We're contemplating joining the mass exodus from NZ and will be doing a bit of a road trip around Aussie later in the year to get a flavour of where might be an option for us. We have relatively specific location requirements as my partner can't drive due to a disability and will be able to live a much more independent life where facilities/schooling are local and there's good public transport.
We're open to cities or major regional towns as long as they have a hospital for work opportunities, decent transport links, allow us to live by the beach, have good schools for intermediate upwards and sports facilities (yeah, everyone's generic wish list - I know). We're particularly keen on paddle sports. We'd probably rent to start with but ultimately our housing budget would be around $1.3mil for a 3-4 bed family house, so would be looking for areas where that's a realistic proposition. Less would be better but realise that it may be a case of beer budget and champagne tastes. Preference is for a bit of breathing space between houses (we currently live on 1/4 acre and love it) so aren't looking for the inner city lifestyle. We do functional rather than fashionable and are certainly happy with suburbia, but would equally consider somewhere semi rural if the accessibility/transport is good.
We've ruled out Sydney and surrounds purely on price and realise that our money isn't going to go that far in any of the major centres. Tassie has also been scratched as we don't want somewhere even colder than Auckland in winter! We have previously explored from the Gold Coast through Brissy and up as far as Bundaberg and while we've loved it to visit, haven't found anywhere that feels like it would be the right permanent move for us - although we would be happy to be shown otherwise.
I know this is relatively vague, but at this stage we are trying to make the most of our travel planning and nothing beats local knowledge/experience. So if you think your town/suburb might be worth us checking out then I'd appreciate you dropping it here so we can add it to our list. Thanks!

Not lived there but visited a few times and Perth has a great transport system. We got to suburbs and beaches easily without a car. Even to go to theatres out of the city. Both via the river,trains and bus.

Yeah, Perth is definitely on the list - we don't know the city at all though, so a bit of insider info on which suburbs we could focus on would be epic, as we'll probably only get a week out West on this trip.

Personally I would not live in Perth (given your requirements) you will need a car for most things unless you live right in the heart of “things” and that will cost you, I would not want to have to really on buses in the summer as the heat even early morning is uncomfortable and bus service in lots of subs are not great, train lines run up and down the freeways and are good but if you live in between them you need transport to get to the stations, you can go across the city from Fremantle to Midland which usually takes just over an hour. Perth shopping is either the city centre or shopping “malls” The older towns ie Armadale, Midland etc do have high street but it’s mostly new subs with small shopping centres (in the better new build areas), Rockingham is a smaller town with links by train to the city and easier to “get around” as its smaller, near the beach and has lovely walks (flat) along the promenade, I likes Adelaide as it was more quaint and older with more areas with traditional shopping areas and also I liked Victoria Melbourne was great but I preferred beach towns there ie Brighton, Blackrock. Good luck ps more paddle clubs as well in Victoria

Good insight - thanks. I've only been to Adelaide once and spent most of my time doing work stuff so really didn't get on with the place. Always had that nagging suspicion that I didn't give it a fair crack. Melbourne is definitely on the list, but I've only ever really done the town centre and then right out in the surrounding region to visit mines and power stations. Will put Brighton and Blackrock down for more investigation.