If nightlife isn't an issue and your travelling most weekends then the more south the better in my opinion. Along with you wouldn't mind some decent shops close then Freo would be a good place to investigate further.

It's not exactly a beach side place though - but not far to drive to some awesome ones. If your travelling from Perth then you'll quickly discover your only decent option is heading south. So you could do without travelling an extra 45 minutes down the freeway to get away.

If your travelling regular like you say that extra will quickly become tedious.

As a completely different option and considering you don't really seem bothered about Perth itself and if you still prefer WA than anywhere else, have you thought about Bunbury?

Or even further south - I noticed that Margaret River was also on the list.

Your opinion is the phrase that is most important there. To say these areas are shit is, IMO, a little misleading as that is purely subjective.

Lovely place - if my job wasn't so connected with the city I could see myself living there.

Incidently you can never really ask someone else if somewhere is good to live - you really need to live that somewhere for yourself. I had strong opinions in the past about certain Perth suburbs and now find myself living in Edgewater. In prevoius posts I wrote some crap about such places but have now brought a house there.