As promised before we departed, here are some thoughts from our recce. I’ll split these into a few postings as there’s quite a bit, and you’ll appreciate that these are my personal opinions and therefore might differ from any views of your own ...

First, some context: as Adel and I have been considering migrating for several years, we’ve done all the research which might reasonably be expected – bought several books, browsed all manner of URLs, received tourism brochures, attended migration expos, contacted employment agencies, drooled over – often out-of-reach – houses on estate agents’ websites, Google-Earthed the place aplenty, and of course asked a fair few questions on various discussion boards. We’ve even had the odd copy of the Adelaide Advertiser sent over. Therefore, we felt we knew a fair bit about the place without ever actually visiting it, and we wouldn’t have got half as much out of the recce as we did if we hadn’t put the homework in first.

The two main things we were uneasy about were 1) when we started the process it was just the two of us. Now we have a fourteen month old son, Thomas, and we were uncomfortable about taking him on such a long flight and to an unfamiliar place so far from home at such an early age; 2) that despite our best efforts, we hadn’t found much reassurance that I (Jim) would find work readily and at a level that would make any subsequent move viable. Of these two concerns, we needn’t have worried about the first; Thomas was an angel, bless him, and we were well catered for during our stay. The latter concern has lessened a bit but is likely to remain with us until a job offer is received (if anyone needs an experienced and well qualified HR manager, please let me know!)

Anyway, about the recce itself. Our trip lasted for three weeks from late Feb to last weekend and we stayed in four different locations to give us a chance to see as much of the place as possible.

My first impression of Adelaide as we drove from the airport was of space and how wide the roads were, the variety of housing styles and how many different types of trees there were! There were far more palm trees than I’d seen on photos, and so much bougainvillea, yet it seemed vaguely British – it looked like a cross between England, Spain and Florida.

The first (and best by far) accommodation we stayed in was an apartment in West Lakes. It was well furnished and modern and our balcony overlooked both the lake and the swimming pool, which we more or less had to ourselves. Over the road was Tennyson beach, with Grange just a short walk away. It was the most expensive place we stayed at but was a great base from which to explore. We were there for eight nights and with hindsight should have booked it for longer.

Given that this was a fact-finding mission as much as a holiday, we wanted to see what public transport was like as well as drive around. Getting around from West Lakes was a doddle, with regular buses into the city (which actually seemed to run on time) and a train from Grange. We took both and were suitably impressed with the ease of travel. The first time we went into Adelaide on the bus, the driver got off with us at our stop and gave directions to all the attractions we might like to visit. The other passengers sat and watched as he pointed and gesticulated before sending us on our way with a wave. All very welcoming! Being able to get on buses and trains without having to fold the baby stroller was a blessing and made the journeys around town even easier.

After West Lakes we moved to Crafers to see some of the Adelaide Hills suburbs. As is usually the case, the image I’d built in my mind over the years didn’t quite match what we found, and although we saw some nice places up there, we weren’t blown away. The scenery was great, it was more the villages and towns which didn’t match our expectations. We were only there for three nights, though, so it might have been different had we had time to see more of what the area has to offer. The one place we did really like was Strathalbyn, with its old high street and screeching corellas. It seemed like the quirky sort of place where odd things are likely to happen and go unremarked upon. I’d move there in a flash, but in all probability it’s too far from Adelaide to be a feasible place for us to live.

Although quaint, the cottage we stayed in at Crafers was overrun by crawlies, particularly scorpions, spiders and those black millipedes you see, and on one night in particular I must have thrown out over a hundred assorted nasties. Not a very pleasant experience, especially with a toddler who puts everything small enough to eat straight in his mouth. Part of the attraction of staying in the Hills was the wildlife, and we expected (hoped, even) to see the odd creepy, but this was beyond a joke. The cottage was set in several acres of garden and while this was lovely and colourful, it was overgrown in places and the various bushes and shrubs came right up to the walls of the house. Apart from being unwise from a fire risk angle, this meant all manner of insects called the place home.

Mount Lofty and Cleland were just up the hill from us, so we visited both – great views from the summit and Cleland was excellent and much bigger than I’d expected. It’s a great experience seeing all the animals in such natural surroundings.

After Crafers it was onto Victor Harbor for three nights. We stayed in a B&B which was set in six acres of gardens. The owners also supply florists with cut flowers, so the gardens were laid out in rows of various plants, and while they were nice, it all looked a bit regimented. It was on a hill near the bluff and overlooked the town so was great at night with all the lights twinkling below.

As we were too far from town to walk, the lack of public transport in this end of VH meant we had to travel everywhere by car. And as none of the taxi companies had baby car seats available for their cars, we couldn’t go into town and both have a drink, which was a shame.

I found VH vaguely reminiscent of a typical British seaside town; perhaps not quite as shabby but nothing much to get excited about either. Good views from the bluff, though, and we had a few cooling dips in the sea one scorching day at Horseshoe Bay in Port Elliot. That was the most crowded beach we saw during the whole trip. We also went to see the penguins at Granite Island, but clocked up more rat sightings than anything else.

As with most of the places we visited, VH was full of building activity, and I’ve never seen so many blocks of land for sale in my life!

For the final five nights we stayed in Willunga, in a cottage on a vineyard. This meant McLaren Vale and some great southern beaches were nearby. We had our own pool, but as we still had so much to see and do, we only managed to splash around a couple of times. Once again, the image I’d built of this area was somewhat off the mark, and while it was a nice place to visit it is far from the city and I wasn’t attracted enough to it to want to house hunt around there. In its favour, Willunga has got three pubs all on the same street!

I think I’ve written enough for now, but I’ll post my views on the weather, food, beaches etc over the next day or so.

Jim :dance:

Fab post, I want MORE, MORE, MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great post I love reading these and can't wait for the rest :)

Great post - very realistic views. Looking forward to the next installment :D

Lisa

Come on bring it on we can handle it all in one hit !!!! we are hard Adelaide opinion seekers !!! :cool shake: :cool shake:

weez

:dancing dog: Jim, are these going to be daily updates??? Pretty, pretty, please.

Loved the first installment - honest views and opinions - brilliant.

Karen

Excellent post Jim. Thank you. Lots of great information.

Can we have the next installment please!!

Carol

excellent stuff.

Mik

That was really interesting. You should keep a copy of that for your son's memory book. It's really nice to look back on that sort of thing years later.

By the way - you can't escape those milipedes. They are perfectly harmless but they get everywhere.

Nessa

lots of hr at all levels jobs if you can be bothered to look.

Hi Jim :D

Great post - but please write the next installment SOON :lol: I can't wait much longer, sad I know, but we love these posts. Can't wait til I am living there and can write my first post ;) When do you think you will go for good? Good luck :dance:

Brilliantly written Jim,
Cant' wait for the next installment
Regards
Janet

Brilliant reading Jim - thanks for that.

Bouganvillea and palm trees - ahhh lovely :D

Look forward to your next instalment :bouncy:

Dawn

that was really good to read, :) looking forward to the next post


:bouncy:
lorraine

Jim,
Very interesting post, especially as my family and I have only just came back from our reccie.
Funny how people see the same things but get a different viewpoint. Maybe just driving down a different street can alter someones perspective, especially as we are all limited to how long we've got!
We drove up from Melbourne, doing the Great Ocean Road (highlight of our trip) so stayed over in Victor Harbour also. We thought VERY nice place, but a bit old (the people). Reminded me a bit of Eastbourne. After our trip to Granite Island all the eateries were closed, so had to make do with making some toast.
We stayed in Glenelg, overlooking both the beach and harbour. Lovely beach, but where were all the public BBQ's you see all over Oz? I think the two great big hotels have paid for a nice beach front and won't allow them, hoping we'll eat in their restaurants! As for the restaurants in the main strip in Glenelg, very dissapointing.
Loved Cleland :yeehah: , held the koala etc, swam with dolphins, had a great time. talked to lots of nice people, Ozzies and expats, all very relaxed and enjoying themselves.
But me and the missus had reservations. The wifes comment of 'underwhelming' seemed to sum up our views pretty well.
Didn't think much of the properties, most gardens didn't have room to swing a possum. I know there are larger properties about but we found these were too far from the coast, which is where we would like to live. By the way, we loved West Lakes but any 4 b/r properties fronting the lakes themselves were very expensive (600K+).
Could say lots more but as this is my own opinion I wouldn't like to put anyone off of Adelaide. Our visit was useful to us, as like you, we spent a fair amount time researching Adelaide but the reality for us didn't live up to our expectations.
We are now looking at different places in Oz, but are not definately counting out Adelaide.

Good luck.

Thanks all for the feedback, much appreciated and I’m glad this is of some use to you. Below are some other observations in no particular order. Given that I’m pointing out the negatives as well as the positives, it might not be apparent that we really enjoyed the visit, but we did! Anyway, back to the recce:

Beaches – ‘spoilt for choice’ is a term so overused it’s become a cliché, but it’s apt when describing such a great selection of beaches. We visited lots and they ranged from the nice to the spectacular. During the first week at West Lakes, we’d often wander over the road in the evenings to the beach and watch the sun setting over the water. I had a couple of swims in the cooling evenings and this was fantastic.

One of the things I’d previously wondered about was if the sea was too cold to swim in comfortably. I remember once even asking a question about it – here or on another discussion board – and getting a well intentioned if odds-on predictable response along the lines of ‘well, it isn’t tropical, you know; the next stop’s Antarctica ...’ (Yes, I know where it is on the map, but what does it feel like when I stick my toe in the water?) For those wondering the same thing, at the time of year we were there – late summer, early autumn – it was pleasantly warm. Perhaps not quite the up-to-your-waist-in-it-for-half-an-hour’s-amusement-with-a-bat-and-ball that you get while holidaying on the Med, but still scoring a solid 8 out of 10 on the frolic scale.

Weather – the weather was better than we’d dared to hope for, with the place well deserving the ‘Mediterranean’ tag it often gets. There was a thunderstorm one evening towards the end of the first week, and we watched the lightning out at sea in the darkness from Grange jetty, before getting back to the West Lakes apartment just before the rain. It rained again a couple of days before we returned home, again in the evening, as we sat on the covered patio in Willunga and drank wine (boy, it was tough!) Otherwise it was clear skies with one or two days being very windy, which was refreshing.

We didn’t stay out in the sun as much as on a typical holiday, partly because of the heat, but mainly because we had Thomas with us and didn’t take any chances. I did leave a hat off on one day and ended up with a nice red patch across my forehead – very fetching!

Insects – I’ve already mentioned the infested cottage at Crafers, but apart from that we didn’t see much insect activity other than ants and flies and one ’roach which one of us accidentally stepped on and carried underfoot into the apartment! On one occasion in the first week, something bit Adel’s arm about half a dozen times. Her arm became swollen and she was given antihistamines and ointment. I thought I’d escaped until I got savaged one night near the end of the trip with bites to my legs, back and arms (we were using repellent). Mine looked like mozzie bites, but Adel’s seemed more aggressive and the pharmacist didn’t think she’d been bitten by a mozzie.

As for flies, the trouble wasn’t so much the number of them as their persistence. Once you’ve been homed in on, resistance seems futile. We were all but driven away by half a dozen of the little bleeders while eating out at VH. I like to think I provided some small amusement to the locals as I whirled like a dervish, swatting violently in all directions and swearing like a good ‘un before heading off head bent and defeated.

Food – I know eating out in restaurants you’ve never been to before is pot-luck, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with either the service or the food itself in many places we ate at. Of course, as we had a 14 month old baby with us this helped determine the type of establishment we visited and in the main it was more the fish and chips than Michelin star end of the spectrum, but even so I’ve had consistently better food, better service and better value for money in a lot of restaurants elsewhere in the world. We were typically left waiting for far too long and then the offering wasn’t worth the length of time it had taken to prepare. In one place in VH, our mains didn’t arrive at all and then the bill was wrong. A few that stayed open a bit later would be handy, as well!

Of the good places, the kiosk at Grange Jetty was okay (under new management apparently, and quite busy. We were told it would have been empty if we’d visited a few weeks earlier.) Oscars in McLaren Vale was nice, but the best meal we had was at Willunga in the Old Bush Inn. Really attentive and friendly service, a fantastic steak and great value.

I didn’t draw any conclusions from this, though, as there as so many places to eat and until you know which are the better ones, it’s the luck of the draw.

Houses – when it came to house prices, unfortunately I left feeling more confused than when I’d arrived. We saw some places for sale that looked really good value, and some others – often not far from the first – that seemed massively overpriced. I know you can get that in the UK but this seemed more marked. Some of the houses had been up for sale for two years or more and apparently their prices had risen with the market despite having not sold. Somebody told me that as Adelaide now gets so many new people arriving, many vendors just want to hold out until someone fresh off the plane pays the asking price. You’d have been proud of the colourful response I gave to that.

We stomped around various display villages ‘ooh’ing and ‘aah’ing at what might one day be ours. We did flag eventually and much to my shame I have to confess we didn’t manage to cross the threshold of all that was on show at Mawson Lakes – we gave it our best shot, though. Trying to work out how much it would cost to build a house was like trying to nail smoke. ‘It all depends ...’ was the inevitable starting point of the answer, and while I realise that it does indeed all depend, I would have very much appreciated a less now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t response.

This frustration extended to what’s included in the price of a new house. The brochures we collected from the various builders mostly contain helpful lists of inclusions, but these are hardly exhaustive. A typical conversation with a sales person went along these lines:

“it says here that this is the ‘display price’. What does that include?”
A patronsing smile before the response, “The house that’s displayed. Take away the furnishings and decoration and that’s what you get.”
“Oh, great. So it includes the downlighters?”
“Er, no, not the downlighters – they’re one of the Premium Extras.”
“Oh, I see. But it does include the floor tiling?”
“Er, no, you only get the tiling as part of the Sovereign Collection.”
“What about all those extra electrical sockets in the house?”
“Er, no, extra electrical sockets are charged, well, extra.”
“Right, but you said everything that’s displayed...”
“Yes,” a smile back on the face, “everything as displayed. Just take away the furnishings and decoration and that’s what you get.”
If you happened to be on Mawson Lakes Boulevard a couple of weeks back and saw someone bashing his head against the wall, you should have come over and said hello, as that was me.

One of the things I was really disappointed with was the size of typical building plots (lots/blocks – take yer pick). I know that developers want to maximise their returns and councils impose tight constraints, but my idea of a detached house isn’t one where I can lean out of the window and touch the house next door. Often when we saw land for sale that looked a good size to put a house on, it had already been split into four or five lots – I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I know there are good sized lots available if you look around – particularly in the outer suburbs, but I was still disappointed that the old Aussie ideal of a house on a quarter acre had been reduced to this.

I’m aware that I haven’t yet mentioned shopping, driving and my thoughts on Adelaide itself, so I’ll jot these down at some point later this week, then that should be about it. Also, I’ll upload some photos when I get the chance. If you’ve stayed with me this far, thanks – I know it’s long but I did promise a full report on our return!

Jim :dance:

Another great read! Can't wait for the next installment, it's better than the novel i'm reading at the moment :lol: Can't wait to see the photos either!

Absolutely FANTASTIC Jim, thank you so much :)

An honest, true review of your thoughts, brilliant

Look forward to reading more
Regards

Angela

Hi Fink

I would tend to agree with you. Our first impression was one of OH.
My freind spoke to me one day after arriving and the message filtered through to all that i wasn't impressed and didn't like it.

In fact i loved it :bouncy: :bouncy: Although my first impression was that it hadn't lived up to my expectations and wasn't that different from the UK

My whole opinion of Adelaide changed over the following 5 weeks and it will be where we head to.

JIM

absolutely fantastic post I would agree with the house pricing though, couldn't work it out either but then each house is so different and not the same as the next, unlike our estates.

Jane

great reading and so indepth we love it hope to read more soon, looking forward to seeing pics.
tony & myrtle
:yeehah: :yeehah: :yeehah: :yeehah: :yeehah: :yeehah: :yeehah: :yeehah:

Great post,so pleased that you liked Grange beach as it's our fav beach & often go down there. Looking forward to your next installment :D

Hurry up with part 3 :D it really makes fab reading

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this great post.

jo x

it was with great disappointment that I re read this post. it is clear to me that jim has lost sight of the fact that where ever you go in the world what you get out is what you put in.
moving to adelaide is a life changing experience,it is not easy and needs total commitment.you also need the drive and determination to find employment,a house,schools etc that suit your circumstances.nobody is going to give it to you on a plate.without any effort there comes no reward and life is what you make it.these are the attributes that you require to make the life changing move to live in adelaide. if you believe that people are desperate to employ you think again.you have to prove that you have the persistance,energy and attitude that employers want.you will not succeed if you are not willing to put in ' the hard yards' the benefits of living in adealide far out weigh the challenges. Don't be a whinging pom and expect everything to be given to you. <_<

.... I'm sitting here waiting for the next installment, over and above the release of the next Harry Potter :P ... thanks for your candid and frank reporting of your reccie.... this is good stuff that we just don't see enough of


Doug

hi fantastic read, :bouncy: cant wait for the next post, :dance:

lorraine

[QUOTE]

viewpointno6. Are u a nutter?
Did u read Jims text?
His comments on the whole were positive reflections of their reccie, including some light-hearted whinges!
Anyone who hasn't been to Adelaide would want this 'flavoursome' style of writing as all u can do from home is look at web images etc.
As for your patronising messages of hard working, you only get out what u put in, etc, u don't even know Jim or his family. how dare u comment.

:angry:

Hi Jim

I love reading your posts and your attitude is so refreshing :D

Good to see positive and negative points of view but you are still able to see the bigger picture as a positive :rolleyes:

Lisa

Fantasic post

Roll on the photos

:crying: :dance:

Post edited

reason - personal attack
Adelaidebrits guidelines
The Moderating Team

great read :D

Once again, thanks all for your comments and, er, advice! What follows is more of the same, so anybody of a nervous disposition might want to look away now ...

Adelaide – it’s a sprawling place as we expected, although the city centre was easy to navigate with its grid design, and I liked it. The pedestrianised Rundle Mall was suitably busy, with a wide variety of shops. The parkland off North Terrace was nice and it was great seeing all the lorikeets darting from tree to tree over the river. I wasn’t at all impressed with Gouger Street and must congratulate whoever takes the publicity shots of it that find their way into brochures for managing to make it look attractive. If I’d never heard of the Central Market I’d have found it impressive, but given the hype it generates I found it a bit of a letdown. Yes, it’s busy and there are a lot of stalls, but isn’t that what a market is supposed to be like? While I’m no connoisseur of these things, I did wonder what all the fuss was about.

I liked all the hustle and bustle of each of the main roads leading into the city. Beyond the parks that line the city centre, for about two or three miles out in more or less every direction, there’s a line of retailers, service providers, wholesalers, manufacturers and, er, adult shops! What more could you want?

On a first visit it’s hard to draw any conclusions about Adelaide’s various suburbs and I’m not going to add to that debate here; apart from anything else we’d need to spend more time getting acquainted with them. Some looked a little jaded and there were some I wouldn’t choose to buy a house in, but I could say this about any city I’ve ever visited. For every place we didn’t like, we found two or three that we did!

We discovered that the north/south debate isn’t confined to squabbling AdBritters; when in the north we heard that it was the best side of Adelaide to live in and were given all the reasons why, and we heard the same about the south when we were there. There’s something vaguely amusing about this first time around, but it did get a bit wearing after a while. I suspect, though, that only those – like us – visiting for the first time get this ‘advice’ so it might not be something noticeable generally.

Parks – one of the things which struck us is how much of Adelaide is given over to parks of one sort or another. We were aware of this from brochures etc, but it hit us when actually seeing them. It’s great that there are so many children’s playgrounds and although there’s only so much you can do in three weeks, those that we did take Thomas to were free of vandalism apart from the inevitable graffiti. On the subject of graffiti, we did see a lot of it but I wonder if that’s because we were looking for it. It’s been discussed so much and we’d wondered how bad it actually is, so maybe we were in the mode of pointing it out when we saw it. Along with the tyre marks left from do-nuts etc this was the extent of any evidence of anti-social behaviour we came across.

Driving – there was certainly congestion, but nothing on the scale that we’re used to back in the UK. Wide roads and well spread out suburbs generally meant things weren’t too crowded. While this should have given us a pleasant driving experience (and in the main it did), there were times when I was alarmed at the driving habits I saw. One halfwit in a truck nearly killed us by cutting across the main road from one side of an industrial estate to another, forcing me to swerve across several lanes. It looked for all the world like he’d consciously chosen the worst moment to pull out as there was little traffic in front of us and he didn’t move until we were right on top of him. I very nearly turned back to beat the living daylights out of him (had I not had my wife and child with me, I’m afraid there’s little doubt I’d have given in to the temptation).

Also, it seems weird to me that in a country so big, with roads outside town generally so empty, that people feel the need to drive so close to the car in front. Travelling to VH (on a road which I’m aware has a bad reputation), it struck me as odd that apart from our car and the one behind, there was miles of empty space in both directions, yet the driver behind us insisted on being just a few feet from our back bumper. All that road to choose from and he had to be so close. There was plenty of opportunity to pass us, yet he matched our speed mile after mile. When we decided to stop in one of the parking spots and take in the views, he slammed on the brakes and gave me a look as he passed as if I was the idiot. We saw this sort of thing again and again. I’ve driven in a lot of places and know that different cultures have different driving habits, but this was bizarre. Perhaps it’s too much sun, or all that eucalyptus, but I’ve never known so many people to have such poor spatial awareness.

On one morning we decided to drive into the city centre from Willunga in the morning rush-hour to see what the roads were like. It took us slightly less than an hour, which was pleasantly surprising, but the journey had all the finesse of a Wacky Races episode.

I don’t know the statistics, but given how many traffic accidents were reported on TV and radio in the three weeks we were there, the number of floral tributes tied to railings, and some of the sights we saw while driving, I did wonder what the hell was going on.

Dubious driving apart, travelling around was easy and most of the road signs will be familiar to anyone from the UK. Everywhere we went we were able to park easily enough, and driving straight onto a beach is great!

People – we found people to be friendly and very willing to strike up a conversation. I know I’m generalising, but there seemed to be a sense of pride about the place and often something that verged on humble surprise that somebody might be planning to move across the world to live in their town. We were made to feel welcome by everyone we met, particularly by the proprietors of the places we stayed at who ensured we had everything we needed for an enjoyable time.

Well, I think that’s about it. If anyone has any questions about any of this I’m happy to respond either here on through PMs.

In summary, I know full well that you only know a place when you live there, but our trip didn’t throw up any real surprises and there was nothing to put us off the idea of migrating. The research we’d previously done had helped us narrow down our migration options (these were wide at the start, believe me!), and the trip went some way to confirming this. In that regard it was more than a validation of our visas; it validated our choice.

Now we just have to put the house on the market and for me (perhaps both of us) to find a job. Here’s where the real fun starts ...

Jim :P

Great posts Jim

We are thinking of doing a reccie in October. So has your reccie answered all the questions you had? did you meet up with any employers or agencies?

Did you go and see hundreds of houses and were the estate agents happy that you were just looking with no intention to buy and just to see what you could afford?

toontoon

Hi Toon

Despite the fact-finding elements of the trip, it was still a holiday and we were aware that this can give a false impression. There are a lot of places in the world which look nice when you can visit the beach everyday, spend time together, eat out whenever you fancy and have someone else tidy up after you. So although it did answer many of our more obvious questions e.g. 'I wonder what the place actually looks like?' it certainly didn't answer everything and only taking the plunge and moving there is likely to do that.

I met with employment agencies but didn't have any luck getting to see prospective employers. As you'd expect, I'm registered with all the main agencies, so had arranged a few meets before we left the UK. The response was the same from all of them in that they were confident I'd find work in HR if we made the move, but that this profession isn't the sort where they'd put a candidate forward who was still living in the UK (to be fair, they all said that when I first registered). No doubt there are professions where shortages are such that being in the UK is no barrier, but HR isn't one of them. A well-timed approach to an employer might lead to a job offer before making the move, but the chances of this are remote. So, while prospects look good, we'd have to be living over there to really find out.

I did meet with someone who's already made the move and works in HR and he found the same thing. Despite being a well thought of HR director for a large UK company, he and his family had to migrate before there was any interest. It took him three months on arriving to land a job as a head of HR.

In terms of houses, the bulk that we saw were new as it's always been our dream to have a house built that we've had some input into designing. We did look at some established houses in 'opens' (the real estate pages of the Advertiser gives times for these) and we drove around looking at plenty of others that were for sale. It does take plenty of time doing this so, display villages aside, we didn't see as many as we'd imagined we would. Once they knew we were Brits, the estate agents were very accommodating!

Jim

thanks for your reply Jim.

Looking back is there anything you wouldnt do?

We are trying to do a house exchange for when we go to try and cut down on costs but dont think is very likely.

I think we definitely need to see the place before we can make the huge decision to go for it. I suppose what I really want to get out of the trip is knowing what I am going to be able to afford and just get a feel for the place. Knowing that my 2 sons will go to good schools etc.

Great postings, Jim and Adel. Well done on good, balanced feedback and ample explanations of what you based your opinion on.

Regarding housing - the display homes you see will almost without exception be the most expensive option available. The unit you'll be getting based on the advertised "from" price will be basically the structure on a flat block with perfect soil. ;) And as you found out, light fittings, taps, plugs, window frames, doors, anything beyond the basic steel frame and concrete slab structure is regarded as "decorating". <_<

Toon, you're welcome. We’re pretty happy with what we did on our recce. There’s only so much you can do in three weeks and we wanted to balance the holiday aspect of the trip with the fact-finding. If I’m going to nitpick, I’d have liked to have spent longer at West Lakes because it was so well positioned for amenities, beach, shopping, transport etc. I’d also have liked to see more of the Adelaide Hills as there’s a lot to take in and we only spent three days up there.

In a nutshell, after all the research we’d done we wanted to see if we actually liked the place, and we did. In that regard the recce did its job.

Jim

i have to say your reports are entertaining, exciting and even though personal experience and expectations can vary from person to person they do fill me with drive to get up and go do. I can't wait until i am experiencing what your writing about...... next installment please.... and ta.... :happy45:

Great postings Jim

I have printed them off so that I can refer back to them. Thank you for taking the time to share this with us.

Dawn :D

Your right, its certainly a life changing experience coming here. If i had had the sense to do a reccie like Jim, there's not a cat in hells chance i would have come here.
Why oh why are there too many do gooders on this sight ? Let people have their say. Without having a go at them.
As for having to be prepared to put inthe effort and not have everything given to you on a plate. Yes thats very true, but it is well known fact that wages are crap here.
The only reason there's a skills shortage is that the Aussies wont work for nothing. So us daft Poms are encouraged to come here with promises of a better life , and its nothing like your led to believe when you get here.
We need more honest informative veiws on this site ( which its what its for ) rather than people with rose tinted specc's who probably can't afford to go anywhere else or back to Blighty.
If i'm a Whinging Pom at least i'm an honest Whinging Pom !!!

I dont think a reccy can tell the whole story.Yes . you can look ,dip your toes in the labour market.housing market.But you dont know nothing until you have lived in a place!.In my case. there are are a lot of goods,and a fair amoont of not so goods. :doh: .

I think a lot of things depend on jobs.............if you get one quick,if you like it .........but more importantly, does your trade/profession pay reasonable money. :ph43r: ( Some do,some dont.................and its very difficult to find out before you get here!).

If you are in a reasonably paid. reasonable conditions at work job, then you are going to be happier than someone whos not!


Ian