Mark044

OK, I've done searches and tried to trawl through come threads which has given me a bit of info, so thought I'd start this one to get specific info!
Considering Melbourne at the mo (hve only visited Cottesloe, Perth and found that great)
Can people living/visits to Melbourne give me some idea of lifestyle, job circuit etc, comparisons with other states? websites good for melbourne (ourbrisbane.com was pretty good for there!)
My wife is an IT PM, I am a Personal Trainer, and would be coming with a 3yr old.
Is the weather changes as bad as they sound?! (Obv better than here though!)
What is crime levels like?
School levels?
Best suburbs but not directly int he centre.
Any info is good info!

Thanks in advance!

Louiselondon

Hya Mark
Ive been to Melbourne a few times and found it to be quite arty and has an older feel to Brisbane and Adelaide. The nicest area Ive seen in Melbourne is a place on the sea called Williamstown which is a harbour with lots of lovely coffee shops.
Melbourne has got trams in the city centre and lovely shops.
Try this link for for info:
www.liveinvictoria.com.au

As for education, as 4 of my family who live there are teachers Id have to say its very good!!!!!!

Mark044

ha ha!! Cheers Louise, thanks for the post! will check that info out!
Ooops, can you recheck that link it doesnt seem to work!

Louiselondon

Doh!!!! sorry about that

www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au

Louise

Lord Pom Percy

Regarding crime Melbourne vs Perth, Melbourne has a lower crime rate then Perth but because Melbourne has 3 times the population of Perth theres more crime happening in Melbourne.
The weather in Melbourne is cooler, colder winters, summers not as hot.

Mark044

Thanks - yeah my wife is more worried about the 'variable' weather than me....she seems to think when it's cold it wont be much better than here?!!
I think we're starting to turn more to the Melbourne v Brisbane area....

BadgeIsBack

Can't remember the last time I wore a winter coat.
Can't remember the last time I wore gloves or felt my feet go numb.
Can't remember the last time I scraped my windscreen.
Can't rememer biting cold.

Poppett44

This site is very, very good for information on any aspects of Melbourne life!
http://z7.invisionfree.com/BritVics/index.php?act=idx

Mark044

will tell her that! cheers!

Thanks for the link 2!

Lindsay Clan

We've lived in Melbourne for nearly 18 months now and love it! As said before have a look at Britvics as its a great site and I'm sure you'll get more help with specific things for Melbourne itself. The weather is changeable but we like that. Over the last couple of weeks its gone from 39 degrees down to 22!! We are having a drought like most other places in Australia but at the moment the rain is here ...... yipppeee!! On a general note its warmer in the summer than the UK and the winters are not as cold, very rarely get frosts either!!

Lorraine

Exile

Cottesloe in Perth is great, but as you know very expensive. Areas such as this are few and far between here in Perth, and very pricey. I think Melbourne offers more options for finding that older, established vibrant feel, without the ridiculous prices (although you can still find them if you want).

If I was starting again, I'd probably be looking at Melbourne rather than Perth.

TrickyTree

Hey Badge I went to the boxing day test and I will answer all them (except 3) with that day it was absolutely freezing!!!

I had my coat on and wish I had my gloves and scarf as the icy wind just cut through me in the top tier of the MCG.

I can honestly say it was the coldest I have been in Australia and NZ in the 2 years I have been here.

BadgeIsBack

You were unlucky then won't you. Other Boxing Days tests could have been mid 30s.

In the past, I have bothered to mention that if you are stationary at a sporting event in winter then you might need to dress up, but I also did at Telstra Stadium in Sydney.

My main point was to contrast with the UK as someone said it was similar - it is not as cold as the UK.

Centurion

Get a couple of seasons of Kath and Kim out on DVD

As a PT you should have no trouble. Most gyms I know are desperate for decent PT's. The AIF offer courses to people in Australia for PT qualifications and are just churning out students who simply dont have a clue or quite frankly could do with some personal training themselves.....

You must be a member of REPS before you go to Australia. It will make your life so much easier. Some info if you didnt know already but it will mean that you can hit the ground running job wise.

http://www.exerciseregister.org/QualsInternational.htm

Spikey

Hi we've been in Melbourne a couple of months. The weather has been quite changeable so far for us with some very hot days and some much cooler ones. I actually quite it changing - when it was 40C last week and baking hot at night it was nice to know that some cooler weather was on it's way. It's rained all weekend but the sun is out again this afternoon and it's warming up nicely. It doesn't feel like where we lived in the UK and the weather was just grey and dismal for weeks on end.

My H is in IT and found a job 2 weeks after we arrived, there seems to be plenty of work available in that field anyway!

We have a 6 and a 3 year old, 6 year old is in school which so far seems good (he only did 3 weeks before breaking up for the holidays though). There are lots and lots of things for them to do here.

We're in the Eastern suburbs (Rowville), I really like it out here as it's not that far from the beach (30 - 40 min drive) and close to the countryside too. I think we'll probably look at suburbs slightly further in when we come to buy as my H wants to be a little nearer a station so he can commute to work (atm he's either driving into work or driving to Glen Waverley station and getting the train from there).

We're renting for a year to give us time to decide which suburb we'd like to buy in.

Don't know much about the crime levels but haven't heard any horror stories of burglaries etc around here. But then we happily lived in Peckham in SE London a few years ago and we had no problems there either.

Good luck deciding!