here at last

[Guest hayls]

Hi everybody,

Well i am sorry i have not been in touch but a lot has been going on,the main problem is our laptop and not being able to get on line so i am a comp in i-zone and its 3 dollars for an hour ,you can also reserve a comp in the library once you have joined which we have so the girls have borroowed loads of dvds.

Well we came out on singapore airlines and could not fault them the only prob was the entertainment system was down on the first 13 hour flight but the games worked for the kids, we had 18 hours at singapore airport and had booked the airport hotel for 6 hours and had to book for another 6 as we slept for 10 hours, the hotel was fine for sleeping in the girls also had a swim in the roof top pool while we had a beer at 7.30 am ha ha!

We had the greet and meet and i would reccomend it to everybody we were met by helen wong and she sorted a taxi out as well as her car as we had that much stuff and the s.a immigration payed for it.The oaa is o.k our fridge did not work so had to wait 3 days for a new one and when its 39 degrees and you dont have air con you really wish you could have a cold drink, but they sorted it for us and we now have a brand new one the other prob i had was that my bed had bugs and wee all over it and it stank, so we had to go and get bug killer spray which i have plenty of now and the rental people have sent someone out to steam clean it but other than that this is a great place to start we are right next to the tram ,so are 5 mins from the city one way and 5 mins from the beach the other way. all for $160 a week bills inclusive.

Sorting out all your medicare and tax and family assistance [if you are on a permanenet visa] is really simple and straight forward the people here are very very nice and helpfull our neighbour has brought us jam round and fruit of her trees in the garden and her friend has loaned us a t.v.

We have met up with friends that we knew and have met friends through them.Cameron is a joiner and the biggest shock we have had is the wages they are really low cameron went for 2 jobs and got them but they were offereing $16 an hour which worked out at $700 a week before tax which when add up the rents they charge here makes you wonder how any one can afford to live ,he has turned 4 jobs down now due to money so there is work there and each job has been offering more so i think if you persevere,what we found was that you get paid less in a workshop and more on site which is the other way round for us in the u.k,the last job he turned down was offering $25 an hour so the money is there its just finding it .We have bought a car a toyota kluger 3.3 4wd it was cheap and fuel is cheap and the cars here are allready insured 3rd party with the registration and it cost us 200 pound to insure it fully comp.

The girls seem to like it so far but they have not started school yet as we have not decided where to live yet, the houses dont seem to look as nice as they did at home and seem to be more than i thought they were , but there are some gorgeous ones if you have plenty of money , i really like mount barker it has every thing and hallet cove was also really nice, we cannot decide!!!!! We are looking in to buying a plot and then getting a building firm to build one as you can basically design your own house for about $200,000 and that is a really nice one [we looked round the show houses they are to die for] and you can get a good 3/4 acre plot in a nice place for about $180,000 maybe less so you get your brand new dream home on a big plot for about $400,000 and i think you only pay stamp duty on the plot im not sure but thats the way it reads and you also get the fist time buyers grant of $7000 not bad !!!

Well all in all i like it here and think i could settle well the weather the people the whole place suits me down to the ground and i have held a koala at the wild life park ,the only thing that worries me is the sharks as we were swimming in the sea the other day and the shark spotting plane [,yes they have a shark spotter ] put its siren on and we all had to get out as they had spotted one in the breakers so ti kind of puts you off a bit, but most of the suburbs have an out door pool you can use if you dont have your own.Well if any one has any questions let me know and i will try and aswer them the only prob is i am still not on line so have to use the internet cafe so you might have to wait for an answer.

Good luck to everybody, it is great out here i luv it .speak to u soon Hayls

[Guest Guest75]

Glad to see you have made it and are settling.It takes time and you are just on the start of your adventure here :-)

[Guest dglamoore]

Great to see you have arrived well and thanks for the info and your views from the heart.

 

A realistic and balanced thread and a great read. Hope Cameron gets a good job sorted and you find somewhere you like to live.

 

Let us know when things are more settled for you and enjoy those blue skies :lol:

 

Lisa

[Guest The Ashtons]

Great news that your settling in we have our flights booked and will be out at the end of March just one thing is the oaa you are in in Sommerton park or around that area? we have applied and so could be moving in. hope hubby gets that job and the kids r ok

 

cheers

 

ps keep a cool one on ice :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Guest donna T]

Hi Hayls

Thanks for all the info - sounds like you have got a lot sorted in a shrt period of time

Interesting about the houses - I think us Brits are forcing prices up in Oz too - hope we get there soon

Good luck with the job applications and enjoy the weather

Donna

[Guest grants]

Hi Hayls. Glad to hear you are enjoying life down under. I have been wondering how you are getting on. Are you looking to maybe rent after you leave the OAA or are you looking to buy right away. I suppose it will depend on where you decide to locate and as you say if you build your own place it sounds like you can maybe get more for you money.

 

I am really pleased as I have now received confirmation from Australia Nursing and Midwifery council that my skills are acceptable. I will be looking at doing my on line SA sponcership application this weekend.

 

Keep us all informed of how its going. It is really interesting to seehow you are settling.

[Guest hayls]

hi every one,

well we have enrolled the girls in mount barker high, to start when we have either a rental or have bought,they seemed really nice in the school even lettingthe girls start in the same year for now.

we cannot decide whether to buy rent or build our money does not seem to go as far as we thought it was going to!!!

saying that i would still rather be here than back there ,and my mum is coming over on the 24th of april dont know where she is going to stop as we dont know where we are going to stop ha ha ha!

the girls love it here and liked the look of the school.

we have been so busy ,doing drive bys and veiwing houses/schools so i am sorry to everybody for not being in touch but as soon as we have somewhere more permanent i will catch up with every body[di,n,tori]

it is supprising how fast time goes and we only have 12 weeks in the oaa so it kind of puts the pressure on ,we went to veiw a rental in mount barker and there was 5 other families veiwing who all wanted it so it makes me wonder who will get it the ozzies with jobs or the brits with no jobs hhmm the only thing we had going for us was the fact that we could offer to pay 6 months rent in advance, but i am not down hearted as its impossible to be when the sun is shinning every morning i get up he he! well speak to you soon as my time is up in the internet cafe[georgia says hi to all the kids and says wait till we get on line you will be sick of her talking about it here, she out of the 2 really loves it here.

bye for now hayley

[Guest dglamoore]

Good luck with the house Hayls - there is one out there somewhere with your name on -you just have to find it

 

Lisa

[Angela]

Aah Hayls glad you have made contact at last I was thinking about you recently & wondering where the hell you were

 

I have a few friends emigrate (not to SA) recently & they all have had line / internet issues.

 

Do you recommend buying a laptop from the UK ? We were thinking of this to or has it caused a few problems ?

 

Best of luck on the job front, sounds like you have chosen to live in & around Mount Barker if schools are sorted.

 

Can I ask if Cam has no job yet (he will soon ) are you worried that he may have to travel daily or is he looking to get a job around Mount Barker ?

 

Ash is a trade person to & we know the wages are particularly low, esp for us as hes currently self employed & when we arrive he will have to find work with an employer.

 

Best of luck, enjoy the sun & keep in touch, my boys miss speaking to the girls 8)

 

Angela

[Angela]

How far is Mount Barker from the beach ? I think its about 30k to Adelaide so how much further before you hit the sand ?

 

Angela

[Hayshake]

We drove past Mt Barker on the Freeway today, and it takes about 30 minutes of easy driving to get into the city. You would probably have to travel along the freeway and then head down to the beach at Brighton or somewhere on the South Coast. One can travel along the country roads and come out through Happy Valley but this would probably take longer. I guess that it would probably take a 1/2 hour or so to the nearest beach, but would warn that Australians only tend to go to the Beach in the evenings when the Sun is going down, as often if it is a day like today 35degrees, the sand is too hot to go on. We were down in Victor Harbour, Goolwa & Port Elliot yesterday looking at housing. There is lots around and a new 3bed detached house on a Marina with your own landing stage was for sale at A$300,000+. This area is about 1 hour from Adelaide and a generally bit cooler, but the road to the city is quite narrow and winding.

[Guest Gary]

Welcome to Mount Barker and the Adelaide Hills!

 

Keep looking for houses, there are plenty around, and it's probably more of a buyers market at the moment since interest rates have risen twice in the last nine months. The local hills paper "The Courier" is a good source of houses in and around the hills. Comes out every Wednesday for $1.10. Then I advise you go to the main street in Mount Barker to Millies Cafe and get yourself a nice coffee and have a read, then you can soak in the atmosphere and realise what a great decision you made.

 

Goolwa beach is good from Mount Barker. Head to Strathalbyn (and you will pass my house!) and follow the road to Victor. Goolwa beach is very shallow for some distance into the ocean and is great fun.

 

As for places and who gets them. Don't think for one minute that Aussies will get anything ahead of you. They genuinely are a really nice bunch of people, and you will find that almost everyone you talk to has a connection to the UK, either they were born there and came over as kids or their parents or grandparents are from the UK. As long as you can make the rent they are not bothered where you are from. However, a few weeks back there was an article that rental properties are very thin on the ground and some people have resorted to offering more money than the landlord wants in order to secure a place. So be watchful for "Dutch Auctions". You will eventually find somewhere - just don't be rushed!

 

Good luck and if you ever see a husband, wife and 10 year old girl in the window of Millies (table 10) on a Saturday or Sunday morning, pop over and say hello!

[Guest Guest75]

Interesting to hear about Mount Barker.It's a place I've not spent much time in.

I note there is a fair bit of land in Mount Compass but that is nowhere near the Expressway or Freeway so it seems a long way out of town.

[Guest hayls]

well its me again and yes i am still enjoying life here so much that we have bought a house in mount barker it is gorgeous and we still have enough money and room to do a pool!!! and Cameron has just landed a job working for a company that designs out door kitchens and is about a mile away from our new house.

Hi gary, we will look out for you as we have already discovered millies and spend a lot of time there searching through the courier as you said, millies is great isint it?

I am still in the 0aa and i still dont like it! i have just looked up the bugs that i found on my pillow last night and sure enough they are bed bugs so cam has set a bomb of so we will see if that gets rid of them so any body going into the 0aa check your mattress for like little black ink spots this bed bug poo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I move in to our new house on the 9th of march so should be on the net not long after that, it does not take long for a house sale to go through ,3 and a half weeks.

there is plenty of work here as cameron did get offered 6 jobs but held out for one with more money ,its still not as good as home but alot better than the first offer and they will look to increase it when they have seen what he can do, we also got the family assistance which helps i think its about 362 dollars a fortnight not bad but you do have to notify them of any changes in your job situation sraight away they base this on your uk earnings as they cant base it on one here until you have worked.

well goodbye for now speak to you soon hayls

[Guest dglamoore]

Hi Hayls

 

Nice to see things are falling into place for you :lol: You will have to send us pics of your house to drool over - sounds lovely.

 

Great news on the job front too, everything looks like it is clicking into place for you. Looking forward to seeing you back online once you are settled in your new home - althought I will be on my way to Adelaide in 8 weeks :lol:

 

Take care and keep in touch

Lisa

[Guest Sue & Ash]

hi hayls!

this is excellent reading - thanks for making the time (some very good hints and tips and tricks!!)

 

glad you do enjoy it out there and that it's not AS stressfull as i imagined it - or is it !?!?!?!?

 

keep us posted

 

susi

[Angela]

Lovely to hear from you again Hayls, you OAA does sound a little scary :roll: bug poo & all but you sound like you are settling & coping well

 

Brought a house WOW, congratulations, some piccies would be great I bet its idyllic

 

Good luck

 

Angela

[Guest rockpool crab]

Hi there,

 

It all sounds fab..you're so lucky. Your OH being offered so many jobs..wow!

 

I'm such a newb to all this ..what does OAA mean? We are going on a temporary visa (if we get one obviously). Maybe the OAA is only applicable to permanent?

 

Good advice about bug bombs etc..I'll look out for the dreaded "black spot"..ooo arrrrr.

 

Hope you can help with the OAA question

 

Kind regards

 

Carol Ann

[Guest dglamoore]

Hi Carol Ann

 

OAA is On Arrival Accomodation and available to all migrants to apply for. You will find more info here - http://www.immigration.sa.gov.au/site/services_onarrival.php

 

We find out 28th March ish if we are lucky!!

 

Lisa

[Guest rockpool crab]

Hi there,

 

thanks for that...what am I not like...On arrival accommodation..jeez..easy when you know how :-)

 

Had a quick look at the website. Do you think "Temporary Visas" are included in the OAA or just permanent residents?

 

It maybe both..or I'm just going through a spell of wishful thinking.

 

Thanks folks

 

Carol Ann

[Guest dglamoore]

Hi Carol Ann

 

Does not matter if temp or perm. We have an SIR visa and have applied and will find out 4 weeks before departure if we have been successful or not.

 

They don't have many propeties to go round so not everybody gets it but worth applying for to start off

 

Lisa

[Guest donna T]

I think they have around 50 or so properties throughout Adelaide. We requested near Fulham Gardens and have been gven Novar Gardens for our OAA. We didn;t think we would get it as it is a busy time with festivals and Easter but we were lucky. Definitely worth it as we are being charged $128 per week which is so cheap compared to rented and will give us a great base to look around the different suburbs to see where we wnat to live.

[Guest hayls]

Hi Maggie,

we went to centre link to apply for the family assistance do it straight away as we got $100 more a fortnight while cam was out of work and we got the health card which means you dont pay for the doctors and other things i know you dont pay for the docs as we went three times and cause i had the health card it was free,but you must notify them of changes to your circumstances straight away so as soon as cam got a job we told them and lost the health card and the family assistance dropped to $280 a fortnight which is still more than you get family allowance at home.

hope that helps

 

cheers Hayls

p.s you have to have a permanent visa

[Guest JPT07]

Hi Hayley, Glad to hear that you are settling in. We have had our TRA passed and are waiting to go for our medicals. My husband Paul is also a joiner and it's great to hear that yours was offered quite a few jobs. Paul will just have to hold out for the highest paid, I don't want to panic when we are out there and he takes the first offered. It's great to hear about adelaide. Thanks for all your info. Regards, Lorna.