Should me or my husband go to Australia and get a job first before bringing the family over?

Some things to consider: 1 Australian dollar is currently worth 1.27 New Zealand dollars (and the gap has been growing recently). Jobs typically pay more in Australia than the equivalent job in NZ, so provided your husband can find a decent job quickly (which is not at all unrealistic with the skills shortage over here), and he can keep down his costs (rent can be expensive in Melbourne, but I'm not sure where you are moving to), then you should be better off with him working here and sending the money back. As for sending the money back, we use Elldridge Lynch (http://tinyurl.com/4wbbkk) for all money transfers and they are really good. There are other FX companies around too - just try to avoid doing it through your bank as they will charge you far more than you need to pay.

Another one to consider or look at is www.tranzfers.com I have used them for the last 2 years sending money from Australia to New Zealand for AUD $15, plus a list of other countries. They do have a min. of $100 though for NZ transfers, max. $9999, after that you would have to go through their parent company with larger amounts. Another thing is after depositing into their account you can choose to wait in case the exchange rate increases or send it on at the rate it is then. It takes approx. 3 working days for the money to appear in the account you're sending it to, depending on when tranzfers receive it. There are options for depositing into their account, Paypal, (another way to send money), BPay, or manually walking into a branch. It's another speedy, cheaper and simple way which I think is better than the banks