Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Hi, my husband and I are moving to Melbourne in the new year but I'm currently feeling very shaky about it. The main thing I'm concerned about is finding the right suburb as we have two very young children. I have lots of friends here, and we know no one in Melbourne. Can anyone recommend some great suburbs for a young family, average salaries (one midwife, one nurse). Thank you

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Hi and welcome to BE :welcome:

I've moved your post to our Australian section - there's quite a few posters in Melbourne who should be able to help. Do you have jobs lined up in advance? Any ideas where you'll be working?

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Ahh thanks so much, I'm a bit lost here as you can tell. There are jobs all over so we're pretty flexible. Hoping for a sponsorship. I've heard good things about Berwick?? Oh and Mornington!!

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Hi and welcome.

Do you know whereabouts you will be working? There's loads of great family suburbs but Melbourne is enormous and has over 300 suburbs so we need to narrow this down a bit!

Do you like city, beach, countryside?
What would be your budget for renting and buying?

BB

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Hi, thanks for replying. There seems to work for midwives all over so home location will come first. I live in leeds at the moment, it's quite busy and there's a great cafe culture, bar scene where we are. Though there's also loads of baby and mum clubs which I adore. I'm looking to recreate this city life in Melbourne but would like to be only a short drive to the beech. Needs to be great outdoor life and I'm happy to be 30-60 minutes away from the centre. Budget wise 300-500 aus dollars a week for rent.

Hope you can help. Soooo grateful x

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Hi - OK well the area we live in would work. We are on the boundary of Mordialloc and Parkdale. We live 20 mins walk from the beach. Both Mordialloc and Parkdale have a good cafe culture (though nowhere as varied as suburbs further in). We are 30 - 45 mins from the centre of Melbourne. For kids, our area is amazing, with loads of childcare/kindys, great primary and secondary schools and a swimming pool, kids gym, community centre etc.

For your budget here you would just about get a modern 3 bed townhouse with a small garden or an older wooden house with a bigger garden.

There will be lots of other areas too that will fit the bill.

HTH

BB

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Hi, I would stop stressing, Melbourne is a fabulous place to live, especially with family. I would certainly recommend the South/East area rather than the West, although it is more expensive. As you move further out - (Mordialloc has been suggested already) areas surrounding this are all nice - the prices go down. Theres a good rail network to the city and great lifestyle. I would suggest hopping onto Domain.com.au and looking at rentals to get a feel for what you can get for your money

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Berwick and surrounding area is growing fast. More suburban and inland. Mornington is stunning and coastal but much further from the City. Areas like Cheltenham, Bonbeach, Mount Eliza will give you a compromise in between and are cheaper than areas close to the city. All great areas for bringing up family

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Thanks guys so much for helping. I'm definitely going to look at those areas you suggested. Feeling a little braver than I was too, so cheers x

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Williamstown is a beautiful secret enclave in the west - gorgeous old town and a decent beach (by Melbourne standards). Quiet, leafy streets. Reasonable train line to the city (about 25 mins) and to drive with no traffic it's barely 15 mins. It is a very family friendly place off the beaten track but with a view straight across the water to the high rises. Because it's nicer than most of the west the property prices are more like Eastern suburbs. Oh and handy enough to the airport too.

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Williamstown (looking towards the city when Queen Mary 2 was in and the beach mentioned on the other side of the narrow peninsula)
http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9e720c28.jpg
http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2b779726.jpg
http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...psf04aac3c.jpg

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Wow that looks amazing. Thanks so much for the recommendation I'll definitely check it out when we get there!

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Hi BB, about Mordialloc, how safe and family friendly is that place (including transport trains buses, crime rate, joblessness etc) for young kids if they go out on their own. I heard some not so good stuff about Frankston line and some of the suburbs along the way but have no real insight. We are thinking of moving from Glen Waverley to Mordialloc to move closer to beach + city at reasonable cost but don't want to compromise on safety and family friendliness of the area. Thx in adv.

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Completely safe. Our kids have been walking to school by themselves since they were 9. No idea about the trains as I dont use them - I think the Frankston line can be dodgy at night. But I have never felt anything but safe here. This is an incredibly family friendly area.

I don't think Mordialloc is closer to the city than Glen Waverley though. But I think the house prices are similar? And the beach is very accessible of course.

BB

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

One very tentative word of advice, Aus Cities in terms of social issues are almost the total opposite of the UK cities... IE: the further you go from the CBD the more social problems there are generally.

Or put bluntly more gang and peer group pressure on the outside burbs compared to the inner burbs. Places like Frankston which really would look good to a new UK person...and is on the edge of the Mornington peninsular can be very dodgy at night time... compared to places further in. Frankston BTW is not as bad now as it used to be ...but was one of the dodgiest burbs in Melbourne at one stage.

So rental until you Acclimatise is an absolute must... I see your already going to do that... but it's going to take at least 2 maybe 3 years to undo years of UK pre conceived ideas re cities.

I'd say around the beach on the SE burbs could be the go for you... as close in as you can afford though.

Altona on the other side is a possibility, new hospitals over there and you'll be able to get far more bang for you buck there.... It's near Williamstown ;)

Remember to add at least 12 pct take home pay each to you and your partners wages in Salary Packaging benefits as all government health workers qualify for this.

Ergo your average combined income of circa 150-175K (assuming you do shifts and a little OT) will be worth 25pct more in buying power/tax free take home pay.

My Aus wife, who works at the Royal Melbourne as a nurse with 30 years under her belt, which is why I know a bit about the conditions and wages.

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Thanks BB, after 4 years of procrastination (ie after getting our PR), we finally left the UK behind and moved to Melbourne last year and it has been a rough ride from few angles but a good learning curve at the same time with new surroundings culture mindset etc. Thanks for your response. Useful thread indeed!
And you're right, Mordialloc is no closer than Glen Waverley from city travel point of view.

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

I second the inner west...Willy, Newport, Yarravile, Seddon all nice spots, close to the city, close to beaches.
My daughter goes to a lovely state school which did amazingly well in Naplan (as if that means much!) but the feeling of community is lovely. Parents help each other out, kids thrive...and the beach is a 5 min drive away. As a resident of our borough, we get free permits for parking at the beach too...

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

We're in the outer east and love it. Loads of hills, trees. Good schools and services. In a suburb with direct rail to the CBD (40 min) or 20 minutes by car via the M3. We weren't looking here originally, but we feel like we found the perfect spot for us. Living 20 min drive from the Yarra Valley or Dandenong Ranges is great too.

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Hi, I'm new to this site and have never posted to a forum so forgive me for intruding but like chrissy79 are moving to Melbourne hopefully end of 2016 as long as everything with my husband's partner visa comes through, fingers crossed!
I am Australian was born and bred in Sydney but have been living in the UK for 10years.
We visited Melbourne and Mornington in April this year and loved it, we have a 4 year old son who will be starting kindy in February 2017 and was hoping for some advice on primary schools around the Mornington area?

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Hi, you're not intruding - questions like yours are what a forum is for! :D

I'm sure someone will be along soon who knows about Mornington schools.

BB

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Can't help on Mornington but make sure you get your UK citizenship before you leave (in case you haven't) - you never know when it might come in handy as getting back into UK as a non EU spouse is getting very tricky.

Myschool.edu.au gives a thumbnail pic of what the schools are about but generally the schools reflect the catchment area so if you can't see yourself living in a particular area you wouldn't want your kids in school there and vice versa.

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

You might find this (chinese) website of some use :

Australia School Search, Ranking, Victoria, New South Wales, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Tasmania and Northern Territory

it gives you ranking, etc. information, and the other parts give your suburb and house price data.

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Thanks for the links.

We have looked at the My schools site but I really don't get all the rankings and things.

Was hoping to hear about personal experiences of schools.

I haven't heard of the other website so will check that out thanks.

I have a Italian passport as well as an Aussie one, and we are going to keep and rent out of house in the UK just in case things in Oz don't work out, we can come back. I'm hoping it'll all be ok and we can sell in a couple of years and settle in Oz but you just never know what is around the corner!

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

You are wise to ignore MySchool rankings. Some schools actively "fudge" their results. Their is a school near us that does this in the following ways -

- any child likely to fail Naplan does not take the test (yes they can do this!)
- any child who is borderline can be "coached" through the Naplan test.

The problem with personal experiences of schools is that they are just that - personal. I recommend that you do a tour of some schools and go with your gut feel about how the school looks and how the teachers and kids are behaving and interacting.

BB

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

All schools do this, it's one of your typical metrics problems - everyone has to cheat, and cheating is the easiest way to win. However, that means the rankings are still somewhat relevant, since they can all only cheat using similar methods, and it all washes out.

Personally I'd say the 'culture' is more important. Some schools are still very much 'chalk and talk' - drilling facts into heads both as a way to pass tests, and because parents like it. Problem is, it's not really where the ball is anymore - things will change quickly and google can always provide facts. It's much more important to learn how to learn and to get the habit of "getting off your arse and making things happen". And that is very difficult to pin down in rankings (where are the alumni now is about the closest you get). Oh, and ask about 'flipped classrooms'. Even if they aren't doing it (and they should be) the response will tell you much about how they are moving forward.

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

Or perhaps how many kids do VCE vs VCAL?

Flipped classrooms is probably something that will not be encountered until Secondary school I reckon.

BB

Re: Moving to Melbourne. Help needed!!!!
 

True, though I think it should probably be introduced early (if they can watch cartoon, they can watch a lesson) and it brings with it the opportunity to leap ahead at your own pace, rather than get held back.

However the response is the interesting bit. If they brush it aside as "we don't worry about such new nonsense" then the kid is going to get a chalk'n'talk; if you get a "what?" then they aren't keeping up and changing with the times, etc.