Perth - Our thoughts after a month.
Discussion
So, we’ve been here in Perth for a month and so far, so good. I’m sure different people will see the place differently but as there are a few talking about coming over, I thought I’d share out initial impressions:
Probably due to it being spring, the whole place looks a lot greener than we expected.
When it rains, it’s all-or-nothing. You don’t get hours of light rain here, you get a heavy shower usually accompanied by a strong wind to give you a feeling similar to standing in front of a pressure washer.
Every house we’ve been in has shockingly bad windows. We’re coming to the end of our stay in a new-ish $1.5M house (didn’t book it – long story) and even that has single glazing which doesnt close properly and when it rains really hard, you get puddles on the inside sills! I’ve yet to see a house with double glazing.
You need to get used to traffic lights – They’re everywhere.
Buy an automatic, not a manual (see above)
Most people drive exactly at the speed limit. This makes freeway (motorway) driving either very annoying or very easy, depending on your mood.
Buy a car with cruise control (see above)
All the Brits moan about the cost of things because they’re still spending pounds in their head. You need to understand that Perth is a very isolated place in a pretty isolated country – It costs a lot to get stuff here and you have to pay for that. Once you start earning dollars it seems a lot better.
Most of the TV shows are British or American. American Pickers, Storage Wars and Repo Man are quite entertaining and currently you’ll find at least one of these on TV every night.
The nightly “news” is a sports news show with a few other items at the start.
The free-to-air TV is like having 10 versions of Channel 5. (UK)
Foxtel (Sky equivalent) is just like Sky – Loads of channels filled with repeats and crap.
Every other ad on the TV is for a health supplement.
Perth city centre is clean, small and feels like a nice place to be.
The trains are great.
You can park most places for free. Parking for the train is a couple of dollars for all day parking – Unless you’re lucky enough to get one of the free spaces.
You’ll find yourself killing everything that resembles a spider if it is within a few feet of your house let alone IN the house!
Lots of people are into keeping fit – They’ll be power walking from 6AM.
People get up early and go to bed early.
There are scummy, lazy, work-shy people here too.
The woman are not as attractive as I was expecting (this pleased the wife!)
When you hear a V8 roaring up alongside you, don’t look up expecting to see a nice car – It’ll be a 10yr old Holden (Looking rather like a Vauxhall Omega)
A ute is hopelessly impractical – Thanks to my employer for lending me one for 2 weeks so I could find this out whilst doing the shopping on a rainy day.
The rental market is nowhere near as bad as some other forums would have you believe. However, if you’re looking at the low end of the spectrum, expect a lot of competition. After all, everyone loves a bargain.
A cheap house is rarely a bargain. The cheap ones are cheap for a reason.
Pay $600+ a week for a nice place. You’ll also have a lot less competition. Go to as many viewings as you can to learn how the process works and get a feel for it.
Joondalup is like an Australian Milton Keynes.
Supermarket chickens sometimes still have the neck attached.
Kangaroo steak is quite good but kangaroo mince does not make a good chilli.
Learn to love millipedes.
There seems to be a lot more new cars north of the river than there are down south. Maybe this is a sign of relative wealth or maybe it's a sign of people in the north getting things on credit.
Probably due to it being spring, the whole place looks a lot greener than we expected.
When it rains, it’s all-or-nothing. You don’t get hours of light rain here, you get a heavy shower usually accompanied by a strong wind to give you a feeling similar to standing in front of a pressure washer.
Every house we’ve been in has shockingly bad windows. We’re coming to the end of our stay in a new-ish $1.5M house (didn’t book it – long story) and even that has single glazing which doesnt close properly and when it rains really hard, you get puddles on the inside sills! I’ve yet to see a house with double glazing.
You need to get used to traffic lights – They’re everywhere.
Buy an automatic, not a manual (see above)
Most people drive exactly at the speed limit. This makes freeway (motorway) driving either very annoying or very easy, depending on your mood.
Buy a car with cruise control (see above)
All the Brits moan about the cost of things because they’re still spending pounds in their head. You need to understand that Perth is a very isolated place in a pretty isolated country – It costs a lot to get stuff here and you have to pay for that. Once you start earning dollars it seems a lot better.
Most of the TV shows are British or American. American Pickers, Storage Wars and Repo Man are quite entertaining and currently you’ll find at least one of these on TV every night.
The nightly “news” is a sports news show with a few other items at the start.
The free-to-air TV is like having 10 versions of Channel 5. (UK)
Foxtel (Sky equivalent) is just like Sky – Loads of channels filled with repeats and crap.
Every other ad on the TV is for a health supplement.
Perth city centre is clean, small and feels like a nice place to be.
The trains are great.
You can park most places for free. Parking for the train is a couple of dollars for all day parking – Unless you’re lucky enough to get one of the free spaces.
You’ll find yourself killing everything that resembles a spider if it is within a few feet of your house let alone IN the house!
Lots of people are into keeping fit – They’ll be power walking from 6AM.
People get up early and go to bed early.
There are scummy, lazy, work-shy people here too.
The woman are not as attractive as I was expecting (this pleased the wife!)
When you hear a V8 roaring up alongside you, don’t look up expecting to see a nice car – It’ll be a 10yr old Holden (Looking rather like a Vauxhall Omega)
A ute is hopelessly impractical – Thanks to my employer for lending me one for 2 weeks so I could find this out whilst doing the shopping on a rainy day.
The rental market is nowhere near as bad as some other forums would have you believe. However, if you’re looking at the low end of the spectrum, expect a lot of competition. After all, everyone loves a bargain.
A cheap house is rarely a bargain. The cheap ones are cheap for a reason.
Pay $600+ a week for a nice place. You’ll also have a lot less competition. Go to as many viewings as you can to learn how the process works and get a feel for it.
Joondalup is like an Australian Milton Keynes.
Supermarket chickens sometimes still have the neck attached.
Kangaroo steak is quite good but kangaroo mince does not make a good chilli.
Learn to love millipedes.
There seems to be a lot more new cars north of the river than there are down south. Maybe this is a sign of relative wealth or maybe it's a sign of people in the north getting things on credit.
I feel quite settled because I've been at work for 2 weeks and whilst it's a differen company and a different product, its really just the same s
t, different product.
We're coming to the end of a 4 week stay in Mindarie before moving down to Hillarys on Saturday. Its a shame because we were just gettling settled in the Mindarie house! The Hillarys house is a 12 month lease though so hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll feel settled once more.
Funny you should mention a crewcab ute - I was looking at a Holden Crewman SS on the freeway this morning. I've not seen any of the newer shape around theough and a quick google seems to say that they ditched the crewman with the previous shape
t, different product.We're coming to the end of a 4 week stay in Mindarie before moving down to Hillarys on Saturday. Its a shame because we were just gettling settled in the Mindarie house! The Hillarys house is a 12 month lease though so hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll feel settled once more.
Funny you should mention a crewcab ute - I was looking at a Holden Crewman SS on the freeway this morning. I've not seen any of the newer shape around theough and a quick google seems to say that they ditched the crewman with the previous shape
There are a LOT of idiots on the roads here. We live just a few minutes walk from the west coast highway at Hillarys and every Friday and Saturday night we hear them "hooning" around the place. I dont really mind the sound of a nice V8 accelerating up the road but you only have to look at the road surface the following day to know they try and go round anything remotely like a corner at 45 degrees.
Made me laugh yesterday though - There are some tyrs marks starting in a side road from a burnout which then turn into a drift..... which then go right into a big kerb! - Looks expensive.
All over the place you see pairs of black lines wiggling up the middle of a straight dual carriageway.
I spent a fair amount of time in the UK on tracks and doing occasional drift days. I'm not against people enjoying their cars but there is a time and a place for it.
Made me laugh yesterday though - There are some tyrs marks starting in a side road from a burnout which then turn into a drift..... which then go right into a big kerb! - Looks expensive.
All over the place you see pairs of black lines wiggling up the middle of a straight dual carriageway.
I spent a fair amount of time in the UK on tracks and doing occasional drift days. I'm not against people enjoying their cars but there is a time and a place for it.
The choice of cars back home that could actually be used for on-street drifting is fairly limited. Nissan 200SX being pretty much the only one that would fit the bill.
Then there is insurance. Insuring anything RWD at an age of less than 25 will be hugely expensive.
I do wonder if the local's passion for drifting and burnouts is because there are very few roads where you can actually enjoy driving around here? Not sure what it's like in QLD / NSW but here in WA, even the country roads are dull.
I see a fair few Toyota GT86 around and wonder why people have bought them?
Then there is insurance. Insuring anything RWD at an age of less than 25 will be hugely expensive.
I do wonder if the local's passion for drifting and burnouts is because there are very few roads where you can actually enjoy driving around here? Not sure what it's like in QLD / NSW but here in WA, even the country roads are dull.
I see a fair few Toyota GT86 around and wonder why people have bought them?
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