Adjutant

8 working days to go 3 days holiday over Easter 1 Week to sort the house out 2 days for the removalists to pack 1/2 day to clean the house 24hrs flight from Glasgow - Dubai - Perth (arrive 1725hrs Friday 12th April) 3 years in the planning £40k loss on the house Exchange rate dropped from 2 to 1.4 during that time ... but "by jingo's" it will be worth it. I propose a toast to my first cold Redback Beer off tap in the Sail and Anchor pub in Fremantle to christen the arrival!

No they are not that bad and the risk on contracting anything nasty is very small. I've found midges in Scotland and Wales to be worse than mozzies in Perth. Yes Australia has creepy crawlies, but people do go a bit OTT about them. I've found we get more creepy crawlies and spiders in our house in the UK as windows dont have fly screens like they do in Australia.

Awesome! We do the same route on 11th April and would love to have an empty plane

Sounds like it will need to be a permanent job then.

Has anyone had any experience in obtaining a mortgage if your first role is a 1 year fixed term contract ?

http://www.myschool.edu.au/ This website allows to you compare schools in your area against the average or other schools. My sister is a Primary School teacher in Perth and cautions that these metrics are not always a true reflection of a schools performance as its a snapshot at a moment in time against standardised test and does not incorporate the wider care and support a school can offer.

SOLD ! We finally sold the house on Friday after 8 months, which has been holding up the whole move. The sale goes through on 12th April, so will be flying out around that date. We are staying with family in Mandurah then hope to buy our own place by Christmas, possibly in Baldivis. Its such a relief as we've been in limbo for such a long time. Shame about the exchange rate....

I was looking on Gumtree the other week and it had private sales and some scooter dealers as well. Couldnt see who is good or not, but there seemed to be some good deals about.

I think its more likely its lazy / inefficient individuals rather than anything. I've had exactly the same experience in the UK but wouldnt smear the whole country with that reputation because of one or two such instances.

42 Do I need to say more..

I'm still in Edinburgh until the bl**dy house sells, which hopefully will be soon but who knows. Hopefully be there by mid year. I went to school / uni in Perth but I've spent most of my working life in the UK. I think it was 1996 the last time I worked in Perth so its been a while Its a great city though, especially if you have a family. Its remoteness is the only negative thing.

I'm in the same boat as well (Bean counter) and the general feedback is until you have arrived its pretty hard to do anything, except some networking where possible. If you know your arrival date it can help and around month before then you can have a more specific conversations about upcoming roles as by the time they close for application and looking to interview you will probably have landed. I would advise that recruitment agents are not used as extensively compared to the UK and many of the larger employers have their own Job sites in order to recruit directly on their website where you can sign up to Job alerts.

Alan, If you haven't already you should contact CPA (Certified Practising Accountant) Australia's London office as there is a Memorandom of Understanding between CIMA and CPA Australia whereby you can effectively get a CPA designation as well, which will be more familiar to Australian employers. They also provide migration skills and visa assessments and can probably give you a bit of an idea about the market, but they dont offer recruitment agency services. The major job website I use is www.seek.com.au and seems to have a pretty good coverage. I have found that many companies are recruiting directly and not using recruitment agencies as much as before. Most have their own job alerts to keep you up to date with anything new as not everything will end up on the websites like Seek. The CPA office details are:- The Strand, London United Kingdom WC2B 4LG. P: +44 20 7240 8266. F: +44 20 7240 3452 Good luck

Someone has to pay for the tens of thousands that arrive without a passport on a rickety boat

We will hopefully be moving from Edinburgh by mid year staying with family in Silver Sands (Mandurah) But we are older (43 and 41) with two kids 6 and 5 - so would have offspring restrictions.

I've studied at two Perth universities in the past and which university to recommend can depend on what you plan to study. Judging by your writing, English is not your first language and the universities have strict English competency requirements to meet. You might wish to look into this as well as well.

Your probably better off around where your looking in that southern area in general, rather than going East or S.E. to areas like Midland or Gosnells and Armadale way. Its also a great launch point for heading down the SE of WA and visitng places like Margaret River, Bunbury, Busselton etc

Hi ... Yeah you might want to hear this .........but not every child born in the UK is a magical footballer, especially at nine. Lets face it do you want you son growing up to have a career in falling over and holding his shin and crying like a big girl until the referee until the gives him a free kick? Or do you want him to grow up, well educated with a healthly outdoor lifestyle? There are more sports than soccer out there to choose from, but a solid education can not be beat. As Georgiajoemillie said ... not all will be pros, so dont try and live your own dreams though your children (I'm to be a nice person, but hopefully realistic) Lets hope the "anti-soccer" accusations rebuttals dont follow. If Oz is Jared future consider getting him involved in a range of sports to see what he prefers ... lets face it Rugby is a real sport to play ... (Discuss ... )

I know that feeling .. Our house has been on the market since May at nearly 20% less than we paid for it 4 years ago, well below current market valuation and can not get a buyer! Sooooooo frustrating as we can't afford to move without selling it.

I would also recommend that as well as getting acknowledgement from the agent of your updates, also seek evidence that the owner has also seen the amendments. The agents wording is often very ambiguous to not only allow them to interpret it as they see fit when your leaving, but also to cover if they've not been doing a good enough job from the monitoring previous tenants.

Redback is my favourite, but it seems to taste better on tap rather than in bottles. try it next time your our and about.

How long, approximately, does it take to build a typical 4x2?

Malaysian had a good route leaving Heathrow at midday with a short stop over and arrives at reasonable hour in Perth. Also there is also Emirates via Dubai which is the shortest route, also offering a short 2 hr changeover in Dubai. You could also consider catching this from Glasgow as its much cheaper due to lower taxes and charges from Glasgow compared to Heathrow. Flying on a Tue or Wed is generally a few hundred pounds cheaper.

Very helpful Ross. Thanks for sharing. I was looking at the section " What happens if I leave property in the UK? You may have a liability to capital gains tax in Australia upon its sale - obtaina market valuation of the property at the date of your arrival in Australia. This valuation will be your cost base for Australian capital gains tax purposes. We currently cant sell our house and its 10% less than when we bought it. I wonder if we would get a tax refund on the loss ? (Somehow I dont think it works like that, but I would be interested in anyones experiences)