Defence Force Families

[SamiH]

Hi mum2BXX

I am in Canberra - we have a regular group from BB that meets once a month for coffee, a goss and often lunch as well.

Here is the thread ...

[DaintreeDream]

...DD - when we were in Darwin - we had THE MOST visitors EVER for some reason - it seemed like every month friends or family decided to come up - they never knew anyone who lived there before so had never thought of it as a holiday destination IYKWIM??? So yes, it is a long way away (I come from Melb area originally) - and it is remote, but we didn't find it all that bad ...

Funny you say that, when I told my Mum it was a possible location for posting she got a bit excited that she would have an excuse to visit there again, she has been there once before to my cousins wedding who was posted there at the time, she loved it!

Marydean - Thankyou for that link, it had some great information on there and they do offer some services that I may require, like removal of the gap for early intervention, I was a bit worried about having to go back onto a waiting list. Also assistance in getting equipment, but hopefully DD won't need that by the time we move, we are trying our hardest to get her feeding orally by the time our baby comes. I think I may contact them, the only other major thing I am concerned about is having to fly into a major city for specialist appointments, I am not sure if they can help there... thanks again .

[alioops]

DD, you may be interested to know that Townsville is the pediatric medical hub for NQ. If you were to transfer here then there are specialists here. And I am dying to meet you

[New Dawn]

sounds to me like you have almost made up your mind Dee, remember if you do move to townsville, you better drop in to Mackay on your way though...

for me the best thing about the defence was the moving when ever we wanted a change BHL would just tell his CO ( boss) and look at postings and bingo we would be moving within 6mth... I think thats why we now dont ever feel settled once I have been somewhere for 12mth I get very ichy feet, but now will have to learn to just live with the ich...

been Ex Army I would think they would love to have your DH back, did he stay on in the reserves, as that would make things easier... there are loads of speical needs kids in the defence, I know they do have a big suport network for them, and I know it makes you entilted to a better home than what your ranked... with in some areas is a huge bonis...

As far as I know when someone wants to join with children then the whole family must go in so that they can make sure that you know what you are getting into... which I am sure you do.. but its never hard most people know what they want to hear so if you tell them what they need to hear they are normally happy with that...

As the old saying goes if we wanted the boys to have a wife we would have issued them one was told this by a very old salty sea dog once... in other words they want to make sure that if you DH is deployed you will cope, without having to ring them every 5 sec about little things... Sad to say I knew many of wives who ruined some carees do you always ringing up and getting their DH's sent home coz they couldnt cope on their own...

[DaintreeDream]

That is great to know Ali, could you imagine if I ended up in Townsville, when we met up we would have 5 little girls under 4!

Yeah Tali, my mind is almost made up, DH really wants to do this. I think if I find some things to do with the girls to be able to get out of the house and meet a couple of nice people then I will be fine.
He was in inactive reserves, they have already disharged him from the army in order for him to enter the airforce, the process has started, we are just discussing before he sends in the final paperwork really.

I am really aware of everything that we would getting ourselves into, that is why I am being overly cautious about my decision, if we didn't have young kids then the decision would be sooo much easier. I think my problem is I think to much and that I am too over cautious! I think I need to stop thinking and just jump (so to speak).

Maybe this is where everyone should tell me to be quiet, its not such a big deal and just do it .

[alioops]

Just do it Dee

[AnyDream]

Darling it's a very big deal. You keep having that conversation until you're sure it's right for your family. Just remember there's not anything you can do that you can't undo, if it's really a disaster he can always discharge again, kwim?

[New Dawn]

Just checking to see how things are going Daintree dreaming, have you guys come to any decions yet ?

[TUP]

Good Morning

Just wondering if anyone can help me with some info... I keep asking hubby to look it up at work but he says his been to busy and Im such a planner I need to know

We have our posting order and we are on the move in December. We have a dog and cat and I was wondering what happens in relation to how they get to our new place?
If our new house isn't available when we arrive does the defence pay for them to be put in the kennel?

We are going to drive there and apparently we get money for accommodation etc. Im not sure how much this is but was wondering do we just book where we want to stay?

Any other info would be very much appreciated as this is my first posting and we have two young children so I am really hoping things go smoothly!!

[AnyDream]

TUP tell your DH to get his paperwork (Inventory) in as quickly as possible. Once that's in you will be assigned a relocation manager in the gaining locality, who is your best point of contact for any questions, etc you may have.

Re the pets, you will need to make their transport/kennelling arrangements yourself. We have found it easiest to fly them out before pre-pack and organise the kennel at the other end to collect them. Book as early as you can as it can be quite hard to find kennel vacancies over the school holidays. Check with your relocations manager that the quotes are 'reasonable' and then they reimburse you once you have paid for it all at the other end.

We drove and our accommodation at both ends was booked and paid for by the relocations manager, but you are given an allowance for the places you will stay during the trip and it's up to you how you manage that part of your expenses. Eg some ppl travel faster, spend less on overnight accommodation, visit family en route, etc. But you will be allocated a budget based on the trip length & how many family members, etc. Travelling with a trailer gets you more allowances because you are expected to travel fewer kms/slower with the trailer.

Good luck, feel free to ask any more q's you have. It's a daunting time!

[AnyDream]

Also meant to say - get your inventory in ASAP because they won't give you access to Homefind until you do. Homefind is the website where you look at what houses are available in your area. If you find one you like, lock it in ASAP because the good ones go quick. If there aren't any houses over a period of a few weeks, contact DHA because they might need to unlock a different band for you (depending on the housing stock in that area).

[shauna83]

Hey there, how is everyone going? We are going ok almost 3mths down out of the 8 possibly 9mths away. Kids are really starting to feel it though and well i am at a loss as to how to help them. It is fantastic that my DH is in a job that he can email or call daily if he wanted too which is usually every couple of days and i think hearing from dad so often could be what is causing problems.
We just got back from visiting the grandparents (DH parents) in port macquarie for 2 weeks which the kids really enjoyed, but made me miss him even more. We drove down LOL, crazy i know but it was actually really fun and then my FIL drove back with me which was a huge help cause the kids hated the car by that stage so what i did over 4 days we did in 20hrs / Tsv to Port Mac and back.

TUP, hope what i sent you was helpful

Daintreedream, have you and your DH come to any decisions as of yet. As the others have mentioned it is a big lifestyle change but we wouldn't change it for the world. We are a youngish family still planning on having more kids and although it sux sometimes not knowing where you will be in 5yrs time it is something you cross when you come to it. My DS1 is special needs as he has a form of bilateral renal dysplasia. Tsv hospital doesnt have a Paed renal doctor but because of that fact if he had to be seen by one (which they are happy atm to not have to) the govt would have to fly us down to brisbane and if they wouldn't defence would and so we took the posting to come back to tsv from perth. Whatever decision you make it will be the right one for you and your family.

Hope i haven't rambled too much, i apologise if i did. I hope everyone is well and keeping safe and i will talk to you all again soon.

[rustygirl]

Hi ladies hope you all don't mind me joining your thread.
My husband is in the Army he is a Combat Engineer at 2CER here in Brisbane. He has just been offered a trip to Afghanistan in March which they pretty much begged him to go on so we are currently waiting to find out wether he's actually going to be going or not which is really annoying because we were originally going to be posted to Sydney at the end of the year as he was transfering to EDD (explosive detection dogs) and we were both soo excited. So not too sure as to what is going on now but thats nothing new!!
We have a little boy Cohen and are currently TTC #2!

I'm glad I found this thread cause like you all know, it's really hard for "civvies" to understand our world on the best of days. Hope to hear from you all soon.

[TUP]

HOMEFIND..

I spoke with DHA relocations lady, she advised me that there are 8 more families moving into Toowoomba than moving out!!! Arrrrr There were 7 houses on Monday and in the 20 min hubby was checking them out they all went!! What The.

Nothing listed since which is why I rang DHA. Im such a stresser, esp over Christmas I really just need things to be sorted so we can decide if we are going to visit family, come back and visit friends or complete our move..

Plus Im moving a dog, cat & horse, and esp for the dog, who is nurotic as it is, a kennel is going to be so stressful for her..

Oh and to add to the stress Im basically getting there and walking into my job, irrespective of whether we are in a motel or house...

Sorry just needed a wee vent

So fingers and toes crossed for me, I will be spending the coming weeks sitting by my computer "refreshing" my homefind page in the hope for a house in the right suburb

Hope you all had a great weekend xoxo

[grub17]

hi tup,

i've only hd to endure one move but I really really hate the competitive nature of Homefind. We had the same issue... there were heaps of properties but we didn't realise that you need to pretty much instantly choose the first one you like the look of and then go and research the suburb later bbrrrhhh

we are getting posted next year so i'm going to be research lady this time and become an authority on our new location.

It's just so stressful. good luck.

i hope it works out for you

I second what marydean said and be aware you get more money if you tow a boat or trailer. We had a trailer (which helped with valuables i didn't want removalists packing and a few treasured plants) and got a huge budget for travel. we stayed with family and just did a couple of huge days then found cheap accomm in town before our defence accomm kicked in.

Also, the good thing about takin the trailer was I could pack up my pantry. I've found one of the biggest cost of moving is having to replace an entire pantry. So we take ours with us now plus you get to have your oown breaky on the road, which works out cheaper.

on the animal front we used Dog Tainers and found them very good. you have to pay it all and then DH takes your recepits in and you get the money back. DogTainers transported a cat, a restricted species bird and a snake from Tvl to Newcaslte for us and no worries.. the parrot in particular was a concern but he was fine. We kennelled them with dogtainers in tvle and then called when we were ready for the pets to arrive... the company dropped them at our door Very easy. It cost abotu $600 i think. but you do get the money back.

hi rusty girl - yes the uncertaintity of defence life can be difficult to understand. my family has trouble with the fact we get told nor asked where we live... i have to keep explaining to my mum that we are in the defence force and its' different to regular employement...;

hi to all the other girls I don't get on very often but do read your posts.

take care and have a wonderful week

[shauna83]

Hey Rustygirl, all are welcome here Has he actually already put in his transfer to EDD, if so and they still want to send him o/s that's great they normally wont even give you a look in if your planning on leaving your current job. Also if that is the case you may still get posted and he can request the move for while he is away..just a thought.

TUP, if you want i can check homefind for you just let me know where you want a house

Our life is moving along just nicely now, kids are still asking for daddy but i am learning to deal with it now. Although sometimes i find myself thinking maybe i should have encouraged him more when he wanted to discharge and i wouldn't be doing this by myself or when he came home and said do you want me to pull off i should have said yes, if the deployments were only 6mths still he would be over halfway already, anyway i will survive it is what we do

Have a great week!!

[Nat82]

Hi ladies,

SamiH, thanks for the link you posted a while ago, but I'm not moving to Canberra for a while now. DH is going over to the middle east for what was supposed to be 6 months. However, it got shortened to 5 months, 1 week - if he went for the whole 6 months he would be back the day before our baby's due date.

BUT apparently unless you have a 6 month deployment your not entitled to rent allowance etc. While DH is away I will move to Brisbane to be with my family (also booked a hospital and Ob there). I'm planning to move in with my Mum and sister for six months because they are both looking to move, so I won't need to move any furniture - just put it all in storage in Canberra. DH is going to try to be posted for 6 months, but instead of taking 2 weeks leave in the middle, take it at the end. So we'll see how that all goes.

DH is leaving in just under 4 weeks (on my birthday ) and the pre pack/removal will be a few days later. The unit we are in is RA so we will have to get cleaners in I think as I don't really want to be breathing in all the chemicals, nor on my hands and knees scrubbing. Some real estate agents are really impossible to please!

[rustygirl]

we've since found out that he'll be going to the ghan in March 10! So no move to Sydney for us. Instead I'm going to move to Adelaide while he's away. All my family are there so it will be much better than a posting to Sydney.

shauna83, his transfer to EDD was already finalised we've since found out. He found out on his PMKYS that he even had a march in date!!
Oh well, no complaints here!! Looking forward to Adel and ROCCL towards this time next yr!!!

Oh and I am with you all on the Homefind frustration!! When we moved to Brisbane I checked it about every 5 mins to see if there were anymore houses other than the ONE that had been there for the past week!!!