Ferntree gully and Boronia suburb advice

So i have managed to narrow my search down to these two places.

can anyone advise on me on the positive and negatives of each place please for a family with one 5 year old child.

Also an idea of commute time to cbd for a tradie starting work around 6.30 to 7 am.

thanks

stephen

Personally I find some of the outer suburbs very bland, and not what I think of Melbourne. Each to there own though. You do get better value for money for property, to an extent! I have not been to these areas myself but have visited some/many outer suburbs of Melbourne. Some to me have been an eye opener and wondered if I was still in Melbourne, let alone Australia. My own personal opinion which others will probably disagree with.

Have you been to these areas or just researched?

Commute time to the CBD at those times I think should be fine, but depending on knockoff time could be a bit of a tedious.

Try using google maps and put in start location/time and destination, it is pretty accurate.

Ferntree Gully is a nice suburb as its close to the Dandenong ranges and has houses on the flat and houses on hills. Good shopping centres, older houses as its an old suburb. Boronia is similar but flatish and a little closer to the CBD. I guess if you are a tradesman you will probably be driving to the city and the freeway is Eastern. Ringwood is a nice suburb as well, very leafy and lots of nice gardens etc. The eastern suburbs are very popular and the price of property does reflect this. I would have a good look around the areas, also try to use the roads in peak traffic in areas you are interested in you will get a better idea of travel times etc. If using the train then take do the train trip and see how it comes up. No-one can tell you if you will be one hour or two hours in the traffic these days in Melbourne as peak tends to have a lot of accidents etc.

The Monash freeway is a car park my brother used to drive from Upper Beaconsfield and it sometimes took him 2 hours to get to work depending on what was happening in the traffic.

Also have a look at the Bayside suburbs, as a commute its much easier, I have said this so many times. The sea is on one side and no traffic from that side so its definitely a better run and the trains are good as well.

Ferntree Gully is a nice suburb as its close to the Dandenong ranges and has houses on the flat and houses on hills. Good shopping centres, older houses as its an old suburb. Boronia is similar but flatish and a little closer to the CBD. I guess if you are a tradesman you will probably be driving to the city and the freeway is Eastern. Ringwood is a nice suburb as well, very leafy and lots of nice gardens etc. The eastern suburbs are very popular and the price of property does reflect this. I would have a good look around the areas, also try to use the roads in peak traffic in areas you are interested in you will get a better idea of travel times etc. If using the train then take do the train trip and see how it comes up. No-one can tell you if you will be one hour or two hours in the traffic these days in Melbourne as peak tends to have a lot of accidents etc.

 

The Monash freeway is a car park my brother used to drive from Upper Beaconsfield and it sometimes took him 2 hours to get to work depending on what was happening in the traffic.

 

Also have a look at the Bayside suburbs, as a commute its much easier, I have said this so many times. The sea is on one side and no traffic from that side so its definitely a better run and the trains are good as well.

Thanks again petals can you recommend any bayside suburbs?

Personally I find some of the outer suburbs very bland, and not what I think of Melbourne. Each to there own though. You do get better value for money for property, to an extent! I have not been to these areas myself but have visited some/many outer suburbs of Melbourne. Some to me have been an eye opener and wondered if I was still in Melbourne, let alone Australia. My own personal opinion which others will probably disagree with.

 

Have you been to these areas or just researched?

 

Commute time to the CBD at those times I think should be fine, but depending on knockoff time could be a bit of a tedious.

 

Try using google maps and put in start location/time and destination, it is pretty accurate.

I haven't been to Melbourne ever haha.

living in Perth wa for the last 4 years and looking for a change.

Would love to spend more on a house and live closer to everything but stamp duty is

to much for me at the moment.

I haven't lived there (live about 30 mins away) but just passing through Boronia or going to one or two shops, I personally (bearing in mind that i'm a 22 yo female) is the safest place. I'm not sure how it is in the surrounding streets. Ferntree Gully seems like an okay area. Lots of things to do and see.

From my knowledge any suburb your going to get trouble with traffic. I use the Eastern Freeway and it's horrible in the morning, lots of careless drivers. There's definetly lots of good suburbs in Melbourne, just depends what you're looking for. For me though, if i had a young child i'd be leaning more towards Ferntree GUlly than Boronia.

Best of luck with your move!

I work in Ferntree Gully and Box Hill - commute between the 2 and the CBD daily.

The positives are that it is beautiful. You are right in the foothills of the Dandenong hills with the thousand steps and pretty old towns like Olinda. If you want somewhere affordable with land then you could do much much worse.

The negatives are that it does not have a huge amount to do in the evening - you really would have to go to Knox to find anything that is really open in the evening. I think the gully may still have an Irish bar but that is pretty much about it. There is some ok(ish) shopping but to find a decent shopping centre, you would have to drive further in - maybe Burwood or Knox.

If you are driving at 6-7am then you will be looking at around 45mins door to door, the Eastern freeway does not really start to jam up until 7.30-9am in which case you are looking at 1-1.5hrs easily.

I haven't been to Melbourne ever haha.

 

living in Perth wa for the last 4 years and looking for a change.

 

Would love to spend more on a house and live closer to everything but stamp duty is

to much for me at the moment.

Not sure about your post. Property in Melbourne will come as a shock and especially quality!!!

Buying a house and closer to the CBD is pretty much non existant these days, unless you have a very decent 6 figure deposit! You will be looking at apartments.

Boronia is lovely and has lots of great Indian restaurants! And a lovely suburb. Evets I moved from Melbourne to Perth and I was shocked at property prices in Perth! And cost of grocery shopping and going out for a meal or drinks

Boronia is lovely and has lots of great Indian restaurants! And a lovely suburb. Evets I moved from Melbourne to Perth and I was shocked at property prices in Perth! And cost of grocery shopping and going out for a meal or drinks

I'll remember that, love a good Chicken Chilli Jalfrezi.

B

Boronia is lovely and has lots of great Indian restaurants! And a lovely suburb. Evets I moved from Melbourne to Perth and I was shocked at property prices in Perth! And cost of grocery shopping and going out for a meal or drinks

Ah good to know, as I have not found many round the suburbs in my area. A little late for me know

I have read Perth is very expensive compared to other parts of Australia. Think also the same now applies to the rest of Australia, high cost of living here in general compared to other Western countries. Cheaper to go on vacation abroad than take a vacation to to say Byron Bay.

It's all to do with personal preference and I'm not knocking Boronia or Ferntree Gully but if I were looking in that area I would perfer The Basin which is next to Boronia and FTG.

Other suburbs in that area that I would prefer would be Croydon, Montrose or Lilydale.

It's all to do with personal preference and I'm not knocking Boronia or Ferntree Gully but if I were looking in that area I would perfer The Basin which is next to Boronia and FTG.

 

Other suburbs in that area that I would prefer would be Croydon, Montrose or Lilydale.

Great advice Digger thanks!

You seem to know the area well, the missus is working in mulgrave so trying to stay as close as possible

do you happen to know anywhere a little closer to there?

Great advice Digger thanks!

You seem to know the area well, the missus is working in mulgrave so trying to stay as close as possible

do you happen to know anywhere a little closer to there?

A tradie travelling by train to the CBD is not the norm unless I guess you are working on a big city job, all of the tradies I know have their own utes/trucks and work for themselves and charge like wounded bulls.

Anyhow, if you were to live in Mulgrave you would have to catch a bus to Glen Waverley Railway station to get to the CBD and I guess the same is going to apply no matter where you settle, unless you have a car and then you can drive and park at the nearest Railway station.

Choices around Mulgrave would be the suburbs of Glen Waverley, Mount Waverly, Wheelers Hill, South Vermont and Rowville, however your wife would definitely need a car to compute to Mulgrave as public transport is virtually non existent.

In comparison to Boronia and Ferntree Gully properties in the suburbs of Glen Waverly, Mount Waverly, Wheelers Hill and South Vermont would cost more to purchase. Mulgrave is a mixture of residential/commercial/industrial and would not be my preference.

Given that your wife works in Mulgrave and you are going to being computing to the CBD I reckon you are going to end up being a two car family.

To the OP are you actually in Melbourne already. If not its often better to wait until you arrive and then do not make any hasty decisions. Its very trial and error. Places that you think you would like often are not the places you like at all. We are all different and have different requirements so just be patient and look very carefully into things. Mulgrave is a non suburb I would call it, not cheap but sort of between here and there if you know what I mean not a fan. Place I drive through. As has been said trades people all drive due to their work and even if you work in one place its often that you will need a ute or car anyway. Your wife will need a car.

You could look south towards the Bay, places like Dingly Village, Patterson Lakes, Chelsea, Edithvale, Aspendale, Mordialloc all nice areas close to the beach and have a good train line and a good run to Mulgrave via Westall Road.

Just to add I live on the Mornington Peninsula and it takes me 40 minutes to get from my home to the Monash Medical Centre, using Peninsula Link, Eastlink and Westall Road

So i have managed to narrow my search down to these two places.

 

can anyone advise on me on the positive and negatives of each place please for a family with one 5 year old child.

Also an idea of commute time to cbd for a tradie starting work around 6.30 to 7 am.

 

thanks

stephen

I have lived in the area for about 15 years so...

Boronia

Positives - nice and leafy. Big blocks. Cheaper houses, Fabulous views of the Dandenongs. It has a cinema and a reasonable size shopping plaza. Train line to the city takes about 45 mins in peak hour with express trains. Good soli & one of the wettest spots in Melbourne so if you want to have a nice garden this is the place to be. Bike tracks everywhere. Lots of king parrots/rosellas/cockies. 15mins to Eastlink which then takes 25 minutes to Hoddle Street End (not in peak hour that is). If you are starting work at 6.30 then you would probably want to be leaving home no later than 5.45

Negatives - around the station is a bit tatty...you get the usual dispticks who like to hang around transport interchanges (but this is probably the same everywhere). High schools aren't so good - the best government school in the Knox area is Wantirna College but it is getting increasingly harder to get your kids in there if you do don't live in Wantirna (the next suburb)

Ferntree Gully

Positives - a similar area to Boronia but a little more hilly. A few pubs and you sometimes get band at the middle (the Ferntree Gully Hotel). It has a hospital with a casualty department (my last child was born there - very impressed with the standard of care we got). It has the thousand steps walk which is very popular and as it is a bit higher, it is one of the cooler spots in Melbourne on hot days

It has two train stations which are just up the line from Boronia so travel times to the city are similar. You get fabulous views right out over Melbourne from some spots

Negatives - high schools again. There is a catholic school (St Joes) which has a good reputation but again government schools aren't so good and people try to get their kids in Wantirna College. Because it has so many trees its one of the higher fire danger areas.

Both areas are about 45 minutes from the beach but they are unfortunately bay beaches so not as good as those on the open ocean (no surf) , but that is a problem Melbourne wide.

The local bigger nightspot is the Knox City complex which is one of the biggest shopping centres in Melbourne and has pubs/cinemas/a little night club/loads of restaurants and is pretty busy in the evening

Its a good spot to live, its a bit hillier than the rest of Melbourne, which can be a bit flat and anonymous and there are so many trees you can hardly see the houses. Other spots in the area that worth a look are Bayswater (has got a brand new railway station and the level crossings have gone- lots of places to eat), Wantirna South (getting a bit pricey now the Chinese are moving in from Glen Waverley) and the Basin.

I like both those suburbs and they have good transport too. There are several hotels in FTGully and it does have a bit of nightlife.There are also several decent restaurants in both suburbs- need to book as they fill up Fri/Sat nights. Knox City is nearby and that is a good shopping precinct. FTGully village has a strong community spirit and is right at the foot of the Dandenongs. Upper FT Gully is beautiful, more than FTGully itself. You have the FTGully National Park and the 1,000 steps on your doorstep. The Basin is another pretty nearby area, slightly cheaper but also a little further from transport. Lots of businesses , hospitals, shops etc and a fair chance of very local work depending on what you do