Just a quickie for anyone going to Perth. (I am not though).

I was returning from London to Manchester yesterday and the guy sat next to me on the plane was asking me where I had been etc.
So in turn asked him, he said he had been to Australia for 2 weeks on business. Said he has been all over the world with his job but for the first time ever did not want to leave beautiful Perth.
In fact he said he could have gladly killed his aussie colleague took his job and shipped his wife over. A bit exteme but I got his point.


Anyway I thought that was very positive for anyone looking at Perth.

Jo

We felt exactly the same - we got back from Perth 17 January after a validating trip - my husband said after one day - that he could live there - me too.

It is the only place in all our travels that we just did not want to leave - hopefully we will be there in Dec 04.

A beautiful place - not for everyone - but that is part of its appeal!!!

EXACTLY what we thought! which is why we are going asap. Perth is much more than we ever imagined! I think that we are extremely lucky that we can choose such a beautiful place to live!

We spent 5/6 weeks staying with my husbands brother and his family in Ashfield - edge of the Swan River. It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen or dreamt about.

So did not want to come home, that's a first for me.....hubby and kids felt the same.

One night I was talking to his brother over a glass of wine taking in the view of the lights on the river. I asked him why he had never come back to UK....he turned and said "this might not be perfect paradise....but you can definately see it from here..."

Quite deep....but I knew exactly what he meant.

Even now..... months after we have got back the pull has only got stronger.

Fingers crossed......Perth in 2005.

Nikki

WE totally felt the same when we come back from Perth.
As I said in a previous post , it was the only place I have ever come back from and wanted to live there. Others said it was just that usual holiday feeling, but it wasn't , it was different.

Hubs and I have been to America, Barbados to name a few and we never ever felt like we could live there.

I cried all the way home and for days afterwards and , sad though it is, everytime I hear 'Land Down Under' on the radio, I get a lump in my throat. I still have't really settled back into work , walked around in a daze for a month. Everytime I mail the family in Oz, which is regularly, I come away with tears rolling down my cheeks.

Lately I've been feeling very scared about the whole move and worrying what I might miss once we are there, checking and re-checking our reasons for going ~(driving hubs mad). Alot of this is to do with some of the posts I have been reading, were people are not having the best of times. I've taken all this in and listened to what they have written and somewhere along the way applied that to our situation, forgetting everyones circumstances are different.

I really needed this post to put me back on track and remind me why we are going, no-one elses reasons, just ours.


Jill

I also live in Perth and have followed the threads carefully. Based on the threads and my own impressions, I think if you can get reasonably well paid, secure and interesting jobs and can cope with the heat (maybe 30 really uncomfortably hot days a year, for example, around New Year, it was 39.5 degrees at 8 PM, Perth IS great. I think the major downside is somewhat restricted employment opportunities in specialized fields, little else, a lovely place.

Good luck!

David

IceHouse: GREAT SOUTHERN LAND

Standing at the limit of an endless ocean
stranded like a runaway, lost at sea
city on a rainy day down in the harbour
watching as the grey clouds shadow the bay
looking everywhere 'cause I had to find you
this is not the way that i remember it here
anyone will tell you its a prisoner island
hidden in the summer for a million years

Great Southern Land, burned you black

so you look into the land and it will tell you a story
story 'bout a journey ended long ago
if you listen to the motion of the wind in the mountains
maybe you can hear them talking like I do
". . they're gonna betray, they're gonna forget you
are you gonna let them take you over this way . ."

Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
you walk alone like a primitive man
and they make it work with sticks and bones
see their hungry eyes, its a hungry home
I hear the sound of the stranger's voices
I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes
Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
they burned you black, black against the ground

Great Southern Land, in the sleeping sun
you walk alone with the ghost of time
they burned you black, black against the ground
and they make it work with rocks and sand
I hear the sound of the stanger's voices
I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes
Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
you walk alone, like a primitive man
you walk alone with the ghost of time
and they burned you black
yeah, they burned you black
Great Southern Land

We were in Perth December 2002.

We found a great restaurant within walking distance from our hotel and we ate there most nights. Every single night without fail, men would walk up and down the streets, sweeping up all of the rubbish. 15 minutes later, a lorry would come down, hosing the streets with water and the place was absolutely spotless.

Quite a contrast to some of our scabby streets. I know the people who do clean them do work hard, but it doesn't compare to Perth.

It is indeed a fantastic place to be and that's where we will be living from March 18th this year!!

Sharon

My wife and i spent 5 weeks in Perth 10 years ago, staying with friends in Wembley, not to far from city beach, i still say to this day it's the most beautiful city i've seen, very clean, very friendly, we were invited to a hotel staff xmas do, a wedding, and xmas dinner with the family of the guy who ran the little shop we used, unreal. Are heading back to oz in march to check out other cities, but Perth will take some beating i think.
One up for Perth!!!!!!!!!!!!

People wonder why we wait so impatiently for our visa.

When your destination is Perth, it explains it. We ahvent been `normal` since we came back a year ago

Someone beat me to it, but I was going to suggest listening to "Great Southern Land" and "Sounds of Then" (Gangajang)....

I think I hear the sounds of then, and people talking
The scenes recalled by minute movement
And songs they fall from the backing tape
That certain texture, that certain smell

To lie in sweat, on familiar sheets
In brick veneer on financed beds
In a room of silent hardiflex
That certain texture, that certain smell

Brings home the heavy days
Brings home the night time swell

Out on the patio we'd sit
And the humidity we'd breathe
We'd watch the lightning crack over cane fields
Laugh and think, this is Australia.

The block is awkward, it faces West
With long diagonals, sloping too
And in the distance, through the heat haze
In convoys of silence the cattle graze

That certain texture, that certain beat
Brings forth the night time heat

Out on the patio we'd sit
And the humidity we'd breathe
We'd watch the lightning crack over cane fields
Laugh and think that this is Australia.

btw another Aussie song you have already heard part of is the main theme of `I`m a veleb get me out of here`.... it`s mainly a rip of Boom Crash Opera`s "Get Out of the House". I`ll send it to anyone who`s interested.

I come from Perth but maybe I was too young (and too stressed just being dumped into the job market when the 80`s recession hit) to appreciate it, as I just found it quite boring and remote. I`d like to see some of these places you mentioned when we go back. btw you can get sharks in the Swan River as it`s salty for a fair way in.

it is so refreshing to see that some people love Perth as much as we did. It had a profound effect on us & gave us the strength & depth of feeling to make it happen. We have just told the family & it has gone as well as expected on most fronts but one. We are having the silent treatment from hubbies sister & she is in turn working on his mum. We are being accused of being selfish & short sighted - but posts like this remind us why we are doing it.

It has all the ingredients that we were looking for and more & although not everyones cup of tea - it cetainly is ours!!!!!

Talking of rubbish - we sat in a resturant next to scarborough
beach on our last night & there was some rubbish underneath the bench next to a bus stop. A youth of about 17 came over to wait for the bus & picked up all the rubbish and put it in the bin - can't say I have ever seen this in this country - felt like buying him a drink.

pockygoes

In Oz it`s really drummed into you to not litter... all the way through school. Maybe that`s why I have a real pet hate of people littering in any country... it makes me angry when I see people do it in the street here (littering that is, before WBB gets his oar in ).

On my second visit to perth..the first morning I woke up...I just thought..yeah...this is where I want to be in the world...Luv it...cant wait to move there...

Strange, most ppl would think the same of Devon. If I had the money I would love to live in Devon..... beautiful.