For most of us Australia seems like a dream island of sun, sea, beaches and ‘barbies.’ But for one North-East family, the dream turned into a nightmare when they moved there last year. Chris Pleasance reports.
A FAMILY who moved to Adelaide in September last year were back living in the region within just two months.
Siobhan Goodfellow, 35, originally from Crook, County Durham, and her husband Andrew, 40, from Hull, moved their two-year-old daughter Savannah over 10,000 miles last year in search of a better life.
But within days Mrs Goodfellow knew she wanted to come home.
“It just wasn’t what we were expecting” she said. “You think you’re going to be able to go out there and afford this great quality of life because the wages are all higher, but it’s also much more expensive.
“It’s the little things you miss as well, like not being able to get my daughter’s favourite juice. All they have over there is the thick Ribena cordial and she like Robinson’s apple and blackcurrant.”
The idea to move struck Mrs Goodfellow in April after watching Poms in Paradise, a TV show about Brits who have settled on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
At the time she had been living in Hull for eight years. She worked as a manager in recruitment, while her husband worked as a forklift truck driver.
Mrs Goodfellow said: “Because of Savannah’s age we said it would be the right time, when she was not going to be affected because she wasn’t in school or anything.”
The couple found tenants for their house in Hull, packed their furniture into a shipping crate and sent their Dalmatian Molly to be vaccinated before booking themselves on a flight from Newcastle airport at a cost of £8,000.
The plan was for Molly to fly over in June, and for their furniture to be shipped over once they had settled. But before any of that could happen things started to unravel.
Mrs Goodfellow added: “One night after two weeks we were sitting in the apartment and he [Andrew] got upset and asked if I felt the same way. That’s when we realised we both felt the same but just hadn’t wanted to say anything.
“We said we would go on a bit longer and see how we felt but we both knew from then.”
The pair made urgent calls to stop Molly and their other belongings from leaving the country before booking a return flight home.
Savannah has been to Ausralia and back at the age of two
“We were uneasy about it but we had to make a decision. We both looked at each other when we got the airport and thought, are we doing the right thing?”
The couple landed back in England at the end of October, having spent just two months down under.
Mrs Goodfellow has now moved the family in with her sister in Walker, Newcastle, and managed to get another recruitment job in Durham.
Meanwhile, her husband is doing shift work driving cargo on and off ships, having decided to relocate to the North-East.
Mrs Goodfellow said: “Andrew’s always wanted to move up here, but right now is the perfect opportunity. The family renting our old home have offered to buy it and all of our things are already in storage.
“What we need to do is get a house and let everything settle down and get back to normal.”
A map illustrating Savannah's journey
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