Anyone from Cape Town .. Settling in Perth or Melbourne

[KirstyS]

Who would be willing to chat about areas?

[miran]

I'm googling ect. like crazy. I have some favourite choices, based on other opinions and google earth, but will only be able to give a real perspective once we get there, end of December. You're welcome to keep in touch.

[Sunnyskies]

What do you want to know about Melbourne Kirsty?

We have Mara - big fan of Sunbury (far north)
Sibella - I outer East
Nev & Hansa - north east
myself - east
DBX02 - sourh east (bay area)
Gareth - west
TeeMI - south west (I think) (Soon to be living in Sunbury)

I'm sure between aĺl of us we can give you enough info and probably confuse you enough about which area is the best!

Edited November 25, 2014 by Mara
Corrected Gareth and TeeTMI

[KirstyS]

What do you want to know about Melbourne Kirsty?

We have Mara - big fan of Sunbury (far north)

Sibella - I outer East

Nev & Hansa - north east

myself - east

DBX02 - sourh east (bay area)

Gareth - north west (I think)

TeeMI - south west (I think)

I'm sure between aĺl of us we can give you enough info and probably confuse you enough about which area is the best!

Hi Sunnyskies,

I guess my questions will be a bit vague at this point, would you mind if I inboxed you?

[Drought]

Happy to help with Perth

[Sunnyskies]

Hi Sunnyskies,

I guess my questions will be a bit vague at this point, would you mind if I inboxed you?

Sure

[Tebbutts]

There are lots of great areas in Perth. It depends on where work, schools etc are going to be? We moved here at the beginning of 2014 (love it!). Also happy to help with areas in Perth.

[DanieR]

Kirsty I am currently back in Cape Town and you are welcome to contact me.

[KirstyS]

Thanks everyone.

So we will have one high school kid. One preschooler and one needing to go to Tafe or Uni! We don't know where we would work but probably city?!?

Any suggestions on areas with great schools and not a terribly long commute to the city?

[DXB2OZ]

Hi Kirsty,

From a Melbourne perspective, with all the wisdom of being 4 months in.

1. What is an acceptable commuting time to work? Subtract time at either end for getting to and from stations, then you have your train journey time.

2. Can't comment on uni, but for school will you be looking at private or government? If government, zoning is CRITICAL. My advice would be to choose the high school as it will make the biggest difference in your lives.

3. Do you want to be closer to the sea or rolling hills? Fields or forests? What are your weekend hobbies? You will now be in a country where you are able to explore the great outdoors without fear and the Aussies are big on the great outdoors.

For us, we took a city limit for commute time, then looked within that belt at schools. Once you have a short-list of areas, look at what you can afford. I second Mara's statement - don't rent somewhere where you will never be able to buy. Remember, buying is often only based on dollar salaries down the line, but try and choose areas based on a long term plan.

If you want to assess distances and driving times, work with google maps going from point a to point b. My local mall is less than 10km away but it takes 14 minutes to get there.

Feel free to give me a shout for more info.

Cheers