Richyroo77

Hi,
We are moving to Melbourne in April with our two boys aged 7 and 9. We are looking to rent somewhere that would have good schools for the boys and has good public transport links to the city centre, no more than 30—40 mins travelling time. Any advice would be appreciated especially on the schools.
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old.sparkles

Hi and welcome

I don't know much about Melbourne, so can't help. For those that do, do you know where you will be working as that might make a difference.

Richyroo77

Hi, thanks for the reply. The office is on Collins Street, Docklands.

scrubbedexpat020

https://www.metrotrains.com.au/maps/

I'd say go for the Belgrave and Lilydales lines - but I'm in Ringwood. Do a seach for Melbourne Metro busiest lines, https://www.theage.com.au/national/v...02-p52wsg.html, to get a feel for which lines will be horrible for commuters before deciding.

I remember doing a study of the schools when I arrived and all the state schools in an arc from Ringwood to the bay had similar performance. The private schools had minor improvements for $20k+/year. The top schools are the select-entry schools (year 9), Melbourne High and McRob, and the inner city private schools ($30k+). But if your kid is bright they will shine anywhere.

Richyroo77

Hi,

Thanks that's brilliant. We have been looking at places in Kew, Doncaster and as far out as Altona but Carnegie has caught our eye.

Alan Collett

Maybe also consider Geelong - about 20 minutes longer on the train but free parking at South Geelong, and Docklands is adjacent to Southern Cross station.

I do the trip from Geelong to Southern Cross 4 days a week (my office is a block from the station, also on Collins Street) - I always get a seat, which you might not on Metro trains.

More for your money property wise plus you are so much closer to the great beaches at Torquay, etc.

Good schools too, particularly in Newtown.

Good luck!

Richyroo77

Thanks,

Geelong has been recommended but thought it would be to far away. How long is the travel time?

Alan Collett

Just over an hour - see the VLine timetable here: https://www.vline.com.au/Timetables/Train-coach-timetables

Best regards.

m2m2012

If they want to keep travel time from home to office to a max of 40 mins they will have to live closer to Melb than Ringwood let alone further out on the Belgrave or Lilydale lines. "Express" train from Ringwood to city takes 30 mins add to that getting from home to the station you go over the 40 min mark.

Depends on how much money you have for rent; living in Blackburn, Box Hill, Camberwell will make travel time far less. Living in Box Hill North and Blackburn North give you the option of catching the express buses that run along the Eastern Freeway which are quick because they use the special bus/taxi lanes.

scrubbedexpat020

I think my suggestion was more about which lines, after having added to the conversation by pointing out that reality and expectation do not match when it comes to Melbourne train times: don't take the timetable at face value. Frankly, in the 15 years we have been here Ringwood has got noticeably crowded and the trains more like sardine cans. I can remember when getting a seat at 7.15am was not unusual and the car-park wasn't full (another thing to check).

Kbscot

If you want to enjoy living in Melbourne i would say bayside, close to beach and rail. Beach road is acceptable to commute on daily into docklands Any suburb as far along as Mordialloc . Lots of good schools both private and public.
Traffic from Torquay daily would destroy most people pretty quickly with all the tunnel works.
If you can exist in suburbia and can endure gridlock traffic go Doncaster, Ringwood etc.

Good luck

Alan Collett

Who's suggesting living in Torquay?!

The cost of property in Bayside Melbourne is relatively high. Geelong far less so.

Best regards.

dazjoe

The Bayside area is a beautiful area to live in, but pricey however.

The Sandringham line runs direct to the city, so Sandringham, Hampton or Brighton are perfect areas, good schools, by the beach, loads of cafes, restaurants, pubs, etc. The likes of Elwood and Black Rock are lovely too, but a bit out the way of the train line, so if you're not driving it would be a bus to the station.

Again, it's a pricey area to live in, rent is higher than most other areas, but you get what you pay for.

abner

If you want to stick to top state schools your geographical options are very limited, because these have tightly-defined catchment areas, and there are very few places where top state primary school (K-6) catchment areas overlap with top state high school (7-12) ones, *and* everything is within an easy train commute to the Melbourne CBD.

The sweet spot which we found was Glen Waverley, which has a number of excellent state primary schools (esp. Mount View and Glendal) feeding into Glen Waverley Secondary College. The train ride from Glen Waverley is just over 40 minutes, but because Glen Waverley Station is the end of the line, you benefit by getting a seat for the morning leg of the commute. You might also look at Oakleigh, Doncaster, and Balwyn, for other decent schooling tradeoffs (though these are somewhat different suburbs from socioeconomic and commuting perspectives)

However, if you can afford top private schools instead--AUD $25Kish per year per child, at your boys' present ages--then you can probably also afford the higher leafy-inner-suburb housing costs as well, and the world is your oyster as far as commuting times go. Now that our youngest is the only one left on the family payroll, we've (modestly) gone down that path, moving a few suburbs in and going with a private school option. (But, our youngest is a daughter, so the details of our more recent decisions won't be relevant to you...)