settling in brisbane - help

[jam]

hi everyone, I have recently accepted a job in the mater hospital in brisbane, i'm a nurse. We're hopefully moving out in jan 09. We've never been to the brisbane area and have no idea what to expect. Can someone be able to give us advise on what area would be best to settle, we have two children who will be 3 and 1 at the time of the move.

Also any tips for the big move, especially with 2 little one's, many thanks, jam x

[Dolly]

Hi jam,

Welcome to the forum.

Sorry I can't help with info on Brisbane (we live in Victoria) but there will be someone on the forum who will be able to help.

Congratulations on securing a job!

Dolly

[kaz101]

Hi Jam,

If you search through the posts (the search is in the top row with the black background) for Brisbane you may find some answers there. There are people on the forum in Brisbane and also others moving to the area. However I live in South Australia so I can't help you personally.

Regards,
Karen

[michellemarie]

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 !

[lkrichard]

Hello,

First off...congrats on your job. I don't know how much help I'll be, but feel free to ask and I'll do my best. My family and I moved to Brisbane 3 months ago from the US. My husband works downtown, so we wanted to live somewhere that had easy access to the CBD, public transport and shopping within walking distance. We ended up moving to Paddington. We walk down to the Rosalie shopping area several times a week. We absolutely love the area. If I recall correctly, the Matre hospital is on the opposite side of the river. I don't know if you will be getting a car or using public transport.

January is when the school year starts so from what I've heard, the real estate market is a bit pricier around that time as many people are moving. We were told when we leased our house that it would have gone for 30 or more dollars per week if it had come open in late December/early January.

I have a couple sites that I've found to be useful, but I'm not certain if posting links to outside sites is allowed. There is one that I used to determine my husband's commute to work while I was looking for a house. It calculates everything including the walk to and from public transport. If you want any of these links or have any other questions, feel free to email me.

Laura

[kaz101]

Originally Posted by lkrichard

I have a couple sites that I've found to be useful, but I'm not certain if posting links to outside sites is allowed. There is one that I used to determine my husband's commute to work while I was looking for a house. It calculates everything including the walk to and from public transport. If you want any of these links or have any other questions, feel free to email me.

Laura

Hi Laura,

Just to answer your question you are allowed to post links as long as they are in answer to someone's question (check out the T&C's for further details). The website owner wanted to avoid loads of people just posting links to promote things that weren't related to expat issues. Dolly and I (moderators) were a bit of an exception to that since we started putting posts together with links that most people wanted. However we don't know everything and are always happy to learn, especially with areas that we don't live in.

Regards,
Karen

[lkrichard]

Here are a couple of the links that I've found to be helpful. They aren't super fancy, but I still use them frequently even though I already live here.

For public transport....enter your info into the journey planner
TransLink - public transport information

To get more information about Brisbane and it's suburbs you can check out the living in section. I used it to help me compare the two areas I was most interested in etc.
Brisbane Queensland Australia - suburbs - maps - accommodation - events - street and business directory - restaurants - ourbrisbane.com
They living section will give brief overviews of each area. I still use the website to find activities to do with my toddler, new restaurants to try etc.

[lkrichard]

Oh and one more since you said you would be coming over with kids. The PCYC or Police Citizens Youth Clubs is a great place to look for activities such as Tiny Tots for your little ones. No matter where you end up in Brisbane you are likely to have a PCYC branch near you. I believe the info on Tiny Tots is under activities and then select for kids from the drop down menu.

Police-Citizens Youth Clubs Queensland

[jam]

hi, a big thank you for all support and infomation, i'm finding everything so daunting but exciting at the same time, I will def look up the mentioned links
many thanks jam

[clairer]

Hi I moved here in jan and we live in a suburb called springfield lakes, I think its about 4 years and is really beautiful, there are lots of schools in the area (state and private) Mall, local shops, takeaways, resturants, doc's absolutly everything you'd need, i guess from here to matar would be about 30-40minutes drive but its a lovely suburb, I would advise you check it out?!?! Good look!