Well a wee hello / introduction from a newbie to the forum.

I'm a building services design engineer currently based in the UK; however, after a job offer in Melbourne around December 2008 which eventually fell through, my family and I have had a desire to move to Oz.

After visiting for a month (Melbourne and Perth) in Feb 2010 we knew it was a definite part of our future.

We both agreed that Perth was the answer to our new life but I felt that there were limited opportunities in my career field, so we turned to Melbourne instead. I was granted SS with Victoria in April but held off on applying to DIAC until July; however, this delay then introduced opportunities elsewhere.

I have now accepted a position in Brisbane and will be heading down on a 457 visa which, if all goes well, should be through shortly. This would see us land in Brisbane end of November 2010.

We have a few loose ends in Glasgow, no less the house, but we're confident nothing will get in the way of this move.

Brisbane is very much an unknown to us so we'll be hoping to get plenty of advice on this forum.

 

That's great news - we love brisbane though we are still pretty new ourselves. If you have any specific questions, I can try and answer them?! :biggrin:

 

Hi
Congratulations on the job offer, where in Brisbane will you be working?
Ask away with any questions and we will all do our best to point you in the right direction.

Cal x

 

Hello all,

I am a researcher on the new series of Phil Down Under with property guru, Phil Spencer, from Location Location Location. We are currently making the second series of the show and need Brits to take part! Are you relocating to Australia this year or have you relocated within the last year? Are you looking to buy a property? If so, Phil can help you!

In each episode, Phil will be helping one British couple navigate their way through the Australian property system. Phil will help find, survey and negotiate the deal on their dream pad. From harbour-side homes in Sydney and Beach pads in Byron Bay to Ranches in the Outback and Retreats in the Rainforest, no property search is too daunting for Phil. We are currently looking to fill the Queensland slot and would love to hear from you if you fit the criteria!

If you are interested please follow this link http://www.meontv.co.uk/PhilDownUnder and fill in the application form or email siobhan.smith@iwcmedia.co.uk.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Siobhan

 

Hi Cal

The office is based in Fortitude Valley and the initial accommodation will also be there; although, that's only for a four week period. The company that I'm joining have set me up with a relocation specialist based in Brisbane and, to be fair, they are being very helpful with info.

Initial thoughts are to rent a property in one of the inner suburbs and then, when we find our feet, begin to look a little further out.

The aim is to immerse ourselves in the culture, experience, etc as quickly as possible because getting out of the 'tourist' mindset must go some way to helping with settling in. The big one for us will be local parent & toddler groups or such like - my wife will not be working initially as we have a son who will be 2 in November, so finding good social groups for my wife and son are highly important.

We're aiming to touchdown late November or early December so I guess this will be one heck of a strange Christmas, not least because it will be hot. :wink:

 

Hi

One question we have at present is to do with housing - on looking at rental properties within the inner suburbs such as Paddington the houses don't actually look that great :frown:. Are we simply not looking properly or is this the case with established suburbs?

Our idea of housing in Oz stems from our break in Melbourne and Perth earlier this year in so much that we anticipated living in a single level home, which was relatively new. Maybe in Brisbane, similar to other cities, we need to look at suburbs further out, so if you have any ideas then please let me know.

 

Hi there ....
We looked at sooo many different suburbs when we first arrived. Initially, we wanted to stay within 20-30 min train commute of the CBD for hubby's work. We looked at The Gap/Ashgrove area which I loved - but OH didn't want a bus commute to work. We also looked at Wilston, Windsor and Newmarket - again areas we liked .... but we struggled to find rentals. The ones we found were lovely inside but over our budget or more regularly .... not quite what the pics lead us to believe!!!! From our experience, the nearer to the city you are, Queenslanders are in the majority - which are fab if you get a good one but cheaper rentals can tend to be a bit on the grim side. I may be wrong (Cal or Rudi would be more knowledgeable than me) but the single level or brick homes are more likely to be further out - possibly more than 6-8km from the CBD. We are now in Manly in the bayside and we love it but we are 35-45 min train commute from the CBD. A good idea would be to join the sister site to this one - Pomsinoz ..... and look up posts made by fish.01 - his posts have been a godsend to us while we were looking! I'm sure he won't mind me referring you to his posts as I've often raved over the advice he's given on suburbs in the past :wub: Good luck and keep asking!!!!!

 

myrtle1 thank you for the advice. I think I would be the same as your OH in so much that bus journey's aren't exactly my favourite thing, whereas I don't mind a train journey at all. I'll certainly check out the posts that you refer to.

Thanks for the guidance....

 

I have been in Brissie almost 6 years now. We live in Sinnamon park which is technically south of the river butthey call it western `burbs,

We are about 12k from the CBD. 20 mins on a bus.

We love Brissie.

 

Hi
Sounds like you have a good plan, i think your right avoiding settling in the Valley, good for night life and work but not crash hot for living in.
You will find alot of inner city suburbs have the older wooden queenslander style housing, some can look 'tatty' but don't let it put you off an area as for every house like that there is a few beautiful homes close by. If you want a brick style home, or newer home have a look for new estates ,they seem to be springing up everywhere,lol.

Its a good idea to rent for 6 mths and use it as an extended holiday let to discover new areas and see what you actually want. (believe me you will change your mind so much at first,lol).

Most of the familys i know that need to work in the city tend to opt for the Western Suburbs,as they are close enough for an easy commute, good public transport links (parking inner city is expensive), decent schools and reasonable property prices. As Joanne said above Sinnamon Park is popular , as to is Westlake, Jindalee and even further down towards Springfield Lakes.

Hope this helps a little and lots of luck with everything
Cal x

 

Hi all - good quality advice on this thread so thanks to all.

I think I mentioned that the company I'm joining in Brisbane have hired a 'relocation specialist' based in the city to assist us with the move. They asked us a number of questions and recommended the following areas to consider: new farm; teneriffe; newstead; auchenflower; taringa; toowong; paddington; red hill; ashgrove; bardon; indooroopilly; st lucia and clayfield. In addition to this some friends have told us to look at sandgate; brighton; manly and shorncliffe.

In general these are the locations we've been looking at via the real estate website. Maybe you guys could offer some advice on this also?

 

Hmmm..... You're gonna be thinking I'm stalking you Anyway .... Can comment on a couple of these places as we looked around them a couple of months ago when we were deciding on a suburb. We really liked Ashgrove and Clayfield. Both suburbs are close to each other and schools out that way are pretty good. I believe Clayfield is on the train line though but Ashgrove isn't. The majority of the houses we saw were Queenslanders and both areas had a nice family vibe. When it comes to Manly though, we are completely biased as we have been here about three months and love it ! Hope others will come along and advise on other areas ....

 

:laugh: Not at all - the more advice that can be collated from people like yourself then the easier it is for us when we land.

I'll likely be throwing even more questions to the forum as the days go on, particularly items that will help my wife and wee boy (almost 2 years old) settle in like mother and toddler groups, nurseries, etc, etc.

In essence it will probably seem like me doing the stalking :laugh:

 

Hi your not by any chance going to work for Arup are you...?

 

Hi Robyn

I've sent you a PM.

Thanks