llessur

It's worth bearing in mind that La Niña has made things surprisingly cool and wet in Adelaide for the last few years - by all accounts that's coming to an end now so things should warm up again in future years. I've also read that we're probably likely heading for El Niño in 2023 so that means hot, dry weather. I came here in 2012 and the first 5-6 years I was here the summers were noticeably longer and hotter, with week-long 40+ degree heatwaves being a fairly regular occurrence so I wouldn't take the last couple of years as a sign of what typical Adelaide weather is like. Personally, I've quite enjoyed the last few cool summers as it makes daily life a bit more bearable - especially when dragging a couple of young kids around. I agree it's not been great for the beach though. As mentioned above, it's warmer year-round the further north in Australia you go, but with that also comes increased humidity and UV levels. In Adelaide, we only really need sunscreen for around 6 months of the year as outside of those months the max UV drops below 4. You don't have to go very far north before the minimum UV level is above 4 which means ideally sunscreen should be worn outside at all times of year. Up in Queensland the minimum UV levels are very high all year round, making it an absolute necessity. I personally love the 6 months of the year where the whole family doesn't have to butter up with factor 50 every time we leave the house for any significant length of time. It's also worth keeping things in perspective - I have a couple of outdoor hobbies and remember vividly the weeks and weeks of endless drizzle and heavy rain which was absolutely guaranteed during UK winters (and springs, and autumns). Even in winter, daytime rain lasting any longer than an hour or two is relatively rare in Adelaide and once it stops the low humidity means everything dries up pretty quickly. Up north you'll need to contend with the wet season which means you might be rained in more than you think. If it's the weather that's the primary reason behind you considering moving elsewhere then I'd give it a few more years to really experience what is usual for Adelaide. If your husband is in defence then Adelaide's probably going to be a good place to be over the next few decades. Once he's got his citizenship many more opportunities should open up for him on that front

Continuing my theme of adding a few threads to the forum about the city, I thought it was worthwhile providing some information about places to eat and drink. There have been a glut of new bars and restaurants opening across the city since the State Government introduced a new category of liquor licence for venues with a capacity of under 120 people back in 2013 - there are now in the region of 120 new venues operating across the CBD that did not exist in 2012. This number has been increasing by around 20 each year since the change and has had a dramatic effect on the vibrancy and activation within previously quiet parts of the city - especially some laneways such as Peel Street and Leigh Street: Peel Street Leigh Street I thought it was worth mentioning this fact as many of the less than positive posts about Adelaide on this forum seem to have been made by people who have not lived here in the last few years. I have been a resident of Adelaide since 2012 and the atmosphere around the place has genuinely changed immeasurably since then (although I am assured by my wife that the fact this uplift occurred directly after my arrival is a mere coincidence). Whilst it's probably difficult to provide commentary of venues which have already opened, I will try to keep the thread updated with details of new announcements - it may help to provide prospective migrants with an idea of what nightlight and entertainment options exist in the city. The latest announcement is for the re-opening of the former dining hall at Adelaide Railway Station (which has been closed off and used for storage for over a decade) as a bar/restaurant called the Guardsman. The bar will front onto the station concourse and looks like it will be a great addition to the already grand building: According to the press release: "The Guardsman will feature a grand central bar, open kitchen, multiple dining and seating zones, a private room and shopfront serving coffee and takeaway items opening onto the Railway concourse. It includes full restoration of the Hall’s heritage features". It will certainly make it a lot easier for me to grab a beer on the way to home from work...

How did you find Adelaide @benj1980? I hope you had a great time!

Haha, I've never had any problems with flannel shirts or dress codes. Pretty sure you'll be fine wherever you end up going, especially family places. The oval dress code is pretty lax, maybe have a check on the website but unless you're in the members area then anything goes apart from nudity, swimwear and maybe thongs? Members (western stand) is slightly stricter but it's still pretty casual - no ripped jeans is one rule I remember. Hope you enjoy Adelaide and that the weather stays fine, I was at the Oval last night for the Crows game and the atmosphere was great. The game day village thing on Elder Park looks good for the kids, maybe see if you can get a booking for the zip wire over the River Torrens!

@MARYROSE02 I've moved from the other thread as requested by moderator. But being locked down in a mansion is still not ideal. I'm still unsure as to any benefit to deliberately slowing the global economy and overwhelming the health systems just to keep people locked up at home. What was the problem with people circulating in the first place? I saw no imminent revolutions brewing from the fact that people were allowed to be socially mobile. The UK didn't follow any model. It absolutely stuffed up its COVID-19 response from the get go - with the initial downplaying of the severity of the disease, then Johnson's 'do nothing' plan for herd immunity, ignoring expert health advice and delaying the first lockdown, not ring-fencing or providing PPE to care homes, encouraging people to 'eat out to help out' at the first hint of reduced case numbers and the ongoing lack of border checks or controls. People have been flying in and out of the country willy nilly for most of this time - some of my UK friends have even taken summer holidays to Europe. They've only just started a hotel quarantine scheme now months too late. It sounds like an absolute farce over there compared to the Australian system. The Aussie model has been first class in comparison. Health advice was quickly sought and heeded by the government, borders were closed, a quarantine system was put into place and we have effectively eliminated the disease because of it. We're all learning in this situation so some mistakes are unavoidable - the Victorian situation for example which was the first real escape of the disease from the hotel quarantine system. Yes it was a disaster at the time but it was resolved through tough action and the whole country learned from it - quarantine, testing and contact tracing systems were improved and continue to be improved after every breach. Now leaks from hotel quarantine are mopped up efficiently with minimal impact to the community and economy. We don't quarantine people with colds because the death rate from the common cold is negligible. The fatality rate for flu changes year to year but is often estimated at around 0.1% by the WHO. We also have effective and proven treatments for flu such as Tamiflu. The COVID-19 fatality in European countries is around 2.5-3.0% i.e. 25-30 times higher than the flu and we have no fully proven drug treatments for it. In peak flu season our hospitals can be stretched but are not overwhelmed. Letting COVID-19 go unchecked would swamp our healthcare systems leading to the horrendous type of situation seen in Italy last year. It would be a disaster. We would all personally know people who died an early and painful death.

Have added a suburb guide for Bowden to the Poms in Adelaide forum just in case anyone's interested in moving to a rapidly gentrifying inner-west suburb with superb transport links to the CBD, new Royal Adelaide Hospital etc.

Well that year passed pretty quickly - thought it was time for an update. The new student building at 269 North terrace is nearly complete - externally at least: The 5 star Sofitel Adelaide opened at the end of 2021: The nicely glazed 89m office tower at 73-85 Pirie Street is starting to rise above its neighbours: The new fin-covered 119m 'The Switch' student building on North terrace is also nearing external completion: There has also been a new tallest building proposed for Adelaide - a 180m mixed use (hotel and residential) tower at 207 Pulteney Street. This will be a whopping 42m taller than the 138m existing tallest 'Frome Central Tower One' - completed last year. No renders have been released yet but here's a mock-up of its height and location: The Freemasons (yep, apparently that's still a thing) have also proposed a 160m tower to be built above their existing Masonic Lodge building on North Terrace: Both of the above two proposed buildings are fairly important for Adelaide as they mark the first time that Airservices Australia have agreed to modify their operating procedures to allow for taller buildings in the CBD - a process that required significant consultation with the airlines that operate into the airport. Until this change the existing tallest buildings (around the 130-140m range) have marked the approximate upper limit for building heights in the CBD.

A lot of the time discussions in the South Australia section of this forum relate very much to residential areas of Adelaide, but the city itself receives less attention. I have a little bit of an interest in architecture and urban development so I thought it might be interesting to those who aren't hugely familiar with Adelaide to know about some of the development work which has been re-shaping the city over the last few years. After remaining relatively unchanged for a lengthy period of time, the skyline has really started to grow over the last 5 to 10 years - with new apartment, office and hotel buildings taking shape. At 132m, Westpac House (formerly the State Bank Building) has been Adelaide's tallest building since 1988 (one of only three buildings over the 100m mark in the city). However, two new contenders for the title are currently under construction and starting to be quite visible on the skyline. At 35 storeys high, the Adelaidean building on Frome Street will be 135m tall and house a mixture of residential apartments as well as a Crowne Plaza hotel. It's currently standing at around 25 storeys so there's another 10 or so to go. (Image courtesy of the Sensational Adelaide development forum) At 40 storeys high, the Realm apartment building will equal Westpac House's height of 132m. The building was designed by renowned architects Elenberg-Fraser and features a geometric arrangement of perforated gold screens for sun/wind protection and floorplates which change shape throughout the height of the building. It's starting to look pretty stunning (Image courtesy of the Sensational Adelaide development forum) Whilst not in contention for the new tallest building, there are also a few other 100m+ buildings which are either proposed or under construction. The recently-completed Kodo apartment building on Angas Street (103m): (Image courtesy of the Sensational Adelaide development forum) The 115m Luminesque building on Currie Street will house a mixture of apartments and Adelaide's first new international 5 star hotel (Sofitel) built in 30 years. It is currently under construction and due for completion in 2020: There are also a couple of 100m+ student accommodation buildings in the pipeline - a 124m building designed by Woods Baggot approved for Twin Street: And a 118m building approved for North Terrace, directly opposite the University of Adelaide campus: All in all it's a very exciting time for the city skyline

Whilst there are some dodgy suburbs to the north of Adelaide writing off anything north of the city is a bit drastic. Prospect has some great heritage houses and is rapidly becoming gentrified - it's a heritage suburb within spitting distance of the CBD so it's only going in one direction. Neighbouring Medindie is pretty much up there with North Adelaide for posh houses and tweed-wearing gentry levels. I probably wouldn't look north of Regency Road at this stage but city fringe suburbs are definitely worth a look and would likely be a sound investment.

Probably worth bearing in mind that Lavers' commute is against the bulk of the traffic flow - most people will be moving from the southern suburbs towards the city whereas Lavers does the opposite. Commuting north from Hallett Cove might take longer.

That's a point - Prospect and much of Mile End are in the sought-after Adelaide High/Botanic High zones... https://www.education.sa.gov.au/parents-and-families/enrol-school-or-preschool/find-school-zone-or-preschool-catchment-area?school_code=1919&year=2020 Like the UK, public (state) schools can vary but even the less sought-after ones are nothing like some of the inner city schools in the UK. All will provide a good education in a safe environment. If you want a private education then be aware that there's likely to be a religious (either Catholic or Anglican) slant to it - there are some fairly affordable Catholic private schools but after reading their various mission statements and hearing from other parents who have gone down that route for their kids I decided that some of the 'educational' content doesn't sit well with my non-religious background (the teaching of sex education as part of religious studies as opposed to human biology for example). It's worth doing some reading up on the school system over here and also visiting a few when you come over.

Have a look at Croydon/West Croydon - https://www.pomsinadelaide.com/topic/44226-croydon-and-west-croydon/. A stone's throw from either Prospect or Seaton - maybe a 10 minute drive. I live there so I'm biased btw. It's in high demand at the moment so prices can head towards the top or just over of your budget depending on the house but there are still some bargains to be had if you look for them. https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-with-3-bedrooms-in-west+croydon,+sa+5008%3b+croydon,+sa+5008/list-1?source=refinement For me it ticks a load of boxes - great public transport (two stops from the CBD via train), good cycling infrastructure (it's a 20 minutes cycle into the city without having to use a single road once you reach the shared path at Croydon) and heritage houses on large blocks. There are great cafes and parks as well as easy access to supermarkets and other services. It feels a little more like Europe than some of the outer suburbs do and doesn't make you dependent on your car for absolutely everything. Neighbouring suburbs along the rail line are also worth a look - Woodville, Kilkenny, Cheltenham etc and also Beverley and Allenby Gardens etc which are just to the south. All have lovely heritage houses on good sized blocks. Mile End and Prospect can be nice and are also just as close to the CBD. The inner west is still (fairly rapidly) gentrifying so there are some less attractive spots but in general the market seems to be catching up with the fact that there are heritage suburbs right next to the CBD which have been undervalued for years. The defence work at Port Adelaide and the expanding biomedical precinct at the north west of the CBD (and likely soon to extend along Port Road at Thebarton) are likely to accelerate this. The posher Eastern Suburbs like Unley, Parkside, Norwood etc are probably out of your budget for a family home. Campbelltown, Magill etc might be worth a look and wouldn't be a bad commute to Prospect or Trinity Gardens. Seaton would be a bit further to travel but not too bad. I know less about the east though...

Wow, I didn't realise UV levels stayed so high all year round for much of the country. That must be annoying Yes, summer you do have to be careful in Adelaide but I've been here nearly a decade now and haven't been burnt once. I just take sensible precautions so I wouldn't say it's a particular burden or involves massive lifestyle changes. My bit of advice is to spend the money on really good sunscreen that doesn't feel greasy when it's on, makes it much less annoying to wear. plus I'm not afraid to flout my 'middle aged dad' credentials by wearing a sensible wide-brimmed hat on sunny days...

We have two little kids here in Adelaide and I'm 100% certain the opportunities for them to be outdoors and active all year round are far more extensive than they would be back in the UK. Yes, the UV levels are high in summer and precautions need to be taken to limit exposure - suncream, hats, rashies for swimming and in general avoidance of the peak UV periods but it certainly doesn't restrict kids to indoor activities only. I can't comment for the rest of the country but here in Adelaide the UV levels are generally below 3 (the limit for requiring sun protection) for all of winter, whilst for much of spring and autumn they only really get significant for a few hours in the middle of the day. Even in winter it's still quite pleasant to be outdoors most days and it's far less miserable than trudging about trying to entertain kids in the endless drizzle back in the UK. Even on the rare really rainy days it's normally quite mild temperature-wise so it's still possible to grab some outdoor time in between showers. The kids see heavy rain so rarely that it's actually a bit of a treat to put on the wellies and raincoats for a splash in the puddles. Plus, sport is huuuge here - even from a really young age. From the experience I had growing up it's far more common for kids to be involved in (usually multiple) sports-related activities than it is back in the UK. Our eldest is only four and she's already doing stuff on the weekends. On weekends it seems like every second or third kid is wearing a sports uniform of some sort. The parks are generally fantastic here in Adelaide - we must have a list of 10-15 that we visit on a regular basis. The play equipment is always well looked after and most have shade and BBQ facilities too. There's no comparison to most of the parks I've come across back in the motherland. Even when they are refurbished they tend to get shabby pretty quickly. So, from a kids perspective I can almost guarantee you'll find yourself much better off here than in the UK. I wouldn't worry about that part of it at all. The family side of things is the difficult bit and will depend on a number of factors. I was lucky that I didn't have kids when I moved here so I didn't have to worry about taking them away from their grandparents - although I still have the guilts about them not being a big part of each other's lives. I'm also lucky that I'm not an only child so my parents do have other grand kids in the UK as well as good support from my sister. It's still really hard being so far away from them but it does get easier as the years go by and means the time we do spend together either here or in the UK is very special. Anxiety about such a big move is only natural but as per the tourism adverts you'll never never know if you never never go - or something to that effect. When we moved out here we had a goal of giving it two years at which point we'd review the situation. Even though we knew the move might be a long-term one that did makes things easier to handle as it kept our options open and at the time we left it wasn't guaranteed to be permanently. I think it's important to give it at least that long as the homesickness does kick in - but then subsides again. Making a decision to move home again during peak homesickness might not be the right one in the long term. After two years we had settled in nicely and built a life for ourselves here so it allowed us to compare our options more objectively. If you skip on the option to move and try for something new will you always regret it? On the other hand, if you're happy with your lot back home then that's also a pretty good situation to be in...

I bought an EE sim on my trip back to the UK in 2018, used it for a few weeks and then brought it back to Oz with me. I went back again in January 2020 (lucky timing there) and the sim no longer worked so they definitely do expire/get reallocated after a while. I wonder if the best bet is to periodically (maybe just once every 6 months or so) put your EE sim into an Aussie mobile and generate some network activity with it - maybe sending a text. That's what I had planned to do with the new EE sim I bought in 2020 to see if I could keep it active, although I have all forgotten about it up until now. I'll sort that out this weekend if it still works... Not sure about e-sims. You might want to google the main networks (Telstra, Optus, Vodafone) and see what they say?

The Japanese stuff in particular definitely seems to be cheaper here. We bought a Mitsubishi Outlander for a great price - there are thousands of them here. Much cheaper than it would have been back in the UK with a premium pricetag attached and a smaller engine. Maybe the high-end stuff is worth considering for import but you can definitely pick up a bargain here if you're happy to drive whatever everyone else does.

From: https://glamadelaide.com.au/remys-deep-dish-pizza-bar-is-opening-in-the-cbd/

@MacGyver It looks like you had a nice trip! What time did you take those photos by the way? Everything looks a bit on the empty side I think you're right in your observations above. I loved Perth when we were there and almost moved to Freo after a month-long stay nearly became permanent somewhat by accident but have also found Adelaide a great mid-sized city to be living in - especially now we've got kids. There's lots to do and yet nothing's too far away. I'd much rather be 5 minutes outside of Adelaide than 40 minutes outside of Melbourne. We did lose a lot of great architecture back here in the 60s and 70s but a fairly prominent heritage protection movement grew in the 70s/80s so much has also been spared since then. I love wandering round the CBD looking at the buildings - there are some great hidden gems down laneways and side streets and I'm sure there are some guided history and architecture walks you can go on too. Saying that, we also seem to have had a mini boom of 100m+ buildings in the last 5 years or so, so things are also moving upwards. I feel Port Adelaide could eventually end up something like Freo - it has massive of heritage buildings still intact, mainly because it suffered economically in the 60s/70s/80s and so nothing was ripped down for new development. Now it's starting to be revived and has got great potential to be something special. The forthcoming frigate and submarine building is supposed to be a catalyst for that - and there have already been some new hotels, pubs and breweries popping up - so fingers crossed on that front...

Ignore me - I have just seen your other post

@MacGyver How was your trip?

In many cases you're probably right in that a leak from hotel quarantine could be relatively easily mopped up by contact tracing teams without closing the economy. However, my understanding is that the snap lockdowns are to prevent a rare but worst-case scenario which would overwhelm or outrun contact tracing teams and cause case numbers to run away and result in a widespread, long-term lockdown. At the moment we seem to have been lucky - in most cases the COVID-positive workers have not moved too widely through the community and spread the disease to a large number of people outside of their close contacts. However, it's not at all unfeasible to consider a situation where a worker infected with a highly transmissible COVID strain and shedding lots of virus travels repeatedly on crowded public transport services, attends a couple of 50+ extended family gatherings and a busy religious service and then goes on a shopping spree before they test positive and are ordered to quarantine. You could even throw in further complications such as many of the people impacted not speaking English as their first language leading to a shortage of suitable interpreters. This could easily cause a situation where contact tracing teams are scrambling to trace and contact a few hundred close contacts and a few thousand contacts of contacts. It would only take a small number of those contacts to be shedding large amounts of the virus whilst attending other multiple large gatherings before contact tracers would have no chance of preventing widespread community transmission. From what I have heard the capacity of contact tracing teams to outrun the virus tapers off rapidly once close contact numbers reach triple figures. The multiple family gathering super-spreading scenario was one of the causes of the Victorian second wave so I would say that the cost of exercising extreme caution through short circuit breaker lockdowns is an acceptable insurance policy against the very real threat of having to close down large chunks of the country for extended periods of time. I'm sure there is also a political benefit to taking the risk adverse approach - after all public opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of the strategy that has been adopted. The results of the WA election in a couple of weeks will most likely reflect just how much this is the case.

And grappling with an ongoing health crisis like most other countries would have had a lesser impact on the economy? Repeated and extended lockdowns? People living in fear of stepping out of their front door? Potentially massive long term mental health issues across the population? Our economy is open now, has been for months and is tipped to grow strongly if not boom from now on. Ninety-odd percent of the jobs lost to Covid have now been recovered and, Victoria aside, most retail and hospitality businesses have been functioning since the end of the initial lockdown almost a year ago now. In the UK they've all been closed completely for long periods of time. How can you look at the state that other countries find themselves in now and say that the Australian strategy hasn't been a success with minimal economic impact?

I think it's entirely appropriate to compare the quality of different countries' government and health authority responses - regardless of whether the exact circumstances they've been dealing with are the same or not. This is not about comparing different countries' abilities to eliminate the virus but their ability to act appropriately to address their unique situations. Australia's response has been prompt, science-based, effective and coordinated. As has NZ's. The UK's response has been lacklustre in comparison. Early action was not taken, the advice of global and national scientists was ignored (leading to delayed lockdowns and the premature lifting of restrictions) and the various governments within the UK have not been able to agree on a coordinated approach. These shortcomings have undoubtedly cost lives and adversely impacted the mental health of millions. The one small saving grace is that the UK's vaccine procurement and roll out strategy appears to be working very effectively.

Hey no worries, glad to help - let us know how you get on

Little Bang: https://www.littlebang.com.au/ Pirate Life: https://www.piratelife.com.au/