The Bloke

2-3 hours travel in Australia can cover alot of territory. In 3 hrs, you can fly between Melbourne and Brisbane or Brisbane to Cooktown.

Grayling

I am the wrong person to ask as I think these things, apart from some nice beaches, are a bit of a myth.

G

hevs

http://www.weather.com.au/vic/melbourne
Nah, not that hot at all

Dorothy

You're not going to get far on only $43k in Perth. Even an hour's commute to the city is roughly Clarkson/Butler to the north or Secret Harbour to the south. Take a look at house prices in those areas to see what you could afford there. Perth also gets bloody hot in the summer and bloody cold in winter. We've just had a week of 40+ weather and expecting to get hot again tomorrow. The mercury can dip to the single digits here and in some areas (the hills) frost is not unheard of.
You would find some smaller areas a couple hours outside of Perth such as Albany or Bunbury which are nice. Your $$ might go a bit further there, but it's still not cheap.

I also lived in Adelaide, so can comment on there. Your pay would go much farther in Adelaide than the other choices. Again, very hot and dry in summer and cool in winter. I loved living there and would move back in a heartbeat, but my it's not exactly a hotbed of employment opportunity.

I can't comment on Brisbane, having not been there.

I think you should take a look at sites like www.domain.com.au or www.realestate.com.au for house prices. Bear in mind that for the most part you get what you pay for in terms of houses, so if you see a 5 bedroom with pool for $200k there's a reason it's so cheap.

Didn't bother to vote, since my favourite city isn't on the poll.

the troubadour

In recent years has been called Dullsville,not with out some justification.
It is a fairly family orientated sort of place so if you are coming with young children it may well work for you.
Beaches are good but city lacks something of a vibe.
Depends on what is good for you.

scotoz

I was going by this:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/trave...omnav_business

http://www.weather.com/outlook/trave...omnav_business

http://www.weather.com/outlook/trave...omnav_business

Melbourne has the coolest temperatures of the 3.

moneypenny20

Apparently the City of Gold Coast has become a 'surrounding town' Didn't like Perth 25 years ago, not a huge fan of Brissie. Never been to Adelaide.

hevs

Its such a myth that melbourne doesn't "get hot" as you can see, its not dropping below 30 all week. I don't think Brissie gets as hot, but then their winters are warmer than ours. They get WAYYYY more rain than us, in fact it hasn't rained her for at least 5 or 6 weeks, at all....I'm tipping the Brisbanites can't say the same.
I'm not saying that the weathers perfect here, just dispelling the rumours the "it doesn't get hot" cos thats just hilarious!

wmoore

I think Melbourne gets more 'extreme' hot days than Brisbane.
Actually we haven't seen a huge amount or rain over the last few weeks (I think that may be just over the city itself as certainly some of the surrounding areas have) but it did rain today. The temperature has been around 30 all week here too

Grayling

Pissed it down here over the last couple of days (western suburbs) but it has been horribly humid.

G

scotoz

Can I swap ya? Its been raining here all day 40 degrees

hevs

Our highest humidy looks set for the end of our 38 degree run..about 26%....verr noice

hevs

You need to change to celcius! No wonder you think our 38 degs is freezing

Grayling

I would gladly swap for that at the moment.

You need to experience this humidity before you wish for it.

G

moneypenny20

As a surrounding area, I can confirm that we have had one hell of a lot of rain in the past few days I consider it heavy when I can't see the trees at the bottom of the garden because of the wall of water inbetween.