info on living in Balnarring Beach, Red HIll , Mount Marthaetc for parents migrating

[juliew1499]

Hi

We are in our early 60's and live in beautiful Cornwall, however only child is now in Melbourne and won't be coming back. Our daughter has persuaded us to emigrate and we have been over to Oz for a month in 2013. CPV visas now prepared and just calling the courier to send them off. During our visit in 2013 we had a very brief look at Red Hill and Balnarring overlooking Westernport Bay and thought the area to be very pretty and reminded us of home. Anyone live there who can tell us what it's like? We like to be fairly quiet but obviously have to give some thought to local services, shops etc . Also keen on classic cars hubby has an MG. What's the commute like to southern suburbs of Melbourne now that the Peninsular Link is open? Also liked Mount Martha. Coming out for 7 weeks this December and January so really want to get a feel for where we could settle. Hoping the CPV won't take too long as only one child who will also sponsor us.

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Good luck with the visa, how exciting for you. I think @Petals will know the balnarring area better than me. One thing though make sure you live close by to your daughter but obviously not in her pockets. I know a few people who have made the move on the parent visa and one family lived in Point Cook whilst the parents lived in Berwick. It got to the stage that they hardly saw each other as the drive was to much for them and the daughter was working all the time. You do have youth going for you though at 60 you are only spring chickens :laugh: but when you do settle on an area it may be worth making sure you can either both drive or their is good public transport near by.

Have you considered Mornington you have everything there and probably wouldn't even need a car unless you had to travel to the city on a regular basis. Or you could look at suburbs on the tram/train routes.

[Petals]

Balnarring is a very nice area and very popular. Pricey. However for me its a little too far down the Peninsula, being older like you I prefer to live top of the Peninsula so I have easy access to areas such as Mornington, Frankston, Karingal, Mount Eliza where I do most of my shopping. Balnarring is close to Hastings and I do go there as well but for clothes and things need to go to Frankston or Karingal. The extra petrol and the drive though not long could be annoying, well for me anyway.

 

Mornington, Mount Martha are nice areas but too busy for me, I do like living on the Westernport side of the Peninsula and have lived in Somerville for 28 years. I can get on to the Peninsula Link in five minutes and onto the Westernport Highway in Five minutes the other way. So its very very convenient. Also we do have a train and bus service so a lot of people do use it.

 

Where is your daughter living? As has been said you need to be close by if you are new to the areas and do not know anyone.

 

There are many clubs like Probus which you can join and people are generally friendly. There are a lot of older people living in Somerville now in fact every house that comes up for sale has 75 people looking at it now, its highly desirable due to the facilities we have. Can walk to everything in the township, we have four supermarkets, Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and IGA. Many doctors, 3 physio practices, two opticians, restaurants, pub, Target, Reject Shop, Best and Less and other smaller stores. Dentists. So no need to go out of the town unless shopping trip. On the Westernport side of the Peninsula we have bike paths which are well used and go right down to Somers. Tennis, bowls, cricket, footy. Also there is a vintage car club around the Peninsula as we often see the cars around.

 

My friend's brother and his wife live in Hastings now but they are into Yachts and so its ideal for them to live there near the Marina. Again this is a town that has changed radically over the last few years and now a retirement destination for many locals as there are several retirement villages around.

 

Mornington and Mount Martha are very very busy and the traffic has got worse and worse. They are dormitory suburbs of Melbourne and because of their size they have lost the village feel that they used to have.

 

Good luck with what you decide. Have a look at realestate.com.au and also look on Google World at what the areas look like. Even though you have been before there will be places your daughter would not probably know about.

 

I have left Red Hill to last, if I was young and energetic I would choose Red Hill because its beautiful and most houses are on acreage, very expensive, no water supply all tank water up there. Nice community, think that most people are busy looking after their property etc so car is essential to get around, well two cars are the norm on the Peninsula anyway. Yes as I have said I love Red Hill but for a Sunday drive, not to live.

[juliew1499]

Thank you both for the information. I think we've probably passed thro Somerville as we popped into the Antiques warehouse at Tyabb. The decision to move from Cornwall has been really hard for us - we have an acreage property in an exceedingly beautiful location and we are only 5 mins drive from ancient the ancient fishing ports of Polperro and Looe. The countryside here consists of steep wooded river valleys and there are vineyards, cider farms etc. The coastal scenery is quite dramatic. It's really hard moving away from all this beauty and history. We know that we won't find much in the way of history (buildings etc) in Oz as there's nothing really earlier than mid 1800 however it is very important to us that we live in a location that has a rolling landscape and is scenic. From the little bit that we saw last visit The Red Hill area looked about right. we were on such a whistle stop tour that we didn't have chance to see if there was any community/centre there. We've decided to stay a few nights in Balnarring and try and get a feel for the area. We also liked Somers but there only appeared to be one shop there! Our daughter presently lives in Hawthorn but works in Cranbourne. she will be moving down the peninsular when we have decided where we are going to settle. I think she will probably want somewhere livelier like Mornington. We both drive so don,t see a problem until we get a lot older!!!!