have been getting from people I think travelling from the Gold Coast each day is too far and too expensive so we will probs look for somewhere nearer Brisbane as we can easily travel to GC at the weekends as it isn’t that far. Unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of being able to make a reckie but we do have a family friend who lives in Brisbane so we are arranging to chat to them shortly which should help us alot.

Job wise i would be working for Yokogawa, not sure if you have heard of them? What’s the current climate like there with regards to available work considering the economic downturn, what effect is it having on employment in Brisbane? The situation over here is not very good at all to be honest though i know i am safe in my job at the moment. One of the problems we are having is trying to sell our house due to this downturn and it looks like with the house price falls we won’t actually make anything on it which is a pain. Though we are not that bothered as we are just desperate to get over there and have a better quality of life for our son.

As it looks we will probs come over on a 175 visa and run the 475 along side it, does anyone know if there are any great draw backs doing this?

Mark and Jo... you are so right don’t wish to spend all my spare time driving to and from work!!

Take care and stay safe guys hope to be out there July August time.

 

Hi Brian, Lin, Adam

Sorry to hear of your housing woes, I can understand totally as it took 1 year to sell our place and we had 1 sale drop through. I recall the incesent "we just want to go" and the life in limbo as you are on hold for the move.

You will be happy to hear the weather has been quite mixed of late with mid to high 30's one day and thunder storms the next. No matter what it's got to be better than that of the uk and is something to look forward to.

Unfortunately I do not know anything of Yokogawa as a company to work for, I only know their products as we use their gauges and instrumentation. I take it you are either an electronic / instumentation of process engineer. Their location is not too bad in a new instrial estate on the south side of the gateway bridge ($2.90 each way toll) and has a couple of transit options depending upon your location and traffic.

As far as the current job market in Brisbane, well to be honest I have not seen any impact from the global tightening and am still contacted by past employers and contacts regarding positions. I applied for and was offered 3 positions when we moved here 2 1/2 years ago and if I were to leave my current position I should be able to walk into a similar position within a week or two. I can let you know what a rough going rate is if you want to IM me your position and years in. I wouldnt be too worried however as industry over here is still on the look out for good engineers.

As for travelling to work from the GC, personally I would not have looked forward to that either.

Anyways, hope all goes well with the house and move and we would be happy to catch up for a drink / chat when you guys make it over. We have a daughter near your son's age and one slightly younger who can keep each other busy.

JKES

 

Hi JKES,

many thanks for your reply. I have been overseas working in sunny southern Iran commissioning a styrene plant. To be honest things havent changed here much as house prices have dropped again here, so we will probably be coming without a great amount. This is one of the reasons why i have been in Iran to get additional funds. I am a DCS application engineer, though i am experienced in full life cycle from initial design through to commissioning and while i know there seems to be alot of work in Perth the cost of housing is prohibiting. I have mate in Perth and he works longer hours there than in the UK and the house he lives in is no great shakes, but he lives in a nice area.

As previosuly mentioned that this one of the attractions of Brisbane, as well as the climate and way of life, that housing seems to be cheaper there. With being out of the country i have kind of lost touch with the job situation in Brisbane, any update on the situation would be greatly appreciated. Here in the UK it is dire with thousands being laid off every week, so its a bit scary! We might bring our departure forward, due to it being imposed on us with redundancies, to summer so any update on present situation would be well recieved.

Take care and stay safe,

Brian, Lin & Adam

 

Hi Brian

It sounds like you have made a sensible decision about location. It would be a pain to drive that every day - people do but it wouln't be my choice. Going down at weekends is easy, and living up nearer to Brisbane, it's just as easy to go up to the Sunshine Coast as well.

I hope the visa comes through for you soon.

Fred

 

Yes we think living near or even in Brisbane central itself would be good due to the lifetyle but also its location to GC and SC due to us having a young son.

 

cal - how you fixed for accom for the next few weks - we have apartment on kangaroo pint for 10 days; (TO BE TOURISTS) THEN MAY BE LOOKIN FoR ACCOMAFTER THAT - ARE YOU FULLY BOOKED?
Landing friday morn.... f you are busy then no prob.. spk later

Steve

 

Hiya Steve,
i have nothing left sorry, in fact i have a few family's staying in overflow accommodation we use across Brissie and Gold Coast ,its gone a bit chaotic this month,lol.
If you get stuck let me know and i will try to get you in one of these, just be careful as it is school holidays week after next for a couple of weeks and everything decent gets booked really quickly.
Take Care
Cal x

 

Thx v. much for the info.
I have heard its really hard to rent a property out there(our new home) without aus work refs. Is this correct/ and what can we do about it shourt term?
never had any probs in sydney - not that diffrent is it?
thx
Steve.

 

I haven't had a family yet who haven't secured their first or second choice of rental home and most have them have never stepped foot in this country before.
As long as you some paperwork to submit,
driving licence, passport, any old character or work references, old paid up utility bills, copy of a healthy bank account, paid up mortgage statement etc etc , the more paper you can throw at them the better,lol.
Having an Ozzie verbal or written reference is handy but it doesn't make renting impossible if you haven't got one.
As to house availability, this will depend on which suburb you choose to settle, certain areas have very few rental houses and this is when you hear of people who struggle to get an application accepted.
Hope this helps
Cal x

 

Hi Steve

We have availability from 13th to 24th October if that's any use to you.

Love

Rudi
x