It doesn’t seem that long ago when I blogged about a dead Whale which had been washed up in Hillarys boat harbour just down the road from where we lived here in Quinns Rocks.

Back then, the carcass was in the news because it was starting to draw the unwelcome attention of a great white shark which caused the usually family friendly beach to be closed.

Less then a year later, another humpback whale (all 15 metres of it) has been washed up to shore but this time onto a beach a few hundred yards down the road from Hillarys in a placed called Sorrento. Sorrento just so happens to be the place we stayed when we did our original rekkie to Perth back in early 2006.

Whilst en-route to its final resting spot on Sorrento beach, two sharks were seen this time circling the whale’s carcass when the whale was first spotted offshore at Hillarys.

I know these things have to end up somewhere but I’m unsure what the draw is to our local beaches. Thankfully it’s not one of the whales we saw a few weeks back.

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For many wannabe Aussies, choosing where you want to finally reside when you make the momentous move down under can be one of the toughest decisions you’ll ever make. That is until now!

Let me introduce you to the ‘Wannabe Aussie Immigration Map 5000′. This handy map was provided by one of my overly helpful Aussie work colleagues and I’m sure it should help make the task of deciding where to settle within Australia that little bit easier.

OK, OK it’s just a joke but it made me giggle and be rest assured, it’s not all that bad (well apart from the sharks and spiders) ….

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I can’t believe that it’s nearly spring! On the basis that the Aussie season is about 6 months ahead (or behind) the UK then the 1st of September here in Western Australia makes it the equivalent of March back in old Blighty.

It’s been a pretty ‘avvo’ winter and it’s felt a little colder then I remember it last year. Having said that, statistically speaking it’s been about as cold as it was this time last year so go figure

I’ve heard that it can take a couple of years to become acclimatised to the weather here in Australia so perhaps that’s why I’ve felt the cold a bit more this year. If I think about it, that kind of makes a bit of sense as there has been occasions when it’s been nearly 70 degrees and I’ve still felt a bit of a chill when I’ve not been sat in the sunshine.

Back in Blighty at those temperatures I’d happily sit there in a T-shirt without even feeling a hint of a chill.

It’s funny as its east to forget how hot it can get here in Australia. Our winter this year has been like late spring in the UK with daily temperatures hitting the mid 60’s to mid 70 Fahrenheit. I can still remember the ridiculously hot weather of our Australian summer and I must confess, I really can’t wait for it to come back again!

Despite my best efforts at trying to adapt to the easy going Australian Lifestyle, work has been very busy in the last 6 months so I’ve been working some pretty long hours to keep on top of everything.

Quite frequently I’ve not been getting home until 8pm which means our ability to enjoy the outside lifestyle is limited to the weekends and I’m spending far to little time with Junior numbers 1 and 2.

During the summer time it is frequently over 30 degrees Celsius after 8pm so it will be nice to get home (at a more decent time) see the kids and then sit outside with the missus and enjoy a glass or two of wine. I’ve also booked nearly three weeks off over Christmas so it’ll be a great opportunity to enjoy the Australian Summer again.

Speaking of kids. Junior number 2, our first born and bred Aussie turns the grand old age of one next Saturday. Time certainly flies when you’re having fun (or just busy) but I can’t believe she’s nearly one already. It’ll be interesting to see what the next year holds for all of us.

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There’s a ton of useful sites on the web that may help you decide where you’ll want to settle once you move to Australia.

We’ve already spoken about the Australian Suburb Profiles which are available over at Domain.com and theres a number of great real estate websites which you can use to identify properties to buy or rent before you get out here; the main of course being Realestate.com.au

One of the problems with selecting a house to rent or buy when your on the other side of the world though is it’s often difficult to get a feel for what the surrounding streets and suburbs actually look like.

You can always try asking in our Australian Real Estate Forum as there’s a good chance that for the more popular area’s we may have a member who already lives there. Having said that Australia is a pretty big place and for the smaller suburbs this may not be an option.

Let me introduce you then to Google street View.

Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides 360 ° panoramic street-level views and allows users to view parts of selected cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas at ground level.

When it was launched on May 27th 2007, only five American cities were included. It has since expanded to hundreds of locations in the United States, France, Italy, Japan and as of the 4th of August this year. Australia

Google Street View displays photos that were previously taken by a camera mounted on a car, and can be navigated using either the arrow keys on the keyboard or by using the mouse to click on arrows displayed on the screen.

Using these devices, the photos can be viewed in different sizes, from any direction, and from a variety of angles. Lines that are displayed along the street that is shown indicate the direction followed by that street view camera car.

It really is an excellent way to check out the surrounding suburbs and houses. It’s also a nice way to get a feel for your future home… Australia Seriously guys. The geeks at Google have done good!

To check out the street map view. Head over to google maps. Type in the address and if the Google camera car has been past the street by then you’ll be offered a ’street view’ link.

Looking at our own house it looks like the street view camera car past about 3 – 6 months ago. Still, It’s pretty damn clever.

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I’ve written before about the wonders of the Weather here in Western Australia and being someone of British decent, talking about the weather is always going to be a popular past time for me

Whilst standing in the coffee queue at work early this week however, the topic of conversation wasn’t the more traditional sunshine and rain but the wind!

I’m not talking about the flatulent variety either. I’m talking about seriously strong wind of the climatological kind so serious in fact that they even gained tornado status!

During the weekend there was a sever weather warning and we were advised to move anything ‘loose’ such as garden furniture from outside to under cover to minimise the possibility of damage.

They weren’t joking either. Around about midnight last Sunday the wind really picked up, the new plants in our garden were getting a good beating and at one point I heard one of the steel chairs from our patio furniture set getting blown from one end of the patio to the other.

Thankfully, other than a few torn branches, everything survived pretty well. Having said that we did better then the folks living south of us down in Rockingham.

Apparently the tornado reached speeds in excess of 150 kph and tore the roof of houses in the local area.

I remember a couple of years ago whilst in holiday in Sydney before we moved to Australia permanently there was news of storms in Perth which caused serious structural damage.

Thankfully on this occasion, we’ve escaped relatively damage free.

Having said that there are more storms planned for this weekend. The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted another cold front will hit Perth and the South-West coast tonight and into Sunday morning, which may result in damage to homes and properties.

This is all pretty difficult to believe right now. As I type this it’s beautifully sunny outside, a very pleasant 24 degrees Celsius and hardly the hint of any breeze in the air.

If you don’t hear from me again then you’ll know why

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OK, so we’ve seen red-back spiders and plenty of parrots but last week we can add Whales onto our list of things that we’ve seen.

Junior had acquired 100 stars on his ’star chart’ so we asked him what he wanted to do for a treat and his response was AQWA which is the Aquarium of Western Australia.

Located in Hillary’s boat harbour, it’s only a 10 minute drive away so we thought it sounded like a great idea.

On route to the aquarium we noticed the car park at Hillarys was pretty chocker and there were plenty of people looking out to the ocean.

There were quite a few boats around to so we assumed that there must have been some kind of boat show going on.

Once we got out of the car and looked where everyone else was looking we saw Whales!

I’d read that Whales travel up the Western Australia coast line as part of their migration and can be seen from the shoreline but I never fully appreciated how close these things got.

Three (what turns out to be) Southern Right Whales were literally less then 100 meters out to shore and I have to say my first experience of these majestic creatures was a breath taking one.

Quality!!

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G’day all. Work wise, life down under has been ridiculously busy recently which is why Getting Down Under hasn’t been getting much love and attention recently.

Still, – I know there’s a small pocket of you who probably wonder what we’ve been up to when you wake each morning (not) so to appease these small few I’ll use this time on the train with my ridiculously small blackberry keyboard wisely and give you a quick heads up on what’s been going on down under.

Firstly where is Jeff? It’s been a very long time now since we saw Charlie’s feline brethren so all I can say is we hope he’s in a safe and happy place.

We got his annual vaccination reminder through from the vets yesterday so if he is out there he better keep away from all those bugs!

Something we never thought about was the fact that Jeff liked to jump into the back of open Vans and Lorries so he’s probably chilling out somewhere around Sydney about now.

Or, perhaps he just got hit by a car and we simply couldn’t find him. Either way, no more Jeff

I know its Mid May here in Australia but by UK Standards we are half way through the equivalent of November.

The mornings and evenings are now starting to get cold! We’re not talking freezing though. This morning at about 7am it was just a touch over 9 degrees Celsius. Perhaps ‘fresh’ is a slightly better way to describe it.

Certainly not short and t-shirt weather, well, not first thing in the morning. During the afternoon we are still seeing temperatures in the low twenties so not bad for late autumn.

I quite like this time of the year actually. Being the sunniest capital city in the World were still getting lots of sunshine here in Perth, just not the sort that melts your skin within 5 seconds of stepping into it.

In other news the missus has started back at work. Not quite full time but 30 hours a week. This meant we had to source child care for junior number 2 and after school care for junior number 1.

As child care in Australia will be quite an important subject for many of you then you might be interested to know that I’m working on a article on the very subject which I hope to post in the next week or so watch this space

The missus is working in the city so it’s nice to catch up for our regular coffee in the morning without the distraction of kids. You forget how important these times alone are sometimes when you’ve been surrounded by a little person (and now people) demanding your attention all the time.

Speaking of Coffee, Aussies love the stuff. You’ll find Starbucks in abundance in Sydney, although none in Perth for some reason. Perth still has several coffee shop per head of population so you’ll never struggle to find somewhere for your early morning caffeine fix.

Speaking of which, I”m at the station now so time for work. More Blackberry updates soon.

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Autumn in Australia and the second time we’ve experienced the autumn season since moving here

I really have no idea where the time has gone. I can’t believe that we’ve got back around to autumn so soon.

Last year I made the revelation that here in Australia, the leaves fall off the tree’s during autumn. This year I’m going to make another awe inspiring one.

Ready?

Ok…..it rains!

I know I know, maybe not the greatest revelation at all and I have written about rain a number of times since moving down under but we seem to be getting quite a bit of the wet stuff of late.

I do like the rain though. Strange though it may sound after spending quite a bit of time in what is officially the sunniest capital city in the world. A little bit of the wet stuff is a welcome relief!

I’m not the only one who like’s the rain either. The new plants in the garden are enjoying the stuff to. I’d almost go as far as to say that they are flourishing but I won’t get to excited just yet as I’m sure there will still be amble opportunities for them to die

We are sill seeing plenty of sunshine though. I might have mentioned already that when it rains here in Western Australia it throws the stuff down solid for about thirty minutes and then the blazing sunshine comes back out.

That’s pretty much the forecast today, scattered showers and plenty of sunshine!

It’s still nice and warm though. Today we should be looking at temperatures in the mid 20’s The weekend is forecast to be sunny with temperatures in the 28 to 30 degree Celsius range.

Not bad for Autumn I guess, not bad at all

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Ok, well the update on Jeff is that there are no updates

It’s been over two weeks now since we last saw him and we’re now starting to get used to the fact that the last time we saw him really will be just that!

Junior is gutted and to be honest, we’re all pretty down about the whole thing.

Loosing a pet is always going to be a difficult time however literally loosing a pet is turning out to be even worse.

At least if Jeff had past away and we knew about it then we could do something about it and then move on.

The concept of Jeff just disappearing is a pretty difficult one to grasp for a five year old and is an even more difficult thing for a mum or dad to explain.

At the moment, Jeff has gone away on ‘holiday’, there will be a time when we’ll have to think of something a little more creative but the holiday thing is holding up pretty well so far.

In a way the last year and a bit in Australia for Jeff has been a massive holiday and I’m still glad that we brought him.

Back in west Yorkshire in the UK, Jeff was found as a kitten inside a plastic bag on a rubbish dump.

My sister got him from the local RSPCA shelter where he enjoyed the first three to four years of his life until she got a dog which didn’t get on that well with Cats.

So, it was time for the missus and I to adopt Jeff and bring him home to our place where he was introduced to Charlie (our other cat) and the wonders of outdoor living. (Jeff was an indoor cat at my sister’s place as she lived in an apartment at the time).

Jeff always enjoyed the sunshine and we never doubted that he’d love Australia and we were right.

There were times when he got a little to warm and had to come back inside or find a shady spot to cool off but all in all Jeff loved the sunshine here.

Jeff lying on our lawn or by the pool, his eyes half open, half shut in pure contentment will be our lasting memory. If he is on ‘holiday’ then I hope he’s having a damn good time!

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Our regular readers will know that as well as dragging the missus, junior and I out to Australia, we also decided to bring our two cats; Charlie and Jeff to Australia to

Many people find the thought of spending literally thousands of £’s on moving two cats abroad a concept that’s difficult to grasp!

I don’t share this view though. At the end of the day they were part of our family (although a bloody big selfish sulky I want my own way part) and I also think that as a responsible pet owner it’s only right that we brought them with us instead of dumping them on another family member who had neither the time or inclination to look after two cats.

So nearly 15 months later, the older of the cats; Jeff has gone missing. No idea where either, the last time we saw him was Monday evening.

We always bring the cats in at night as it’s during this time they represent the greatest risk to Australia’s native wildlife. There’s also the chance that during this time they’re more likely to get into scraps with the rougher ‘outdoor’ cats.

On the rare occasion they don’t come in they’ll always be sat by the patio door first thing in the morning, meowing their displeasure at the fact they had to sleep during the night on this strange foreign object called the floor!

So, Jeff’s been outside for 2 nights now. We’ve had a look around the local streets and can’t find any signs of Jeff as a ‘road traffic victim’ so the only thing we can surmise is the fact that he might be locked in a garage or a garden shed somewhere.

If he doesn’t come home today then we’ll probably need to do a letter drop down the street tonight asking residents to check their garages! This in turn will probably add another day as peoples letter boxes here in Australia or normally located at the bottom of their driveway so seeing a letter on their front doormat before turning in for the night probably won’t happen.

To be honest, we are getting a little worried. He’ll be fine without food for about a week or so but will need water pretty soon if he is locked in somewhere!

He’s also getting on a bit and last time he was at the vets we were told he had a slight heart murmur.

Hopefully, if he is roaming the streets, his collar and the fact that we had to have him micro chipped as part of the process to move him out here will help him find his way home!

Here’s hoping anyway

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I forget sometimes that I’ve been updating Getting Down Under since January 2006 and it’s good to see that the site has developed during this time.

So I’m sat here this morning just messing about with a few things on the site and whilst doing so I checked out the ‘dashboard’.

The Dashboard gives me a number of snippets of interesting info but amongst other things it details my Blog Stats: Continue Reading

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I’ve always enjoyed gardening. Back in the UK I’d spend many a happy hour in the small garden at the back of our house and after living there for about 7 years we were getting the garden just as we liked it.

Gardening in Australia was a completely foreign thing for me though and moving to Australia brought with it the opportunity to start from scratch with a new gardening project.

Thankfully, although our house is 4 years old the garden was still very much a blank canvass so I was really looking forward to getting my hands dirty!

It wasn’t going to be that straight forward though. A quick trip down to Bunnings showed me that the plants you pick up here in Australia are a little different to those that you’d find at your local B&Q in West Yorkshire.

Sure, you’ll see plants that you’ll recognise from ‘back home’ but you really could go crazy choosing some of the many exotic variety’s available.

As an example. Fruit bearing plants. Sure you’ll find your apple trees and your pear trees but here in Australia you’ll also find Lemon trees, lime trees, Kiwi Fruit plants, passion fruit, grape vines, the list goes on!

The stuff you stick your plants into appears a little different over here to. Doing a little research it appears there are many soil types here in Australia, but the two extremes appear to be clay and sand.

I’m familiar with the sticky, easily waterlogged and compacted clay which sets like stone when it dries out. Here in Perth however (especially near the coast) we have sand and lots of it!

Sure, it’s free draining, but it can’t hold moisture or nutrients. So I needed to do some work to improve the structure so I had something half decent for growing plants.

‘Some work’ involved our back garden smelling like a farm yard as I mixed in bag upon bag of ’soil improver’ (aka cow poo) which was great for the flies but not so great for alfresco dining.

Then I had to add a few bags of soil wetter (to help retain the moisture) and buy a couple of hundred weight in Mulch to add to the top of the soil once the plants had been put in.

The scary thing was, even after adding what felt like tons of soil improver, the soil still looked like something you’d find in a child’s sandpit (Click the thumbnail above and you’ll get the idea). It obviously it didn’t smell that way though.

Our Garden here is a little bit bigger then the garden back inthe UK and the flower bed I’ve put in stretches along for about about 40 meters.

This meant a fair few trips to Bunnings but $1000 later I’d managed to collect together a nice collection of shrubs. I went for plants that will look nice and grow quick so a collection consisting of Hibiscus, Bougainvillea, Yuccas and a few other flowering variety’s seemed to do the trick.

I also picked up an Orange, a Lemon and a lime tree (for future Gin and Tonics!) and a really beautiful flowering Magnolia tree which holds pride of place in the corner of our garden.

Once all the shrubs were planted (about 30 in total) it was then time to pop back to Bunnings to buy even more plants to fill the gaps.

This time around though it was time to go for a few more recognisable flowering variety’s such as Geraniums and Iris’s. I also bought a few plants which I’ve never hear of before so goodness knows how they’ll go but hey, thats how you learn right?

Once all the plants were in it was time for the Mulch. Not only will this keep the roots cool (which is a good thing apparently) it’ll help cut down on weeds and retain some of the millions of gallons of valuable water I’ll likely be pumping into the garden in the years to come.

Back in the UK I’d say that I had pretty green fingers. Over here though it’s a completely different experience and it’ll be interesting to see how things grow (or not) in the months and years to come,

I’ll obviously keep you guys posted on how the garden grows so keep your eyes open for future blog entries. I Can’t wait for our first lemon!

Useful Resources : http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/

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Applying for my Australian Driving License is something I have been meaning to do for some time it’s just that I haven’t had chance to get around to it.

The timing thing was starting to worry me though. If you are a just a visitor to Western Australia then your allowed to drive for a period of 12 months.

If you intend on becoming or are already a permanent resident of WA (like me) then your supposed to obtain your WA drivers license within 3 months!

So 15 months later I thought it was time for me to get myself sorted! If I got stopped by the police then I think I’d probably get the book thrown at me.

What implications not having a valid license had on the validity of my car insurance goodness knows but if I wrote my car off I’m sure the news wouldn’t be good.

So, I trundled on down to my local licensing centre and got myself sorted. Continue Reading

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I’ve written recently about the little poll we’ve been running and the interesting results that it’s showing us (615 votes at time of typing).

However identifying the state in which you want to live is one thing, choosing which suburb you want to move into is another.

Getting first hand advice from people living in your shortlisted suburb is going to be a great way to get a view of what living in a suburb is really like.

A quick post in our Australian Real estate and where to live forum might well be a good start however there’s a lot of suburbs out there and waiting for someone who ‘just-so-happens’ to live in the same suburb may not be the most effective use of your time, especially if your looking to settle in one of the more remote areas.

It was whilst doing some research on Suburbs in an attempt to help out a couple of our forum members that I stumbled upon a pretty useful site.

The guys over at Domain.com.au have a handy little section on their site which provides suburb profiles of every suburb in Australia (well, I’ve not been able to find one which isn’t profiled yet).

They provide details of public transport, surrounding suburbs, house price data and a handful of other demographics which are compiled from a variety of sources including the Australian Bureau of Statistics and research by Australian Property Monitors.

So, to search for what might be your future Suburb then Click Here (Link opens in a new window).

Hopefully you’ll find the info pretty useful

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Back in October I talked about the poll I’d added on the left hand side of the ‘page’ in an attempt to identify which Australian state folks were thinking about settling in.

At time of typing and 569 Votes later I thought it would be useful to give a quick update.

Not surprising (for me); Western Australia is still heading up the top of the poll with 28% of the votes, however Queensland is still proving particularly popularly popular with 22% of the vote with Victoria coming in a close third with 21%.

The back markers are South Australia 15% and last but not least New South Wales with 14% of the vote.

I’m still surprised that New South Wales is lagging back in last place but it goes to show that the Sydney Opera house and harbour bridge aren’t the be all and end all for everyone

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I had an email from Helen Crawley the researcher at the BBC who helped find the ‘contestants’ to appear on The BBC’s Popular Wanted Down Under Program.

She was writing to remind me that the advert I posted a little while back is now out of date (I’d imagine she was getting a little tired of the phone calls and emails so sorry Helen )

She has asked me to update the contact details. So if any of you folks are interested in appearing in the Third Series of Wanted Down under then you need to email the BBC at: wanteddownunder@bbc.co.uk.

Helen was a little none committal though saying the BBC ‘may still need applicants for series 3 should we make one’ so keep this in mind when sending your emails off. Continue Reading

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