the_grip on 7/3/2011 at 00:13

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Nice RBJ, didn't know the word for it

Sydney seems like more of the same of what we have here... long commutes, large urban center, etc.

Is the same to be said for Melbourne? Melbourne definitely seems cool from a bird's eye view (i.e. my laptop).

EDIT: what about Perth, too? Remote, sure, but that place looks killer.

Muzman on 7/3/2011 at 03:26

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If you're a bit of a stat nerd you can wade through all sorts of stuff.



(there's probably a better way to do that, but anyway)
That's all from (http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6530.0/) Here wherein you can find breakdowns by state and much more. It's a little out of date though. They're still working on the latest one. The last three or four years has seen the GFC push goods prices up generally and house price rises would have had rate rises attached to them. The relative costs per state would be about the same though, I'd guess.

Perth Perth Perth, what can I tell you about Perth...Let's see...
Perth is a ginormous sprawling thing unable to decide if it's a country town or one big suburb. The first thing you might notice coming from somewhere like London or New York is that the traffic lights will not be hurried in changing and will give a "fair go" to an empty road for minutes on end (pedestrians however have the usual four seconds before the man starts flashing impending doom at you. Roads are really wide here too. This makes crossings near retirement villages something of a spectator sport. Good for that couple of weeks between cricket and football season). There is an Urb for the suburb(s) to be 'sub' of, but you wouldn't know it most of the time.
Nestled perfectly in the narrow band between parts of the southwest that get any rain, it is oppressively, skin strippingly sunny almost all the time. And Perth sun will cook you faster than any sun north of Antarctica. Be in no doubt about this.
Being closer to Singapore than the rest of Australia (ie Sydney. Shut up Melbourne) most major corporations only operate satelite offices out here unless they're in mining. Work for one of those other less important industries and you'll probably be politely asked to work hours that synch with the east eventually. Which is fine as there's not a great deal to do in the evenings anyway. Shops are generally shut, everyone generally goes home. The pubs have mostly been bought out and turned into bottle shops.

This combination of a slow paced, quiet life in non stop sun on seemingly endless beach front suburbia, is of course a lot of people's idea of paradise. And that's generally what you'll hear about it. Particularly from people who have come from somewhere else (from almost anywhere really).

I might think we're all mad for living in a squint inducing fantasy land of a boom-town cum real estate casino, but we did vote down that stupid daylight saving garbage. So we're not completely mad.

Renzatic on 7/3/2011 at 06:32

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Drop bears.

Scots Taffer on 7/3/2011 at 11:35

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Perth isn't the graveyard that Adelaide is but having visited most of the various capital cities in the past eighteen months I can safely say that it's the second deadest city I've been to. It lacks a centre of any sort and as a result suffers from that suburban sprawl - so even if there are pockets of activity, to an outsider it just looks like a ghost-town.

Adelaide on the other hand is the sole refuge of wine-makers and serial killers. Beautiful place, but steer well clear.

I quite liked Shakey-Lo's take on the states though his bias was a little too obvious.

I do think Sydney suffers for the very thing that it is famed for, being a beating heart of a city where people end up being a little too focussed on themselves rather than what's going on around them. From what I hear (not so much see) Melbourne suffers from perhaps too much ethnic diversity and a bit of a hangover from the pill-popping and coke-snorting "underbelly" gangster rave-up of the 80s and 90s. Both are still incredibly interesting and vibrant cities with plenty to offer, but I'd be hesitant against recommending Sydney for the family man - despite the job opportunities - due to the nature of the work/life balance. Melbourne is probably a better choice in that regard but I think it can be quite a daunting place to penetrate culturally to an outsider.

Perth is as I said above, good but remote. Very good place for the family but probably not so much for jobs or anything resembling a city feel.

Brisbane is a good middle-ground, it's a fairly bustling economy but not yet crippled from being too much of a metropolis, it's not as ethnically diverse as Melbourne or Sydney but also doesn't suffer from too many pockets of socioeconomic strife, it's family and lifestyle focussed whilst maintaining small pockets of "culture". It has a proper centre during the day but the true life is in some of the city's surrounding suburbs at night, the cheaper but good value studenty west end, the upmarket feel of Milton, the dingy but youthful hotspots in the valley, and so on.

But yeah, plenty to consider. Feel free to ask specific questions!

Public transport is pretty much shit everywhere but Sydney I think... not sure about Melbourne!

the_grip on 7/3/2011 at 13:26

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Thanks for the responses... yep, Scots I was going to hit you up for Brisbane next as you live there :)

Lots to chew on here and will post more questions soon.