Moving to Australia with Children

This is the single most important scheduling fact for a family move, and it inverts the northern-hemisphere instinct. Term one begins in the last week of January or the first week of February depending on the state — in 2027, Victorian government students start on 28 January and New South Wales eastern-division schools on the same day, with the western division starting a week later.

The practical consequence is that the natural time to move is the Australian summer holiday in December and January, not the British or American one in July and August. A family that moves in August arrives two-thirds of the way through the Australian school year, with children joining classes mid-stream and a shipment that misses the settling-in window entirely.

Independent and Catholic schools set their own dates, and every school has pupil-free days at the start of term, so confirm the specific date with the school rather than the state calendar.

Because sea freight takes months rather than weeks, the school date determines your packing date, not the other way round. The table below works back from a mid-January arrival using our standard transit times, with a fortnight of contingency for customs clearance and any biosecurity inspection.

These are planning dates, not guarantees. Sailings are not weekly on every route, peak season fills up, and an inspection on arrival can add time. If the start of term genuinely matters to you, build in more slack than the table shows and book early.

Permanent residents and citizens generally access government schools on the same basis as Australians. Temporary visa holders often do not, and this catches families out because it is unlike the UK, where a state school place carries no fee regardless of immigration status.

What matters is not just whether you pay but how the fee is structured, and states differ fundamentally here. New South Wales charges per student. Western Australia has applied a flat family fee covering all children in the household. For a family with three primary-age children, that structural difference is worth thousands of dollars a year — and it is a legitimate input into which state you target.

Government school enrolment is generally tied to your residential address, which creates a sequencing problem: you often cannot secure a school place until you have an address, and you may not want to commit to an address until you know the school. Families usually resolve this by renting short-term in the catchment they want and applying as soon as they have a lease.

Starting ages and cut-off dates differ between states, so a child who would be in a particular year group in the UK may be placed a year either side of it in Australia. Ask the school to confirm the year level before you assume, particularly for children born close to a cut-off.

Bring documentation with you rather than shipping it: passports and visa grant notices, birth certificates, immunisation records, and the most recent school reports and any assessment or support plans. Immunisation requirements are enforced at enrolment.

Beyond school, the two things families ask about most are childcare costs and healthcare access, and both depend on your visa status rather than on where you live.

Childcare subsidy eligibility is tied to residency status, so temporary visa holders should check their position before budgeting — unsubsidised childcare in the major cities is expensive. Medicare access likewise depends on your visa and, for some nationalities, on a reciprocal health care agreement. The United Kingdom has such an agreement with Australia; its coverage is narrower than Medicare proper and is not a substitute for health insurance.

Our healthcare guide covers the Medicare and reciprocal agreement position in more detail.