[ShockWolF]

Hi Melbourne!

I am an Aussie in England and have been out of touch with what's going on at home for the last 10 years. My wife and I are planning on moving to the Melbourne area hopefully by next year at the latest. We have been having a look at properties to buy also and so far like the look of Werribee as an area to live.

However we would like some local opinions on Werribee. Does it have good public transport access to Melbourne City? Is it a nice area? What are the pros and cons? That sort of thing.

Thanks in advance.

[glen]

hi wolf, welcome to the forum. i am not a local to Werribee but I can tell you there is at least a train to Weribee from the city. Plus there is also a huge sewerage treatment plant. But the good news is that it includes a nice wetland that birds seem to love!! Also there is a new open plains zoo with rhinos and other African animals. And I guess you know there is been lots of residential development in the area lately.

that is about all i know. hopefully some locals can offer more assistance.

cheers, glen

[ShockWolF]

Thanks for the welcome and info Glen.

[ShockWolF]

Looks like there may not be any Werribee locals on this forum? *twiddles my thumbs*

[glen]

you are probably right SW!!! We are still pretty new!

[ShockWolF]

I've recently received information passed down from someone who used to live in Melbourne that Werribee and Hoppers Crossing are rough areas.

I've been recommended Laverton instead.

[glen]

You can check the crime statistics on the police website.

For werribbee, it is in the Wyndham City Council area (LGA - Local Government Area)

http://www.police.vic.gov.au/statistics/LGA's/WYN.htm

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers, Glen

[ww-chat.com]

In all honesty i would steer clear of werribee and hoppers crossing it is a rough area and you would not want to be there at night times. There has been alot of robberies on the trains there.
You should check out a blog on blogspot called 'weribeewatch' which lists some of the crime there.

The blog seems to be offline at the moment but you can find a cached version here:
[url="http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache%3a%6f7rnCN-ST0cJ:www.werribee.blogspot.com/+werribeewatch&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au&client=firefox-a"][url]http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:o7rnC...lient=firefox-a[/url][/url]

Not the best place to be

[ShockWolF]

ww-chat.com, on Jun 29 2009, 10:47 PM, said:

In all honesty i would steer clear of werribee and hoppers crossing it is a rough area and you would not want to be there at night times. There has been alot of robberies on the trains there.
You should check out a blog on blogspot called 'weribeewatch' which lists some of the crime there.

The blog seems to be offline at the moment but you can find a cached version here:
http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:o7rnC...lient=firefox-a

Not the best place to be

Too late, we've moved behind the Werribee Plaza in Hoppers Crossing.



That blog still seems to be offline btw and the cached version doesn't work, but thanks anyway.



On top of some people saying they are rough areas we have also had comments that it's a nice place to live.



We are living in a rental that despite being a bit run down and uncared for by its landlord is still a nice house. It's quiet around here and even at night we have walked through the suburbs and to the mall for evenings out and we have not received any hassle or witnessed any trouble. There aren't that many bodies about at night and there is security that patrols the mall. The people we have interacted with all seem fairly friendly too.



Bare in mind though that we have moved here from Blackpool in the UK, where there are yobs on street corners all over the place, getting drunk, littering, vandalising, mouthing off to innocent passers by and starting fights. Such is the declining state of Great Britain on a large scale these days I believe. Laws foolishly allow for that over there, where as here loitering and drinking on street corners is illegal and the police will normally do something about it.



To be honest what we have heard about robberies on the trains is not just specific to Werribee and Hoppers Crossing but it is a noted problem across the Melbourne rail in general. However we have used the trains a lot when we first arrived to get in and out of Melbourne both during the day and the evening and again we have not yet witnessed any robberies or trouble at all apart from maybe the odd idiot teenager here and there that thinks its highly intelligible to incessantly spit on the ground whilst waiting for a train, then stand and smoke on the outside of a moving carriage. Whether they are safe or not, it does appear that a lot of people in Werribee and Hoppers still happily commute to and from work via the trains.



Which brings me to my only gripe with this area at the moment. It seems difficult getting work on this side of Melbourne. We've been applying for lots of jobs but not having any luck getting any so far. I have no idea why this is but if this continues for too long we may have to consider moving closer to Melbourne's centre where there appears to be a lot more jobs to apply for.

[glen]

Here is some data on where people who live in the city of Wyndham (Local Government Area) work. This is based on 2006 census data. As you can see, most people (over 17,000) work in the surrounding area. Only about 8,000 work in the city.

Destinations:
Wyndham 17,616
Hobsons Bay 5,105
Melbourne - Rest 5,075
Melbourne - Inner 3,772
Brimbank 3,183
Work destination not stated 2,855
Maribyrnong 2,515
Victoria - No fixed workplace address 2,053
Port Phillip 2,034
Hume 1,185
Gr. Geelong 999
Yarra 992
Moonee Valley 792
Melton (S) 525
Monash 458
Boroondara 426
Victoria undefined 385
Stonnington 374
Moreland 360
Darebin 260
Others 2,097
Total 53,061

[ShockWolF]

Thanks Glen, that actually gives us a glimmer of hope! That means that there is enough work in the local surrounding areas to not make it that necessary to commute to the centre of Melbourne or move there just to get work.



Cheers.

[iblis.raeb]

huh... a bunch commute to Geelong‼

[ShockWolF]

Okay, back to this old topic...

Hoppers Crossing and Werribee did not work out for us. There is hardly any work out there for adults and what small numbers of jobs there are have far too many applicants. Most of the other jobs are for the cheap labour kids.

Commuting from Hoppers and Werribee is possible, but damned timely and expensive and not worth it. You have to be up pretty darn early in the morning to commute to an area that's richer in employment. The public transport out there is awfully unreliable and not very regular. They cancel trains a lot out there.

I recommend Hoppers Crossing and Werribee to people who are willing to get up ridiculously early and drive miles to work every morning or dole bludgers who can actively look for work but never want to get it. LOL!

We've now moved to Newport and its more expensive, but worth it. It's very close for commuting to the city for jobs and they are very much more in abundance here. Finding a job is much easier in these parts. My wife managed to get a job only a few days after moving here and I'm due to start a new job also.

[iblis.raeb]

Congrats on the job hunting success.

[ShockWolF]

Cheers!

[petersj]

I have a friend who lives there and is perfectly happy. He was worried being told it was rough but he has been there for five years now and its in his opinion fine. Good shopping trains and the smell from sewage farms has not been noticed.
Its real estate values are pretty good too. One of the few places that are cheaper.