JenniGee

Hi folks

Can anyone give me their insights on this location please - we will be moving over with a 13 & 12 year old early 2009 hopefully. OH will be working in the CBD & initially I will be at home, but will be looking for some kind of nursing job in the future.

Proximity to cinemas/shopping/cafes etc is important to us, but also is the need to be able to buy a house with a reasonable size garden, so if it's mostly townhouses & retirement bungalows, it would be useful to know that

We also need a beach & a park to run the dog.

I think I've tracked down a suitable school - Parkdale Secondary, on Warren Road, Mordialloc. Has anyone heard anything about this school's reputation at all? We're planning on visiting this August to have a look for ourselves, but any information you can share in the meanwhile would be great

Many thanks

Choice

Parkdale and Mordialloc are great locations. Both are directly on the train line and have good access to buses. I would say you are approx 5-10 minutes drive away from Southland which is a big shopping centre in Cheltenham crossing the Nepean Highway (there are also a few restaurants there and a large cinema. Don't know much about the school I'm afraid.

There are quite a few restrictions on when dogs can be walked on the beach, but so long as you like walking before 10ish you should be ok, after that they have to be on leads and in summer months they are not allowed at all after 10ish. Not sure on parks as such. More common is dog walking at the "Reserves" which are the public sports ovals, and they are very common. Also there is a "dog" park with a dog agility course in Mordialloc. For kids there is a skate park area in Mordialloc, but not sure about down any side streets. There is also a public swimming pool called the Don Tatnell Leisure Centre.

Many houses in Mordiallac and Parkdale have sold off their back gardens and have another entire house in them, so you will pay a premium for a large garden and also bear in mind how difficult it is to keep a garden alive with water restrictions. A simple lawn can become a visible eyesore during the summer months and you might feel that you feel more inclined for your kids to meet up with other kids at your local reserve and play sport there with them. The main feature people seem to look for in gardens over here would be an alfresco eating/entertaining area (preferably covered).

You will find that many houses (especially new ones) over here in SE suburbs are only a little smaller than the block that they sit on - gardens just don't seem to be a big priority over here. There is just so much opportunity to be out and about as the weather is very kind, and they do a lot more sport at school too, that perhaps a large garden won't be as important to you as you imagine.

Anyway, enjoy your visit in August, but bring warm clothes - it will be cold in August !

P.S - there are retired people in both suburbs but not to saturation point I don't think ! Nice family locations.

JenniGee

That's interesting information Choice, thank you

You may well be spot-on about the garden thing - I've been looking at close-ups on google earth & it seems the entire garden area for most houses are covered - I imagine that's the alfresco you're talking about? That's the main reason I wanted a garden to be honest, so we could do a big covered area for table tennis & a spa & so on

The rest sounds good too, just what I was hoping. Someone else has mentioned the industrial estates in that area, but I'm looking at the map & they seem back from the beach. To be honest, we've got industrial estates where we live now & as long as we don't have to look at them every day, I'm not going to get too wound up about that. People do have to work somewhere, after all.

Thanks again for the reply

JenniGee

Just bumping my thread in the hope of a few replies - good morning Melbourne people

jond

PM buzzybee

he lives around there, well for the time being anyway.

melbournegirl

Might be worth looking at Cheltenham area also. It is not walking distance to the beach but close driving distance. I have heard that Cheltenham Secondary College is a good school but don't quote me on that. I don't know about Parkdale Secondary though. There is a new estate in Mordialloc called the Epsom Estate where you can get a large, fairly new house for a reasonable price. Backyards are not large though but houses are. If you want a large backyard you need to go further out generally speaking but you can get big blocks in Parkdale etc. but you will pay a premium for it.

Other suburbs to look at are Mentone (beachside of Nepean Highway) and depending on your budget - Beaumaris, Black Rock, Sandringham, Hampton, Brighton East. These suburbs are very expensive these days though.

ljj

Hi,

We bought in Parkdale at the beginning of 07 after renting in Beaumaris for over 3 years. We are really happy here and have a 10 year old and a 12 year old who will be starting High School next year.

We have a reasonable sized house - 4 beds, large deck and swimming pool (around 680 sq).

If you look at the map http://www.myrp.com.au/showMap.do?po...&propertyId=-1

and look along Warren Road you will see where Parkdale Sec College is located - right across the road from Don Tatnell Leisure Centre, Mordialloc Community Centre and the large reserve. There is a mixture of ages where we live and the majority on the street are families and then a few retired people. The estate was built around the 70's so it's nice and established with trees and a park between every 2 to 3 streets. If you zoom in on say McSwain street there are lots of green areas around and these are parks. In addition to this the schools are accessable during weekends and evenings and have basketball nets/ play equipment soccer posts etc...

Hope this helps PM for any further info.

PS My daughter will be going to the Gils College in Mentone as we are in the catchment area but we are considering Parkdale secondary for my son as it has recently had a lot of money spent on it to make it more up-to-date should be ready in 2009.

LJJ

Buzzy--Bee

We live in Mordialloc as JonD has said.

Its a lovely area, fantastic beach and nice high street. Our children go to pre-school and swimming lessons in Warren Road.

Unfortunately the sizes of gardens are not as big as we might like, especially if you have a newer house, the gardens are smaller than the UK.

So we have bought some land in an outer suburb, and we be starting to build soon. We will miss living here a lot though, it really is a lovely area.

Buzzy

JenniGee

Thank you everyone for your comments, we feel quite reassured that we may be on the right track after all now

Maybe we'll catch up with some of you in August

rajj

My daughter started there last year. Good state school IMO - big on music.