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Perth Vs Brisbane


Tonym

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I'm leaving for my LSD in a couple of days and hopefully to firm up a job offer as well. I have an opportunity to head either to Perth or Brisbane. After spending hours on the Net and Google Earth I have ended up more confused that when I started. I have two boys (12 & 14) who enjoy the outdoors & we love camping - our preferred holiday. Education and schooling is very important for us. We have lived in Cape Town and JHB as well as in the Eastern Cape so we love the coastal life style. Our favourite SA city has to be Cape Town - we enjoyed the cosmopolitan feel, and all there is to see and do. I know this is a seriously difficult question to answer but I would appreciate some pro's and con's and ultimately it is a personal decision. I have two weeks in which to make up my mind where to settle my family so I want to make the right decision. We all feel that anywhere is Australia will be a fantastic opportunity but which will be the most fantastic.

Thanks

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Tonym

You cannot get more different than Brisbane and Perth...

i personally never really liked brisbane and i could never 'put my finger on why'

i do think however that brisbane is probably more 'big city' and 'dynamic' than Perth. I think perth weather is the best in Aus and Brisbane has terrible weather unless you like that whole Durban humidity thing

probably more job opportunities in brisbane, but perth is closer and easier to get to south africa (but further from other aussie cities which is a pain)

Here are my views after a year in Perth:

http://www.saaustral...ic/35090-perth/

E

Edited by Emille
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Thanks Emille,

Interesting reading - just how hot does it get in Perth. 40 Deg - wow!!

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Yup we get days in the 40's and it is really unpleasant outside but it's not every single day in summer. You do just learn to live with it and we have the most beautiful beaches.

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We had the same dilemma before we moved here and did a trip where we visited all the big cities of Australia to get a better idea - and in the end we decided on Perth - and are still extremely happy with our decision. Here are some of the reasons why (only comparing Brisbane and Perth here):

- proximity to South Africa

- fantasitc beaches - there are none IN Brisbane, so you have to drive either north or south of Brisbane to find beaches

- the heat is way more bearable here, as it gets very humid in Brisbane. So although it sometimes gets up to 40 degrees Celsius (which is really very rare, maybe something like 10 days during the 14 months we have been here), it hardly ever

gets humid and is therefore really bearable.

- Perth doesn't feel all that big and therefore not so overwhelming

That being said, and I repeat we are VERY happy with our decision - there are one or two things that are probably better about Brisbane:

- Perth is very, very isolated as opposed to Brisbane where it's just a hop and a skip to fly or travel otherwise to other cities and places

- Brisbane is close to the Great Barrier Reef - my dream place to travel too.

And - this is just by the way - but anyhow: when we arrived here they had those massive floods in Brisbane? So we were REALLY happy about our decision then I tell you...

I suggest, if you can afford it at all, try to go and have a look at both cities for yourself before you travel here (1 week in each place should give you a good idea).

Good luck with everything, let us know what you decide to do.

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Thanks Chocaholic - I see you lived in PE. We are in Port Alfred. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? Who did your move for you? We have asked for quotes from Stuuttafotds and Pickfords - both seem very expensive. Thanks

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It also depends on what your profession is. Because WA is more focused on the mining industry - For me as a scientist, there is far less jobs for scientists in Perth compared to Brisbane. And the lab job I have pays about $10000 less per year than what I would get for the same work in Brisbane. If we chose Brisbane, I would probably have a much more successful career. But we chose Perth for the better lifestyle - the weather, beaches and smaller city.

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Thanks Emille,

Interesting reading - just how hot does it get in Perth. 40 Deg - wow!!

yes we get 40 but somehow 40 in perth is like 33 in queensland...

when you sit in the shade it feels as if the sun is shining on you

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Thanks Chocaholic - I see you lived in PE. We are in Port Alfred. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? Who did your move for you? We have asked for quotes from Stuuttafotds and Pickfords - both seem very expensive. Thanks

try brittania - we moved with them to the uk, back to SA, then to australia - happy with them

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Just a quick note on this preceived humidity thing in Brisbane.

It does get humid here, but only during the 3 summer months, Dec, Jan, Feb. Then it's normally warm and humid for not longer than a week at a time before the south easterly breeze takes care of humidity.

Some posts can create the perception that Brisbane is ALWAYS humid which is definitely not the case.

Brisbane has a fantastic climate and a few warm and humid weeks are really not that bad. It gets reallly hot in most places in Australia anyway.

Cheers

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I have to agree with Doran.

If you want to avoid the humidity, steer clear of Mackay. We have lived in Perth, Mackay and now Brisbane. Although I absolutely loved Mackay, out of the 3 I prefer Brisbane!

Climate is just beautiful, it is a family friendly city. Btw I'm also working for a big international mining company and with the fly in fly out options available, it does not really matter if you are in Perth or Brisbane, you will be able to find a job in the mining sector.

There may not be beaches in Brisbane, but we have the best of both worlds, a river that runs through Bris, with the beaches about a 45 - 60 minute drive.

My 2c worth.

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I have not lived in Bisbane, only visited and my impression of Brisbane was a that it was dirty. The fact that the beaches are 45 - 60 minutes away does not appeal. Perth has the best beaches in Australia, we have a majestic river being the Swan river.

Yes, Perth is isolated from the rest of Australia, but hey Australia is isolated fromt he rest of the world!!

Perth is a very family friendly city, its pretty and clean and well laid out.

But as said before, if youa re doing an LSD , perhaps try and visit both

Good luck with your desicion'

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As I'm sure you'll realise opinions on these types of topics are difficult to trust due to sometimes unintentional bias or people making snap judgements from short visits without really knowing them. So with that in mind I thought to help you judge the bias in my opinion I would declare up front that I live in Brisbane and only know Perth through years on forums and facts that anyone can look up.

This is my pro's/con's guess:

If you want to live in a biggish city and next to a beach Perth seems far better. Brisbane is a river city and much of Brisbane life is very focused on the great suburbs up and down the river. To me living too far away from the river in Brisbane means you miss the best parts. If I was beachy I would prefer Sydney (budget allowing) over Perth because I find Sydney's man made and natural beach surrounds so active and interesting but I imagine Perth is great for those who are just after a good beach. I would think the exception to just choosing Perth over Brisbane for beaches is if you have to live far from Perth to afford near beach living. Then you should also consider the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. The Gold Coast in particular would have far more facilities/interest than far outer suburban Perth I would imagine if this is important to you.

Weather. Very tough topic as we all have our bias and few have lived in both for many years to do a fair comparison given weather can vary a lot year to year. Brisbane has a very long dry, non humid spell in low 20'c from at least Apr to Sep. The daytime weather is often superb during this time. Not too hot, sunny clear blue skies, very little rain etc. We get warm rain/humidity during summer instead in tropical storms which often makes it our worst season. Perth is the opposite. It gets it predictable sunny dry weather during summer and then statistically (Source: BOM) has a colder, very wet winter compared to Brisbane. So I think it depends on preference. For me, while I think Perth's summers would be better, I don't think I wouldn't enjoy Perth's summers that much more than Brisbane's because they are often very hot which would sometimes make them as bad for me as Brisbane's sometimes humid but lower temperatures. To me it would mean I still wouldn't get a perfect summer but I would also miss the summer # 2 that we get in Brisbane during the rest of the year which I often find is a perfect 20-25c, non humid, sunny and dry right through winter. One of the very few big cities that is blessed with this. Of course others who like it hot would prefer the opposite and I think overall they both have great spells of weather that comes down to personal choice.

Surrounding area's for camping/outdoor stuff/day trips etc. From my reading I feel that Brisbane has far more variety in it's surrounding areas then Perth though obviously not living in Perth I'm only judging through reading. Perth's winter rain climate with hot summer and position seems to give it a far more dry, desert edge type feel than the green sub tropical surrounds of Brisbane though Perth of course has green as well. Brisbane also has many surrounding mountain rainforests, multiple large beautiful islands including the incredible Fraser Island, wineries, mountain villages, coral reefs, hand feed wild dolphins, the lovely mountains and beaches of the Gold and Sunshine Coast regions and access to the beautiful green, lush northern nsw hinterland villages and mountains. Perth obviously has some great places surrounding it as well I just think apart from beaches/Rottnest it is not as blessed as the Brisbane area in this regard though it obviously has more great non beach places that I haven't mentioned. Hopefully someone from Perth can show me I'm wrong ;)

Isolation. I often think the isolation thing is overplayed by some who don't like Perth but I have never lived there so can't say for sure. Even though Perth's population isn't that far behind Brisbane's I must admit it is nice in Brisbane to be able to drive down the road to the 500,000 strong Gold Coast or the 250,000 strong Sunshine Coast or inland to the 90,000 people of Toowoomba for a change. In the last 2 years or so our family has also driven to Bryon Bay, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Armidale NSW, Coffs Harbour, Longreach etc on different family holidays. All these extra people near to Brisbane also give the whole area a busier more go ahead feel I would imagine. I would expect this would account for why Brisbane has so many more skyscrapers, buildings, roads, bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure. The difference is far more than the population difference between the two cities alone would suggest. To some this is an advantage for Brisbane/SEQ as there is a lot more happening/changing etc, for others the downsides like more traffic, busier etc would be a negative. Personal choice as one size does not fit all.

Plants/animals: I personally love the sub-tropical feel of the plants/animals we have in Brisbane and the surrounding area's and I think I would miss it in Perth. Others from Perth probably feel the exact opposite :)

Events/Cultural Activities etc. I have lived through the times Brisbane had less of these and I much prefer it now where we have a great cultural district, busy inner city cafe districts and far more to do than we used to (of course nothing near Sydney/Melbourne still). Some in Brisbane instead hanker over the less developed days when Brisbane main claim to fame was being clean and friendly...mainly because we didn't have much else. I feel Perth is somewhat like Brisbane used to be in this respect though I am sure it will develop like everywhere does in the course of time as I bet many are trying to push it along during the current boom. So again personal choice of what you prefer. I do not mean to imply Perth has no cultural activities, I am just talking in relative terms.

Employment. Perth has had a consistently lower unemployment rate so wins hands down. Qld has a huge mining industry ramping up as we speak but it has not converted into Perth levels of unemployment yet so we'll have to see how that goes where Perth has the runs of the board right now.

Flights. Perth is closer to South Africa, Bali, London etc. Brisbane is closer to the South Pacific Islands (Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu etc) and New Zealand, Sydney, Melbourne etc.

Insects: Perth has an annoying fly issue for just a couple of months, Brisbane avoids the whole blow fly problem but probably has more mosquitoes and other insects I would imagine?

Family friendly: Similar in this regard. Brisbane is extremely family friendly with clean, safe, low density suburban living right up to the city edges as I believe Perth has as well.

Prices/Salaries: Perth has higher salaries than Brisbane but also higher prices for houses, food etc. Brisbane has the current advantage of the cheapest capital city average house prices apart from Hobart.

OK, that is enough bias from me :blush-anim-cl: ....hope there is something useful in that lot.

Edit: oops, just realised the OP has already left ;)

Edited by Fish
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Thanks everyone. I am amazed at how helpful everyone has been, responding at length and in detail. I know this takes some so thanks very much for the effort and interest and the willingness to help. I awoke in Melbourne this morning after flying for nearly 24 hrs (went via Dubai). My body clock is totally confused but I am trying to adjust to the new time zones - copious quantities of strong cappucino's seems to be helping .....

Thanks again

Tony

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Hi Tony - Regarding your question to me I just sent you a pm. Enjoy your time in Australia. I hope you get closer to a decision soon.

Edited by Chocaholic
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It's very difficult to make a decision based on a quick visit. A place might seem great initially but it's only once you're actually living somewhere that you get to really experience it. There are lots of people in Perth who are more than happy with their decision. After more than 2 years here, the time has come to start thinking of packing up and moving to the East Coast sometime in the near future. Perth is just not for us, and that's ok.

All the best in making a decision! It's not an easy one but see it as an adventure. Worse case scenario, you get to experience a place and explore the area. If you decide it's not for you, then you can take your time and visit other cities and plan the move from within Australia.

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  • 7 years later...

Hi guys, I'm reviving this old thread.

 

We have been granted PR (super excited) and we're ready to relocate to Australia. I am busy job hunting at the moment.

 

We won't be able to do a LSD trip so I pretty much have to decide where I'll be looking for work and that's where we'll settle.

 

I'm a programmer and my wife an early childhood teacher. We have two small kids.

 

We're torn between Brisbane and Perth, and would really appreciate some advise.

 

We're living in Bloemfontein at the moment and we're a little scared of the "big city" life (long commutes and high population density). This is what made us think of Perth initially. But I am a little worried about the economy and job market of Perth, which is highly dependent on the mining industry.

 

What attracts me to Brisbane is a bigger job market in my field, as well as more opportunities for my wife as a teacher. But along with that comes a busier city and higher property prices.

 

We're a small conservative Christian family who just want to provide a stable home for our kids.

Please help us think this through.

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To me it sound if you already have all the facts but the emotions are getting in the way. Therefore it should rather be an emotional decision backed by logic.

 

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On 6/22/2019 at 2:34 PM, BreakerMorant said:

Hi guys, I'm reviving this old thread.
 

We won't be able to do a LSD trip so I pretty much have to decide where I'll be looking for work and that's where we'll settle.

 

I'm a programmer and my wife an early childhood teacher. We have two small kids.


I'm a software engineer and looked at Perth and Brisbane extensively. Unfortunately there's not a lot of software development jobs in Perth. I know a few people who tried to make it work there, but eventually left for one of the other 3 cities due to a lack of Job opportunities there.
Brisbane has enough software development opportunities to make it a viable move, so in terms of your profession I would choose Brisbane.
 

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100% agree with @HappyIsland.  I've been in Brisbane for just over 2 years now and there definitely is no shortage of work for developers.

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Hi guys, I've managed to land a job in Brissy but I'm a bit concerned about our budget. If anyone wouln't mind to take a moment to help me, head over to this thread.

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  • 1 year later...
On 6/22/2019 at 11:34 PM, BreakerMorant said:

Hi guys, I'm reviving this old thread.

 

We have been granted PR (super excited) and we're ready to relocate to Australia. I am busy job hunting at the moment.

 

We won't be able to do a LSD trip so I pretty much have to decide where I'll be looking for work and that's where we'll settle.

 

I'm a programmer and my wife an early childhood teacher. We have two small kids.

 

We're torn between Brisbane and Perth, and would really appreciate some advise.

 

We're living in Bloemfontein at the moment and we're a little scared of the "big city" life (long commutes and high population density). This is what made us think of Perth initially. But I am a little worried about the economy and job market of Perth, which is highly dependent on the mining industry.

 

What attracts me to Brisbane is a bigger job market in my field, as well as more opportunities for my wife as a teacher. But along with that comes a busier city and higher property prices.

 

We're a small conservative Christian family who just want to provide a stable home for our kids.

Please help us think this through.

Hi there @BreakerMorant, I would love to find out where you ended up.....

Thank you 

Edited by renebo
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