Perth a personal view
 

Well, i know before i start that this will upset people but its the facts has i see them. We came here looking for a better life and found that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
We picked Perth and not Brisbane because we thought the housing would be cheaper and it would not be so humid in the summer .
Well when we first got here everything seemed to be great just what we had hoped for. The weather was great the poeple were nice and there were plenty of jobs advertised. We have been here some time now and our views have changed alot. Tere are lots of jobs , the poeple are nice and the weather can be very nice indeed.ITS NOT ENOUGH from day one we have been told you wlll get used to this and you will get used to that, well thats the way we do it out here etc etc.
What this has really meant is that we are forced to accept lower standards in almost everything from education to food. from work place safety to employment rights, the list seems almost endless.
I know by now there will alot of poeple typing away to rubbish what i am saying but there are a lot of poeple that know what i am saying is true, so please read on and at least be aware of what ( i think ) awaits the hopeful immigrant, if he hasn`t researched has much has he should.
First i have to mention housing , everybody out here seems totaly obsessed with the housing market , prices have been booming for a long time now land prices are high ( this in a country with unlimited land ) and building costs are the same. At first we rented a house very large with a lot of land and all brand new. We thought this was great and began to think it would be wise to build our own new house in Australia. But it soon began to dawn on us that we would have to compomise where we wanted to build because of land prices and while we pondered this we started to take a look at the quality of the house we were renting and the others of friends and those around and nearby.
They are very poorly finished off the work is not what you would accept back in the uk yet they still run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Then we come to the education of our children , IT JUST MAKES ME WANT TO CRY why o why did i ever complain about schools back in the UK.I don`t see the point of going into this any further other to say you should really look into it yourself if you think the education of your children is important.
Then there is work lots of jobs about but they are nearly all in the city area which means traveling , the road network is has busy has any major city in the world at peak times, the driving ability of most of your fellow comuters is .......... well you decide when you drive from the airport .
so why do so many people come here and why do so many people stay? ( this is going to upset a lot of people i suppose ). A lot of migrants come to perth from the Uk looking for a better life and for the most part seem to find it. They come from run down northern cities terraced housing and inner city schools , perth gives them a bit more space a newer home good weather and they accept its bad points because of this. They seem to think good food is cheap food, good houses are bigger houses etc etc.

To sum it up I would have to say that in general we have had to accept lower standards in almost everthing , if you lived in a small teerraced house in a big city in the uk then it is paradise , if you live in a detached house in the country (uk ) then it is almost the opposite, on the whole the grass is not greener on the other side . People may say well its not for everyone and this is true , but before you come over think about what you have in the uk , the truth is you may be gambleing it all onthe promise of cheaper houses and sunshine, ( Well you get what you pay for in this life and it gets very clod hear in winter and very wet . )
just think before you leap, and good look which ever way you go. :confused:

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Hi
We are looking to come to Perth next year although i am researching other areas one of them being Brisbane!
What job do you do?
I appreciate the honesty of your post i dont think you will get slated for it as it is your honest opinion and you are saying what you have found rather than just slagging Perth off!

Are you planning to come back? where did you come from in the UK.
Although I must say that its only people from inner cities that live in mid terraced houses is a bit strong!

Until the people on this side actually experience the NEW life for themselves they will never know .
So no matter what your or anyone elses experiences are each of us is an individual whos out look and expectations are different and until we have tried it we wont know!!

Good Post

Kris x

Re: Perth a personal view
 

So its a north/south thing then. Okay for the working class but you and your southern nancies living in stockbroker belt are far too good for Australia. Well you know where the airport is.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

so what you're saying is the people who (in your opinion) make a go of it are...

"from run down northern cities terraced housing and inner city schools , perth gives them a bit more space a newer home good weather and they accept its bad points because of this. They seem to think good food is cheap food, good houses are bigger houses etc etc. "



I am from said "run down northern cities with terraced housing".

I sincerely hope you never fall upon hard times, because you wouldn't have a hope in hell of surviving. As you are obviously better than everybody else, then perhaps you should consider buying a small island somewhere, and living on that, away from all the plebs and dullards.

Warm regards,

Jamie

Re: Perth a personal view
 

If people are weighing up bris and perth you need to look at the weather ALL year round. Often you read brisbanes humid in summer, yes it is humid for about 3 months but in winter brisbane is mid 20's and dry and runs rings around perths colder wet winters. Summer in Perth is no picnic anyway :confused: unless you like millions of flies and many 35+ days. Pick the weather you like from an all year round angle not just a few weeks and remember nowhere here is perfect weather all the time.

House and land prices, australians are obsessed with housing prices, especially when prices are going up, the only way to weath for most aussies has always been buy a house and hopefully then a second house, dont believe aussies dont love their material posessions or money they are like anyone else of course they love it! Also that second house is often part of the essential plan to pay for retirement the pension is asset tested here and most wont get one.

Land is not really unlimited because most of australia is uninhabitable, 20 million people cram into land within an hour from a few major cities and centers, land is getting smaller and more expensive all the time, its also quite hard to find decent vacant land in many places now, its simply being built out.

Education and employment conditions do shock many people, people with older children should seek out employment opportunites not just for them but what the kids chances are too, things can be very competitive here.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

I live in Hampshire where you are paying £100k for a tiny two bedroom flat, I originally from just north of Edinburgh where house prices have risen dramatically in the 8 years I`ve lived down South (2 bedroom flats now selling for £80k ) Where in Britain today would be it affordable or possible for Joe Bloggs to buy land and build a house - nowhere I think. There are plenty of terraced houses here selling for over £100k it`s not an oop North thing (terraced houses in the Co Durham area where my hubby comes from are selling at over £80k). The point I`m trying to make is that everywhere house prices are rising not just Perth, the reason Perths house prices are rising so dramatically perhaps has something to do with the amount of migrants heading out there. I`m not out in Perth yet and I`m really not a rosetinted specs type person, so Idon`t feel qualified to comment on what life will be like there, however all I can do is give it a go.Your post however did come across as slightly insulting. :rolleyes:

Re: Perth a personal view
 

[QUOTE=sponge bob]

my terrace is lovely :p 4 bedrooms and lots of space, per metre squared bigger than most new detached :)

also large garden neh neh

oh and Sheffield is one of the safest cities in europe :p

and the north is crap aswell for sense of humors..........

PETER KAY versus uuuuuuummm JIM DAVISON. no contest :p :D

Re: Perth a personal view
 

oh and forgot to add my house is worth £180 000 :p

crap up north isn't it :D

Re: Perth a personal view
 

I found the comment about northen people quite insulting. Maybe people from the North settle better because they are more willing to give it a go and adapt their life. We are friendly people and maybe that helps too as we speak to our neighbours, so will do the same in Australia.
As for the comments about Perth, I can't comment as we are in Brisbane, and from where we are we have everything within an hours drive, so couldn't wish for anything better.
Lots of people seem to complain about the education in WA, but here it is fine........very different to UK education (in my opinion better).

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Good to see you haven't used any north / south stereotypes then.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

I'd love to know how spongebob is measuring education standards. It does illistrate that we need a national measuring standard in the education system in this country though.

I'm sure most schools in Melbourne at least, measure up to educational standards in the UK. But there again, how can I/we be certain of that.


BTW, are you fuzzy in disguise ??

Re: Perth a personal view
 

[QUOTE=gobbyjock]I live in Hampshire where you are paying £100k for a tiny two bedroom flat, I originally from just north of Edinburgh where house prices have risen dramatically in the 8 years I`ve lived down South (2 bedroom flats now selling for £80k ) QUOTE]

You would be lucky to buy a retirement flat for £80k where I live (just outside Brighton) you are looking at more like £120k for a 2 bed flat...who the @$!* can afford that when you're single and can only get a £70k mortgage?

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Yes, I must say I'm also insulted about the northern comment. I was just wondering where you studied for your own education 'has' your spelling and grammar isn't the greatest? I was hoping Perth would offer slightly better.

Oh and I've lived in detached houses for the majority of my life on the edge of the Lake District including the village of Gosforth, a picturesque little village where tourists and hikers would visit every Sunday for cream teas to the local craft shop and cafe. This somewhat differs to your vision of the north!!, Which parts have you visited?

Re: Perth a personal view
 

[QUOTE=Carkedit] How the hell do first time buyers get on the property ladder anymore?? We sold our house in Scotland and I thought the house prices down here were ridiculous 8 years ago (2 bed mid terrace £70k) now they sell for £125K. We are in rented housing here because I thought the prices were ridiculous then and didn`t intend staying here that long :rolleyes: - if we don`t get to Oz then I really don`t know how we`ll get back on the property ladder when hubby leaves RN in a couple of years.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Judging by your spelling, grammar and punctuation I'd say the UK education system failed you.

And what a whinger, nothing of any substance to say.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Obviously SB's education wasn't that good if he/she can't even spell 'as' :rolleyes:

Going by content of the rest of the post, I'm not really surprised anyway.

Do get a life, and leave the rest of us to make our own decisions/opinions about the places we chose to live in,

Regards,
Tia

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Maybe he was educated at one of those posh schools in the South and it is the northerners that done understand his proper English!!!

Re: Perth a personal view
 

LOL! I mean, Laugh out loud! :D

Re: Perth a personal view
 

yeah how many northern cities have you visited and which do you class as run down??? honest opinions welcome for sure, voice your experiences but don't deflame other people or areas of which you obviously have little knowledge

Re: Perth a personal view
 

...From someone who posts a whole thread on the housing market :rolleyes:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=309029

Aren't house prices booming in the U.K too??? In U.K they have risen 154% in the last 8 yrs compared to Australia's 114%

...We bought a brand new house 3 yrs ago, and the quality of a lot of things we noticed weren't up to the standard 'you would expect in the U.K'

Seems to me we have a person here who doesn't really know what they want, and is just moaning about things that they can't really justify....

:zzz:

Re: Perth a personal view
 

It's good to see that people in here respect the views of others!

It's worse that primary in here for all the bickering! And then people post questions like 'Why don't posters hang around here any more?'

Thanks for your honesty sponge bob - I hope things work out for you no matter what you choose do!

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Sponge Bob, sorry to hear Perth hasn't met up to your expectations, but you should stop comparing it to the UK. We are after all in a different country, we should be open to change and differences.

Yes, many houses are built to a different standard, but they can be improved on & in my opinion have some better features (e.g I love the fact most have en suites to the master bedroom, I also like the separate laundry room, under cover areas outside etc.).

The weather. Well, it would be boring to have 12 months of 35+. The winter does get cold, but you don't tend to have days on end of grey skies, you may get a couple of grey rainy days, then one or two of beautiful sunshine where you can still go out & do things. The rain never seems to last all day like it can in the UK, a decent downfall then you get a break.

Education. Very different to the UK yes, but don't forget standards vary considerably from school to school like in the UK. You may just have not found the right school for your children. A lot less emphasis seems to be placed on academic achievement, but the curriculum is much more varied to cater for the whole child. My son, for example (now Year 5), has had cookery lessons, dancing, swimming, Italian etc. which he wouldn't have had in his equivalent UK school yet, plus of course a lot more sport - quantity & variation.

Food - I have to disagree about the quality of food. No, you can't buy as many ready made meals and some food is different, but I think the fresh produce is superior to the UK's. You soon get used to it & I've learned to cook so much more since I've been here. Plus the kitchen joins the family room, so whilst I'm cooking I can still watch TV or chat away, I'm not stuck in a kitchen by myself!

How long have you been here SB? Give it a fair go & you honestly do get used to things if you really want to be here. You havent mentioned any of the positives. What about the great beaches, stunning scenery, the wildlife?

Loopy

Re: Perth a personal view
 

I do respect people's views....but everyone is entitled to agree or disagree...That's called having an opinion :rolleyes:

Re: Perth a personal view
 

thankyou, i am glad you said that, We lived in a town with lots of problem , we had a lovely detached 5 bed house, Northern that was us, lancashire, so what, so what we are buying here is not much different just more open space, the school my kids go to, state school may i say is absolutely fantastic, but so was the school they left, in overcrowded North Uk.
The traffic here is not as bad, the air is much cleaner,you have to try this life for yourself, we love it here, yes my hubby does earn less money than the UK , good old plumber he is . I dont understand why people who are so unhappy stay, because if i was not happy i would go back, i came out with a budget, and said if it did not work out we would go back, i still have the money put away, but hopefully will use it on something else. Denise from the beautiful south west.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

here, here, we are from sunny Morecambe, facing the lake district. down here south west is like the countryside in a lot of places, so green, beautiful orchards and wineries, Bunbury for me, although Perth is gorgeous.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Hi Sponge bob
Sorry to hear that Perth did not live up to your expectations. What are you planning to do now? Are you going back to the UK or will you try a different part of Australia?
Rachel

Re: Perth a personal view
 

This did make me laugh :) When my brother moved to London in the late eighties he was living in a wimpey built house and the workmanship was appalling.

The thing is that the UK has good builders and bad builders just like Perth and the rest of Australia has good builders and bad builders.

To categorise UK as always better or OZ as always better is a quantum step that cant possibly be made.

you get what you pay for so if you want a well built house with high finish standards you have to pay more, regardless of country or even which area within that country.


Anyway sorry to hear Perth is not for you SB, hope where ever you move to next is more to your liking.

Oh and make sure you research it thoroughly :D

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Honestly Sponge Bob.....are you secretly having a laugh and taking the opportunity to insult various groups of people at the same time, especially Northerners?? I thought all that went out in the eighties?

Anyway, sorry to hear you are fly-bound in Perth and hope things improve soon!

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Smells of troll to me.........

Re: Perth a personal view
 

I think its an honest post, and a gutsy post, as he knew he would get slated for it, even said so himself.
Come on people, you can't call everyone a troll just because they don't find Australia to be perfect. Bob has posted his own feelings and experience, and certainly as far as the bit I have quoted, I agree with him.
What seems like paradise when you first arrive, may turn out to be somewhat less once you are used to living here.
I feel much the same in Brissie - the people are nice, the job is nice, the weather is (sometimes) nice, but iTS NOT ENOUGH! I don't know what the missing piece is, though I've tried very hard to find it.


Instead of nitpicking, or starting a north-south discussion, just try and understand what lies behind posts like this - one day you may find yourselves posting something similar.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

oh dear you are getting slated and I think you may have insulted some people on here.I respect your honesty and it is good to know about the various things you do not like and are dissapointed in.We came over to Perth back in Feb and although we loved Perth city for me personally that was it.
I came home on the plane very confused and just had a gut feeling that Perth was not for me I too was slightly dissapointed.
The education system does concern me from what I have read and I shall be doing some more research on the subject as my kids are the most important thing throughout the whole of this process,I certaintly do not want them attending some flea ridden school that I have read on another post.Maybe I am over reacting on this but I need to be sure that everything is going to be right for them.
Hope things improve for you ,you have some hard decisions to make no doubt about your future good luck with it all.
Dreamaway

Re: Perth a personal view
 

I don`t thinkit`s the fact that he`s not happy in Perth thats bothering people, it`s the way it seems to deride northeners. It`s a pity because it`s taken away from rest of the post. Normally I`d tend to be supportive of anyone finding it hard and wouldn`t jump on someone for saying they don`t like it in Oz. I guess part of the problem with the internet and posting threads is that it`s very easy to take something the wrong way and stuff can come across totally differant from the way it`s intended. :rolleyes:

Re: Perth a personal view
 

There has been a plethora of negative posts about Australia recently. I used to love coming on BE but now when I log on, I wonder with trepidation what the latest slagging off of Australia will be. When you are planning a new move, you don't mind constructive and objective views, but the continual slagging-off onslaught is getting a bit much. Those of us who are making the move are going to go regardless of what others say, but it would be nice not to have the negative stuff all the time.

I do wish people would realise that moving to a new country is going to take time to adjust to and it is unrealistic to compare it to one of the most highly developed countries in the world. Australia is still a relatively 'new' country and I think it has done wonders to come as far as it has in the short space of time it has been a 'civilized' (no comments please) country. There are bound to be shortcomings to the UK - we are so overdeveloped that there is no room to breathe. Everything is fine-tuned here. I like the fact that there is room for improvement in Australia - it gives us something to work for.

As for education, I can only comment on my niece who came to the UK from South africa, where they start school at the age of 6. The school she came into here did not help her in the slightest, despite her not being able to read and write when she was admitted into Year 2. She found integration so difficult that she would sit in the toilets on her own during break times and despite my SIL bringing this to the teachers attention, nothing was done about it. Rush forward to today, where my niece now attends a state school in Melbourne. She is a completely different child. The school recognised immediately that she was very far behind (now having lost a further two years through struggling in the UK) and suggested she repeat Year 3, which she is doing. Her confidence and ability have completely transformed her. She does lifesaving, swimming, netball and athletics and is excelling at all of them. The schools do so much with the child as a whole person and not just the academic side. I think people get so caught up with academics that we forget that there are many facets to children, not just if they can read, write and do sums.

Please, can we just have more positive posts on here, or at least more constructive criticism of Australia. I am all for balance, but slagging off and rubbishing every aspect of Australian life is not balanced and really just makes my blood boil.

Sarah

PS I do not have rose-tinted glasses - I know only too well that each country has its good points and bad points.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Two words, Excellent post

Re: Perth a personal view
 

It's the glaring lack of specifics which ring the "baseless rant" alarm bells for me.

In what way are the standards of food, workplace safety, education, employment rights and houses lower than the UK? You don't actually tell us; you just throw out a list of unsubstantiated claims. :rolleyes:

Perth's streets are as busy as any major city in the world? That comes as a surprise to me, since Perth - my home town - has a population of less than 1.5 million. I'd be fascinated to know how a city of that size is capable of generating as much traffic as a major population centre in somewhere like Birmingham or London. :rolleyes:

Quality of life? Hmmm, let's think about that one for a moment.

Typical British suburb...

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/6...nstreet2qy.jpg


Typical Australian suburb...

http://www.aussiemove.com/images/c7/pic/zoom/1093.jpg

:D

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Sarah, if you feel that the realism of some posts is depressing you, please don't read them. Stick to the positive threads!As you say, each country has good points and bad points - thats what the variety of threads here seeks to tell people!

There have been some very positive posts, although I think you will find that a lot of the upbeat posters have left for another site. Hence I'm afraid theres a lot of people like me around - posting the realism of living here. Posts that totally slag off the country aren't actually that common - the original poster here says that the people are nice, weather nice etc - jr just wants more. Now that isn't slagging off the country, thats posting a personal opinion.
Australia IS different from the UK, and I think that most people coming here realise that. However its only when you have been here for a while that you start to realise the less obvious differences.The only way that I can describe it is that I find life here os a lot more superficial- certainly in the circles that I am moving in . Obsession with house/land prices (for reasons put forward by Jad n Rich), obsession with share prices, superficial friendships, short-lived jobs - people think I'm odd cos I want to stay in the same job for a couple of years.Its a depth that I'm looking for that doesn't seem to exist - don't know why.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

[QUOTE=Pollyana]Sarah, if you feel that the realism of some posts is depressing you, please don't read them. Stick to the positive threads!As you say, each country has good points and bad points - thats what the variety of threads here seeks to tell people!

QUOTE]

I agree that there have been some very good positive posts and to be honest, I read the negative ones because I am looking for a balanced view, not wanting to look at it through completely rose-tinted glasses. However, although the OP said that there were good parts about Perth, they also compared it to some form of preconceived notion of what northern suburbs and people are in the UK. That is hardly constructive. I agree that people are completely entitled to their own opinion, but I just think that we could do with a bit more constructive and objective criticism of the country rather than some of the negative threads that we have been getting lately which have been, frankly, quite insulting to Australians and to the people who make a life over there.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

I've been reading this thread with interest, and I agree with what everybody else has said about the stupid proposed correlation between the North/South divide and immigatration.

Is it indeed true that there are more Northerners moving? Looking at peoples locations on BE indicates otherwise. Maybe the presence oif Northerners in another country is not least due to their resilience and tenacity. And before you ask, I come from the South East and am moving because I have been offered a great job with a former colleague who comes from Liverpool! So that's one family from the North, and one from the South.

I think that people have many different reasons for migration and I guess that if everything in peoples life in the UK was what they hoped for they wouldn't be moving overseas. This will be based on perception of the problems in both countries. This type of post helps people realise that their perceptions probably aren't right, but that's all that people should read into it. Everybody's perceptions are different, but you can't know until you get there. Have you ever gone anywhere or done anything in life where it is exactly how you'd thought it would be? Isn't it true that there are things that you hadn't expected that made it better or wourse than you thought? Doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.

Things in the UK have gone downhill rapidly over the last few years, just last night I had someone in the back garden, then there was a knock at the door. I have a large dog, and that scared them off, by the time I reached the door there was no-one there. I was working late and I guess that they thought the place may be empty with a light left on for security.

My LOCAL paper this week has had a boy of nine mugged for 20p, a case about a guy accused of mudering an elderly woman killed in her home in a local village, and a woman sexually assaulted on her way home at 2.30 in the afternoon. Even those of us who don't perceive being better off financially read their local papers. Last week there was a stabbing outside the football ground, and an article showing knife crime on the up. Like it or not the UK has one of the the highest rates of assault in the world.

We are moving because we want the space and I want my youngest daughter to be able to become independent. It is impossible for children to become independent and buy their own house, or even manage reasonably well on a rent almost anywhere in the UK. My eldest daughter and her fiance both work really hard and long hours, but because they are only on £12,000 each they will not be able to get their own place for the forseeable future, and even rent on a flat is £500 a month, then there's council tax and water rates that aren't payable on rentals in Oz.

Just look at the differences in the cost of driving lessons, petrol and accomodation. Then there's the Austudy allowance, here they get no help at all for their living when they do a degree, and now we have the introduction of top-up fees.

Re: Perth a personal view
 

Just to throw a bit of "reverse rose-tints" in here - I've found, when talking to Aussies like the MIL, who has been here all her life, they often find it odd that other countries have hooligans, drugs problems, high fuel prices etc! They frequently feel these problems are peculiar to Australia - another case of the grass seeming greener, I guess :confused:

Re: Perth a personal view
 

This may appear twice, strange PC thing here....

That is all about perception again, so I agree. But I wonder how many kids in their mid to late 20s are still at home with parents in Oz because they can't afford to move away. I've had a quick count of my sons closest mates (he's 24). Out of those in the Ipswich, two live away from home, five are still at home. In Northampton two are independent, one because he had some inheritance.

Is it like this in Oz??