The business case for my position has been accepted by the senior management and I have a tentatively open door to relocate on a permanent transfer to Australia pending lots of administrative stuff and finalising the financial aspects.

Whew.

Timeframes would be late winter to early spring; Q3 to those of you business minded types or around August for the North-South hemisphere challenged, which leaves me just over three months to get things organised. Less in reality as I won't have a final decision and contract in place probably for another 3-4 weeks. And this is assuming that I make the move from Europe (which I am inclined to do although not absolutely committed).

I am getting a better idea of how things work on the financial side after a day or two reading through our company's intranet. That said, I still need to take the pointers given by you (thanks everyone) and draw a quick outline of areas for further exploration and clarification.

On the home front, I've had some strong recommendations for Carlton in the inner city and I've spent some time on Domain looking at flats. How much different is Carlton from North Carlton? Frankly, I think I need to spend a week or two there with the idea that it might become my home instead of a business trip to help me begin to appreciate where best to settle.

On a more travel related ending. I am BA Gold and have been for many years on the European program (>5000 tier points annually mind you...). How does this work. I know that BA doesn't have a program in A/NZ and thus I need to pick things up with QF. Is there a formal 'hand-over' or am I relegated to requalifying?