AlwaysThankfull Posted May 17, 2017 Report Share Posted May 17, 2017 Hi friendly folk, our house has been sold, and I informed my loved ones and employer that we will be going to Sydney in Oct 2017. I work in financial markets (Stockbroking/Trading) hence Sydney is the best bet but very open to living anywhere in Oz. I have a lovely wife and great kids (3 and 9 months) and I am 33 years old. We have bank accounts and have most of our cash transferred. I tried to search the forum for specific answers but would love some assistance from the community on some questions i have: Could someone please advise me on landing in Sydney where would be the best bet to find shorter term furnished accommodation while we wait for our container to come over(few weeks to 2 months)? Airbnb comes to mind but not sure if there are any less known local options? I was thinking off buying a car immediately which will help enormously with moving small kids around instead of public transport and with potential multiple viewings a car seems like a must, would it be better to buy it cash or pay it off? Ie is there any advantage in one over the other and what would i need to buy a car? Can i just walk into a dealer and buy or would i first need an address or credit record? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monsta Posted May 18, 2017 Report Share Posted May 18, 2017 (edited) I have heard people here mention stayz: https://www.stayz.com.au/accommodation/nsw/sydney Getting around on public transport with kids is hard, but possible, if you have a good pram. Not all prams fit nicely on the trains and buses... So you want to avoid a side by side pram as it could be too wide to fit on the bus. So avoid this pram like this https://www.britax.com.au/strollers/steelcraft-agile-twin-travel-system/ and go for this one https://www.britax.com.au/strollers/strider-compact/. The second pram is longer and not wider. But you need you check out your rental place thoroughly on google maps. Google maps can tell you how to get to places on the public transport. Have a look and see how long it would take to get to the shops, for example. You also want to check when you can get to places. For example, there may be no buses on a Sunday morning or after a certain time in the evening. So ask google how long it would take to get to the local shops at 9am on a Sunday. If it tells you to leave at 11am. That's probably because there is no buss between 9am and 11am. If you miss the 11am buss you could be waiting a while for the next bus. Also, if you want to leave the city at 10pm at night, a trip that's usually only 30 minutes may take 1.5 hours because there are fewer buses after 9pm. You also need to think about how far you need to walk. The trip may be 20 minutes... but you would spend 10 of that walking. Also, to take a pram on the buss you will need a disabled friendly buss. Google doesn't seem to tell you which buses are disabled friendly. Most trains have several disabled friendly carriages. Just look for the wheelchair logo on the outside of the carriage. Basically you put the pram in the same place a disabled person would put his wheelchair. To check if the buss has wheelchair facilities, search for your trip on the government's webpage... https://transportnsw.info/trip That site shows a little wheelchair for wheelchair friendly trips. It also gives you the cost of each trip. So try out all sorts of trips on Google Maps before you choose a rental place. Remember, even if you hire/buy a car... you may need to take the public transport to a job interview while your wife keeps the car to drive the kids. What would I do in your situation? https://www.bayswatercarrental.com.au/ You can get a "nobirds" (i.e no frills) car from $25 per day. Bayswater car rental do longer term car rentals... like for a few weeks. After you think of registration costs, insurance costs, car loan repayments... its about the same price if you go and buy a new car. The "nobirds" car rentals are *really* cheap. Renting a car for a few months will help you understand what sort of car works best in Sydney with your kids.. Oh and paying for a car with cash and taking a loan doesn't make much difference to the dealer... They get paid either way. Edited May 18, 2017 by monsta 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysThankfull Posted May 19, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2017 Thanks Monsta, great info!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monsta Posted May 19, 2017 Report Share Posted May 19, 2017 Be careful about the car you choose... I have a South African friend who bought a manual car when he moved over... he sold it within a year for an automatic. One year of stop and go traffic in Sydney and he threw in the towel. Also, people here love big cars. But in many areas the parking spaces are narrow. Its hard to put your kid into their car seat when you can only half open the back doors or risk hitting the car next to you. Many parents with 4x4s park them right on the edge of their parking, so they can have space to get their kid in. But that doesn't work when you have two kids. Traffic in Sydney is really bad.. one of the worst hotspots is shown in the image below... its a 7km stretch from Top Ryde shops going down to the M4 motor way. In morning traffic, that 7km stretch is stop and go. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysThankfull Posted May 23, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2017 Thanks Monsta, i commute 1h20 in the mornings and 40 min in the evenings in my manual on the N1 in Cape Town, my one calf muscle is huge by now I will definitely get a auto for the wife, I appreciate the help and info! Currently we are organizing vehicle sale documents and getting movers to send quotes and systematically ridding the house of clutter, lots of admin and even more junk than what you realize! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysThankfull Posted May 29, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2017 Looks like are going to stay in North Ryde for about 2 months, dont know the suburb well but looks like an alright mix of everything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahWi Posted June 11, 2017 Report Share Posted June 11, 2017 Monsta those are great and detailed posts. They will be very useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleSimon Posted July 6, 2017 Report Share Posted July 6, 2017 @AlwaysThankfull Have you moved into N Ryde. It's s great area, close to business area, major shopping centre, trains and ferries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysThankfull Posted July 6, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2017 12 minutes ago, SimpleSimon said: @AlwaysThankfull Have you moved into N Ryde. It's s great area, close to business area, major shopping centre, trains and ferries. Thanks SimpleSimon, we got a place on Airbnb for 2 months while we await the arrival of our furniture, by that time we will probably have a better idea where we will be longer term, but it does look like a great neighborhood ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleSimon Posted July 28, 2017 Report Share Posted July 28, 2017 @AlwaysThankfull We live close to North Ryde because we work in pharmaceuticals and there are a lot of companies around here. Why have you chosen this area? Do you have people already in Sydney? A good place to look for cars is www.carsales.com.au. You will get something 2nd hand a lot cheaper than advertised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monsta Posted July 28, 2017 Report Share Posted July 28, 2017 Yep North Ryde is certainly an "upper class" neighborhood. Its wouldn't be on many peoples list of "upper class" suburbs as there are just too many apartments in the area. But real estate agents say that a nice house in the area will cost a lot as people want to live near Sydney's 2nd biggest CBD (Macquarie Park). Just be careful about these developments: http://www.urbangrowth.nsw.gov.au/projects/lachlans-line-at-macquarie-park http://rydegarden.com.au/ http://mpvliving.com.au/ They are literally planning thousands of apartments in what is a small area. They are worried the schools will run out of space... they are planning on re-opening a school in Ryde. The roads are already hectic... In peak hour traffic, its quicker to walk around Macquarie park than it is to drive. The reason they have allowed all the development is this project: https://www.sydneymetro.info/ That project is going to do a major upgrade to the trains in the area. You will notice all those big new developments are within walking distance of a train station. But the new Sydney Metro trains will mean the existing train stations will close for 6 months! Thousands of people catch the trains every day. There is a major university in Macquarie Park. I am sure thousands of students attend it each day. They are upgrading the roads a bit to cope and bringing in extra buses when the train line is closed. http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydneys-macquarie-park-in-for-road-upgrade-to-help-ease-chronic-congestion-20170410-gvhi5q.html But even the Sydney Morning Herald describes the traffic in Macquarie Park as "chronic congestion" If you head off to the shops at 11am on a Saturday you have to drive around for 10 minutes to find a parking they are all taken. . They have just upgraded Macquarie Shopping Centre in the last 2 years. So, Macquarie Park/North Ryde is becoming a very, very busy area Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleSimon Posted July 29, 2017 Report Share Posted July 29, 2017 You are right @monsta, I live 4 km from Macquarie park business centre and it takes 45 min to drive there at peak hour. It takes the same time to walk. My solution is to use a bicycle. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nev Posted July 29, 2017 Report Share Posted July 29, 2017 We did the drive in monsta's map above yesterday to IKEA and back, 9am on a Saturday it was just short of stop and go, on the way back at around 1 pm it was stop and go, would hate to see it during the week. As a side, our travels as people of no fixed address are finally over after just under 2 years and about 60 thousand km's on the car, we just moved into a place on the central coast last week, 3 bedroom house in a nice, newish area, standalone on a property with a garden and in house sealed garage, 8 min walk from a train station.......... $420 per week. Total trip time from our station to Sydney central is 1:15, a long trip, but lots of people do that in their car and live in Sydney, at least on the train you can work / read / watch a movie.... well worth thinking about if you find work somewhere north of Sydney or central Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysThankfull Posted August 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2017 So 48 days left.. as time is evaporating at an ever increasing pace I am getting more focused on the landing and what to do once there- have read some great journals and advice like the 100 Steps to do before going and the big things to do when you land like tax number, bank accounts, medicare etc but there are a lot of small in betweens that I am unsure of for example is there a comparison list between SA vs OZ companies like Discovery in SA = xxxx in Oz or Vodacom = xxxx in Oz, we all have our personal preferences but there must be a big overlap in a lot of companies to make a list between the 2 countries. This would save a lot of time for someone trying to google for services but not knowing if its a reputable company or if there are better options out there If this has been covered somewhere else or if there is a more in detail list of things to do once you have landed can you please give me a klap and point me in that direction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysThankfull Posted August 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2017 Found some cool info on landing / arriving in Australia: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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