Well, for us it was.
Four years ago on this very day, me, Mrs BobinOz and a very young Elizabeth landed at Brisbane International Airport and passed through customs as permanent residents of Australia.
Now that we have been here for four full years, we are entitled to apply for Australian citizenship. I’ll tell you more about that, and how the process goes, later. But right now, we’re celebrating.
I’ve bought a bottle of champagne, Cattier, $43.00, for those who want to know. It’s not a bad drop of bubbly, according to Mrs BobinOz. Well, it’s all hers. Me, I’ll be celebrating with a few pints of my home brew.
For any of you who would like to celebrate with us, feel free to grab the tipple of your choice. But you don’t have to have a drink to enjoy the occasion.
To mark the day, I’ve decided to pick out my favourite moments from each of the four years that we’ve been here so far. Allow me a second or two while I wipe a nostalgic tear from my cheek before delving into….
Our best days in Australia.
2008
This, for me, is the easiest day of all to select. Our first months here in Australia were not plain sailing. Actually, they were quite tough at times. But when Elizabeth’s birthday came along, when we hadn’t quite been here for four months, we had an amazing party.
It was the day we realised that Australia was our home. On that day, we knew we’d done the right thing in moving down under. It was a wow! day.
Why were those first few months tough? Check out these posts to find out:
2009
It was in January of this year that Elizabeth started school. This was also the year I started this blog.
The blog actually went live at about 1:30 in the morning on January 1. It was supposed to go live just after midnight, but being as it was my first post and I scheduled it, I did something wrong.
When I got in, slightly bleary eyed from and New Year’s Eve party, I checked to see how my first blog post looked online.
It didn’t. It wasn’t there.
Anyway, by January 6 we were taking off on our Australian road trip. We wanted to squeeze in a good holiday before Elizabeth started school. And I was going to be blogging on the road!
Well, mobile blogging didn’t quite work out for me, but the road trip was fantastic! Another big highlight of our life here in Australia.
South Durras near Batemans Bay
If you want to see more pictures from our Australian road trip, here are a couple of recommended posts:
- We’re All Going On A (Australian) Summer Holiday is where it all started and
- Take a Ride Along The Great Ocean Road has a video of one of the best roads in the country.
This was the holiday where I fell in love with driving my car all over again.
2010
The highlight of last year could have easily been our holiday in Alice Springs and Uluru. But, amazingly, for me, that was eclipsed by our long weekend at North Stradbroke Island. A mere one hours drive from my house and a further hour or so by boat, this island really is like going back in time by 20 years.
It’s magical!
I wrote three posts about it, which included three videos and three special guest appearances. Check them out here:
- It’s North Stradbroke Island Week Here on BobinOz
- North Stradbroke Island: Day Two
- Why I Never Took to Train Spotting
2011
The year started very badly, what with the floods. But when the rains had stopped and Brisbane was beginning to dry out, we headed off to Adelaide for a break. It doesn’t rain much in Adelaide, and we really enjoyed our six sunny days without a drop falling from the sky.
But the highlight of this year has to be Tasmania. In particular, Elizabeth throwing a snowball or two at her mummy when we went to Mt Wellington.
Seeing snow was the whole reason for our visit to Tasmania, but Tasmania gave us so much more. It’s the Lake District of Australia in my eyes. I’m a big fan and I’m already looking forward to the day I go back to see some more.
Here are a couple of posts about our holiday in Tasmania:
So there you have it. Those are the four top highlights from our first four years living in Australia. Three of them come from holidays, but that’s what it’s all about here. Getting out and about and seeing new places.
It’s the great outdoors!
It’s all about enjoying Australia and I am enjoying Australia a great deal. And now I want to enjoy it as an Australian citizen. Hopefully, that will happen soon.
But right now, I’ve got a bottle of champagne I need to open.
Cheers!
Hey
I’m living in Melbourne Australia from last 3 years and 6 months.
I came here as a student. I have finished my study last year and
Applied for Temporary resideny.
But the documents the have asked for, I dnt have enough.
I dnt know what to do?
Who can help me?
If u have any answer then can u please email me on my email address.
Thank you.
Maninder
And the missing documents were?
Hello BobinOz, I’m delighted to meet you….
Having scoured the internet for some ‘real’ Oz up to date information, it was such a relief to find you here with a huge treasure trove of information.
Congratulations to the whole BobinOz tribe, I shall raise a glass (I’m with Mrs BobinOz) of bubbly to your commemorative day!
*Cheers* Johanna
Thanks Johanna, I’m chinging your flute with my beer glass!
Cheers!
Bob
Dear Bob,
I congratulate you on the occasion of your 4th anniversary.
Of course this is also my dream. We have received our 475 visa and we are going to move to Queensland as soon as possible. But there will be a long and may be difficult way for us to become Australians.
I hope you the best.
Saba
I hope you do achieve your dream, it is possible. It’s a long journey for us all, stick with it. I hope to see you here soon.
Cheers
Bob
Hi Bob!
Thanks a lot for sharing these beauty pics and experiences from all your years of experience there. I hope you can get the citizenship very soon!
On my side, I am still waiting for the DIAC response. My wife and I applied to DIAC on May 13th this year and we’re still waiting 🙁 Perhaps, it’s a matter of time. In the meanwhile We are working very hard to dominate the English language!!!
Best regards from Argentina!!
Ricardo
Hi Ricardo
I hope you get citizenship soon too! You appear to be doing very well with the language, I can assure you your English is way better than my Spanish!
Cheers
Bob
Hi Bob,
Congratulations on starting the final stages to becoming an Aussie citizen! My hubster (who’s Australian/Greek) and I (100% English) are in the last steps before lodging my visa application through a MARA agent so we can move to Australia. We have lots of plans and for me, reading your blog has been a huge help in finding out more about what living in Australia will be like. I have promised myself that we will only plan a trip to Uluru once I gain citizenship. I’d like to visit the heart of Australia as a citizen!
As to where will we be moving from? Greece….enough said!
Best Wishes and Good Luck.
Hi Faye
Well I hope your application goes through smoothly and I’m glad my website has helped in some way.
Greece is also a beautiful country, shame they are having so many problems right now.
Take care, hope to see you here soon.
Bob
Congrats Bob! Hope you all have a fantastic time celebrating!
Thanks Liv, the real celebration will be when we actually get our Aussie citizenship. But we are practising pretty hard for that 🙂
Congratulations Bob
I hope this happens to me sometime!
A loyal follower of your blog,
Hector.
I hope it happens to you one day too Hector.
Cheers my friend!
Bob
Congratulations.
Currently having a bottle of Peroni in your honour, although, in all likelyhood, I’d have had it ayway. Cheers to you and yours. Hopefully you can do the same for us in 4 years and 1 month.
Thanks Ruth!
Make sure you remind me in four years and one month, and I’ll definitely have a beer. Although in all likelihood, I’d have had one anyway aswell 🙂
Hi Bob, well congratulations!
My visa application is just about to be sent by my agent, got the skills assessment out of the way so hopefully I’ll be setting foot in Oz within 18 months!
A question regarding the citizenship – I intend to be back and forth from Oz to the UK over the first 2-3 years of my 5 year permit, according to my agent, as long as I am permanently in the country for the last two years, citizenship shouldn’t be a problem (assuming I keep my nose clean!), can anyone confirm this?
Thanks Sean
I’m sure you’re MARA agent knows what he’s talking about, so he’s probably right.
When we applied yesterday, we had to declare that we haven’t been out of the country for more than 12 months in the four years that we’ve been here.
Anyway, I’m not sure what the exact answer is, but I do believe the exact terms of your visa will be explained in a letter that you should receive when, hopefully, everything goes through. Then you will have it in black-and-white.
Good luck with the application.
Thanks Bob, and forgot to say, thanks so much for the time and effort you put into your blog, as I said a while back, it was the catalyst to make me get off my backside and do something about making a move from the UK to Oz, now it looks like it is going to happen!
Well that’s good Sean, it’s why I started this blog. To help people make up their minds. I just hope you like it when you get here 🙂