Need some advice (msolga, could you?)

Hi Moving - welcome to A2K - I'm sure our resident Melburnian, MsOlga will be here soon.

In the meantime, can you let us know where you're moving from (country at least, state or region would be helpful) so we can get an idea of what climate, services and lifestyle you're accustomed to?

Hi, moving!

Msolga of Melbourne here! I just received hinge's message & here I am! At your service!

Rather than me do a travelogue of Melbourne (& bore you silly!) I'm happy to do an interactive Q & A with you & address your specific questions, if I can. Would that suit you?

In the meantime, you might have a read of this thread:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48521

Some of the information you're interested in is probably already here. (Don't mind Mr Stillwater. He's from Sydney ( Boo! Hiss! )& he has an "interesting" sense of humour! :wink: )

Oh & any other Oz A2Kers are most welcome to chip in, of course!

OK, I've got to go out soon, moving. (Almost midday here. Beautiful sunny day!) But I'll check back in tonight, OK?

Cheers,
Olga

A bit more information, of the "official" variety. Probably a bit of overlap with the previous thread I posted. But between the two you should get a lot of the information you need.

You didn't say which country you're migrating from. I'm curious!

about us
Thanks for your answers hingehead and msolga.

We're peruvians living in the USA for a while, disappointed with the permanent residence process here and looking for better opportunities.

We want to be "sure" what are we going to before a new disappointment. I know it's difficult to be sure but listening several opinions would help to have an idea :wink:

Well, feel free to start firing your questions at me, moving. And I'll do my best to supply accurate answers for you .

I'm curious: what put the idea of Melbourne (as opposed to other Oz cities) in your mind? Perhaps you know of others who have settled here?

First questions
We understand Melbourne is one of the most important cities in Australia, and not as expensive as Sydney. And no, we don't know anybody there.

I have so many questions I don't want to overwhelm you, I'll start with:

We would like to live in a suburb, close enough to the city to feel "in the civilization" but far enough to enjoy a peaceful neighborhood where our children could ride their bike, go to the parks and play with the kids in the area. Considering we are not thinking in the most expensive neither the cheapest, which areas would you recommend?

In average, how much should we pay to rent 2 bedroom apartment or to buy a nice house? What about utilities (electricity/gas, phone, water, etc.)? And groceries for 4 people? How much should we expect to pay for a used car in good condition? How much are you guys paying for fuel?

Enough questions for the first time, aren't they?

Re: First questions


Absolutly correct. Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia Importance I guess is relative. Some Canberrans would rate Canberra above Melbourne because of the political power concentrated in Canberra.



Eastern suburbs; Doncaster, Ringwood mitcham croydon Sth eastern suburbs; Scoresby, endevor Hills, Knox. southern suburbs carrum seaford Frankston? a bit down market but close to beaches.
heres a map indicating East and southern suburbs

As a generalisation eastern and southern suburbs tend to be more residential. northern and western suburbs tend to be more industrial.


$350,000 would buy an ordinary house $450,000 a quite nice house.
hers a link to rental properties in the eastern suburbs. I AM NOT MAKING A RECOMMENDATION. just providing an indication


$300/per week for pretty basic needs. so my wife says

utilities $50.00/fortnight electricity, $20.00 fortnight phone depending on moblie/landline preferences, 10.00/fortnight Gas 10.00 fortnigt water
these are average guestimates. your lifestyle choices will determine how much you pay.

$1.25-1.30/litre for fuel (5 litres = 1.32 Us gall, 1.10 UK gall, more expensive for diesel and in rural areas. I pay 1.37/litre for diesel in my rural location 2 hours away from city.

The above Price indicators have been provided by my wife who is a financal councillor so she must have a reasonable idea. But of course lifestyle choices and habits will make a difference.

Thanks for that, dadpad.

Moving, it is hard to advise you without knowing what sort of life you are looking for, how you'd hope to live here. Dadpad has suggested the southern/eastern suburbs. Some of them are quite a way out from the city centre. Yes, they are very comfortable, but there are also parts of the northern/western suburbs which (to me) are quite acceptable, too. I live in the inner-north & I love it! And it is a lot cheaper than many of the inner eastern/southern suburbs. Let me think about this for a bit. A lot depends on your finances & the type of community you'd like to live in. I'll be back!

Heres the real estate Url I mentioned in my previouse post

http://www.realestateview.com.au/rent_res_melbourne.html

Of course Msolga is right many fine areas in the west and Nth of Melbourne and her comment of "Some of them are quite a way out from the city centre" is entierly true
but again relative.

Perhaps msolga will fill us in on travel times.

My Impression from when i lived in melbourne is that the west and Nth tend to be more multicultural and the east and sth east tend to be more anglacised. This I think is becoming less so. Box Hill is very asian these days, but still alcohol free I think.

Multi cultural Melbourne ay msolga

Stand aside steve Bracks....John So for President!!!!

Yes, John So (Chinese/Australian Lord Mayor of Melbourne city) for president!

Yes, I'd say that the north/west is more diversely multicultural, dadpad. I think that's (partly) what I really like about living in the inner-north! And, of course, it's much cheaper to buy a house (with a reasonably sized yard!) here, close to the city.

Re: First questions
Thank you so much dadpad for this valuable information.

It surprises me a lot how expensive fuel and houses are there. We are paying almost US$3 per gallon of fuel (about AUS$2.25) and we are horrified already.

I find utilities are not so bad, it compensates more expensive groceries.

Please say thanks to your wife, she's given me a light in expenses we could expect.

I'm just taking a look on the real state web site you mentioned, I'll post later with my comments. thanks again.

Houses
I've been taking a look to the houses in the web site you suggested dadpad. Very nice houses, specially those with big backyards . I have no idea how far those suburbs are from the downtown. How long would it take, for example, from Ringwood? msolga, how long it takes from your city to downtown?

I still think houses are in average quite expensive over there but I suppose there are good financing options, am I right?

Hispanics?


Please, correct me if I'm wrong. It seems to me that most immigrants in Australia are from Europe and Asia. What about hispanics? Are there some that you know?

There was a large hispanic (spanish and south american) community in Canberra.

You're right, mostly European, then Asian (east, south east and south) - there are also a fair amount of middle eastern immigrants and lately African immigrants have been rising. Also a large pacific islander community. And kiwis.

I had a very good buddy from Peru (Hi Paco!) in Canberra. Even in Sydney I worked with a young Chilean guy who was born in Australia - but was drafted into the Chilean army (in the early 1980s) and dutifully went back to serve. Also worked with a Urugayan guy who scared the bejeezus out of our union delegate when he explained that, back in Uruguay, the delegate's fate would have involved lots of lead from a machine gun.

Australia doesn't have the latin influence that the US does, but you will by no means be considered 'exotic'.

Re: Houses


The suburbs I selected are all (very generally) about 1/2 to 1 hour by road from the city center. Box Hill/Ringwood to city would be 1/2 hr? more if during peak hour. Public transport seems to be pretty good from most areas.
Buses, trains from the outer suburbs and trams from the closer inner suburbs.

I should remind you that it is 20 years since I lived in Melbourne. So some of my impressions will be out of date.

Financing is a very individual thing I really dont know how banks might your potential.

Hi moving!

You'll have to excuse me, I'm on the run tonight. A huge number of reports for work I must finish before Thursday. After that I will have much more time to answer your questions. My apologies, moving.

I was thinking about your request for suggestions of good places to live in Melbourne. You know, it really depends on how you like to live - in which type of community. Melbourne is a big, sprawling city. If you lived somewhere in the outer suburbs (north, south, east or west) you could spend a huge amount of time each day commuting. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone! So, I'm thinking that it's rather silly for me to recommend any "suitable" suburb until you know where you are going to work. It's no help to find a great suburb then find you're spending 2 to 3+ hours every day commuting!
My suggestion to you is the same one I've made to others interest in moving to Melbourne. If you don't know where you and/or your husband are going to work in advance, I'd seriously consider temporarily renting (inner-city?) for a while until that's clear. THEN find a suitable place AFTER that. Trust me, this is good advice! Living reasonably close to your work (& decent public transport - to get to & from the city, for your kids to be able to get to school, etc) could make a big difference to your lifestyle. For example, you might well need a car for both you & your husband if you do live in one of the "outer" areas & have different travelling requirements each day. (Yes, petrol is expensive. And rising!)

My personal preference (as I said before, in the link I posted earlier) is for the inner-northern suburbs. But, this is just my own taste. Your taste could well be very different. I live about 9 km from the centre. (Yes, that's fairly "inner", still!) Why inner-north? Well, I lived 5 km away (closer to the centre) for something like 20 years and it's very familiar territory to me around here. Real estate prices are considerably cheaper than similarly placed suburbs in the east & south. It's very multicultural & interesting here. (I love my suburb! The whole area, actually. ) Public transport is fantastic. (Trams, trains) so you're not so dependent on your car. I could say more but I'm very short of time tonight, moving. Just remember that this area is my preference & possibly might not suit you, OK?

Be back to answer more questions soon!

Cheers,
Olga

http://britishexpats.com/forum

britishexpats.com


visit the australia forums here. there have info on immigration, areas, lifestyle and culture.

plenty of people able to help

and, of course, when you tire of all this stuff, there's still Sydney! The Emerald City! Sin CIty!