Almost 7 Years later in Oz

[Ready2go]

It will come my friend, and your head will spin like never before !!!

Waiting for your "got it" post. Shortly (yes shortly, very very shortly !!) after that your apprenticeship will begin !!!

[Karen-in-Brisbane]

Hi - that was a great post to read. Thanks to our Eva who keeps finding these graet topics and sharing them with us all.

I wonder if there are more mature people in Oz with a story to tell?

Would love to hear how it went............ We are so afraid of leaving our families and yet more afraid not to do so.... I am on a seesaw just bouncing about.

K

[Mara]

Ok, this comes from a more mature person, at least that sounds better than over the hill!

We arrived in Auckland NZ at age 44, no hiccups, no problems, found jobs straight away, put one son through 3,5 years of university for his undergraduate degree and the other for 1 year for his masters. Bought an established house, in an affordable area, on the west side of the city, paint and polished it, and were extremely fortunate to sell it for double the price we paid for it 3,5 years later.

Moved to Brisbane in June of 1997, oh boy, what a big mistake. Hubby went to a job, took young, just graduated son a month to land his first job, after 4 months I gave up looking and going for interviews, nothing, nada, and believe it or not, age was not the problem, the fact that I was not a Queenslander was apparently the problem. Went for more than 12 interviews, but never even made it to 2nd base. Eventually phoned the last two to hear why I had lost out, sorry, but a Queenslander applied and although their experience was not quite as good as yours, we decided to offer them the job. Go figure!

Fortunately for me, hubby decided that the humidity of Brisbane was not for him, so we were on the move again, Melbourne here we come. We have now been here since January 1998, both of us had jobs to come to and son found work almost immediately. This time I had my interview up in Queensland for the job in Melbourne, got it at the interview, and started work 2 weeks after we arrived in Melbourne. Built two homes, and now live a settled life. After 10 years in Australia, we decided to become dual citizens, Aus and NZ.

So, we were extremely fortunate, not the rough ride that Enrica and some of the others experienced, but definitely in agreement with them that immigration takes a lot of guts!

[polly]

Mara, you would know: they refer to houses as 'second-hand'. Is a newly-built house then valued more? Is there a reason for it? Are the states very competitive (e.g. Cape vs Gauteng kind of thing)?Must have been tremendously frustrating to lose out on jobs because you aren't originally from that area.

Edited November 8, 2008 by polly

[Thinus]

Ja well

March next year it will be 8 years - we did/do not have the luxury of a "why did we leave list" - we were working in Mozambique on a limited duration project and we were offered a job in country South Australia - we planned on coming over for 12 months but liked the place and we are still here.

This country is great - warts and all. However after nearly eight years we still battle on those Sunday afternoons when you start missing the family. We realise that the RSA we knew no longer exists - too much have changed since we left for Mozambique in 1998.

I suspect things will ease off once parents are no longer around and contact with the rest of the family that are still in the RSA starts dying off - maar ja partydae is die verlange maar erg

T

[Mara]

Hi Polly

I don't really think it is that new homes are valued more than second-hand homes, but that you will often get much more house for your dollars when you build a new home than buying an established home. The main reason for this is the new home will often be further from the central city and the established home, because it is closer, is often more expensive. For us, we liked the idea of a new home, we got what we wanted, where we wanted for how much we wanted. Our first home was only 16klms from city centre, but it was a double storey. Unfortunately due to health problems, I was told to stay away from stairs, which made living in the house a problem. So we sold up and moved to Sunbury, where we built a single level home on a bigger block of land, so that my husband could have his 'Aussie bloke' requirement, a big shed in the back yard.

[Eva]

so that my husband could have his 'Aussie bloke' requirement, a big shed in the back yard.

We have a a good giggle looking at homes advertised on the internet, 'every man needs a shed' had my hubby and I in stitches. Seems a BIG selling point. I'd rather hear there are two bathrooms, those seem few and far between from what we've seen.

[Enrica]

Hi Eva

dont know where you are looking, but in all the newer areas anything built from about 1980 the norm is either 3 x2 or 4 x 2 in terms of houses, well at least in Perth. The older areas are 3 x 1 or 4 x 1.

A shed is an absolute must....even if you dont have a bloke thats a handy man. You need a shed to put all you stuff in. Excellent storage area.

My hubbie just had a shed put up, with a slab and 2 doors and a window ( with a sea view) cost $7000.00 !!!!

So , thats is defintly a big plus to have a shed.

[polly]

Thank you for the info Mara. Slowly learning how people think. Seems corner houses are poular here but where we came from people didn't want them because you had an extra open side that criminals could get in... Still trying to get used to different cultures