anyone from mildura

[john ashcroft]

can anyone from Mildura.aus tell me what it is like, as my son and his family may be moving there from u.k, ie:weather schools housing shopping i would be very gratefull for any replies either on the forum or by email.
thanks alot
john ashcroft

[RETIRED]

Gooday. This might give you some info. Not a bad spot in Oz.

http://www.mildura.vic.gov.au/

[vsquizz]

Yeah, good oranges too.


Cheers

[Kev Y.]

Used to live up around that way.. mildura has a wonderful climate and a quiet life style.

I am not sure how a pom would cope with the hot weather they experience up there!

Latest news from the politicians is that they find mildura so attractive that they want to put a toxic waste dump there! :eek: :eek:

[Iain]

A balmy summer day in MIldura, I got caught in it a couple of years ago.
Apart from that it's not bad if you like plenty of fresh fruit and wine.
The fishings OK but it can get a little bit warm.

[echnidna]

Too hot for me.

[Optimark]

Lived in Merbein which is about 5 Klm's from Mildura itself when I was a kid. Visited there in August this year went we went outback visiting NSW, QLD, and SA remote regions.

Firstly in Late January to early March it can get warm, 40º to 45ºC is pretty much what it'll top out at. Basically one cools ones jets, until the heat lessens and then you do your thing. Takes a couple of weeks to get into the groove and then you're laughing. Winter time can be quite cool with the wind making the morning temperature seem lower than the 4º or 7ºC it gets down to.

Schools from memory are reasonable, at least I'm educated to a sensible standard. Mostly in Australia we have what are called State Schools which are Government run by each State authority. So you get about 7 different types of systems around the place. Then there are private schools of which the majority are Catholic, Protestant, C of E and that kind of stuff.

Shopping isn't Mildura's strong point, compared to the bigger cities you know of. That said, Mildura is where most of the regional people head to, to purchase their goods for manufacturing, clothing, groceries and vehicle repairs.

It's a great place to grow up, but you don't know that until you've grown up and left, then come back.

What a lot of people don't know, is that within ½ a days drive, you can be in a snowfield, a desert, mountainous terrain, or Opal fields. Within 1½ hours drive you can also be in desert, salt lakes. In 10 minutes you can be water skiing on the Murray river or just plain swimming about 5 minutes from school.

Melbourne is about 600 Klm's away for serious shopping but Adelaide is a shorter distance if not quite in the same league as Melbourne. My cousin's wife flies down from Mildura to shop in Melbourne on a long weekend for the specials, she seems to purchase clothes for about 4 familys worth of kids.

Whatever, serious outback travel is on Mildura's doorstep and that is really a bonus.

Mldura is part of Victoria (Vic) and therefore comes under it's legal system, however the Murray river which flows through Mildura is New South Wales (NSW) and anything you do on the river is subject to their laws. Someone has to own it, I suppose.

Mick.

[john ashcroft]

i would like to thank the following for the information received, Visquizz, Brudda,
Iain, Echnida, Optimark, thanks for such a quick reply
Ashy u.k

[oges]

Passed through there on the way to Adelaide a couple years ago, nice place. I think it was also the place where we bought a bag of oranges from a roadside stall and on the other side of town had them taken off us at a fruit fly inspection place (and probably put back on sale on the stall again )

[AlexS]

Probably the most important thing to know about Mildura is that one of the clubs there has the longest bar in the southern hemisphere.

[sandman]

One of the greatest places in Oz to live!
It's a very relaxed, laid back type of town. It has a (ageing) population of approx 50000 in the district. It is pretty much an oasis in the desert.
It is a major producer of fresh foods, wheat, barley, oranges & of course grapes. It NO longer is home of the longest bar in sthn hemisphere as it was dismantled over 10 yrs ago to enable club to do a major face lift & reno.
We can boast some very very fine wines/wineries & restaurants.
Have a great woodclub and workshop for you to join & more redgum than you could pint a stick at!
Education system is to reasonable standard & have Latrobe uni campus also.
Now for the bad news: for a pom, you would have to like it hot! Damn hot!
Not unusal for us to have a whole week of 40C solid. This is NOT unusual for our summers. Not many summers days below 30C. We can also boast more hours of sunshine than the sunshine coast in QLD! We don't have much rain at all (<10" annually). We do however enjoy the odd dust storm!
We have one of the fastest growing populations for a regional area in Australia. Therfore shopping is pretty good here nowadays.
Adelaide (S.A capital & home of MIK International ) is only 4 hrs to the Sw & Melbourne (Vic Capital) is 6 hrs to the Sth.
My neighbours are from London and visit back about once every 2 yrs. They say they would never go back to live now. (I guess the grass is greener!).

[john ashcroft]

i'm sorry i forgot to thank the following people Oges, Alexs, Sandman for there replies i came of the internet for awhile and when i came back on i saw youre replies i didnt expext to get so many so soon, so from a pom good on yer (thanks) ashy u.k

[GeoffS]

John - a bit late but I have been in Adelaide for a few weeks with no access to the internet.

I also live in Mildura as you will note and have lived in the area for about 30 years.
Can't disagree with any of the comments above but would like to add a bit about the heat. For most of the summer it is a dry heat. 40c here is no worse than 30 in New York or London. Just sounds worse! Most homes use evaporative cooling and it works very well at little cost. Evaporative coolers do use a lot of water (which many people don't seem to realise) which may be a problem in the future. Spring (now) is the one time we may get some humid hot weather. Of course - some people like humid weather, I don't. It can be cold in the winter (well colder than many people expect), frosts are common, fogs not very common and winter day time temps average around 15 -20. With our small rainfall, dreary winter days are uncommon. Of course, a caveat on all weather comments - climates move and change all the time for whatever reason and at the moment appear to be doing a lot of it!
Our nearest large city (Adelaide) is generally favoured by people from England and at 4 hours (fast) travelling is not too far away.
Education facilities in Mildura are good and getting better all the time.
In the way of shopping - there is little you can't buy in Mildura - but for wood working machinery you have to go to Adelaide - pity! Power tools and the cheaper (GMC, Ryobi) type machinery is readily available here. Timber (apart from red gum) is more of a problem. Wish I'd got my hands on some of the timber from the 'longest bar'.
Medical facilities are excellent and almost anything can be done here.
House prices are not much different from Adelaide. Probably less than 10% cheaper although comparison is difficult due to the respective sizes of the 2 cities. (1.1 million compared with 50,000) Mildura is a rapidly growing area which is keeping prices high.
Tourism, horticulture and mining employ many and retirees like the area.
We have a daily newspaper, 2 weekly newspapers, 4 free-to-air TV channels, umpteen radio stations including 4 ABC (local, national, classical music, Triple J), cable internet and TV (in the 'built-up' areas).
After listing all this I don't know why we ever leave the place! We just spent a few weeks by the sea, something you can't do in Mildura.
I'll leave it at that. If your son has any further queries send me a PM and if I don't know I'll find out.
Cheers

[john ashcroft]

well Geoffs i am quite amazed at the warm and quick response i have had from fellow woodworkers at ubeaut i did'nt know anything about mildura until friends from the forum posted or emailed me, if you send me your email address i will talk some more once again thanyou to the forum and ubeaut

[AlexS]

...Wish I'd got my hands on some of the timber from the 'longest bar'.
Cheers

Do you mean it's gone??? :confused: