People say that Perth is “Australia’s largest town”. It looks like a city because it is a city, but it has the laid-back vibe of a much smaller place. Compared to Melbourne and Sydney, which are always busy, Perth is a lot less busy. Only 2 million people live there, which is a very small number for Australia. This means that you can walk through the centre of the city without bumping into anyone. The pace of life on the West Coast is slower than on the East Coast, but that’s part of what makes Perth so great. It’s an up-and-coming city with a lot of sunshine, beautiful beaches, and world-class wine. We’re sure you can’t wait to start. Read on to learn more about moving to Perth and how people live there.
Cost of emigrating to Perth
The Port of Fremantle is the largest container port in Perth. Check out these prices for shipping from London to Fremantle, which come from WorldFreightRates.com. The rates are based on moving a full container of household goods worth £40,000 (or $55,000), which is about the average value of what’s in a three-bedroom house.
Please note: Add-ons like professional packing and unpacking, door-to-door delivery, and basic insurance coverage are not included in these prices. Most of our shipping suppliers include these services in their prices, so you can expect their quotes to be higher than the ones here.
Healthcare
Perth getting you down? Not a problem. Australia has a popular health care system called Medicare, which is similar to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). It is made up of both public and private services, and people pay 2% of their income as a tax to pay for it. You only have to pay part of the levy, though, if your after-tax income is less than AUD$27,475 and you don’t have to pay anything at all if your after-tax income is less than AUD$21,980.
Medicare pays for all of your necessary medical care and part of the cost of visits to your doctor. After that, people need private health insurance to pay for any further care, including ambulance rides.
Australia also has an RHA (Reciprocal Health Agreement) with a number of countries, including the UK. This means that when you go to Australia, you can use Medicare just like any other Australian, and when you go to the UK, Australians can do the same with the NHS. Even though this is the case, you still need to have private health insurance before you can enter Australia.
We recommend Cigna if you are looking for private health insurance for your new life in Perth. Cigna will help you find a plan that works for you and your family. You can choose from four levels of annual coverage and add-on modules for more options.
A little bit of geography
Perth is on the southwest coast of Australia, which is the exact opposite side of the country from all the other big cities. It is in the huge state of Western Australia, which takes up about a third of the whole country. The city itself is famously flat and has a coastline on the Indian Ocean and the Swan River. The beaches in Perth are very nice (think turquoise water and white sand).
Perth is one of the most isolated cities on Earth, which is a sad fact. Adelaide, which is a huge 1,324 miles away, is the closest big city (one with more than 100,000 people). People from Perth can get to Jakarta, Indonesia, faster than they can get to Sydney, which is more than 2,000 miles away.
A little bit of history
The Aborigines were the first people to live there. Experts think that people have lived in Perth for almost 40,000 years. The Brits moved to Perth on June 4, 1829, which is why the first Monday in June is a public holiday in Western Australia every year. Someone saw the hot sun and white sand and thought it looked like Scotland, so Perth was named after a city in Scotland.
Cost of living in Perth
By international standards, all of Australia’s big cities are on the expensive side. Even though it’s cheaper than its big brothers on the east coast, Perth is also a big city. The 2016 census showed that the median weekly income for people over 15 was AUD$949, and the median weekly rent was AUD£430. See the table below to get an idea of how much it costs to live in Perth.
Transferring money to Perth
If you’re thinking about moving to Australia, you’ll probably need to change some of your British pounds into Australian dollars.
So, we’ve joined forces with Wise, an easy-to-use online service for sending money internationally that uses the real exchange rate and has low fees.
How much money could you save? Well, its services can be up to 8 times less expensive than those of traditional banks.
Join the 7 million people who are already using Wise and start using it today.
Visas for Perth
Check if you can get a visa before you get too excited about going to Perth. If you’re from the UK and want to visit Perth for a short time, it’s not too hard, but if you want to live there long-term, it’s not as easy. You can read about a huge number of different types of visas.
Electronic Travel Authority (ETA)
If you have a British passport, you can get an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) visa for Australia for free. Whoopee! The ETA visa lets you come into the country for up to 90 days more than once in a year. If you decide to stay in Oz because you like it so much, you’ll need a proper working visa.
Skilled migration visa
The Australians keep a list of skills that are in demand that is always up to date. If you have them, they will want them. Keep an eye on the Australian Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL) and the Australian Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) and see if anything stands out. You can make an Expression of Interest (EOI) on SkillSelect if you think you can help with any of their skills shortages. After that, it’s up to a state in Australia to put you forward.
Sponsored work visa
This one is for you if nothing on the STSOL or MLTSSL is quite right. You need to be sponsored by a licenced Australian employer, which means you need to find a job first. This will likely involve a lot of online job searching and a few late-night Skype interviews, but if you really want to start a new life in Australia, it’s worth all the hard work. See the bottom of the page for tips on how to look for a job in Perth.
Check out the price estimator on Australia’s Home Affairs to get an idea of how much each type of visa will cost
Who lives in Perth?
Who are these people? People from all walks of life live in the city.
During the 2016 Australian census, which was the most recent one, we learned some pretty cool things about how different the people of Perth are. Only 34.7% of people living there said they were born in Australia, which is a long way from the national average of 66.7%. People from all over the world are happy to live in Perth. After Australia, the most common countries of birth were England (5.4%), China (4%), India (2.6%), New Zealand (2.5%), and Malaysia (2.3%).
There are also a lot of different languages, mostly from Southeast Asian countries. After English, Mandarin (6.6%), Cantonese (2.3%), Italian (2.3%), Korean (2%) and Vietnamese (1.7%) are the next most common languages. It’s not a surprise that Asian food in Perth is great. Check out our list of the best places to eat in Perth at the bottom of this page.
Climate
Perth has the most sunny weather in Australia. With about 2,300 hours of sunlight each year, Perth has the most of any of the country’s major cities. You know where to go if you want to get a nice tan.
From December to February, summer is one big blast of heat. Most of the time, the temperature is between 17.5°C and 30°C, but it has been known to reach 40°C. The “Fremantle doctor,” the breeze from the ocean that blows through the seaside town of Fremantle, helps cool things down a lot. It rarely rains.
In the fall, from March to May, things calm down a bit. The weather is nicer, with temperatures between 13°C and 26°C, and it rains more.
From June to August, when you are having winter, your friends in the UK are having summer. The winters in Perth are pretty mild, with daytime temperatures usually between 8°C and 19°C. But if the cold Antarctic air blows in at night, it can get pretty cold. A sad fact is that it has never snowed in Perth.
In the spring (September to November), wildflowers bloom all over Perth’s parks and nature reserves. This is the best time to see the city in full bloom. You’ll also notice that the weather is getting warmer. Most days, the temperature will be between 11°C and 23°C.
Getting around the city
The city of Perth is very flat and small, which doesn’t sound like much, but it makes it easy to walk around. Over a quarter of Perth residents said they walked to work in the 2016 census, which is a lot more than the national average of 3.5%. But not everyone wakes up with a spring in their step. Sometimes, all you need is a little public transportation to get you going. Here’s what you can do in Perth.
Public transport
You should know about Transperth, the company that runs almost all of Perth’s public transportation. In the middle of the city, Transperth has set up a Free Transit Zone (FTZ) where all public transportation is free.
Get a SmartRider card if you’re going to live in Perth for good. It costs $10 AUD to buy, and then you just add credit to it. It’s 15% cheaper than buying single tickets, and there’s a limit on how much you can spend each day.
Central Area Transit (CAT) is a very colourful bus system, so the buses are called “CATs” by people who like them. They come in red, blue, yellow, and green, and some of them are painted with huge black cats on the side. Who said that riding the bus can’t be fun? Since the CATs go to the Free Transit Zone, you can use them for free.
Trains are a given in Perth. They go to the city’s outer suburbs, which is helpful for people who live farther away from the center. Those that go through the FTZ are, of course, free to use. Here is a map of the train system.
You can also take the ferry from the north side of the city to the south side to cross the Swan River. Between Elizabeth Quay Jetty and Mends Street Jetty, a ferry leaves every 20 to 30 minutes. At the very least, it’s a nice way to see the city.
Driving a car
Even though Perth has a great public transportation system, people love to drive their cars. According to the 2016 census, 33% of residents drove to work, so you’ll have some company on the roads. If you are only in Perth for a short time as a tourist, you can drive with a valid UK licence. But if you plan to stay in Perth for the rest of your life, you will need a real Australian driver’s licence after three months. Go Aussie or go home!
Airports
In the city, there are two airports: Jandakot Airport and Perth Airport. Most commercial flights land at Perth Airport, so there’s not much point in knowing about the other one. The airport is about 10 km east of the city centre and can be reached by Transperth buses. It is the fourth busiest airport in Australia in terms of passenger traffic.
Best neighbourhoods in Perth
“Living in Perth” sounds great, but it’s not very clear what it means. Where are you going to live in Perth? We’ve chosen some of our favourite neighbourhoods in Perth for you to think about. It all depends on whether you want to be close to parks, the beach, or the centre of the city. According to Reiwa, a real estate company in Western Australia, the median price of a house in Perth in March 2018 was AUD$515,000.
Fremantle
Fremantle, also known as “Freo,” used to be a rough port town on the edge of Perth. It is southwest of the city center. Now that the city has grown, Freo has turned into another suburb and gotten a lot nicer. The streets are full of beautiful buildings from the colonial era, so it’s a nice break from how modern the city centre of Perth is. There are a lot of unique shops, cafes with coffee made by hand, and outdoor cafes. It’s a great piece of continental Europe on Australia’s east coast. Freo is a popular destination for tourists, so you’ll have to get used to seeing them. The median price of a home in Freo is AUD$785,000 right now.
Cottesloe
A few miles north of Fremantle is the seaside neighbourhood of Cottesloe, which is known for its beautiful beach. The beach is over a kilometre long and has pearly white sand. It’s a great place for people to relax at the end of the day. There is also a great promenade with shops, cafes, and bars. The best homes in Cottesloe are, as you might expect, the ones right by the water. Imagine walking out into your backyard and seeing the Indian Ocean. (Source: Reiwa) The median price of a home in Cottesloe is a high AUD$2,155,000, but you get what you pay for. Scarborough is a popular beach town in Perth, but it has nothing to do with the English town of the same name.
Mount Helena
This one is for families who are looking for something a little bit cheaper. Mount Helena is about 35 km east of Perth. It doesn’t have any beaches because it’s so far away. Instead, it has more green space than you could ever use. If you live in Mount Helena, the beautiful Leschenaultia Conservation Park is right outside your door, and the huge Beelu National Park is just to the north. If you have kids to raise, it’s important to give them a place to run around and be free. When you move away from the centre, you get less noise and more peace and quiet. Also, the prices of homes are much lower. The median price of a house in Mount Helena right now is AUD$470,000.
Finding a job in Perth
Services are a big deal in Perth. According to the 2016 census, more people in Perth worked in professional, scientific, and technical services (14%) than in any other industry. The next most popular were housing and food services (13.6%), followed by healthcare and social assistance (10.5%).
Almost every big company in Australia has a branch office in Perth, so there are lots of chances to work for the big dogs. Some of the biggest international mining companies, like BHP BILLITON, have their headquarters in Perth.
If you want to find a job in Perth, you should start your search online. There are a lot of helpful things out there. Check out Hays and Adzuna, which are both Australian job sites with sections about Perth. There are also helpful recruitment agencies in Perth, such as All Star Recruitment, that can help you.
Things to do in Perth
For a city that’s so far away, it’s pretty important that Perth has things to do. On the bright side, you’ll never be bored on the west coast. Everyone has things to do on the weekends, and there are plenty of things to do in Perth. Also, since it’s always sunny, you can (almost) always go to the beach. Check out some of the things we like to do the most in Perth.
Enjoy the Swan River
The Swan River is very important to the people of Perth. It runs right through the middle of the city and looks beautiful while giving everyone something to do. Some people sail and jet ski on the river, while others take ferry rides and fish. You can also go a few miles up the river until you reach the Swan Valley, which is a beautiful green area with wineries that are known all over the world. Or, you can go down the river until you reach the Indian Ocean. If you tell the Swan River what you want, it will give it to you.
Go to Rottnest Island
What about a quokka? It’s a cute, fluffy marsupial that lives almost only in Western Australia. It’s so cute! They live on Rottnest Island, which means “rat’s nest” in Dutch because the first Dutch person who saw them thought they were big rats. The island is only 19 km away, and you can get there by ferry. A lot of famous people have gone there to take selfies with the quokkas, which are known for their happy faces. Rottnest Island is also a great place to sunbathe on beaches, snorkel over coral reefs, and dive through shipwrecks.
Explore the Pinnacles
The Pinnacles is Australia’s most unusual national park. It’s a bunch of tall, sharp rocks in the middle of a desert, and people love it. These limestone spires can be found in Nambung National Park, which is three hours by car from the city. It may sound like a lot of work, but it involves driving along the Indian Ocean Drive, which is one of the most beautiful car trips in Australia.
Check out the Fremantle markets
We did say that there are a lot of tourists in Freo. From the artsy streets to the old markets, the historic port town is a great place to walk around. Fremantle Markets have been around since 1897. They sell everything from designer clothes to fresh fish and vegetables. When you’re done with all the bohemian cafes, you can go to Freo beach for some sand and sea.
Where to eat in Perth
Perth has some of the best food in Australia. Here are some of the best places to fill your stomach.
Sayers Sister (236 Lake St, Northbridge, Perth)
Want a good breakfast done right? Go to Sayers Sister, a hidden gem in the Northridge neighborhood. It just opened in 2012, but it’s already a big part of life in Perth. People from the area and from other places go there for good food. Because there is a long concrete table in the middle of the cafe, there is a lot of talking and meeting new people. There is also a lot of stylish decor, like bare brick walls, sleek metal chairs, and big lanterns that hang from the ceiling. The baked apple waffles, leek and parmesan croquettes, pan-fried gnocchi, and seared barramundi are some of the best things on the menu.
Friends Restaurant (Hyatt Centre, Fortescue Centre, Perth)
It sounds like this place is based on a popular US sitcom, but it’s way too fancy for that. If you want to eat a meal with a view of the Swan River and jazz music, you can go to Friends Restaurant. The idea is to have a “sophisticated but friendly” experience, with fine art on the walls and very friendly service. We suggest going all out and ordering the AUD$285 eight-course degustation menu, where each dish comes with a five-star wine. The food tour includes sauteed pumpkin, kangaroo loin fillet, and the very popular chestnut and Manjimup truffle soup. You’ll often see the owner happily grating truffle onto people’s meals as he or she walks around the restaurant.
Wok & Ladle (Shop 8 232 Hay St, Perth)
Go to the Wok & Ladle if you want something a little cheaper and less Australian. Locals in Perth love this tiny Thai cafe because it serves amazing food and does business very quickly. Since you have to bring your own alcohol, the off-license across the street is very useful. Classic Red and Green curries from The Wok & Ladle are delicious, but you should also try their pad thai, peppercorn squid, and “Drunken Noodle.”
Perth nightlife
There’s no reason to spend all of Perth’s nice, warm evenings inside because the city is full of fun bars and clubs. Here are a few of our favourite places to go out at night in the city.
The Ellington Jazz Club (191 Beaufort St, Perth)
Do you like jazz? Of course you do! The Ellington Jazz Club has a lot going on all the time. There are shows there seven nights a week, and each year there are about 600 of them. Jazz is always going on. So that people can stop by after work, they have special sets in the early evening. The place is pretty small, quiet, dimly lit, and has a great vibe. Once you sit down (or stand up, because there aren’t many tables), you’ll feel more like you’re in a 1960s American speakeasy than a bar in Perth, Australia, in the 21st century. There is some food, like pizza and cheese platters, but most people go there to hear the ice-cool jazz.
Hula Bula Bar (12 Victoria Ave, Perth)
The Hula Bula Bar is in the basement of a small building on Victoria Avenue. It calls itself “a tropical paradise in the heart of Perth.” This place doesn’t mess around when it comes to Hawaiian-style decor. The variety of flowers, plants, beach huts, tiki masks, and wooden carvings is mind-blowing. It’s a party shack from the Pacific Islands right in the middle of Perth. The bartenders are all wearing Hawaiian shirts and are very good at making extra-sweet rum drinks. There is Tiki Tuesday, Island Night Wednesday (for reggae fans), and Rhum Club Thursday every week.
Jack Rabbit Slim’s (133 Aberdeen St, Perth)
If this place’s name sounds familiar, it’s because it’s also the name of that diner in the movie Pulp Fiction. It has the same kind of furniture from 1950s American diners. The seats are red leather, the floor is black and white checkered, and the walls are covered with old American ads. But this is more than just a place to eat. If you walk through the diner, you’ll end up in a loud club with neon lights. The venue is open every day until 5 a.m. and has a lot of bands and DJs playing there. If this isn’t enough for you, the club also has a room with old-school arcade games in the back. When you drink one of the alcoholic milkshakes, you’ll feel both drunk and full of sugar.
Expat communities in Perth
We know that moving to a new city can be hard at first. Because of this, you might want to talk to people who have done the same thing you have. The answer is online forums, which put you in touch with other expats who are happy to give you advice. Check out the forums for Perth Poms and Internations to see who can help you.
Household goods & Personal Effects Shipping to Perth from UAE
Trust the professionals at Baxter Shipping for quick, smart, and secure international removals. For a long time, our company has facilitated shipping from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and the UAE to the United Kingdom. Packages sent to Perth and other locations in the world can be delivered directly by our team of logistics specialists to the doorstep. Whether you need to take only a few personal belongings, ship a whole office overseas, a car or need everything in your home delivered quickly, we can accommodate your needs and ensure a smooth relocation.
Moving abroad requires a different approach than the typical packing, loading, and transporting. Any company sending household belongings or personal effects to Perth must adhere to the strict criteria enforced by border officers and port inspection authority. With our years of experience in logistics, packing, and shipping, we were able to help create a system that reliably meets all of your deadlines. Whether you need to send a full household’s worth of belongings or just a few boxes, we at Baxter shipping provide the lowest possible shipping rates and flexible delivery schedules to meet your demands.
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