Defence Force Families

:hug: Tara, its a hard life isn't.... Same happened to me when we had our 1st well kinda, we had just been tested to see why werent getting UTD and found out it would take us a while Blar blar blar, so I told BHL this about 2 weeks into his 5 mth trip.. He was ok we will deal with it when i get home....Little did we know I was already UTD!!! I didnt work it out until I was 11 weeks are AF would disapare when BHL was away... So that was one intrusting phone call to BHL... Poor bloke had to ask if it was his :o why of couse it is!!!! so but the time he got back I had a belly and Boobs lol....

But still makes it hard when you have to go to Ultrasounds on your own, at least you have family near by it will make things easier....

As for defence wives its nothing like the show :rofl: I never had defence friends while we were in sydney but did go to the playgroup in Cairns and would NEVER do that again it all went very pear shaped and thing were said by others that were blamed on me and then went back to the boat so the boys were at it too... so for me I felt it just wasnt worth it... Plus like you said the few good ones you do find MOVE then you have to start over again....

So once you have your bub join a civvy playgroup and make some none defence friends

Hello again Tara!!!

DH has his conversion training starting 2/2 and he gets home 29/4. He will miss both me and DD1's birthday. Do you have an estimated date for DH to return in April? As long as he is back by June we should both be fine ;)

He is likely to have his first deployment in November next year. His seargent said that he wont let him go until after bub is born. Considering he gets home when I have 6 weeks to go.

Hi ali,

Hubbie is due back round the 15th of april. Well that's that date for the moment, who knows whether that will be the actual date :D

Jeremy is missing Christmas and my birthday as well :(. Then he's supposedly home for 10 months before his unit is due to be sent to Afghanistan for 8 months. Ah the joys of being an army wife :) No-where near as glamourous as the TV show :D

So where's your hubbie got to go for his conversion training?

Training will be in Albury Woodonga. I can't remember what the actual base is called though. All it will do is mean that he can do exactly what he is already doing, but without having to be supervised and that he will be able to drive the army vehicles. Bit silly really considering he was driving army vehicles when he was ARes :rolleyes:

Hi Tara, well you can look forwards to the allowances from the Afgh trip. Trust me he will earn every penny of it and so will you, keeping the home fires burning for that time! He will understand when gets there how the Solomons is a walk in the park, compared to that!

xxx You've got a couple of hard years ahead of you.

Tara - dont forget to make sure you let Centrelink know about the extra allowances paid to you guys for his deployments, will impact on your benefits now.

The allowances for warlike zones like Afgh and ME are still tax-free and are not reportable as income for Centrelink. The allowances for places like Solomons, Timor Leste (non-warlike) are fully reportable and will affect your Centrelink/FAO status.

Hmm I heard different Mary which is why Dh is adamant about not deploying unless he has too.That KRudd changed it so that ALL deployment income is counted in your annual salary so its bumps you up to higher brackets with CLink and in turn they cut your payments for the following year. Im sure another army wife even mentioned it to me as her hubby had just gotten back from Iraq.

Ali, We spent 15 months at Albury Wodonga :D The base is at banidiana. It's quite a nice place, we had a good time but were glad to get back to Sydney. I missed the bug smoke :dance:

As for Centrelink, at the moment it's not really an issue cause we aren't on any centrelink payments but by the time to next deployment comes round we will be so I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the tips girls :D

As for keeping the home fires burning, it's hard enough this time. At least when he goes to Afghanistan I'll be busy trying to be mum and dad to an 8 month old. However, am praying hard that troops will be home by then and he won't have to go at all :pray:

Ali, he'll likely be staying at Lavarrack Barracks right? We lived in the MQ's across from the gate lol Tell him to make full use of the Army cinema if he can, can see great movies super cheap!

Tara, Im sure you'll do just fine. What base is your Dh at? Maybe the army will be nice to us and send us back to Syd for our next posting in July, Id be happy to catch up with you if they do! We'll have bubs of similar age.

Clarification - this is a quote from a letter than another Defence family got from Warren Snowdon's office when they wrote querying the change:

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"The salary and allowances of ADF members on warlike service are exempt from tax under section 23AD of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA). The foreign income of personnel on non-warlike service, in common with all other Australian citizens, may be exempt under section 23AG of the ITAA subject to certain conditions. Although referred to as an exemption, the section 23AG provision effectively recognises the tax liability a person has in the foreign jurisdiction and that he/she should not be taxed twice.

The Family Assistance Office has confirmed the intention is to capture all tax exempt income of Australian citizens who receive an exemption under section 23AG (and section 23AF) of the ITAA. Only those Australian Defence Force personnel on non-warlike operations will therefore be affected by this change. Entitlements subject to an exemption under section 23AD, warlike service, do not fall within the definition of 'exempt foreign employment income' included in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and therefore cannot be included in the Family Assistance Office assessement".

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Ok cool Mary thanks for that.

Well atleast thats something I guess. I still think Dh will do everything he can to not get deployed but I think he's whistling dixie and theyll deploy him as soon as he's finished OJTs lol

Anna - When he is training he will be down at banidiana and I will be up here maintaining the house. Really useful is that our lawn mower broke a week and a half ago, when we last mowed the lawn, and it needs doing again already!! When he is down there he will probably do whatever he can to waste time between the things he has to do. This is longer than his basic training!!!! He did the 6 week basic 5 years ago!!

Tara - There are few Defence girls in out belly buddies thread!! Julz DH is ex RAAF too.

I had better go and deal with some bills, DHs Rego has just arrived :(

Well I'm the first person to say that even after all the money etc, I don't think a deployment is 'worth it'. But it's not my choice. It's DH's choice (and his employers of course) and I think he's had a big slice of "Life Pie" that he would never otherwise have tasted. Let's just say that DH is happy that he's done his turn and we're now moving so he can take up a job that involves regular office hours and NO MORE TRIPS AWAY (break out the cheer squad :cheer:)! LOL

Fortunately the deployment tempo is much lower now than it was a couple of years ago, since they scaled back Iraq and Timor. Tara, I'm sorry to burst your bubble hun, but Aust is committed to staying in Afgh for a long time to come, and it has the support of both political parties. :hug: But you've got plenty of time so don't fret about it, it will happen when it happens!

Yep my Dh has done deployment too, pre kids, and he thought it was a load of crock! He doesnt consider any amount of $$$ they could throw at him (even though being debt free would be nice) could warrant 6-8mths away from the kids - and not even see any combat (and he was infantry!) So he's all for staying here and letting someone else who is gung ho about playing soldier enjoy it instead.

That said Id happily support him to go but its his decision and I can understand being away from the kids is heartbreaking for them.

Ahh I know what you all mean about the dollars not being worth being away from the fam. However, I guess I knew what I was getting into when Jeremy and I got together and fortunately for me I have a fantastic family support network round me. My parents are great and overjoyed at becoming grandparents so they'll be bugging me constantly when peanut is born :doh:

Ali, Jeremy was based at Bandiana. The cinemas there is fantastic, I think from memory it was $6 or $8 to see a double feature, and while the movies are a little behind the regular cinemas it's worth the savings. Tell your hubbie to make sure he heads out to Rutherglen for Parkers Pies while he's there. It's soooo worth the 20 minute drive to have one of their fantastic pies. Oh and if you're wine drinkers there are plenty of fantastic wineries around that region. Beechworth is also another little town that is worth the 30 minute drive to wander round.

Anna, Jeremy is based at Holsworthy in the 145 Sig squadron. He's actually really enjoying being in the Solomons. While he hates being away from me he's loving the opportunity to put the skills he's learnt into practice and do something constructive with his days. Besides, he'll be back for peanuts birth and that's the main thing. Although I have to say he is spewing bout missing the "good" trimester. I told him by the time he get's back it'll be all "rub my back, rub my feet, cook dinner, leave me alone" :ROFL:

Better get back to work I guess.

Aw Tara after your description I want to move to Bandiana LOL!

My DH ended up missing the "good trimester" too except in my case it wasn't a good trimester at all. It was a hellish 4 months because I developed pelvic instability. OWWWWWW. Hopefully you'll breeze through it, sounds like you've got plenty of support which is great.

OMG Ditto going to Beechworth, Id give Dhs left nut for a Beechworth pie right now. And the lolly shop, absolute heaven!

Tara, ah my Dad was at 145 a few years back :) I grew up in Wattle Grove as my Dad is in the Army. I so wish we would get posted back there, I miss home. We have ZERO family and friends anywhere but Sydney or Perth so its mega tough right now.