KoalaPOM

That's great cheers flossybeth ill have a look at this wow you get to see penguins Ill check that out + ice cream too.. is there a certain place you need to get to for viewing them or is just around Warmambool? thanks : )

Thanks Philly47 will do : ) typical brit not thinking Mount means high up aka cold lol

Hi Jessia Berry, thanks for the info on the GOR that was really funny about PIO and staying next to the Langham, going to stop there for 5 days Southbank looks really nice ill defiantly check out some of the bars and Restaurants while I'm on Southbank, also not to far from the Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub lol Hopefully there will be some nice shops ect.. but ill do my best to have a good look round. Will be stopping in Mount Gambier twice on the way and on the return, somebody was saying the GOR is best from Melbourne to Lorne then after that it tends to be covered by trees so you don't see the ocean. Looking forward to the big lobster and fish and chips, although don't eat fish so hopefully i can get a burger or something : ) Sorry for the late reply been really busy and haven't had time to come on here, but appreciate all your advice, I like the telepathic bit lol Must be a good omen for moving to Australia! All the best KoalaPOM!

Hi Rammygirl, I was looking at some of the festivals but unfortunately we will miss them as we arrive after.. thanks for the information though : )

Hi Jessica, that's really funny, I've just booked that place literally 10mins ago then came on here to check the updates wow, we're going to use this place as a stop over on the drive from Melbourne so chuffed to read your post that's awesome : ) Did you say you'd done the drive? once we leave Mount Gambier we were thinking of driving up A66 to get to Adelaide Hills that's where stopping, unfortunately we will miss the festivals, we will be in Adelaide for 7 days then we will stop at Colhurst house on the way back as a half way point before returning to Melbourne..

Wow what an amzing find! thanks Jessica Berry that's amazing, we're going to Melbourne first so definitely going there, and will post some pictures, you know its a good breakfast if they have hash browns! thank you so much!! I shall report back and let you know how my full English was lol

Hi Snifter, sorry I didn't see a email to say I had another reply but thank you that's all very interesting, breakfast wise Ill have to cook my own lol for the towns I think somewhere like Stirling or Aldgate would be lovely and hopefully we will explore this area for a week in March : ) I expected a problem with fires, I guess similar to family I have in California Hills, they have the same problem. Ill look up some of those other areas you mentioned so thank you for that : )

Not yet lol! Still a few of us left, Ill leave a note when we go for the lights to be turned off!

Not yet lol! Still a few of us left, Ill leave a note when we go for the lights to be turned off!

Wow looks like Adelaide is a home from home for the people from the Midlands we've applied currently waiting for a decision 189 visa, two of us from Worcestershire anyone in similar position waiting etc? I liked your post spanners, your 100% correct about no wanting to go back, if people are leaving leafy Worcestershire which on the whole is quite nice it gives you an idea of how bad things are getting!

Hi Sprinter, sounds great, especially at the beefeater, lol None of the hotels seem to do a cooked breakfast or am I being too British just wondered have you applied for your visas? and waiting for a decision? I'm still not 100% on where we would go as we need to see both Melbourne and Adelaide, you get varying opinions on which is best, but if it was Adelaide then I'm sure somewhere around Sterling or Aldgate would be lovely, as we like the Country lifestyle although most Aussies seems to want to be near CBD or is that just a misconception. Cheers KoalaPOM

Hi snifter, what a lovely post, I've just started going through your links, thanks for putting it all together, really appreciate it. I first thought about 3 or 4 days in Adelaide, but I think we will need to do a week, so week in Melbourne, week in Adelaide, then last week back in Melbourne hopefully we can fit everything in, Ive started looking towards Adelaide first as we think we'd prefer it, drawn to the food, climate and we hear there is a good community feel, although never been to any of these places. I might jump onto poms in oz and ask the same question about Melbourne. Just looking at the weekend notes on food and things to do, wow should keep me busy for a few days : )

Hi Zebedee, Thanks for all that info, everything sounds really good, love pizza so I'm on a mission to try Grumpys now, must try that mexican pizza with a beer : ) Happy days lol hopefully we can do 2 days coastal towns, beaches etc, maybe 1-2 days in the hills, Love the idea a day down in McLaren Vale with lunch in the harbor and an evening meal too. I guess it will be a bit of a squeeze with only 7 days but Ill do my best : ) good call on the sun cream I guess its like Mediterranean late Aug/ Sep/Oct still hi 20s low 30s, will check all those other areas you mentioned on google and have a look. Thanks : )

Hi Becks, What a lovely post, thank you ever so much for the info, weather sounds great, we've been looking around Stirling, Aldgate, as we really like the look of Adelaide and the hills, although hard to judge from the internet, we go to Spain/Ibiza and love the Mediterranean climate so feel weather wise it will suit us, we currently live in the Countryside close to a small village with post office couple of pubs etc, so we'd prefer to be somewhere outside of the city, I guess it depends on work and what jobs we can find. I'm so looking forward to seeing the koalas and general wildlife, we really love the outdoors and Australia wildlife and fauna is pretty unique. I'm just looking a the Cleland Wildlife Park, I'm adding that to our priority list of things to do Including Mount Lofty! Food wise I don't eat much Asian food although I don't mind a chicken korma 'sorry curry lightweight' I had seen a few places we'd like to eat but happy to try anything.. Is it your EOI your waiting on? I guess for us its hard applying for a visa when you've never even been to the Country before but from people who have been, friends and family tell us we are making the right choice, we don't have children yet so I guess it makes it a bit easier. Also looking forward to the McLaren vale I guess well need a taxi lol! Let me know how you get on with your application? All the best : )

Hi everyone, just after some of advice.. we're hoping to come over to Australia from UK in mid to late March for a three week holiday. We fly to Melbourne so it makes sense to do a week there first, we're hiring a car and thought it would be nice to drive up to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road, anywhere nice to stop on route?? we hope to spend 5 days in Adelaide. Then drive back to Melbourne for the last week. Both of us have applied for a 189 visa (Awaiting Decision) This will be the first time we've been to Australia, basically were looking to do a bit of a tour of the best sites. If we were able to get a visa we'd look at moving to either eastern Melbourne or Adelaide Hills as a place to live, I did see a place called the Stirling hotel which looked nice, this looked a good base to see the hills and go off exploring the areas like Aldgate. Has anyone got any advice of places we can stay or particular places we should see, restaurants, etc... we both in early and late 30s so happy to look at bars, eating out, wine regions, nights out etc. Any advice on the weather in mid March? I hear its a Mediterranean climate..also any info on good hotels, tourist sites to give us a feel of life in Adelaide would extremely grateful : ) Can anyone recommend a place for a full English breakfast, most hotels we've looked at don't seem to offer breakfast or its just continental, am i asking to much lol! Cheers KoalaPOM

Hi Jessica, Thats really interesting thank you for your post, still not a 100% on where we're going to live, wherever we go it will be somewhere outside of Melbourne or Adelaide, somewhere between the hills and the east of each city, I think we're attracted to Melbourne by its European look and feel, well this is what we've read, whereas Adelaide has that Mediterranean climate choices choices lol. We'd also like somewhere with a strong community feel, this is almost lost in the UK I guess we would get this if we lived in the Adalaide hills or somewhere outside of a city small village or town.

Hi Snifter, thanks for correcting my post we must have got our info mixed up.

Hi Philkin, Yes we will use the quarantine facility in Melbourne, you'll have to let me know how you get on, will your dogs be in for 10 days? we've read you can visit your animals everyday, our cats don't get put into a cattery so won't be happy when there in quarantine, only just submitted our visa so it will be a while before we can come over subject to passing Medicals fingers crossed.

Hi Snifter, Blossom, Thank you for the info, with our cats were very responsible, we never let them out at night, and with cats being more nocturnal they tend to sleep around the house in the day which limits the time they spend outside. Initially our idea would be to rent somewhere while we found our feet and then out cats would be permanently kept indoors, once we buy somewhere with land we would section part of it off maybe half an acre and cat proof it so as you suggest this limit them to attacking anything although our cats are pretty good around other wildlife, we like to encourage wildlife like blue tits, sparrows, wood peckers, green finches, gold finch etc.. and we have 5 chickens who walk around our cats without any issues, Your right about the feral cats as a problem most them tend to be male which are not neutered and very aggressive, there is one locally to us, that's tried to attack our maincoons several times, we have a girl and the other two are boys. One year we spent over a £1000 on vets bills due to this feral cat attacking our female. So we completely understand the resentment, we have found some information that the government will be culling the feral cat population by laying poison for wild feral cats, a type of poison that stops oxygen getting to the heart, bait is laid inside a type of sausage that cats are attracted too. Although this could kill other wildlife if they eat it. Best practice will be on just keeping them confined to our land where they are safe and they can't attack any native species. Hi Philkin, we used to have gun dogs red setters, labradors etc.. until we were introduced to a friends maincoon, he was really cool, they are totally laid back, easy going, great with dogs and actually have all the attributes of a cat but with the personalty of a dog! thanks for the kind words, you are right if we don't take this opportunity we'll regret it. Have you moved yet or are you still in the process of moving?

Sorry I meant, not sure if cats will be ok to go out because of snakes

Hi Snifter, cheers for that, I'd seen Stirling as we'd looked at Aldgate which seemed really nice, something with a little bit of land, we keep chickens so be nice to have somewhere with a bit of space, Also our cats go out, as were not near any main roads, although not sure about oz because of snakes. We also like the idea of what produce we could grow like citrus trees etc. I know the wine areas are supposed to be lovely for a visit. Cheers for for all the info : )

Oh and cheers for links I've joined PIO under the same name.

Hi Snifter, Thank you ever so much for your post, that's really helpful, we currently live in the Worcestershire Countryside so where ever we moved too we'd like to be outside the city, from what we've read people seem to like living in the city which is difficult to grasp as that would be like us living in Birmingham our closest city. There must be something good about it though as two people I know have emigrated and never returned to the UK they went to Brisbane and Perth. Job wise my wife wife is a research scientist and I work as a designer but I work for myself and would hope to bring my work with me to Oz. We have cats so they would come too. I guess initially we would need to rent somewhere, if we get accepted, we will come over and spend 3 weeks in Australia maybe a week or so in each city/state.. Even if it didn't work out and the Australian lifestyle didn't suit us 'I know it's highly unlikely' I'll at least be glad we tried to make a go of it, these opportunities don't come around very often and we may never get the chance again. If it didn't work out here I'd agree with you 100% the UK is a no go, we can't imagine any kind of future in this Country lol. Sorry if this worded badly nightmare on iPhone lol.

Hi NicF, scooter dan, thanks for hello, yes a bit daunting but it's an opportunity of a life time I'm 42 and my wife is 33, so we want to emigrate before we get too old lol, I guess you only live once still not sure where to live, we'll probably go to Melbourne and drive up to Adalaide, to see what the areas are like, we like the idea of a Mediterranean climate, we go to Ibiza a lot and really like the warm dry weather, I hear Brisbane gets really humid, anyone know if there's much difference between Adalaide and Melbourne weather wise? Thanks in advance koalaPOM