Go Back  British Expats > Living & Moving Abroad > Australia
Reload this Page >

First impressions of Perth (Part 1)

First impressions of Perth (Part 1)

Thread Tools
 
Old Oct 8th 2002, 3:51 am
  #1  
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Location: Perth, WA
Posts: 54
JustArrived is an unknown quantity at this point
Post First impressions of Perth (Part 1)

Hi,

Arrived in Perth at the start of September with wife and 2 young children after living in the Far East for a couple of years. Have a PR visa (Employer Nominated) which took about 3 months to be processed.

If you'll be going to Perth then I suggest you take out a subscription for "The Western Australia"" for either the Wednesday or Saturday edition while you're waiting to go as it is filled with lots of information and adverts for houses and cars. In addition to this forum, I also found Aussie Move (http://www.aussiemove.com/) to be a very useful site as it has lots of information regarding the different suburbs including real estate and schools. In fact, we were going to live in South Perth but decided to instead go to the northern suburbs after reading the government reports of the local schoold.

Impressions of the first couple of weeks as follows. I apologise if I've made any glaring mistakes or wrong assumptions:

Bad weather in Perth caused our plane to divert to Darwin in the middle of the night. Finally arrived in Perth at lunchtime and was immediately impressed by the size of the houses and gardens (some with pools) as the plane came in to land.

At the airport, getting the visa processed was a 2 minute job and then off to quarantine as we had about 12 cardboard boxes with us. The staff were very friendly although they X-rayed all our luggage because we hadn't listed what was in each box. The staff seemed to be almost entirely interested in food and wooden items and opened quite a few boxes looking for suspicious food items.

When you arrive in Australia make sure you have a detailed list of what is in your luggage and try to put any food, wood, or animal items together.

I had a portable computer and CD-ROMs that I had thoroughly checked to make sure all the software had licences but nobody seemed interested in that. I guess because it would be to difficult to check for suspect items on a computer hard drive without impounding and spending hours analysing the hard drive data.

Outside the airport it was blowing a gale and torential rain. Luckily we were told by the friends who met us that it was the worst weather of the year otherwise we might have got back on the plane. We were taken back to our friend's home in a northern suburb of Perth and was immediately impressed by the size of their house (although they said it was average for a Perth house); 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a large garden. I would get up at 6am and jog 10 minutes or so to the sea to get some exercise and fresh air. When the sun is shining the sea is a beautiful green/blue colour that reminded me of Hawaii. From Perth city there is a scenic route to the northern suburbs which goes along the coastline with incredible views of the ocean and beaches.

We arrived in the official first week of spring and the weather has probably average 20 centigrade in the daytime with a few days around 17-18 and a few days 23-25; already better than most UK summer days. The sun is already bright enough that I need to wear sunglasses most of the time I'm outdoors. Our friends have a gas fire which we used in the morning and evening as we had just come from 35 centigrade summer days. Our friend says that he wears shorts all the year round so I guess it depends what you are used to. We now have a double bar electric heater that we picked up for AU$30 and that we're using to keep the living room warm.

If I remember correctly, on average there are 5 days a year in Perth where the temperature is above 40 centigrade but this won't be a problem, for us at least, as we were used to this in the previous place we lived. At least the humidity will be fairly low plus the breeze from the sea.
JustArrived is offline  
Old Oct 8th 2002, 8:02 am
  #2  
Forum Regular
 
Joined: May 2002
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 81
Nina is an unknown quantity at this point
Default Re: First impressions of Perth (Part 1)

Originally posted by JustArrived:
Hi,

Arrived in Perth at the start of September with wife and 2 young children after living in the Far East for a couple of years. Have a PR visa (Employer Nominated) which took about 3 months to be processed.

If you'll be going to Perth then I suggest you take out a subscription for "The Western Australia"" for either the Wednesday or Saturday edition while you're waiting to go as it is filled with lots of information and adverts for houses and cars. In addition to this forum, I also found Aussie Move (http://www.aussiemove.com/) to be a very useful site as it has lots of information regarding the different suburbs including real estate and schools. In fact, we were going to live in South Perth but decided to instead go to the northern suburbs after reading the government reports of the local schoold.

Impressions of the first couple of weeks as follows. I apologise if I've made any glaring mistakes or wrong assumptions:

Bad weather in Perth caused our plane to divert to Darwin in the middle of the night. Finally arrived in Perth at lunchtime and was immediately impressed by the size of the houses and gardens (some with pools) as the plane came in to land.

At the airport, getting the visa processed was a 2 minute job and then off to quarantine as we had about 12 cardboard boxes with us. The staff were very friendly although they X-rayed all our luggage because we hadn't listed what was in each box. The staff seemed to be almost entirely interested in food and wooden items and opened quite a few boxes looking for suspicious food items.

When you arrive in Australia make sure you have a detailed list of what is in your luggage and try to put any food, wood, or animal items together.

I had a portable computer and CD-ROMs that I had thoroughly checked to make sure all the software had licences but nobody seemed interested in that. I guess because it would be to difficult to check for suspect items on a computer hard drive without impounding and spending hours analysing the hard drive data.

Outside the airport it was blowing a gale and torential rain. Luckily we were told by the friends who met us that it was the worst weather of the year otherwise we might have got back on the plane. We were taken back to our friend's home in a northern suburb of Perth and was immediately impressed by the size of their house (although they said it was average for a Perth house); 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a large garden. I would get up at 6am and jog 10 minutes or so to the sea to get some exercise and fresh air. When the sun is shining the sea is a beautiful green/blue colour that reminded me of Hawaii. From Perth city there is a scenic route to the northern suburbs which goes along the coastline with incredible views of the ocean and beaches.

We arrived in the official first week of spring and the weather has probably average 20 centigrade in the daytime with a few days around 17-18 and a few days 23-25; already better than most UK summer days. The sun is already bright enough that I need to wear sunglasses most of the time I'm outdoors. Our friends have a gas fire which we used in the morning and evening as we had just come from 35 centigrade summer days. Our friend says that he wears shorts all the year round so I guess it depends what you are used to. We now have a double bar electric heater that we picked up for AU$30 and that we're using to keep the living room warm.

If I remember correctly, on average there are 5 days a year in Perth where the temperature is above 40 centigrade but this won't be a problem, for us at least, as we were used to this in the previous place we lived. At least the humidity will be fairly low plus the breeze from the sea.

Hi,

Thanks for sharing your impressions with us.
I would like to know something about the last thing you mentioned: "the breeze from the sea".
I have read in a book "Live and work in Australia.." that in Perth there is a constant breeze/wind.
I am currently living in Holland and wind is one of the worst things about Holland. We have been to Brisbane but not to Perth and we still have to make the decision where we want to live when we get our visas. We liked Brisbane but from stories and tv Perth seems quite beautiful too. So what can you tell me about that constant wind? Is it one of the negative things about Perth?

Thanks in advance,
Nina
Nina is offline  
Old Oct 8th 2002, 8:27 am
  #3  
BE Enthusiast
 
Grub's Avatar
 
Joined: Aug 2002
Location: Mansion in Padbury
Posts: 804
Grub is an unknown quantity at this point
Default Re: First impressions of Perth (Part 1)

Thanks very much for all your info- keep it coming. Any handy hints, observations gratefully received. My sister also arrived September and am trying to persuade her to come on and write some stuff as she loves it there (despite the weather!).
When you say northern suburbs, can you specify the ones which have good schools. I believe Carine High is good. My son will be 4 in April.

Thanks

Nicky

PS If you want a copy of the Perth spreadsheet (about 15 families either headed for, or in, Perth then email me your details and i will add- [email protected]
Grub is offline  
Old Oct 8th 2002, 9:09 am
  #4  
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Location: Perth, WA
Posts: 54
JustArrived is an unknown quantity at this point
Default Re: First impressions of Perth (Part 1)

Hi Nina and Nicky,

Thanks for the replies.

Nina, I have also lived in The Netherlands (Alkmaar) for 2 years. The people were fantastic and the weather in the summer was great. However, in the winter ... rain ... cold rain ... lots of it. If only it was closer to the equator it would be perfect.

Having only been here a couple of weeks I'm not an expert. From what I understand, in the morning there is a breeze going from the land to the ocean but it's gentle. However, in the afternoon there is the "Freemantle Doctor" which comes off the ocean. If you live within a few kms of the ocean then it can be quite noticeable. When I walk through Mindarie (which is next to the ocean) in the early evening then the breeze is noticeable and can make the temperature feel 10 centigrade lower (good in the summer; bad at the moment).

On the other hand, just a few kms inland there is almost no breeze from the sea because the air is rising off the warmer land. In this case, whether you experience the breeze depends on how close you live to the ocean. I did read that Perth is one of the most windy cities in the world but for myself it is not an important/negative factor. It's certainly nowhere near as bad as some experiences I had trying to cycle in The Netherlands.

As I understand it, Brisbane can be quite humid in the summer. Having lived in a country where it was 35 centigrade and high humidity in the summer I would definitely prefer the lower humidity of a Perth summer compared to (possibly) Brisbane. Though of course it's all down to personal preferences.

Nicky, I'm not sure about High Schools as my children are very young so I didn't check in depth. I heard that people move house quite frequently in Australia so we will move to a different area if necessary. However, I know that Mindarie Primary is supposed to be quite good. It is well worth checking out the Aussie Move site which has links to all the reports for the different schools in Perth. I spent quite a few evenings reading through the reports and came to the conclusion that the schools in South Perth (where we initially wanted to live) were of variable quality (ones in the richer areas being generally better). However, the schools in the northern suburbs (especially closer towards the ocean) were generally all fairly good.

This seems to follow the same trend as in the UK. Although there might be exceptions, school quality is generally better for higher income areas so you could check the average house prices in Aussie Move and use that as a starting point.

Let me know if I can answer any other questions you have.


Originally posted by Grub:
Thanks very much for all your info- keep it coming. Any handy hints, observations gratefully received. My sister also arrived September and am trying to persuade her to come on and write some stuff as she loves it there (despite the weather!).
When you say northern suburbs, can you specify the ones which have good schools. I believe Carine High is good. My son will be 4 in April.

Thanks

Nicky

PS If you want a copy of the Perth spreadsheet (about 15 families either headed for, or in, Perth then email me your details and i will add- [email protected]
JustArrived is offline  
Old Oct 8th 2002, 5:02 pm
  #5  
Nick
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: First impressions of Perth (Part 1)

JustArrived wrote in message news:...
Big Snip
    > Hi,
    > Arrived in Perth at the start of September with wife and 2 young
    > children after living in the Far East for a couple of years. Have a PR
    > visa (Employer Nominated) which took about 3 months to be processed.
End Snip


Excellent effort on your part. I'm sure most of us would be interested
in a "diary" as opposed to the inflamatory rantings of certain
posters.

My experience comes second hand from my brother. 6 months in Perth
conclusion: very friendly pleasant environment. Got work without too
many issues even though he's a tree surgeon. Eventually moved to
Brisbane after crossing to Sydney in a Land Rover without A/C!, OK he
is mad. QLD was where he'd originally planned to be but has often said
if it didn't work out he'd be back in Perth like a shot. He did reckon
it was a bit quiet but depends on what you want. There are Theatres,
restaurants and plenty of places to go and see even if there are
distances to be covered.

Biggest drawback is if you don't like it, it's a hell of a long way to
get somewhere else.

Australia in general: Great!!! Recently bought a large house on 42
acres about 30 mins north of Brisbane. Could never have done that in
the UK. Has a wide social circle, and what sounds like a great job
although he does work long hours (not as long as running a UK
business). His oft cited view is that "Australia builds bridges while
UK builds barriers" which is his view on the helpfulness of Aussies
compared to the UK.

BTW I know it's not of any economic importance, but if you are away
from city lighting at night, take a look at the sky. Never seen so
many stars!

Good luck settling in!

Regards

Nick
 
Old Oct 9th 2002, 6:25 am
  #6  
Forum Regular
 
Joined: May 2002
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 81
Nina is an unknown quantity at this point
Default Tnanks for the answers)

[QUOTE][SIZE=1]Originally posted by JustArrived:
Hi Nina and Nicky,

Thanks for the replies.

Nina, I have also lived in The Netherlands (Alkmaar) for 2 years. The people were fantastic and the weather in the summer was great. However, in the winter ... rain ... cold rain ... lots of it. If only it was closer to the equator it would be perfect.

Having only been here a couple of weeks I'm not an expert. From what I understand, in the morning there is a breeze going from the land to the ocean but it's gentle. However, in the afternoon there is the "Freemantle Doctor" which comes off the ocean. If you live within a few kms of the ocean then it can be quite noticeable. When I walk through Mindarie (which is next to the ocean) in the early evening then the breeze is noticeable and can make the temperature feel 10 centigrade lower (good in the summer; bad at the moment).

On the other hand, just a few kms inland there is almost no breeze from the sea because the air is rising off the warmer land. In this case, whether you experience the breeze depends on how close you live to the ocean. I did read that Perth is one of the most windy cities in the world but for myself it is not an important/negative factor. It's certainly nowhere near as bad as some experiences I had trying to cycle in The Netherlands.

As I understand it, Brisbane can be quite humid in the summer. Having lived in a country where it was 35 centigrade and high humidity in the summer I would definitely prefer the lower humidity of a Perth summer compared to (possibly) Brisbane. Though of course it's all down to personal preferences.




Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question. By the way what a coincidence that you have lived in Alkmaar, because it’s where I live now.

Nina
Nina is offline  
Old Oct 9th 2002, 8:57 am
  #7  
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Location: Perth, WA
Posts: 54
JustArrived is an unknown quantity at this point
Default Re: Tnanks for the answers)

Hi Nina,

Thanks for the reply. I have many happy memories from Alkmaar and the surrounding villages such as Bergen. Only wish the winter weather had been better!


Originally posted by Nina:
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question. By the way what a coincidence that you have lived in Alkmaar, because it’s where I live now.

Nina
JustArrived is offline  
Old Oct 9th 2002, 10:28 pm
  #8  
BE Enthusiast
 
rday's Avatar
 
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 359
rday will become famous soon enough
Default Re: Tnanks for the answers)

ik houd van Holland, zijn de mensen zo vriendschappelijk. Holland is mijn tweede keus als ik niet aan Australië kan binnenkomen. ik probeer mijn moeilijkst om het Nederlands te leren. ik hoop er overvloed van daar het werk voor loodgieters is.
goed geluk.
rday
rday is offline  
Old Oct 10th 2002, 10:04 am
  #9  
BE Enthusiast
 
Grub's Avatar
 
Joined: Aug 2002
Location: Mansion in Padbury
Posts: 804
Grub is an unknown quantity at this point
Default Re: Tnanks for the answers)

Show off!!!!!

Originally posted by rday:
ik houd van Holland, zijn de mensen zo vriendschappelijk. Holland is mijn tweede keus als ik niet aan Australië kan binnenkomen. ik probeer mijn moeilijkst om het Nederlands te leren. ik hoop er overvloed van daar het werk voor loodgieters is.
goed geluk.
rday
Grub is offline  
Old Oct 10th 2002, 8:10 pm
  #10  
BE Enthusiast
 
rday's Avatar
 
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 359
rday will become famous soon enough
Default Re: Tnanks for the answers)

ok,i admit it,i used http://www.worldlingo.com/products_s...ranslator.html to translate ,it ken evon mike me look intellygent
rday
rday is offline  

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off



Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.