Baldivis is one of the most common answers when somebody in the group asks where a family should look, and it is also one of the most misunderstood before you arrive.
It sits about forty minutes south of Perth by car and twenty minutes north of Mandurah. It is one of the fastest growing family suburbs in Western Australia, with newer housing on larger blocks than almost anything you will be used to, and a lot of families who arrived exactly the way you are about to.
The One Thing People Get Wrong
There is no train station in Baldivis.
British families read “46 kilometres from the city” and picture a commuter town with a station, because that is how it works at home. It does not work that way here. You take a bus, routes 564 to 569, to Warnbro station on the Mandurah line, and the train from there reaches the city in about 38 minutes. Door to door it can be over an hour.
If one of you will commute to the CBD every day, know that before you sign anything. If you will both work locally or in Rockingham it matters far less, and plenty of families here do exactly that.
You will need a car, and probably two. That is the single biggest adjustment for anyone coming from a British town with buses every ten minutes.
Schools
Baldivis has an unusual concentration of them, around thirteen, which is the main reason families choose it. Primary schools include Baldivis Primary, Baldivis Gardens, Makybe Rise, Pine View, Rivergums, Settlers, Sheoak Grove and Tuart Rise. For older children there is Baldivis Secondary College and Ridge View Secondary College, with Mother Teresa Catholic College, Tranby College and Rockingham John Calvin School in the independent and faith sector.
The Australian school year starts in late January and finishes in December. It does not run September to July. If you are arriving mid year your children will be joining part way through, and if you are timing your move around schooling you are aiming at January rather than September.
What It Is Actually Like
Newer housing, mostly detached, on blocks that will feel generous. Stockland Baldivis is the main shopping centre, with a library and a large number of cafes and restaurants around the central township. The beaches on the Sunset Coast are about ten minutes by car, close enough to go after work and far enough that you are not paying beachfront prices.
It is genuinely family oriented and genuinely multicultural. About one in ten residents was born in England, so you will not be the only British family on the street, and you will not be in a British enclave either.
Being Honest About Baldivis
It is a long way south, and the transport is the weak point rather than a detail. If your work is in the northern suburbs or Joondalup you are on the wrong side of a very large city.
What you get for that is space, newer housing, more school choice than almost anywhere in Perth, and a community full of people who arrived the same way you did.
The Questions We Cannot Answer Here
Mortgages, visas, insurance and shipping come up constantly, and we are not licensed to advise on any of them. What we can do is point you at the firms in our directory who are, and who deal with British and Irish arrivals every week.
Ask Somebody Who Lives There
40,000+ British and Irish people in Perth are in our community, across the group, page and Instagram, and a good number of them live in Baldivis. If you want to know whether it suits your family, ask them. It is free to join, and somebody will answer within the hour, usually several somebodies with strong opinions.