llessur

Congratulations and welcome! The in-laws live in Blackwood and i think we might have joined them if COVID hadn't done weird things to house prices! Hope you settle in nicely and enjoy exploring SA!

See https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-if-you-go-abroad Particularly https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/who-can-pay-voluntary-contributions

Congratulations and welcome to Adelaide Hope it's all going well since your last post!

Yeah it will be interesting to see how things pan out over the next 5-10 years. It's got such beautiful bones with its intact heritage buildings - it just needs the population and investment to bring it back to life. Apparently Fremantle was in a similar condition until the late 80s when the America's Cup came to town and spurred on some development. Hopefully the same will happen for Port Adelaide with the anticipated ship/sub building boom.

Best of luck with the move!

You might get more of a response posting this on the Poms in Oz sister site: https://www.pomsinoz.com/ This one's more Adelaide-specific.

Do you mean safe as in personal safety or with regards to your visa? If it's the former then you'll likely have no problems as Adelaide is a very safe city (a handful of areas excepted, but you'll get that in any city). If it's the latter then I'll leave that for someone more knowledgeable to comment.

I thought I would start a suburb guide thread about Port Adelaide, mainly due to the large amount of residential construction that is due to start on the dockfront area over the coming months. Port Adelaide (or 'the Port') is an interesting one - once the bustling main port for the City of Adelaide, in recent decades industrial activity and therefore the population has dropped dramatically. Teeming with heritage colonial-era buildings (which luckily avoided the wrecking ball that devastated many of the CBD's heritage buildings during the 1960s-1980s due to the lack of economic progress in the area) the Port has great potential for a Fremantle-style regeneration and there are now signs that this process has finally started. Back in 2016 the State Government sold off 40 hectares of what was described as "the last undeveloped waterfront land in Australia" to a number of different housing developers. Whilst there is a common masterplan for the area governing building heights etc, each developer is free to develop their parcel of land largely as they see fit - be this through apartments, town houses or a combination of the two. Whilst I don't think the Port would be the first choice for a prospective migrant to consider for accommodation at this stage (as these are still very early days in its revival), it is worth keeping an eye on the suburb as the next few years will be pivotal in the regeneration of the area (especially to any migrants who may be looking to come over as part of the ship/sub building boom). I'll try to keep this thread updated with news about the development(s) and the area in general. Here is an article from the Adelaide Advertiser today:

I've got family in Blackwood and it's a lovely part of the world. Feels like you're in the hills but as you're only just in the hills it's much closer to the city and the beach etc than, for example, Stirling. Great in the winter as everyone has log fires burning but it's also worth remembering that it's a couple of degrees cooler in winter up there, and there'll be a bit more rain, frost etc. There's also a small but real risk of bushfire in the summer. Blackwood's has a nice little centre, a bit like a British high street with shops, supermarkets, cafes etc. It's really close to the Belair National Park and there's also a train station which is very useful if you want to commute to the CBD (it's about a half hour trip with some great views). There are some lovely houses, many nestled right in amongst the trees - including lots of interesting mid-century and A-frame type houses if that's your cup of tea. You'll probably have a few local koalas you'll become familar with. Such a nice environment for kicking back with a glass of red. Flinders University is just down the road (they have a fairly good reputation for nursing and social sciences) and the beach is around 15-20 minute drive away. The wife and I have spoken about moving there a lot. We probably will one day...

Childcare tends to cost around $100 per day (in Adelaide at least), with a subsidy being provided by Centrelink if you are eligible. The subsidy will be between 20% and 85% and is related to your family income as per this link: https://www.education.gov.au/child-care-subsidy-combined-annual-family-income

Having had our first just over a year ago I can report that our public hospital experience was absolutely brilliant. The care we received at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide was first class. Some of our friends went private and received a few extra benefits like beds for their partners in their hospital rooms (I must admit that would have been nice having slept for the night in a chair), nicer meals etc - but then again they also left with bills of $1000-$3000 on top of the health insurance premiums that they had already paid (private health generally doesn't cover certain things when you're in hospital - e.g. dressings, 'sundries' etc which all add up). We're planning another one in the near future and will have no qualms about going public again. In terms of the heat, it can be a little inconvenient and, depending on timing, you can guarantee at some point during the pregnancy or early months with the little one will be hot. Being a January birth the height of summer arrived when my wife was heavily pregnant and stayed around for the first couple of months after our little one was born. Not the best timing but we made do (very glad we had good AC at home). If summer had come earlier in the pregnancy or later after birth then it would have been easier but babies tend to run to their own schedule as I have rapidly been finding out

Bit of a late reply to this one but if you're going to be working around Edinburgh and want to live near the beach then you'd probably be better off looking at the stretch of coast between, say, Largs in the north and Glenelg in the south. Some areas around Largs can be a bit touch and go (whilst others are nice) but generally things are good from Semaphore south (including Henley, Grange, West Beach etc). Commuting would be much easier if you don't go too far south otherwise you'll get caught up in all of the city-bound traffic in the mornings. With regards to being close to the beach, most suburbs in the metro area are an easy (10-20 minute drive). Stick to the west of the city and you'll be within 10 mins. Are you thinking private or public schools? Brighton High (public - just south of Glenelg) has a very good reputation but you'll need to make sure you're in the catchment area, as have Adelaide High and the brand new Botanic High (both public - and the same caveat applies re: catchments). There are good private schools all over the place if you're willing to pay.

It depends on what you want from a suburb. To be honest some of the areas immediately around Edinburgh haven't got the best reputation - Elizabeth etc so you'd certainly want to visit before securing a rental etc. I don't know a huge amount about that area and whether there are some nicer parts but I'm sure some others on the forum might. What sort of distance would you be prepared to commute?

Archie & Co on Carrington Street in the City are very good, plus they do great coffee.

It's been a while since I wrote this so I thought I'd add a couple of updates about Croydon - there has been a lot going on in the area lately. Croydon Railway Station has now been completely rebuilt and is fully DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) compliant. Ramps are now at a much shallower grade and the platforms have been raised to be level with the height of train floors. Very useful for pram or wheelchair users. There's been some great new artwork incorporated into the station area, worth checking out if you're ever passing by. The adjacent kiddies park is in the process of being re-landscaped and will look lovely in a couple of years once the new plantings have matured a bit. There has also been a couple of changes to the retailers on Queen Street : One Small Room has now been replaced by a new smaller homewares store called Her Name Was Nola (https://www.facebook.com/hernamewasnola/) and a coffee roastery (both due to open in the next couple of weeks). Oscar and Willow has been replaced by the Soul Healing Space ( http://www.soulhealingspace.com.au/index.php.). An interesting shop selling crystals and incense - not my cup of tea but they're very friendly and it smells amazing ? The bicycle path to the City has now opened so (with the exception of a small road detour still required around one still-to-be-finished section) it is now possible to cycle from Queen Street through the parklands and into the heart of the CBD without travelling on a road. In the other direction, popular craft brewer Pirate Life have announced they will be opening a new brewery in the historic woolstores at Port Adelaide - think something along the lines of Little Creatures in Fremantle. When the new train spur to the heart of Port Adelaide opens next year it means that there will be a magnificent brewery a mere 12-14 minute train ride from Croydon. That would swing it for me ? Median house prices are creeping up a little - as at 30th June 2018 Croydon stands at $600,000 and West Croydon at $543,000.