Hi
Sorry first chance I've had to take a look at MN today.
So, re pre-school. They call it Kindy here. I only found out at the weekend that they have "3 year old kindy". Again the rule is the child needs to be 3 by 30 June but that is all I know. The web sites someone else on this thread will give you more answers as does this page on aussiemove.com.
There are loads of playgroups around so that bits easy. Some do a "gold coin" donation, ie, $1 or $2 and some like mine you have to pay an annual subscription. It's tiny compared to the one I went to in the UK but the women there have been very welcoming.
In terms of feeling lonely, well, unless you shut yourself away you'll find that people are really incredibly friendly and as soon as you tell them you've just emigrated they'll go out of their way to help you anyway they can.
Basically, I've arrived and just "mucked in". As well as playgroup I take my youngest to a music group and as I mentioned before she goes to nursery 2 days a week.
My other DD goes to Guides (she's even been on a camp for 4 days!) and does a sport after school one day a week.
Both of them go to swimming lessons which we enrolled them in straight away. (TBH this is pretty much a must given the beach / swimming pool lifestyle here)
There is stacks to do here. A fab website I subscribe to is www.enjoyperth.net. I was surprised how much goes on as Perth is a small city but you really can't be bored. We've done so much and not been / seen / travelled to soooo much more.
Perth has hit boom time, big time. It is Australia's fastest growing city so there are jobs galore whether you're looking for full or part-time. It also means that new estates are going up at a fast rate of knots but some are a long, long way out of the city and the newer ones also need time to build up a community feel, so are pretty lifeless (in my opinion). The houses in these new estates can be fabulous new modern homes but if there's nothing to see or do around you and it's a long way to get to places then you need to way that up against having a spanking new home.
Saying that, their are modern homes all over the place. It is totally normal for people to bulldoze the original house, divide up the plot and build modern new homes where one once stood. You'll also see that with newer homes they are increasingly built to almost fill the plot with very little in the way of garden (or backyard as they call it here!) We bought a 4 year old house on a split plot but were lucky enough to have a fairly decent size garden (just not the pool that DH wanted!)
In terms of areas to live, well to be honest it depends on what you want. We've seen that question asked lots of times on Aussiemove and everyone has their own opinion. You'll need to think about whether you want to live near the river or near the beach. It does make a difference. The foreshore on the Swan River is beautiful, landscaped really well with playgrounds and cafes at convenient spots and lots goes on there too.
We've not spent much time at the beach yet as winter was upon us more or less when we arrived but it's not far to get too. What swung it for us was that to live right next to the beach you need pots and pots of cash (who doesn't dream of that wonderful sea view?) and also there's a summer wind called the Fremantle Doctor which can get quite strong on the coast.
You're lucky that you've been offered a relocator, we used a real estate guy (estate agent in the UK!) and he was brilliant. Once we decided if we were going to live north or south of the river he sat down with us and went through all the possible suburbs given our budget, desirable commuting time, schools etc and he made it so much easier.
Have you thought about taking a holiday here before making a decision or is that out of the question? It'll give you a really good feel for the place.
A piece of advice I would give you is to make sure you can spend as much time together exploring as well as doing the necessary bits like open a bank account etc, before your OH starts working. I was lucky and my DH didn't work for the first 10 weeks so we did loads together and had a lot of fun before "normal" life started. 10 weeks is a lot but he came out here without a job and took a break before looking. But to give you an idea of how easy it is to get work, he was offered 5 jobs out of the 6 interviews he had so was able to cherry pick.
Hope that's helped a bit. If you want to know more fire away or send me a message via MN.
I'm off to bed now!
NM
p.s. I've surprised myself as much as anyone about making the move. OH has wanted to come out here for years and I always said I couldn't do it but the last holiday here swung it for me. It's so great for families and I can honestly say that I have not regretted it at all. That doesn't mean to say that it's right for everyone, lots of families return to the UK but we've arrived with a positive attitude and are making the most of this opportunity to change our lives and see a bit more of the world.