Peterborough, Here we come!

[Carlos Carvalho]

Hello to one and all

It has been sometime since we last posted on the forum, but good news needs to be shared. Our 457 has been granted and we are on our way...well,almost! There are still some small matters to attend to, packing of container, buying airline tickets, booking accommodation, etc, etc. But, yeah, we are on our way.

Although we had our hearts set on Adelaide, the idea of Peterborough is not such an awful prospect and we are really looking forward to settling and experiencing small town life (Ps. We'll keep you updated on life in a small town. I'll probably have heaps of time to keep an on-line diary, since Liza will be bringing home the bacon and hopefully some eggs too...and a slice of toast wouldn't go a-miss.) Ok, time for breakfast!

See ya.

Oh, nearly forgot, Thank You to all the forumites that provided support, advice and insight on life Down Under.

Carlos, Liza, Alexia & Luca

[Pofstert]

Congrats Carlos!

You are probably over the moon

If I may ask, how did you go about getting the 457 visa?

We are in the process of lodging our 136, but would like to get there sooner by getting 457 sponsorship.

Pofstert

[Camper]

Pofstert how did your one on one go with the WA delegation or is it a waste of time, we are going to the Durban one to-morrow.

Thanks Camper

[Dax]

Welcome in advance!

Peteborough may be a bit small, but it is way better than Pofadder or LeeuGamka, for that matter

On the other side it is quite close to the Flinders ranges and for weekend getaways the Sea (Spencer Gulf and Gulf St vincent) are not too far away. People say that Wallaroo (to the south east of Peterborough) is great for fishing, camping, barbequeing even scab diving.

Also, once you are here, you have a foothold to get something better in time.

Cheers,

Dax

[Annette]

See you soon Carlos. Good luck with all the arrangements

[Carlos Carvalho]

Congrats Carlos!

You are probably over the moon

If I may ask, how did you go about getting the 457 visa?

We are in the process of lodging our 136, but would like to get there sooner by getting 457 sponsorship.

Pofstert

Pofstert

Liza (wife) is a general nurse and obtained sponsorhip through the Mid North Regional Health Services. We were well suported throughout the process by a medical recruitment agency based in Adelaide.

Regards

PS. Thank you for the good wishes and welcome.

[W+R]

Congratulations Carlos and family!

Hopefully we will have similar news in a few months time. Good luck with all the arrangements.

Keep us posted!

[Marius]

Carlos,

Yes congrats !! Welcome to Adelaide and South Australia.

I told you, you are not getting out of the Peri-Peri chicken mate, I still want one, specially now in the cold winter. Nice hot Peri-peri chicken, yum.

Have a safe trip and let us know how you go.

[Guest Bronwyn]

Carlos - waar in die wereld is julle, Pretoria of Peterborough?

Is there going to be time for another bottle of red (Barossa this time, not Chateau Libertas) when you pass through Adelaide? Stephen & I would love to meet up with you guys again.

[Carlos Carvalho]

Bronwyn, Marius

We'll combine the peri-peri with some good Barossa Red when in Adelaide. Our plan is to spend the week of 17 - 24 July in Adelaide, before trekking to Peterborough. Will keep you posted.

Cheers

Carvalho Clan

[Carlos Carvalho]

Hello everyone

Well, it has been quite some time since we've posted, but here we are almost three months in Australia and we thought it is time for an update. Some have received our monthly newsletter, for others this is not new, but we imagine that for those the other side of the Indian Ocean, this could be of interest. It will be a lengthy post, so bear with us.

Arrived evening of 17 July after lengthy flight from SA to a wet, windy, cold and dark Adelaide after a hectic stop-over in Sydney. The Adelaide Caravan Park would be our home for the next week. Managed to activate the smoke detectors a couple of times…damn toaster. Purchased a vehicle (yes, automatic, but with tiptronic gear shift and when I asked the salesman, why the difficulty in finding a manual vehicle, was politely told that Australians are lazy!). Go figure!

Drove the scenic route from ADL to Peterborough (around 250km) and was quite surprised by the beautiful scenery…everything is so green…and yes, sheep, brumbies abound. This is Australia after all! A bit of a shock when we drove into Peterborough Town. Remember, Carvalho’s accustomed to suburban life, and this town is miniscule in comparison! Anyway, we’ve settled into the cottage provided by Liza’s employer. The one aspect that has really impressed us is the easiness and genuine attitude of all we’ve come across. Not sure whether due to being out in the country or not. (I would imagine one would find a similar attitude in country SA!). Wherever you drive you generally get a one or two finger wave, but when you drive pass someone that recognizes you, you get a hand wave.

A bit of South Australian history; Peterborough (or Petersburg, as it was known until 1918) was a major railway town, where the Port Pirie, Port Augusta and Adelaide railway lines were all connected, so the town developed rapidly. However, the closure of the railway depot in the mid 90’s meant that its workforce was also affected and now roughly only 2000 people reside here. Ok, enough history.

The region sits between the Clare Valley to the South and Flinders to Outback to the north. Major cities with all amenities is Port Pirie (108km), Port Augusta (131km) and of course Adelaide (241km). Town has a Foodland (similar to Pick ‘n Pay Supermarket), Post Office, Police Station, BankSA, service station, news agency (similar to CNA/PNA), hardware, chemist and four (4) hotels. Yes, for a country town, four (4) hotels and a drive through Sip ‘n Save (bottle store). We are quickly adjusting to the opening hours of the amenities available, BankSA only open from 1100 to 1500, Post Office from 0900 to 1700 and not open over weekends. On weekends, Foodland closes at 1600 and the news agency at 1300. (Reminds us of a South Africa in bygone years.) Oh, nearly forgot…two primary schools, one public, the other a private Catholic School, High School, sports fields and a golf club! We miss Woolworths!

Our kids, Alexia and Luca started at Peterborough Primary and loved the fact that they can go to school in jeans and the school golf shirt. Alexia even has her own e-mail address at school. School fees for both of them for half a year ($170) equates to a month’s fees for both of them back in the RSA (R1050). This fee includes all their stationary and work books. Parents are encouraged to assist wherever possible. School is rather different. Starts at 0850 and ends at 1510 and the kids are busy, encouraged to participate in all the activities. At lunch recess, all kids remain in class until lunch is consumed and once in the playground the wearing of caps/ floppy hats is enforced. The weather is warming up and in country Australia, “eish, die son is warm”.

Alexia started late on the Premier Reading Challenge (needs to read a number of books within a certain period of time) and has already completed this challenge. They bring home reading about every day and have a book we have to write in and rate how they did. Since Luca can’t read as yet, we have to read it to or with him. Once they’ve read all the books they get a certificate and both have received theirs already. Both have also received Star Student of the Week awards; Luca in the first week and Alexia not to be outdone in the second week.

The kids have taken to the Aus way of doing things like ducks to water. Already sounding like little Aussies, knowing and singing all the words to the Australian National Anthem and expressing themselves quite freely (when we were little it was called being cheeky!) Alexia rides every morning to the school and while Carlos was highly anxious allowing her to go ahead (remember at times he is still on RSA mode; taxi drivers, people skipping traffic lights, getting knocked over for a bicycle, etc), he shouldn’t have worried. The bicycle is left largely unattended in the backyard and to date it has not gone missing. Now, of course, Luca wants a bicycle as well!

Liza is enjoying her job (most of the time). Had a good couple of very quiet shifts and then all of a sudden everything went to hell in a hand basket. There are only two staff members on a shift (1 Registered Nurse and 1 Enrolled Nurse) and this is totally insufficient when the hospital is very busy. On top of caring for in-patients, they also have to attend out-patients and emergencies in casualties (she works hard for the $$$). Had an interesting case recently, domestic violence where the woman’s boyfriend went crazy with a pen knife, stabbed the son in the neck and head and when she tried to intervene, got the tendon severed in her hand. Crime exists, but unlike majority cases in RSA, this chap was caught in the early hours of the morning and charged with attempted murder. And all this took place in a house right across the street from Liza's hospital. Peterborough made the ABC news report in the morning. About everything runs on volunteer strength. When an ambulance crew is needed, volunteers that are available make up the crew. Ditto for fire services. It seems as if volunteering is high on the agenda of Aussies. People take pride in living in this country.

Beginning Sep we moved to our rental 3 bedroom house, just opposite the High School football field (to be used as the interim driving range!) and close to the park playground. Our rental property does not have a gate or boundary fence to speak of, in comparison to our 6 foot palisade, automated gate and infra-red beams linked to armed reaction unit back in the RSA, hip height gate always open and no window burglar bars, unless one considers the mesh in front of doors and windows (to prevent the entry of insects, spiders, snakes and a variety of lizards) as a replacement for burglar bars. No real choice in property in Peterborough and we imagine that this would apply anywhere in country Australia. However, we were told that we would be living on the better side of the town, whatever that means! Don't underestimate the psychology behind bringing over your own belongings!

For all the golfers out there; Peterborough Golf Course casual green fees are $5 a round and summer membership cost $32, unlimited play (we would imagine this is particularly applicable only to country golf clubs). In addition, summer rounds are only 9 holes due to the heat factor. Tees are green, fairways dry and the greens are called blacks. Why blacks? No putting on beautiful green lawn here…here we have fine black gravel…and a rake at each hole to erase all traces of your putt(s) once you’re done. Have to be careful of the snakes, sleepy lizards and kangaroos though, which brings us to our first reptile encounter…very funny (in retrospect).

For all those that have relocated some time in their life, you’ll understand the dilemma of what to do with all those cardboard boxes. Carlos disassembled them, found a spot to store them flattened and was quite busy stacking these up (with Luca’s help) when from the corner of his eye, he saw movement between the boxes and the fence these were stacked against. Looking down he saw (oh, my greatness) a head and a tail curled up. First and only thought, f@#$%^&* (in Afrikaans, followed by a couple of ripe Portuguese vocabulary) snake!!! We are in Aus after all and heard plenty about the dangerously poisonous wildlife that you’ll find in your own backyard. So, grabbed Luca, retreated carefully, but ever so swiftly to safety and started phoning for the services of a snake catcher (should have paid more attention to Steve Irwin documentaries!) Managed to phone the Mayor (yes, you read right, the Mayor of Peterborough) after drawing a blank from the local police station who failed to locate the official snake catcher, since he was nowhere near Peterborough at the time. Ruth, the Mayor, (her sister works with Liza at the hospital and told us “should we ever need any assistance to contact her personally” and of course Carlos couldn’t let that offer pass!) arranged for one of the council employees, who seem to be snake catchers in their free time, to rescue the Carvalhos. Our rescuer, who lives just across the street, arrived promptly to catch the dangerous…bloody…sleepy lizard! “Man, Carlos het soos ‘n aap gevoel”. Apparently not poisonous, but has a wicked bite which is treated with antibiotics and believe it or not, the bitten area seems to inflame every year much around the same time it was bitten. Scary!!!

We have realized that this country offers choices in every aspect of life. The front page of the Sunday Mail, the other day, even allowed one to choose your own headline. Shopping for groceries is an immense adventure. There is like a gazillion variety of biscuits to choose from (all from Arnott’s, the TimTam people) and trust us, TimTams are not their only masterpiece. It took us close to 15 minutes the first time to pick cheese and a brand of yogurt, so does that give you any indication of the duration of that specific expedition? Those in Australia know the following bit; when you spend more that $50 at Woolworths, the outlet is co-branded with Caltex and you receive a fuel discount of 4 cents per litre on presenting your cash docket at the service station. Some dockets even offer discount vouchers to be redeemed at various shops! What a pleasure!

Ok, that's enough now. Oh,we also have received good news...we are now officially permanent residents of Australia. Visa granted on 9 October 2007.

See ya later.

The Carvalhos from Peterborough, SA.

[Queensland Girl]

Nice Post!

All seems well in the Carvalhos home. Well done!

[Guest ClanRogers]

Hi Carlos

Great Post... Enjoyed it immensely!!!

Congrats on receiving PR!!!

Cheers

Brad

[jimmip]

Hello everyone

Well, it has been quite some time since we've posted, but here we are almost three months in Australia and we thought it is time for an update. Some have received our monthly newsletter, for others this is not new, but we imagine that for those the other side of the Indian Ocean, this could be of interest. It will be a lengthy post, so bear with us.

Arrived evening of 17 July after lengthy flight from SA to a wet, windy, cold and dark Adelaide after a hectic stop-over in Sydney. The Adelaide Caravan Park would be our home for the next week. Managed to activate the smoke detectors a couple of times…damn toaster. Purchased a vehicle (yes, automatic, but with tiptronic gear shift and when I asked the salesman, why the difficulty in finding a manual vehicle, was politely told that Australians are lazy!). Go figure!

Drove the scenic route from ADL to Peterborough (around 250km) and was quite surprised by the beautiful scenery…everything is so green…and yes, sheep, brumbies abound. This is Australia after all! A bit of a shock when we drove into Peterborough Town. Remember, Carvalho’s accustomed to suburban life, and this town is miniscule in comparison! Anyway, we’ve settled into the cottage provided by Liza’s employer. The one aspect that has really impressed us is the easiness and genuine attitude of all we’ve come across. Not sure whether due to being out in the country or not. (I would imagine one would find a similar attitude in country SA!). Wherever you drive you generally get a one or two finger wave, but when you drive pass someone that recognizes you, you get a hand wave.

A bit of South Australian history; Peterborough (or Petersburg, as it was known until 1918) was a major railway town, where the Port Pirie, Port Augusta and Adelaide railway lines were all connected, so the town developed rapidly. However, the closure of the railway depot in the mid 90’s meant that its workforce was also affected and now roughly only 2000 people reside here. Ok, enough history.

The region sits between the Clare Valley to the South and Flinders to Outback to the north. Major cities with all amenities is Port Pirie (108km), Port Augusta (131km) and of course Adelaide (241km). Town has a Foodland (similar to Pick ‘n Pay Supermarket), Post Office, Police Station, BankSA, service station, news agency (similar to CNA/PNA), hardware, chemist and four (4) hotels. Yes, for a country town, four (4) hotels and a drive through Sip ‘n Save (bottle store). We are quickly adjusting to the opening hours of the amenities available, BankSA only open from 1100 to 1500, Post Office from 0900 to 1700 and not open over weekends. On weekends, Foodland closes at 1600 and the news agency at 1300. (Reminds us of a South Africa in bygone years.) Oh, nearly forgot…two primary schools, one public, the other a private Catholic School, High School, sports fields and a golf club! We miss Woolworths!

Our kids, Alexia and Luca started at Peterborough Primary and loved the fact that they can go to school in jeans and the school golf shirt. Alexia even has her own e-mail address at school. School fees for both of them for half a year ($170) equates to a month’s fees for both of them back in the RSA (R1050). This fee includes all their stationary and work books. Parents are encouraged to assist wherever possible. School is rather different. Starts at 0850 and ends at 1510 and the kids are busy, encouraged to participate in all the activities. At lunch recess, all kids remain in class until lunch is consumed and once in the playground the wearing of caps/ floppy hats is enforced. The weather is warming up and in country Australia, “eish, die son is warm”.

Alexia started late on the Premier Reading Challenge (needs to read a number of books within a certain period of time) and has already completed this challenge. They bring home reading about every day and have a book we have to write in and rate how they did. Since Luca can’t read as yet, we have to read it to or with him. Once they’ve read all the books they get a certificate and both have received theirs already. Both have also received Star Student of the Week awards; Luca in the first week and Alexia not to be outdone in the second week.

The kids have taken to the Aus way of doing things like ducks to water. Already sounding like little Aussies, knowing and singing all the words to the Australian National Anthem and expressing themselves quite freely (when we were little it was called being cheeky!) Alexia rides every morning to the school and while Carlos was highly anxious allowing her to go ahead (remember at times he is still on RSA mode; taxi drivers, people skipping traffic lights, getting knocked over for a bicycle, etc), he shouldn’t have worried. The bicycle is left largely unattended in the backyard and to date it has not gone missing. Now, of course, Luca wants a bicycle as well!

Liza is enjoying her job (most of the time). Had a good couple of very quiet shifts and then all of a sudden everything went to hell in a hand basket. There are only two staff members on a shift (1 Registered Nurse and 1 Enrolled Nurse) and this is totally insufficient when the hospital is very busy. On top of caring for in-patients, they also have to attend out-patients and emergencies in casualties (she works hard for the $$$). Had an interesting case recently, domestic violence where the woman’s boyfriend went crazy with a pen knife, stabbed the son in the neck and head and when she tried to intervene, got the tendon severed in her hand. Crime exists, but unlike majority cases in RSA, this chap was caught in the early hours of the morning and charged with attempted murder. And all this took place in a house right across the street from Liza's hospital. Peterborough made the ABC news report in the morning. About everything runs on volunteer strength. When an ambulance crew is needed, volunteers that are available make up the crew. Ditto for fire services. It seems as if volunteering is high on the agenda of Aussies. People take pride in living in this country.

Beginning Sep we moved to our rental 3 bedroom house, just opposite the High School football field (to be used as the interim driving range!) and close to the park playground. Our rental property does not have a gate or boundary fence to speak of, in comparison to our 6 foot palisade, automated gate and infra-red beams linked to armed reaction unit back in the RSA, hip height gate always open and no window burglar bars, unless one considers the mesh in front of doors and windows (to prevent the entry of insects, spiders, snakes and a variety of lizards) as a replacement for burglar bars. No real choice in property in Peterborough and we imagine that this would apply anywhere in country Australia. However, we were told that we would be living on the better side of the town, whatever that means! Don't underestimate the psychology behind bringing over your own belongings!

For all the golfers out there; Peterborough Golf Course casual green fees are $5 a round and summer membership cost $32, unlimited play (we would imagine this is particularly applicable only to country golf clubs). In addition, summer rounds are only 9 holes due to the heat factor. Tees are green, fairways dry and the greens are called blacks. Why blacks? No putting on beautiful green lawn here…here we have fine black gravel…and a rake at each hole to erase all traces of your putt(s) once you’re done. Have to be careful of the snakes, sleepy lizards and kangaroos though, which brings us to our first reptile encounter…very funny (in retrospect).

For all those that have relocated some time in their life, you’ll understand the dilemma of what to do with all those cardboard boxes. Carlos disassembled them, found a spot to store them flattened and was quite busy stacking these up (with Luca’s help) when from the corner of his eye, he saw movement between the boxes and the fence these were stacked against. Looking down he saw (oh, my greatness) a head and a tail curled up. First and only thought, f@#$%^&* (in Afrikaans, followed by a couple of ripe Portuguese vocabulary) snake!!! We are in Aus after all and heard plenty about the dangerously poisonous wildlife that you’ll find in your own backyard. So, grabbed Luca, retreated carefully, but ever so swiftly to safety and started phoning for the services of a snake catcher (should have paid more attention to Steve Irwin documentaries!) Managed to phone the Mayor (yes, you read right, the Mayor of Peterborough) after drawing a blank from the local police station who failed to locate the official snake catcher, since he was nowhere near Peterborough at the time. Ruth, the Mayor, (her sister works with Liza at the hospital and told us “should we ever need any assistance to contact her personally” and of course Carlos couldn’t let that offer pass!) arranged for one of the council employees, who seem to be snake catchers in their free time, to rescue the Carvalhos. Our rescuer, who lives just across the street, arrived promptly to catch the dangerous…bloody…sleepy lizard! “Man, Carlos het soos ‘n aap gevoel”. Apparently not poisonous, but has a wicked bite which is treated with antibiotics and believe it or not, the bitten area seems to inflame every year much around the same time it was bitten. Scary!!!

We have realized that this country offers choices in every aspect of life. The front page of the Sunday Mail, the other day, even allowed one to choose your own headline. Shopping for groceries is an immense adventure. There is like a gazillion variety of biscuits to choose from (all from Arnott’s, the TimTam people) and trust us, TimTams are not their only masterpiece. It took us close to 15 minutes the first time to pick cheese and a brand of yogurt, so does that give you any indication of the duration of that specific expedition? Those in Australia know the following bit; when you spend more that $50 at Woolworths, the outlet is co-branded with Caltex and you receive a fuel discount of 4 cents per litre on presenting your cash docket at the service station. Some dockets even offer discount vouchers to be redeemed at various shops! What a pleasure!

Ok, that's enough now. Oh,we also have received good news...we are now officially permanent residents of Australia. Visa granted on 9 October 2007.

See ya later.

The Carvalhos from Peterborough, SA.

Nice one Carlos-I think you should consider a career as a journo in that local paper there! Just a quick question-What is the name of the agency your wife worked through please ? My girlfriend and I are wanting to move to Oz and any help will be good, oh, shes a registered nurse as well.

have a great time over there bud

[Bob]

You seem to be fitting into South Australian country life pretty well, taking life as it comes.

I was a bit dubious about Peterborough, but it seems you've made a hit with the locals, calling up the Mayor to get rid of the Bobby lizard. You can grab them quickly from behind, on the neck, but be quick, or they'll bite your finger instead and won't let go!

Check out the Flinders Ranges National park in the spring or autumn one weekend. It's not too far from Peterboro. You can get around in a normal car. Wonderful scenery for a family. Take a tent for the weekend.

[MannyT]

Hi the Carvalhos

Pleased to "hear" that you and the family have settled well and are enjoying Peterborough.

Aussie friends of ours used to lived in Peterborough, one was the local GP (Patrick Wells) and the other owned the local car dealership (Lew Toop) and they both loved their time up there.

From one Pora to another.

Enjoy!

Manny

[Carlos Carvalho]

Greetings

Thank you for the replies. Appreciated.

Bob, Our plan is to make it to the Flinders before we leave SA and re-settle in Richmond NSW early next year. Oh, and Liza, on one of her shifts at the hospital, met an ex-South African that resides in Peterborough and that has probably been around this side of the Indian Ocean for as long as you have. His name is Willem Kempen (www.kempen.id.au) and still speaks fluent afrikaans with a Somerset West accent.

Oh, nearly forgot, the Mayors hubby is a Brit...that supports Rugby Union...and got a earful, but all in good spirit!

Cheers

Carlos