808shaun808

Hi I'm sure this has been asked before but we are a family of 5 wanting to move to Perth later this year? We have 3 teenage boys and we are needing any input on the best location to settle. We don't want to be in a rural area as we would like to be somewhere with a bit of life and good access to the city and beaches.
We visited last year and mainly went to the south of the city but as you can imagine it is difficult to make your minds up about an important thing on one holiday visit.
Thanks for any input.

renth

What's your budget regarding a house and the other thing is schools, are your kids still at school? you will need to go somewhere with a decent school.

h2oskineil

Renth is very correct about schools..... are the kids school age?
Get the kids settled into good schools and you'll be 75% there!

http://www.myschool.edu.au/ Check here for details on all schools.

Schools have catchment areas, where you live will determine which public school you will go to. Most private school have waiting lists, you will need to contact them to find out how long the list is.

A couple of good public schools which spring to mind are (in alphabetical order) Carine, Duncraig, Mindarie, Woodvale (there are many others, but they are the ones I know are good) I'm sure others can add to list if they have experience of other school.

www.realestate.com.au = Houses

Good luck

808shaun808

Hello h20skineil & renth
Our oldest is just 16 and is just leaving school and enrolled in college studying building services/survaying. Our middle son is still at secondary school and our youngest is at the end of primary school age.
Our budget for housing is probably about $300-$400.000.
Thanks for your input guys

northernbird

That isn't going to buy you a lot in Perth, not a lot at all and certainly not in an area with a decent high school IMO. Your eldest would be looking at TAFE, equivalent of College I guess. High School here is years 8-12 so depending on how old your youngest is may have to repeat some time in Primary.

www.aussiemove.com has some good suburb profiles and www.realestate.com.au will give you an idea of house prices.

verystormy

As Northernbird says, your budget isnt going to get you a lot in Perth. I cant comment on schools as we dont have children, but Mandurah is a nice place to live and your budget would get you a nice house there. Great beaches, very laid back lifestyle and its only a short train ride to Perth. There is a TAFE college and my wife has done some short courses there and found it very good.
It has everything i need including ok shopping - Perth isnt great on that anyway. A reasoable selection of bars and restaurants and things and very much a water / ocean lifestyle.

eddie007

Rocko, and surrounding might meet your housing budget.... Its not as bad as people make out... Honest! Most aussies I kniw are one extreme or the other.... They either own seven investment houses or they rent...

Lots of th ings to consider... But I would advise against renting in an area you couldnt possibly afford to buy in if you are planning on buying.. I've seen people be heart broken, devastated and even go back to the uk because they couldnt afford to buy where they wanted to live...

Its late, I'm sorry... Pribably not making a lot of sense....

808shaun808

Hello again
Thanks for your honest responses, when I said we wanted to live in Perth I should have said the Perth area, so getting information about Mandurah and other areas is great. As you can imagine it is quite daunting guessing where you want to move to when we are on the other side of the world so any help from you guys is fantastic. Work will obviously come into our thinking also, I am an electrician and will have to find work ASAP when we arrive.
Thanks again for your support guys.

Dorothy

Perth is really spread out, so where you live will depend on where you work. You don't want to live in Rockingham or Mandurah but work in Osborne Park.

Your best bet is to come over, stay somewhere central until you find work and then look at where to live.

However, as others have said, $300-400k is not a lot for a housing budget. Take a look at www.domain.com.au or www.reiwa.com.au or www.realestate.com.au for house prices. Some of those sites have suburb profiles on them as well, so you can get a little bit of an idea of what the area's like. There are definitely a few no-go areas in Perth and unfortunately they're priced in the $300-400k ballpark.

808shaun808

Dorothy
This is exactly the info we need, where are the no go area's and why? This will no dought save us time and money in the long run knowing the nitty gritty about places that are less attractive than others. The budget I refired to was a ball park figure and if we had to rase the bar I'm sure we could if we needed to. As you said Perth does appear to be well spread out long the coast, I will look at the sites you suggested with interest.
thank you.

h2oskineil

Full post here http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=172161

This might be useful to you if you are going to work as an electrician... ...


How to get your Electrical Licence in WA (warning:little/no humour in this one)
Had a few requests to help out all you sparks with decades of experience who will then have to satisfy the powers that be that you are good enough to work alongside the roughest,slowest sparks outside of Scotland (brace yerself for the flak BB).

Right.
1.
Get an up to date reference before you leave,so don't p*** off your current employer (you'll see why in a mo).

2.
Go to the this page
www.energysafety.wa.gov.au

and find the licensing bit.You can download an application form.You need the Electrical mechanic one if you're an installation spark.

3.
Go to the office at
20 Southport Street
West Leederville tel : 9422 5282

where you'll have to hand over the application form and submit copies of all your references you sent to TRA all those months ago,as well as your most recent reference(see,told you ).Hand over $30 and your application will be scrutinised at the next board meeting.These are held every 2 weeks,but are sometimes cancelled,so you may not hear anything for over a month.

4.
Once the old farts decide "hang on a minute,this guy's got more experience than any Ozzy spark ",they'll write to you to say your application has been approved,and you have 2 options.

i.Take a written and practical exam (details of which I shall post later)
ii.Take a Licensing course.Only enrol for this if you feel that you can't pass the bits above.This course can take up to 6 months,but some have been told you can cram it into 9 weeks,if there's enough interest to fill the spaces.However,there is no exam,so if you're a bit of a flapper,this may be the best route.I've heard that sometimes a couple of guys visit the U.K and run this course,but it's a bit pricey.Perhaps others have heard of this.

I've had to add an after thought.You can apply to work under somebody elses licence for up to a year.Think this costs $30,but I spoke to others who said that employers tend to avoid in-experience,unlicenced Pommies straight off the boat.However,I met 2 who had this licence at the practical exam,so if you're desperate to work immediately,this could help.

5.
Should you decide to do the exams (which I strongly recommend) you can phone the TAFE (college) at Balga,and book the written exam straight away.They are just adjudicators there,so you can take it within a few days.The cost of this is $30,and you'll also be asked to stump up $110 for the practical one,but you can only take it once the written has been passed.


Right,you've been in touch with the college and have a date for your theory exam.

6.
Whilst at the Energy licensing office (see step 3-sorry forgot about it at the time) you would have purchased a copy of the wiring regulations - AS/NZS 3000:2000.I was encouraged not to bother by the guy there and to borrow one,but I strongly recommend you do-as I will point out further down.It'll cost you $73.90,but I'm sure you can claim back something on your tax return.
Now study it particularly the subjects I'll point out later.

7.
The theory exam is in 2 parts,and you have 3 hours to complete it.You have to take in your regs book,calculator and pen.There's a few blank pages in the regs (see ),so you can put in any notes and formulas you need to beforehand.I had no supervision in the room,had a mobile phone with me,so could have contacted anyone,and was left alone for the duration.I got the feeling,that they don't care too much,as long as you pays yer money.
Part 1 consists of 40 multiple choice questions,some of which are common sense,some are in the regs book,and some are the knid of stuff you learnt as a teenager and have never used and forgotten since.
Part 2 is 10 multiple choice questions,which the answers to can all be found in the regs.You have to answer and state which reg and on which page you found it.
You need to get 60% or more in both parts to pass.

8.
O.K.Things you should swot up on/copy into yer book :
Insulation resistance values (see regs)
MEN is multiple earth neutral-PME to us proper sparks.
Cable terminology: T.P.I is triple pole insulated.Cores are double insulated,and earth is green/yellow.-M.I.M.S is mineral insulated metal sheathed (pyro)-TPS is twin and earth-Building Wire is singles.
G.P.O is a general purpose outlet (socket )and uses 2.5 radials with 16 A current protection.
Formulas : ohms law ; p= V x I ; Power factor = P over V x I ; Volt drop = mV/A/M x current x length over 1000 (you won't use this till the practical part though,so don't worry ).Hope I'm not teaching to suck eggs.Also look up line current formulas for star/delta loads,and copy them into the book.
Maximum Volt drop values (see regs)
Maximum permissable earth resistance (see regs)
How to add resistors in parallell

Example questions or just the answers ;

See all above and :
ESR is earth sheath return,and is combined neutral earth-use MIMS for this.
Domestic underground cabling uses TPS in heavy duty ORANGE pvc conduit.
If an A.C contactor chatters,it'll probably be a faulty shading ring on the core.
To remove aluminium oxide from Aluminium cable,dip it in hydrochloric acid (bakers fluid).
Sodium vapour lamps give off a yellow light.
Capacitors are used to gain economical power.
Capacitance is meaqsured in micro farads.
Earth electrodes are placed in wet areas near to the building.
Ladder ratio 4:1
The licensed electrical contractor is responsible for the installation.
Halogen lamps can't be handled.
A minimum of 6 cables are required at a star delta motor (excluding earths).
A minimum of 3 cables are required from an isolator to a starter on a star delta motor.
AQ squirrel cage motor needs star/delta to develop torque.
3 cables are needed at a batten holder.


There you go,as I said, a lot of this is common sense,and 60 % is in the regs book,just look it up.if I remember any more examples,I'll put em on.Not sure if the questions are changed often either

Dorothy

It really depends on what you're looking for. Do you want to live near the coast or the river or in the hills or maybe inland a bit? How far are you willing to travel to work? Will your wife be working? What does she do?

808shaun808

Thanks h20skineil that is great info

elect42

That thread was a decade ago if it all was that easy, head over to the electricians forum it's all in there the process now.

808shaun808

Hi
Ok thanks elect 42, I have been on there before it seems a bit of a minefield!
I think I will just get myself through this IELTS test then start asking questions about the licence process.