Where to live in Perth?

[myfairbabies]

DH is likely going to get an official offer by the end of the week for a job in Perth. Looking at a map, it looks like he'll be working right between West and East Perth (44 St Georges Terrace). We would love to be able to live somewhere that we don't need a car, would that be possible? Or would it be worth it to live a little further away in the suburbs? We will rent and would like a 2 bedroom with a washer/dryer. Are there any areas that we need to stay away from? Where are the best places to live? Also, I am due with our first in June, anyone have a good homebirth midwife rec? I plan on staying home with the LO so it'd be nice to be able to walk to parks and places like that. Thanks, I'm a little nervous about doing this in the middle of a pregnancy!

[battymama]

Will you have a medicare card? not sure how that all works but we have gov funded homebirth in wa http://www.cmwa.net.au/CMWA%20pages/pcbc.html this is the program i used and i could not recomend it more : if you can use them then they can help you find a midwife i think, and they have info evenings on birthing options and they usually have an idependet midwife there. it is possible to live without a car, but hard, perth is fairly spread out and rent close the city can be spendy. Having said that St georges terrice is really easy to get to using public transport. There are lots of parklands, national parks around. Personally i would rather live a bit further out and have a car, it would work out cheaper. Probbably most people would recomend staying away from balga but my family used to live there and its not really that bad, although it does tend to get joked about alot. Anything else you need to know? Perth is really lovely and laid back, i have to say if i could pick anywhere to live i would pick freemantle it is hippy central and has an amazing atmosphere, although it would mean a comute for your DH.

[pips]

I hope things went well with the job offer.
A private homebirth midwife will cost you AU$3000. There are only a small handful of such wonderful brilliant independant homebirth midwives in Perth. I am happy to pass some names and numbers on to you privately. Public transport in Perth is great (especially compared to Denver!) so I would start by looking along the train/bus lines - www.transperth.wa.gov.au Anywhere west of the city will be pricier than east because of boutique-ness of suburb and proximity to the beach.

[myfairbabies]

Thanks, but they ended up offering A LOT less than was originally expected and we decided that we just couldn't move right now with us expecting a baby, for so little money. We were disappointed but am also happy that we can plan our homebirth with the midwife we love here and have insurance pay for the whole thing! Maybe one day we'll get to move to Australia!