Adelaide - December Visit / Fact Finding Tour

Hi All,

We're headed to Adelaide in December 2015 for a few weeks holidays and also to get some idea on where we'd like to initially settle there when we intend to arrive in August 2017.

With that in mind I am wondering if anyone can recommend any colleges & universities that I should try and arrange a visit with (if they're open to that, that is) as we want our daughter to have the opportunity to take in some of the local options and get some feedback from what she can expect while she is over there. She'll be 16 when we arrive next year and so I think its important to try and give her an inside glimpse and maybe have a brief chat with some of the tutors maybe.....

Also - in terms of suburbs, is there any people would recommend? I know this is very subjective and so I will add some general information about us and what we like and see if that helps.

I am a big sports fan and love Football (or Soccer in Australia), Rugby League (and Union) and so anything close to venues like this would appeal. I'm also keen to be close to the beach although would probably prefer to be nearer the City if push came to shove as, as good as the beach is, it's not an every day thing we would do whereas being nearer to work opportunities in the City would be more piratical. That said we do like an evening walk and so would be open to being coastal but again I think for work and general dining out and also for my daughter, I would imagine being in the City is maybe a little easier to integrate and for her to make friends.

Do the teenagers like being coastal or are they more weekend visitors?

As for the wife, she enjoys shopping and being out in the sun so really something that suits us all....

Again while we are over in December we are planning on meeting with employers and also to try and gauge some of the areas we may initially settle and so any places to drive around and get a "feel" for would be ap

In terms of work, I am a Project Manager at present and the wife is in Social Work so any big employers in the area worth speaking to would also go down well. My background is mainly logistics and packaging.

The holiday is more a fact finding planning mission in reality but we'll also be looking for some days out and trips to the beach etc so not all doom and gloom, I hope....

Thanks for the taking the time to read and welcome any feedback.

Tom

I'd suggest not looking too far from the city. Most public transport is city-centric, so for your daughter to get around and out and about, it makes sense to be somewhere where she can get in and out of the city easily.

I'm a little biased but I think the North Eastern suburbs offer the best of both worlds - good schools, good shops, good public transport, easy to get to the city or the beach.

good sports clubs, good places to walk, cycle, run.... Most soccer matches apart from at amateur level are played at Hindmarsh Stadium, which is just to the north west of the city, and occasionally at the Oval which is in the centre. Burnside is for posh shops (east of the city), and there is Rundle Mall in the centre, plus Tea Tree Plaza (north east) for your wife's shopping habit. Check out the Torrens Linear Park for your evening walks.

If your daughter is looking at something similar to a six form college, you have places like the USC in the city, or Marden Senior College. If she is musical at all Marryatville is an excellent school, and also on this side of town Modbury and Golden Grove have good reputations. Adelaide High School in the city is good for languages if she has leanings in that direction.

Have a look on the Poms in Adelaide site for loads more information about schools and suburbs around Adelaide. Kids here generally stay at school until year 12 and the main qualification is done over years 11 and 12. There is nothing that compares to GCSEs here. When you arrive your daughter would need to be enrolled in a school or somewhere that just did year 11 and 12, like USC as mentioned by Diane above.

I too am biased and prefer the East/North Eastern suburbs. In terms of good high schools Adelaide High, Glenunga and Marryatville are generally considered the 3 best public schools in Adelaide, although I know a few people that weren't/aren't that impressed with Marryatville. They are all very popular and pretty strict about the zoning for places. At the moment Glenunga is the only public school that offers the IB in years 11 and 12, which may be a consideration for you. Other good schools in the next tier down from these are Norwood Morialta, Brighton, Henley Beach and Unley High. Having said that, the best school is the one that suits your child best and this may be a school with a different kind of focus. I'd certainly visit a few to get a feel for what they are like. This year schools break up on December 16 so if you are around before then you may be able to organise a visit to a few.

If you like the idea of being near the beach check out the suburbs from Semaphore in the north right down to Aldinga in the south. Bare in mind though that some of them can be really expensive, especially if you want to be right by the beach. A lot of people from the UK tend to settle on the further southern beaches as property in that area is much cheaper. I don't know those areas that well though so cannot comment on what entertainment opportunities there are for yourselves or your daughter.

Bear in mind the academic year timings if you want to see/speak to Unis/Colleges etc, December is the start of the summer holidays so most staff will be out the door pretty quick..

I don't know there is much point trying to speak to uni's when you are still over 18 months from migrating at that point. Having said that, you could email and enquire and see what they say. FWIW you can wander round lots of Adelaide uni campus in the city at your leisure, at least the grounds (in public spaces and all that) and I think go check out the uni library (I did a fair few years ago now and its stunning).

Rugby isn't big here. I'm a union girl all the way and there are not many local clubs around. League doesn't seem to fare much better but perhaps I don't notice it as its not on my radar in the least. League is huge in the east, NSW way. Its shown on TV, we have Foxtel so see lots of rugby.

If city appeals, try to find a suburb closer to the CBD. If you could be on or near the tram line to Glenelg for your beach hit as and when without the hassle of driving its a bonus IMHO. So long as you can drive to the tram stop or even better, walk.

Personally I love the eastern suburbs but they are not cheap. Norwood is lovely, has a fab main street and other facilities and is very close to the CBD but it comes with a hefty price tag. I also like Unley, Parkside, Glenunga and out towards Tusmore and Burnside. Again, not cheap areas but a decent distance to the CBD and so on. Thebarton is a nice area also IMHO.

North Adelaide, the 5006 postcode is also lovely. Again, not cheap. I've been working there the past couple of months and love its so close to everything in the CBD. The only downside is the amount of air traffic overhead, landing and sometimes taking off.

School wise, very decent (at least academic wise) high schools further out. Brighton, Unley and others. They are all zoned and most will apply the zone strictly. The prices for property in the popular in demand high school zones is often silly prices.

If you want city, I'd not go out any further than Brighton in the south. North east, not sure where the cut off would be but as others have said, some good options there too. East you could go out to Magill and still be in a good area, decent schools and access to the CBD etc.

I'm not fussed to live along the coast or near the beach either and we are happy with visiting when the mood strikes. FWIW if we lived much further inland or had to travel through city traffic we'd go far less often than we do (ie once a fortnight would be once every 1-2 months say). Its the drive through city traffic would put me off. As it is we can nip over and down and be at Seacliff or Brighton within 10-15 minutes. Usually hit the beach then in the summer on warm evenings after school or early morning dips on weekends before it heats up.

I'm not sure in the city it would be any different to integrate or make friends than it would elsewhere in a suburb further out. Socialising here is different for kids in some ways I think. Pubs like in the UK don't really exisit. Sure you can find them in the CBD and dotted elsewhere but not like we are used to back there. Rumpus rooms at peoples houses, lots more outdoors stuff they take part in perhaps (ie netball team with friends through the season and hang out after training/game etc), beaches... I think if you are used to city living then being further out for social stuff (depending on what social stuff is to you) would be hard going. When I was here in 2004 I likened the southern suburbs to Stepford Wives land. I still do to some degree but have softened towards it over the years.

I tend to view the metropolitan area as the suburbs on the flat, so the cut off is Seacliff way IYKWIM. Past that its the southern coastal suburbs. If you head up into the foothills its the south eastern suburbs. And so on. Anything other than the CBD is not the city, the CBD is 'the city', everything else is the suburb name. Least is how my head works it.

TBH you have such a long time between your holiday to your move I think its hard to say where to look. I'd just enjoy the holiday, check out what you can and then once you move here, work out what suits in the longer term.

Work wise Adelaide can be a tough nut to crack. Some people find work with relative ease, others struggle, it takes a long time and some don't find work full stop. It really depends and no one can say for any certainty how it will be almost 2 years down the track. Your professions, I've no clue how they are going here I'm afraid.

The only person I know who works for a packaging company here has just been made redundant....

Remember too a lot of places close down over the Christmas period both schools and factories so your choices of places to visit in that respect would be limited

There are industrial areas both north and south so be prepared to drive a lot if you really want to have a good look around

Fays ( social work ) have offices in most suburbs so basically choice of where to live might depend on choice of where to work

Teenagers tend to socialise near to where they live once the have made friends from school ( well ours did that ) there was pubs near us but the kids were more often together in a rumpus room or at a bbq

Shopping your wife will have plenty of choice as there are numerous shopping centres both north and south as well as in the city

Sun bathing remember the sun is fierce in SA December gone was exceptionally hot so slip slop slap is essential

Where will you stay on your reccie have you booked Accomadation yet as the Christmas period will be busy and fills up fast

Thanks to everyone for your responses...... They're very useful and appreciated and have given me some great avenues to look down.

Thanks.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

Welcome to the forum.

It terms of jobs, as others have mentioned as you won't be heading over for another 18 months, unless you have niche skills that are genuinely in demand, employers/agencies may not be interested in talking to you, but it certainly doesn't hurt to try and make contacts.

In Adelaide November, December, January are generally when recruitment tends to slow down quite considerably. So if you moving over in August, I would be ensuring you are working on gaining employment straight away because you have a 3 month window before the slowdown period.

Without knowing the specifics of what you do, many of the logistics/distribution centres are in the Western suburbs so something to consider when thinking of areas to live. Adelaide has some funny quirks regarding recruitment and sometimes if you live too far away from the place of work, it can hinder your application, but it just depends on the role/industry.