Moved to Brisbane from San Francisco in 2004, have used used Grace with no issues. Sold most big stuff before the move and replaced it here and was mostly happy with that as it took so long for the container to arrive. We stored our stuff in California as the place we were in there was sold out from under us while we waited for our visas. It may have arrived earlier if it had been shipped directly.

Public school all the way, but have had some challenges with 1 or 2 schools, mostly not the school’s fault but the kids at the school. Private school for three kids would have financed a few houses.

I miss Mexican/TexMex but at least the ingredients plus recipes on YouTube are much more accessible than 20 years ago. You may miss the version of “Chinese” food from the US as the interpretation here also tends to be a bit different.

Houses, not even going to go there. An untimely divorce has ensured I’ll never own one, despite being well above median pay.

I cashed out my 401k when I moved, not sure how you handle it if these days or if your balance is higher. I didn’t have to deal with US income tax post move as I’m originally Canadian, but a cousin with US citizenship had to settle a rather large bill with the IRS, followed by denouncing citizenship.

Be warned that Brisbane salaries have a bit of catching up still to do. If you can get an employer that pays the same for Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane you’ll be 20-30% better off. Pay here is also often quoted including superannuation, so make sure HR isn’t slipping one past you.

As others have said, ketchup and tomato sauce are the same thing. Most of the time, the version of a product you get here will be just fine (if not better… no high fructose corn syrup!).

But there will be products where the local version doesn’t match what you’re used to, and they might not be things you think about ahead of time. My American parents are forever disappointed by Australian ranch salad dressing, for example.

This store imports US brands: https://usafoods.com.au/ It’s expensive because stuff is heavy to ship across the world. But it’s nice to have the option for occasional specific things you miss.

1. Even if you plan to put your kid in private school later, I’d recommend public for primary (elementary) school. Our schools in general are far better than what the USA offers.
2. The government spent 40 years telling Boomers that investing in property was “Safe as houses”, so lots of them have multiple properties. Also: They allowed foreign ownership, so we have international investors buying homes here where their assets are safe.
3. Tomato Sauce is so much better than ketchup, but you can buy Heinz ketchup here if you desperately need it for some reason.
4. We don’t have Mexican food. We have occasional Mexican restaurants that are good (not sure about Brisbane), but Mexican food is not ubiquitous in Australia like you’ll be used to. If you love Mexican, overdose on it before you come here. I can’t think of any other food examples where you’ll miss from the USA.

California and South-East Queensland are moderately comparable climate-wise. You’ll be right at home.

Stay in the US mate, we did 5 weeks there recently and I discovered Dr Pepper on tap. After 40 days of suckling at the teet of the drink recommended by your number one medical professional I am addicted. We even went to the Dr Pepper museum. I bought a hat.

Here you can only get it in cans imported from the US and after spending two months on a ship at 11ty billion degrees it tastes like a truckdrivers arsehole. There was a brief shining moment in the late 90s/early 00s when Dr Pepper was made locally with cane sugar. It came in 600ml bottles with a 1 in 3 chance of winning a freebie that you practically always got. Whenever someone gets nostalgic for the 90s that’s my reference point. That and Offspring’s Smash album being released.

I’m tempted to do the US trip again despite orange man and first lady musk for just 15 more fluid ounces of that sweet, sweet Dee Argh Pepper.

how much it’s going to rock.

I can answer one of these questions 😆

Am I going to have to bring extra ketchup through customs for my kid, or is the tomato sauce close enough to make an easy switch?

A) I’m pretty sure what we call ‘tomato sauce’ and what USA calls ‘ketchup’ are the same thing - though of course there’s differences between brands.

B) In any case, you can buy stuff in Australia that’s labelled as ‘ketchup’: https://www.coles.com.au/search/products?q=ketchup

Grace has an okay reputation for moving. With most movers it depends on the crew you get for the day. Grace is a big group so if someone calls in sick they’ll have replacement staff to make sure it happens that day. Buy the guys a round of macdoanlds for lunch if they’ve done a good job.

Remember shoes are optional.

Ketchup is close enough to tomato sauce. Aka sauce or dead horse.

@Chef_Boyargee Brisbane, Brisbane is what you need to watch out for.

How did the housing market get so bonkers?

COVID

Sydney and Melbourne shut down a lot, Melbourne in particular had I think one of the longest shutdowns in the world whilst Brisbane remained largely open so we had a large internal migration of people from Sydney/Melbourne who boosted house prices to near record levels before the immigration tap was even turned back on

Then to make matters worse the cost of building materials shot through the roof and a lot of building companies went broke because they settled their contracts on older non-inflated prices

Then when the immigration tap was turned back on things just compounded

People here will say public school but what I’m seeing in real life is that a lot of people are preferring private schools, I don’t have kids so no idea what is better but I think worth getting a 2nd irl opinion outside of this place

deleted by creator