australian move

[Mukik]

So its finally looking like a reality. A move of myself and Micassi to Aus. I had a few questions to DD but anyone else is welcome to chime in :

computers: is it worth it to even keep them, or should I just back up the drives and keep a ladpot each, and give the remainder to the kids/friends?

other electronics: any advise there?


pets. : we have a cat that has not been chipped but is neutered and declawed in the front (she adopted us) . Is quarrantine too rough for outdoor cats or how is that handled, also it seems a bit on the pricey side for felines.

other household items : worth bringing over are some things incompatable?


am sure I will have more questions

Thanks

[Ddrak]

Computers:

Work fine over here - most modern power supplies are dual voltage so have no issues with the 240V lines. Obviously shipping them can be a pain - I took mine as excess baggage on the flight back and 2 out of 3 made the trip without incident. Packing them full of clothes turned out to be a bad idea.

The cost of rebuying them here will be much higher than the excess baggage. Check out http://www.umart.com.au or http://www.ht.com.au for representative local prices.

Monitors might be worth rebuying. Depends how flat you can pack them and how delicate they are.


Other electronics:

If you have DVDs/Blu-Rays then bring the player with you. Region coding makes this annoying to have to explicitly shop for a region free player.

Don't bother bringing your TV - most US TVs won't deal well with the different coding over here.

Amp/Stereo is worth bringing if you have a decent one. I ordered my current one from the US because the prices here are stupid.

Whitegoods are pretty much out. Voltage and bulk makes them too annoying.

Some phones will work here, some won't. Everything is GSM/HSPA+ but some carriers (Telstra) have weird frequencies (850MHz) that some phones don't like. Don't expect US LTE devices to work here, again due to different frequencies. Bring them anyway as you get better rates for a SIM-only contract.


Pets:

Cats are a nightmare. We have no rabies here so you have to be prepared for a 9-month process, including chipping the cat. I have no problems helping you out (we managed it with ours) but you've got a minimum 6 week quarantine period if you get everything right, and up to 6 months if not. If the cat has been exposed to rabies, it will be destroyed (put down, incinerated), so that's a risk you'll run with an outdoor cat. Check out here. It cost us about $2000 doing it all ourselves, but you can also get companies that handle it all for you for about double that cost. I can't give advice on what your pet is worth to you and what you're willing to subject it to.


Other household stuff:

Anything non-electrical is fine. Electrical stuff - check for the voltage. You can get transformers over here for 110V if you really need it, but mostly it's not worth it.

We shipped all our furniture back. Cost around $10k. to hire a half-container and have it delivered after about 4 months on a boat, including the radiation treatment of any wooden products on arrival (again, diseases we don't have here).

Firearms are very tightly controlled over here - I would recommend not even bothering to bring any (you probably knew this, just mentioning it in case).


Bank accounts/Credit cards etc.

Don't close all your US accounts. There's awesome advantages in having a US credit card when you're purchasing from Amazon, etc. I use http://www.myus.com as a remailer but I'm pretty sure there's cheaper ones out there now. Expect $30-$100 shipping on anything you courier from over there.

Use http://www.xe.com to transfer money. Best service by far (that I found) and less than 1% commission. They transfer directly from a US bank account to an Aussie one but it takes a bit to set up, so worth looking in to.

Don't expect anything or anyone to take a check unless you're really, really lucky. It's all direct-debit or credit cards. All the banks are basically tied together electronically so moving money around to pay bills and the like is trivially easy online.


There's lots more, I'm sure.

Dd

[Ddrak]

I should add that the cost of living is 30% or more higher than the US. This is probably because minimum wage is a little over $16/hr. Expect things to cost more.

Home loan rates are 6%-7.5% and are all variable rates. Personal loans are 9% or more.

The Aussie dollar is around parity with the US dollar. I think it belongs at about 80c. I have no advice on whether leaving money in USD or bringing it to AUD is a good idea. The exchange rate is batshit insane. Good news from anywhere in the world (including the US) means AUD goes up against the greenback. Bad news makes it go down. Local stock market performance doesn't seem to affect exchange rates much.

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Someone went to Perth in my place in the mid 90's and I didn't get to go. He said that he didn't like being an American there because everywhere he went, everyone started talking politics and the extra attention made him feel really self-conscious. He had no interest in politics and he said that everyone he met there just automatically assumed that he did, and he didn't like that.

This was almost 20 years ago, so I don't know if an American walking into a random bar today would evoke that same level of discussion. Seems like it would.

[Ddrak]

We get a lot of US politics in the news over here, especially close to a presidential election. Given that no one here actually understands the US system, it's probably not surprising that you'd get a bunch of questions.

Being a foreigner is always a novelty to the locals. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

I'm not sure most in the US understand our system enough to make intelligent comments either way. That was my co-worker's problem.

I don't know much about Aussieland other than pretty much liking everyone from there I ever met. For a couple years I had a pretty good long distance crush on a girl from Brisbane. My phone bills were about $1,000 a month during that time. But she wasn't going to move, and I lived practically on the beach in Newport Beach, CA, so I wasn't going to move. I usually buy Australians drinks in bars (like I do with US servicemen) just because they are all cool. Hopefully Americans get treated decently there

[Ddrak]

People assume foreigners know everything about their country of origin, even though most Aussies don't know crap about Australia either. He'll also get "I know XXX from YYY - have you met them?"

Brisbane girls are awesome. I married one, and my daughter is one!

Americans get treated well, unless they screw it up for themselves. We have this odd belief that our country is better than anyone else's that we don't express much, but don't like to be told otherwise.

Dd

[Mukik]

And what bout wii/ xbox - ps3 stuff?
keep the consoles/games/etc?

[Ddrak]

PS3 isn't region coded for games (it is for bluray and DVD), so definitely keep it and you can buy games for it over here (as well as from anywhere else in the world via mail order - use play-asia and cdwow for cheaper alternatives to local stores).
XBox is coded, so keep it but don't try to buy games over here.
Wii I believe is coded also. Same deal.

(We have a US PS2 and an Aussie PS2 and have to split the games between them).

All consoles will work fine on an Aussie TV. HDMI and Composite work everywhere (thank God).

Dd

[Falundir X`Viento]

Buy cases and cases of Mortal Kombat (all releases) and sell on the Aussie black market for a killing....

That's pretty much all I can contribute to this (20 days later)