I have found since moving to Australia that people do move around a bit more than I am used to in the UK.
After moving to Australia in August 2013 the Aussie and I lived in Darwin up until June 2017 when we moved to Brisbane. We had decided to move to Brisbane after visiting 18 months or so before that but we had to wait until I had qualified as a Lawyer so I could find a job before we moved.
The job hunting process took a while and was at times frustrating. It was disappointing that for most of the applications I made I received no response even to saying thanks for but no thanks! Then all of a sudden I was offered a job and had to move to Brisbane within two weeks.
I already had flights booked to Brisbane as our friend Naomi and I had planned a long weekend trip to go and hit some recruitment consultants so it worked out perfectly timed to move there.
The Aussie stayed in Darwin for a month after I moved down to Brisbane so he could sort out packing up the house and before I left to start my new job I packed up my things as well as much of the house as I could so that the Aussie still had everything he needed to stay there for the next few weeks.
After flying down to Brisbane I booked a few inspections but before moving we had to decide where we wanted to live, we needed somewhere close to my new office but also central because we wanted somewhere close to public transport so it would be easy for the Aussie to get to a new job. We were actually pre-approved for a house in the area where we wanted to live but the Landlord insisted we see the property before we signed the lease which worked out well because whilst the house was lovely and had great views it wasn’t very accessibility friendly when I inspected it. The same Agent had another house in the same area. I went to a few more inspections both on my own and with our friends and found the lovely little kind of Queenslander house that we now live in, all within 3 days of our arrival! We signed the Lease and the following Saturday I picked up the keys.
We had sold nearly all of our furniture before moving so up next was operation transfer what we were moving by arranging a transporter service and buying the rest of what we needed. I spent a fun morning at Kmart going into the shop with my list, filling the trolly, paying for it, loading the car before doing the same thing another couple of times.
I also spent a lot of time on the Buy, Swap and Sell pages on Facebook and Gumtree and found nearly all of the furniture we needed, then a couple of shops in Ikea and Kmart and we were ready.
Our American friends helped so much as well and also let me stay with them for the first month of my time in Brisbane which was just what I needed in a new city where I had to start a new job, find a new house and just to get settled. Being in a familiar surroundings with our friends was perfect. They also spent a big afternoon at the new house putting together the flat packed Ikea furniture which was fantastic.
The car also came down to Brisbane on a transporter truck separately and arrived two weeks after I did. I used a hire car for the first two weeks as my office was a 25 minute drive from our American friends house and the transport situation was not great from that direction.
After a quick visit back to Darwin where the Aussie and I filled our suitcases with 80kg of luggage (including our Roomba vacuum cleaner!) and got to say a sad farewell to our friends in Darwin it was time for the Aussie to fly back with me.
We had “fun” at the airport as I booked us flights with Tiger Air but seperate tickets so they would not allow us to combine our weight allowance. We had under 80kg of luggage which we had paid for but because we couldn’t combine our luggage we would be over our individual 40kg allowance no matter how we packed everything. Luckily our friend came and picked up the things we couldn’t carry and Naomi flew down a few weeks later for a visit and brought the things we couldn’t bring, with her.
Our belongings arrived a couple of days after the Aussie did and he unpacked the truck ready for us to move in and we were off living our Brisbane life. A little bit of shopping later and our house was perfect.
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