Australian MNers, more specifically Melbourne MNers...

[Bonsoir]

What is the area known as St Kilda like? What is Melbourne High School like?

Thanks!

[parisloves]

Hi Bonsoir - St Kilda used to be dodgy but in the last 10-15 years has undergone a massive change to upmarket, lovely beachside suburb. VERY touristy though and will be packed with people on any sunny days! If you want to stay bayside but want something a bit quieter, go a bit further south along the bay (maybe Elwood, Brighton...don't know that area very well but it's all very nice). Or if you want to stay inner Melbourne bayside, Port Melbourne (more up and coming) and Albert Park (old school, v expensive but lovely) are great. Melbourne High has fab reputation - very academic and highly regarded as a progressive kind of school. Hope that helps!

[ClaudiaSchiffer]

Hi there, can I highjack this a little?

Can any Melbourne peeps let me know what are fairly central, but not hugely expensive, but good areas for bringing up kids etc etc suburbs? We may be moving over and I have NO IDEA where to start looking.

I'll take a look at Elwood/Brighton/Port Melb (thanks parisloves) but does anyone have any other ideas?

Cheers

[Ozziegirly]

Ooo, Claudia - you leaving Adelaide?

[ClaudiaSchiffer]

Hi Ozzie, dunno, maybe, dh may have a job in Melb, we're just looking into possibilities at the moment. Do you know anything about Melbourne? I know nothing.

[Ozziegirly]

I don't really know anything about living there, but having been there a couple of times I do really like it. It's got a nice upmarket feel to it, good shops and people seem well dressed and smart around the CBD .

Plus, the Mornington Peninsula is only an hour or so away and it's lovely. Plus you still have the proximity to the beaches and the countryside.

I like it there lots actually.

Similarly DH has been offered two jobs back in Sydney so we may be on the move as well. You know we've always wondered if Adelaide is a bit small for his line of work (banking) and he started looking for a new role a few months ago, but everywhere he has looked they say "well, we don't have anything here, but if you were to come to Sydney we would have this fantastic job for you".

So we think that once the baby is born we may head back. Nothing definite yet - I don't mind, I like Sydney, although I think Adelaide has some real advantages in terms of cost of living/proximity to work etc, I think DH feels like he is just stagnating here. That was fine while the GFC was happening, but he is keen and ambitious to do well, and the opportunities just don't seem to be available here.

[thumbwitch]

oooh are you all on the move?

Bonsoir, are you asking for yourself or someone else? I can't imagine you not being in Paris!

Ozzie, I am just a little about Adelaide being just too provincial, despite being a state capital! Funny ol' place, Australia

Claudia - is your DH in a similar line of work as Ozzie's?

I am useless re. Melbourne - know nothing. But thought I'd crash the thread just to see what's going on!

It seems that in DH's job, people keep being promoted to Melbourne (where HO is) but I've told him I'm NOT moving there. I didn't trek 10500 miles around the world to move several hours away from his mother, the main reason for coming here. Plus I can't bear the thought of trying to re-root so quickly, when I've only just got a few little rootlets out here.

[Ozziegirly]

thumbwitch Adelaide defines "provincial"!

Honestly not necesarily a bad thing, but it doesn't feel even slightly like a capital city (which in lots of ways is why it's so nice!). I would compare it to say, Reading. So it has everything you need, but there's nothing particularly fancy or smart about it.

I always think Adelaide's major advantage is that it's so easy to get out of it to get to really nice places! The beaches are fab and it's 20 minutes and you're in lovely countryside, and it's beautiful. Plus you can live in a nice family home, close to work.

So ideal, on paper.

But basically, just as in the UK where the better jobs are in the major cities, for DH's line of work it's just so limited here.

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

Claudia, my husband comes from Melbourne and I have quite a lot of friends there with small children. If you tell me more about what you're looking for, I can dig up some more precise recommendations? I am at justsomethingidoatgmaildotcom if that helps. Give me a price range and a distance from the city and I bet I can help.

Melbourne's got quite expensive so it depends what you mean by "fairly central but not hugely expensive". Coburg, for example, will sell you a semi-detached 3BR for $700K, and is about 20 minutes from the city, standard nice respectable suburb, ok schools, parks, nothing special. The leafy suburbs - Hawthorn, Kew, etc (like Unley/Tusmore, etc)) - are really expensive now. North Fitzroy and surrounding suburbs is a mix of trendy little yuppie places and student digs - lots of little trendy cafes and fabulous shopping, but you won't get a place with a decent garden without mortgaging your soul.

Adelaide to Melbourne is quite a leap unless you work in a business where the salary difference will reflect the property price difference. My friends are all thirty--something paraprofessionals, in IT or HR or the Arts, and most of them rent even though they've got little children, because to afford to buy they'd have to move out of the fairly central, interesting, trendy suburbs and into the blander Golden-Grove equivalents, and they're not willing to do so. But it is a nice city. The shopping is definitely better, and it's definitely less provincial!

[Ozziegirly]

I fully agree with tortoise on the price/salary differential.

Melbourne is a bit odd that it is a lot more expensive than here but salaries don't seem to be that much higher to be honest. DH was offered a job there a while ago, but the salary increase just wasn't enough.

Plus when I looked at jobs for me, although I would get a bit more, it wasn't as much as you would expect.

Whereas in Sydney he is looking at significant increases of around 50% of what he is on now, plus bonus.

[savoycabbage]

It is expensive and also it is so spread out. We chose somewhere to live based on the side of the city that my dh's job was, as we had never been here so it at least narrowed it down a bit.

We looked at places on the train line so we only had to get one car but really I think we did this purely to narrow down our search area as it was overwhelming as we knew nobody to ask.

So we live in the definitely less trendy eastern side of the city. It takes us half an hour to get to the beach.

[esselle]

I'm in Melbourne and love it. We live in the western suburbs

[SkinnyLattePlease]

St Kilda is lovely - Bayside Melbourne is wonderful. I live in Hampton at the moment and love, love, love it.
Great parks, cafes, close to the beach and the city. One hour from the Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley - wine buffs here!
Melbourne is expensive though. We are planning our move to Tasmania as we can't afford a bigger house here in Hampton. Currently we are in a 2-bed unit with a small back yard. I want grass for the boys to play on and a third bedroom. If we could afford to stay in Hampton, we would.
Check out Domain and Real Estate for an idea of suburbs and prices. A general rule of thumb is south and east good, north and west bad (no offence esselle!) Google maps comes in very handy here.

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

Ooh, where in Tas are you moving? My husband and I verrrrrrryyyy nearly bought a place in North Hobart when we went over on honeymoon in 2002. Went back there last year and almost fainted at the price rises. But it's such a gorgeous city.

[thumbwitch]

I love Tasmania - the bits I visited anyway (Hobart and Richmond). Proper lovely place it is - but probably because it reminded me so much of England! Except for the mountains of course. And gum trees. BUt Richmond itself is such a middle England country town sort of place, so green and lush and lovely. DH wants to go, he's never been - so it's on our list. I would rather go when my Tassy friend is there though - she lives in Pakistan atm, teaching - so it could be a couple of years (she was back there this Feb while I was in the UK so we couldn't make it then).

[ClaudiaSchiffer]

Hey, thanks guys. I'll give realestate a good hammering over the next few days. I've already checked out and rejected Collingswood, Carlton, Hawthorn. Bit eye-wateringly expensive for the likes of us. Also I'm assuming that the houses marked POA are out of our price range (ie if you have to ask, you can't afford it)

DH is in meedja/advertising so would be working in the CBD I guess. I'll look at Hampton and Point Cook etc.

Tortoise, I'll email you

[ClaudiaSchiffer]

ooo this is the kind of thing I would like . . . I wonder if they want to flog it for a cool $500K

[YeahBut]

St Kilda's a bit like Notting Hill, used to be dodgy, now v. trendy with a bit of an edge. Lots going on, lovely cafes and shops and very close to the CBD. Not sure how family friendly it would be. When we were in Melbourne, it was more a singles / DINKY kind of suburb. If you want more established bayside living, Brighton is nice and has a lovely beach.
Bonsoir, if this question is for yourself, I'd always pictured you as a Toorak kind of girl .

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

500K pounds, maybe. If you're really, really lucky. That place has to be worth a million.

Tis gorgeous, though. Can I have first refusal on your place?

[ClaudiaSchiffer]

Ha. I fear you are right Tortoise. Of course you can have first refusal on our place .

Honestly after all this frantic flapping about we'll probably just stay here.

Bonsoir is definately a Toorak girl. Although I think Australia as a whole would possibly be slumming it. Far too many thongs and singlets for comfort.

[Ozziegirly]

From what I "know" of Bonsior from Mumsnet, there is no way she would fit in in Australia....

Even in Paddington or Woolahra.

Maybe for a holiday though? Nice hotel somewhere away from talk of sport, outdoor cooking and beer in coolers?

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

Hunter Valley, maybe?

[Ozziegirly]

Fuck, I put Bonsior instead of Bonsoir.

She will give me a disdainful glance.

I picture Bonsoir as the woman in that episode of SATC where Carrie falls over in Dior and the woman looks over her glasses in amused contempt, but younger.

[icapturethecastle]

I grew up in Melbourne (Mornington Peninsula) and go home for visits quite often. As people have said St Kilda has changed loads and its quite trendy but if you are looking for family suburbs - I have heard great things about McKinnon recently past Brighton so cheaper but the schools especially high school is apparently one of the best. If I was to move back would def think about Bentleigh, McKinnon and Glenhuntly as close enough to town and if you wanted to send your DS to Melbourne High as train not that far. Melbourne High very good for boys - MacRobertson High for girls but I think both are quite hard to get into. But as others have said Melbourne is very expensive especially in relation to wages - we are better off in the UK at the moment which is crazy!

[Ozziegirly]

tortoise I don't know. I found the Hunter rather....I don't know....not chavvy, just a bit downmarket and touristy I suppose. I prefer our own Barossa actually.

When we were there it was just full of mini busses of people going into wineries, downing 6 shots of wine and going onto the next one.

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

My sister-in-law graduated from MacRobs in 2008 - brilliant school, I agree.