Originally Posted by Paul and Chloe (Post 4644807)

We have just left Perth after just over 2 years there and have moved to Melbourne, only been here two weeks so still a bit of a honeymoon period (although lived here before) but we are very happy with our move.

Originally Posted by Siren & Brian (Post 4646692)

Sure people dont have to shop if the shops are open, but people have to work at the shops if they are open.

Originally Posted by worzel (Post 4646837)

I am glad it is working for you. It is all about horses for courses which is why it is so important to do research. If you like big cities that don't sleep don't come to Perth; if you like peace and quiet don't go to Sydney. I spent several weeks in Melbourne last year (Mount Waverley) and although the city is nice I would hate to live there. The guys I worked with were scared to go out for lunch as several people had been mugged walking around the building to the cafe.

Originally Posted by daisylilymum (Post 4646417)

Great post - karma sent;)

Originally Posted by lang81 (Post 4644254)

My wife and i have now been in Perth for 6 months and all we can think about is when we can get out of it. Unfortunately we are in the process of building a house so we will be here for another year at least !!!! ( jumped into the market to quick ).

I am not writing this to scare people off from Perth however if you are in the UK and are dreaming of coming here then you may like to know of some of the harsh realities of life here.


First of all i would like to point out that most of the shops are closed on Sundays. There are many big shopping centres here and none are doing business on Sundays !!! Yes the city is open but the stores there are crap compared to the UK and it is so small. It may sound trivial but when you have come from a place where Sunday shopping is quite normal it is bloody hard to get your head around. Apparently WA is the only state in OZ where this happens ?

Lots of people walk about in their bare feet !!!! Let me tell you that this is weird to see when you are working in a University (like i am) and you see people walking to classes with no shoes ! Am i the only one who finds this disgusting ????

The freeways are just as busy as the roads were in Glasgow, so don't think that driving here is a pleasure, in fact it is one of the most frustrating things about Perth.
The people here just don't know how to drive. Drivers will sit at 90 ks in the outside lane and they don't move over for anyone so they overtake down the inside lane. It is real life wacky races.
They also love doing burnouts in their V8s. We live in Greenwood and it is a decent suburb however it seems to be the burnout capital of Perth.
Drivers here have no curtesy either. You will sit at a junction for ever and no one will let you out, they don't flash their lights here (to let you in /out at junctions) and a friendly wave of thanks is non existent.

The nearest pub is always miles away and the drink is expensive. $8 a pint in the Greenwood is considered good and $10 is normal in other bars.I have paid $15 for drink in Subiaco ! Getting a taxi from the city or Northbridge is almost impossible. There are no private taxi companies here so they are sparse to say the least. Never mind, you could always have a few pints then drive home. Drink driving here is rife, worse than Scotland.

The cost of living (for us) is roughly the same as it was in Scotland. House rental prices are high as are house prices, fruit and veg is pretty expensive, bills etc are similar to what we were used to. We got a bill from the water board for $84 for 2 months water at our plot of land !!!!!!!!!! It is just a big plot of dirt and have never seen any water in my time there ????
The one big difference though is the cost of petrol, much cheaper than UK prices, although it is going up all the time. It was $1.06 in December and it is now hitting $1.32 in some garages.

Banks are worse here than in the UK. You get charged for having an account with the banks ($5 a month) and if you use atm's make sure it is your own banks that you use, you get charged for using other atm's.
They don't hold any large amounts of cash either which made life difficult for us when we tried to buy a car. We went to the local branch to withdraw $7000 and were told that we would not be able to get this amount from the one branch, so we had to go to 2 banks to get this money out !!!

Internet connection is as slow as a week in the jail. Broadband is miles behind the UK and is such a problem that it features highly in the political stakes.

The topic is Perth and its isolation hits home when you get here too. I thought about a weekend in Sydney recently and it is $300 one way. Instead we chose to drive to Margaret River, one of WA's premier holiday destinations. We walked the length of the town in 10 minutes and had a drink in one of the 2 bars there. Not much happening there, except for wineries.
There are also a shortage of building materials which causes delays in house building.

The good things about Perth are it's beaches and weather, although it is raining heavy as i write this.

I know everyone will not agree with this thread , but these are only our thoughts and experiences of Perth.

Oh and if any of you guys are joiners / carpenters then be warned, they use gyproc over 5 metres long here !!!!!!!

Originally Posted by lang81 (Post 4644254)

My wife and i have now been in Perth for 6 months and all we can think about is when we can get out of it. Unfortunately we are in the process of building a house so we will be here for another year at least !!!! ( jumped into the market to quick ).

I am not writing this to scare people off from Perth however if you are in the UK and are dreaming of coming here then you may like to know of some of the harsh realities of life here.


First of all i would like to point out that most of the shops are closed on Sundays. There are many big shopping centres here and none are doing business on Sundays !!! Yes the city is open but the stores there are crap compared to the UK and it is so small. It may sound trivial but when you have come from a place where Sunday shopping is quite normal it is bloody hard to get your head around. Apparently WA is the only state in OZ where this happens ?

Surely you can find something more interesting to do on a Sunday than trawl round the shops?

Lots of people walk about in their bare feet !!!! Let me tell you that this is weird to see when you are working in a University (like i am) and you see people walking to classes with no shoes ! Am i the only one who finds this disgusting ????

So what? They're the ones who risk standing in something horrible or cutting their feet on broken glass - cant understand why people let things like this bother them?

The freeways are just as busy as the roads were in Glasgow, so don't think that driving here is a pleasure, in fact it is one of the most frustrating things about Perth.

Well, yes, they will be, there are over 1million people living in Perth...

The people here just don't know how to drive. Drivers will sit at 90 ks in the outside lane and they don't move over for anyone so they overtake down the inside lane. It is real life wacky races.

Overtaking on the inside lane... just how they drive here... You get used to it (or not as in the OPs case)

They also love doing burnouts in their V8s. We live in Greenwood and it is a decent suburb however it seems to be the burnout capital of Perth.

Burnouts happen everywhere, just something sad muppets seem to get enjoyment from... Sounds like you are unlucky in picking a suburb where they happen more often.

Drivers here have no curtesy either. You will sit at a junction for ever and no one will let you out, they don't flash their lights here (to let you in /out at junctions) and a friendly wave of thanks is non existent.

Wow, you could be talking about Kent in the UK, people there were bloody ignorant and never let you out either. Must admit I find in Bunbury people will sometimes let you out or let you cross the road, and if you let them out you usually get a wave back. Maybe a country thing?

The nearest pub is always miles away and the drink is expensive. $8 a pint in the Greenwood is considered good and $10 is normal in other bars.I have paid $15 for drink in Subiaco ! Getting a taxi from the city or Northbridge is almost impossible. There are no private taxi companies here so they are sparse to say the least. Never mind, you could always have a few pints then drive home. Drink driving here is rife, worse than Scotland.

Yes, drink driving is rife, something you can easily find out from the UK before you arrive... Maybe you should have moved somewhere nearer a pub if that's your thing? Personally we've found most people tend to get booze from the bottle shop and entertain at home.

The cost of living (for us) is roughly the same as it was in Scotland. House rental prices are high as are house prices, fruit and veg is pretty expensive, bills etc are similar to what we were used to.

Yes, some food and bills are the same, but rates (council tax equiv) are MUCH cheaper, and fruit and veg is cheap if you buy from the right places (i.e. not the supermarket where the quality tends to be crap and the prices high).

We got a bill from the water board for $84 for 2 months water at our plot of land !!!!!!!!!! It is just a big plot of dirt and have never seen any water in my time there ????

Was that for water usage or for the "rates" part? Our water bill for our vacant plot for usage was about $2 and that covered the whole construction time...

The one big difference though is the cost of petrol, much cheaper than UK prices, although it is going up all the time. It was $1.06 in December and it is now hitting $1.32 in some garages.

Yes, it goes up and down, but $1.32 is still only equivalent to about 53p!

Banks are worse here than in the UK. You get charged for having an account with the banks ($5 a month) and if you use atm's make sure it is your own banks that you use, you get charged for using other atm's.
They don't hold any large amounts of cash either which made life difficult for us when we tried to buy a car. We went to the local branch to withdraw $7000 and were told that we would not be able to get this amount from the one branch, so we had to go to 2 banks to get this money out !!!

ATMs no different to the UK where you also get charged for using someone else's. Large amounts of cash, dont know on that one, we always got bank cheques as personally I dont like carrying around huge amounts of cash like that anyway. Never had any problems, got the cheque there and then for a small fee (about $10).

Internet connection is as slow as a week in the jail. Broadband is miles behind the UK and is such a problem that it features highly in the political stakes.

Depends on your ISP I guess, I am on 8Mb BB and it's quick...

The topic is Perth and its isolation hits home when you get here too. I thought about a weekend in Sydney recently and it is $300 one way. Instead we chose to drive to Margaret River, one of WA's premier holiday destinations. We walked the length of the town in 10 minutes and had a drink in one of the 2 bars there. Not much happening there, except for wineries.

Um, Margaret River, one of WA's premier holiday destinations mainly due to it's wineries?! There are more than two bars in MR for a start, did you go down Caves Road and visit the caves? Or maybe venture a bit further south and see some of the sights down there?

There are also a shortage of building materials which causes delays in house building.

Maybe this is a Perth thing, here in Bunbury our house was constructed in 6 months, no shortage of materials or trades here...

The good things about Perth are it's beaches and weather, although it is raining heavy as i write this.

First really heavy rain for months...and it is autumn so to be expected.

Originally Posted by lang81 (Post 4644254)

My wife and i have now been in Perth for 6 months and all we can think about is when we can get out of it. Unfortunately we are in the process of building a house so we will be here for another year at least !!!! ( jumped into the market to quick ).

I am not writing this to scare people off from Perth however if you are in the UK and are dreaming of coming here then you may like to know of some of the harsh realities of life here.


First of all i would like to point out that most of the shops are closed on Sundays. There are many big shopping centres here and none are doing business on Sundays !!! Yes the city is open but the stores there are crap compared to the UK and it is so small. It may sound trivial but when you have come from a place where Sunday shopping is quite normal it is bloody hard to get your head around. Apparently WA is the only state in OZ where this happens ?

Lots of people walk about in their bare feet !!!! Let me tell you that this is weird to see when you are working in a University (like i am) and you see people walking to classes with no shoes ! Am i the only one who finds this disgusting ????

The freeways are just as busy as the roads were in Glasgow, so don't think that driving here is a pleasure, in fact it is one of the most frustrating things about Perth.
The people here just don't know how to drive. Drivers will sit at 90 ks in the outside lane and they don't move over for anyone so they overtake down the inside lane. It is real life wacky races.
They also love doing burnouts in their V8s. We live in Greenwood and it is a decent suburb however it seems to be the burnout capital of Perth.
Drivers here have no curtesy either. You will sit at a junction for ever and no one will let you out, they don't flash their lights here (to let you in /out at junctions) and a friendly wave of thanks is non existent.

The nearest pub is always miles away and the drink is expensive. $8 a pint in the Greenwood is considered good and $10 is normal in other bars.I have paid $15 for drink in Subiaco ! Getting a taxi from the city or Northbridge is almost impossible. There are no private taxi companies here so they are sparse to say the least. Never mind, you could always have a few pints then drive home. Drink driving here is rife, worse than Scotland.

The cost of living (for us) is roughly the same as it was in Scotland. House rental prices are high as are house prices, fruit and veg is pretty expensive, bills etc are similar to what we were used to. We got a bill from the water board for $84 for 2 months water at our plot of land !!!!!!!!!! It is just a big plot of dirt and have never seen any water in my time there ????
The one big difference though is the cost of petrol, much cheaper than UK prices, although it is going up all the time. It was $1.06 in December and it is now hitting $1.32 in some garages.

Banks are worse here than in the UK. You get charged for having an account with the banks ($5 a month) and if you use atm's make sure it is your own banks that you use, you get charged for using other atm's.
They don't hold any large amounts of cash either which made life difficult for us when we tried to buy a car. We went to the local branch to withdraw $7000 and were told that we would not be able to get this amount from the one branch, so we had to go to 2 banks to get this money out !!!

Internet connection is as slow as a week in the jail. Broadband is miles behind the UK and is such a problem that it features highly in the political stakes.

The topic is Perth and its isolation hits home when you get here too. I thought about a weekend in Sydney recently and it is $300 one way. Instead we chose to drive to Margaret River, one of WA's premier holiday destinations. We walked the length of the town in 10 minutes and had a drink in one of the 2 bars there. Not much happening there, except for wineries.
There are also a shortage of building materials which causes delays in house building.

The good things about Perth are it's beaches and weather, although it is raining heavy as i write this.

I know everyone will not agree with this thread , but these are only our thoughts and experiences of Perth.

Oh and if any of you guys are joiners / carpenters then be warned, they use gyproc over 5 metres long here !!!!!!!

Originally Posted by The Jones Family (Post 4647769)

I don't usually reply to these posts either but really :unsure: ....................

My Great Uncle once said: 'only boring people get bored'.

Quite :)

Originally Posted by The Jones Family (Post 4647769)

I don't usually reply to these posts either but really :unsure: ....................

My Great Uncle once said: 'only boring people get bored'.

Quite :)

Originally Posted by moneypen20 (Post 4647915)

My mother used to say the same but let's be honest - it is bollox:D There are times and circumstances when you might get bored and it has nothing to do with your personality.