Hi there,

I am looking to move to Melbourne sometime in April or May from the UK with my family( two children 8 and 9). I am not sure of the best places to live, my work place is in collingwood and abortwood, the eastern side of the centre. Can anyone suggest where to live that is no more than a 30-45 min commute. I have noticed that all the areas from ST Kilda to down are nice.

Also can anyone suggest any good schools.

Is there anyone who fancies meeting up when we arrive.

Cheers

Steve

Hello

I am looking to move to Melbourne later this year from the UK and would like to know some good placed to live in and also the good schools for 8-9 year olds. My works is going to be in Spotswood and would not like to pay more than $500 - $600 pw for a 3 - 4 bedrooms.

I would like to hear from anyone who has recently moved there from abroad and shiped in there belongings as we are wondering weather to take our car and things like a TV. Do English TVs work over in Australia?

Any information would be great.

Take Care

Steve

Hi Steve,

I've merged your posts into one thread, and moved it to the main Australia forum. I'm not in Australia myself so can't help with your questions, but I"m sure that people will be along soon to give you some pointers.

In the meantime do a search of the forum and read through some of the other threads.

Oh and welcome to our community, I hope you enjoy being part of BE. Please don't hesitate to give me a shout if you have any site questions or get stuck on any of the bells and whistles.

Confused now...which one is it??

These locations are quite far apart.

Edit: Oh, I see...the first post is quite old, so things may have changed?

Its in Spotswood

There's quite a few Melbourne threads on here Steve - a quick search wold help you out.

I'm not sure about that part of town - although if I was working in Spotswood I'd want to be living in Williamstown. Not cheap, but I love that part of town.

I'm out east though, so I'm sure some of the Westys on this forum can advise you better.

Taking a car? Depends. Check drive.com or ebay and see if your car is worth the same or more over here than the cost of shipping and the hassle of registering/legalising the thing. Its perfectly do-able, questionable wheter its desirable. Second hand cars are dearer over here so you might find its worthwhile.

Also depends how long you've owned it - you need to have had it for over two years (from memory - might be three) before you can ship it without paying a shitload of tax. Or something. I did look at taking my landrover out when I came but decided on balance it wasn't worth it. Still mulling that one over...

Not sure about tvs - they didn't use to work ,but in the digital age things might be different. Worth taking all your other electrical equipment though - its just a straight plug swap for tools and appliances.

Agree Williamstown or Altona - both nice family friendly beachside suburbs. They also have a village feel yet aren't that far from the CBD. Public transport is decent as they are both on a train line.

Other possible areas include Yarraville (more of an inner city feel) and Newport (becoming popular for young families). The western suburbs (inner West) still get a bad press but they have gentrified heaps over the past few years, yes there's still a lot of industry in some areas but there's also a lot of industry that's moved out and the land is now being redeveloped for residential and mixed uses.

I think you’d be crazy to live east of Spotswood if that’s where you’re going to be working - which basically leaves newport/wiliamstown/spotswood areas and then further west. It’s the bridge and the commuting traffic that would be the problem. I have friends in Newport that seem to like it, there is agood cafe there now, or you could go out further west but then you’re into commuter traffic from geelong again.

I brought my UK TV with me – couldn’t tune it in so just got a freeview set top box. You might want to get foxtel however as aussie TV will drive you bonkers – in which case you can connect your foxtel to your UK tv assuming its new enough for an HDMI connection. Power plugs are different here of course – no big deal really. Do a search on The Good Guys or Harvey Norman and see if its worth bring it. Unless it’s a particularly new or advanced one I’m not sure I’d bother again. They are broadcasting some stuff in 3D here now, also one of the manufacturers is advertising that they have ‘yellow’ as well as the standard RGB. You can guarantee as soon as you’ve bought a telly its out of date.

we lived in Altona East and Newport since 2003 and I like the area.
One problem though is that there are lots of families with young kids and the schooling capacity has not kept up...so in 8 years it seems there will be a lot of 12 year olds looking for high schools and having to travel.

Apart from that Spotswood is very small (maybe 15 streets) but has a great feel. Newport is far bigger- the bits nearer the beach are more expensive.
Willy is v expensive
South Kingsville is smaller than Spotswood.
Altona has a lovely village-y feel