joeperth

Don’t go anywhere near Palmerston, it’s really rough these days

Probably not the brightest thing to post on open Internet forums things like “I don’t even lock my car”. Hopefully you don’t need to make an insurance claim in the near future. 

Great post and sums up Perth in a nutshell.

 

Fake, False, Overpriced, Overvalued and a bubble that has well and truly burst.

 

As far as it being a retirement centre, you hit the nail on the head, it already has the reputation of being most isolated town and biggest retirement village in the world.

 

if we were young again, knew what we knew and were absolutely intent on migrating somewhere out of Britain, we would be trying to migrate to America or somewhere with a bit of vibe about it.

You don't sound so happy :-(

Novated leasing can be a great way to get a car and can save a lot of money but you've got to be wise with what you buy. It's all about the residual value i.e. the difference between the final payment and what you can sell it on for at the end of the lease. Japanese cars (Toyota, Subaru etc) will always make you money. Stay away from high depreciating Holdens, Fords and "disposable" Korean makes.

Also the shorter the lease term you can afford the better. You can pay off around 35% on a 1 year lease but this only rises to 55% for a 3 year lease for example.

So working as Post Office counter staff requires overseas professional qualifications in your book does it?

I think you need to read that again properly. They said partner of. Sounds very plausible.

Not a flash router but I have got a second router plugged into my main router to create a separate network. The second one has the dns setup to think it's in the uk. Means I can swap any device between the Australian or uk network for iplayer etc.

I would never want to criticise the nhs. For a service that is free for the entire uk it's something to be proud of.

That said...when I needed surgery I was very glad I had private cover. The waiting time otherwise was going to be months and it allowed me access to one of the country's top surgeons

Sounds reasonable to me

Not a fan of northern beaches. For young kids not surf wise, I'd say Hillary's and Yanchep. Seldom Scarborough which has too many dumper breaks. Trigg Beach a big no,no, apart from the pools.

 

I prefer Cott and Port Beaches myself. Rockingham is a good beach for kids. But all too far I expect under the circumstances.

Yanchep can have a nasty rip so not one I'd recommend for kids. Agree with Hillary's though. City beach can be a good one where the pier shelters the waves.

I know people that go mountain biking even when it's really hot. Just go a lot earlier, say 5:30am. It's light enough and you can be done and dusted by 11 and down the beach in the afternoon. Never really too hot for a road bike up the coast. Always a lot cooler near the ocean. Best of both worlds.

Yep this. Been out twice myself this week. Doesn't have to be a long xc slog. Just hit the down hill sections for a bit of fun if it's really warm

Hi Joe, thanks very much for the info mate thats fantastic. yeah ive been doing a bit of research on the trails near perth. im based in glasgow so a 40 minute drive is no issues to get to the trails from perth. some of the trails and cross country stuff looks quite good. ive saved alot of website in my favourites and have just been going through them all. would be good to get involved in the enduro races and stuff like that. yeah ive heard of sam hill, cannot wait till the the UCI World Sup starts back again. been looking at bikes today aswell from some bikes shops in perth, unsure whether to stick to a full susser or go to a hardtail again

No problem mate, good luck with the move over.

I'd say definitely stick to a full sus. It'll open up a lot more of the trails for you once you get here.

If you need anyone to show you round the trails when you get over feel free to get in touch

Take no notice of the post above. It's complete bol***ks to put it bluntly.

I've ridden glentress and inners recently so can talk from experience. The trails here are different to Scotland, the lack of elevation is the biggest thing you'll notice. But the work that has been put into the trails far surpasses that of the uk trails. The features built at kalamunda are a lot of fun. Pemberton hosted the national series last year. And there's a 6 location Gravity enduro series about to kick off again. You'll probably have heard of Sam Hill. He's from round here, and still sometimes rides the events. He obviously struggled to find anything to ride :-)

Some fantastic trails at Kalmunda

Check out http://www.kalamundacollective.com.au and join their Facebook group page

There's also good trails at Margaret River and Pemberton

Feel free to give me a shout if you want any specifics.

Sounds very dodgy. Even if this is a real person, no good can come from it. Can you go with him to keep him out of trouble?

It's wouldn't be mandatory no helmet. There are many other sides to the argument rather than just whether a helmet can sometimes help in an accident or not.

Of course, but it was similar when seatbelts were made mandatory in cars.

It's the same with helmets now. My helmet stays on my handlebars when I'm not wearing it and it's never a conscious decision to put it on. I don't even realise I'm wearing it. The younger generations who have grown up with helmets don't see it as an issue.

There's just a small group of people that seem to think wearing a helmet is a big obstacle to getting on a bike. Never really understood that one. Especially with modern day light helmets.

Well, it HAS damaged cycling on Australia, both in terms of participation (much less especially for more casual cycling) and as a result has polarised things and made conflict between drivers and cyclists worse here than I've come across elsewhere.

 

Poor law that has had counterproductive effects

As someone who has cracked two helmets in accidents I'd strongly disagree with that statement. The opinion of the Doctor that treated me last time was that I'd have been in resus rather than a&e if it wasn't for my helmet

No

This being Perth, probably 10.30.

Do people still believe that? Sometimes wish it was 10.30 for the sake of my liver!

27% of kids that leave school cant read or write.

50% of Tasmania are "i literate".

 

And the source of these figures is? ???

 

Anyone in Tassie care to share their opinion? :biglaugh:

I just assumed he was a school leaver from Tassie

Shame. I quite liked Tony.

It's a used one

edit - sorry missed the second page of replies!

Prices are definitely much better here. Especially as they give a lot of companies here an employee discount. And then you can claim on your tax return. Almost giving them away...

Outside of Tasmania you're not going to fid anything on a par with the best of the UK in Australia but have a look here for Victoria http://www.visitmelbourne.com/Things-to-do/Outdoor-activities/Cycling/Mountain-biking

 

We were in WA so it couldn't have been much worse - they don't really do mountains in WA As well as the terrain the challenges we found were the heat - the only viable place to get reasonable decent riding was the Perth Hills and that is very hot a lot of the year and the ground is very sandy and as the riding is mostly cross country rather than downhill it got very dispiriting, not to mention the number of punctures from the harsh bush plants.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I look back with amusement that a couple who's main hobbies were mountain biking and snowboarding thought moving to Australia was a good idea, especially Perth.

Thankfully this isn't the case and there's some fantastic trails in Australia. Even Perth which doesn't have much elevation has some top quality trails. Where do you think Sam Hill (DH world champ) picked up his skills?

You'll have plenty of options open to you around Melbourne. Check out the rotorburn.com web site forums for a few ideas

I don't like sounding all doom and gloom but it is true that the oil and gas industry is in a very bad way.

Things were here desperate at $70 a barrel so now it's around $50 panic has set in with the operators. Share prices need to be protected which means the divided can't be reduced. With less coming in, the only option is to cut back the capital spend. People might feel safe working on a project that's already had a lot invested in it, but these are also the ones where they can save the most. The don't care if it seems illogical, it's just a case of where the most millions can be saved.

It hasn't fed down to a lot of the companies working in the sector, but it's definitely coming and the cuts will be deep over the next 6 months.

I've been letting people go recently who thought they were in for a rate rise. It's amazing how many people just don't realise the current situation.

Apologies for the negative post, it's not my normal outlook but it is the reality right now

I did that, but just in one of the plastic bike bags. Came through fine and the airline didn't even count it as part of my allowance.