2 Months in Adelaide - Opinions, suburbs and cost ?

[Lonzo]

I arrived in Adelaide now 2 months back so thought I would give my oppinnion.

So Far Im really enjoying it.

I was lucky enough to get work in Adelaide with my same company as I was working for in Johannesburg, so the move was made a lot easier for me. i also had a reagionally sponosred Visa, so HAD to move to the Adelaide region and live in Adelaide for at least 2 years. this suits me fine........

My opinion so far is as follows: ( remember everybody has a different View )

Adelaide reminds me a lot of Port Elizabeth in South Africa, especialy the beach front area's arround Glenelg and Brighton. It does have a lot more old buildings scatered arround it however, which look great especially at night, when they light them up.

My new job does however require me to drive arround a lot and Im not goint to ly to you, this place has some bum area's as well. A lot of very Average suburbs that are not to exciting in anyway. Lots of badley maintained houses and lots of UGLY architecture. But on the positive, lots of Very pretty architecture.

My favourite suburb so far is North Adelaide, a great mix of old and new with good cofee culture feel, but unfortunately houses were a bit costly for me to rent int his area for what you get. I think for a fair house rental you need to look at from $400 per week to $ 600. The eastern suburbs are all quite nice and the suburbs immediately in the south of the city arround Unly are also great. In the hills, stirling is and Aldgate are GREAT and very pretty, with mount barker close on its heels, but a bit far for daily communiting. I might seriously think of staying in the hills at some stage, but with kids, the houses dont have fences, which is a problem for small kids. So for now visits to the area are for weekends

signing up for things like medicare are realy easy and take only a few minutes to get. I also found opening accounts a very easy process with commonwealth bank migrant department in Adelaide helping me considerably. Moving money from South Africa to Austrlai, I used Brannigan from Treasury One and it was cheap and very easy. Dont bother with your banks, they are useless and slow, just speak to treasury one and ask them to arrange it for you, Quick and Easy even from Australia. I tried Nedbank for a while and they were a pain. treasury one is the way to go.

I have settled in Goodwood, which is a fair area not as nice as North Adelaide where I wanted to stay. but still nice. Getting a rental took a bit of time and effort and we were turned down on the first 3 applications, I thing because we have 2x small kids. Anyway the 4th aplication was sucessfull and we got a great 4 bedroomed house with garden close to shops and play schools for $ 520 per week. My friend in sydney pays $ 1000 per week for a small victorian rental, so I think $520 is a bargain for a big 4 bed house.

Play school or LONG DAY CARE is costly for kids so a bit of a shock $40 to $90 per day. You can claim back money from 2x sources for day care, CHild care benefit if you earn less than $50 000 per annum so is not to much help to most people. But no matter what you earn, you can claim back " day car rebate" which gives back about 25% off fees in a quartely claim.

I find EVERYTHING costly here if converted to rands. i was told white goods are cheap, no way not so.

I just go the following for price comparisons

Fridge - $ 1450 ( 300 litre ) white LG in colour, it is a nice fridge, but mid range, by no means the best. Double door fridges are $ 2 700 each

Wash machine - LG - $ 730 ( not bad price AND the government allows a claim of $200 back for a water wise machine )

TV - almost cheapest samsung I could find, was $ 530 81cm

Honda Jazz brand new car for my wife - Automatic - $ 19 000 ( Fair price for a brand new car I thought )

Restaurant Dinner +- $ 20 - $30 per head for main meal. BUT no tipping is done, so this helps. I believe they have to pay high wages to restaurant staff, so tipping is seldom done.

Take out stir fry from chinese place down road, wich is great is - $ 8small single to $12 for a big portion wich will feed x2

Lunches at work, budget about $8 per day.

Food for the family, we budget $15 per day

My best places so far I have visited - Mc larenvale wine regions, Mount lofty and cleland reserve, Cafe culture streets of Glenelg, Norwood, Rundle street, Hyde park etc, Walks along Glenelg and Bright beach. Parks for Kids to play in are all generally nice with fun equipment.

Still lots to visit, so a fun time ahead.......I look forward to exploring the city and surrounds.

if anybody wants info, please feel free to ask.

I think Adelaide is a lot smaller and different to melbourne and Sydney, more like a pretty port Elizabeth on the coast, with a wine region in the back and a lot more older buildings. Their is a lot to offer and it is slightly cheaper than places like sydney so this is a good thing.

[Jo123]

I enjoyed your summary of Adelaide. I think it is an excellent place to raise kids (small country town) and I think the cost of living is fairly good here. It is not far from Melbourne, Sydney and Gold Coast to go away for a weekend or a holiday. Cannot wait for the warmer weather though, I had enough of winter for now.

Lekker dag, groete.

[trekarbeider]

Hi Dale,

Thanks for taking the time to post your experience so far!!

Enjoyed your view and info....

We also have 2 small kids, hoping to come to Adelaide some time soon, just waiting for our visa....

Good Luck

[MTNCO]

Hi, Thanks for posting about Adelaide, since we cannot afford a LSD trip, reading about peoples experiences is exciting and also calms the nerves abit. We will also be heading to Adelaide once our visa is granted, looking forward to visiting the places you mentioned.