G’day guys!
I’m new to this Victoria forum, so thought I’d drop by and say hi.
My wife and I (both aged in our early 30s) migrated to Australia from the UK at the end of 2010, and after buying a campervan in Sydney and travelling through Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide, we decided to settle in Perth mid-2011 – initially because we had spent all of our money (a 6-month holiday will do that to you, oops!) and needed to find work, but then because we really liked Perth (great weather, beaches and employment opportunities) and decided to build a house here – out in the Swan Valley.
Anyway, we are now exploring alternative options – mainly because the economy in Perth is becoming a little unsettled as the iron ore and oil prices have been falling so dramatically. Sydney and Melbourne are on our radar, but we are leaning more towards Melbourne at this stage as we continually hear so many great things about the city, and we enjoyed the month or two that we spent there in 2011. And life is short, right, so we are keen to try something new – the only thing really keeping us in Perth is our jobs, which may not be all that secure anyway! We are a little concerned about the climate in Melbourne, given that we have grown to love the 11 months of sunshine here in Perth, but coming from the UK we are quite used to cold grey skies and rain! And I hear that the beaches in Melbourne are not quite as beautiful as what we have here, but we rarely go to the beach anyway!
I have always worked in internal recruitment roles for large companies, and my wife is a business analyst/ project manager. I am a real foodie (sorry to quote such a cliché) and have dabbled in hospitality, and I spent some time working as a cook a year or so ago. In a perfect world I would be keen to return to that kind of work – maybe in a small café, and maybe training to be a barista. I LOVE food and coffee, which is another tick in the box for Melbourne, and whilst Perth has improved so much in these areas since we moved here, it can still be a real struggle to find what I am looking for sometimes. However, if we find that there is more demand for recruiters in Melbourne, or if I find that I need to continue working in recruitment so that we can afford to live there, so be it – I’m pretty flexible. I expect that we would wait to move until at least one of us had secured a job, and we are now starting to explore the current job market. I have heard through the grapevine that things may also be a little slow over there at the moment, so would appreciate any thoughts or comments on this.
We plan on keeping our property in Perth, and renting it out whilst we are gone, as we are not sure whether this move will be a short or long term thing at this stage and would like to keep our options open. In terms of where to live in Melbourne, we really have no idea! I have had a quick look online at some suburb profiles (just discovered the homely website, which looks very helpful!) and rental properties (fully furnished would probably be our preference at this stage), and like the sound of Fitzroy, Carlton, Collingwood, Northcote, Thornbury and Brunswick. We are planning a bit of a recce trip in the next couple of months to take a closer look in person, so please let us know if there is anywhere else that you would recommend. We anticipate living in a small apartment near to the CBD, but are open to all options – things that we would be looking for would include: being close to where we work, and having access to public transport, decent internet, restaurants, cafes and bars. Moving from Perth CBD to the Swan Valley has caused us a few frustrations in terms of there being limited public transport and having a limited choice on places to eat, etc, but I anticipate that these problems may not exist in the suburbs of Melbourne, which would make living further from the city so much more “convenient”… Similarly, I guess that employment opportunities won’t be as restricted to the CBD as they are in Perth. Our commute is currently about a 40 min drive each way, so we would prefer not to have to travel further than that. We do like spending time outdoors – on bikes, kayaks, or going for a picnic or a walk, so these would also be other factors to consider. Living in the hills or countryside is also great in theory, but we have found that we also need to be practical too, which may rule this out.
Just putting it out there – a bit of a long shot I suspect, but does anybody know if some kind of document (maybe a map) exists that highlights travel times to the CBD and prices for rental properties for the different suburbs? Presumably prices will decrease (and size of property will increase) the further you are from the CBD, but it would be good to get a clear overview of this. If not, I will continue using Google Maps and the real estate websites to try and figure it out!
In terms of time frames, we are probably looking at early 2016, but wouldn’t rule out doing something sooner if all of the planets align in the meantime – in terms of finding jobs and somewhere to live, etc.
Wow, I really have rambled on, sorry! I only planned on saying hi, but ended up dumping everything that has been buzzing around inside my head, haha
I’m sure that we will both have loads more questions as time progresses, so I look forward to hearing from you and speaking again soon. And, please, if you think we're bloody mad for considering Melbourne, do tell us why.
Thanks for listening