MummyKarin

Hi,
I have been reading posts in this forum for a while now and have really enjoyed getting some information about Australia this way.
I just thought that I wanted to introduce myself and my family and perhaps ask for some more advise from all of you experts out there!
We are a family of four, mum (me) dad, and two girls (4 and 5 years old). We currently live in Surrey, England but are planning to move to Melbourne in August 2006. We already have the visa (skilled migration) and are just saving up some more money and getting everything ready to go for August.
We have been planning this move for a long time, our visa was issued in March 2004, but we wanted to spend some more time in England and Denmark with the family before making the big move, plus it gave us a chance to save up some more money.
We have visited Australia before and decided on Melbourne as the most suitable place for us to settle. The question is of course where in Melbourne? My husband will have to be able to commute to the center as he works in banking, but we would still like to live somewhere outside the center, where you can have a bit of space, a nice big house - a place with a bit of a countryside feel to it. We thought about perhaps the Yarra Valley, maybe Lily-dale, as it is on a commuter rail-line, but still close to beautiful nature, does anyone here live in Lily-dale or does anyone have any information about the place? Wonga Park looks nice too, but it may be too far from the city?
I would love to hear from anyone else planning to move to Melbourne, perhaps we can exchange information and help each other along the way.
Thanks for reading my post, any information is gratefully received and Happy New Year to all of you lucky one out there in the sun!!!

Hutch

Plenty of expats, such as Ozzieeagle and Fraser down that way who I'm sure will be along any moment now to offer you good advice. You sound like a pretty organised bunch and I'm sure the move will go well for you - best of luck with it.

haggis supper

Karin,

We moved to Melbourne from Hampshire in August - myself, Kim, Amy - 5, and Scott - 3. We initiailly looked at the Eastern Suburbs (Balwyn, Kew, Camberwell, Hawthorn etc) but as nice as these were they were overly expensive and we felt these were nothing too different from life at home - suburbia with sun ! I worked in London and commuted in from 55 miles away so we had a very big house with garden and country views. These are certainly available here but you are likely to have a commute of at least an hour or so. We felt that we would have a real lifestyle change so have a smaller place but with so much more to do. The commute is easy and I see the kids every night - rarely home after 7pm.

A work colleague from the UK moved to Black Rock with his 4 kids and loved it. We looked around and fell in love with Beaumaris. We have a great house just 1 street from a fabulous beach - absolutely perfect for the wee ones, we are 5 mins walk to a great shopping concourse, 5 mins walk to primary school (excellent) and kindergarten and as I work in the CBD (also banking) it is just a very relaxing 30 minute drive to work along beach road. We have a tiny garden but we do have our own tennis court !

We are very settled here and love the area. We have rented a place for a year but will probably extend that by another year and will then look to buy in this area. It's very quiet, friendly and has a village type feel.

Plenty of cafes, bars and restaurants and lots for the kids to do - life savers club, beaches, parks, cycle trails, tennis clubs, golf etc etc etc.

The school is also fabulous. My daughter was put up a year - she's not 6 until next May but they agreed to test her and took her in early. We've just had her first report card and she is doing extremely well and most importantly she loves it.

My advice would be to come to Melbourne with 5 or 6 areas in mind. Go see them as soon as you arrive and see what you think. Get friendly with Real Estate Agents and work colleagues as they are an invaluable source of information. Be prepared to change areas though but within a few weeks try to have settled on just a couple of areas and focus on them only. It also very much depends on budget, taste, and whether you want air con ( a must if you can), a pool, a garden etc etc.

Where will your husband be working ?

If you need any more information or help feel free to drop me a PM.

Good luck.
Colin

Jaykay

Hi Karin

We live in North Croydon which is only 2 suburbs away from Lilydale and only one suburb away from Wonga Park.

We also used to live in Surrey (Bisley), although I'm an Aussie Expat but my hubby is the UK expat. He'd never been to Australia before and had to take my word that he'd love it here.

We have a great house, fantastic bush setting, live 5 minutes away from the train line and 2 minutes from the main highway which takes you either into town one way, or out to the Yarra Valley the other way.

The train takes about 50 minutes to get to Flinders Street from Croydon Station.

Lilydale is now becoming very crowded. Lots of big new houses being built, but on quite small blocks (500sq M). Wonga Park is a beautiful area, but can also be quite expensive.

If you want any more info on the area, just let me know and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Regards

Jaykay

YoSemite

can also recommend North Croydon as that's where my family are. They also have a great house in a great setting (with a wonderful view) and it's difficult to get into the city at all (infact quite like the train journey myself!).

TracyAnne

Hi,

We moved from Surrey (Frimley) to Melbourne 2 months ago. We have bought a house in Berwick and our 3 daughters are all settled in school here. The area is lovely, 30 minutes from the beach and 5-10 minutes from the countryside. The is great shopping nearby, good sporting facilites and a very good choice of both state and private schools. There is a trainline direct into Melbourne. Would higly recommend the area.
Where in Surrey are you?

Tracy

KURUVILLA

We are also in the same boat.Skilled Independent migration.Planning to move to Melbourne if things fall in place.We have two children-daughter aged 14 and son 10.I am in the accounting and finance field.

Info abt.Melbourne (from friends etc.) gathered so far is exciting.Planned city, more laid back than Sydney, housing more affordable and quality schools.
Children are indeed excited.It must be a good city with friendly people and lovely suburbs.I've heard of Chadstone, Berwick, Jacana, Broad Meadows, Malvern and Ivanhoe as nice places.Can anyone comment ?Prospects for GenNext, that's the main concern.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.

Optimist

Des

hi
happy new year to you too also try this link maybe fraser/brody and co will be able to help aswell http://s7.invisionfree.com/BritVics/index.php?

des

Pomster

From a personal point of view, I would not want to commute to the city from Yarra Valley- it is a beautiful area, but would seem like you spend all the time on the train. In London, it would almost be like commuting to/from Tonbridge.

There are loads of good places around which are accessible, and if you want a bush sort of area, have you thought of the Mornington penisular? Probably the best bet is to rent for 6months as a minimum, and spend some weekends looking around.

We had a relocation agent (courtesy of work) told her what we wanted and she gave us something so different as to be laughable. We rented in the area she recommended for a year and then moved. It is so hard to recommend because we all value various aspects of life so differently.
(We live in Newport where you get good sized blocks, but not veru bush like!)

Jaykay

I suppose each to their own.

I used to work in Richmond and caught the train from Lilydale every day. As it's the first station on the line there was never a problem with getting a seat, it was a great way to relax and read my book without any interruptions, and with the trains being air conditioned, there's no problems with getting off the train looking like a wet rag in the summer.

The car parks at the stations are also free, so no forking out for parking either. I know that I'd rather spend 50 minutes relaxing on the train rather than 50 minutes sitting in peak hour traffic!!

And I also have a feeling that Frankston is the closest train station to Mornington so you'll probably have to travel the same distance on the train as from Lilydale.

Hels

Chadstone is over priced because of the shopping centre there. Berwick is a long way out. Broadmeadows is not somewhere anyone would voluntarily move to, especially with kids. Malvern and Ivanhoe are both gorgeous areas and have gorgeous price tags on the housing.

The friends that told you that these places were worth looking at, locals?? I would try other avenues for your information.

MummyKarin

Thank you for all your help.
My husband does not mind the commute to work that much, as he is used to it, travelling from Redhill to London every day.
I have got some new ideas, liked the sound of Beaumarine, but I guess that we have got to go there, rent somewhere for 6-12 months and check out suitable areas and houses and then buy.
At the moment we are looking at where we will be staying while en-route to Australia. We will not take any holiday this year till we go, and then we will take 3 weeks to get there, spending one week in Thailand, one week in Bali and maybe one week in Malaysia. After seeing cost of staying in a serviced apartment it is actually cheaper to stay in Asia, rather than going to Melbourne straight away. We then hope to find a rental house very quickly after our arrival, and hope that the furniture will not take too long to get there.
I do wish that I was in Australia right now with the sunny weather, it is so cold and dark here.

KURUVILLA

Thanx for the feedback.I am trying to zero in on a good locality.A place one would be glad to go home after school/work etc.I know we need to find the right blend of price, amenities, transport connectivity etc.realestate.com.au and domain.co.au have been quite useful.In the process of elimination, I would eliminate pricey areas first because in a pricey area, everything will be expensive.

I am searching.Pls.give helpful pointers.Driving factors: reasonable ease in commuting to work and schools, moderate budget, clean and orderly surroundings, good enough markets, parks etc.There are many, I'm sure.

Optimist

MummyKarin

Thanks for all your help. I am gathering as much info as possible on places to live to make a Short list of 4/5 places to concentrate on upon arrival in Melbourne.
For anyone else who is looking for information on areas, I found this fab link:

http://www.totaltravel.com.au/travel/vic.

You can also look at other areas in Australia, just type qld instead of vic for Queensland etc.

We have booked most of our accommodation for the trip en-route to Melbourne and hope to arrive on 10th Sept!

I can't wait....

thebears

We live in Horsham, West Sussex and are moving to Melbourne in a few weeks (leave 27 March arrive 28th April).

We will be closer to town (also working in banking) but dont want to have a long commute like here in UK.

Around the Toorak/Malvern area.