Some help with western suburbs??!!

[young2682 62]

Hi all,

 

We are due to move out to Australia in 3 weeks.

 

We are a family of 2 adults and 2 children (3 and 4), we are being placed in Williamstown for 4 weeks with my husbands firm.

 

After the 4 weeks we will need to move into a longer term rental so we are trying to research as much as possible before we actually leave.

 

The places we are looking at are -

 

Caroline Springs

Taylors Hill

Hillside

Wyndham Vale

 

My husbands job is based in Sunshine and we may only be able to afford one car to begin with so dont want to be too far from Sunshine and within walking distance (or public transport to local shops etc. We also need to be near some sort of kindergarten for my children.

 

We may only be looking to rent for 6months to 1 year to begin with so keeping the rent to a minimum is a must and these are the areas I am coming up with.

 

Any advice or opinions would be gratefully received!

 

Thanks,

 

Alex

[Petals 4,259]

Welcome, there is a western suburbs thread in the Victoria sub forum which may have some useful information for you. Also a lot of other posts about the area there as well.

[blobby1000 454]

There is a saying in Melbourne: "Never go west" having said that Williamstown is lovely and if you go west as far as Torquay its one of the best places in the world!

[young2682 62]

Oh god now I am worried......!!

[Petals 4,259]

Do not be worried, the myth about the west was about times long gone when the docks were right up in the city and all the industry was around the west. That is no longer the case.

 

Western suburbs have a lot of new housing now and its become very popular to live there as its much closer to the Central Business District than living where I live which is on the Mornington Peninsula.

 

So if you are working in the area and moving to Aus for a better way of life you do not want to spend most of it in a car or on a train getting to and from work.

 

Many many Brits have moved to Point Cook Sanctuary Lakes Tarneit, Geelong and if you read through the Vic suburbs forum you will find a lot of information about it.

 

Good luck

[rikyuu 257]

hi,

 

when we first came to Melbourne, we stayed in a holiday home in Williamstown (which is lovely, but megabucks), now live in the west and as our rental is ending we will be moving to another place in the west.

 

The outer west (outside the ringroad) is mostly only just developing or recently developed, the east is much larger and established. Most people say the east is best, but there are some dumps there too, you can end up quite a distance from the city (although I never go there anyway) and it's generally more expensive to rent/buy. The roads and networks in the outer west (where you describe) are still developing, so there's not as many alternatives as the east when the freeway is blocked.

Caroline Springs and Hillside are meant to be good, which is where we are looking. Avoid St Albans, possibly Sunshine, certain parts of Deer park (although we live on a new estate there and it's ok/convenient), Glenroy and Broadmeadows (they are more north west).

If your husband is working in Sunshine, your journey will be fine as you don't need to use the western ringroad which can be hell most days as they built it as 2 lanes and are now widening it...doh!

Plenty of shops around, great shopping centre in Caroline springs and Watergardens (Taylors lakes). You should be able to get a 4 bedroom rental for $350pw. Expect to travel much longer distances than in the UK. 20mins to grab a McD's seems normal now!

http://www.realeastate.com.au is great and you can search on a map. We're doing that right now for our next place in the area.

[blobby1000 454]

I wouldnt want to live in the Western suburbs it still very industrial as far as I can see. It may be getting better but I wouldnt travel 10,000 miles for it, you may as well just relocate to Rotherham!

[young2682 62]

Thanks for all the info, I guess really we have to seek out where is best for us, so many mixed reviews its hard to determine!

We are also looking at point cook and sanctury lakes, it is important that my husband is close to his job but is as important that myself and my children arent stranded! I want to try and meet as many people as possible and be close to amenities etc!

 

What a stressful job research is!

 

:-)

[Guest spongy42]

My husbands Aussie colleague Lives in point cook And works in sunshine with him she says the commute can be a nightmare as it's the same road out that was there 10 yes ago but a load more people using it she normally takes 45 mins Now what took her 10 yrs ago 15-20 mins

We live in derrimut there are 2 kindergarten one is in a newly built YMCA it also has playgroups too 2 primary school 1 catholic 1 state which has a free kinder kinda group run by Vic university A bus service into sunshine you also have deer park to look at too my hubby takes 10-15 mins to get to work he's found a few routes in so if there's a crash he can go another way too derrimut is a work on progress there are a number of houses still being built. I like it here there's 5 playgrounds within 2 km of our house which my little boy loves we do a playground crawl !! A lot of staff from the sunshine hospital also live here

Hope that helps a bit

[Kirsty M 15]

I live in Point Cook and my husband travels to the CBD...driving can be a bit of a nightmare unless you leave early, but sometimes he gets the train. The train service has improved immensely recently from Laverton to the CBD. Not too much help to you though, if your husband would be working in Sunshine.

 

There seems to be a kind of old school snobbery about the Western suburbs, but there is no need to worry, many of the suburbs are very nice places to live. We moved down from Sydney after much internet research. We came down to Melbourne for a couple of weekends and drove around the subrubs that we'd earmarked and decided on Point Cook as we liked the feel of it best.

 

Some people feel that these suburbs are a bit soul-less and it's a fair point...they haven't had a chance to build up a soul...but the facilities are getting better all the time. In my mothers group of 11 are all professionals, perfectly respectable people. Point Cook and Caroline Springs have town centres with a bit of a buzz happening now.

 

Good luck with your move.

[Guest Fate will decide]

I live in Point Cook and my husband travels to the CBD...driving can be a bit of a nightmare unless you leave early, but sometimes he gets the train. The train service has improved immensely recently from Laverton to the CBD. Not too much help to you though, if your husband would be working in Sunshine.

 

There seems to be a kind of old school snobbery about the Western suburbs, but there is no need to worry, many of the suburbs are very nice places to live. We moved down from Sydney after much internet research. We came down to Melbourne for a couple of weekends and drove around the subrubs that we'd earmarked and decided on Point Cook as we liked the feel of it best.

 

Some people feel that these suburbs are a bit soul-less and it's a fair point...they haven't had a chance to build up a soul...but the facilities are getting better all the time. In my mothers group of 11 are all professionals, perfectly respectable people. Point Cook and Caroline Springs have town centres with a bit of a buzz happening now.

 

Good luck with your move.

 

Hi Kirsty,

 

Your post was interesting, we are looking to move to Melbourne in November and like the look of Point Cook area, and my husband will be working in the CBD.

I have 3 girls under 5, and although im on maternity leave at the moment usually work but will be a SAHM when we move. I wondered how easy it is to find activities to keep us occupied during the day and also make some friends!

 

Thanks

Sarah

[Kirsty M 15]

Hi Kirsty,

 

Your post was interesting, we are looking to move to Melbourne in November and like the look of Point Cook area, and my husband will be working in the CBD.

I have 3 girls under 5, and although im on maternity leave at the moment usually work but will be a SAHM when we move. I wondered how easy it is to find activities to keep us occupied during the day and also make some friends!

 

Thanks

Sarah

 

There are lots of families with young children in Point Cook and quite a few SAHMs too (me for example, as I don't plan to return to work for a while!). There are various kindy's, story-time at the library, Kindermusik at the community centre and there are lots of swim schools nearby. I'm not too up on activities as my son is only 8 months. There are lots of parks all over Point Cook. The Point Cook Homestead is lovely for a picnic, as is Werribee South beach. The Werribee Mansion has lovely gardens you can wander around too. During the week we stay in the burbs, but we get out and about at the weekends, to St Kilda, Brighton dog beach, Williamstown, Altona (nice dog walking area) and go down to our favourite spot...Torquay.

 

A lot of people in Point Cook have arranged meet ups through PIO. You just need to put yourself out there a bit when you arrive to make some contacts and let it spiral from there. Just let me know if you have anymore questions about the area and I'll try to answer as honest as possible :biggrin:

[Guest Anne from Melbourne]

Until I moved to the UK a month ago I lived in Newport for 12 years. Great area and convenient for train line.

 

Look at the train lines that go to Sunshine and see what is around them. Then you won't be stuck needing a car in a suburb with no public transport. Some areas might include Seddon, Footscray. then he can go out to Sunshine on the train and you can move around more easily.

 

Some of the newer estates in Deer Park might be could for families with kids.

 

I would personally give Taylors Lakes a skip. Whyndam vale might be OK but is on the outskirts of Melb.

 

Depends on what you want. don't pay too much attention to the negative press about the west - it is hang up from when it was really industrial and the poorer part of Melb.

 

Anne

[Northernpommy 33]

HI, to travel to Sunshine in busy traffic should take about 30/40 mins from Point Cook.

 

Its ok in Point cook and as Kirsty said it really has changed even in the year we have been here and theres so much more to do.

 

Williamstown however IS FANTASTIC.... You are lucky to be living there for a month and the schools there are great too.

 

You would do much worse than settle there TBH. If not PC is still a good place to live.

 

Elaine.x

[katkin 10]

Hiya, we've recently moved to Melbourne and my husband also works at Sunshine so thought I'd put in my thoughts.

First of all ignore anyone who says don't go west - most have never been here for starters or if they have they've just passed through. Yes a lot of the areas are industrial and maybe there are not as many nice areas as the south east - however there are some really lovely pockets which are becoming more desirable. The issue if you start looking towards the east is that you've got to get over to the west - and that will be dictated by how long your other half is happy to commute. Coming up from point cook areas I hear its a great area for families to settle, but its worth finding out about how long the commute in the evening is (wouldn't be too bad in the morning as heading opposite way to city traffic when heading to sunshine, but would meet it all again as it comes off the West Gate bridge). It all depends on whether the length of the commute is an issue - for us we'd both spent over an hour on the M6 each way so we were keen to reduce that in Oz!

 

Williamstown where they're placing you to start is a really nice area, very desirable, great views across the bay and even has a small beach. Think we're all a bit jealous that you're going to be staying there But as other posters have said it can be expensive to buy there, but might be affordable in the short term.

We've moved to Yarraville, which we absolutely love. Its got a small high street with lots of cafes, restaurants, very cool cinema and the schools seem to be good from what I've heard. We haven't got kids yet, but its the sort of area we'd be happy to raise kids in. There seem to be a lot of families in this area as i always see lots of mums and dads with strollers around when i take a walk to the village centre. For us the location is the bonus, we're only a short walk to the train station - train takes 10-15 mins into CBD. For my husband to catch the train to Sunshine hospital its about 40 mins, can be quicker or a bit slower but depends on connections. However, to drive it only takes him 10-15 mins at the most. Cars are very expensive here - before we came over we wondered why people used to ship their small cars, but now wishing we'd brought our little corsa as I'd be worth 4 times what i sold it for. Currently got loan of a car from a friend who's gone travelling!

Other areas in and around here such as Seddon have also got some lovely parts, kinda flows into Yarraville and also worth a look at whats around Newport for accommodation as Anne mentioned above. It's starting to become more expensive to buy in these areas as people are being priced out of the east - but rental is still pretty good value.

I probably wouldn't advise on moving to too many of the areas past footscray on the Sydenham train line (the one that goes out to sunshine) but its easy enough to change from the Williamstown/Werribee lines to it at Footscray

You also mentioned a few areas out beyond Sunshine (I would echo the advice that others have given about not living in Sunshine itself, or some of the surrounding suburbs such as St Albans - not great areas to move round the world for) - I hear that some of these are becoming more attractive for families but you are quite a way out. However haven't been there so couldn't comment on specifics.

 

Kirsty M - I'm also with you about Torquay and surrounding areas, love it!

 

Hope that the move goes well.

[missshelly 11]

Hi we live in Wyndham vale and its very nice, not industrial at all buses and train links good and good local amenities good luck

[young2682 62]

Thanks for the info, it gives a really good idea of areas. There doesn't seem to be much rental coming up in yaraville, only bringing up Maidstone etc? I guess our best bet would be to register with an agent when we arrive and tell them our preferences.

We need to build up as much money as possible for at least the 6months or so and then we could consider moving.

I know it's not the be all and end all but it would be nice to live somewhere bigger than what we have here!! But I guess we can have that in the longer term.

The worry is definitely about getting around with no car!!

We just sold our lovely Volvo jeep here that would have been worth loads over there but what with renting out our house and paying to ship a few bits out etc we didn't have enough money (£3000 to ship car) as all ur money is tied up in our house!

I have spoken to enough people that have come out to Oz on a shoestring budget but it's kind of scary!

I am nervous about being isolated without use of a car! I used to work in London years ago and obviously commuted on trains then but that was pre kids so the thought of public transport just to go and do the shopping terrifies me!

Mind you, it's said to be better than the uk so that's good.

Not long now...... We are still waiting for our 457 visa, it's been 3 long weeks.... Hoping not too much longer, should be there by beginning sept!

Thanks all for taking the time to help with my research x

[boganbear 212]

We are in Williamstown and our flat is quite cheap to rent. whilst Willy is very expensive to buy, ($1m plus) there are some bargains around to buy or rent.

 

If you can find somewhere nice in Willy then stay even if it might cost a bit more compared to other areas. Think of how much money or hassle you will 'save' by being able to walk or cycle to work and not having to drive or use public transport. There are good shops, schools, a small hospital, restaurants and the views, parks and beach are great.

 

I've just done a search on www.realestate.com.au and there are quite a few 3 bed houses for $350-500pw here.

 

Its not called 'the jewell of the west' for nothing!

[Guest jimmyblogs]

Hi young2682,

 

How did you find williamstown? We will be moving out in a few months time and whilst we had originally been looking at the east and port Melbourne we are now thinking this area may work well due to the short commute into the CBD and better rental value for money.

 

Does any one know what the schools are like in the area? Our youngest is 10.

 

Thanks.

[young2682 62]

Hi,

Our situation actually changed last minute so having done a ton of research on the west we are now living on the eastern side of Melbourne in a suburb called Berwick (an hour from cbd)!

I know that Williamstown is affordable to rent but not to buy and is an easy commute to the cbd, as for schooling I cannot help as mine will only be starting kinder/primary next year.

 

Good luck :cute: