Family moving to Melbourne Jan 2009

[joncampion]

My wife and I are moving to Melbourne to work at the Austin Hospital in January 2009 (for 1 year).

We are looking to rent a furnished property for the year. Does anybody have any top-tips on getting furnished accomodation?, there doesn't seem to be anything available on the "usual" rental websites.

We are looking for a 3+ bedroom property within easy commute of the hospital (3 children 1,4,6ys)

Does anybody have experience of sorting out schools on arrival for the kiddies etc..

Thanks

JC

[Dolly]

Hi JC,

Welcome to the forum.

I'm afraid I don't know Heidelberg very well. I've only passed through it to get to La Trobe Uni which is North of the hospital.

Tiffani is usually the font of all knowledge when it comes to suburbs that way. Hopefully she'll reply to your post. sorry I couldn't have been more help.

Re schools. We did a reccie trip and we toured around the bay (Romsey/Lilydale/Gisbourne/Dayelsford/Geelong/Mornington/Frankston) and whilst touring looked at schools in those areas. From that we decided that we liked the Peninsula and the best school we found was Frankston High School so that determined where we would be living.

We contacted the school and had a tour. Liked what we saw so when we were ready to move over we contacted them again and on our validation trip we enrolled the boys. Simple as that. If you have a look at the sticky at the top of the forum page "A list of things to do when you arrive" there's a section on renting and schools.

Dolly

[joncampion]

Thanks Dolly

Your "what to do when you arrive" list is fantastic - keep up the good work

JC

Originally Posted by Dolly

Hi JC,

Welcome to the forum.

I'm afraid I don't know Heidelberg very well. I've only passed through it to get to La Trobe Uni which is North of the hospital.

Tiffani is usually the font of all knowledge when it comes to suburbs that way. Hopefully she'll reply to your post. sorry I couldn't have been more help.

Re schools. We did a reccie trip and we toured around the bay (Romsey/Lilydale/Gisbourne/Dayelsford/Geelong/Mornington/Frankston) and whilst touring looked at schools in those areas. From that we decided that we liked the Peninsula and the best school we found was Frankston High School so that determined where we would be living.

We contacted the school and had a tour. Liked what we saw so when we were ready to move over we contacted them again and on our validation trip we enrolled the boys. Simple as that. If you have a look at the sticky at the top of the forum page "A list of things to do when you arrive" there's a section on renting and schools.

Dolly

[Tiffani]

hi Jon,

You best bet for finding furnished accommodation would probably be melbourne.gumtree.com.au

also, keep an eye out on realestate.com.au and domain.com.au because occasionally you see a furnished one. Be sure to check in several "surrounding suburbs" and not just the place where you'll actually be working.... that sounds obvious but the suburbs are so physically small here that you'll really be limiting yourself if you only consider the ones in your suburb (or even "nearest five surrounding suburbs" that are listed on the website). For instance: I work in Clayton, and I live in Oakleigh. Oakleigh is 5km from my office, but it's not considered one of the "nearest surrounding suburbs" to Clayton!. Google can definitely help with that...

Whereabouts is the Hospital? I might be able to help you figure out where to be looking, which is half the battle really!

[Tiffani]

ah, another option is to find an unfurnished apartment but then rent furniture for the year. Retravision usually has package deals.

[IrishAngel]

Hi JC,

I'm moving to melbourne next sunday... I have a 13 yr daughter and a 1 yr son, i googled all the best schools, found one called Kilbreda contacted the school via phone and we can sort the forms out when we get there, then decided to find a house in mentone my husband travelled ahead of us and as i had found a suitable rental online he went to look at it and then it was a race against time to get all the relevant documentation faxed over from Ireland, low and behold we got the house yeehaw. my husband is spending days off sourcing good quality second hand furniture basics, think it would be cheaper in the longrun as i have a house here in ireland full of state of the art new furniture and i cant bring it with me. I have to say everything has gone smoothly so far, so best of luck with your decisions.

Paula

[nicky7]

Originally Posted by joncampion

My wife and I are moving to Melbourne to work at the Austin Hospital in January 2009 (for 1 year).

We are looking to rent a furnished property for the year. Does anybody have any top-tips on getting furnished accomodation?, there doesn't seem to be anything available on the "usual" rental websites.

We are looking for a 3+ bedroom property within easy commute of the hospital (3 children 1,4,6ys)

Does anybody have experience of sorting out schools on arrival for the kiddies etc..

Thanks

JC

how much are you willing to pay per week as may have the perfect home for you close to the hospital???

[UK2Oz]

JC
You will find that looking for a furnished rental long term over 12 months will be very costly and also limit you 98% of long term rentals are unfurnished. It would be cheaper for you to get yourself a rental and then purchase a furniture package at Fantastic Furniture Welcome to Fantastic Furniture - Packages You can buy a package for $1999 this could be two weeks rent in a furnished rental instead of $500 a week in a unfurnished (obviously depending on your chosen suburb and bedrooms etc)
We do have a lady who rents her house out in South Yarra on a 12 month lease but it is booked until June.
Good luck with your search and if you have any questions please feel free to ask away.