I'm hoping Alan or anyone else can help me on this one:

I migrated from the UK to Melbourne 18 months ago. I kept my home in the UK which I am currently renting out.

Now I am settled in Melbourne I would like to purchase a house here, and I am looking to refinance my UK property in order to fund my deposit here.

Are there any tax implications or other implications I need to be aware of in transferring these funds from the UK to Australia ?

Thanks,
Tim

Yes I think there may be tax implications, get specialist advice from an accountant.

Also go and see your bank or mortgage provider for your Oz property. The lending requirements appear to be quite strice and depend on your worldwide commitments.

By increasing your debt in UK (and this seems logical as interest rates are lower in UK) you increase your monthly commitments and therefore your ability (on paper and in reality) to repay your new Oz debt. Tell your lender or broker your strategy before doing it as you may be surprised how strict they are on foreign debt.

Thanks Ed. Anyone else have any knowledge on possible tax implications ?

Well I'm no expert but I assume you mean to use the capital you raise in UK to fund a property to live in in OZ.
The BIG problem here is that you cannot claim the interest payments you make on the loan as a expense of the house as you are using the money to buy a house to live in not to generate income. If you were to buy an investment property you would be alright.
You could risk it and hope they don't find out, but if they do the back tax and penalities could finish you.
GET proper advise.

Agreed - you couldn't claim interest payments on the increased loan since the money is used for personal use.

Thanks. I'm okay with the UK tax side of things; my main concern was the implication of transferring around 100K AUD to my bank account in Australia, and whether I would need to account for it's source to the ATO and whether this might be subject to any tax.

Since the exchange rate has moved against my favour since moving here in 2002 I would assume I have no tax liability with respect to delaying the transfer of funds to Australia.