Hi folks, I would like to introduce myself and family. My name is Stuart and the wife is Dawn, we have 2 girls aged 7 and 3. After a year of debating will we, won't we, we have finally decided to take the plunge and apply for our visas. We have read loads of posts on here and you all give great advice, therefore we decided to contact Go Matilda and the ball is now rolling.

I am a coded welder to trade and my wife works in ICT. We are unsure of where we would like to go but I would say we are probably 80% in favour of Perth. We have looked at a few suburbs around Perth and were surprised at the price of housing. We did see one place where the housing seemed cheaper, Armadale. Anyone heard of or been to the place? Other suburbs I liked the look of were Ellenbrook and Mandurah.

Obviously we will go where the welding work is but would like to live somewhere nice for the girls for schooling, socializing etc. I know it will take months, even more than a year but would like to try and get an idea of where to look for work, housing, schooling etc. Any input would be much appreciated

Hi Stuart and Dawn.

There are many post's on this and people have a lot of differing opinions. There are a lot of British in the northern suburbs and most of the areas seem nice, you can do a search but I am sure you will get some replies.

Weclome to BE, thanks James

Hi Stuart and Dawn.

There are many post's on this and people have a lot of differing opinions. There are a lot of British in the northern suburbs of Perth and most of the areas seem nice, you can do a search but I am sure you will get some replies.

Weclome to BE, thanks James

Hi Stu and Dawn

First of all welcome to BE

I am a midwife and my husband is also a welder, there are apparently loads of welding jobs all over perth so prob wouldn't have any problems getting a job so we have been told. As for those areas i can't really help, but good luck anyway

Starlite

Mandurah isn't a Perth suburb. It's 90 minutes by train from Perth (plus travel time to/from the station). You also get lots of mozzies down there.

Armadale and Ellnbrook are Perth suburbs. But have not been there and can't comment.

Good luck.

Gina

Actually Gina, not to be pedantic but its only 50 mins on the train to Mandurah from Perth.

Don't bother with Armadale!
Ellenbrook is nice great for bringing up a family and fab schools.
Its a 30 min drive to City n beach.
Mandurah is lovely also and near the beach might have to travel for work though.
Look at Aveley new estate next to Ellenbrook and Dawsville in Mandurah,

Hi again,

Thanks for the replies,
Sue, we had a look at some houses in aveley, they are very smart, we like them a lot, ditto the houses in Ellenbrook. The reasons for Mandurah were more work related, as I heard there would be lots of work locally around Kwinana for welders. Gina mentioned the mozzies, I've heard that before so we might give that a miss as the wife has enough bother with the midges at home, they seem to love her

Is Armadale quite rough then?

Starlite, how far along with the visas are you? Is hubby main applicant or yourself? Keep us posted

Starlite, how far along with the visas are you? Is hubby main applicant or yourself? Keep us posted

Hi Stu and Dawn

At the moment all the paperwork is in and moving really fast, i'm the main visa holder on a 457 visa and the visa is now lodged. The medicals have arrived in sydney and we are waiting on them being processed and my registration as a midwife has gone through too. We are aiming to go to perth end of november all being well. Hubby will look for a job when he gets there.
We are looking to live NOR and have been in contact with a few schools too.
All the best
Starlite

Is Armadale quite rough then?


Depends if you like machete weilding kids smashing each other up in the street ! (as a guy I worked with at my first job in Oz expereinced this in his nice quite street - he lives in Armadale and now wants to get out). It's quite a rough place and the Armadale & Thornie train lines are the ones your most likely to get trouble on (according to a recent report).

Mandurah and the south are meant to be nice but the mozzies can be a pain (so I'm told), we dont have that problem in the northern suburbs (atleast not since I got here in Nov 07).

Stay away armadale,Gosnells that area.Look at Forest Lakes if you want to be South of river.