Just moved to Melbourne

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Hey people, does anyone else live in Melbourne, Australia?

I live in St. Kilda / Balaclava and was wondering where are the best places to see, drink and eat?

I'm also looking for a job that doesn't involve knocking on people's doors, orringing them up in the middle of dinner! Any ideas?

Cheers

seansouth

Norinoco

Arrived yesterday in Melbourne myself. Staying in Kew in the west of the city.

Will start the job search on monday. Going to trawl thought seek.com.au for some type of data entry job and if that fails, printing out a maked up cv and going to walk in to every restaurant along the street!

As for eating and drinking - i'll find out this weekend!

Táck

going to melbourne in august or september to begin a year in oz, then heading to sydney.

i'll be keeping a close eye on this topic, if anyone else replies!!!

rubberneck

A corkmans humble opinion…

Very concisely

Acland St, St Kilda (all types of food..loadsa sweet shops I often wonder how long those glazed cakes remain in the window though!..The place for Bohemian and Melbourne wanna-been-seen types!..Esplande hotel for live music..cheap booze and sticky floors..
Lygon St Carlton (Italian..watch out for fast red cars at the pedestrian crossings!
Brunswick St (great breakfasts..epsc..Joes café ..hippies and oddballs hangout..plenty to see too and second hand shops..smell the incense!)
Bridge rd (coffee shops, breakie etc..similiar to Brunswick st)

For ‘the craic’

Bridies (little Collins)in the city..great for St paddies as they convert the cark park into outdoor drinking area…
PJ’s..(South Bank) standard Oirish Pub
Irish Times (Little Collins) my favourite.. They even have a U2-cover band every Friday night!

Been here 5 yrs now and still find new things to do/drink/eat..i think its a great place for variety!

Heads up for the Grand Prix,U2,Commonwealth games, Footy season!!! (come on The Pies!)

There might be some final labour required for the final preparations for the Games and/or hospitality staff/barwork for the influx of people during the games?

Enjoy!

kittex

A friend of mine from St Kilda's is always going on about the Fubar there.

Hoping to go an teach in Melbourne for a year next year. I shall keep reading about your travels to prepare myself!

Táck

heading to the visit oz exhibition this week. gonna go to melbourne first then sydney then thailand, laos, etc etc

www.downunder.ie for the exhibition info

The Sweeper

Oooooo I am so subscribing to this thread.

Two more Australia-bound, and specifically Melbourne-bound, punters from boards.ie would be the bauld Whitewashman and also my good self.

All Melbourne-related information, from bars and restaurants to rental areas, districts, places to live, things to watch out for etc. etc. would be vastly appreciated. I may even stickify this...

Táck

when you goin?

The Sweeper

ASAP... but seriously - before the end of this year would be great, realistically we're on a 9-12 month lead time.

Táck

im hoping for august / september. do melbourne and then be in sydney for NYE. who knows where i'll be for Paddy's day.

but as i keep saying, its all good talking about it until im actually sitting on the plane

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kittex, are you coming out on a Working Holiday Visa, if you are you can only teach for the Government of one State for three month, this is part of the reason I moved to Melbourne. One of my traveling companions is a primary teacher, and worked for the New South Wales Dept. of Ed. for three months, up until the Christmas / Summer Holidays. She couldn't teach in State run schools any more, so we moved to Melbourne, which is in the State of Victoria, so she could continue to work. Incidentally, she does supply work and was earning AUS$240 per day (9-3).

Táck, that is definitely the way to do it, come to Australia first, then do Asia. I went to Thailand first, and wish I had done it the other way. It is so cheap in SE Asia.

I got a job via the website www.seek.com.au , I'll be workign for Primus Telecom as a Tech Support phone jockey, exactly the job I was doing before I left Ireland, so I'll have two weeks training when I'll know most of what they are talking about, happy days!

Minesajackdaniels, well it seems St, Kilda is the "place to be" in Melbourne. There are a lot of places available to rent, however I don't know how that will pan out if you are arriving in the later part of the year, which would coincide with the Australian summer. My apartment is a two bedroom, and I have my own room, two girls share the other one. We have a Kitchen / Sitting Room and were supplied with everything like kettle, fridge, iron. Some places don't. We pay $400 p/week, but if it's only two of ye (I assume ye are a couple) then you'll probably get a 1 bedroom place for less than $200 p/week.

For anyone coming to Australia, check out my blog, I have mentioned a few places in Sydney an entry or two down, also my experience having just arirved in Sydney too, may be of help to some people. I'll do the same for Melbourne as soon as I have visited enough places to warrant it.

kittex

seansouth wrote:

kittex, are you coming out on a Working Holiday Visa, if you are you can only teach for the Government of one State for three month, this is part of the reason I moved to Melbourne. One of my traveling companions is a primary teacher, and worked for the New South Wales Dept. of Ed. for three months, up until the Christmas / Summer Holidays. She couldn't teach in State run schools any more, so we moved to Melbourne, which is in the State of Victoria, so she could continue to work. Incidentally, she does supply work and was earning AUS$240 per day (9-3).

Hi Sean
Either a working Holiday Visa or skills shortage. As you say, skills shortage would be better as I could work for the same state all year. I'm a Secondary teacher (English) and they are in short supply there apparently. But yep, even so, the year could be spent on supply. Basically planning on going in just over a years time.

I've been talking about it for too long - time to do something about it!

Chinafoot

Spent a year in Australia after my Leaving Cert and I completely fell in love with Melbourne.

If anyone needs a hostel upon arrival I would recommend Flinders Station Hotel on Elizabeth street. All in all I probably spent about 2-3 months there. Fantastic room rates, quality staff and a newly refusrbished 24 hour bar I'm told.

Melbourne itself is a really nice, laid-back area with a fantastic atmosphere. If you fancy a night out but are unsure of where to go, head for crown casino (walk through the train station and over the river and you'll see it on the right) While you're on your way there you'll also get to see the flames which happen every hour or so Oh and during winter there's an ice-rink.

While I was there we shared a house out in Moonee Ponds (Dame Edna is from there dontcha know) Its a really nice area, a bit quiet, but theres frequent trains and trams that take around 20 minutes max to get ino the city centre.

Also, no trip to Melbourne is complete without checking out the market (top of Elizabeth street....get a tram if you're really lazy) There's loads of stalls with everything from clothes, electronics, flowers and food...also if you're on a tight budget the food stalls are amazing. Really cheap, quality fruit and veg. Then inside there is a separate meat and fish area with many many counters to choose from.
Lots of cafe's at the market too. I worked in one for 3 months before heading off on our road trip and it was a cash in hand job. The cafe's are usually quite happy to take on backpackers.

St. Kilda is a really nice spot but I wouldn't recommend it on Paddy's day unless you're out reasonably early (its a bit like Dublin pubs in that respect) The Irish bas fill up very very quickly as you'd expect. But do check out a place called the Tea Rooms.

Can't really think of anything else. It's just an amazing place and I might have the opportunity to go back for a visit this summer so fingers crossed on that one.

Also, for those that are planning to head out I would definitely recommend that you head to Melbourne first and not Sydney. Sydney, while being a nice place, is incredibly easy to spend a lot of cash in. Enjoy Melbourne first while you have some funds.

Táck

Also, for those that are planning to head out I would definitely recommend that you head to Melbourne first and not Sydney. Sydney, while being a nice place, is incredibly easy to spend a lot of cash in. Enjoy Melbourne first while you have some funds.

my thoughts exactly and i have never been!

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Another thing about Sydney, and I'm not trying to be smart or anything here, but I heard a lot of comments from Irish people who are not from cities, and who have never visited a city, that Sydney was quite "daunting" (?) as every street in the centre of the city (CBD) is high rise, I'm talking buildings that are 25+ stories high. Melbourne, on the other hand, while it has it's 25+ storey buildings, it is not anywhere as "daunting".

Fooking hell though, I've jusy been texted by one of my flatmates, she tells me that our electricity has been cut off. We're paying four hundred bucks a week and we're supposed to be getting no bills. What the hell is going on?

Táck

jaysis god love ya, its snowing here!

daveg

Another 3 hopefully off to Melbourne soon (wife, son and me) (Jesus can't believe the amount of boardsies in/or off to Oz). Were applying for the 136 visa. Just sent the application and fees off for the skills assessment. Hoping (if visa is approved) to emegrate Jan `08. Takes 12-18 months for visa to process. Will post back later with supurb's were looking into. Beumaris is high on the list at the moment.

The Sweeper

Hey guys - the lead time for visa processing can be deceptive. I've a mate who applied for a working holiday 18-month visa on Monday last week.

...it came in the post on Thursday!!

Myself and himself have visa application things to do at the moment, we've just had the last bit of paperwork arrive in the post this week. daveg, how long are you and the family going for?

20 Times 20 Times

ill be in melbourne in july

edit : we could actually have a beers over there

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It's a nice idea alright, although by July I probably won't be in Melbourne any more.

By god it's gotten chilly here in the last few days. Commonwealth Games over, then BANG! here's your Winter people.

I am so looking forward to my East Coast trip now.

daveg

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

daveg, how long are you and the family going for?

Hopefully for good

The visa is going to cost us approx $3K OZ and the agency fees are about another £2K stg so we had better be going for good!!!

How about you? You going for good? What visa are you applying for? The paperwork is a bitch.

Were hoping to go for a recon trip next year if we are sucessfull with the visa. Need to see Schools & suburbs were interested in living in.

The Sweeper

Sure - I'm going for a spouse visa. Have to prove it isn't a passport marriage - so roll on shenanigans like the movie "Green Card". Though frankly I can't be arsed learning his aftershave - it's like "how many pairs of socks do I need to wash until you believe we're married eh?"

The paperwork is daunting it has to be said. Oh well though, anything worth doing takes work!

We're hoping to go for good - but then again I've the roaming bug so for me "good" means "five years and then I'm off somewhere else".

daveg

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

Sure - I'm going for a spouse visa. Have to prove it isn't a passport marriage - so roll on shenanigans like the movie "Green Card". Though frankly I can't be arsed learning his aftershave - it's like "how many pairs of socks do I need to wash until you believe we're married eh?"

The paperwork is daunting it has to be said. Oh well though, anything worth doing takes work!

We're hoping to go for good - but then again I've the roaming bug so for me "good" means "five years and then I'm off somewhere else".

Cool. Good luck with it all. Perhaps we will meet for pint in Melbourne sometime in 2008. How did WWM origionally get his visa?

SprostonGreen

Damn it, this thread is reminding me of my time in Melbourne Aug 2000-Christmas 2000.

I too stayed in St Kilda, firstly at the Ritz Hostel on Fitzroy St, then in a cool house on Carlisle St was it, the one with the prostitutes??

The market is so cool in town, trips to the Great Ocean Road, ah the memories all good.

The George bar on Fitzroy st.

The Sweeper

daveg wrote:

How did WWM origionally get his visa?

Little-known boardsie fact: WWM is Australian.

...:eek:

daveg

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

Little-known boardsie fact: WWM is Australian.

...:eek:

Well that should help getting a visa at least

We spent some time in Oz in January this year on our honeymoon. 7 nights Cairns, 4 night Sydney and 4 nights in Melbourne. What a fantastic country. We did the great Ocean drive, Rented bikes in the park opposite the Yarra, strolled down the river and had lunch. Took a Yarra river cruise and had dinner on the tram resteraunt. Had a great time in Melbourne. Found the shopping to be better than Sydney as well.

The Sweeper

At the moment I think our plan is to possibly do a reconnaissance visit later this year. We've got contacts and relatives in Melbourne, which always helps with these things. There are a few other influencing factors that will govern times and dates on the trips, and visas isn't even the greatest of them.

Still - when you've got something like that to work towards it helps with everything else in your normal daily life.

martinmcdonnell

hi there.Me,my wife and the five kids are planning to go to Melbourne to live.I'm 26,she 27.I'm a carpenter for ten years now.we will be selling our home and should walk away with about E200,000 profit.can any one give us a bit of advise e.g where in mel to buy a house any thing would really help

ashie

Hi,

Mind if I join in? Applied for 136 skilled independant visa,(dh a carpenter) 3 weeks ago, waiting for word back from TRA for a yes or a no!! Hoping to head to Perth by the end of the year or early 2007. Anyone in Perth??

BTW, have a friend that got an answer back from the TRA in 2 and a half weeks!!

pixiearoo

Hi,

Im also Heading to OZ as part of RWT, should be there in July!

We fly into Sydney, we'r getting mixed opinions on where we should head straight to.... Cairns? Melbourne?

considering it will be July, what will weather be like??

Help! :rolleyes:

thanks!

The Sweeper

A friend of mine described Sydney and Melbourne as follows:

"Sydney's like a brash, gorgeous, busty blonde. Melbourne's more of an interesting redhead."

I find this site very useful: www.aussiemove.com