New to adelaide_ how are you finding it

[Devonair]

We have been here just over a month. Spent one week in Woodcroft and three weeks in Seaford Rise in a holiday rental, which was just long enough to sort out a longer term rental. The house in Seaford Rise was really close to Moana beach so was really nice, after all of the stresses of looking for rentals, cars etc.., to pop down to the beach at the end of the day. Really liked the Seaford area ( and Tykes holiday rental is awesome!) but was just a bit too far South for us at the moment as we don't have jobs yet so needed to be more centrally based. Found a rental in Burnside - Wattle Park- which is a leafy, very affluent area. It has three of the best state high schools in Adelaide

( Gelnunga, Marryatville and Norwwod Morialta). What I have noticed in the couple of weeks we have been here, is that everyone seems obsessed with schooling around here. I have been asked on a number of occasions what high school my eldest is going to next year.. I keep reminding people that we have only just got them into primary school!! We are zoned for Norwood Morilata High School which was probably the best school we could have hoped for when we were back in the UK - in that we didn't expect to be able to live in the zones for Glenunga etc.. but goodness, around here you would think that Norwood was some terrible sink school!! I was actually advised to write to Glenunga and plead my case to try and get my daughter in. Frankly, I am not bothered at the moment. We have been through enough of an upheaval to start getting in a tis about next years schooling options! By the way, if anyone does know about Norwood please pm me ( GOOD OR BAD) just so I can put my mind at rest. It gets pretty good NAPLAN results and I have heard from a couple of people who live in Adelaide and they all say it is an excellent school, I just think the area we live in ( lovely as it is) is a bit snobby in that sense. Anyway, I digress.. we found our rental ( wasn't as easy as we had thought initially but I have posted about that on another thread) and emailed the local school's Head. It was the Thursday before the start of the school term and the Head emailed me back immediately and asked us to go into the school the next morning, to look around and get school uniforms etc.. so that my eldest two ( 10 and 12) could start school at the beginning of the school term. This meant an hours commute each way for the first two weeks ( which was a bit of a killer in the heat!) but it was really good to get the kids in school asap and the school were fantastic at accommodating my children. They are at Burnside primary and I have to say that initial impressions are very good. Standards are high from what I can see and my year 6 son gets a lot more homework than he did in his uk primary. He has homework every night mon-thurs (2/3 items) and he also has to do a presentation every week on a given topic. This is something which he rarely did in the UK and I think it is an excellent idea as it makes everyone in the class stand up and do some form of public speaking. In his old primary it was only the "chosen" few who ever got to speak in assemblies etc.. year 7 daughter has a school tablet, will be going on a school trip to Canberra this year and is loving the set up of being in a middle school environment and having their own year 7 common room etc..

 

The area we live in has a lovely outdoor swimming pool, which you pay $19 for a family ticket for but there is also a lovely padding pool at Tusmore Park which is free. We popped down there yesterday afternoon for a quick cool off in the heat!

 

Shopping has been a surprise in that I had built myself up for a big increase in shopping costs but there are some decent supermarkets around ( Coles, Foodland, Woolworths) which haven't been much more expensive than the UK and I have found K-Mart for all household items to be very cheap! Got some t-shirts for the kids the other day for $1 AND $2 EACH plus some swimming towels for $4 each which at today's exchange rate is pretty good!

 

Have been to Norwood and sat outside partaking in the cafe street culture - went to a really good smoothie shop (Argo ??) which had amazing smoothies and not too expensive.

 

Our local shopping mall is Burnside shopping village which is probably not really representative of all shopping centres in Adelaide. Very nice..think Zara, Laura Ashley and a few designer stores all under one swanky air-conditioned roof - lovely to have a browse and it does have a coles I think too, although when I popped in for bread yesterday it was really busy. Shopping at Wesfield Marion and Port Noarlunga is also pretty good and all under one roof. For everyday value and shopping though we pop to our local large Coles and this has everything you need and I did a weekly shop for $160 dollars for a family of five the other day so comparative to what I world send in Tesco, although I will need to get more milk, bread etc,, before the weeks out.

 

Generally, people have been friendly and interested in our story as to why we are here ( gets a bit tedious after a while) but we are really enjoying ourselves. It is early days yet and we don't have jobs so we are living in a bit of a holiday bubble still - but hopefully if one of us can secure work soon then we will start to be able to settle into more of a routine.

 

Hope this helps to all those intending to make the move. Good Luck!! It has been much less stressful that I had imagined.

[snifter]

@Devonair, thanks for taking the time to write such detalied feedback. Appreciated

 

Norwood is a good HS from what I hear. I think your kids will be just fine there so long as you and they are happy with it. Pretty much all of the schools out that way are good so you probably won't go far wrong there. Glenunga is a state HS and is ranked number 1 on the Naplan rankings out of all the state and private high schools which is probably why people are telling you to try to get your kids in there. But like all state high schools, its zoned and places are hard to come by if outside the zone.

 

You've chosen a great area IMHO. I love it over that side. I am quite often Burnside way and like the little shops and cafes there. And yes, the open air pool and Tusmore are not too far. We make use of Tusmore in the summer and spent new years day there with a family picnic, kids splashing and we brought out the garden croquet game, cricket set and more. Been there a few times over the summer too. Once you are working, you are in a good area to get most places commute wise and so close to the city and routes elsewhere. The only downside is if you want to buy, its a pricey area and you may be in the ballpark to afford to buy there, but may not so it may mean moving a bit further afield. Check once your eldest is at the HS that you shouldn't have an issue for siblings to follow at a later date. I know families who lived in a zone for a HS and their eldest started at it and then they moved to another suburb a couple of years later and had no problem for their youngest two to then attend the same school once the time came, even though they no longer lived in the zone. So it can happen, but make sure its ok at your HS.

[burgermeister]

Great to read the updates. Ours is a fairly long story,and not still not quite settled yet, but hopefully it's a useful one forsomeone.

We came over for holidays in 2000 and 2001, did the tourist bit in otherparts of Oz but stayed with friends in Adelaide both times to see what reallife was like.

After that, and some frustrating times in the UK, we decided we wanted toemigrate. We attended a migration fair at Sandown Park and found neither of usqualified under skilled migration. So when I had the chance to take voluntaryredundancy in 2002 I did so to give us some financial back up. The plan was tocome over and start a small business with the lump sum. Migrationrules/categories changed in 2003 and blew our plan. We then looked at NewZealand with an eye on still coming to Oz in the future. NZ was a no go for usas well and we gave up the whole idea for a couple of years.

My sister in law and family then decided to move over and with my brother inlaw's qualifications and experience in IT they did not have a problem gettingPR. After a few teething probs they settled well and it got us back on theemigration trail.

We went to another migration fair and but after speaking to a few agentsdecided it just wasn't going to happen. Then a guy from the WA state governmentsaw us sitting on the floor looking totally peed off. After a short chat hesuggested our only option was to come over and study as international studentsand then see what we could do from there. At first I laughed at the idea ofgoing back into full time education at 40 years old as I hadn't been too keenon school first time round. But in the end we decided to give it a go. Wedon't have kids so it was just us to think about if things didn't work out. Ifwe had kids I don't think we'd have gone for it.

I was interested in journalism and had done a bit of voluntary writing for mylocal for football club and newspaper.

I did a home study course and got accepted into UniSA for a 3 year journodegree. We sold our place in Kent (completion eventually went through the daywe flew out here to start our new life), and shipped all our stuff overincluding a beloved retired greyhound.

As an international student and spouse we were only allowed to work part timefor the 3 years which made finances tight. I was allowed to work full timeduring breaks and did all the hours I could get over the summer break.

After some tough early weeks at Uni, when I thought it was all a big mistake,we both got settled in. Perhaps foolishly we started to plan ahead too farahead and bought a block of land north of Gawler with the idea of building ourlittle dream house once we got settled after my degree. I did unexpectedly wellas a student and got my degree.

However, in 2010, six months before I was due to finish uni, migration had amajor overhaul and journo was taken off the skills list. The only way we couldstay and work towards PR was for me to get a job sponsored by a company in aregional area, within six months. I applied for journo jobs in small townsin four states and was fortunate to find one in Victoria who wanted a newjourno with a few more years life experience. We moved to northern Victoria attwo weeks notice.

While working there we got PR (going to NZ for week to get it stamped) andthen citizenship in December in 2013.

The draw of family and friends back in Adelaide resulted in us moving back herelast May. My wife got a job straight away after sending enquiries to severalpossible employers. It took me four months to get a job and I'm now in acompletely different field to journalism.

We're trying to get our house built but are having a nightmare with the builderto the point we are now looking a going with a different one. Hopefully by theend of this year we will have our house built, or if not will have sold theblock and bought a house instead.

Despite the trials and frustrations over the years neither of us regret movingto Oz and are glad we made the move. We're not really risk takers so it'ssurprising we ever made the move to start with. We feel our life is betterhere than in the UK and the only thing we miss is family and a few long termfriends. We were lucky to know some people here and that has really helped andwe're very grateful for their support which has made things easier.

[snifter]

@burgermeister That is some migration story. Good on you both for giving it a go like that. Student visas are not an easy route at all and you've really gone all out to make it happen.

 

Good luck on the housebuild, can be really stressful I appreciate, we have friends building and having a bit of a nightmare.

[victoriasquare]

Devonair . . . Yes, Burnside is certainly a leafy and affluent area, and Burnside Village is the smartest of any shopping centre in Adelaide. You can now see the inside on Google Maps. I lived near the Village many years ago, and envy you having this as your local shopping centre. Shopping in Torbay where I am now, is poor and unloved to say the least.

 

It interesting that you say shopping in Adelaide hasn't been as expensive as you expected, "Wanted Down Under" programmes generally paint a horrendous difference. The strange thing, surveys over the years have shown that the affluent areas of Adelaide often have cheaper supermarkets with better quality fruit and vegetables, than supermarkets in Salisbury and Elizabeth, difficult to understand.

 

Will you stay in the eastern suburbs, or move nearer to the sea? However it doesn't take long to drive down to the beaches.