I am really thinking of moving to australia, specifically Adelaide as I have friends there. I have done all kinds of research online but really after some personal experience from actual people!

Just wondering if anyone on here has any advice or any helpful information to do with the whole process, I also have a dog that I want to take with me.

And if anyone has any info on what the biking is like round there???

yeah, don’t go

its full of racists and dangerous critters

Herr zokes will be along to tell you its is a paradise on earth and get arsey wiyh anyone who has a different opinion or experience to him.

We’re looking into it at the minute.
Just trying to get visas squared away.
Like you, we wanna take the Dogs.. & to be honest, it’s gonna cost us more to do that then it is for the container for the rest of our house. – about £3k just for the dogs.
Trying to get a 457 visa (sponsored) as that way we could fast track out there..
Good luck with it all, but be prepared to become frustrated..

A wonderful place to visit.

jools182

+1

being from leicester i am a multiculturalist…

oz was shocking, proper shocking. and i’d been pre warned by rellies out there.

nice place shame about the locals.

Oh dear Herr zokes is really going to spit the dummy 😀

I`d say spend some time there, take a month or two off, get a feel for the place. I spent about eighteen months or so there, nice to visit but not for me, some love it some dont.

Their economy is on the verge of a nasty recession.

However, a recession does not affect everyone equally, so you may be okay economically if you were to emigrate.

Like most things in life YMMV.

You want to have a look on the ex pat forums, lots of experiences described on there. Maybe a working visa would work better than full emigration if you genuinely aren’t sure about the decision.

I am honestly bemused about the racism, as it’s not something I’ve really noticed on any of my visits to Australia. I do stay with family mostly though so maybe I’ve been insulated from it. And I’m white so hardly likely to be a target. Maybe it’s different in other parts of Oz, I’ve mostly been to NSW.

Biking will probably be different because they don’t have the fab ROW network we have.

Don’t know much about living in Oz but if you are going anytime soon then start speaking to your vet now re export details.

They have to be vaccinated and tested against Rabies and the sooner the better as it can reduce the time they spend in quarantine over there. Also avoid Lepto vaccination as can affect blood samples needed.

Oh it is pricey too!

Why are you going? Not a flippant question – I lived there for a number of years and loved it, but if you expect the land of milk and honey you’ll be spewing. Same sh**, different place. If you’re running away – don’t. If you’re running towards something – do, but be careful. As for Adelaide – it is the bizarre murder capital of the world for a good reason.

Just arrived so some advice from a real perspective…

There is racism, there is also a more multicultural society (a contradiction really)

This is a hard time to come here financially as the pound is so crap. When I was here 4 years ago it was 2.5:1 now 1.5:1 hence everything seems expensive in £ terms, start earning here and that stops as imported goods are cheaper. I am currently judging “real cost” at 2$:1£ in my head.

Visa’s take time and money….. have a look out for the Aus Expo events (google it) as they have a lot of good advice and potentially some free visa tickets if your in demand.

Adelaide “could” be on the verge of a mining/natural resources boom so could be good also has a lot of defense work and is generally a nice place to live apart from the tap water which is the worst I’ve tasted!! Leave a glass of water to settle…

Moving & Shipping
We did a part container load of 400cuFt which cost nearly £3k with insurance. This was not a full house!! a 20ft Iso was quoted at around £6.5k to Tasmania (will be slightly less to Adelaide) insurance is 3% of value. We went with Bournes – very good UK side everything looked packed well and movers were very good. As it wasa part load shipping time is higher – it was packed end of Feb went into a container this week due Melb 17th May Tassie probably June. Whole container much faster.

Moving across the world

is tough, I moved with my GF who is aussie and some of her family is here, it’s been easier for her and made loads of friends through biking and work etc but I arrived 3months later and it’s tough to make a new start. This time of year time difference is worse for keeping in touch with UK, skype helps as does facebook but it’s not the same having to arrange a time to catch up with people.

Moving the Dog
Quoted for the dog last time, about £1k for the flight, 6 weeks of Quarantine + any bills incurred there, + UK vet bills, Try one of the animal airline types (again google all about the same) and talk to your vet.

Biking in Oz is different!!
There are some good spots near the city (Eagle/Fox Creek – I think) and some good shops/locals to point you in the right direction. Also have a look at Melrose North SA, Mt Buller in Victoria and Forest. Stromlo in ACT too.

If you want any more info drop me an e-mail

Mike

I only visited and met some very nice, positive types.

Many of them then revealed themselves to be racist *$%@s

Aussie comedian Steve Hughes sums it up in the first minute
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGuU4xe225A[/video]

Loved it. Stayed with family near Brisbane. Lovely city. Nicest place we visited. Sydney was bit crap. Overrated. Loved the Sunshine coast, North of Brisbane the most.

don’t bother, go New Zealand instead its topps

Yeah, the guys above are so right. It’s a terrible place, inhabited by bigoted unfriendly people, economy down the tubes, nowhere on the whole continent to ride your bike, and your dog will likely get devoured by a crocodile or spider within hours of getting off the plane. Frankly I’d stay in the UK if I were you, I certainly wake up every day wishing I was back there… 😉

I moved in October last year.

I had a job lined up with someone I used to work with in the UK.

I originally came on a working holiday visa, then had my 457 visa processed when I arrived (not the correct way of doing it), a lot of people seem to do it this way as it allows you to work for 6 months for a company, then if you like them/they like you, you can stay if they can sponsor you.

The sponsorship thing is a bit odd, some of it is very straightforwards, but then you can run into a “computer says no” scenario, depending on your occupation, you might have to title your job slightly differently to pass. Anything titled engineer requires a bachelor or masters engineering degree, but a technician role is fine.

I ran into trouble with my title being Engineer based without a formal qualification, I have a bachelor of science instead, but with 5+ years experience in the engineering field.

The first 3-4 months were tough, my girlfriend struggled to get work, but she has picked a job up now, not a career, but its a reasonable part time job with a friendly lot of girls and the extra income is great.

Things are going well now, we moved over here with FA as we were pretty skint in the UK, 6 months down the line, we’re not really wanting for anything, bought all new things for the house, got a brand new car on order, our belongings from the UK are being shipped over.

Once you are earning here, things are similar cost % wise to the UK, but you will be earning more. At first you can go holy **** a bottle of coke costs the equivalent of 2 quid, but its swings and roundabouts, petrol is cheaper, food is about the same, electronics are cheaper, used cars are more expensive, new cars similar price wise.

I would never have bought a brand new car in the UK, would have been a full years salary, yet here its less than half my salary.

It’s liberating in a sense that rather than having to penny pinch like mad and count everything up, having nothing left at the end of every month in the UK, being able to buy most things as/when we would like them and having money left.

You can earn mega money if you want to go work down t’pit, but if you have a family then its not very likely, wouldn’t have much family time.

The benefit for me is working 5 minutes from home, shorter working hours and better working conditions. Socially its taken a while, but building up relationships now and getting out to do things, I play water polo (seasons over now) once a week and started road cycling.

EDIT: I live out in the country, I wouldn’t move to Sydney, too much like London, just hotter imo.

And shipping times for bike parts, about 2 working weeks from the UK 😉

I’ve lived in Adelaide for two years now, and whilst I am sure there are some backwards people here (just as there are if you go to the rougher parts of any UK town), it depends which part of the city you end up frequenting. The majority of people you will come across are little different to the UK, with the exception of being more laid back as a whole.

Cost of living etc tarquin has covered well – some things cost more, some things cost less. We’re certainly better off here than the UK. We used to earn 55k between the two of us in the UK and struggled by renting north of Bolton and long commutes. Now we earn more than that directly i.e. converting back to pounds, but it goes a lot further, living in a nice house 10 mins from the city, 10 mins from the bush, and 10 mins from work.

Can’t help with the dog, but I suspect it won’t be a trivial matter.

And as for the biking – there’s not the variety on tap as there is in the UK (one big downside is access laws), but there is still plenty – anyone who tells you Australia is flat is lying!

Feel free to email me if you want more info – Langy off here’s another Adelaidian who I ride with regularly – he was great filling me in on all this stuff two years ago, so happy to pass on the favour 🙂

Cockroaches – if you don’t like them don’t go there

Cockroaches – if you don’t like them don’t go there

Not seen any yet, tiger snakes on the other hand….

Moved out to melbourne about 4 1/2 years ago with the family and dog (I grew up here but spent the previous 10 years working in europe and my wife/kids were english). From my wifes point of view, the whole visa thing was a right pain. Lots of paper work, filling out forms, immigration losing the forms, sending the forms back, immigration requesting new information etc). We’d been married for a year, living together for 5 years, two kids together and joint mortgage and bank accounts. For anyone moving out as a spouse, get joint bank accounts ASAP as that proves you are financially dependant. My wife is a GP (don’t get her onto the comparision between medicine in Australia and the UK), a career australia is crying out for, but still had to jump through lots of hoops. Strangely enough, hair-dressers were on the desired profession list.
We bought out our dog also. Very expensive process which was almost thwarted at the last moment. GOt all the vaccinations done, then the bloody vet did the antigen tests and the dog came up positive to one of the diseases she had been immumised against (strangely enough). For those that don’t know (as the vet mustn’t have) you get a positive immune response after an immunisation. The vet wouldn’t listen to expanations but luckily we’d gone through a god pet transport company who got ti all sorted at the last minute. Make sure you use a reputable company to handle all this stuff even if it costs more.
I don’t think Australia is any more racist than England, it varies depending on where you are. A small town in ass-end-of-nowhere will be more racist than a large cosmopolitan city. Area’s within cities vary also depending on the mix of people living here. Having taught in London I came accross a fair share of BNP types, I haven’t seen that overt level of nutterdom here, but then I live in a very different enviroment here and teach at a very different school.

I am slightly puzzled by the whole Aussies are racist schtick that STW seems to have – sure, there are social problems like anywhere in the world, but I would say that they are light years ahead of the UK in terms of progressiveness and tolerance. Perhaps I have rose tinted specs having lived in Sydney, but I think the UK could and should learn from the Aussies.

I lived in oz for 6 months and after that time decided we wouldn’t want to move there permanently, for a variety of reasons, we found many people to be surprisingly racist (If I had a dollar for every time someone said “I’m not racist but…” ) , and on the east coast we got tired of the abundance of stereotypical aussie male in wife beater and boardies showing off/being loud, all the time, everywhere, 24/7. Its pretty expensive too.

The country is amazing though, WA is a far nicer place than the east coast in my experience. Its very friendly too, compared to the UK.

Adelaide was OK, some bits of SA are nice but a lot of it is a dry red oven, personally WA/Perth or Vic/Melbourne would be the places I would consider living if I was to go back.

Thanks everyone some good stuff!

So the reason I want to go is because that is where the man i have a real shot at happiness is. After splitting from my husband last year (were together 10 years) i am really liking the idea of a proper fresh start and going on a big adventure and taking some risks in life! Somthing i have never really done, or ever had the chance to.

I’m not so silly as to think life will ever be a bed of roses, but from what i have been told/read i could have a lot better life there from a purely practical work/money point of view.

Here i work as an antique restorer and earn around 16k per year, not much for a skilled trade. I am a qualified cabinet maker/upholsterer too. Two trades that are on the gov list in oz.

The man in australia i want to be with works in the antiques trade and things are good and my skills would be in demand there and i could earn a lot more than i do here.

The bad parts, I hate spiders!!! It’s a long way from home, and nothing in life is for certain or for ever! I’m going out for two weeks very soon (would stay longer but i’m self employed so can’t afford it) want to check some stuff out talk to people there see whats what. If all goes well come back sort the dog and get myself a working holiday visa i’m under 30 so still qualify for that, go and see what happens if i like it great if i don’t i will come home, but it would give me a year to give it all a proper chance.

Thanks mikewsmith and tarquin for the offers of further advice i may well take you up on that at some point! I’m not expecting anything to be easy, and i realise that jobs and making friends is going to take time and effort and i’m looking forward to having to get out there and do that.

And yep the big money is in the mines out there, 60k a year to drive a truck! According to my freinds when people in Adelaide start running out of cash they just dig another hole and sell the crap that comes out of it!

Have also been warned about the racists, and i am very aware of how backward some of the poeple are there, my man also works part time for the red cross so he’s dealing with the nutters every day!

I guess i’m just looking for lots of different and real points of view and you guys are giving me that so thanks again!

Sorry zokes missed you out, thanks for your offer of further advice too!

No worries – happy to be of help if I can!

And whilst not antiques, the quote we received a couple of months ago for some new custom-made cupboards and drawers for a new lab here nearly had me retraining as a cabinet maker! I did have to ask what they were going to be made out of….

I’ll still stand by my point on ‘racism’ though – whilst in some parts it’s more overt than others, I’ve never seen it on the scale of the sink estates of NW England and Wales, or for that matter, the well-to-do areas either. Perhaps it’s something to do with the psyche of the place – Aussies just say what’s on their minds, whereas us poms tend to just think it and mutter under our breath.

Ha Ha, yeh zokes, i think you are right they do just seem to say what they are thinking! Most of the time it’s pretty funny!

As for the racism, guess i will find out for myself when i get there, tho needless to say if anyone starts any, well i prob won’t be hanging around with them for long! And like you say unfortunately it’s something that is everywhere in different amounts, i have come across plenty in this country from people who seemed like nice normal humans till they started spouting crap about people of certain races!
One day we might all just get along.

Oh and on your other point, it’s harder than you think to use a chisel, saw etc, and end up with something that looks good and actually works! 😉

I am actually anticipating that the fact i’m a slim,young, blonde,woman to cause me a few problems, as in trying to convince some australian men that i do know how to use tools and i can lift something heavier that a teacup! Though even here i sometimes have a hard time convincing certain people!

I am actually anticipating that the fact i’m a slim,young, blonde,woman to cause me a few problems, as in trying to convince some australian men that i do know how to use tools and i can lift something heavier that a teacup! Though even here i sometimes have a hard time convincing certain people!

That might be something that sadly could pose you a problem with one or two people, but just with the UK, might be seen as a great positive by others. Some people are idiots, others are not, and sadly, you get them everywhere…

This thread makes for interesting reading, as normal some are keen to point out the failings of a place rather than the positives.

The wife and I landed in Adelaide on Tuesday as we have gained a sponsored visa via her job(Police Officer)The visa allows me to work too so it’s perfect and I’m looking at earning significantly more than I could ever achieve in the UK and the job opportunities are a real plus in my book.

We sold everything we had back in the UK, house the lot and I’m looking forward to starting a fresh. The real reason we came was the fact we could and we intend to make the most of it.

Racist’s exist everywhere and are more prevalent in the UK in my opinion.

Adelaide and Australia as a whole just appears more laid back but not in the sense that things don’t get done but it’ll be fine “no worries” kind of way.

We left our dog Brian back in the UK, he’s living with the wife’s parents and if I’m totally honest with myself he’ll have a happier more for filled life there. We looked after him but he now gets two walks a day rather than the one he got with us and the garden is a 60footer rather than the pooky terrace back yard he had with us. Also it cost £3000 just to get him to Melbourne (no quarantine in Adelaide) so we estimated more like £4000 to ship. Furthermore rentals will be harder to come by with a pet.

We are currently staying with a couple who moved out a few months back and the support networks out here are great. A lot of people have been through the process so are more than willing to help, and that goes for me too.

If you have any further questions please just ask.

Zokes, can I tag along on one of your rides at some point? I’ll be buying a new bike soon so will have some wheels again! and I’ll need showing around!

Scott.

it’s like being on holiday everyday.

Thanks Scott, I did think of not taking the dog as you are right its f***ing expensive, but I don’t have that option, and honestly i couldn’t leave her i would miss her to much.
I’m so happy to hear the positive experiences people are having, i know it’s going to be a long possibly hard/complicated process but hopefully it will be worth it!

WG, Yeah I really miss the little fella but I certain it’s the right thing and at least he stays in the family.

Again if you need any questions answering fire them over.

A little video if Brian

http://vimeo.com/13080434
Good luck and maybe see you over down here some day

Great video! And thanks! Fingers crossed, if all goes to plan i might be there early 2013!!