Nomadneat

Oops, I meant Quinn’s Rocks (not Beach)!

Hi, well it was very manic and, looking back, I don't quite know how we did it - especially being 6 months' pregnant at the time! We weren't keen on Safety Bay - bit old and tired, not very aesthetically-pleasing, no real beach to speak of... Alkimos was just a tin-roof 'burb - identical newbuilds on tiny plots... Quinn's Beach seemed a bit rough around the edges.... Joondalup felt unsafe (as did Rockingham)...Mandurah was nice but high crime (due to its size, probably, as there are some decent parts with really nice houses)...Hall's Head and Dawesville were very pretty but too far from the city (incase we ever wanted to visit), and Dawesville didn't have any shops or school within walking distance... Roleystone was beautiful but a bit pricey... Armadale was rough and high crime... Kinross was top of our list for NOR (but then we decided on SOR!), and we really wanted to visit the Swan Valley but ran out of time :-/ We covered so many miles, and all whilst my husband was working (luckily he was doing Sydney hours so finished at 2.30pm) and I was 'home-schooling' the kids at the dining table (also my husband's workspace, lol).... we decided on Secret Harbour because it's just an hour from the CBD (less without traffic), an hour from the hills, closer to the south-west, has a beach (not a family-friendly one, unfortunately, but great for listening to the sound of the crashing waves whilst watching the sunset with a bottle of plonk ;-) ), had lots of amenities (everything we needed except a library - which is planned eventually), good schools (well, as good as schools get over here - which isn't great compared to the UK, lol ;-) ), affordable houses (but not so cheap that you feel you're in an unsavoury area) and was bang in the middle of Rockingham and Mandurah - two big cities (towns??) that have lots more shops, amenities, things to do, see, etc. And of course the biggest secret about Secret Harbour is the fact that it doesn't have a harbour!! Having decided on Secret Harbour (which, ironically, wasn't even on our radar! Neither was Mount Eliza when we moved there...), we still didn't know if we should rent or buy, and we only had a week to decide AND to find a place. We put in an application for a short-term rental (but nobody got back to us) and then found our current house, which was for sale but the owners were willing to rent it to us whilst our UK house sale went through; the process is called Prior Possession and it can be dodgy, but luckily we fared ok (worst was the UK tenant refusing to allow viewers and surveyors in, and she stopped paying rent, all of which delayed the sale and we had to extend the completion date - but luckily I'd got the settlement agents to remove the penalty clause as I feared this might happen (phew!). Plus you don't get the luxury of having any problems with the house rectified prior to completion when you do PP - it's kind of like 'sold as seen'. So we spent a bit on titivating rundown bits, and the door locks on the patio doors are knackered and need replacing eventually.... The stress of the move (we had a lot of things go wrong - flights cancelled, car shipping cancelled, container delayed and damaged, no insurance - not to mention the pressure of being homeless if we didn't find somewhere to house our family in <2 weeks - and me being in 'nesting mode' for the new baby, and home-schooling the kids whilst my husband tried to work at the same table, and travelling 4 hours a day to visit areas and looking at several properties every day / evening and sometimes 30-odd at the weekends....I could go on!) and the problems with the UK house ended up with me on bed-rest and then, at 8 months' pregnant, I found myself in hospital with Aussie flu and pneumonia and reduced foetal movements. Luckily she was born safely a few weeks later and she's now 10 months old and snuggling up to me in the baby carrier whilst I write this :-) In hindsight, we should probably have gone into rented first as we're now looking at newbuilds (for inspiration on renovating the house) and they're soooo cheap for what you get, but we'll have to hang onto this for a few years due to the housing market (and the tens of thousands we've already spent on solar, patio roof, decking, pool fencing, decorating, internal walls and doors built, etc.). PS - Hope my comments don't offend anyone living in the areas we didn't fancy - just our opinion and each to their own ;-)

Hi VeryStormy, Thanks for your reply. Was it you who posted on here last years selling your house in Dawesville...? Rings a bell... Hope you settled back in the UK quickly :-) Last night we were convinced Dawesville was the place but this morning my husband has been reading about the mosquitoes and he's really allergic so I think it's out now :-( Alkimos was top of our list but the nearest school (Mindarie Senior College) has bad NAPLAN results and a low ICSEA rating (not sure how much faith to put in these nor what they really mean, but I don't have anything else by which to judge a school!), and Merriwa Baptist College - although the fees are only $2k - it's still an extra $5k a year more than public school once all 3 children are attending... and I'd have to drive my son there whilst the girls are at primary and he'd either have to get there really early or the girls would have to be late! (How do you do two school runs at the same time?!). Roleystone is still my favourite hills / bush option but a bit concerned about (1) fires and (2) not as much for the kids to do when they're teenagers... Alkimos doesn't seem to be near any national parks except Yanchep though (everywhere else is 1-2 hours' drive away) and once we're bored with that, where do we go...? We're trying to book temp accomm and even the cheap areas are commanding ridiculously high fees - quite surprising given it'll bid mid-winter! :-(

Hi all, Are mosquitos worse inland / by sea / NOR / SOR? Specifically, in Alkimos / Roleystone / Dawesville / Halls Head / Pinjarra / Darlington... Cheers, Neat

So we're coming from Melbourne to Perth next month and have a few areas shortlisted:- Alkimos, Halls Head, Dawesville for beach options, and Roleystone, Pinjarra, Darlington for bush options. I love the countryside and walking around national parks, but we also love being near the sea (we're currently on the Mornington Peninsula). I', having a baby end Sep so wouldn't go on the beach much as they're not very beach-friendly (sunscreen, beach tents, baby crumble in the sand!...) but I love walking along boardwalks by beaches and we also love new estates but not where there's nothing there. Alkimos seems to have lots of amenities and facilities but all the community events are organised by the housing developers and the cynic in me thinks these will stop once all the houses are built. My son is into soccer and my daughters ride (I'm really horsey so it would be nice to be somewhere rural). But we're not moving again so wherever we choose has to see us through primary and secondary school...will the hills have enough to keep teenagers entertained? I don't want them being surf dudes either though, as I'm paranoid about sharks! Schools seem very hit-and-miss - either primary are good and secondary are bad, or vice versa! Does anyone have any pros and cons of hills vs beach and any local info on the areas I've mentioned, please? I'd be most grateful.... We're very indecisive and some days we're 100% beach and then, other days, we're 100% hills / bush! But we need to secure an air b&b and not sure whether to pick it in the middle of these areas or actually IN one of these areas. We'll only have 2 weeks to find a rental so we need to do most of our research now.... Thanks in advance for any help or local info. Cheers, Neat :-)

We're also looking at areas and I thought Kinross College was a good one, so one might assume the area is fairly decent...?

Is anyone shipping their car or doing the great Melbourne-Perth road trip?!