People & Places
Montoyas down under
Regular contributors to Emigrate Australia, the Montoyas have been in Australia for almost six months now and have just enjoyed their first taste of the festive season Down Under
Here Dave Montoya fills us in about his family's new life and on why celebrating Christmas in the sun can seem a little strange
How time has flown. We are finally living in Australia – Kellyville, a suburb of Sydney, to be precise – and I'm pleased to announce that it is everything we dreamed of and more. We arrived in Australia following the long and draining 24-hour flight, but with the consolation that at least this time it was a one-way journey.
We checked through immigration without any hassle, collected our suitcase containing just clothing and then got on a shuttle bus to Avoca Beach on the Central Coast which was to be our home for the next month. We had decided that we would take a holiday there first as it is a lovely area and somewhere we may consider living in the future. After this break we decided to find a place to rent closer to Silverdale where I had already secured a job. The idea was that we would rent for a year and then re-evaluate our situation and decide whether to rent again or buy.
After much research we decided on settling in Kellyville, a fairly new housing area with very large houses (around three times the size of the modest three-bedroom property we had in the UK), which is close to Sydney, just an hour from a few beaches and ideally located for my work.
We rented a very nice four/five-bedroom house which is situated on 850 square metres of land and includes an outdoor pool. The property is so big that when our fully loaded removals container finally arrived, carrying with it all our belongings from our old house in UK, the property still felt empty.
So onward with the shopping. My wife Lin was in her element! We have now (almost) completely furnished our new home. Getting a rental place was easy as there are plenty to choose from. You just need a job, enough money for one month's rent and a month's bond up-front, and a signed contract for the duration of your rental period. Once you have found your place to live, there are certain other things you can then sort out that will make the initial settling process a little bit easier:
Medicare: Get registered as soon as possible, it is easy to do;
Driving Licence: Easy to obtain if you have all the paperwork which is required;
Tax File number: This is needed for work. Again this is easy to sort out; and
Banks: Once again having the relevant paperwork is the key to opening an account. Alternatively you can organise it it the UK before you emigrate.
The kind of paperwork you will need for getting these things organised include a UK driving licence, old bank statements, UK medical records, some old household bills (telephone, tv, etc), proof of who you are and your birth certificates. I think that's all we used but you can never have enough items like these. Everything involves a lot of paperwork to start with.
On the permanent resident visas we have we are also entitled to family allowance (child benefit back in the UK). I knew the four kids would come in handy for something. It's a very good system too, much better than the UK scheme. However, you cannot claim anything else in the first two years out here, such as benefits for unemployment.
Feeling hot, hot, hot
Moving on let's do that very British thing and talk about the weather. When we arrived here it was spring and very pleasant. The temperature was in the mid 20oCs, and there was some occasional rain, wind and cloud. It started getting a little warmer in late October and the heat really picked up in November.
By early December temperatures were often around the mid 30oCs and above. Then, towards the middle of the month we hit the magic 40oC mark, and eventually temperatures soared to a record 44.3oC in the Hills region of New South Wales, of which Kellyville is a part. This was a killer, too hot to move, eat, sleep or do anything except sit in the very warm swimming pool under shelter. I had felt heat like this only once before, in Egypt; believe me when I say it's hot!
The weather can be quite strange here though. Hot days can be followed by amazing storms – big electrical bolts of lightning and huge winds – then all of a sudden gone as quickly as it came and replaced by bloody hot sunshine again! It really is amazing. It's has to be said that putting up outdoor Christmas decorations in temperatures exceeding 35oC is no fun though. On the subject of Christmas when the big day came it was over 30oC outside, and it all seemed very different. I can honestly say it was the first time I have been swimming in an outdoor pool on Christmas Day.
We celebrated Christmas in the traditional British manner as opposed to having a barbecue like the Aussies do, although it has to be said we didn't have our dinner until six o'clock in the evening when it was cooler. It was also a strange experience having family ringing us up on Christmas morning (Australia time) and saying 'Happy Christmas' to us while it was still Christmas Eve in the UK. I had a laugh with my nieces and nephews by telling them what we all got for Christmas and reminding them that their presents were still going to be under the tree for a few more hours! Mind you, I had a lot more calls to make back to the UK to return the favour the following day. I dread the phone bill.
School fun
As I write this it's January and I'm back at work, although my kids are still on summer half term. I suppose school is another thing to talk about (there's so much to fit in to one article). All our kids have gone back a whole school year as the ages you start and finish the education system are different out here. Young ones start kindergarten at the age of five instead of four, while my eldest, who is 11, was a young 11 in school year terms and has missed high (senior) school which is what she would have been due to start last September in the UK.
In saying all this, all the kids love school – yes, that's right, love it. They go from nine to three with an hour for lunch and a 20-minute morning break. The school is new (less than two years old) with 403 pupils (mine being 401, 402, and 403). The teachers are excellent and the quality of teaching has been superb so far. Their first (and so far only) term report before the Christmas break was excellent.
The school plays were very good too and so much effort was put in to them. How the kids would settle into school was one of my main worries before we came out to Australia and this is one less worry for me now. I have to say that the kids, Lin and I have all settled extremely well, especially considering some of the stories we have heard and read about people who have struggled to adapt to their new life. Again it comes down to really wanting to do this in the first place.
If you have any doubts, all I can say is think twice before you take the plunge. We had none and it's working very well for us. My job pays less then the UK (most do) and the cost of living is not that much cheaper than the UK. In fact, it is the same or more when it comes to food and clothing so be warned. The one exception is the house. It is bigger and better than what we could ever have had in our wildest dreams back in the UK. Everything else is on a par, except the weather.
One final big tip that we have is get a social circle going as quickly as you can. It can be lonely the other side of the world without all your family around you, especially at Christmas. We have been very lucky to have really good Aussie neighbours. All our kids have a fair few friends now and Lin and I are meeting more all the time. It's good to also meet up with new arrivals from the UK and try to pass on some of our initial findings and help them to settle in too. We have recently met a really nice family in Castle Hill, just down the road from us, who came out in November, and there is a family in Kellyville who have been here 18 months and helped us settle in.
Missing family and friends has been hard, but web cams, msn messenger, skype and good phone rates have helped ease the burden. We hope to have our first visitors from the UK this year, which will be nice too.
Well, I have gone on enough for now, there is much more to say but I'll leave that for next time. For now good luck on your venture if you plan on coming to Australia any time in the near future.
Kellyville facts
Kellyville is located approximately 35 kilometres northwest of the Sydney Central Business District in the Shire of Baulkham Hills.
The average annual temperature in Kellyville is 17.1oC.
The average price of a home in Kellyville is currently AUS$550,000 (approximately £233,450). In Sydney the average price is AUS$536,000.
Kellyville is a major growth area in The Hills region. The suburb's population is forecast to swell by some 40,000 people over the next 15–20 years.
There are currently 139,404 people living in Baulkham Hills
The town is named in honour of Irish Convict Hugh Kelly who arrived in the settlement, then known as 'Irish Town', in 1803. Kelly established the first licensed inn in the district.
The original inhabitants of the Kellyville area were the Darug people. The Darug were the residents of the majority of what is now the Greater Sydney region.
Towns surrounding Kellyville include: Annangrove, Baulkham Hills, Bella Vista, Glenhaven and Rouse Hill.
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