Hi there,
we are also looking to move to brisbane (originally lived in Sydney for 8 yrs) currently living in the caribbean. we have 4 girls and are looking into similar things. Depending on your budget the best areas to live in from what I can gather (friends there and sister used to live there) all appear to be inner west and inner north, this is about 10kms to city centre and these areas appear to have a huge range of both state and private/independant schools. (examples of areas are rosalie, wilston,toowong, clayfield grange etc. if you google any of these areas in the map section it will bring up surrounding suburbs and you can then google the schools/preschools close to those areas) it is probably the same in the uk now but you will not get the kids into any type of schooling, even preschool without medical proof that they have had all their immunisations, and they all have the no hat no play rule! (strong sun).... there is a medicare system where part of your salary automatically gets deducted and you get a medicare card for subsidised doctor visits and prescriptions. would not recommend shipping furniture and white goods...comparable to shipping it is a cheap to buy new (see fantasic furniture site on google also) white goods do not travel well and if you bring a tv you will need the technical manual as opposed to user manual to ahve it reconfigured to the australian system (most makes anyway, and they can only do this if it is realtively new) hope some of this helps!! we will be getting there around october time! good luck !