ADELAIDE LSD

[AndrewMc]

Hi there

Due to arrive in Adelaide on 27 Oct to check the place out, leaving again on 6 Nov. I am due to start work in mid Jan2010 on a 457 visa with an engineering / construction company. Having followed me blindly once before to Botswana for a contract this look see is a must for my wife before we make a final decision.

Please assist with the following:

Car hire - the best quote I have is via Access Car Hire, approx $37 per day all incl. for a new Getz - are they a safe bet?

Accommodation - there is a glut of info. available. Looking at staying in self catering in the Glenelg /West Beach area. Lots of places available for $100 per night and under that look good via Stayz and others. Any booking agencies or areas that should be avoided?

Schooling - we have 2 daughters coming across. A 13yr old due to start high school in South Africa in 2010 who is a very competitive swimmer and well jacked up on the academic front, and an 11 year old due to start Gr6 in South Africa in 2010. We would like to visit potential schools for the two of them during our time in Adelaide. Again their is a wealth of info available but any pointers would be useful particularly regarding high school.

Places to live - We will research the West - South - East - Hills. Lots of info on this forum re suburbs/ areas to consider. Is anyone able to recommend agents who are particularly helpful, or advise on who to avoid.

University - Finally I have an older daughter at Tuks who is considering coming across with us and transferring to Flinders to finish her dietetics degree, who have indicated this is possible subject to them being able to evaluate the credits she has to date. Does any one have experience of transferring kids mid degree and what pitfalls to watch out for eg visa complications. (The international fee thing I am aware of - gulp)

Thanks in advance. Closer to the time I would like to contact members of the community and arrange some face to face time while we are across if possible

[Marius]

Hi there

Due to arrive in Adelaide on 27 Oct to check the place out, leaving again on 6 Nov. I am due to start work in mid Jan2010 on a 457 visa with an engineering / construction company. Having followed me blindly once before to Botswana for a contract this look see is a must for my wife before we make a final decision.

Please assist with the following:

Car hire - the best quote I have is via Access Car Hire, approx $37 per day all incl. for a new Getz - are they a safe bet?

Accommodation - there is a glut of info. available. Looking at staying in self catering in the Glenelg /West Beach area. Lots of places available for $100 per night and under that look good via Stayz and others. Any booking agencies or areas that should be avoided?

Schooling - we have 2 daughters coming across. A 13yr old due to start high school in South Africa in 2010 who is a very competitive swimmer and well jacked up on the academic front, and an 11 year old due to start Gr6 in South Africa in 2010. We would like to visit potential schools for the two of them during our time in Adelaide. Again their is a wealth of info available but any pointers would be useful particularly regarding high school.

Places to live - We will research the West - South - East - Hills. Lots of info on this forum re suburbs/ areas to consider. Is anyone able to recommend agents who are particularly helpful, or advise on who to avoid.

University - Finally I have an older daughter at Tuks who is considering coming across with us and transferring to Flinders to finish her dietetics degree, who have indicated this is possible subject to them being able to evaluate the credits she has to date. Does any one have experience of transferring kids mid degree and what pitfalls to watch out for eg visa complications. (The international fee thing I am aware of - gulp)

Thanks in advance. Closer to the time I would like to contact members of the community and arrange some face to face time while we are across if possible

Hi Andrew,

Car hire - thats about the going rate. Accommodation, around the $100 is reasonable for a self catering place, also consider a unit ( chalet) in a caravan park in the area you are after. You can also try .lastminute.com.au or wotif.com i have used both with success in the past to book accommodation around Australia.

Schooling, best is to drive around here, see what area works for you then visit a few schools in that area. As you might know, schools are generally zoned, so your kids need to attend the school in the area they stay, unless of course a private school. We have friends with kids that are national level swimmers, perhaps I can arrange for you to talk to them when you're here to find out more about the swimming scene here.

Places to live, that is a very personal thing i have notices, best is to come and see for yourself, drive around and get a feel. Also, of course, it depend what your budget is, the closer to the city the more expensive in general. Om not surea bout agents, will try and find out.

Uni, i cant help you there, my daughter only start Uni in 2011. Possible go and see the Uni's here personally when you are here and ask about such a transfer, i reckon it should be possible.

Hope that helps a bit, let me know at any time if you need more info or would like to meet face to face once here, i will pm my cell number.

Best of luck and welcome to Adelaide !

Marius

[Annette]

Car hire - the best quote I have is via Access Car Hire, approx $37 per day all incl. for a new Getz - are they a safe bet? Sounds like a good deal for a new Getz, but I don't know much about the company

Accommodation - there is a glut of info. available. Looking at staying in self catering in the Glenelg /West Beach area. Lots of places available for $100 per night and under that look good via Stayz and others. Any booking agencies or areas that should be avoided? No idea about agencies, never use them, but if I had to list all the areas I would avoid, I wold be here all day. Adelaide has hundreds of suburbs. Glenelg and West Beach are both good options. From a practical point of view you want to be near to the city while you are visiting and mostly you will be fine. It's further away from the city that the areas get dodgier

Schooling - we have 2 daughters coming across. A 13yr old due to start high school in South Africa in 2010 who is a very competitive swimmer and well jacked up on the academic front, and an 11 year old due to start Gr6 in South Africa in 2010. We would like to visit potential schools for the two of them during our time in Adelaide. Again their is a wealth of info available but any pointers would be useful particularly regarding high school. What are you looking at private or public? My son's best friend is a state swimmer and we'll ask him about girls schools that are good for swimming as they go to a boys school. Burnside swimming club is good. She will have to join a club in addition to school swimming (offered mostly only at private schools and even then only a few of them) if she is serious about it and I'm sure youa lready know about the getting up at 5 every morning lark This may limit your options for housing as you want to live somewhere within easy reach of the Aquatic centre in North Adelaide where good swimmers do most of their training.

Places to live - We will research the West - South - East - Hills. Lots of info on this forum re suburbs/ areas to consider. Is anyone able to recommend agents who are particularly helpful, or advise on who to avoid. Agents are almost all extremely unhelpful. The estate agents here market the properties and show them for 30 min on Wed Sat or Sun. Do not expect one to find anything for you or even to necessarily follow up on any enquiries. It is all up to you to do the work. They just do the paperwork. Property sections are included in the Wed and Sat Advertiser. Sat is the big one to catch but it basically duplicates what you see on realestate.com, so visit that before you come and make a short list

University - Finally I have an older daughter at Tuks who is considering coming across with us and transferring to Flinders to finish her dietetics degree, who have indicated this is possible subject to them being able to evaluate the credits she has to date. Does any one have experience of transferring kids mid degree and what pitfalls to watch out for eg visa complications. (The international fee thing I am aware of - gulp) Good luck no experience in this field, but Flinders is excellent for Dietetics

Thanks in advance. Closer to the time I would like to contact members of the community and arrange some face to face time while we are across if possible

Happy to help and meet with you when you come

[AndrewMc]

Thank you Marius and Annette for the advice and information. Will contact you when in Adelaide

[AndrewMc]

Well we finally made it here to Adelaide having made a late decision following the look see. Put the house on the market in Dec, sold in Jan at close to our price, managed to get rid of the vehicles without losing much and despite being arrested during one of the sales having been caught up in a illicit diamond deal (the "buyer" was Angolan - go figure). Arrived 3 Feb, started work and school on 4 Feb. Now that the initial rush of getting the girls settled in school, finding wheels and a place to live have been sorted its time to get to know some people.

To those who posted info prior to our looksee - thank you. We made a decision in November after our visit to go private on the schooling and put the girls into Mercedes (mainly because we did not want to have the simultaneuous issue of finding a rental and school once the school year had started - rental prices near the good schools are horrendous and we also wanted to keep the girls together). We move out of the company flat this week into a rental in Mt Osmond (basically camping until the container arrives).

Would be great to start to get to know some people on this side of the world from this forum.

[Bob]

Well we finally made it here to Adelaide having made a late decision following the look see. Put the house on the market in Dec, sold in Jan at close to our price, managed to get rid of the vehicles without losing much and despite being arrested during one of the sales having been caught up in a illicit diamond deal (the "buyer" was Angolan - go figure). Arrived 3 Feb, started work and school on 4 Feb. Now that the initial rush of getting the girls settled in school, finding wheels and a place to live have been sorted its time to get to know some people.

To those who posted info prior to our looksee - thank you. We made a decision in November after our visit to go private on the schooling and put the girls into Mercedes (mainly because we did not want to have the simultaneuous issue of finding a rental and school once the school year had started - rental prices near the good schools are horrendous and we also wanted to keep the girls together). We move out of the company flat this week into a rental in Mt Osmond (basically camping until the container arrives).

Would be great to start to get to know some people on this side of the world from this forum.

What sort of stuff is yours that you would need to shift into your rental?

. . . and on what day are you guys intending to shift?

[MannyT]

Well we finally made it here to Adelaide having made a late decision following the look see. Put the house on the market in Dec, sold in Jan at close to our price, managed to get rid of the vehicles without losing much and despite being arrested during one of the sales having been caught up in a illicit diamond deal (the "buyer" was Angolan - go figure). Arrived 3 Feb, started work and school on 4 Feb. Now that the initial rush of getting the girls settled in school, finding wheels and a place to live have been sorted its time to get to know some people.

To those who posted info prior to our looksee - thank you. We made a decision in November after our visit to go private on the schooling and put the girls into Mercedes (mainly because we did not want to have the simultaneuous issue of finding a rental and school once the school year had started - rental prices near the good schools are horrendous and we also wanted to keep the girls together). We move out of the company flat this week into a rental in Mt Osmond (basically camping until the container arrives).

Would be great to start to get to know some people on this side of the world from this forum

Hi

Excellent choice Mercedes College . .......and you are living on the preferred side of the city

So far so good

Enjoy!

Manny

[Allie en Urs]

Well we finally made it here to Adelaide having made a late decision following the look see. Put the house on the market in Dec, sold in Jan at close to our price, managed to get rid of the vehicles without losing much and despite being arrested during one of the sales having been caught up in a illicit diamond deal (the "buyer" was Angolan - go figure). Arrived 3 Feb, started work and school on 4 Feb. Now that the initial rush of getting the girls settled in school, finding wheels and a place to live have been sorted its time to get to know some people.

To those who posted info prior to our looksee - thank you. We made a decision in November after our visit to go private on the schooling and put the girls into Mercedes (mainly because we did not want to have the simultaneuous issue of finding a rental and school once the school year had started - rental prices near the good schools are horrendous and we also wanted to keep the girls together). We move out of the company flat this week into a rental in Mt Osmond (basically camping until the container arrives).

Would be great to start to get to know some people on this side of the world from this forum.

Hi, Andrew... looking to move to Adelaide in July , where is Mt Osmond, had a look on Realestate.com but could not find it. How is the school working , our girl is in year 1

thanks

[AndrewMc]

Hi Mount Osmond is on the east / south east side of town. If you find Beaumont and go up the hill you will have Mt Osmond. I think Mt Osmond is essentially Mt Osmond Rd with a couple of little side streets. We have the view of the city and sea on one side and a golf course on the other. Alternative access would be from the Princes Highway - Mt Osmond is the first offramp when leaving the city.

Girls are well settled at school - good caring environment, standards are high, not as competitive on the sporting front vs what we are used to in SA. 10 minutes from home in the morning to drop them off, and other 10 minutes into work - what a pleasure

[AndrewMc]

What sort of stuff is yours that you would need to shift into your rental?

. . . and on what day are you guys intending to shift?

Thanks for the offer - made it through three weeks with basic stuff from friends before container arrived. Now its the battle to fit it all in.