moving over but undecided help please?

Question

hi folks im a 35 year old male with a wife and 3 kids looking at moving over from edinburgh scotland in next 2 years..undecided to look at brisbane or melbourne,been told brisbane is lovely but too hot,but dont know much about melbourne.what is weather like,i am a car mechanic to trade and my wife is a social worker,are there many jobs to be had.how expensive are the houses, would probably reqr a 4 bedroom.what is the transport like ie buses,trains etc.i would appreciate any info to help my decision......

Answer 1

Melbourne is like the UK weather wise for the most part, Sydney can be as hot as Brisbane and hotter on occasion, Brisbane is like all three in that traffic is horrendous. Public transport is good in all cities, but not real cheap. Cheaper than green slip, rego and pink slip for a car every year as well as the price of petrol here $5-6 per gallon. House prices are SKY HIGH, I'm linking you to a place you can search for houses to rent or buy all over australia. Not sure if you're coming over as a skilled migrant with a job or on a working visa, but it's so expensive to live here you might want to have employment lined up first. For weather, try www.weather.com.au

Cheers :) email if you need more info

Answer 2

Gday mate, I have friends who are scottish expats, 1 single 1 married. They both live in Victoria (capital city = Melbourne) and they see it as a good compromise weatherwise. The winters are cool but not bitterly cold as are sometimes in Scotland while you still can get the warm to hot summers as an offset. If you think you would struggle with heat and humidity (and working in it), its best to stick to the south.
Oz is awash with employment because of the mining boom so you guys shouldn't have any problem. As has been said housing is your main bugbear. Plenty of it but rediculously expensive as it is in most of the western world now.
Oh and something else you may want to keep in mind. All of Australia except Tassie has had 10 years of prolonged severe drought which has effected food prices and general cost of living. Out of the 3 cities Brisbane has suffered the most due to the drought. Public transport in Brisbane is quite good, in Sydney and Melbourne average. Brisbane has a lot of multi-lane 1 way streets which helps the traffic flow a lot. Sydney suffers from the sheer volume of commuters although the trains are ok mostly. Melbourne has serious problems with overcrowding on trains which has been in the news for months but by the time you come over it'll probably be ok.
It should be noted that both Sydney and Melbourne are rather large cities i.e the only city in the British Isles with a greater population than each is London itself so they suffer from most problems large cities do.
Just a note: A very large proportion of people from Great Britain have settled in Perth due to its agreeable climate, work, transportation and open space feel however Perth is remote and is indeed one of the most isolated cities on the planet. Depends on whats your cuppa tea, so to speak!

Answer 3

http://www.realestate.com.au is the best place to look for housing prices. http://www.seek.com.au is one place to look for jobs.
The weather in Melbourne sucks and is a national joke, but since you're from Scotland, you'll probably find it good enough. It's hard to comment on the public transport, since it depends where you live. Melbourne is a very spread out city. To get an affordable 4 bedroom house you'd have to live in the very outer suburbs. If I was you, I'd consider some of the regional cities. We moved from Melbourne to Bendigo the year before last. Water restrictions are unpleasant, but we live on a dry continent, so that's just life. Bendigo also has a bad doctor shortage, but they're trying to fix it. Doctors don't want to move here for some reason, don't know why, it's a perfectly nice town.

Answer 4

Brisbane is generally warmer than Melbourne and that is certainly the case in winter when Melbourne is cold and wet while Brisbane is mild to warm and dry. Brisbane gets most of its rain in the summer and autumn so as well as being warm, it is humid in the summer. Melbourne has dry summers. Check out the climatic averages for anywhere in Australia at the Bureau of Meteorology web page at
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/

There is good public transport in both Melbourne and Brisbane with Melbourne probably a little in front on that score.

Housing is more expensive in Melbourne than in Brisbane. I would take a look at the classified advertisements in the Brisbane Courier Mail http://www.couriermail.com.au and the Melbourne Age http://www.theage.com.au on a Saturday. (The same sources will show you what jobs are available for your wife and yourself.) In general, housing is cheaper further out of the cities.

Answer 5

well if Brisbane is to hot for you that leaves Perth out Melbourne is cold that's why i live in Perth.go middle try Sydney