After a long layover in Melbourne for the Australia Open, we finally arrived in Perth in late January. Perth is booming as it is the center of mining in Australia and the growth in lithium and other rare earth minerals and has a housing shortage. We struggled to find temporary accommodation with very few AirBNBs available and couldn’t even get real estate agents to return phone calls. After a couple of weeks, we found a place in a solid but not perfect car-free location – 15 minute walk to everything we need but nothing closer. The place is on a great street and near a great park and about 20 minute uber from several world-class beaches – its about 50 years old and large. We were a little surprised when we checked in on a 110 degree day and the host said “don’t worry about the air conditioning, you have the Fremantle Doctor” – the daily breeze coming from the sea. But it was pretty accurate and the breeze, a window air conditioner, and a fan works. When I mentioned the story at work, the locals were like “the doctor goes away in March – you’ll want AC”. We rented for 6 weeks and we’ll see how this location works out.
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But it is a dry heat
We explored living walking distance from the beach. But we couldn’t find the right balance of walking community, easy access to work, and size of apartment. Most of the areas around the beach are in a park settling, there really isn’t a beach town situation, and the adjacent neighborhoods are large single family homes.
If you compare Australia states to their US counterparts, Victoria is like California, Queensland is like Florida, and Western Australia “WA” is like Texas. WA wants to be independent, relies on natural resources, and “everything is bigger in WA”. But Perth is very nice and has a vibe more like San Diego or Orange County than anywhere in Texas. Perth is also considered a little quiet and people in Melbourne and Sydney say that the time zone is 3 hours and 25 years behind – but as we have explored the city, there is a lot of non-quiet areas that we have found, the main one being Northbridge. We saw on youtube that it was edgy but dangerous and it seems to be very vibrant and adjacent arts to the cultural district. We arrived during the Perth Fringe – which did have some edgy shows but saw tributes to Elton John, Billy Joel, and the Beach Boys.
In addition to the beach, the Swan River winds through the town and a lot of the nicer areas are along the river – including the most expensive houses in Perth – instead of on the beaches like you would expect. Below are some pictures from our initial beach and river trips.
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