5 Reasons Why I Moved My Family To Melbourne

Moving your family half way around the world is no easy decision to make. But when your new location is the city of Melbourne, the decision is less difficult, as Joe Gregory explains below in why he moved his family to Melbourne.

1. The hype surrounding Melbourne was too much to ignore

I’ve never been one to do something just because a lot of people say it’s a good thing, but the hype around Melbourne as the most liveable city in the world did undoubtedly get me interested, which made me find out more about Melbourne and how it might fit for us. And it turned out, Melbourne is as good as people say it is!

2. The school/life balance

Moving with two children, we weren’t going to make the decision lightly. We have a 5-year old and 8-year old, so making sure that they’d have a good education and safe but fun environment was huge for us when it comes to their future. Melbourne, as with the whole of Australia, has one of the best education systems in the world, but even outside of school we can take them to galleries, go to beautiful parks, spend weekends at the beach and go further out on trips.

3. There was work opportunity

I realised that before even considering moving to Melbourne, I had to make sure that I could get a visa and a job. I had my own electrician business in the UK for 7 years, and with those skills and experience, I submitted my Expression of Interest and was then invited by the state to apply for a skilled independent visa, which means I’m not sponsored by my employer. Rather than set up my own business, I came over to Melbourne to work for a company. We’ve been here for 10 months – if things go well and I gain contacts, I may look into setting up my own business, but it’s too early days now.

4. We needed a change

To be honest, we were also looking for a change in our lifestyle. We were living in Manchester in the UK during a rough winter – the weather really is that uninspiring that it made us pack our bags! Melbourne isn’t one of the hottest places in Australia, but it’s so fresh and new and beautiful, and summers are actual summers!

5. It wasn’t as difficult as I expected

The hardest thing about moving was making the decision to move, the actual moving part was a lot easier than I expected. It can take months to get your visa granted (especially if you’re including family), but if you have proven skills and experience that Australia wants, you just have to wait to be invited. Because we had built a home for ourselves in Manchester, we had a lot of our stuff shipped out to Australia rather than sell or chuck it. We also found a two-bedroom apartment to rent for six months before buying a property in Blackburn.