newby heading to the peel (Mandurah help please)
 

Hi all,
we are hoping to get our visa soon ish and are planning on working in Mandurah . We did visit once on holiday which was great,but we know holiday and living in a place is very different. We have 2 kids age 10 & 11 so where wondering whether if anyone has any advice about the best suburbs to live and schools etc and generally what there is going on for kids in the area.We would consider living outside maybe Rockingham and travelling in? any thoughts?
Very confused person would really appreciate the help in making some sort of a decision .
Cheers
Kate

Re: newby heading to the peel
 

These links should help!

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...light=Mandurah


http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...light=Mandurah


http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...light=Mandurah


Welcome to BE & good luck!:thumbsup:

Re: newby heading to the peel
 

Cheers for the links, have had good time reading them, ( I have a very sheltered life these days!!), great to see that people meet up. can't wait......well today that's how I feel!

Re: newby heading to the peel
 

Hopefully someone who is living there will respond to your thread too!:unsure:

Re: newby heading to the peel
 

What's the peel?

Re: newby heading to the peel
 

I was wondering that too!
Also thought that the OP may have had more response if the word Mandurah had appeared in the thread title!:)

Re: newby heading to the peel
 

Knowing nothing about Mandurah, I assumed the peel was an area of the city and that locals would know but obviously not. Maybe I'll do the decent Mod thing.:D

Re: newby heading to the peel
 

Peel is the area, Mandurah is a city/town in it :)

Re: newby heading to the peel (Mandurah help please)
 

Hello

Mandurah is nice to live in - Halls Head (on the south side of Mandurah but on the beach) is a nice area. Depends whether you're fussed about living walking distance to the beach or are ok with a 10 min drive. Is there a reason you're thinking of Rockingham?

Schools - age 10 and 11 - I think they would be in Primary still here? Frederick Irwin, Mandurah Baptist College are probably the 2 best nr Mandurah. Frederick Irwin is in Mandurah and MBC is north of Mandurah near Lakelands. I live in Secret Harbour and my girls go to school in Mandurah (it takes about 20 mins to drive there) My sister lives in Halls Head and her girls go to MBC. There are school buses too. Those schools I mentioned are both private but the fees aren't massive like in UK.

Hope that helps a bit. :)

Re: newby heading to the peel (Mandurah help please)
 

Hi ,
Sorry about confusing everyone, and thanks for the help.
We were only considering Rockingham because we thought there may be more choice with schools and/or things such as clubs for the kids, but then the distance is nothing between the two anyway. They will both be in junior school, the oldest would be due to start secondary here September but he doesn't seem to mind going back to juniors. Mind you we haven't told either of them about the new leaving age! The other thing that was making us consider Rockingham or Secret Harbour, is that I am the main applicant and my OH does general sales, I think we were worried about the comments RE: the job situation so thought he might need to head to Perth daily and I guess Rockingham is that tiny bit closer.
We loved Halls Head and Lakelands when we visited last year, we had a look at San remo and somewhere else too, all seemed good to us.
I'll have a look at the schools you mentioned now .

Re: newby heading to the peel
 

The Peel Region includes:

Boddington

Dwellingup

Mandurah

Pinjarra

Serpentine Jarrahdale

Waroona

Re: newby heading to the peel (Mandurah help please)
 

Hi, OH and I have been in Mandurah for 7 months now and we love it. Plenty to do and see, lovely beaches, lovely walks and cycling scenery, so glad we did not stay in Joondalup. The job scene is the norm., scarce but if you want to work it's out there, be prepared to search and travel. Banking with Westpac, haven't had any problems at all, very efficient to our needs.

Buy a good quality car as the miles you travel are immense, petrol fluctuates between weekdays and weekends, it's $1.08 today which is good, it will be about 1.18 by friday lol............

The schools appear to be good (from friends view, her kids have done very well), the shops are the usual, nothing fab just practical. Mandurah has a more ozy feel to it than rockingham in my opinion and has a lovely country feel to it. The rentals are plentiful around $300.00 p/wk for a 3/4 x 2, search the web and the Mandurah Mail, the properties are reasonable to buy depending on what you like and need. Bring everything you possibly can with you as it's quite expensive to start all over again and whats the point in buying all you need again, bring it with you, then you've got it, we used Pickfords and found them fantastic, door to door service, great price and very efficient for us.

Hope this helps a bit
:thumbsup:

Re: newby heading to the peel (Mandurah help please)
 

Totally agree with the above comment. We are currently living in Meadow Springs, which is very established, but will soon be moving to Lakelands, which is still quite new, as we have just had a house built there. :thumbsup:

Re: newby heading to the peel (Mandurah help please)
 

we live in Halls Head, 10 minute drive south of Mandurah. My 9 year old goes to South Halls Head Junior school and its excellent.

We love it here!

Re: newby heading to the peel (Mandurah help please)
 

We've been in Halls Head now for nearly three years. Have two kids, youngest 11 attends Halls Head Primary and eldest 13 attends Frederick Irwin High School.

If I were to do it all again I would go for the area with the best school. Primaries are all pretty good so start to look at high schools, the state ones are pretty dire, Freddies, Baptist, Mandurah Catholic and Living Waters are all private.

For example, Meadow Springs is lovely but the catchment area for primary school is North Mandurah which is not the best so then you'd be looking at a private primary with the costs involved.

Travelling to Perth from Mandurah, Warnbro and Rocky is easy now with the train, 50 mins from Mandurah to Perth straight in, it's easy and cheap. So I wouldn't worry to much about travelling for work. However, if your kids are anything like mine then you are a taxi service to school, clubs, friends houses etc so living closer to the school is, in my opinion, a better option. So pick the school and work from there !! Just bare in mind that there are waiting lists for all of the private high schools so if you pick them get their names down asap !

If you want any further info, please feel free to pm me