Dear All,
I am considering Adelaide OR Melbourne to move to.
Got lots of information on Melbourne and i do like the looks of it.However started to think of Adelaide, as close firiends of my wifes are planning to settle there and atleast she would have some sort of initial support network.
However not got much information about Adelaide like what the weather is like(especially during the winter and summer), the housing, attractions, beaches, schools, etc,etc.
Anyone got personal experiences of Adelaide, both bad and good!?!
Thanks
nirrade.

Hi Nirrade,
Only good news from me about Adelaide.
Went for 4 weeks last year with a week in Melbourne(hated Melbourne (too busy city)
Had an overwhelming feeling of going home when returned to Addy. People are really friendly You got everything you need within twenty mins of city centre beach, mountains, wineries. Loads of lush greenery, although known as the driest state. Can get chilly in winter - you will need a woolie. We are just starting our TRA application, I would be there tomorrow if I could! We have family Northside and friends Southside, both have absolutely no intention of coming back to the UK. Try the Adelaide Brits site and also Adelaide Bound site tons of info on there to tick all of your boxes.
Hope that helps
Niz.

Depends on what type of work you do. My hub (engineering electronics technician) has been unable to find work here after 6 months. He's off to Perth on Tuesday for 2 interviews there.
As for weather...Summer = hot. Up to 42 last week for a few days, down to 35 this week. Back up to 40 next week. It hasn't rained here for about a month,so very dry. Winter = cool and usually wet. However, it also didn't rain here last winter so that too was dry. When you see it only goes down to 10 degrees, you think "wow that's not that bad". However, the homes here have 0 insulation and when you get used to 30+ days only 10 feels like -10. We moved here from Canada and I can honestly say I have never been so cold in my life as winter here in Adelaide.
There are lovely beaches here. We're on the Southern Ocean so it's not as warm as Gold Coast or NSW beaches but warmer than Melbourne. There are good schools here as well. 3 good universities for when the kids get older, too.

You better not move to Melbourne

Nah, seriously mate, get your hubby kicked up the butt

We were debating between the two also but settled on Adelaide in the end because a) it's not too big and scary for fragile young newbies like us, b) housing seems reasonably priced, c) from the charts we've seen it has half the annual rainfall that Melbourne has and d) I've heard nothing but good stuff about Adelaide. We're right at the beginning of the whole process and have got a long way to go but we're pretty sure we won't change our mind.

Oh, and Wendy lives there and as she seems to be permenantly on BE or Adelaide Brits (hehe, cheeky from a newbie I know LOL), I know there will always be someone around to offer helpful advice and organise drunken girly nights out!

You think that is a good thing?

That is one of Adelaide's problems....it is always 'on the edge' as far as water is concerned and has to rely on the Murray river which is suffering badly.

G

Having spent most of our lives on the edge of Dartmoor where it is either raining or drizzling 95% of the time, the thought of no rain sounds like heaven! I'm sure we'll feel different once we're actually there though, particularly with the heat you lot have been having over the past few weeks! LOL

My mrs first mentioned Adelaide, then i said Brissie/Townsville/Rockhampton but then we looked into the wetaher and thought it maybe just too too hot for too too long lol, considering we would have to work in it.

then as we were getting my TRA together a mate who was doing one of my references mentioned a guy i used to work with who is out in Adelaide, so we gave him a call and exchanged a few emails and he totally sold the place to us.

after doing alot of research we found that it ticked all of our boxes and would easily give us the life that we are looking for.

we know its going to be hard at first but it will get better and with friend like my mate and Wendy on here and all the other ppl we have come into contact with we will have plenty of support to help us on our way.

so come on passport agency give us our lil kids passports back so we can send this big fat wedge of a VISA application off and get it on its way.

Good luck guys
keep in touch

I don't want to suggest Adelaide doesn't have major water problems, but do bare in mind that Adelaide's reservoirs are statistically in better shape than most of the other big cities. Adelaide has some of the least restrictive water saving regimes at the moment. SA quite rightly moans about how much water the other states are stealing from us via the Murray, yet we're setting a bad example by having insufficient water restrictions here.

The River Murray will probably stop flowing in about 13 weeks unless there are huge falls of rain in the catchment areas (QLD, NSW, VIC).

I have a property on the river at Hindmarsh Island (where the river meets the sea) and I can see the level drop each week.

Anyhoo, back to the original question, Adelaide weather is warmer and drier than Melbourne.
Home insulation is generally inadequate, be careful what you buy/build. Most aircon systems can only reduce the temp by 10c, so if it's 45c outside, it'll be 35c inside. Quality insulation improves the numbers.

Will tell you all about it on Tuesday when I see you. We're not moving to Melbourne, that's certain.

What OZ needs is nuclear powered de-salination plants, then there would be unlimited amounts of water from the ocean available , maybe turn the outback green.

Adelaide is in fact going down this route but will be a few years yet before it's up and running.

Not with BHP-Biliton putting up 300million dollars,towards it ,could be started next year at Point lowly near whyalla..................... mm