Places to Rent or Live in & around Melbourne ....

[Raurie]

Hi,

Please can you help, i am currently halfway through my visa application & i am trying to gather info on the various regions around Melbourne.

The areas that interesting us the most at this moment in time are Knox, Kingston, Banyule, Balnarring, Balnarring beach & Nillumbik.

Being a family of 5, with 3 boys 6 & under we are interested in places with a relatively low crime rate & with plenty for them to do.

We are also open to other areas of Victoria which might offer what we are looking for but i must be mindful of my skills as an I.T. professional & where they will be in demand.

Cheers

Raurie

[Petals]

You have certainly picked a spread of suburbs which are far away from each other.

Balnarring in on the Mornington Peninsula and a lovely small town with houses near the beach and houses up near the shops. I get my dogs groomed there. The beach is nice but weedy. Race horses swim at the beach early every morning. Its rural and lots of cattle and horse studs aound the area. Quite a hike to Melbourne though an hour and a half. Mornington Peninsula Shire Intro Page

Kingston takes in Morrabbin, Cheltenham areas which are nearer the city Kingston City Council, Melbourne, Australia Home Page

Banyule City Council : Welcome to Banyule

Banyule is way over the other side of the city from Balnarring about 2 hours drive I would say. Its nearer to the main airport Tullamarine.

Have a look at the council sites and they will give you ideas of the area and the services provided there.

Also have a look at realestate.com.au and for houses and prices.

Where do you intend to work, if its from home then Balnarring would be very nice.

[Raurie]

What do you class as a reasonable commuting time between home and work, taking into account the size of the cities and Victoria as a whole compared to cities and counties in the UK. If it is common to travel around an hour or more to compensate a good quality of life with a good job then Balnarring sounds ideal for us. Any comments welcome.

[moving2melbourne]

Originally Posted by Raurie

What do you class as a reasonable commuting time between home and work, taking into account the size of the cities and Victoria as a whole compared to cities and counties in the UK. If it is common to travel around an hour or more to compensate a good quality of life with a good job then Balnarring sounds ideal for us. Any comments welcome.

To be honest if your thinking of travelling to the CBD from Balnarring in rush hour I think you would be looking over 2 hours . I travelled from Lyndhurst to North Melbourne on a daily basis for work and it would take 45 minutes at weekend but in rush hour 1 1/2 hours sometimes longer, I use to leave to come home at 3.30pm and it could take 2 hours, Balnarring is 50 minutes further South from Lyndhurst.
Some people don't mind the commute for the better lifestyle, is it the beach that you are wanting or open fields or both? There are some lovely suburbs within 40km of Melbourne. You could look at the Bayside suburbs for the beach or if you are wanting the hills and scenery you could look around Menzies Creek, Monbulk, The Basin etc.

[Raurie]

A bit of both would be fab as we live approx 1/2 hour from several beaches and 1/2 hour from the countryside at present. The kids love the beach and I wouldnt want to take that pleasure away from them so I will definitely look at the areas you mentioned, especially Bayside. I know that there may well be plenty of IT jobs in many areas but I'm assuming that there would be much more opportunity in this field in Melbourne CBD. We are also looking at Bendigo and Geelong and their suburbs as we know that they have CBD's also. Does anyone have any comments on either of those places that might help in our search for the best place for us to settle and bring up our kids?