fraser

True

Hels

BenandPam

Bit late to this one, but I thought that I could add a bit more than the original poster's 5 minutes glance, as we have been renting in Sanctuary Lakes for nearly a year. When it comes to Melbourne's great East/West divide, we don't have any of the bias that we come across in other people, so we just came and had a look for ourselves when we first arrived.

As I am a keen golfer, I will openly admit that Sanctuary Lakes was top of my places to look at living, but Pam had to be happy with the place as well. We have really settled in now and thoroughly enjoy it. The main benefit for Pam has been the onsite security who respond to an alarm going off within minutes (I know, because the smoke alarm is linked to the house alarm and I got a bit carried away cooking one night). For me abviously it has been the 10 minute walk to the golf course, as well as the gym/pool & tennis courts (Fraser enjoys those as well ). The shopping centre (which we have heard is being expanded) is only a 20 minute walk/5 minute drive, and we can get to beaches within 10-15 minutes (as this seems to be very important to a lot of people ). The most common form of wildlife are the rabbits running around the golf course, we certainly haven't seen any snakes so it can't be that infested

Pam works in the City and commuting from Laverton station has been pretty straight forward. I work from home and have done a reasonable amount of driving around at different times of the day, including the Westgate in rush hour, and honestly haven't found it that bad. I certainly don't think that the Monash/Nepean would be any quicker if we were over the other side.

Come June this year we will be looking to buy a place and will of course be looking to buy here. We are also considering the North East suburbs as it is possible to get some nice places on a good size plot that you can't get with newer places in our price range.

As is always the case, it is different strokes for different folks. If someone can tell me what I am missing out on by being in the Western suburbs then I am all ears. As far as we are concerned, we couldn't get this type of lifestyle this close to the City anywhere else (the only other golf course estate is in the South East and further out). The West of Melbourne is expanding rapidly, which is good from the point of view of increased facilities and infrastructure. If you are considering this area, my suggestion is to ignore the original post and check it out for yourselves.

OzTennis

What an interesting and informative post. I am also an unofficial ambassador for Melbourne's west (the better parts), coming from and planning to return to Williamstown. We looked at buying a block or a house and land package at SL'S when it first opened but we subsequently decided to buy a place on the waterfront at Williamstown. However, we do return to SL's each year when we are out and it is interesting to see how it expands and develops from one year to the next. We've also had the odd club sandwich and coffee in the golf clubhouse and the rec club too!

Further to your point about development in the area, the largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere is planned for Hoppers Crossing and one of Victoria's largest marina developments is planned for Wyndham Cove at the mouth of the Werribee River.

I'll take the opportunity to point out how good the west can be (at a fraction of the price on the other side of the WGB) by posting some of my Williamstown photos from another thread:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...9&page=3&pp=15

If you are still at SL's in July we might bump into each other as we are sure to visit then!

OzTennis

furkew

Fraser,

I'm over here on a reccie in melbourne.

fancy a beer (my call) and lets get shi* faced ?

i'm on a high, you need to be cheered up,

I think a lot of the guys and gals on BE would agree you need it.

fancy a cold one tomorrow night ?

drop me a PM,