Gill73

I realize that this is a big question but I'd appreciate people's thoughts and comments.

We lived in Perth for two and a half years but decided it wasn't for us and returned to the UK in 2011.

Our basic reasons for leaving Perth were as follows:

- Felt to isolated from the rest of Australia
- Very expensive, especially food
- Too hot
- We thought it was too behind the times (our own personal view of course)
- We couldn't see enough opportunities there for our children for the future

We are now considering a move back to Australia but can't decide where we would move to. We don't want to return to WA but we don't want to make the massive move again to find the same issues.

My husband is a BMW mechanic so I don't think he will have any trouble finding work.

We are thinking of Brisbane but I keep reading that the humidity is a real issue.

Any comments would be much appreciated - it such a big decision to make when the only research we can do is on the internet!

Beoz

OK ... I'll give it a crack

- Felt to isolated from the rest of Australia - Try Melb or Syd
- Very expensive, especially food - Try Hobart or Adelaide
- Too hot - Try Hobart
- We thought it was too behind the times (our own personal view of course) - hhhmmm this is a toughy and I tend to agree in some areas for the whole country but certainly not all. On what basis may I ask?
- We couldn't see enough opportunities there for our children for the future - Try Melb or Syd.

I don't see Brisbane falling into any of this - then again just my personal opinion of Brisbane

Gill73

Thank you for your comments!

It's difficult to put my finger on why I thought WA was behind the times but I remember that when trying to do anything on the Internet, it couldn't be done - like ordering furniture for home delivery or doing things with internet banking. As someone who does food shopping every week online and 90% of all other shopping online - I found this difficult to live with.

bcworld

Brisbane has pretty much perfect weather for much of the year. Of course there are uncomfortable days but personally I rarely suffered from the humidity problem some people talk about. Based on my visit to Perth this weekend (totally unscientific obviously) the climate there seemed more brutal.

Weather's not the be all & end all though and Melbourne ticks far more boxes than Brisbane did.

Gill73

Thanks for your reply.

Out of interest, can you please advise how Melbourne ticked more boxes for you than Brisbane.

bcworld

General ambiance, city life, daylight savings (I know WA rejected this but the sunset times seemed much more reasonable than SE Qld), eating out options, work opportunities, variety of inner suburbs...

spouse of scouse

Hi Gill73

I've lived in Perth my entire life, although have travelled a lot, and I tend to agree with most of your comments.

Perth certainly is very isolated from the rest of the country, and while some people here prefer it that way it can be difficult if you have business contacts over East, especially during daylight saving when Victoria, NSW and Canberra is 3 hours ahead of us. Also, many shows, bands etc from overseas never make it to Perth, citing the expense of moving everything over the vast distance as being unfeasible economically.
Very expensive - oh yes. The resourses boom has driven prices up, but not all of us are FIFO workers! The price of eating out it particularly horrendous compared with other parts of Oz.
Too hot - it certainly can be. If you wilt in the heat, Perth isn't the place for you.
Behind the times - in some ways, yes. Again, this can be an attraction for some people, but a deal breaker with others.
The only point you make that I disagree on is opportunities for your kids. Perth has top notch schools and universities, and our unemployment rate is the lowest in the country (again, due to the resource boom). People wanting to work in the trades or fields such as IT, Urban Planning, project planning, engineering, telecommunications etc have endless opportunities at the moment. The Eastern States is far better for fields such as the arts and law. There's a nationwide shortage of aged care workers (skilled, semi skilled or even just willing to be trained).

My top pick for you would be Melbourne, in fact, if my husband (UK citizen, lived in Liverpool till he was 40) and I weren't moving to the UK in a couple of years we would have settled in Melbourne. So many reasons, from a vastly better cultural life (shows, musicals, galleries) to much cheaper prices for eating and drinking. The weather's milder and the city planners have had the foresight to leave many beautiful old buildings, as well as some rather avant garde new ones. Bill (husband) has always had much the same sort of reservations re Perth as yourself, although he's glad he came here, specifically for the opportunities it offered to his 3 kids. But his words when I 'introduced' him to Melbourne may be of interest to you as a fellow Brit - "this is a proper city!!"

Hope this helps a bit

Gill73

It does help - thank you

Buzzy--Bee

A long long time ago I put my opinions of Melbourne vs Brisbane down on paper before I emigrated, here you are as you won't have seen these before -

Brisbane Reccie - http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=412993

Melbourne Reccie - http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=413388

BB

Gill73

What brilliant reccie's you've posted!! Thank you very much.

I don't know why we never considered Melbourne at all in our thinking, but we will now.