Melbourne or Adelaide?????

[Pasteypoms]

Any advise would be really appreciated, we are a family of 4 ( children are 7 & 11) who love the out doors, shopping and socialising, my partner is a site foreman/carpenter and I'm a beauty therapist and beauty assessor. We have been granted a 189 visa and are moving in January 2015. The problem is we are unable to decide where to live?!! We love contemporary living and nice beaches with easy access to the City. Where would you advise to live? Does any one know what the job situation is like in Adelaide? As far as I know the cost of living in Adelaide is a lot lower than Melbourne, is this right? Our dream is to build our own house but I don't know if it's going to be too expensive in Melbourne. Sorry to rabble on, I have so many questions. I would just like someone's honest option :-)) .

:chatterbox::tongue::wub:

[Jacaranda]

Adelaide would suit your needs but I'm not sure if you should choose that city just because its more affordable!Have you ever been to Adelaide?I've lived there for most of my life,and Adelaide usually is classed as a big country town (although of course its a city)Check out realestate.com.au for house prices.Its pretty tough right now in Adelaide to find a job,not impossible,just harder than it used to be!

[Keith and Linda]

I am a construction foreman (more on the civil side) living in Brisbane and have worked around Adelaide too, but only visited Melbourne once (and I will leave it at once), we were tempted to transfer to Adelaide, but family reasons dictated otherwise, it is a nice city but it is limited in it's growth potential due to its relative isolation, and as such work tends to be harder to find. I would say you would have a better chance at securing employment in Melbourne, are you fixed on theses two locations? why would you want easy access to the city? There are other places which could offer all what you are seeking.

I would not say the cost of living is any cheaper in Adelaide, maybe the houses are a little cheaper especially further away from the city and coast, but that applies to most cities, also food, insurance, petrol, utilities are all similar in costs.

Good luck with the move.

Keith.

[globetrotters2014]

I've only visited Adeliade once as well, as we were driving from Melbourne to WA, and it is a nice relaxed coty. However, I agree with 'Keith and Linda' employment options are what you should probably worry about more in my books. Right now we live in nice rural town in WA, I have a great job in Health, but the Mrs can't get anything that is at her level in Health as well. and as such, that is going to be our push factor for us to move from here next here with our 3 kids. We have friends in Melbourne who claim it's a great place to live, and I've been there, and it certainly looks like there'll be way more employment options for the both us...increasing our combined net income.

[Petals]

Its very hard to describe the cities if you have not visited them. They are not like UK cities apart from London, as like London Melbourne is as big as Greater London and has four million plus people living here. So being close to the city is not an option for many of the citizens and they have to travel in just like people do to London. The closer in you get to the city the more expensive it is just like London, highly desirable and high comes needed. There are no little villages just hamlets around or small towns and a lot of people these days are commuting from small towns and cities around for work in Melbourne. As a carpenter there would be more work on the fringe for your husband unless he works in commercial construction. Beaches yep they are here and the good ones are not right in Melbourne, surf beaches are out of Melbourne as Melbourne is on two Bays, Port Phillip Bay and Westernport Bay. Child friendly beaches on Port Phillip Bay are popular.

 

People choose where to live by beaches, hills, city, work. Once work is sorted often it dictates where we live.

 

My picture is on Balnarring Beach and as you can see its crowded.

[srg73]

Adelaide is a lovely city, has a nice relaxed feel, is quite flat and has great beaches. Climate is more Mediterranean and does get cold/hot plus is the cheapest of the state capitals. The negatives are that it does have a cut off feel, work is hard to get (this is why we ended up in Brisbane and not regretting it).

 

Melbourne, great city but a little like London down under although heading there again in March for the F1.

 

You have the benifit of the 189, head for where the work is as most cities in Australia are great.

 

S

[Diane]

Any advise would be really appreciated, we are a family of 4 ( children are 7 & 11) who love the out doors, shopping and socialising, my partner is a site foreman/carpenter and I'm a beauty therapist and beauty assessor. We have been granted a 189 visa and are moving in January 2015. The problem is we are unable to decide where to live?!! We love contemporary living and nice beaches with easy access to the City. Where would you advise to live? Does any one know what the job situation is like in Adelaide? As far as I know the cost of living in Adelaide is a lot lower than Melbourne, is this right? Our dream is to build our own house but I don't know if it's going to be too expensive in Melbourne. Sorry to rabble on, I have so many questions. I would just like someone's honest option :-)) .

:chatterbox::tongue::wub:

 

The bits in red = Melbourne, bits in blue = Adelaide, bits in purple = both! Only thing cheaper in Adelaide would be land within easy reach of the city. As said above, look into jobs in both places and whichever looks more likely, go there!

 

Oh, I'd say weather is a bit better in Adelaide - but that's subjective and I like the heat! Very dry heat here, and less grey rainy days than they seem to get in Melbourne.

[Scrutineer]

I would just like someone's honest option

 

Adelaide feels like a large town - a sort of Cheltenham-on-Sea with palm trees and vineyards. It's a charming place with cheaper housing than Melbourne, but then some like the buzz of bigger cities. in Adelaide you can drive from a rural division to the CBD in 25 minutes, which is impressive for the year 2014. You must decide based on what you rank as the most important things about moving. Adelaide is hotter, though, and that can be a factor. It's not just the overall temperature that gets higher, but the length of the heatwaves. Could be worth considering.

[Lambethlad]

Melbourne. If you were here today you would be enjoying a public holiday on a beautiful, sunny spring day. It's Melbourne Cup Day (yes that's right, we get a holiday for a horse race). Although as one female TV commentator said, "It's just an excuse to drink, gamble and dress like a slut".

[Marisawright]

Any advise would be really appreciated, we are a family of 4 ( children are 7 & 11) who love the out doors, shopping and socialising, my partner is a site foreman/carpenter and I'm a beauty therapist and beauty assessor. We have been granted a 189 visa and are moving in January 2015. The problem is we are unable to decide where to live?!! We love contemporary living and nice beaches with easy access to the City. Where would you advise to live? Does any one know what the job situation is like in Adelaide? As far as I know the cost of living in Adelaide is a lot lower than Melbourne, is this right? Our dream is to build our own house but I don't know if it's going to be too expensive in Melbourne. Sorry to rabble on, I have so many questions. I would just like someone's honest option :-)) .

 

 

Cost of living is about the same wherever you go, EXCEPT for housing, which is the biggest consideration. Average house prices are lower in Adelaide than Melbourne, but the average is misleading - because Melbourne is much bigger and has a wider range of prices. To build your own house in both cities, you'll have to go to the outer suburbs: but you can drive from the outskirts of Adelaide to the centre in less than half an hour, whereas in Melbourne it can take two hours to get from the outer edges to the CBD.

 

That also means that wherever you live in Adelaide, the beach is easy to get to - whereas in Melbourne you may have a long trip.

 

On the downside, Adelaide is small which means work could be hard to find, whereas in Melbourne you'll have a better chance.

[Graemsay]

I've been to both, but know Melbourne better than Adelaide.

 

As others have said, Melbourne is the bigger city, and has more shops, cinemas, theatres, and other cultural attractions. It's reputed to have the strongest arts scene in Australia. I'd probably guess the centre has a similar level of amenities to somewhere like Manchester or Birmingham.

 

The downsides are that its beaches in the Bayside suburbs aren't as good as other cities. Plus the city sprawls quite heavily, so it's probably getting on for an hour to get into open countryside, such as the Dandenong Ranges or the Mornington Peninsula. And, as others have said, it's pretty expensive.

 

Adelaide is smaller, so fewer shops, theatres, galleries and so on. At a guess, I'd put it in a similar bracket to somewhere like Coventry, Newcastle, maybe Leeds in terms of its facilities. It's got a really unusual layout, with the centre being surrounded by parkland, and I really liked that.

 

I don't know what the beaches are like, because I didn't venture that way.

 

Because of its size, you can get to the countryside quicker. I've got a friend who lives in Bridgewater, up in the Hills to the southeast of the city, and that's a semi-rural, low density suburb. It's about 12 miles out of the centre, so about a half hour drive, or just under an hour if you catch the bus. Plus being at a higher altitude, the summer temperatures aren't so fierce. It's worth a look, and cheaper than being closer in.

 

If you've got the chance, and I appreciate having kids in tow will make it harder, then I'd look at spending a couple of days or weeks in both cities and see which suits you best. Brisbane and Perth might also be worth a look.

[Scrutineer]

Beaches in Adelaide are first class. I used to go for a 10km walk on the beach, round trip, every morning and rarely saw another person. Plus we could go out swimming every night and very often had the water to ourselves. Because it's a gulf the water was often as smooth as a mill pond and you can float there watching the stars come out, which was pretty amazing. I've seen many dolphins, a few metres from the shore there, plus rays as well.

 

Just had some more thoughts about Adelaide - there are a lot of festivals in Adelaide as well like the Fringe and WOMADelaide, plus the Clipsal 500 if you like car racing. The main attraction for us are all the vineyards, where you can visit at their cellar doors and try wine before buying (or not, depending if you like it). We can drive up to the vineyard of our choice in half an hour and buy great wine unavailable in the shops. Adelaide has an increasingly busy rush hour but generally you can drive around the city with zero problems and there's always cheap parking as well. It's perfect for us because my wife loves city life but I prefer rural, so on the outskirts of Adelaide you get a good compromise on that. We had a koala in our tree two weeks ago, and see kangaroos on the way into the city, where we can visit hundreds of restaurants, etc.