Sally

To be honest, there is no way I would even consider living in a house without aircon here. It's very, very unpleasant, you would totally dread being at home. You come indoors from a hot 38+ degree day and you totally NEED a cool house (or at least a few cool rooms).

Don't worry too much - while the schools do ask for the vaccination records, that's all they ask for so you just need to let them know what vaccinations your children have had. No, they definitely don't refuse students who aren't on the Australian vaccination schedule, they don't refuse students who haven't had the chickenpox vaccine and they don't refuse students who have had no vaccines at all :-)

We used Crown and had no problems at all, so can recommend them :-)

I really hope things work out for you, it's a horrible situation to be in. Keeping my fingers crossed for you :-)

I would hope you would be entitled to a refund, after all, you have given them numerous chances to repair the vehicle to an acceptable standard. I'm not an expert on consumer law mind you, but that is shocking! Bear in mind that when you do contact Consumer Protection, they can contact the company on your behalf and advise them what they must do by law... however they can't enforce it. If the dealership choose to ignore Consumer Protection then that's their right, and you would then need to take the matter to court. Good luck with it all, hope you get it sorted - it's not right that companies should get away with such awful service :-)

It depends what month their birthday is in - the end of June is the cut-off date here in WA. Pre-primary is becoming compulsory as from Feb 2012, and it's full time. Kindy isn't compulsory and can fill up quite quickly but I think that usually if you have your enrolment in in plenty of time, and you are within the school catchment area, then you shouldn't have any problems getting in. Kindy is normally 2½ days per week. You don't pay for kindy or pre-primary in public schools. You can put your child's details into the calculator below to see when they weill be eligible to start school; http://www.det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/earlychildhood/detcms/school-support-programs/early-childhood-education/home/calculator.en?oid=Article-id-11572345 Hope this helps :-)

I second that - buy some outdoor furniture (assuming you will need it?) and use it indoors. Renting furniture is INCREDIBLY expensive - we did it and I look back now and think "what a waste of all that money!" For beds you could get blow-up ones or IKEA does mattresses almost as cheap. Always handy to have afterwards for guests or kids' sleepovers. If you need a fridge/washing machine etc, have a look on Gumtree or in Quokka for a cheap second hand one - and then sell it for around the same price when your own stuff arrives. For cutlery, crockery etc - IKEA does plates, bowls etc for around 50c each!

I think (if I remember correctly) we downloaded the forms from the real estate agent's website. We had to transfer over the holding deposit as well, and then the bond and the first month's rent as soon as we were accepted. Because we weren't in the country, we had to get the electric changed into our name from the UK (had to make sure the retic was running to keep the lawns green). Remember you will be responsible for the property from the day your lease starts, which can be daunting if you are still in the UK. We already had a job secured and the REA phoned the company in Perth for a reference, proof of earnings etc. We actually had a relocation company dealing with our move and they went along to view the property - maybe that helped our application. When we moved though, rentals weren't too hard to come by - I think now vacancy rates are very low so it might be a lot harder to get accepted if you aren't actually there in person to be honest. Also, you can't get a feel for the area, (we didn't really like where we ended up), and you will need to start paying rent from the moment your application is accepted - even if you don't arrive in the country for a few weeks - so it might work out cheaper for you to get a holiday rental and look for a long term one when you do arrive. Probably a lot to think about, it's a stressful time isn't it. :-)

Well, we did it but I don't think it's very common. We had somebody here in Aus who went along to the home open on our behalf (we had already spoken with the real estate agent), we put in our application, along with references, bank statements, proof of employment etc and they emailed the next day to say we had been successful. There were two other families viewing the property, no idea if they applied or not. I just didn't want to have the stress of driving around trying to find a long term rental once we arrived. The property itself was only just okay, a stepping stone I guess, but it did us fine for five or six months until we bought our own house. Good luck with it all :-)

Hi Kate, welcome to Baldivis! Both those schools are well thought of as far as I know, as are Settlers and Tranby (not sure about the fees for Tranby but I think they are listed onthe website). I have seen quite a lot of rentals in the Settlers catchment area, though maybe not as many as in the other catchments - Settlers is a more established area so it doesn't have all the building work going on, that will be why there are fewer rentals popping up. It's a lovely place to live, if you want to chat or want any info, feel free to drop me a PM. The weather is just starting to warm up so you have arrived at a great time. :-)

They perhaps won't take enrolments until you can show proof of address (public schools) but you would expect them to answer your email queries.

It's around $65 - $90 per day where we live SOR, so that's probably standard across the whole metro area - unless you are very close to the city where it may be more. The waiting lists depend on where you are really, I know it's very difficult to find places in some areas so it might be a good idea to put your name on the waiting list as soon as you can. Hope this helps :-)

What are the seat numbers? :-)

We are in Baldivis and there is no way we could do without air con, wouldn't even consider a house without it. Heating is no problem because you can easily use portable heaters (even better if the house has a gas point of course).

Well, if it's plastic and you have plenty of room in the container, probably just take it. It could get creepy crawlies of course, but then LOADS of people here have cubby houses - both plastic and wood. Spiders seem to love outdoor toys - even small things like trucks, you just have to look out for webs every now and then. I know it's a scary thought, but then we don't often hear about kids being harmed in the back yard by spiders etc so probably not something to worry about. Given the vast amount of outdoor toys and cubby houses sold in the shops here I reckon it's not something to worry about too much :-)

I think (from what I remember) you usually get a year from the date of your medicals in which to validate your visa. Once you've validated then you need to live in Australia permanently for (again, if I remember correctly) three years out of the next five, so effectively you would have about two years from validation before you would HAVE to come and actually live here. One your CO requests you to go for medicals, and the medical results are submitted, then the visa decision usually happens quite quicky. I have no idea what the timeframe is at the moment for a 176, sorry (our one was a few years ago and it took around 18 months from start to finish). Hope this helps :-)

If you are coming to WA and your daughter turns 4 at the end of August, she will be eligible for a kindy place from the following February (so she will be almost 4½ when she starts). Prior to this date she won't be eligible for any government funded kindy or nursery so if you are working you would need to go for private daycare - there is a rebate scheme for permanent residents though. Hope this helps, and best of luck with the move :-)

Yes, you can :-)

Yes the Dome is nice and it would be great to meet up - I'm pretty tied up for the next two weeks though but we'll arrange something after that, if that's ok? :-)

Welcome to Baldivis, we've been here longer than you (we're in Settlers Hills) and we love it too! Hope you settle in fine and if you need anything, (help, advice, coffee, wine...) just shout :-) I have only just come across Perthpoms so it is all brand new to me :-)