arrived in oz

richie colton · #1 (**permalink**) 19th October 2009, 12:49 PM

Hi everyone we arrived in oz finally, its hard to judge so far, we are in melbourne and we are finding it hard to find apartment or house, god a lot of the places are terrible. old and creepy. one guy gave us keys and we found the unit. i wouldnt put a dog in it to live. he must of thought we were poor immigrants, he had a smug smile on his face asking me did it suit our needs but it disappeared when i told him it looked like someone died in the place. but he is the only unfriendly person we have met. everybody else we have met are very friendly and helpful. The mobile phone system is bad, very dated. the city is nice but some of the surrounding areas are dirty and rundown. It has a very bad graffiti problem , what is wrong with these kids!!?? it really makes the place look bad. sorry if i paint a negative view but this has been my first 3 days. i havent seen everything yet. going to view fully furnished apartment tomorrow and it looks really nice but its 40 mins outside the city. i think you have to travel to get decent accomadation. close to the city is expensive and old. is sydney like this or is it better?

royen · #2 (**permalink**) 19th October 2009, 01:51 PM

Thank you for sharing the info Richie. Hope you get a good apartment soon.
Would you mind sharing the type of temp accomodation you are in now. Are you taking a car rental or traveling via public transport. Do they have Hertz out there? How good is the public transport?

kenneth · #3 (**permalink**) 19th October 2009, 03:19 PM

hi richie. My own name is ken and im trying to get out before christmas just woundering what type of work u going to do?Im a bricklayer and im woundering is their alot of building work their at the moment?what is the average rent per week for ye?what type of visa did u get?hope ye get nice apartment soon.......

jockopaul · #4 (**permalink**) 19th October 2009, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by richie colton

Hi everyone we arrived in oz finally, its hard to judge so far, we are in melbourne and we are finding it hard to find apartment or house, god a lot of the places are terrible. old and creepy. one guy gave us keys and we found the unit. i wouldnt put a dog in it to live. he must of thought we were poor immigrants, he had a smug smile on his face asking me did it suit our needs but it disappeared when i told him it looked like someone died in the place. but he is the only unfriendly person we have met. everybody else we have met are very friendly and helpful. The mobile phone system is bad, very dated. the city is nice but some of the surrounding areas are dirty and rundown. It has a very bad graffiti problem , what is wrong with these kids!!?? it really makes the place look bad. sorry if i paint a negative view but this has been my first 3 days. i havent seen everything yet. going to view fully furnished apartment tomorrow and it looks really nice but its 40 mins outside the city. i think you have to travel to get decent accomadation. close to the city is expensive and old. is sydney like this or is it better?

Hi Richie my hubby also landed last week and said the exact same thing about the grafitti he said he wasnt as overwhelmed by the place as he thought he would be, but then he is a glass half empty type of guy at times.. he did say today he got a better look a t the coast and beach etc and said it looked great and the weather was great he is in work already so thats a bonus we will be going out in about eight weeks or so to join him im sure by then he will have adapted to life there a bit more.. hope all goes well with the house hunting.. acording to my paul you can rent a car for about 20 dollers a day including your insurance...
all the best keep us posted Helena and gang..

kaz101 · #5 (**permalink**) 19th October 2009, 07:19 PM

I thought it was simply that I had lived in regional Australia for so long (nearly 2.5 years) that I noticed the graffiti in Melbourne - especially as you come in on the train from the West.

Central Melbourne tends to have a lot of apartments (especially along the South Bank) and a lot of them have been built in the last 5 years or so but the prices are pretty high. Central Equity is one company to talk to if you want an apartment in the CBD (they manage our place for us).

Regards,
Karen

amaslam · #6 (**permalink**) 19th October 2009, 10:50 PM

TBH the rental situation in Sydney is bad as well so I decided to buy 2 yrs ago and am very very glad I did. Even now lots of old units for rent and with vacancy rates < 3% for a while now there isn't much to rent anyway.

Good luck Richie, but get into a place first (really any place unless it's really falling apart) and then you'll have some breathing room to find something proper.

anj1976 · #7 (**permalink**) 20th October 2009, 03:33 AM

melbourne is known for its graffiti. dunno its good or bad but yes i have seen a lot of travel shows which show the graffiti as a culture in melbourne. form what i heard, the houses/units in the suburbs are relatively new, cheaper and easily available.
wish you luck with things. have u managed the medicare and TFN?

richie colton · #8 (**permalink**) 21st October 2009, 12:53 PM

Hi Royen we booked into a motel for the first week and we found a really nice place within 5 days but we were lucky, i think you would need 2 weeks at least to find a good location, real estate people are difficult to deal with, yes there is hertz here b ut we used public transport which was a bad idea as the area is big and a car would be easier.

richie colton · #9 (**permalink**) 21st October 2009, 01:00 PM

Hi Kenneth the rent we are paying is 350 per week, as for work im not too sure i,m a welder but i have spent my first week looking for a place to rent, if you look at a site called seek australia they have a data base or a site called skilled au. we came on a state sponsored visa .

richie colton · #10 (**permalink**) 21st October 2009, 01:37 PM

Hi everyone, this is a message of relief!! we found a place!! after a stressful week of bad viewings and tired legs we found the perfect place, thanks to my wife being in the university we got it. now we can set up our medicare and bank account, we just have to wait on our tax number and most importantly i can start to job hunt without worrying about having no home!! things are starting to look better, we are moving to a nice area near the university, i was a bit worried the first few days, ive learned that there are nice areas after all. But it is difficult to find a place without knowing the place . The people are very nice, we were worried about how they would be but everyone is so helpful and polite, the mix of cultures is great. there was bad press about australia before we came over but we have seen noting of the sort. we are a mixed couple and nobody blinks an eye at us here but in Ireland and south Africa we would get the stares and glances. we are starting to feel a bit more positive about the place.