Amazulu

Indeed. All of those kind of areas have bad raps - Gosnells, Thornlie, Kelmscott etc but they are also places where you can live comfortably in lower cost housing. Not my cup of tea but perfectly liveable

We have friends who live at the base of the Kelmscott hills on a truly stunning property. They love it there - and one of these people grew up in Peppermint Grove!

the troubadour

Does look impressive I suppose but it should be remembered it is a suburb of high crime. Sadly the methamphetamine trade in this state is going under the radar (to say the least) and I suspect in part responsible for a lot of crime. (while making others considerable money) The results of this are everywhere and way under reported in media. But this is about housing so won't get into that , except to say we are building up severe problems for the future by our inaction on this matter.

I see the government is building a facility that will house up to thirty rough sleepers which is a start but does not tackle the reasons we have arrived where we are. Like I have related, some houses around the inner city change hands rather regularly. They are not advertised as such, but the same illegal practice is repeated regardless of tenant.

.

Moses2013

You're probably right there, unfortunately it's no different in Europe and these facilities for rough sleepers don't seem to solve the real problems. It's often the opposite when you put so many people under one roof and you see it with refugees too. It's hard enough to maintain harmony between 4 people in a house share, so imagine when hundreds of different people come together.

the troubadour

Australia is a lot about appearances rather than a too often concealed reality. The sleeping centre I mentioned has to be built first. But it's a good heading for a remarkably inept state government that doesn't always sit well with the truth. It is only 33 bedsafter all. No the issues of rampant methamphetamine use is not being tackled besides a get tougher on borders approach , which only raises the local price and entices ever more into its manufacture. This grub drug is being made all around me in the inner burbs. A great silence around this.
At least the lid has been uncovered into the crime going on with youth in our north. (to an extent) Hidden for far too long. But as for housing, the subject , I've no idea of any plan to tackle this outrageous situation. We simply don't have the builders. Many building companies have gone insolvent with rising costs and it here looks to be no solution in the medium term. Meanwhile record immigration seems set to continue.
To be honest it would be great to find a street where drug production is not part of the street scape. Far harder than sounds as very widespread in Perth and WA country.

brits1

Canning Vale, Forest Lakes and parts of Huntingdale (newer developments off Warton Road) were all very good areas in Gosnells the older subs in Gosnells were not great to us even when we did live n Perth and we would not have chosen to live in those areas but we did have friends who lived in those subs who came from not so great areas in the UK and SA that lived in Thornlie and Lynwood and a few other subs who thought they were the bees knees compared to where they were from so it all depends on the person etc.

the troubadour

I know people in Canning Vale who like it. Don't know about the other mentioned suburbs. At Gosnell's though on Wednesday. Eight security at train station , not an unusual situation and numbers apparently needed to keep the lid on anti social behavior.
But outside of traditional 'bad rap' suburbs, there is nowhere devoid of drugs. The best suburbs of the metro area like Cottesloe it is clearly evident when know what to look for.
I had an 'engagement' with a classical crack head on the train on Monday. (she had lost most her teeth , although only in her twenties and cuts and scabs all over her face. ) She then moved seats and sat close to me and lit a cigarette , blowing smoke into my face. I got up to move seats and said something to her to which she flicked the cigarette at me along with a torrent of abuse which was in danger of getting physical. Not the first time had run in with crack heads, but just to emphasis that occurred on Fremantle Line , probably the safest line.
As we have a massive industry around the production of methamphetamine in WA (Perth is the top city in Australia in consumption, indeed it is all around me in inner city) It is hardly surprising that crime will increase as a result, not to mention the many making this 'grub drug' from their kitchens and what have you. Such Perth encourages a lot of people from other states, due to the high price of this drug. (miners for one reason) along with a very substantial increase in a certain ethnic population around my area who are very involved in what's going down.
Who wants t live next door to a meth lab? Probably not many, but increasing mainstream for many who under usual circumstances would never dream of breaking the law. It doesn't bid well for the state for obvious reasons and hard t escape. Where money and drugs are involved, it is fair to say the less desired will be attracted to the easy money .

brits1

I must admit we were shocked how “common place” drug use when we first arrived in Perth in seemed to go along with drinking alcohol which,l seemed quite excessive compared to our old life in England, the drugs seemed to mainly just be “whacky backy” but quite openly smoked, we soon gravitated to like minded people, towards the end out of time in Perth we knew of people taking a lot heavier drugs and by people from “normal” backgrounds, we knew a very nice family who lost their child from drugs another was killed by a drug driver and one had a lucky escape and “came good” but still people “back home” believed that Australia was the promised land and that children would have a better life there as it was “like living back in the good old days when children were children and played outside all the time because the weather etc etc” now that would be a lovely story.

Moses2013

Unfortunately if that's what some people want to believe they will continue to do so. I would say that moving abroad can sometimes even be worse for kids, suddenly they could be outsiders and some might want to impress others by showing off and doing stupid things. You can always pick the wrong friends and we see it with the internet today, no child is safe (online challenges, stunts, dare games etc.).
It's the same with locations and if you grew up in an area you will have years of experience and will know what to look out for, easy to be fooled if your knowledge of an area comes from Facebook or some random articles (not BE of course:-).

the troubadour

Australia has always been, well over last forty years drug inclined. But what I refer to is 'nice' middle class people and professionals involved in its manufacture and delivery. (not to mention the oldsters )The thing is I doubt too many of those would get involved in the making of other drugs. Meth (Ice) is far too easy to make and relatively safe to make without sanction. I view it around me on a daily basis. Not so many addicts, just those seeking profit. Many are families (usually young children) having a dog is almost compulsory. Basically all the trappings of respectability. Houses often to quiet (blinds drawn) during day for normal living, but many giveaways .
I've known a few who became addicted and cost them dearly. Not many will admit it, but one who did take it and claimed to have stopped, behaved completely normal and held down a responsible job. No idea why some are so impacted, while others don't seem to be so But then I knew a girl way back who took heroin from time to time and never got addicted.
My comment about the multi billion dollar industry around meth is the strangle hold is has on society. Big money obviously attracts negative outcomes in controlling , undesirables getting involved, outside criminal influence , an alternative black economy (largely what is happening now) disruption to normal work practices , not to say economic measures. Surely must impact inflation?
Obviously without the will to tackle this problem and the 'normalization ' although illegal in the manufacture process (or at best a blind eye) the problem will further escalate as ever more see it as an easy way of making money. Nothing to stop International students and newly arrived picking up bad habits, rather quickly.
I don' t think syndicates buying up houses for the use of drug manufacture is going to help the housing problem. Unless of course everybody is going to work for them .

Beoz

Can you start a separate "Meth in Perth" thread? It doesn't relate to housing in Perth nor the rest of Australia. Thanks.

the troubadour

Actually there is a relation. As mentioned the more houses purchased for meth manufacture mean there are far less houses available for others. One may assume 'those others' would largely involve incomers from abroad without knowledge of what is going down on the ground. Although that doesn't seem to apply to interstaters where the likelihood is all is done over the web.

Beoz

So what are the stats? 25% of houses sold in Perth become meth labs?

Beoz

Here we go. The Greens have Labor over a barrel.

https://www.theguardian.com/australi...ays-adam-bandt

scotty9000

Actually it is definitely true that kids have many more opportunities to play outside in Oz compared to the UK. Many modern Australian suburbs have cleverly designed street plans to avoid rat runs and the kids have basketball hoops facing the street. Plus in general the public playground and sports facilities are an order of magnitude above what you can expect in the UK. There just seems to be more money available for public facilities in Australia. Unfortunately dogs' recreation is taken more seriously in the UK than childrens' recreation.

Moses2013

I don't agree with that and living in a city suburb would not be my impression of an outdoor life + many in the UK prefer soccer over basketball. Even when I was in the UK many years ago there were astro pitches everywhere and kids could also play in fields without having to worry about snakes/spiders. I also lived near the coast and surfing/kayaking was very popular all year round + I can't think of many towns that don't have a sports ground. Australia actually has a higher obesity rate than the UK or Ireland https://data.worldobesity.org/rankings/