Mandurah

[brendia]

Good morning everyone

If DH does not get a big enough score for Ielts we will be looking at the 489 regional sponsored visa. Mandurah looks like a lovely big town to move to. Actually even if we do have a permanent visa this looks like it will be on top of our list. If someone could answer a couple of question's, I would be truly thankful!!

Which suburbs would you reccomend? We would need to send our 8 and 5 year old to school. My son will be 2, not ready for school quite yet. I was reading up on " Falcon Primary and South Hills Head primary". Are these good schools and in good suburbs?

I read that Greenfields isn't a good place to stay. What would you say?

DH is a carpenter. On the Mandarah City website I see that 8.3% of employment is construction. Is there a lot of building and construction going on there? I know it's really hard to say but do you think DH would easily find work?

That's about all for now. Any other advice/tips would be more than welcomed. Thanks in advance!!

[OubaasDik]

Jordy lives there. If he doesn't get back to you on this thread, contact via a PM or an email - he should get back to you smartly.

[Pertheption]

Hi Brendia. We are in the same boat. I am rewriting my IELTS this Sat but regardless we also considering Mandurah. I am a but concerned as I am in finance and can also do HR but there does not seem to be many jobs in these fields. I already messaged Jordy and he reckons that Mandurah is the perfect place especially for a younger family. But regardless if you get a job in Bunbury or thereabouts, its not a far drive. Mandurah is apparently a very trendy and beautiful location.

[brendia]

Thanks OubaasDik. I will wait and see if Jordy replies.

Hi ACTuality. Thanks for your reply. What score are you aiming for? Mark needs to get 7's to get PR but if he doesn't and get's the 6's we'll go for the 489. He was written it 3 times already and keeps on falling short by .5 on listening. We tired of waitng and he'sturning 40 next year so we will just go with what he get's. All the websites I've searched Mandurah really looks beautiful!! And there are so many schools which I'm happy with because that means it is family orientated. Yes, the only problem would be work. At the moment Mark is travelling just over 200km a day to and from work. The travelling to work won't be an issue. They were not lying when they said this is like a rollercoater ride

All the best of luck for your test on saturday!!!!

Edited March 19, 2013 by brendia

[Pertheption]

That's so funny because I also fell 0.5 short in my listening! I got an overall 7.5 the last time. I am aiming for an 8 this time in each band. We have enough for a 489 but I am going to try one more time because we are just 5 points short for a 190.

[brendia]

Oh no! The listening can be so tricky. Especially the first time you do it. I'm sure you will get those 8's this time around and your 5 points for a 190!!

[Jordy]

Hi guys,

Sorry just saw your thread now. It is rather late here now so I will give a nice answer tomorrow but for now here are two Youtube clips:

http://youtu.be/crJp-7z7dDQ

http://youtu.be/UDLabR-Y54M

[Elmarie61]

Hi,

I recently moved to Mandurah (few weeks ago!). The town (officially classed a city actually) is beautiful.

It has managed to keep it's small town feeling, with the conveniences of city living. There are many shopping centres with woolworhts, coles, iga, bank branches etc, but also with bunnings, a whole bunch of furniture shops and outdoor shops etc. i would be very surprized if you found you were lacking any city convenience! All these are situated in suburbs, and in land of the old coast road.

The foreshore is where it still feels small town. There is a beautiful walkway along the estuary, with restaurants and a park.

The beaches stretch on forever. I live 150m from the beach, and I can walk to the cbd on the beach almost the entire way(about 5km).

The people have been kind and helpful, always stopping for a chat.

I think it is the perfect spot fot young families, or older people. Teens and young singles might not be too fond as there are no clubs, just one or two pubs.

On the downside, i dont think there are as many jobs down here as there are in Perth. You could drive, but I did that drive (opposite direction from perth to mandurah) for a month and it was deadly. Very far, very boring, made me very tired. (how awesome though that driving can be classed boring- no dangerous drivers, no speeding, only 2 tailgaters in the month i drove down, no taxi's, was awesome, but like i say it did make me fall asleep!), and it took me 50 min one way. But the road up to perth was way busier, i would say it would take you an hour or longer.

The other known irritation down here are the mozzies, but i have only had 2 experiences with them since being here. I got chomped at a swimming carnival, and one evening during my daily bike ride. Not bad enough to make me want to go anywhere!

I actually had a carpenter at my house yesterday. He used to fly in fly out to the mines for odd jobs, but a few years ago saw an old friend who now works in real estate. The real estate agent sent him all the jobs for the rental houses that often need a handy man. He has been so busy he still hasnt even made himself business cards and he earns roughly 100 000 a year. I think that is a clever route to go... Get in with a real estate agent, offer to do their fix ups on discount or something, they will send you loads of work!

Good luck!

[rikamarie]

Thanks for the post Elmarie! Nice to hear from you! We are also concidering to settle in Mandurah (if all goes according to plan - and we find jobs there ofcourse) in Jan 2014.

Come on visa! :-)

[brendia]

Thnaks Jordy!! Watched the clips and wow! Everything looks so care- free.

Thanks Elmarie. It sounds absolutely wonderful! I am qute thrilled that there are no clubs for teens But then I suppose they will travel to get to one! If we do go on a sponsored regional visa, we will only be able to work and live in a regional area. This looks like it is going to be a HUGE challenge to find work anywhere regionally. Hopefully by having a bunnings there that means people need a carpenter haha! That's really a good idea about getting in with the real estate's. If there's a way there's a will.

Also read about the mozzie's. Is it a seasonal thing? I hope so....

Rikamarie, we also hoping to leave around Jan 2014. We haven't yet applied for visa's but hoping we can soon. Hope your visa is approved very soon!!

[OubaasDik]

Thnaks Jordy!! Watched the clips and wow! Everything looks so care- free.

Thanks Elmarie. It sounds absolutely wonderful! I am qute thrilled that there are no clubs for teens But then I suppose they will travel to get to one! If we do go on a sponsored regional visa, we will only be able to work and live in a regional area. This looks like it is going to be a HUGE challenge to find work anywhere regionally.

Good news for jobseekers, the whole of WA (including Perth is regional).

I've been trying to find where it gave the non-regional areas, and they're tiny - basically, Sidney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle, and a couple of smaller towns (Geelong?).

[brendia]

Really OubaasDik!! When I looked on DIAC they give all the postal codes where you can stay. It also says excluding Perth and surrounding area's. Unless I'm looking at the wrong info. This would be great if Perth was classed as regional.

[OubaasDik]

Yep, Bur remember IANAA (it stands for I am not an agent).

When I look at http://www.immi.gov.au/skills/skillselect/index/visas/subclass-187/ (OK it's to do with 187 visas) it says

Requirements

People can apply for this visa if they:

• want to live and work in regional Australia, meaning not in the Gold
  Coast, Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong and Melbourne
• have been nominated by an approved Australian employer located in regional Australia
• are younger than 50 years of age
• meet the skills, qualifications and English language requirements.

AND HERE

http://www.immi.gov.au/employers/rsms_postcodes.htm where it gives eligible postcodes and says

Western Australia

Entire state.

Yep, I think I may be right.

If one of you agents thinks otherwise, let me down gently, please.

[brendia]

Thanks for all the info, but this visa looks a bit tricky. Am I right in saying that you have to have an employer to sponsor you? I just wish we could get 7's and we don't have to worry about all of these different types of visa's and rules.

For the 489- Regional sponsored ( provisional) visa I see that you can live and work in the entire of SA, NT and Tasmania.

[OubaasDik]

subclass 489 (Skilled – Regional Sponsored) (Provisional)

OK, sorry - I had the RSMS (Regional Sponsored Migration scheme) in mind

If you are on the Skilled – Regional Sponsored (Provisional) visa you have to stay in one of the RALPGM areas and in WA that is Post codes

6041 to 6044

6083 to 6084

6121 to 6126

6200 to 6799

Sorry I got your hopes up.

BTW when they say you should stay there, they really mean it - we were discussing a case of a family from the UK who get sent back for staying what is essentially 2 km out of where they were supposed to be.

Apologies again.

[rikamarie]

@Brendia

Thank you, we hope so too. And goodluck with your application, hope all goed quick and effective. Our whole process so far is about 10 months, hopefully we'll have our visa by end March.

[brendia]

No proble OubaasDik. I thought you might be refering to a different visa. Thanks for your input!

Thanks rikamarie. We started everything in 2008 so I'm sure I can wait a couple of more months Although I am finding it extremely difficult to be patient.

[OubaasDik]

No proble OubaasDik. I thought you might be refering to a different visa. Thanks for your input!

Thanks rikamarie. We started everything in 2008 so I'm sure I can wait a couple of more months Although I am finding it extremely difficult to be patient.

Well, I feel very foolish. And I feel bad for getting your hopes up.

[brendia]

No man OubaasDik. Please don't feel foolish!! We might be onto something here. It will be a lot of work and research to get this visa but it would beat a temporary visa hands down

[Jordy]

The areas of Mandurah you do not want to rent in is Greenfields, Coodanup, Silversands, Central Mandurah, Dudley Park.

The areas that are nice are Seascapes, Port Bouvard, Halls Head, Erskine, Falcon, Dawesville, Florida, Miami (all south); Meadowsprings, Secret Harbour, Golden Bay (all north).

As for schools, all the public schools are okayish but I would recommend the Private Christian Schools of the which there al plenty. I posted all the links to the schools in this thread

As for work I would think carpentery is equally required in Bunbury and Mandurah. The big adjustment South Africans need to make is way construction happens in Aus: On things like houses etc, most tradies are one man outfits who are subcontracted by a 'builder'. They own their own ute and tools and literally arrive on site for a day or two, do the job and leave.

We recently built a double garage. While a 'builder' quotes for the whole job, he contracts in 'one man businesses' to do the work. So he has his list of tradies that he calls on to do their part of the overall project - brickies, foundation layer, roofies, painter, garage door installer etc.

So take the foundation layer for example: This guy owns a ute, a trowel, a level etc. He arrives and gives the builder a quote to lay the double garage slab. The builder accepts his quote. The next day the foundation layer arrives and waits for a guy to arrive who owns a Bobcat. The Bobcat owner arrives with the Bobcat on the back of his truck and gives the cement guy a quote to prepare the ground. He accepts the quote and the Bobcat owner unloads his Bobcat from the truck and does the work. Takes about an hour. He then leaves after being paid.The next day the cement guy arrives and waits for the huge cement truck to arrive that he ordered. When it arrives he supersvises the pouring of the cement. He pays for the cement and begins levelling the concrete slab. The builder arrives and pays him for the job. Then the Brickies arrive and so on....

You get the idea. All these men work for themselves and have built up connections over time. I am sure there are big construction companies that offer work but anything the size of a house or less is done like this. At least this is my experience.....

[brendia]

Thanks so much for all the info Jordy! Will go through all the schools and suburbs tomorrow. My cousin stays in Quinns Rock and has also moved her son to a christian school. She said there is more structure and disipline.

This will be a huge adjustment for Mark. He is used to big projects like airports and malls where he spends months on the same site. He has also never wanted to work for himself because of the security a permanent job gives you. Everything will be an adjustment so we will have to go with the flow I'm sure once he is used to it he will be fine.

Thanks again to everyone for all the posts!!

[wendym]

This is a topic I will be following. My OH - a plumber - will be moving to Wannanup, Mandurah mid May 13. He will be staying with some friends until he finds a job and rental. Our daughter and I will join him by end July (hopefully he will have a job and rental by then).

[brendia]

Good luck with all the changes. Hope your OH finds a job and rental super fast. Let us know how it goes.

[Guest May]

I looked at Woodvale. Kingsley and Greenwood NOR and Willetton and Riverton SOR....Mandurah homes are more value for month 2/3s but it might mean private schooling and long commutes.

[Sylvester]

Hi, we stay about 15 min away!

Great train service, even if you are going into Perth.

Ping me if you would like to find out more