Best City to Live In For a Motorhead?

[-Z-]

Hi Guys

Uk dentist here looking to emigrate to aus with his young family.

But confused as to which City would suit us best. So far my favourite seems to be Melbourne due to climate, amazing houses at reasonable prices, i.e. can live mortgage free in a house as big as our current one, dry heat (which is essential as the missus hates humidity), and for me having the amazing Philip Island nearby for track days appeals massively.

Any bad points to Melbourne or better areas?

Thanks

[joefraser]

The cars around Melbourne CBD are incredible, such a good mix. I have been here under a week and seen a lot more German brands than I expected - most of which have an M or AMG on the back.

Lots of nice luxury barges masserati's appear to be popular.

Motorbikes are superb, lots of bobbers and a surprising number of Triumphs to which is pleasing.

Plenty of high end porsche's, ferraris and I've seen more than a couple of lamborghinis.

The general runabout tend to be subaru and holdens.

I have never understood Utes, after seeing a 200 yard smoking burnout last night I need one.

My ride? A humble subaru forester .

[smack]

Phillip Island is a great track, used to spend a lot of time there when I lived here full time. Around the inner SE suburbs, nice high end cars are as common as muck.

Bad points - the Victorian Police.

[motomk]

Grrrrr....should have hit save!!

Melbourne gets most of the international events. F1 at Albert Park, Motogp and Superbikes at Phillip Island.
The V8supercars race at Phillip Island, Sandown and Winton. They also show up at the F1 Grand Prix.
Calder and Heathcote look after the straight line people. There is a racetrack at Calder too.
Heat...Not as humid here as Sydney. Perth gets the really dry heat. Melbourne has less extremely hot days in a row. Maybe 2 or 3 maximum in a row over 37. Perth would get 2 weeks over 37 in a row! There is some humidity in Melbourne but you count the bad days on one hand.
Where to live would be dependant on where you work. There is obviously more space the further away from the city you get. If you work in the suburbs, live in a nearby suburb. There are plenty of nice places within an hours drive of the city. Public transport all radiates from the city. There are trams from the closer suburbs. If you work in the city then the train system is ok but is increasingly overcrowded sometimes. If you travel before 7.15am it is free.
Cost of living? I would call it swings and roundabouts. Some things are cheaper here than the UK and vice versa. Cars are a lot more here but then fuel is cheaper. Long distance international airfares are more. Local is probably similar. Don't forget a trip to Sydney is like driving to Inverness from London.
Melbourne is very multi-cultural so you get pockets of people from different backgrounds.

Houses
www.realestate.com.au
www.domain.com.au
Cars!
www.carsales.com.au
www.carsguide.com.au
Public transport
www.ptv.vic.gov.au
Supermarkets
www.coles.com.au
www.woolworths.com.au
DIY
www.bunnings.com.au
Sport
www.afl.com.au
www.nrl.com.au
www.a-league.com.au
www.cricket.com.au

motomk

[Hasbeen]

In Melbourne, & the rest of Victoria you can get booked & fined for speeding at just 2 kilometres over the posted limit.

I spent a fair bit of time in the place, & can't really think of many places I would not chose before Melbourne.

[Jader1973]

Is there a specific reason you want to live in a massive, rapidly expanding, city?

I work in Port Melbourne, but live 60 km to the NW of the city. Yes, the traffic is a PITA both in and out, but the evenings/weekends make up for it because I genuinely feel I am well away from it all.

At the end of the day the city is only max an hour away if we want to go in at the weekend for some reason.

If I was in your shoes, and had skills that didn't tie me to an industry that is based close to the CBD, then I'd seriously consider one of the larger regional "cities". I say "cities" because after Melbourne the biggest places are not much bigger than a big UK town - Geelong 184k, Ballarat 97k, Bendigo 82k. None of them are terribly far from Melbourne either (well, they might be if you are from the UK, but once you've been here a while your perception of distance changes a little )

I'd suggest you investigate the work side of things and suss out where the demand is/visa conditions, and then think about where to live. I suspect that there is more likely to be a shortage of dentists in the regional areas - maybe look in to the visa conditions (I think doctors have to do a few years country service for example - there seems to be a constant rotation of foreign doctors through our local surgery).

Stick your house budget into realestate.com.au and choose a nice suburb like Essendon, then choose one of the 3 places I mentioned above and see how things compare. As an example using 7 to 800k AUD: Ballarat = 31 results, Bendigo = 34 results, Geelong = 7 results, Essendon = 3, and one of them was actually 820 to 900. Elwood, a beachside suburb, returned no results

If you want advice on a particular suburb or area then post on here, I'm sure someone will tell you what it is like.

Good luck!

[-Z-]

Thanks for all the helpful replies guys, very early days so just investigating options.

Would prefer to stick to a city initially at least so its less of a culture shock really.

Will look into Perth as well although sounds like it may be in the 'too hot' camp.

[Hasbeen]

Z anywhere along the southern coast of Oz will get extreme temperatures.

The very hot will be when northerly winds blow out of our RED centre, which is desert. These winds are usually therefor dry so the humidity is not as high as it can get in Sydney & Brisbane, but the temperatures are more extreme.

These centres suffer large temperature swings, very hot will change instantly to damn cold, [by Oz standards], when a southerly change brings cold air from far to the south.

Brisbane never suffers the over 100F heatwaves lasting many days that Melbourne & Adelaide in particular do, but it is continually hot for longer periods. There & Sydney the heat is more humid.

Personally I can't see why one would travel half the world, only to continue to live in an overcrowded, cramped environment, with the same lousy traffic conditions you left, but I assume you know yourself well, & know what you are doing.

[madazrx7]

-Z- said:

Thanks for all the helpful replies guys, very early days so just investigating options.

Would prefer to stick to a city initially at least so its less of a culture shock really.

Will look into Perth as well although sounds like it may be in the 'too hot' camp.

Given that your question was "best place for a motorhead", and assuming you didn't mean Lemmy, Perth should be bottom of your list. The entire country is bad if you're into cars, but Perth is by far the worst.

Imagine an A road dual carriageway in England which would be 70MPH limit. In Perth these are 70KPH, and enforced by well hidden revenue cameras.
Now imagine the very worst drivers you have ever come across in England. These would be typical of 90% of Perth drivers.
I just spent 10 days in England, covered quite a few miles, mix of motorways A and B roads, and didn't have a single second of annoyance or WTF?? with another driver. Courteous, making progress, fantastic lane discipline etc... I'd been back on the road here for 10 minutes and been driven insane by the right lane hogging (in fact Perth seems to have thousands of teams of formation drivers, all practicing 3 abreast on the freeway at 5kph below the limit...
I set my cruise for 85MPH on the M6 and was managed to spend probably 85% of the time in the LH lane, 10% in lane 2 and 5% in the RH lane. was passed by as many cars as I passed... drive at that speed in WA and you will lose your licence and your car!

Oh but the weather is "good"

[200bhp]

madazrx7 said:

.......in fact Perth seems to have thousands of teams of formation drivers, all practicing 3 abreast on the freeway at 5kph below the limit...

I drove down the Mitchell freeway yesterday and wished I had a dashcam so I could share such a "team" in action. 5km with three cars in front all doing exactly the same speed side-by-side in lanes 1,2 and 3. Being a double points public holiday weekend doesn't help but it was both laughable and frustrating at the same time.

[Pommygranite]

All good posts here.

I don't think anything about Australia suits being a petrol head. The UK smashes it to bits in that regards.

I think Oz actually ruins the passion so be prepared.

Lovely place apart.

[ajg31]

madazrx7 said:

-Z- said:

Thanks for all the helpful replies guys, very early days so just investigating options.

Would prefer to stick to a city initially at least so its less of a culture shock really.

Will look into Perth as well although sounds like it may be in the 'too hot' camp.

Given that your question was "best place for a motorhead", and assuming you didn't mean Lemmy, Perth should be bottom of your list. The entire country is bad if you're into cars, but Perth is by far the worst.

Imagine an A road dual carriageway in England which would be 70MPH limit. In Perth these are 70KPH, and enforced by well hidden revenue cameras.
Now imagine the very worst drivers you have ever come across in England. These would be typical of 90% of Perth drivers.
I just spent 10 days in England, covered quite a few miles, mix of motorways A and B roads, and didn't have a single second of annoyance or WTF?? with another driver. Courteous, making progress, fantastic lane discipline etc... I'd been back on the road here for 10 minutes and been driven insane by the right lane hogging (in fact Perth seems to have thousands of teams of formation drivers, all practicing 3 abreast on the freeway at 5kph below the limit...
I set my cruise for 85MPH on the M6 and was managed to spend probably 85% of the time in the LH lane, 10% in lane 2 and 5% in the RH lane. was passed by as many cars as I passed... drive at that speed in WA and you will lose your licence and your car!

Oh but the weather is "good"

What he said

[ajg31]

Pommygranite said:

All good posts here.

I don't think anything about Australia suits being a petrol head. The UK smashes it to bits in that regards.

I think Oz actually ruins the passion so be prepared.

Lovely place apart.

And what he said.

Great place but not great for the petrolhead side of life from what I personally have experienced.

[mhh]

I'm late to the party on this one but I have to mention Hobart or Tasmania in general. It has the best driving roads in Australia and the least amount of traffic. I'm from Adelaide which surely beats any mainland city for driving, being surrounded by the Adelaide Hllls.

[Pommygranite]

mhh said:

I'm late to the party on this one but I have to mention Hobart or Tasmania in general. It has the best driving roads in Australia and the least amount of traffic. I'm from Adelaide which surely beats any mainland city for driving, being surrounded by the Adelaide Hllls.

What he said ^

Lovely collection you have MHH - you've posted a few times and I forget to comment. If you have any pics of the current rides would love to see them.

[ajg31]

mhh said:

I'm late to the party on this one but I have to mention Hobart or Tasmania in general. It has the best driving roads in Australia and the least amount of traffic. I'm from Adelaide which surely beats any mainland city for driving, being surrounded by the Adelaide Hllls.

Watched the 25th Targa Tasmania over the weekend, and while I have never been there I have to say the roads looked like they would rival a lot of the "best" roads in Europe. I have seen Gormanston come up more than a few times in "best roads" blogs.

Adelaide Hills are lovely for an early morning blast.

[mhh]

Pommygranite said:

What he said ^

Lovely collection you have MHH - you've posted a few times and I forget to comment. If you have any pics of the current rides would love to see them.

I'm off to Tassie on Friday. I'll post a pic from there if I think of it.

[Pommygranite]

mhh said:

Pommygranite said:

What he said ^

Lovely collection you have MHH - you've posted a few times and I forget to comment. If you have any pics of the current rides would love to see them.

I'm off to Tassie on Friday. I'll post a pic from there if I think of it.

[AW111]

The key to being a motoring enthusiast in Aus is simple - participate!

Speed limits are heavily enforced, but there is a ton of grassroots motorsports - rallying, motorkhanas, track days, club racing, etc.
I live in Melbourne, and Victoria has a lot of forest rallying : check out www.hra.org.au for the local historic scene.


As someone pointed out, there is a real shortage of medical & dental practitioners in the country, so definitely worth checking out.

[mhh]

Pommygranite said:

If you drive a decent car in Australia, you must get in this queue.