Leaving South Africa is one of the most difficult decisions we have ever had to make but for us it has definitely been the right decision. We left SA in April 2007 after living "on the fence" for a couple of years while we tried to make up our minds (and pluck up the courage) to move to Australia.

The hardest part is leaving family and friends behind, although when we first decided to move the thought of having to do all my own housework, cooking and ironing was rather off-putting but that side of things has been so much easier than I thought it would be. I'm lucky though that we're in the position that I don't have to work so the kids and keeping the house sorted is my new "job". Life is very expensive when you first arrive as it is impossible not to convert everything to Rand to work out values. I can assure you that after a year I've now stopped doing this and am enjoying life a lot more! Although I would still love a shopping spree in SA - we really don't value the quality that we get for a reasonable price in SA until we don't live there anymore!

Our lifestyle in Perth is fabulous. It's very much an outdoors life, in summer we spend a lot of time at the beach and having picnics / BBQ's in the parks. The kids are very involved in sport and so most weekends we are at netball, football, cricket or swimming, depending on the season. The most liberating thing is to see all the kids walking or cycling to school (on their OWN!!!).

In my heart I feel I've done the best for my children and for ourselves as we have a relatively carefree life now. I also feel confident that whatever we invest in here will hold its value in the long term which hopefully will allow us to have a comfortable retirement (in 20 years time!). The economy in Australia has also come off the boil a bit in line with the rest of the world, so I think property prices will stagnate or even drop in the short term.

Carol Ullrich