Movin' to Melbourne
 

G'day all,

Firstly congratulations to everyone who made it to assessment and a further congrats to all who passed and are now officially ATC's in training.

I got the call a week ago and am now waiting on a course start date. I am hoping for an april course due to circumstances. Looking forward to meeting some of the brisbanites this thurs or sat.

I'm hoping for some advice from those who have been/currently on course or the melbournians out there, as to good suburbs to move to. I will have a brand new baby, and will be either taking public transport, riding a bike or getting my wife to drop me off. In either case we'd like to be close to the airport.

If anyone can give some advice as to good suburbs that are close to the academy I'd be eternally grateful.

Thanks to all the helpful posters out there and look forward to meeting all the new recruits in 2011.

Cheers, actual.

ATC actual. I think you and I are in very similar boats. Hopefully we catch up on thursday night. My wife will be joining me down there after our 2nd is born somewhere in late april/may. Makes the move all teh more interesting. i will be on my own for the first few months then the family will come down in May-also looking for a spot close to the airport,

@ ATC_actual
Public transport's not an option. To ride your bike you'd have to live pretty much in tullamarine, maybe around the street melrose drive.
Best bet would be to live close and get a lift with someone. As a group of 12 you will all have the same rosters so pretty easy to car pool. Niddrie/essendon/Marybanong is always a good place to start if you wanna live 15 mins away.

Feeling lucky? Not sure I'd recommend cycling as some of the roads (Link Road in particular) are single lane, 80k and can be quite busy. Not to mention the odd airline staff shuttle bus & semi to deal with.

info on Melb Suburbs
 

have been doing some research on possible suburbs. the following site is great for statistical info. Have been using the 'average weekly individual income' as a guide on what is reasonable/nice/best avoided. Can gleam a good idea on the demographic also.

Melbourne Suburbs - Melbourne Suburb map

So far, my wife and i are looking at 'caroline springs' (bout 20 mins) as it has lots of rentals available (newish looking ex display village I think).
Also against normal traffic enroute to tulla.
other suburbs we are considering are 'Gowanbrae' and 'Strathmore heights'.
Essendon is kind of out of our price range as we need a 3 bedroom house, not a unit, and many of the suburbs near the airport (such as broadmeadows etc) are ferral by reputation (sorry).

We have a golden rule- House must be far enough away from family, that they don't drop in unexpectedly, but too close for a sleep over... ;)

The only time the commute from Caroline Springs to the airport would take 20mins is at 3am.
Realistically, you'd want to allow at least 30mins for a 7am start, and up to 50mins for an 8 or 9am start.

You're certainly not 'against' the traffic flow once you mix it with Melton Hwy & Calder Hwy traffic.

From Niddrie, Essendon North or Strathmore, it's a more consistent 25min commute depending on your proximity to the Freeway on ramps.

Was going by googlemaps which said 22 mins. I agree that Western fwy/melton hwy would prob clog up eastbound in peak hour, but what about north on kings road? happy to take advise from someone who has lived in the area. Problem is we have two cats, and that limits options in sought after suburbs like Essendon- Niddrie looks good, but not much under $400/wk (3bedroom). what about taylors lakes?

taylors lakes is not a bad commute, 15 minutes average. was paying $360 for near new 3 bed duplex with central heat and cooling, you can find cheaper though. all the things you need are near by, not so much the social stuff though. city is a 70$+ cab fare after hours. bites into your atc trainee wage, trust me.

look at pascoe vale too. have just signed up for a place there and there was a fair bit available including some (older) houses in the 360/400 range, mostly new townhouse/duplex though. cheaper cab fare by half for the party animal too!

Be careful when using googlemaps to calculate driving times. If you do a directions search from Caroline Springs to Tower Rd, Melbourne Airport it will direct you via McNabs Rd. Unfortunately there is no access to Melbourne Centre/Tower/Training academy from McNabs Rd as the gate is locked. Access is via Operations rd.
I would avoid Strathmore Heights as it is close to YMEN. In particular it is close to the newly opened Police Airwing/Air Ambulance base which has exemptions from the curfew unless you like the sound of choppers all night. I also believe the Fire Fighting aircraft are based near there as well during summer and the Erikson Aircrane is very noisy. Gowenbrae will have similar problems with the noise from YMEN but now where near as bad due it being a little further away.

I lived in airport west right under final for YMEN (almost, probably 1-1.5nm away). Very rarely after the first week did I notice the choppers at night. Took about 15 mins to get to work via sharps road, worst case scenario. We were paying $300/wk (but that was 4 years ago now).

Caroline Springs is about 30-35min drive away from the Airservices compound (on the 7am start anyway). Public transport to get anywhere else is abysmal and there are NO (decent) PUBS WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE!!!

I reckon that's blown my cover...

Received letter of offer today. Some stuff to be signed and sent back to them. Still waiting for medical certificate from CASA. It could take 2-3weeks depending on their load.

Just wondering, how many on the feb course are from melbourne?

hey!! Anybody who can give a bit more information about the interview. What to expect, what we could we do to prepare ourselves.

Stupidthursday, Also recieved letter of offer yesterday, but am on tower course starting the 21st feb, in same boat waiting for CASA etc. I'm also from Melbourne (macedon ranges actually).

Just over 2 months to go now, very excited :)

@stupidthursday and Jimh91;

Did air services confirm your start date by phone or did the letter just arrive. I have had the verbal confirmation and did the medicals yesterday, though am waiting to hear Feb or April start date.

hey there Mac. I received the confirmation both through a phone call and an email. The email had the Letter Of Offer, Stat declaration and the Training Bond Agreement. I'm sure yours is on the way. See you there mate.

am in the same boat mac, did class 3 medical yesterday and doing alcohol and drug analysis on friday,would definately prefer feb start over april.

There seems to be 16 people (or at least emails) already on the list for feb 21st, i guess the rest will have to be in the april class. :O

Had our first get together yesterday evening,
Big Thanks to everyone who turned up, was great to meet with others in the same boat, and I'm looking forward to the next one on Saturday afternoon.
For those that couldn't make yesterday, hopefully Saturday will be similarly well attended.
also re-iterating for any qualified ATCers, you (and your wisdom), would be most welcome and appreciated.

Hamilton hotel, racecourse road 1pm Saturday 11/Dec.

Hello,
I've just a couple of questions about ATCO selection and training with ASA.

- What's the age limit to be able to apply as an ATCO and does it differ between ATC positions?

- Candidates average fail rate during the selection process? How many candidates are screened yearly?

- ATCO students fail rate during training?

Thanks