portlaunay

I think it offers both the best and worst of WA. On the one hand the landscape is amazing. There are some beautiful little coves and beaches, crystal clear waters, if you're lucky you'll have whales and dolphins dancing around you too and your kids will want to take the little quokkas home, they're so cute. However, it has a dreadful history of incarceration and abuse. The accommodation is shocking, I mean like 1950's holiday park chalets that haven't had a cent spent on them since and you're charged five star prices for them. If you go, take your own food and drink, again, it's terrible, the service is appalling and you'll pay a fortune for it. When we go we take our own bikes, fuel up with a big breakfast and take a decent picnic in paper bags. When we get there we ride into the island, Parakeet Bay is lovely, have a swim, lunch on the beach and then a ride around before the ferry returns. As ali said, there are often vouchers that bring the cost of the ferry down. If I were in your position I'd only go if I could get the cheap tickets and avoid buying anything there.

The thing is, if this were a pub, and internet forums are often likened so, with a good mix of locals and visitors and there were one or two people shouting about how crap it is around here then visitors would likely leave and never return. They'd also likely leave better informed about those individuals, not necessarily about the area or the other patrons. I find your posts and your point of view quite amusing and as long as you don't break the rules, as a mod I certainly see no reason to intervene but I am curious about your motives when there don't seem to be many who share your point of view. If you or anyone on here has cause for concern about anything they read, either in open posts or PM's I would urge them to report it to one of the mods. I personally found this forum to be extremely helpful pre and post move and I didn't read a great deal about the crime levels in Perth. Fortunately the absence of such information only reflects my personal experience over the past four years.

Couple of things. First, please do not post Facebook links, we will remove them. Secondly, with hundreds of members, a great many with years of residency here in Perth, if crime is so prevalent, why are there not more people coming forward to raise concern? Hmmm, funny that.

Maybe check this out too;

@Sideshowdeb we're back from hols and commencing the big pack this week. If you have some boxes please let me know and I'll organise a time with you to collect. Cheers

Amazing, well done, I would have gone but I was worried it might be a bit of a warzone. I had friends go along to this too and in one of their Facebook posts I was worried because it appeared as though someone in the background of one of their photos looked a bit shifty. We just got back from a three week holiday. While we were away, amazingly, no one broke into our house. We left one car unlocked on our drive and when we got back it was still there! Suspiciously our other car had a flat battery. I'm thinking of starting a local Facebook page to highlight my concerns about how there appears to be a drug and alcohol fuelled craze of unsavoury types breaking into cars and syphoning off the electrickery. It's the only plausible explanation. This morning we took the dog for a walk through 'The Beacy Bronx' which we've lived close to for two years and, according to The Fremantle Herald is an area that "has been plagued for years by feuding and violence, burglaries, rampant illicit drug use and tearaway children wandering streets at all hours." Nothing happened.

When you get here we'll arrange a meet up and my son can give you the warts and all low down on SFSHS. The merger will be an interesting time and the Principal post is being appointed to later this year. The merger does look like a very exciting time but we're hoping it won't impact upon the music programme. Depending on who gets the Principals role and how the music school will be structured will determine whether we stay there or move on.

Sorry for the late reply. The school is Lance Holt. It's in the middle of Freo, really small, approx 100 kids from prindy to Y6. It's pretty hard to get into, there are people who have their names on the wait list as soon as their kids are born but we were just lucky that there was space when she started. Check it out - http://www.lanceholtschool.wa.edu.au/ It's not for everyone and a small school comes with its own issues but on the whole it's a very special place.

Keep hold of your console and games though. You'll be able to trade the whole lot in at EB Games when you get here, they won't care that it's a UK device.

Mixed is probably the best way to describe it and I'll start with the positives. The music programme is amazing. I mean, really incredible, I wish I was a kid again. The structure is very interesting and works on so many levels. Each year group are put into bands comprising different musicians and they practice, perform and write together throughout the year. They go through the Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing phases, learn how to manage themselves, deal with relationships and conflict and of course, their instruments. They all have to play in their bands at the end of term showcases, in front of all the parents. The progression is amazing and they get to play public events too, going on tour when they're older, learning about the music business, staging, production, all aspects of the business really. We only hope that with the changes ahead, the music programme will be left well alone. On the downside, the academic school we've found to be mediocre at best. The teaching has been uninspiring and my son has struggled because he's keen to learn and it feels like some of the staff do the bare minimum to get by. Classes are often disrupted by poor behaviour and there is very little discipline from the teaching staff. His sister is at an exceptional primary school and despite being 3 years younger, her reading and writing ability is almost as good as his! 2016 will be a very telling year as the Principal posts for the new school will be appointed to. There will also be many changes to the teaching staff and with that will come our decision as to whether our son stays or goes. JC isn't an option for us, we know enough about it to know that it wouldn't work for our son. We've known many people who've had children there and it's not worked for them and from their experiences, it's been struck from our list. If he does move on there are a couple of options and the favoured one at the moment will be the Steiner school in Bibra Lake, supplemented by an extra curricular music programme.

That would be great, thanks. We're away for January, and then move around the second week of Feb so if I could collect some in the first week of Feb? We already have some very large boxes but we could do with a range of different other sizes. I'll PM you when we get back if that's okay?

Just found this right outside our back door tonight. The web is around half a metre across and the spider is about 5cm long. It's a Garden Orb Weaver, docile and harmless but amazing. It built this web in around 30 minutes and in the morning, just before sunrise it will eat it and scurry off to sleep until tomorrow night. Sorry about the poor photos.

I think it's a real shame that someone excited about their first overseas trip came on for some advice and has ended up clearly feeling pretty negative. I didn't see anything the OP said about not exploring Australia, I don't know but they may have been here for decades, had many holidays in Australia and this is their first time abroad. I think if people have genuinely helpful, objective advice it's welcome - places to avoid for example but seriously, someone's excited about a holiday and half the comments are glib and facile. GMAB rather has a point, there's an element of negativity seeping through a lot of the threads recently and opposing views are welcome but only when objective, educated and for the benefit of the community. It's great that there's banter between members but I always find myself wondering whether what is said (typed) on here is representative of how people would conduct themselves when face to face with someone who, essentially, they don't know. Without visual cues that are so important in face to face communication we are left to speculate on the sentiment intended behind the words we read. However you reflect on what has been said, whatever anyone thinks about their intentions, the fact is, someone came on here feeling positive, asked for help and has left after a pretty terrible experience.

This may not be what a lot of you would like to hear but it's worth thinking about when considering your future.More than 1,100 jobs to go from Perth health service More than 1,100 jobs to go from Perth health service http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-03/kim-hames-confirms-job-cuts-in-health/7065076

I'm sure they'll fit and I doubt anyone will check but if you prang it, whether it had anything to do with the car seats or not you can bet the insurance will wriggle out of it. If you get a tug and the cops are on the ball you'll also have them to deal with. It's a risk only you can decide to take but car seats are cheap, I'd be inclined to save dragging them around the world in favor of picking up a couple of new ones at K-mart

Your UK car seats can't legally be used here as far as I'm aware so I doubt a taxi driver would let you put them in their car anyway and a car hire company probably wouldn't allow it either. If there isn't a suitable car at the rank they should radio one for you otherwise you could try Uber. You won't have been the only people in this situation so there will be an easy solution.

That's the iiNet one and it's actually pretty good for normal use. I'd go with it and see how you get on, no point in splashing out unnecessarily. If you aren't happy with it go chat with the guys at Storm computers on Leach, they'll be able to advise if you think you need an upgrade. Glad I was able to help, let us know how it goes

There will be plenty of taxis at the airport and a fair few vans. There are some dedicated transfer companies that have minibuses with luggage trailers but (i think), they don't go to door, just to major hotels or town centres. Taxi is a pretty good hassle free option IMO

One last thing, I'm not sure if Internode supply the modems and if they do, what they are. Just make sure whatever you do, you invest in a decent modem, the $50 ones you'll buy from Dick Smith will do the job in the same way Ikea can supply something to sit on

Personally I'd rather commit to $30 a month than $70. Like I say, you can always adjust up, they're not so keen to reduce the terms of your contract if you find your usage is way below. You might also find you can buy extra 'packets' each month if you do exceed 100gb and they might work out cheaper than going for the 1000gb. I know 100 wouldn't be enough for us but then, like I say, we are pretty heavy users. I think 1000gb is massive, regular, domestic users would struggle to hit that.

Ooh, and one thing we've found with Netflix is that although we're set up for HD a lot of the programs are streamed in SD. This seems to be an issue created by iiNet restrictions rather than Netflix broadcasting in lower res. We're hoping Internode won't do the same

It depends entirely on his much streaming you do. We are pretty heavy users - work stuff, gaming, Apple TV, music streaming and Netflix eat up our quota. It's easy to overestimate your use and my advice would be to go for the lowest package for a couple of months and if you regularly reach your limit, just adjust your contract up. You won't lose out, you can 'top up' each month if you do hit your limit (iinet send us a text when we're close to ours). I've heard good things about Internode and little seems to have changed since they were bought out by iiNet (I think)

Cool, thanks, I didn't know that, I'll check out Freo recycling

Not far but we'll be getting a company to do it for us. We'll do the packing but we've loads of furniture and I can't begin to fathom how we're going to move the piano! My days of hiring a truck and getting some mates over are long gone, it'll be money well spent.

Perhaps treat that ^ with the contempt it deserves. Been to Bali several times, travelled around there a lot and it's lovely. For a small island it has a very different feel as you move through the landscape. Seminyak is nice but I'd advise getting out and about. Get yourself a driver (I can give you some details of you wish?) Stick with the same driver, agree a daily rate and get them to take you around the island. How adventurous are you? Ubud is a bit of a shopping mecca now but if you can get up early in the morning and see the food market from 5am it's a great experience. Better still, book yourself onto a cookery course and get them to take you round sampling all the food. There's so much to do you will not be bored, it's an extraordinary place but the best of it IMO is to be found by going local. We've eaten incredible foods from street vendors, climbed high into the hills and watched birds of prey circling below us, eaten snakeskin fruit straight from the trees and swam in the most amazing pool at Tirta Gangga. Amazing place, don't listen to the naysayers who claim it to be Australia's Ibiza, it's a gorgeously rich, beautiful and interesting place.