Where to live/work in Western Australia

Hi, hope you don't mind a newbie Pom on here asking for advice!!!

I live and work in Brighton, England. However my contract for my current position finishes in October and I am tentatively considering a complete change of scenery for the winter and possibly longer.

I've been offered a well paid job in either Perth or Mandura. Should I go for it...??? Is the sailing around that part of the state good enough to make the big move worthwhile? Bearing in mind that the work is likely to be fairly inflexible, 5 days 9-5, with not much scope for wsfing outside of after work and weekend sessions. And to justify the move I would really like to have easy access for after work sessions and weekends to something special i.e. sub 5.2 weather at least 5 days out of 7, cross or cross-off and clean allowing at least 23 bottom turns per wave...

So there's Margies a few hours to the south, ok for weekends I suppose. (but will I get munched either by the waves or the locals...? )

The spots around Perth sound a lot like my local beaches here in the UK (cross-on + shorebreak?). But then there's Lancelin a couple of hours to the north...how good are the waves there? Are those wind stats accurate? And how busy is it at weekends?

Is there anywhere to sail within close proximity of Mandura?

Geraldton sounds like the best place to be based for wsfing, especially since the wind stats suggest signficantly greater consistency than around Perth/Lancelin. But no jobs available up there unfortunately.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Perth is your best bet . Good swell at Mandurah is rare but then there is no waves in Perth apart from Scabs which is an evil shorey.Weekends at Lancelin are busy but bigger days tend to be a little quieter on the breaks.Perth is central to either location.

something special i.e. sub 5.2 weather at least 5 days out of 7, cross or cross-off and clean allowing at least 23 bottom turns per wave...


i've had the same dream too



you''re more likely to get 5 EPIC days in a yr rather than a week,.. in the Perth /Manjoooora area....

SO if you want it, u got drive for it.....

make it a pre requisite on your new job that if it is ON then you are OFF....or do what the rest of us do and lie through yer teeth until you run out of excuses then borrow excuses off wind addicts from this forum.

do it

sell your 150ltr board and 10m sail too

The 'boards' thread makes for an interesting read....evidently all of us living in the West are populating some sort of cultural wasteland!!

Oh to be so enlightened and liberal...I guess that's why so many poms are moving over here

What a bunch of boring tossers

I don't think they know what happiness is

How can they say the sailing in Perth is crap.

Scarborough on a big day is one of the most hardest places to sail but once mastered (which you wont do on your 3 week holiday)is an awesome place to sail which will make mast high Lano feel like a breeze

As for WA its not hard to get in your car in Perth at 2pm drive till 3.30pm and score mast high wave till 8pm home 9.30pm

I know from first hand trying to do things in the UK on the spur of the moment is impossible
you need to check the weather then discuss it
check the map then discuss it
,work out what you need to take then discuss it
and when you finally get there you wish you were somewhere else.

Harry you will either love it or hate it if you listen to everyone you will end up so confussed you wont know what to do

come over and live the dream

I did and i've been happier

Thread update. The details of my job offer are being finalised and it's looking good. Work will be based in Perth city centre with maybe one week a month in various towns around WA which may include Geraldton, Esperance, Busselton, several other coastal locations...

So I'm starting to wonder where in Perth I should live. Close to the beach would be nice for after-work sessions but transport links to the city centre will need to be good for BEER. Any recommendations?

Well it is a possibility, but it's quite a long commute by aussie standards, about 3/4 hr for the train ride, but then there's getting to/from the stations at both ends.

The wave here is quite nice when it works, but we have less wind and swell than other good spots.

There's also reasonable speed sailing on the estuary, if you care to don a gps.

It's also an hour closer to the big surf on the south coast.