Originally Posted by wmoore (Post 7176531)

This is true. I know plenty of people who love Darwin and wouldn't be anywhere else. There is definitely a slower pace of life and if you love your 'easy' activities like fishing - and I mean really love it above all else - then Darwin may be for you.

For us, the long wet season when we spent so long indoors with the aircon running reminded us of what we left behind in the UK. Namely winters spending so long indoors with the heater running.

During the dry season, the weather is spectacular and there is some life about the place but during the wet, there are no tourists and even the locals head south, so the place is really quiet. And even if it wasn't, it's too damn wet to go outside and do anything. The beautiful places like Litchfield and Kakadu will be flooded and the sea is full of deadly jellyfish and crocs.

Darwin has its plus points and I would encourage people to check it out in June / July / August but I could not recommend living there, based on my own experience.

Forgot to add re: groceries. Not only do they cost more, they are most certainly not fresh.

Originally Posted by jad n rich (Post 7178158)

I have never seen people inquiring about Darwin before:confused:, is the sudden interest because it was shown on Life downunder :eek:

What time of year exactly did they send people there:sneaky: think as others have said check the climate:blink:, cost of living and a map. However I guess it might appeal to some.

Originally Posted by njk435 (Post 7179565)

Hi all, we (me, wife & 2 kids 5 and 18 mths) live in Palmerston, 20 km from Darwin.
Darwin always has lots of work - even in the 'Wet' there is work. Main areas are IT, Construction and any sort of Engineering. Childcare, Health and Social work is also available.

Some items cost more here, although we manage to live on around $700 a week - easily.

We got used to the weather pretty quick. We arrived at the start of the 'Build up' (the hot humid start to the Wet) and we limited ourselves to 1 hour of A/C a day - just before going to bed. The rooms all have ceiling fans which keep you cool enough. After about 2 months, we found some nights we didn't bother with A/C at all.
The dry season makes up for any bad bits during the wet, even though I love the wet too.

As for remoteness, we hardly notice it. There are plenty of friendly people here and there is a lot of things to do at night, even with kids.

Originally Posted by mrbond (Post 7176406)

Hi missmileyselina

Thanks for your post.

How do property prices fair with the other cities? Are they cheaper in comparison?

Are there any 'cad' areas in Darwin, places you'd not want to live?

What's the traffic like at peak times?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by mrbond (Post 7177605)

Thanks, nice to know there are jobs available in this area. Does the local work force have a large amount of IT workers? Do they have an advantage getting jobs over outsiders?

Originally Posted by mrbond (Post 7178118)

Opps, also, how do the salaries compare to the larger cities?

Originally Posted by susanmj (Post 7167745)

and what situation was that ?
thanks for the warning but we will be ok there is just me and hubby and kids we have no family and friends and so have only relied on each other
we keep ourself to ourselfs
and it has worked
i think alice springs will be great:D

Originally Posted by Vicky88 (Post 7182581)

I don't think it is so much suburbs that you need to avoid, but rather trouble seems to hang out in particular streets.

Before buying, without a doubt you need to rent for a while and get talking to the locals to get a feel. I would recommend not living too close to anywhere that liquor is sold as that will result in drinking parties in the vicinity. I believe the shop in Tiwi is giving up their licence (or may have already done so) so that should prevent problems in that area.

My sister lives in Wulagi and has had no trouble at all. I think most suburbs have incidents from time to time, there was a lot of gang-type violence in Wanguri last year. But then I have also heard of incidents in Stuart Park which is not a cheap suburb. A good indicator of possible problems is to drive up the street and check out who your neighbours would be.

Originally Posted by mrbond (Post 7183243)

Thanks for all the help, much appreciated.

wmoore, would you mind me asking what company it was you worked for who sponsored workers? I won't contact them or anything, just so I can check their website etc. I currently work (and have for some time) as a microsoft back office analyst (directory services and messaging). Would you know what - if any - level of demand there would be for these skills?

Originally Posted by wmoore (Post 7186591)

No problemo, it's CSG. The company is essentially in two parts (there are more but two parts for IT services) - commercial and government outsource contracts. To be honest being that one arm looks after all the NT gov contracts, AD and messaging is pretty big ;) I was in the commercial section and would be happy to PM you the manager's email address if you're interested.