Advice Please on Moving to Australia

**PurpleSnowflake** · 01-21-2012, 09:23 PM

Did they reply back yet?

**jenloveschip2001** · 01-22-2012, 04:36 PM

They came back with $160,000 a year and said that we should think about living in Newman which is the mining town were he would be working. If we did this they would provide housing ,electric and water for free. So I did alot of research on Newman and it seems to be more what I'm use to now. More of the small town feel. I have a few more questions for them, so we should be able to talk to them tonight on the phone because it will be monday morning there. As long as nothing crazy comes up we are going to accept the offer. I am going to wait 3-6 months after he goes over to go just so he can get a feel for everything before we uproot the kids. I am excited but very nervous. After we except it is going to be a lot of waiting. We have to apply and wait for our passports to come, that could take up to 6 weeks and then another 2 months for the visas to go through. I will keep you guys updated.

**Spirit Deer** · 01-22-2012, 09:01 PM

How exciting! It's going to be an amazing adventure, to say the least. Congrats on this wonderful opportunity.

**wanderlusting** · 01-23-2012, 07:28 AM

How exciting!

DH was offered an assignment to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. It doesn't have an actual base, so we pretty much would be like civilians. So I went through a lot of the thought processes as you. Since it's a remote location, it's done on a volunteer basis. After talking to people living there and additional research, we turned down the offer. I think they had offered this to us before kids, we would have snapped it up

These probably are more for remote locations, but here are some questions to ask:
-medical care. If you're in a remote location, is there a doctor in your area. If you have other issues, where do you go? If we had anything bigger than basic medical issues, we would have had to fly out for further care.

-school. The place we would have gone to didn't have good public school. So the station would have paid for our kids to go to private school.

-look into extra cost of everyday things. It could cost you 100 Au dollars to fill up your vehicle. And fresh produce (we eat tons of produce in our household) is expensive. Especially in remote locations because it has to be trucked in long distances. In AS, bananas are $11 per pound. Fresh milk is expensive so parents give their kids Carnation instant breakfast.

-Crime. In AS, there is a big problem with theft- in cars and yards. People's dogs were even being stolen from yards!

**jenloveschip2001** · 01-23-2012, 08:45 AM

We talked to them again last night and everthing sounds good. She is going to have the guy that would be his boss call and confirm everything in the next day or two and them we start getting passports. The lady we have been talking to works in the human resource office at CAT so we just need to let the boss know how everthing stands. I am starting to get excited but my family is not taking it very well. My children are excited and want to go but my mom and dad and my husbands mom is not taking it very good. I'm sure they will see that it's not going to be so bad in time but right now they act as if they will never see us again. This is a great website that explains more about Newman if anyone is interested Newman Visitor Centre.
Wanderlusting: I am not looking foward to the first fill up, that was a big reason why we had said no because we couldn't save enough money to justify the move because of all the high prices but with free house, electric, and water the other stuff won't be as bad. The crime thing scares me but I guess you get that even in the US. We will just have to be extra careful.Thank you everyone for all your support.

**Spirit Deer** · 01-23-2012, 09:24 AM

I was thinking about your house. I know you said you wanted to keep it and build equity while you're gone. But if you're at the front end of your loan, you won't be building much equity even in four years, not unless housing prices suddenly go up again. OTOH, if you sold it now and broke even on the sale, you could bank the money you would be using to make payments including insurance and taxes, and at the end of four years you'd have an enormous down payment, of which every dollar would create equity in your next house. It's hard to be a long-distance landlord, and you will have other expenses besides your mortgage in keeping the house. Just something more to think about, since I'm sure you don't have enough to think about already.

You may want to talk to your insurance carrier about it, particularly if you don't plan to rent the house while you're gone.

Would your parents and MIL travel to visit you? It might be less expensive to pay for them to come to you some years, and it might put their minds at ease if they could see where you live sometime.

If your parents and MIL are online, start Skyping with them now so they become familiar with the program before you leave, so they're comfortable with that while you're still around to help them work through any problems. If they're not online, urge them to get connected.

I see you're moving to a mining town that also has tourism. Sounds like where I live, right down to the world's largest open pit iron mine (Hull Rust up here, among other mines in the region.) If their tourism is seasonal like ours is, then the town is crazy busy a few months of the year and very quiet the rest of the time.

**Spirit Deer** · 01-23-2012, 09:43 PM

This is way out in left field, but if you have or could get a Nintendo Game Cube, there's some cute games set in Australia that your kids might get a kick out of playing while they wait to move. It's a series of games called Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, and they're all set in the Australian bush and all kid friendly. (I'm assuming the third one is since the first two are. I haven't actually seen that one.) I see they are also available for PS2 and XBox. If you Google the title, you'll find a lot of screen shots and stuff.

These are older games and can be had for less on Half.com: Textbooks , Books , Music , Movies , Games , Video Games. I just ordered the third one for $10.50. I haven't played those games in a few years but have been thinking about them lately so will probably be starting again before long. There's a lot of winter left here!

**Debbie-cat** · 01-23-2012, 11:02 PM

How exciting jenloveschip!!! It sounds like such a wonderful opportunity! Good luck and please keep us posted.

**northernmom2boys** · 01-25-2012, 09:34 AM

Oh it sounds so exciting
My husband is a heavy equiptment mechanic and I think I will make him fill out a job application

)) maybe I will see you there lol

**jenloveschip2001** · 01-25-2012, 11:47 AM

Northernmom2boys: you just come right on over. It would be so cool to meet someone from frugalvillage in person.
We talked to them again last night on the phone. They sent us pictures of the house we will be living in, and said that it would be held for us. It was a really nice house compared to what I was expecting. It has 4 bedrooms so my oldest would have her own room. She is almost 12 and shares a room with her 6 yr old sister. She is very excited to say the least. I think all questions have pretty much been answered now. My husband has his appoinment for his physical, blood work, and xray on Friday. Then we go Monday and apply for our passports. I am actually really starting to get excited.I am going to miss him like crazy while he goes on over. I don't know if I will make it the 6 months,lol. I am thinking maybe I should start a blog a little closer to us going over to kind of document everything. That would help keep our family at home in the loop also.

**Spirit Deer** · 01-25-2012, 11:56 AM

It sounds like the company is very thoughtful to your family's concerns.

If you blog and make it public, I bet you'd have quite a following on FV! It would be a lot of fun to follow you on your adventure and live it vicariously. I think a lot of us secretly dream about doing what you're actually going to be doing.

I asked my husband the other day if he would move if he was offered the same situation you have been. He said he would! Not that it'll ever happen since he works for the state, so it's safe to say that since it'll never come up. I'm not so sure I would go for a variety of reasons, mostly my mom who is elderly and needs us nearby, but it's still fun to contemplate.