ross1983

We have a few items which we bought/acquired when we moved to Adelaide which we no longer need but may do a turn for new arrivals FRIDGE/FREEZER - Westinghouse fridge/freezer. A bit old but works fine and has all shelves etc & would be a good stop gap for someone waiting for furniture to arrive or saving to buy. $50, pickup only WASHING MACHINE - Westinghouse top loader. Works fine & has done us for 2.5years with no problems. $50 pickup, delivery negotiable XBOX 360 - 4GB Xbox 360, Kinect, 1 wireless controller, 1 wired controller & all cables. Games - Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, Fifa 14, Forza Motorsport, Halo 3. All cables required included. Everything works great - was bought to alleviate boredom when we first arrived without jobs but no time to play now thanks to 1yo baby! $120 HOOVER - Hoover cylinder vacuum cleaner. 2 years old. Works fine If you are interested in any of the above drop me an email to shawn_sheep@hotmail.com or a text to 0451 791 657.

At a South Australian govt welcome meeting in March we were told the average time is 6-9months to find a job. Speaking to a few people it appears to be pretty accurate, for a permanent/long term job anyway

I find Transferwise is easy, and competitive, for small-medium sums. The app is easy really to use too - I transferred £1000 in the pub t'other night as I saw the exchange rate was up slightly and it takes 5 mins tops. Yes you pay a fee but it's only £5 per £1,000 and you get almost exactly the mid market rate. You can also set a limit if the rate drops before the exchange goes thru & if you sign up thru Topcashback you get £10 cashback! Its from the same guys who set up Skype & is quite interesting how it works - effectively matches up a person sending £1000 from UK to Aus with a person sending say $2,000 the other way so it cuts out the middle bank which is where the high fees are. Richard Branson has invested in them so if it's good enough for him it's good enough for me! You also get £50 for every 3 people you refer so if anyone wants to sign up please let me know & i will send them a referral link! :-)

No worries. I use it regularly as I am doing some work for a UK company so its easy & cheap to transfer my wages across!

Use Transferwise. They take a minimal fee (0.5%) and if you transfer by debit card then it is generally in your Uk account within 24-48hrs. If you PM me your email address I will send you an invite to get your first transfer fee free. Ross

Are there any 'hotspots' for seeing koalas in the wild? My wife is desperate to see one. We've seen just about everything else in Australia in the wild but never a koala!

Only problem for new arrivals is that you have to buy it through a community organisation such as school, SLC etc. Perhaps people could 'promote' where to get one which would assist new arrivals without connections and also help whatever club etc the person recommends?

Unfortunately that's one of the downsides to living in Australia - touring music acts from Europe/US have to charge a premium to make the shows profitable. Most bands will be lucky if they get 4 or 5 shows to cover all the costs of shipping their gear etc. In Europe some bands will have ten times that! It could be worse - NZ hardly gets any bands at all!

2 standing tickets for Robbie Williams were "only" $320? Theres a Visa presale at the moment - password to access is VISA and all you have to do is pay with a Visa card

Maybe Westpac & ANZ only do fee free if you open in the UK?

Thanks, that's what I suspected. Do you know how long does it generally take from having to a viewing to moving in? We rented in Adelaide CBD once years ago and from memory it was only a couple of weeks?

Hi We are in temporary accommodation just now but are starting to look at units/houses to rent when we move out in mid May. Is it possible to 'book' a rental just now and request to take it from a few weeks further down the line? We could pay the bond etc just now. We haven't rented in the Uk before so not 100% sure how the system works!

ANZ & Westpac both do fee free for first 12 months. We have accounts with both as someone pointed out its worth having 2 accounts until you work out where you are going to live & what bank/ATM is closest (banks charge you $3 every time you take money out or even check your balance at a rival banks ATM) Beware tho, we just found out once you land here they charge 49% tax on any interest you make until you give the bank your Tax File Number. You can claim it back but one to watch out for!

We have a short haired cat and when I've been looking at rental ads I would say 50% of the ads we've seen say 'No Pets'. So we were wondering when a rental notice says 'No Pets' does this generally mean it is written in stone or is there some room for maneouvre? i.e. they may accept 1 short haired cat but not 3 huge dogs. I know certainly in the UK with a lot of things like this they aren't allowed to discriminate against one 'group' of people so they cant just say No Dogs. Some of the ads give reasons such as Strata regs (?!?) and we have presumed that the one which have NO PETS definitely mean no! Any experience anyone has would be much valued

We move to Adelaide next month & my wife is looking to get working in the Childcare sector asap (skills currently being assessed). Does anyone know if she needs to apply for an Australian police check as soon as she arrives? Can it be done beforehand?