Hi Everyone
I have searched quite a lot of properties in the Melbourne area & have come to the conclusion that there are not that many with pools (well not as many as i expected).
Does this mean the climate is not good enough for your everyday Australian to be bothered with a pool, whereas if your coming from a damp & freezing country like ours you really need one?
Is there restrictions put in place for pools ie water restrictions or are they just expensive to run.
Anyones advice on this matter would be grately appreciated.
Cheers

I think it may have something to do with the weather..

Mmm... definitely the weather

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/c...ml?tt=TT003020

mmmm weather

Probably because aussies would only use it december, jan, feb in melbs climate, lot of time and expense for a few months a year.

You could heat it, more expense tho.

Oh great another Melbourne weather thread.

Yes stay away from Melbourne the weather is dreadful - makes Manchester look good.

God knows how I have managed to swim in the sea every month from September through to now with all the rain hail and snow every day.

I reckon you could use an unheated pool in Melbourne each month from about November until April, in fact I know many people who do. The chap who sits next to me at work turned his pool pump off at the end of February thinking summer was over and was still frantically trying to clean the pool in mid-March to cool off.

For anyone considering Melbourne, the weather is a bit like Greece, hot, dry and not-humid summers, cooler, dry winters. Melbourne has the lowest rainfall of any city in Australia apart from Adelaide. We just tell people it's terrible to make sure the Bogans stay in Queensland

Buzzy

Because if you want to go swimming in Melbourne, all you need to do is dig a hole and wait for spring.

People fill their holes in when autumn arrives, and dig them up again the following year.

For a serious answer, Have a look at the link below, remember winters not till june, july, august, and you can see already the night time temps, they would cool pool water down dramatically. Even if your day time temps were high 20's if the night time goes down to under about 16 you will very quickly notice a big drop in pool temp. Night time temps affect the water just as much as how warm the day is.



http://weather.news.com.au/index.jsp...v00&twcid=9477

Large numbers of "everyday Australians" would love a pool but there is a small matter of the cost......

We are having a pool for next summer - we may consider solar heating to prolong the use. Our friends in the neighbourhood - in fact we have four close by with pools - use theirs from Nov-Mar. Obviously solar heating and a pool blanket/cover keeps the temperature up - doesn't bother me to much, I like cold water

Just to add there are 6 outdoor pool complexes within 20 min drive from us - these are also open Nov/Dec-Mar -- so can't be that bad, can it!!

Was in the real estate yesterday, the property manager was telling me about poms who just rented around here, reckons they done nowt but whinge, then they capped it off by ranging up and asked if the landlord would consider putting a pool into the rental for them

Small matter of $30,000 wonder if the landlord says yes

Probably because Victoria is currently being stricken by the most serious drought in years. We are all on quite severe water restrictions here, especially upstate. A lot of people here think that wanting your own backyard pool is rather selfish and not environmentally sustainable, so it's a lot less fashionable now to want a pool. Luckily there are many good leisure centres around with pool complexes, not to mention the sea!

In fact, a reliable & sensible realtor friend tells me that a pool/spa is now seen as a liability for a property, rather than a selling point.

To the OP: check out the local pool complexes, wherever you are in the greater Melbourne area. They're a much better standard than the UK IMO, accessible, clean and often a lot cheaper, too. Good luck!

G.

Heheh! Totally agree with you about all the Great Melbourne Weather Myths circulating. These days I get especially p*ssed off by people who've never been here saying "oh it always rains in Melbourne, doesn't it?" :curse: If only...

Like your Greece analogy. In fact, Melbourne is the same relative latitude as Lisbon, so for those of you yet to move here, think Portugese climate & you're about right (but with rather less rain )

G.

We just had a pool put in last year and the we have been using in from late October last year until a couple of weeks ago. I think you definately need solar heating though as it keeps the temperature at a nice level and a pool blanket helps also. Solar heating is cheap to run too and it only relies on the sun.

I know lots of people in our area who have pools (Bayside) and I suppose in certain suburbs they are more common than others. Also inner city homes in small blocks would be unlikely to have pools. They are not cheap to install so if people don't think they are an essential than perhaps they would choose against it whereas in Queensland alot of people would see a pool as almost essential.

As someone else said it is a myth that it rains here all the time. We haven't had really decent rainfall for over 10 years and are in a drought.

Ive never heard it rains all the time in melb, except from people who live in melb on this fourm, been there about 3 times a year and lived there for almost 5 months, agree about drought, flying in it looks like a brown dust bowl. Best time for rain is the winter months, but often thats more drizzle/ grey skies than heavy rain.

As for swimming down there, yes, with a nice fat wetsuit, seas that come in from new zealand and tasmania just aint tropical most of the year. Well unless your just off the boat.

Disagree. When it rains in Melbourne it REALLY rains. Drizzle seems pretty rare.

No but then no-one said they were tropical. However the sea is warm in Port Philip Bay, being a very shallow bay, clean and the stunning beaches are one of the reasons we chose Melbourne over Brisbane. Of the 8 successive months I have swam in the sea here I only wore a wetsuit the first one, September.

Buzzy