Chardy

Try some of these in the Weekend West.

Love a couple of jars of Levi Roots Reggae Reggae Cooking sauce for us if possible, tried making our own - disaster !! ;-)

Wow, what a result. Any jobs for my wife too ?? ;-)

Yep we did but found you can get stuff cheap from a lot of bargain pharmacies and sun cream is better bought here as suited to the sun strength, it's cheap enough too. My OH has found identical Nivea products but with a different name and cheaper than the UK !

Sounds good but the Sunday would be better for us as the missus works on Saturday mornings.

I feel sorry for you guys on 489 visas, they make it so difficult to find work etc. I wish you all the best, I'm sure it'll work it out if you are prepared to give it your all ;-)

You are stuck with private, baptist college, catholic college or the Anglican one. There is only one state secondary, John Tonkin, until they build one in Lakelands but not likely to be until 2019 ! There is Halls Head but its a middle school, years 8-10 only. This is our main reason for moving to Baldivis as the new secondary is looking to be really good so far.

Frederick Irwin is a good private school, not our cup of tea as don't want any religion bashed into our kids. The cheaper the private school the more religious they are it seems !?

You may want to go private for secondary schools as the state one in Mandurah has got a bad reputation apparently, described to us as "feral" ! The primary schools are fab though, especially Meadow Springs.

I didn't sign up to the new Poms bringing this weather over with them !! Welcome to Perth, sorry its the tail end of winter ;-)

TFN is Tax File Number and is THE first thing to apply for online here. ;-)

Yours must have been last on the ship ! Ours was sat dockside for at least 2 weeks waiting on the next departure, it's all down to pot luck really.

Hey Andy, The state secondary school in Mandurah is certainly not one I would choose for my kids which is a prime reason we are moving to Baldivis. There will be a new secondary in Lakelands but it could be 6 years away yet. Primary schools are good though. Just something to bear in mind.

Not much else you can do really until you're here. Lots of house building around Mandurah, Baldivis etc so you should be ok but I think a lot of the tradies are self employed, but you may find one who will take you on while you get used to the different working conditions. Good luck with the move !

We used Schepens for the shipping and Indure-Your-Move for insurance. Our insurance cost 600 pounds, the shippers (and they are all about the same) wanted 2200 !

Ours took 10 weeks door to door and that was to Mandurah.

Do you include east and west too in the split. I don't reckon there is much in it but would say NOR as a guess.

I'm with STTP, Byford is a bit in the middle of nowhere. Meadow Springs just on the north side of Mandurah is lovely and has a 6210 postcode. We live in Lakelands next to it and we have not seen any high crime just the usual burglary or two. You will think Perth has high crime from the news but everything is reported on as there is not much else to fill the news. Areas you are looking in the rates will be lower anyway as areas are less built up.

Don't know, it depends where you draw the boundaries I reckon. Why are you asking, if you don't mind me asking ?

That's bad,isn't there an insurance ombudsman you can go to ? Failing that try to ring the MD of John Mason. Glad we did insurance ourselves as it was cheaper and offers for damage were very good. Good luck ;-(

Hey Lou, Things are good for us too. Got to Perth on 12th November 2012 and spent 4 weeks with my cousin in her old traditional house in the hills while we searched for a rental down SOR. I had an interview the day after I arrived and got offered the job 3 days later. Worked for 4 months for them before being taken on by their supplier to do a pre-sales engineer job I'd been looking for in the UK for at least the last 15 years. So very happy work wise and get to fly regularly over to Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney. We got the first rental we applied for out of only 3 we viewed on the first outing, it's in Lakelands just North of Mandurah so I have a 61km drive to work in West Perth which isn't ideal. Mandurah is lovely though with the foreshore, dolphin cruises, marina etc and the older 2 kids enjoyed Surf Life saving club last year in Madora Bay. We didn't want to rent very long so in March signed up for a block in Baldivis and we are now waiting for our slab to be laid and hope to be in for the new school year starting, the school is 300m away ! We love the chilled lifestyle although work is hard there is a far more social element to it than the UK which helps make new friends, even Aussie ones ! My OH hasn't started her cake business as didn't want to do it from home and premises aren't cheap. There are a lot of cake makers around but the quality isn't always great so maybe down the track we'll do something. For now the concentration is getting the house built and paying rent plus a mortgage Happy to answer any questions anyone has or meet up with those here or still waiting to get here ! Justin and family xx

Don't start scaring the newbies now !

Camping is great here, no freezing nights unless you want to camp in winter ! Just invest in a decent stretcher queen bed and a good size tent if you haven't already then you'll be fine ;-)

Now those Little Creatures are more than welcome in my tent or house !!

Wow you have stumbled on some real rip off builders. Trouble is if you spend that much on a block they think you have the same amount for the house. 300k to Reno is mad too, you might as well knock down and rebuild ! Good luck with it ;-)