keelie152

Hi, My name is keelie and i would love to hear from people living in or intending to go to melbourne, trying hard to find info on melbourne suburbs, we are a family of 5 who are right at the start of the application process, we are looking at melbourne cos it looks beautiful!! need some info or website address on family friendly suburbs with decent schools etc, hubby a self employed floor & wall tiler in this country, 3 children age 13, 8 and 3 who are really excited about the prospect of living in the sun!!
look forward to hearing from someone soon
keelie

Poppett44

Hi Keelie,

it depends on where you need to live for work, and if you like the beach, rural, mountains etc!
This site will probably be helpful for you http://s7.invisionfree.com/BritVics/...hp?showforum=1 as everyone there either lives or is soon to be living in Melbourne

delama

Hi Keelie,
We are planning to move to Melbourne. I've never been there (but have been to Sydney), but my husbands friend moved there 5 years ago with is Australian wife, who is from Melbourne. They have two kids, one nearly 6 and one nearly 2. They live around Essendon, Moonee Ponds, Ascot Vale area, and say its really nice, with good schols, facilities, etc. Its also close to the city - approx 9k, which is good for us, as we'll both probably be working in the city. We have two kids, 5 and 3, and it sounds perfect for us!
HTH,
M

keelie152

thanks for the info will check out those areas

OzTennis

Yes, suburbs and an area worth considering. For some reason most people only tend to consider the SE suburbs and are forced to go an hour or more commute to CBD because of the price of property closer in. NW and W suburbs are also worth checking out. Have a look at Point Cook, Sanctuary Lakes, Altona, Williamstown, Caroline Springs, Wyndham Vale, Taylors Lakes, Avondale Heights, Sunbury and so on to the W. As said though, we don't know if you want water, hills, close in, far out, what budget you have etc so it's difficult to recommend suitable suburbs for a family without this.

You'll get an idea of property prices for all Melbourne's suburbs at:

http://www.domain.com.au/Public/Guides.aspx

Download the free Spring 2006 Melbourne Property price guide (new 1st 2007 edition due soon).

Caroline G

We live on the Mornington Peninsula. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page is good for looking up things also for locating places http://www3.visitvictoria.com/displa...047C/vvt.vhtml

If you prefer more established areas opposed to new estates check out Frankston South & Mt.Eliza. There are open spaces, lots of trees and many of the houses are in courts (cul-de-sacs). Frankston High School comes highly rated and people will move into the school zone to get their children in. The public primary schools and kinders are also very good in both Frankston South and Mt.Eliza. The city is approx 1hrs drive. The sea is very close by and the beaches great. Lots for kids to do including life saving club, sailing, swimming, cricket, football etc.

A mix of new and older housing can be found in Mornington and Mt. Martha.

Happy researching.

flip

Those who've settled happily all love where they live. We live in the north eastern suburbs, soon to be about half an hour from the coast (when they finish building the freeway) but currently about an hour away.
We love the countryside, the large blocks, the excellent shopping, reasonable transport and good roads, oh and the views over the dandenongs and the lovely people and the fabulous food and the..... but then we don't have to commute to the city and only go in for fun.
Try and think whether you want coast, city, country, space, excellent transport, shopping, a large block, etc. and work out your budget and if you come back on here with that information someone should be able to help you.
Good luck with your decision - you're not just coming for the weather though are you?

keelie152

def not!! coming for a better lifestyle ie more relaxed and more opps for the kids as they get older, although hubby in the floor & wall tiling business and currently trying to find out if there is going to be the work out there for him

flip

Just spoke to our builder - he says as an independent it takes time to get your name known. Says an OK tiler gets around $40 per hour but increases drastically for marble, etc. There is the work out here, it's just getting your reputation known.

If he's wanting to work on new housing developments isn't it worth checking those builders on realestate.com.au and calling them to ask if there's work?

Good luck

keelie152

thanks for that! hubby does lots of 'out of ordinary tiling' here like marble, swimming pool mosaic,tarazza etc so should be ok but will look into it thanks........cant beleive how helpful people on here are so glad i found this site

Lindsay Clan

We live in the S/E suburb of Pakenham which is Gippsland and we love it here. We are about 35mins from beach, 2 mins in car for countryside and Gippsland is renowned for wine and food. There are plenty of shops and school depending on what you are looking for. The only way to decide is to drive around N, S, E and W of the city and get a feel for places yourself once you get here. Good luck.

Willij

Hi,

It's a really hard decision to make but for most people the 2 deciding factors are work and budget.

With your husband's trade you may want to be on the outskirts of the city where most of the new developments are.

The good news then is that house prices are cheper there. The other factor then is leisure time - do you want to be close to the beaches ?

If yes, then you need to consider the East (including Mornington Peninsula).

As the other poster said, Britvics has a lot of information about suburbs as well.