Melbourne eastern suburbs & schools

[Andriette1305]

I have read some very interesting threads and am very grateful for everybody's participation and assistance on the forum as I have had a lot of questions answered! 

 

We will be moving to Melbourne early January 2019 and have been there twice in the past 18 months (one of the trips being our activation trip) and yet we are still very unsure about the suburb we would like to settle in to. We plan on going around the 10th to give us enough time to move into our rental place, unpack our container and settle before the school year starts. Our kids will be year 1 and 3 next year, (6 and 8 years old respectively) so we would prefer not to move in the first few years so that they don't have to move schools.

 

Mara was kind enough to show us the beautiful sunbury during our first visit, but the eastern suburbs would be better as we would like to be close to the city. (My husband will be working from an office in Richmond.) We are looking at a house rather than a flat, so would have to go a bit further out of the CBD and but not further than Ringwood and would prefer to stay in an area serviced by a train route rather than a bus.

 

Any suggestions of suburbs and schools would be great as I have spent some time on www.bettereducation.com.au, but generally the government schools seem to look mostly good so I cannot make a judgement call.

 

Also, from what we have read / heard, January is holiday season and a lot of companies tend to be closed and business is slow. If we are lucky enough that our container arrives at the same time (more or less) as we do, we would need assistance with the furniture removal. Would the time of the year pose a problem or would there be companies/people available to hire help?

 

Our year is going to be filled with a lot of planning and stress but looking at a few of the participants in the forum, I am sure we will get the necessary moral support! 

- Talking about moral support, we are currently in a Dutch Reformed church. What would be the closest substitute in Melbourne (if possible at all, in the eastern suburbs?!)

 

Thanks to all!!

 

[Husky]

Hi @Andriette1305

Great decision to move to Melbourne. We arrived on 31 December, so a similar time to your planned arrival next year. My children are in 1st year university and grade 8, so much older than yours. After our activation trip and looking at the university and schools, we also decided on the SE suburbs and have eventually found a place in Burwood East (yay). January is a funny time of year as most people are still on leave and schools do not open until the last week of the holidays. We are still waiting for the school to open to book my son in, which is very different to the process in South Africa. Despite this, all the admin that needs to be taken care of was done with minimal stress.

Finding a home was quite difficult, especially since we do not have full time employment yet and have our dogs joining us. My only advice here is to shop around and have a copy of your bank statement to prove you have sufficient funds. Agree that you stay near a train route. After a lot of driving around and looking at houses in the SE, our top suburbs were Burwood, Blackburn and Ashwood/ Ashburton. This was based on being near to Deakin University, good secondary schools, public transport and of course, a place that "looked" nice with trees and parks.

With regards to people helping you with your move, there are definitely loads of businesses doing that here which would be open in January. I imagine your removal company would arrange this anyway. Our total fee for our MoveCube includes delivery and assistance with off-loading here.

Feel free to ask more questions. We're still new here so the process is fresh in our minds.

P.S. Just love Melbourne.

[CazK]

Hi @Andriette1305, regarding suburbs and schools...

 

We moved to Melbourne in June last year with our two boys and live in the eastern suburbs in Mitcham (and love it here). My husband travels by train to the CBD everyday (passing through Richmond). A trip from Mitcham station to Richmond station takes about 25 minutes in the morning (you can check out the PTV website if you want to look at other stations). As my older son is starting primary school this year, I spent a lot of time looking at primary schools while we were choosing a suburb to stay in. I also checked out the website you mentioned (Better Education), and along with rental affordability we ended up "choosing" our suburb based on rental availabilities. We were specifically looking within Nunawading and Mitcham, but liked the townhouse we viewed in Mitcham more than the one we viewed in Nunawading (I'm sure there are lovely ones in the suburb, but they weren't for rent at the time ). So unless you have your heart set on a particular suburb, maybe narrow it down to two or three and check them out on Google Earth. Some schools are fussy about feeder zones, so you have to be careful about where in the suburb you plan on living relative to the school. In our case, Mitcham Primary aren't so particular and even accept children from Ringwood (we phoned and asked about feeder zones). 

 

The school rankings on the Better Education website certainly give you a means of selecting schools, but also check out the school websites to get a feel about them. They tend to offer school tours to prospective parents, although I'm not sure about what will be available if you arrive in early Jan, but you can always phone later this year and ask (for reference, schools closed on 22 Dec last year).

 

Good luck with your plans! I know it can be stressful, but you can do it!

[Andriette1305]

Thanks so much for the responses. Work got the best part of me, so haven't been able to respond! We have been talking and looking at Mitcham and Nunawading as well, but we have a long way to go. 

 

Just looked at MoveCube and it looks great, but unfortunately it is not available in Namibia  :-(

 

Keep me updated on your experiences and learnings!