Dee & Steve

Hi, we have been in Perth 9 months now & I thought it might be of help to some of you if we gave you some info on life in Perth to date. We actually were registered on this site previously but when I went to log on again it didnt seem to remember us as we havent logged on for about 11 months now, prior to that I was quite addicted to this site & always found the info extremely helpful, so hopefully my info will be helpful to someone else.

Some background info first, I am an aussie citizen as I 1st came here on a 12 mth visa, got residency then citizenship, lived in Melbourne for 5 yrs, went home for a yr, met my husband, came back to Sydney for 3 more yrs, then back to Ireland in dec 97, stayed 7 yrs back home, then made the descision to move to Perth despite never been here, heard great things, didnt want to go back to melbourne & couldnt afford to buy a house in Sydney, so Perth it is.

First off the whole move went really smoothly, we left Ireland the end of july last yr, selling our house, shipping our stuff, getting visas,(for stephen), was all fairly easy, stressful at times but fairly straightforward. We didnt know a sinner in Perth, but then a girl that worked with my husband put us in touch with her parents, they are also Irish but have been here for 25 yrs, and we stayed with them for the first week, they were fantastic.
I dont want this to be a really long winded post, but there is alot of info so I apologise in advance for any boredom that may occur!!

Well, we didnt get off to a great start, first we had to pay $400 for excess weight ( malayasian airlines), then we left our brand new digital camera in the back of the bloody taxi, it was an expensive day, but after that things took a more positive turn. In our first week we found a lovely townhouse to rent, in Subiaco, great suburb, just cant afford to buy there. We completly furnished the house in one day, Good Guys are great, especially when you have cash, Spotlight Furniture, Gascoigne for leather sofas, Harvey Norman way over priced. And yes we bought a frontloader, although it was a bit more pricey than a top loader, they are kinder on your clothes & dont use as much water, plus we got a $150 rebate from the government & a $150 on a trade in ( no we didnt have a trade in but that didnt seem to matter). I found 3 jobs in our first week here, I am a beauty therapist & salon manager, so by our second week here I was working, yea, it was a tad too soon but management postions in salons dont come around that often.I have alot of experience so I was lucky in that I was able to barter on my wage. Stephen took another 2 wks to get a job, he is a credit control manager, & it took longer for him due to all the messing around with c.v's, they recieve it, ring you a week later to tell you this, and a week later to organise an interview. But he got sorted with a really nice company in the end. We bought a car no problem either, Stephen went to the garage on the wednesday evening, collected it the next day with finance & insurance all sorted. So in short (!!!) all the fundamental basics were very, very easy to sort out.

We have found every one to be very nice & helpful, telstra, elec, gas, foxtel etc. In fact I signed us up to the wrong package with broadband & ended up going way over our download allowance, ( am, they rang us to tell us our bill had exceeded $400) but as a goodwill gesture they cancelled it, there is no way that Irish telecom would do this, so we upgraded to the next package, it was all Stephens fault anyway as he was logging on to sky sports at every opportunity he got. Even phoning home is so easy, so much different from when I came to Oz in '89. Phonecards are excellent, supersaver or daybreak seem to be the best, I prefer supersaver. We do find here cheaper, remember Ireland is more expensive than the U.K, so eating out, take away, alcohol is much better value, except when it comes to the pub, it is way cheaper to drink at home here.

But all that said we have struggled with settling in Perth, it is so different to the other states, I couldnt understand it when I used to read on this site that Perth was isolated & just like a big contry town. I thought to myself, well its australia, how more isolated can you get, plus, country town, ther is 1.4 million living in Perth. But, it was only afte rI got here did I realise what people meant. It is completely different to Sydney or Melbourne, yes it is very isolated & it does feel like a big country town, but these things are not necesscarily negative points. People are very friendly, the weather is without a doubt the best climate, although there were a few days where we thought we were going to die from the heat, but we had no air con, & perth people are so, so laid back, they are very much about enjoying your life. Having said all that, we have gone through many phases of emotions since we have been here, to loving it to not so sure, if we hadnt lived in Sydney we probably would have thought Perth was the bees knees, & I will say, you are not comparing like with like. But Perth is a beatuiful city but takes a little getting used to.

Well 3 weeks ago we bought a house in Innaloo, its 10 mins from the city, 5 mins from scarborough beach, 3 mins from Karrinyup shopping centre. And we love it, our house is strata title, which is new to us, but again the whole process was very straight forward, one or two hic-ups, but thats another thread. But buying your own home makes a massive difference to how you feel about australia, you feel so much more settled, we feel a million times happier since we bought, we put a bid in on the monday & 3 wks later we were moved in. I have names of movers, settlement agents etc that I would recomend if any one needs them.All up, we do love Perth but it has taken us a while to get used to it, & it is very overwhelming hoping & praying you have done the right thing leaving your life as you know it behind you. But you have to remind yourself that you are in a different country, so things will be different, & although you may cling to some things that remind you of home you also have to move forward and adjust to your new lifestyle in your new country.

I will say one thing, this site often gives people a hard time for the rose tinted glasses syndrome,& you cant blame people for wearing them, but I must say once you get here you do not wear those glasses but you do have to be positive & accepting, and not always comparing here with there cos they just aren't always the same. Well I shall sign off now, I do hope this is of some help & that you didnt nod off at the first paragragh, I warned you it could be a bit long even though I promised it wouldnt be long.

We are actually going home in 2 wks time for a visit & I cant wait but we are also looking forward to coming back here too. If there are any specific questions any of you would like to ask please dont hesitate & I will do my best because lets face it, no matter how excited you are about coming here it is very daunting & scary & I know I found this site a massive help to us when we were planning our trip here. Take Care, Deirdre.

CMT

Hi Deidre
Thanks for the info. very helpful when you're sort of in the process of doing - well my husband's been offered a position with Qantas Richmond and in the process of sorting the visa - I noticed you said you'd been to Sydney, do you have any info about Windsor/Bligh Park/Richmond areas at all? We would be moving with our two young children as well and so would like to be sure we would be giving them a better life than they could have here and more opportunities that they'd get back home.
thanks

fitz

hi thanks for the excellent thread,i'll be moving to perth with my
family in a couple of months and to be honest we are slightly apprehensive
but we are also looking forward to the new challenge,your thread
was much appreciated,very practical,not too starry eyed.
martin.

Dee & Steve

I dont have any direct info on those areas but they are alright as far as I know, one of my sisters is thinking of coming here with her husband & 2 young children, & as I said to her, I think your children will thank you, it is a greta palce for children, I dont have any myself ( the greta debate, will we or wont we??), but Oz, and I must say Perth in particualr seems to be a great place to bring up children, if you have been given an opportunity to come here, personally I would say take it, but each to their own & you need to make your choice for the right reasons, but I love Australia, even though we are struggling a bit to settle, although things are much better since we bought our own house. Once I make a few freinds ( which isnt always easy), I think we will totally settle. Good Luck... Deirdre

Dee & Steve

BTW, I do know how to spell great, i'm just a lousy typer!!!!

paulf

nice post, thank you

redlion

Great post, many thanks for taking the time out to let us folks back here know what your own personal experiences are. It can be a great help when you read posts such as yours because you have given a very objective view of your situation and not a "rose tinted" one as you so correctly say. we too are hoping to move to perth all being well and we dont expect to be going out for one big holiday, but to work and make a home for ourselves and our child. many thanks for your thread and lots of luck in totaly settling down in your new home.

nev.

P.S. some karma sent your way for a very helpfull post.

Pam

Just wondering if you have any children? We are also keen on Perth and hope to come out early/mid next year - but we want to know how to find some good schools?
Also, my husband is a Plumber, and is worried about finding work? Any advice is most welcome!!!

Simone

Great post!!


May I be so rude to ask the price range the house you bought in Innaloo... Under 300.000, 300-400 or more?
Sorry, just really curious, living in Mount Hawthorn at the moment, but no way we can afford to buy here(or anywhere around here)... Haven't actually looked at Innaloo, though quite sure it's above our budget, but, yeah, just wondering!!


Good luck with more settling!!

Btw, there's going to be a meetup in King's Park on the 15th.... there's a thread somewhere!

PIXAU

We used to live Innaloo - exceptionally cheap, but very smelly at times and the view is crap!

TraceyandPeter

Hi Dee,
Thanks for taking the time to post a great thread. I'm moving to Perth with my family in Aug and never having been there it's great to hear from everybody on their experiencs no matter how different they are. keep posting I'd like to hear how you're gettin on.
Tracey.

Dee & Steve

First off, no we dont have children, but if you look on this site there was another thread regarding schools, I noticed it as one of my sisters is thinking of coming here & she has two young children.

As far as house prices for Innaloo is concerned, we looked in the price range of $285,000-$350,000 & we got ours for just under $320,000. Its not huge, no garden, but a decent sized courtyard, 3 double bedrooms, but only one living area, which is kitchen, dining & lounge all in one room, but it does lead out to the courtyard so if entertaining there would be plenty of room, it has two bathrooms & sep toilet & sep laundry, single garage though. But to be honest it is plenty big for us, the layout of it makes it quite spacious, & it has everything you need. Plus the way we looked at it, is that, its not the house we will live in forever, & at least we have our foot on the property market. Also Perth is really growing, money is been invested all over the place, ( well some places anyway, from what the local papers say). Funny thing is, Mt. Hawthorn is a stones throw from Innaloo, yet property is way more expensive there.

We spent a few Sundays driving around different suburbs to try & get a feel for them because you can ask for as many opinions as you like but at the end of the day only your own opinion counts, having said that it is a great help to get feedback & info from other people, & since I work in a beauty salon I was able to get the opinion of lots of perth people, every client got asked, so, where do you live? We looked at suburbs that other people recommended & they just weren't for us. Also, the website, www.realestate.com is fantastic as it gives you great insight to suburb profiles,choose a suburb, then click on a house you like then as you scroll down the page it tells you how many schools, parks etc. are in the area. I found this to be of a huge help & it is where we saw our house, when I sent the profile to my sister she noted that it tells you where all the parks are, but no mention of your nearest pub!! I do miss Irish pubs, the pubs here are just not the same which is why I find myself drinking at home more & more often!

The other thing I will say about Perth, is that yes it is a growing city, & practically every suburb that we looked at , that we could afford, people said,"oh, thats an upcoming area, you will make money there", I've never heard that said about so many areas in my life. Perth is not for everyone, it takes getting used to,but emmigrating is a huge deal, & I think you have to remeber that Australia is not Utopia, you will have crap days here too, you will still fight with your husband, wife, kids etc, you will still have days where you hate your job, you will have days where you feel all you ever do is cook, clean, go to work, pay bills etc, but thankfully I haven't felt any of that just yet. Well some days my job drives me batty, & yes of course we've had a row or two, but thats life. But what you have to remind yourself is that if any of the above does occur it does not mean you made a mistake coming here, its just the way things are sometimes, ( although if its like that on a regular basis you may have problems!!, only joking).

And the last thing I will say is that, dont panic if you find the weather too hot at times, as there are many days when the Aussies themselves find it too hot also, I say this because there were a few days when we were just balls of sweat (no air con), & my husband was feeling a bit homesick, that made him feel we made a mistake, but he felt a bit better about it when I told him all my aussie clients were finding it too hot as well. We have now agreed that we will give ourselves a 5 yr plan here, basically if after 5 yrs we still feel unsure or unsettled then we will re-think the situation. Of course we will well & truly know how we feel before the 5 yrs is up, but by doing this we took the pressure off ourselves of thinking & asking ourselves constantly, if we have done the right thing, this way we are giving ourselves plenty of time to figure it out,we felt if we only gave ourselves a 1 or 2 yr time frame that we would end up holding ourselves back from living & enjoying Perth as at the back of your mind you would be constsntly thinking that this time next yr you might be back home, but with a 5 yr time frame you wouldn't be so inclined to do this. O.k, once again I have managed to post a mini novel, so I will defintely sign off for now.... Deirdre

Dee & Steve

At first I actually thought you were insulting the area I now call home, until I re-read it & got the joke, ( yes, I am partially blonde!!!) .... Deirdre

Dee & Steve

Not sure about specific trades, but Australia is in desperate need of tradesmen, so as a plumber he may be alright. www.seek.com is a great site for jobs so it might be worth checking out, plus log on the job section of the west australian newspaper.... Deirdre

Simone

Yeah, we used to make jokes about Inaloo all the time when I was little! Now I go shopping there every week!

Yep, it is a bit less expensive than Mount Hawthorn. From location, you'd think Innaloo would be, because closer to the beach, but Mount Hawthorn is a bit nicer, little cute colourfull houses etc, I guess a bit more 'upmarket' whatever that really means. But yeah, not affordable(and unfortunetly even Innaloo isn't for us... ) We should never have rented here, we're spoilt now (probably going to buy in Thornlie (southeast area)).


Anyway, great post from you again!

Have a good holiday in the UK!!