[Chunkz]

I will be moving to Australia in February 2018 and once I get the job and a rented apartment, my wife and 3 years old daughter will join me (hopefully within a month).

I am from Chandigarh, India and have 9 years of IT experience. My wife here works in SBI bank and has 5 years of overall experience, 3 years in SBI on clerical post. Since Visa just arrived last week after 10 months of lodgement, I was completely off track in terms of planning. Earlier, I was looking at Sydney but now that I have VISA in hand, seems a very difficult choice to make, should I move to Sydney or Melbourne? So many questions to be answered:

1. Cost of living is definitely higher in Sydney, but how much compared to Melbourne?
2. How about raising a child in both the cities?
3. IT industry, in which city can one get a job easily? I know it's on an individual, but still.
4. Average rentals in both cities?
5. Which place is more livable?
6. Easy to find rented apartment?
7. Should I get a 2 bedroom apartment?
8. Average month costs in both?
9. Average monthly savings in both?
10. In long run, where can I, or should I plan to own a house?
11. Would the nett take home salary be different in both the cities considering I earn same in both the cities? How much?
12. School for the child, what age they get to school (in Australia) private or public?
13. Which city will be easier to commute on both public transport/ car.
14. Chances of my wife getting a job, how soon? Will the banking experience of India help in getting a bank job there?
15. Finally, in one word Sydney or Melbourne?

Would love to get as many answers and thoughts as possible from all of you.
Some of my Q's might be irrelevant or stupid, but I hope you understand my situation.

Also, any other threads/ sections which I should be looking into before moving that will help me when I land, I feel I am inclining towards Melbourne as of now, just because or the cost factor, please enlighten me friends.

Any other suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks
Varun


Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[Jack.Sparrow]

I will be moving to Australia in February 2018 and once I get the job and a rented apartment, my wife and 3 years old daughter will join me (hopefully within a month).

I am from Chandigarh, India and have 9 years of IT experience. My wife here works in SBI bank and has 5 years of overall experience, 3 years in SBI on clerical post. Since Visa just arrived last week after 10 months of lodgement, I was completely off track in terms of planning. Earlier, I was looking at Sydney but now that I have VISA in hand, seems a very difficult choice to make, should I move to Sydney or Melbourne? So many questions to be answered:

1. Cost of living is definitely higher in Sydney, but how much compared to Melbourne?
2. How about raising a child in both the cities?
3. IT industry, in which city can one get a job easily? I know it's on an individual, but still.
4. Average rentals in both cities?
5. Which place is more livable?
6. Easy to find rented apartment?
7. Should I get a 2 bedroom apartment?
8. Average month costs in both?
9. Average monthly savings in both?
10. In long run, where can I, or should I plan to own a house?
11. Would the nett take home salary be different in both the cities considering I earn same in both the cities? How much?
12. School for the child, what age they get to school (in Australia) private or public?
13. Which city will be easier to commute on both public transport/ car.
14. Chances of my wife getting a job, how soon? Will the banking experience of India help in getting a bank job there?
15. Finally, in one word Sydney or Melbourne?

Would love to get as many answers and thoughts as possible from all of you.
Some of my Q's might be irrelevant or stupid, but I hope you understand my situation.

Also, any other threads/ sections which I should be looking into before moving that will help me when I land, I feel I am inclining towards Melbourne as of now, just because or the cost factor, please enlighten me friends.

Any other suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks
Varun


Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

Congratulations on getting the PR! Now that the one milestone achieved, be ready for many more.

1. You can find all the cost of living comparison for two cities on a site called Numbeo.

2. The main cost with raising child is child day care. If you are planning to keep your child in the day care center, you need to compare day care rates for both the cities.

3. It doesn't depend on city, it depends on what skills you have and which city has demand for it at that time. Both Sydney and Melbourne has pretty good IT job market, so either is fine. Sydney has slightly more jobs but so is the competition.

4. Again check Numbeo.

5. Melbourne is said to be the most livable city, but the weather is highly irratic. Sydney is comparatively better if you can cope with crowd and traffic jams.

6. Neither is easy.

7. Depends on your preference and location. You can opt for 2/3 bed unit, townhouse or apartment. Just check all the amenities before buying.

8. Check Numbeo.

9. With both working you can expect to save at least 2-3K in Melbourne, a little less in Sydney but it all depends on your lifestyle.

10. Don't think about it now. Focus on short term and see if you like the city or want to change.

11. No. Earnings will be different in both cities and so will be your living expenses. As I said, a lot depends on your lifestyle. Some people save more, some not.

12. School is mandatory for kids completing 5 years of age. Private school is quite expensive whereas public school is quite cheap. Both type of schools have very good quality of education compared to Indian schools but it varies from school to school.

13. Both cities have pretty good public transportation system, so it should not be an issue.

14. Nobody can predict securing his/her own job, let alone your wife's chances. Her Indian banking experience may or may not be considered here, depending on recruiter. Many recruiters look for "Local Experience" in the resume, but you may find some recruiters who are not so adamant on that.

15. In one word, subjective.

 

[ankitgoel10]

Hello all,

I got my visa grant today. The initial entry date is just 40 days from now. I have to go in next few weeks. Just want to know that on 189 visa, do I have to get into a job in a local Oz company or can I continue to work with my existing company (India) since they are willing to keep me, however, they don't have any office there but are looking to expand their business in the Australian region. If I work this way, does that count as a work experience in Oz or not? Do they have to setup a local office before I can be eligible for all this?

Thanks in advance.
Varun

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

In other forum, you had mentioned that the IED is just 40 days so does that mean that you are going now to validate and returning to continue in your Indian company? If yes, that is a nice decision that you have made.

Although I am yet to receive the grant, which I will soon, I have found myself often in this conundrum whether:
1) to go and validate the visa once and come back and continue current job in Delhi - then go alone later to setup base before calling family
2) OR to just take a plunge with family together which means getting my 2 children (aged 6 and 3) out of School in Delhi and then just hoping things would work out there.

 

[Chunkz]

In other forum, you had mentioned that the IED is just 40 days so does that mean that you are going now to validate and returning to continue in your Indian company? If yes, that is a nice decision that you have made.

Although I am yet to receive the grant, which I will soon, I have found myself often in this conundrum whether:
1) to go and validate the visa once and come back and continue current job in Delhi - then go alone later to setup base before calling family
2) OR to just take a plunge with family together which means getting my 2 children (aged 6 and 3) out of School in Delhi and then just hoping things would work out there.

Hi Ankit,

To be honest, at one point of time, I had given up and even considered not moving at all. Then the VISA came and I said to myself that I will move in February 2018. But my agent then said that I have to go there with family before 3 August to validate the VISA for all of us. So, I had no option but to go now. I will be going for 10 days only and to Adelaide, reason, this was an unplanned trip and I didn't have the budget, so visiting my cousin so I can save some money. Also, the cheapest tickets I got are atleast 30-40% higher in this season. I got 3 tickets for 2,20,000 on Singapore airlines.

Anyways, I believe Melbourne suits me well since Sydney seems to have really bad traffic and that is a big turn off.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[ankitgoel10]

To discuss about your dilemma of Sydney vs Melbourne, I am sharing my thought process here for your reference and for others, because I believe everybody must be in a similar situation.

Look, I have traveled across Australia in 2013 with my wife and 1 child as tourist and we stayed at the following places:
Perth, WA
Cairns, QLD
Uluru, NT
Sydney (Liverpool & Strathfield), NSW
Main Beach, Gold Coast, QLD
Port Campbell, VIC
Halls Gap, VIC

So that just leaves SA, ACT & TAS.

I observed my feelings that I did not like Melbourne & Sydney at all because of Traffic Jams and Long Commute vs Low Rental problem in both cities. And since I have lived in New York for some time in the past, I could find easily that Sydney was definitely like New York. On top of that, I observed that Melbourne's weather might be like Pune or Bangalore which would prove to be detrimental for my allergic sinuses (and my daughter's too). And I had loved Perth for its peaceful lifestyle which I can describe as somewhere in the middle of city and countryside.

When a lot of my friends and my agent kept on insisting that everyone should start their aussie life in Sydney (there is no doubt about it), even then I researched more about job options and salaries vs rentals (In my opinion, rentals are the major component of the expense - rest everything is similar in all cities). So, I wrote down my criteria as to the location which is:
1) not far from mountains and snow
2) not far from New Zealand
3) not far from South-East Asia
4) not far from theme parks
5) not having mercurial climate (esp very cold in July)
6) has good air-travel-connectivity within Aus & outside
7) has quite a few indian grocery stores
8) has enough employment opportunities (not in my domain but overall)
9) has good agricultural production of vegetarian foods

So, based on above criteria, I found only 2 cities: 1) Sydney & 2) Brisbane
And by eliminating Sydney, I have decided to go to Brisbane

I have starting checking out home rentals (with nearby state schools) on realestate/gumtree; employment opportunities on seek/adzuna; used cars on gumtree/carsales; mobile plans on lebara/amaysim, Ikea online showroom for affordable furniture, etc in my idle time to be better prepared.

As someone close to me said "You can only plan for Brisbane. Your destiny will eventually decide the city for you. But its always good to plan because you have to book a ticket and board a taxi somewhere"

After deciding on Brisbane, I got to know that it is going to host 2018 Commonwealth Games and is poised to become the next biggest metropolitan over the next decade as pushed by the Federal Government.

Let me know your comments or thoughts on this.

 

[ankitgoel10]

Hi Ankit,

To be honest, at one point of time, I had given up and even considered not moving at all. Then the VISA came and I said to myself that I will move in February 2018. But my agent then said that I have to go there with family before 3 August to validate the VISA for all of us. So, I had no option but to go now. I will be going for 10 days only and to Adelaide, reason, this was an unplanned trip and I didn't have the budget, so visiting my cousin so I can save some money. Also, the cheapest tickets I got are atleast 30-40% higher in this season. I got 3 tickets for 2,20,000 on Singapore airlines.

Anyways, I believe Melbourne suits me well since Sydney seems to have really bad traffic and that is a big turn off.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

3 return tickets for 220k - that's expensive, in my opinion. But do not let my comment discourage you.

Adelaide is a very nice option and I place Adelaide equal to Perth after Brisbane in my ranking. I have driven myself upto Port Fairy on the A8 (ADL-MEL) from Stawell to Melbourne - both Port Fairy and Stawell are not very far from the VIC-SA border and some people on this forum (e.g. chiku2006) really admire ADL about the quality of life there.

And Melbourne has equally bad traffic jams to avoid which you have to take tolled by-passes around the city. I have driven through peak hours Melbourne as a tourist and I was really put down.

Again, I do not want to discourage or scare you away from Sydney or Melbourne but sometimes it happens that "the darkest space is beside the lamp".

Just check-out Moving to Australia: Living in Australia – All About Emmigrating. and you'll know more about Brisbane and other cities. Bob himself lives in Brisbane but there are comments from people on his blog who live in other places.

 

[ankitgoel10]

And in my Agent's words, "The struggle is till you start making 1000 AUD per week. The moment you start making that, you would not want to return".

I have attached a Sheet where I have calculated how much income tax will be deducted and how much annual salary I would require to come over the 1000 AUD per week mark.

Make your decision!

 

[Chunkz]

To discuss about your dilemma of Sydney vs Melbourne, I am sharing my thought process here for your reference and for others, because I believe everybody must be in a similar situation.

Look, I have traveled across Australia in 2013 with my wife and 1 child as tourist and we stayed at the following places:
Perth, WA
Cairns, QLD
Uluru, NT
Sydney (Liverpool & Strathfield), NSW
Main Beach, Gold Coast, QLD
Port Campbell, VIC
Halls Gap, VIC

So that just leaves SA, ACT & TAS.

I observed my feelings that I did not like Melbourne & Sydney at all because of Traffic Jams and Long Commute vs Low Rental problem in both cities. And since I have lived in New York for some time in the past, I could find easily that Sydney was definitely like New York. On top of that, I observed that Melbourne's weather might be like Pune or Bangalore which would prove to be detrimental for my allergic sinuses (and my daughter's too). And I had loved Perth for its peaceful lifestyle which I can describe as somewhere in the middle of city and countryside.

When a lot of my friends and my agent kept on insisting that everyone should start their aussie life in Sydney (there is no doubt about it), even then I researched more about job options and salaries vs rentals (In my opinion, rentals are the major component of the expense - rest everything is similar in all cities). So, I wrote down my criteria as to the location which is:
1) not far from mountains and snow
2) not far from New Zealand
3) not far from South-East Asia
4) not far from theme parks
5) not having mercurial climate (esp very cold in July)
6) has good air-travel-connectivity within Aus & outside
7) has quite a few indian grocery stores
8) has enough employment opportunities (not in my domain but overall)
9) has good agricultural production of vegetarian foods

So, based on above criteria, I found only 2 cities: 1) Sydney & 2) Brisbane
And by eliminating Sydney, I have decided to go to Brisbane

I have starting checking out home rentals (with nearby state schools) on realestate/gumtree; employment opportunities on seek/adzuna; used cars on gumtree/carsales; mobile plans on lebara/amaysim, Ikea online showroom for affordable furniture, etc in my idle time to be better prepared.

As someone close to me said "You can only plan for Brisbane. Your destiny will eventually decide the city for you. But its always good to plan because you have to book a ticket and board a taxi somewhere"

After deciding on Brisbane, I got to know that it is going to host 2018 Commonwealth Games and is poised to become the next biggest metropolitan over the next decade as pushed by the Federal Government.

Let me know your comments or thoughts on this.

Thanks, that helps. I will have to start planning on same lines. Any suggestions on where I can start looking for a job, that might also help in deciding where we will move eventually. As you said, destiny will take us, but we'll have to make a move first

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[phlojo]

Earlier, I was looking at Sydney but now that I have VISA in hand, seems a very difficult choice to make, should I move to Sydney or Melbourne?

Go to Sydney. We have enough people in Melbourne

 

[Chunkz]

Go to Sydney. We have enough people in Melbourne

That was cold

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[Jack.Sparrow]

That was cold

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

That's Australian dry humour

 

[Chunkz]

That's Australian dry humour

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[trinkasharma]

To discuss about your dilemma of Sydney vs Melbourne, I am sharing my thought process here for your reference and for others, because I believe everybody must be in a similar situation.

So, I wrote down my criteria as to the location which is:
1) not far from mountains and snow
2) not far from New Zealand
3) not far from South-East Asia
4) not far from theme parks
5) not having mercurial climate (esp very cold in July)
6) has good air-travel-connectivity within Aus & outside
7) has quite a few indian grocery stores
8) has enough employment opportunities (not in my domain but overall)
9) has good agricultural production of vegetarian foods

So, based on above criteria, I found only 2 cities: 1) Sydney & 2) Brisbane
And by eliminating Sydney, I have decided to go to Brisbane


Let me know your comments or thoughts on this.

Victoria and NSW have more mountains. Snow is rare in QLD.
Do you fly to NZ and SE Asia on a monthly basis?
Melbourne is closer to NZ than Brisbane.
Every state capital has air connectivity.
As for production of vegetarian foods, do you intend to consume it on the farm itself? If so, then come to Victoria.

 

[phlojo]

That was cold

If you don't like the cold, I should point out that Sydney is a bit warmer than Melbourne (though Sydney does get twice the rainfall).

People joke around a lot in Australia; it's something you should get used to. If you don't like humour, definitely go to Sydney. We can be brutally sarcastic in Melbs.

 

[phlojo]

On a serious note, mate... you really need a coherent strategy here. I recommend that for anyone who is about to take a big decision such as where to move and spend a significant part of their life (i.e. more than just a few weeks).

You are set on Sydney VS. Melbourne. Why? Why not... Perth? I don't care to know, but if you don't have a logical answer, maybe you should give it some thought.

Using an Australian expression, I feel that you're taking a piss here.

Some of the questions you asked have nothing to do with Sydney Vs. Melbourne. Why would you even ask if you should get a 2 bedroom apartment?! What does that have to do with anything and how would any of us be able to answer that? I'm not trying to put you down; my message is organise your thoughts. You will thank yourself for this later.

Some info is easily searchable online (e.g. questions 1, 3, 4, 8, 12, 13,...) Trust me - it pays to do your own homework than to ask on a forum. This is a life-altering decision and I don't think it's a good idea to phone it in. You should understand the difference and decide where you believe it's likely to go from here and which city presents the best opportunity for you to thrive. Making an informed decision is important.

Good luck to you!


PS: Question 2: I would not recommend raising a child in both cities; being in 2 places at once is against the laws of physics, which are strictly enforced in Australia.

 

[Chunkz]

On a serious note, mate... you really need a coherent strategy here. I recommend that for anyone who is about to take a big decision such as where to move and spend a significant part of their life (i.e. more than just a few weeks).

You are set on Sydney VS. Melbourne. Why? Why not... Perth? I don't care to know, but if you don't have a logical answer, maybe you should give it some thought.

Using an Australian expression, I feel that you're taking a piss here.

Some of the questions you asked have nothing to do with Sydney Vs. Melbourne. Why would you even ask if you should get a 2 bedroom apartment?! What does that have to do with anything and how would any of us be able to answer that? I'm not trying to put you down; my message is organise your thoughts. You will thank yourself for this later.

Some info is easily searchable online (e.g. questions 1, 3, 4, 8, 12, 13,...) Trust me - it pays to do your own homework than to ask on a forum. This is a life-altering decision and I don't think it's a good idea to phone it in. You should understand the difference and decide where you believe it's likely to go from here and which city presents the best opportunity for you to thrive. Making an informed decision is important.

Good luck to you!


PS: Question 2: I would not recommend raising a child in both cities; being in 2 places at once is against the laws of physics, which are strictly enforced in Australia.

Bang on, thanks a lot mate. Even I was being sarcastic in my last reply

Yes, I know I am short on research as of now, as I mentioned I didn't have enough time to prepare since I have to make my first visit in haste.

The two cities I mentioned were just on top of my head, once I put some more thought, I know I will be in better position.



Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[ankitgoel10]

Victoria and NSW have more mountains. Snow is rare in QLD.
Do you fly to NZ and SE Asia on a monthly basis?
Melbourne is closer to NZ than Brisbane.
Every state capital has air connectivity.
As for production of vegetarian foods, do you intend to consume it on the farm itself? If so, then come to Victoria.

Hey... Thanks so much @trinkasharma
You've really posted an eye-opener for me.
Thanks

 

[ankitgoel10]

Victoria and NSW have more mountains. Snow is rare in QLD.
Do you fly to NZ and SE Asia on a monthly basis?
Melbourne is closer to NZ than Brisbane.
Every state capital has air connectivity.
As for production of vegetarian foods, do you intend to consume it on the farm itself? If so, then come to Victoria.

Well, today I found more time to re-visit my post and I actually found the following:

Victoria and NSW have more mountains. Snow is rare in QLD.
Yes, VIC & NSW have more mountains and snow but I cancelled out MEL in the first place because of the mercurial weather that does not suit my allergic para-nasal sinuses. So I chose either SYD or BNE because from BNE also, you can cross over into NSW within an 80 minute drive.

Do you fly to NZ and SE Asia on a monthly basis? Melbourne is closer to NZ than Brisbane.
I would not need fly monthly to NZ or SE Asia but I had actually checked up on kayak/flights the duration and price for BNE-CHC and today when I checked MEL-CHC, I actually found out that there was negligible difference between the flight-duration as well as the price. I remember getting flooded by schoolies from NZ in BNE-GC area.

Every state capital has air connectivity.
Yes, you are right, I know.

for vegetarian foods, do you intend to consume it on the farm itself? If so, then come to Victoria.
I had mentioned veggie foods because over my travels and stays abroad and within India, I have observed the simple rule that the travel duration of any food-item increases its price. I may be incorrect in making this inference but I do not feel so. And also because I had cancelled out MEL due to above repeated reasons.

Eventually, I found that Sydney & Brisbane had the most suitable weather for my family because its similar to Delhi (according to Koppen Classification Sub-Tropical Cfa-Cwa AND also because I have traveled to all these places for brief periods)

Perth's temperature ranges might not look too much but it feels horribly torrid at even 37-deg-C. I have been there and trust me, the clothes that we had put up on the line for drying got pasted to each other because we could not pick them up back by 11 AM It was quite difficult for us to play in the park because the sunlight at 12 PM at 38-deg-C was too harsh.

After all this long-drawn analysis, I chose SYD & BNE but then crossed out SYD because of the long-commute vs high-rental question! I really do not want to pay high rental and do not want to commute for 2-3 hours everyday.

Sometimes I feel, all this time-passing-research might just go into the rubbish after I land in BNE but then find a suitable job in MEL.

After all, I do not even know what might happen in my life tomorrow morning. :fingerscrossed:

 

[ankitgoel10]

One can not learn swimming without jumping in the deep Waters!

 

[trinkasharma]

@ankitgoel10

You will agree that
Delhi is:
Extremely cold in winters
Extremely hot in Summer
Gets flooded in few hours when it rains.

So the weather can only be called an extreme weather. Why do you want to go back to that type of weather?