May74

Newbie here - so hello to all you already out in Perth, I need to pick your brains.. We are looking at relocating to the southern suburbs, and would like some honest opinions on living in rockingham (specifically just back from the Esplanade, Parkin street area) for a young family.. and yes I know rockingham doesnt really count as Perth!! I have read conflicting accounts of rockingham on here, so would really appreciate some insight on this part of the town. We are also looking at Freo but the prices are quite prohibitive.
Thanks in advance for taking the time.
M

kiwinow

I haven't lived there but know someone who lives in Safety Bay and Port Kennedy just to the south of Rockingham and they love it. It looked nice to us, nice beachfront, cafes etc All the shops you could want. Shoalwater was beautiful. About 40 minutes commute I believe if you need to get to CBD.

Gazzap

I believe that it's kind of the 'Swindon of WA'
Some hate it (some without knowing much about it). Some love it. It has it's ugliness, and it's beautiful parts, and is in good distance to a lot of other nice places/amenities.

BTW- I live in Swindon and I'm going to live in Rockingham in November

little bear

Hi,

We live in Warnbro which is under Rockingham 'council', have been here for just over 18months and are very happy, you will find that there will be the 'hate Rocko' campaigners that tend to live NOR (have just seen an example of it on a different thread but chose not to reply to that one) yes it has it's 'feral' parts and yes it has its beautiful parts, but then so did the area that i lived in over in the UK! Personally we have had no dramas as far as crime goes (am probably putting a curse upon myself now) and have gone off out to friends for a whole afternoon & eve recently and our garage door was faulting and re-opened itself after we had gone (the coding chip inside the remote had gone doo-laly apparently) we had 5 very decent bikes along with a whole load of power tools there for the taking, thankfully nothing did go missing. I have two kids at Safety Bay High (and for all those hate Safety Bay High haters they are doing fine thanks) and one at Warnbro primary, I work very locally and come into contact with all the areas people and on the whole they are all nice and friendly.

The only advice I can give is come out and see for yourself and get a 'feel' for the areas, what is good for one is not so good for another, but I do find the one's who cast opinions when they have only visited one part of an area for a day are not really valid enough judgements

good luck

little bear x

hitchcock71

if you like the look of freo then maybe look at bullcreek,leeming ,beelier,atwell, south coogee these are all south of the river but not as far as rocky - 12mins on the train to perth 20 mins to perth by car i live in yangebup which is 7 mins from the beach i get the bus in to freo it takes 20 mins and i get the train to perth

May74

Thanks for the replies. I guess my only worry with Rockingham was that it might be a little rough (!). I liked the cosmopolitan feel of Freo when I visited... what about the suburbs next to it (Bicton, Hamilton Hill etc) - are they similar?

hitchcock71

i dont know them enough to be honest - though i have had friends that have lived hamilton hill and liked it also spearwood -

my burb is good as like i said its close to everything i want freo (which if i could afford to live in i would) perth for other halfs job shopping and i live in suburb that is not an expat so it doesn't feel like little britain xxmy burb is older which means the plot sizes are bigger

i think it depends on what you feel is most important


also south coogee is only next to hh and has a huge marina being built - house prices around there will sky rocket because of this just a piece of land 300plot size is being sold at $4,0000 and that tiny but a lot of money just for the land - but this is at port coogee