Making friends

When first moving to a new place it seems a bit daunting that you are leaving behind long term friendships and stepping into a new environment where you don’t know anybody. The best advice is to start networking by joining online forums or networking websites prior to your move to Western Australia. You can easily find people who have similar interests to yourself and arrange to meet up when you first arrive in Western Australia.

Popular sites to look at are:

Expat Blog – offers a blog on people moving to Western Australia;
Expat Forum – join the forum for expats moving to Western Australia; and
Perth Exchange – link in to make friends online or when you arrive.

Of course when you actually arrive you can find making friends a new and exciting part of your new life in Western Australia. Work and school environments are friendly. Don’t be surprised if strangers start chatting and want to hear all about your migration story. Knowing you are a new face, you will easily end up with invites for coffee or even BBQs at their home. Perth people are proud of their homes and enjoy entertaining people in their own environment as much as the parks and places around Perth.

It’s an opportunity to reinvent your social network to chat to people wherever you can and build up a great network of your own new friends.

Religious groups

Perth’s multicultural society means that there are many different religions practised and worshipped across the State. Across the metropolian area you will find many places of worship in churches, temples, synagogues and mosques. The most common religions you will find in Western Australia (in no particular order) are Christian, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim and Jewish.

Continuing your faith in a new religious community can also help you make new friends and will support you in starting your new life in Western Australia.

To find out more information regarding finding your nearest place of worship, take a look at the links below.

Networking opportunities

Living in Perth or Western Australia offers many different experiences and the opportunity to meet new people through networking. You have opportunities to network through your work environment, whether you have a job to come to when you arrive or you are setting up your own business in Western Australia, you will start to get in touch with various people. Meeting new people through networking will not only allow you to find out what they do and are interested in but the people you meet will have the opportunity to find out more about you.

The easiest way to begin finding people with similar likes and interests is to search through the internet for business networks, sporting groups or teams, hobby groups, relationship groups, women only groups, religious groups and even kid friendly groups for help with finding play groups and schools.

Here are a few groups to consider or begin with.

Business Growth Centre – helps you grow your business small to mid size through a range of training and support programs, operated by the Government of Western Australia. They have metropolitan and regional offices where you are able to drop in for a chat or can email them.

Loconut – social networking site which has a section for groups with many Perth sports groups listed.

Meet Up – social networking website which offers many interests to search by and gives excellent details for groups and members listed.

Women’s Healthworks website – Social and support groups listed for women only.

Bub Hub – parenting website which offers useful parenting advice and a great forum.

State support centres

Western Australia offers people throughout the State a range of support across all areas of their lives. Whether it be personally or health services providing advice and support for education and training or with housing and accommodation, there are many areas in which help and support is available. The main portal where you can go to search for support is the Government of Western Australia website. You will find areas of support categorised into education and training, health, community, lifestyle, jobs, business and regional information.

English as Second Language (ESL) centres (Language help)

One of the advantages of Perth is that it offers an attractive environment for European, Middle Eastern and Asian students wishing to study English abroad.

Perth’s friendly lifestyle, weather and interesting city appeals to language students as they feel at ease learning English whilst enjoying the Australian way of life.

In and around the metropolitan area you can find various language schools offering courses to study English and other languages. Here is a list of the NEAS (National ELT (English Language Teaching) Accreditation Scheme) accredited centres where you can learn English.

Alexander Language School

Cambridge International College - Perth

Central Institute of Technology

Centre for English Language Teaching, University of Western Australia

Curtin English Language Centre

EF International Language Schools, Perth

Embassy CES - Perth

Eurocentres Perth

Kaplan International College Perth

Kingston International College

Milner International College of English

Murdoch Institute of Technology

Navitas English; Australian College of English (Perth)

Perth Institute of Business and Technology

Perth International College of English

Phoenix English Language Academy

PIBT International English Centre

West Australian English College

West Coast International College of English

Translation and interpreter services

If you have difficulty with English as a second language you may need help with translation or interpretation of documents or important information relating your move to Western Australia. There are services which you can use to translate documents back into your native language or an interpreter to read them to you in your native tongue. The Translation to English website offers many choices of language to translate from. They also have an interpreter service where you can request a quote online.

Making friends

Religious groups

For Buddhists

For Christians

For Hindus

For Judaists

For Muslims

Networking opportunities

State support centres

English as Second Language (ESL) centres (Language help)

Translation and interpreter services