Moving to Melbourne- school,housing help

Hi
We are moving to Melbourne from South Africa . My husband will be working at the airport, we have two daugters that need to go into primary school . Can anyone give advise on a good area to live with good public/private schools

Cindylou - there are a few nice areas to recommend, but were you looking something close to the airport?

are u wanting suburbs near airport or DH happ to travel?

western suburbs have many nice suburbs really depends on your budget.

Seddon
Yarraville
Essendon
Keilor
Newport
Williamstown
Ascot vale
Moone Ponds
Keilor downs
Tullamarine
Bulla
Gisbourne

are all within 30 mins or so of airport

Hi all , thanks for the info

I dont think my hubby would mind traveling too much but not more that 20-30min.
I have heard the Eastern suburbs are the best . Are the western areas also nice. I am really in the dark.:doh:

Well I suppose suburb depends on your budget and what type of housing you want. Get onto one of the real-estate sites and have put in some search parameters.

I used to live in Brunswick West, on the border of Essendon and Moonee Ponds. They are all great areas and so close to the airport about 20 minutes depending on the traffic. Many airline employees live in those suburbs. Catching a taxi from there was not to expensive which was great. Moonee Ponds is a great little hub, Puckle street is good for its shopping, banks, post office etc. Also has a lot of good places to eat. As for schools, not too sure, but I never heard anything bad. Childcare is hard to get into in that area if you happen to need that. I think a new centre was opening up in the area though.

If you want to travel to the Airport, then the eastern suburbs are not really the best unless you want to spend a lot of money on etag (tolls) each day and extra time.

It really depends on what you want but if your hubby doesn't want to travel more that 30 min to the airport then North/West will be best. There are some wonderful areas in the West (and generally heaps cheaper than the East too). Personally I wouldn't live in the East but that's just my opinion.

I would look at the following for more upmarket houses and good infrastructure and services:

- Moonee Ponds
- Essendon (good private schools)
- Ascot Vale
- Parkville (close to CBD and zoo)
- Kensington (close to CBD)
- Flemington (close to CBD)
- Travencore
- Yarraville
- Williamstown (close to Beach)
- Strathmore

I can also highly recommend Coburg as a place to live. It is within a decent commuting distance for DH to the airport. The housing is great value for money and the schools offer both public and private. I live in Brunswick, but the trend for this suburb is that once baby no.2 arrives people move to Coburg as it just offers more room.

Also Coburg is on a direct line to the city as well as airport so there is very little chance of being isolated. great community atmosphere too!

we are looking to buy there next year so rate it pretty high! LOL!

check out some websites like domain or realestate etc etc to see what's around..

i LIVE in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne (Blackburn) and it is gorgeous and wonderful - very family friendly, many parks and bushland areas everywhere..........BUT it is a long drive to the airport everday - probably on a good early morning, it would take 50mins to an hour. More at other times.

hope that helps and the best of luck with your BIG move !! You will LOVE our wonderful city of Melbourne!