charlesx3

It's a pretentious suburb with Angelo Street, a mix of boutique style stores catering to people who are willing to pay more than the 'outer' suburbs. It has good links to the city via the ferry and freeway but the new high-rises around Mends Street are causing a nightmare for traffic.

The foreshore has been done up quietly nicely. The area around Angelo Street has a number of older California style homes which are lovely and lush old established gardens but quite a few have been torn down to make way for newer dwellings which look like a stock standard house with a pool. I guess it's taste - if you like the older vs. the new type building, but really not my vibe. The mix is people who lived here before it was booming, so retired types or new money young professionals who don't know who their neighbours are because they are so busy.

Due to Wesley college and the two primary schools on Forrest Street, it attracts a lot of younger families for the access to these schools.

A number of the older trees are being taken out because of the wide-spread PSHB in the area.

It is also situated on the flight path for the cross runway at Perth so can get extremely noisey at times with low flying aircraft on finals.

It's nice, but it is loosing the neighbourly charm and larger blocks in favour of high density living. There are obvious perks though such as proximity to the river for morning walks and that view of the city across from the south Perth foreshore.

As people push out from Gaylands, Inglewood and Bayswater, the next up and coming gay-bourhood is Bassendean.

It’s more the larger blocks for the plant dads and we know a few lesbian couples here too. You can see there is a bit of community forming but what I love is the mix - yes, some tired houses with older citizens who can’t keep the uptick, but there is such a neighbourly feel where we’ll help our neighbours (at least on the street I’m on) and one even shares their free vegetables. It is a mostly older white Australian suburb (it appears a lot of older 70s migrated Eastern European families) but the demographic is changing to be a bit more mixed.

In terms of location, Morley and the good Asian food markets on one side within a 10 min drive, Bunnings within a 5 minute drive and other local delis like Charlie’s Italian markets on Walter East Road and the Snap and Plus fitness gyms. It’s also got a bunch of schools and super accessible to the two train lines (Bassendean and Morley) and a few bus routes.

The town council has a big tree planting program, which I think is awesome as most Perth suburbs are just big heat sinks in summer. The town also give out free mulch all year round (check out their facebook page), free compost and native plants and trees at reduce prices (like $1 and $5) in their April sale.

The only issue is that sometimes the larger width streets mean you don’t get much shade, even if there are trees on it, so choose the street you live on wisely. Also, it has a bit of a haphazard electricity sinking plan. For example, 90% of the street I’m on has the electricity power poles sunk and the other 10% isn’t even in progress. So it’s a bit random on that front.

So in short, great location and accessible to a lot of things you do on the daily. It isn’t an over hyped suburb, so not many properties being sold and the demographic is definitely more heteronormative white Australian but is getting a bit of a mix with the LGBTQ+ and other ethnicities slowly moving in.

We live closer to the centre of Bassendean town rather than closer to the river/oval. That way it’s easier to get to Morley for Coles, the main shopping mall and veg markets and then Beechboro for the Woolie and another Coles, so whilst the town centre area close the train is very ‘buzzy’ with cafes, pubs and the like, its then getting more traffic, smaller blocks and a bit more noise and congestion, which we prefer to be away from.