Why should I move to Perth rather than other Australian cities?

[georgina3]

I'm considering moving away from the UK due to the uncertainties in the wake of Brexit, and Australia is high on my list, both for climate, culture and language reasons. And all the Aussies I've met have been amazing people!

Yet, having never even been to Australia, it's difficult for me to get a good sense of how different cities compare. I've mostly heard about Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne, often from former student friends who did exchange semesters there. But how does Perth compare for a young professional (I currently work in tech as a data analyst)? What are the pros and cons compared to the three larger cities?

Thanks for a lot for your input!

[Paul_Houghton]

Hi Georgina,

Good question and one that made me think today. Sydney and Melbourne are interesting and dynamic cities, much
larger than Perth and so obviously more jobs, more places to seek out the vibe and more choices for entertainment,
food etc. They are both real cities but Melbourne has more of a city culture.

Perth, on the other side of Australia is a smaller place but still has around 2 million people, about a tenth of London.
However it spreads out to more than the size of Greater London meaning lots of space and access to the beach, river or
countryside depending on your preference. Areas like Margaret River just a few hours drive away.

There is a solid startup scene here with co-working spaces used for new companies or project work. The market is dominated
by Resource companies in either Mining or Oil and Gas but the biggest employer is the State government. I suspect an increasing
demand for data analysts since the resource companies run on data. I can suggest others to talk to about this if you want.

There is a good food, wine and coffee scene here with access to great produce nearby. Entertainment is pretty fair and we punch
above our weight in terms of new bands. Being a bit isolated (a three hour flight to Sydney) we tend to be pretty inventive and
occasionally artistic.

Cheers
Paul

[Michael_Graffin]

I can't answer your question completely, but I can provide some thoughts ...

Perth is a very geographically isolated capital city - but very closely connected to Asia. It takes about the same flying time to go to Singapore as it does to Sydney.

Depending on where you live, Perth has decent public transport into the CBD, but it is a very spread out place. Our main metro train line spans 110km end to end (Butler to Mandurah). It is cheaper to live in the outer suburbs; however, you need to add in your travel time to work.

Of the three other cities you mention, I have only visited Sydney. It is busy, and exceedingly expensive in terms of cost of living (worse than Perth). I hear only good things about life in Melbourne (besides the wet weather - but if you are coming from the UK, you'll be used to that). The advantage of living there is the easy connections to the big cities on the East coast of Australia.

As to work opportunities for a tech data analyst, I'll leave that to someone with some knowledge of your industry. With the decline of the mining boom in Western Australia, jobs in Perth might be a bit scarcer - not sure.

Good luck with the research.

Michael

[James_Bryant]

Perth is going through its own refocus. For the last 20+ years, Perth has been a one track city, people were focused on digging things out of the ground and making obscene money in the process. This has dried up lately and Perth is now trying to figure out what it's next identity is going to be.

Job opportunities are much better over east in either Sydney or Melbourne, but who knows how this plays out in the medium/long term.

Also the outer suburbs of Perth seem to be about 25% UK expats and 30% South African/Zimbabwe expats

[Ottilia_Magnusson]

I will reply in terms of beaches and sunshine
Sydney has yellow sand bay like beaches with rock pools and they are always crowded on a sunny day.
Melbourne has one small beach in the city and the weather is colder and often rainy
Perth has straight white sand beaches that are pretty much stretching the whole west coast line (endless beaches pretty much) and not very crowded due to the enormous stretch of beaches and isolated location.

Sydney has sunrise over the ocean and Perth has sunset over the ocean, Melbourne? don't know if they see the sun enough.

Sydney and Perth has pretty similar climate. Perth is probably slightly hotter in summer and not as cold in winter but both have mainly sunshine during most part of the year with most rain happening in winter. Melbourne is known as "four seasons in a day" probably not to dissimilar to UK weather but warmer.

[Max_MiniMovers]

Hi Georgina,

Sydney and Melbourne would be great choices to park your heels in especially that you are a young professional. There are more job opportunities in these areas, but it goes without saying that job competition can be cutthroat.

Personally, as someone in the digital project management field, moving to Perth have more potential. There are many booming tech businesses in Asia and you might just snag yourself a company operating in Perth and overseas.

Cheers!