Moving to Adelaide

[Guest HayleyPick]

Hi, Were in the process of moving to Adelaide (never been before) my husband has been offered a sponsorship with BMW as a Senior Technician and myself and children aged 4 and 10 will be coming over on his 457 visa. Put our house on the market last Wednesday and it sold on Friday so my head is in a complete spin. I have done some research on Adelaide but would be grateful for some further guidance and info. For Example: Best places to live that are family friendly, good schools and not too far from the city centre. Hopefully I will be able to find a job when we come out (as i'm sure we wont be able to live on just his income) but was just wondering what the job market is like (I currently work for a bank in a callcentre enviroment selling Mortgages and Personal loans, aswell day to day banking).. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[snifter]

Hello and welcome to the forum

 

It's not quite morning in Aus but I am sure once they start waking up over there you'll get some good feedback.

[Guest Helen Pryse Lloyd]

Exciting! Not sure i can help much as only been in adelaide 3 weeks and we live in north east suburbs. Just want to say how lovely it is here and even in their cold winter the weather is better than uk summer!

[Guest HayleyPick]

Hi Helen, Exciting and scary as all happened so quickly.. Apart from the weather how are you finding it? Is it expensive? Thank u

[Guest Helen Pryse Lloyd]

Loving it! Yes it is expensive but I'm still converting from pounds!!! We've got a lovely large 4 bed house $450 per week. My food bill last week was $300 but that's for a family of 6 and included expensive things like nappies. My cousin with 4 kids says her bill is $200 a week. Kids settled very quickly into school and nursery. Everyone very helpful and friendly. Get your stuff shipped ASAP, we've still got a couple of weeks til our stuff arrives and we shipped it a month before we left...that's been where I've been out of pocket, buying things that are in our container to keep us going. It only took 1 week to find and move in to a long term let. Cars are very expensive (we've just bought a Mazda 2005 people carrier for $16000. Nights are chilly so although you don't need a full set of winter gear I wish I'd bought a few more warm tops and houses are badly insulated so its very chilly in bedrooms at night so bring extra blankets/thick tog duvets) although this is just a few months of the year it's still needed. Overall I'm really happy with the move and very glad we are here!!

[Guest HayleyPick]

Thanks Helen, Nice to hear your loving it, Ive been going through a mixture of emotions since my house sold.. Made it seem more real.. Looking forward to the new adventure though.. Where abouts in the North East Suburbs are you? We've been looking at Glenelg, Happy Valley and Hallet cove but gonna have a month once we get there to have a proper look around.. Thanks for the info...

[NicF]

Most places are family friendly and there are some good schools around. You have mentioned Happy Valley and Hallet Cove, but I wouldn't have said either of these were that close to the city, but I suppose it depends how close you want to be. And if you want to be close to the beach or are happy to be a bit further away. Everyone will give different advice as everyone will recommend where they live.

 

I know the eastern suburbs very well as my OH is from the eastern side, we kind of live on that side and we spend a lot of time around this way as it's my OHs old stomping ground. The eastern suburbs are lovely, they are all close to the city and there are some really good schools over this way but it can be a bit pricey. The north eastern suburbs are nice and you start to get a lot more for your money but you also get further away from the city. Although you do have the o-bahn that gets you in nice and quick. A colleague of mine drives to Paradise interchange and catches the O-bahn in to the city from there. We compromised between the handy, but expensive, eastern suburbs and less expensive but further away north eastern suburbs by living in Rostrevor. If you want green, near the hills, easy access to the city and good public transport then the eastern and north eastern suburbs are worth looking at.

 

Try checking out seek.com.au to see what jobs are around. The job market is probably a bit slow at the moment but it really depends on what kind of job you do. As your OH is going to be on a 457 visa I would suggest looking at things that are fixed term contracts. Employers can be a bit wary of employing spouses of people on 457 visas because it's a temporary visa, but people looking for short term staff are less likely to be put off.

 

Definitely bring your jumpers. It's currently 4C outside where I am. And just 17C inside. Which is slightly better than the 14C it was when I got up.

 

Good luck with it all.

[Guest Guest12727]

Hi and welcome

Is is BMW West Tce Adelaide that your husband will be working? This is a good starting point for where you want to live. Adelaide is a lovely city to live in and if you position yourselves well in relation to work you can enjoy short commuting times, possibly even biking it.

 

If you want to be near the city then this gives you great options and you will be able to enjoy all the activities that take place in the city and surrounds - there are always events going on and many of them free and aimed at families, but you are also a short drive from great beaches, the beautiful Adelaide Hills and wineries about 1hr drive north and south of the city.

 

Re cost of living. If you are earning AU dollars it is all relative. We spend about $150 per week on shopping most weeks with an occasional $200 when out of cleaning stuff etc. We are a family of three, hungry teenager plus large dog and cat. We mainly shop at greengrocer and butcher and just leave grocery items to supermarket mostly. Last week we shopped at the Central Market (Grote St, very near BMW West Tce) and the prices were heaps less than we normally pay. We got a lovely chicken to roast for just $6.00, bananas $2/kg etc.

 

Electricity is expensive but gas is reasonable. So houses that run mainly on electricity can give very hefty bills. Bills can be reduced by choosing more eco designed houses and not falling into the trap that you need a massive house - the bigger the house the bigger the bills. We moved from a very large house to a smaller one a year ago and are enjoying huge reduction in our running costs.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Guest12727
added extra info

[Blossom]

Glenelg is nice, so it happy valley, but it isn't close to the city.

The job market is quite slow at the moment. Where I work we have at least one person a day phoning or coming in looking for work, and we have not been advertising.

 

My one mega important piece of advice.... Apply for pr as soon as you possibly can! It is getting more and more common for people to loose their jobs on 457 visas. Give yourself the piece of mind and get that visa sorted.

[Diane]

My one mega important piece of advice.... Apply for pr as soon as you possibly can! It is getting more and more common for people to loose their jobs on 457 visas. Give yourself the piece of mind and get that visa sorted.

 

I was going to say the same thing! There have been lots of devastating stories on our sister site, Poms in Oz, of people coming over on 457s who lose their jobs or get made redundant and then they are in the awful position of having to leave the country within a very short time if they can't find someone else to sponsor them, and the 457s in particular have had a lot of bad press recently from companies playing the system and getting found out. I have a friend who works for a bank call centre over Near West Lakes, but they have been in the news recently as - like a lot of similar companies - they have been outsourcing their call centre services offshore. Also, Holden is a big employer here that looks likely to close in the near future and that will launch another slice of automotive engineers on the job market, so get your husband to push his company to "upgrade" the 457 to a permanent visa as a matter of urgency, while things are still rosy!

[Guest klataylor]

We have been here since April 27. Similar in that my husband has been the one working. We bought a home in Prospect just north of CBD. The job market is very slow. I am looking for a PA role even with a degree because jobs with my Environmental qualifications are few and far between. I have interviewed with Hays recruiting and they were honest. Many retrenchments occurring and many people going for a few roles.

cost of living is jaw dropping. I still convert to pounds which stops me buying unnecessary items. Necessary stuff like hair, I used to get my roots done every couple of weeks for £10 (just hairline/parting line) here it is $75. Arrhhhhh.

 

but oh my, the weather and the gardens and the trees and the wildlife and the lifestyle and the clean clean everything and the schools and the happy happy everywhere.

[The Monaghans]

I was going to say the same thing! There have been lots of devastating stories on our sister site, Poms in Oz, of people coming over on 457s who lose their jobs or get made redundant and then they are in the awful position of having to leave the country within a very short time if they can't find someone else to sponsor them, and the 457s in particular have had a lot of bad press recently from companies playing the system and getting found out. I have a friend who works for a bank call centre over Near West Lakes, but they have been in the news recently as - like a lot of similar companies - they have been outsourcing their call centre services offshore. Also, Holden is a big employer here that looks likely to close in the near future and that will launch another slice of automotive engineers on the job market, so get your husband to push his company to "upgrade" the 457 to a permanent visa as a matter of urgency, while things are still rosy!

 

Diane is right. A lot of larger companies now have an active policy of not taking on staff who don't have PR. My former employer (one of the big four banks) used an agency to recruit call centre staff and the agency was told specifically not to put forward candidates who held 457's. This particular bank has also outsourced most of it's admin work and early collections work to Manila.

 

Not trying to put a damper on this exciting time for you but would rather you didn't come over thinking everything in the garden was rosy and we all live the Home and Away lifestyle! Good luck!

[Guest HayleyPick]

Hi yes it is BMW west, we were hoping to live somewhere within cycling distance (not sure if our expectations are too high) but also with good schools for my 2 children who are 10 and 4.. Started to have 2nd thoughts to be honest, worried that I wont be able to find work (only going on what peoples comments) and know we would struggle on just his income.. (would defeat the object anyway because our main reason for wanting to emigrate was for a better life for us all).. Decision decisions.. Thanks you for all the info...

[Guest Guest12727]

Hard decision and better that you are aware of the facts and don't come with rose tinted glasses on. However, people are still getting jobs and think of the long term as well as the short term.

 

For cycling distance areas to West Tce, you can consider the inner southern or western suburbs. For affordability go more west that south. There has been a lot of revitalisation of some of the suburbs west of the city. Look at the region between Anzac Highway (which leads to Glenelg Beach) and Port Rd. There has been a fair amount of revitalisation of suburbs in these regions, especially those closer to the centre The corridor along linear park is nice but likely more expensive, but would be great for cycling in, there is a cycling track the entire length of the park.

 

Re schools, I don't think there are any particular problems with any schools in these regions. None that I know of the steer clear of, but others may be able to shed more light. You really need to check them out yourself. Your 10 yr old isn't far off high school. Adelaide High is very close to BMW West Tce, so you may wish to consider the catchment area for it.

[soo_the_panda]

Please don't get too hung up on the 'cost of living is so expensive.' It has been said many times before, as soon as you earn Aussie dollars and stop converting to pounds, it's irrelevant. I have compared all household bills, groceries, hair appointments, clothes, petrol, you name it. Some things cost a lot more, some a lot less. The current exchange rate will make it feel expensive if you're spending saved GBP in Australia. Once you earn dollars, it won't feel so bad. For example, my brother came here for 6 months of his gap year. He was shocked at the cost of some things but also thought he was paid so well. In England he worked in a fancy wine bar for about 6 pounds/hour. Here he worked in a similar standard wine bar/restaurant for $22/hour, or $25 on Sundays. As soon as he got his first pay, things didn't seem so expensive. His attitude changed from 'wow that's double the price of what it would be in England' to 'yes in theory that's twice the price, but it took me 15 minutes work to pay for that, in England it'd take over an hour' - so he was actually better off.

 

If you have a chance to come with secure work then I say go for it - what an adventure for you and your family!

 

As for areas, there are a million answers of what makes a 'good' area. The fact you know you need to be commuting distance to the city is a good start. Have a think about what you want in an area. For me, it was to be near the beach. I love the beach and for me, being by the beach just felt so like the Australian life I always wanted! So if you're similar, look at beaches within whatever you think is a reasonable commute to the city by using google maps from various beach areas to West Terrace, Adelaide. I'd personally enjoy living anywhere from Semaphore to Seacliff (I think about 20kms in each direction).

 

If you're not bothered by beach, then extend your search to east, west and north too. Just have a play on google maps and on realestate.com.au and see what you find. Lots of great areas within 30 mins travel time to the city and some a lot less. Depends on your taste and budget- like anywhere, you'll get a bigger house and garden further out/in less 'desirable' areas. Good luck!

[jim and adel]

Please don't get too hung up on the 'cost of living is so expensive.' It has been said many times before, as soon as you earn Aussie dollars and stop converting to pounds, it's irrelevant.

 

It's not all about comparing to the pound. Five-and-a-half years here, I don't compare, but I do find the cost of living to be expensive and getting higher - sometimes frighteningly so.

 

Different people have different experiences and expectations, so to the OP I'd suggest reading through plenty of threads on here of the things you want to research - finance, housing, suburbs, schools etc - because the replies from a single thread will be very limited. Also, don't limit research to migrant boards, but look at news sites (comments at the bottom of articles can be very telling) and boards from locals, as well as obvious places like real estate and jobs boards. If a person were to read just this site, they probably wouldn't know there'd been a change of prime minister here in the last few days (let alone some of the reasons why), but they would know that there'd been a few sunny days in the middle of winter ...

 

Good luck!

 

Jim

[Guest Deb and Dave]

hi

 

We have lived in Adelaide for a year and a half now. We bought a house in the Southern Suburbs as you get more for your money and we are only 20km from the city.

 

Regarding the job front there is a call centre for the Westpac bank based at Lockleys. The HP Global IT Service Desk is also based there. Both will be of interest to you with your call centre background, even HP.

 

Good luck

 

Deborah

[Diane]

Westpac - yes, that's the one that recently made hundreds redundant. The Call Centre at Westpac was operated by HP for a while apparently. Next time I meet my friend I'll ask her what's happening there these days. I know she had her hours cut quite a lot and she has been there for years.

[Guest sithewindows]

We had the same problem when we were in QLD last Easter, £ was about $1.50 so it was very easy to keep converting. We were staying with a couple and the lady was a self employed cleaner in houses earning $30 an hour and turning work away, so $20-25 for a bottle of red was not an issue, but to me it seemed expensive I know people on here will say yes but thats QLD but I am just using it as an example. When we lived in WA even at $2.20 to the £ I still kept converting for 6 months. I really found things like bread expensive but meat was a lot cheaper at the time, not sure about now. Petrol was obviously a lot cheaper and may not be important to some but we spend about £130 a week running 2 cars on fuel alone. Then when you look at the cost of cars in Aus, fuel may not be an issue as we might have to get a bike! I am lucky though compared to Klataylor, I dont have to get my roots done! Simon

Please don't get too hung up on the 'cost of living is so expensive.' It has been said many times before, as soon as you earn Aussie dollars and stop converting to pounds, it's irrelevant. I have compared all household bills, groceries, hair appointments, clothes, petrol, you name it. Some things cost a lot more, some a lot less. The current exchange rate will make it feel expensive if you're spending saved GBP in Australia. Once you earn dollars, it won't feel so bad. For example, my brother came here for 6 months of his gap year. He was shocked at the cost of some things but also thought he was paid so well. In England he worked in a fancy wine bar for about 6 pounds/hour. Here he worked in a similar standard wine bar/restaurant for $22/hour, or $25 on Sundays. As soon as he got his first pay, things didn't seem so expensive. His attitude changed from 'wow that's double the price of what it would be in England' to 'yes in theory that's twice the price, but it took me 15 minutes work to pay for that, in England it'd take over an hour' - so he was actually better off.

 

If you have a chance to come with secure work then I say go for it - what an adventure for you and your family!

 

As for areas, there are a million answers of what makes a 'good' area. The fact you know you need to be commuting distance to the city is a good start. Have a think about what you want in an area. For me, it was to be near the beach. I love the beach and for me, being by the beach just felt so like the Australian life I always wanted! So if you're similar, look at beaches within whatever you think is a reasonable commute to the city by using google maps from various beach areas to West Terrace, Adelaide. I'd personally enjoy living anywhere from Semaphore to Seacliff (I think about 20kms in each direction).

 

If you're not bothered by beach, then extend your search to east, west and north too. Just have a play on google maps and on realestate.com.au and see what you find. Lots of great areas within 30 mins travel time to the city and some a lot less. Depends on your taste and budget- like anywhere, you'll get a bigger house and garden further out/in less 'desirable' areas. Good luck!

[thearmchairdetective]

Hi, Were in the process of moving to Adelaide (never been before) my husband has been offered a sponsorship with BMW as a Senior Technician and myself and children aged 4 and 10 will be coming over on his 457 visa. Put our house on the market last Wednesday and it sold on Friday so my head is in a complete spin. I have done some research on Adelaide but would be grateful for some further guidance and info. For Example: Best places to live that are family friendly, good schools and not too far from the city centre. Hopefully I will be able to find a job when we come out (as i'm sure we wont be able to live on just his income) but was just wondering what the job market is like (I currently work for a bank in a callcentre enviroment selling Mortgages and Personal loans, aswell day to day banking).. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Good Luck to you and your family.

[Guest Bonnydoon7]

Hi, congratulations on selling your house so soon! How did you do it! That's a really good start for your marvellous new adventure in Oz. Get good advice from others on who to use for shipping because I've heard there's quite a variety in the quality of service you get, and different amounts of time for the shipping to arrive regardless of what you were told by the firm. Ask around.

Also bring jumpers and warm clothes, I have been told our houses are not as draught-proof and insulated as your houses are, certainly not centrally heated or double glazed. We concentrate on summer-proofing and air conditioning and just put on more clothes during the winter months. We have these marvellous extremely unfashionable boots made of sheepskin, called ugg boots, and they are just so beautiful and warm to snuggle up in, especially the ones that go up to the knee.

[debbie lawrence]

Hi and welcome, we all learn to live within our means, and totally agree about when you earn and spend in $'s it all seems relative, OH works out that a round of golf costs about an hours wages !!!!