bigmac31

We are going to perth in the middle of march from melbourne and was wondering is south perth more touristy than the north. We were thinking of halls head in mandurah(south) and mindarie/brighton(north).any advice people can give me. Also are there any good primary schools that you all send your kids too in either of these 2 places.
Thanks. Natalie.

TraceyW

This is all personal opinions on my part, other folk may not agree...sorry if I upset anyone!

South Perth: Depends how far south. If you're looking at Mandurah...it's beautiful but full of retirees! It's a good 1.15 hours from Perth and a bit far out for my liking. There's not too much going on down there and the drive down is surrounded by industrial areas.

North Perth: Mindarie...gorgeous, rather expensive and overpriced but has a lovely harbour/quay and a great pub The Boat...it's the only pub so it has to be great! It will take you about 35 mins to get into Perth on a straight run. Mindarie College is a good school for the kids and has a good reputation. Brighton/Butler: Very nice and well laid out, it does have Homes West housing on it, but I haven't heard of any problems. It's about 10 mins further north of Mindarie. Close to the Beach. The Primary school is very new and getting a decent rep I've heard.

northernbird

other suburbs which are nice are sorrento, marmion, north beach, hillarys, mullaloo, ocean reef. older style housing but usually larger lot sizes but more expensive. Depends what you want out of a property/suburb. Personally I don't like it further north as all the suburbs seem to look the same to me and I like to be a bit closer to the CBD. If you like the idea of an expat lifestyle with almost a 35% quota of british folk then places like Currambine and surrounding suburbs are for you. Regarding Butler it is worth considering that even if the primary school is good, the high school doesn't have as good a reputation in fact I am sure renth said in a prior post that it is one of the worst in WA.