Bunbury Blog 2019

First Instalment

Where on earth is Bunbury?

Although Bunbury is the second largest city in the huge state of Western Australia, most Aussies on the other side of the Nullarbor Plain have never heard of it, let alone. know where it is is. For readers who visited us when we lived here, you should be able to locate Bunbury on a satellite image of Australia, but just in case you have forgotten, here are some maps to jog the memory

The House

Dale and Lorraine have been most generous in letting us house sit for them while they are off on an extended sailing adventure to south east Asia including exploring some of the more remote archipelagos in these waters. As for the house, I’ll let the pictures speak to that. It is next door to Aussie exchange teachers we first met at an orientation session in Kleinberg, Ontario in the fall of 1978 - we have remained good friends ever since So help is near at hand when we can’t figure out how something works! The house is about 750m as the crow flies from the house we owned on Dunstan Street and across the park from the house we had in 2016 when other good friends holidayed in NZ.

Settling In

We have been here for 3 weeks now - where has the time gone? The first 3 days were “transition days” where we helped the home owners with a couple of chores, and more importantly they walked us through how things worked [clothes washer, dish washer, pool vacuum etc], as well as routines - watering, security system, garbage collection. 

This is now the fifth house sit we have done in the SouthWest - each one has been different and we have learned that it does take two weeks or so to get into “auto-pilot” - e.g. knowing how to set up the washing machine without always referring to the manual.

Part of the adjustment process is finding out where people keep things - every time we do a house sit, we go through the same process. This year’s classic was searching for a bottle opener - we looked in all the “obvious” places several times. A bottle opener was duly added to the shopping list. Fortunately we found it in the bottle fridge just in time. The same can’t be said for a muffin tray or measuring spoons!!

The climate affords us the opportunity to have meals outside, or sit around the pool like I am just now. In the background we can hear the local bird life - the maggies,  galahs, willie wagtails and Twenty Eights. This year we haven’t heard any kookaburras - the locals are not too upset because they are not native to Western Australia and tend to force out the local species - they are a bird “with attitude”.

We have the routines in place now - daily and weekly watering, topping up the bird baths, sweeping up leaves [a never ending task] topping up the pool [which takes 2 hours more than once a week - I had no idea a pool is such a big consumer of water], cleaning the pool as well as normal household duties. The lawn is cut for us [there is no lawn mower], the pool and weeding get checked every month by different people.

Nearby is the municipally run South West Sports Centre which has a gym, Olympic pool etc. In the past there was only a yearly membership, but they have now instituted a 3 month membership tier which is ideal for us. As a result the plan is to go the gym 3 times/week. So far so good!!

Social Calendar

One of the reasons we keep coming back to this part of the world is to catch up with long time friends going back to when we were on exchange in 1979! In addition, I have good friends who are my tech buddies - we share an interest in all things Apple and stay in touch by email several times a week when in BC. We have been invited to friends for dinner several times, lunch or coffee with others, as well as having casual get togethers with our neighbours. We’ve even had Jackie and Puru down from Perth for a couple of nights and managed to celebrate Norm’s birthday in style with the Chettris and Elderfields from next door. Australia Day celebrations [January 26] saw us yet again attending the traditional Aussie barbie [a sausage sizzle] hosted by the Bastows before walking into town to watch the splendid fireworks show, which was followed by pavlova back at Barry and Daphne’s

Out and about

Whilst in Bunbury, a goal is to do at least one trip per week to the coast or inland while checking out the local galleries, wineries and other specialities such as venison, olive oil or chocolate. So far we have met this goal with lunch at Olio Bello, a picnic and beach walk at Bunker’s Bay and a day trip to Perth for birthday shopping.

When we had occasion to go to Barbeqeus Galore, the manager immediately recognized us - and we have been gone for 9 years. Likewise at the Dolphin Centre, the volunteer co-ordinator recognized and asked if I would like to volunteer while we are here!!! That might cramp our plans a little bit.

Comparisons

We are often asked how costs compare between Australia and Canada - we can only comment on BC/Vancouver Island and WA/Bunbury prices. Total food costs work out to be very similar at the end of the day - but there are some surprises - Australian grown bananas, mangoes and avocados are significantly more expensive than the imported ones we buy in VIctoria. However, the quality is probably better, but not worthy of the price difference. We don’t mind the price of avocados as long as they come from the farm that the Ontario Teachers Pension owns!!

Petrol or gas is about the same price per litre in both countries. Real estate also runs in parallel with over-heated markets in some places while sluggish in other centres.

There are two areas where Australian prices are much cheaper. Mobile/cell phone plans are a fraction of what they are in Canada. For $25.00/month, I get unlimited calls and text messages across Australia, AND international calls plus 9Gb of data. On Sheila’s phone she gets unlimited calls and text messages across Australia plus 3Gb of data all for $15.00. These are “pay as you go”, we don’t have to sign up for two years to get such deals. And that includes all taxes!!! Why can’t we get that in Canada; both countries have a large land mass with limited areas of dense population separated by wide open spaces. 

Wine is also cheaper here - typically wine is about $5.00 per bottle cheaper, and that is before any discounts or specials. Inexplicably there are a couple of wines that are similarly priced, but that is a rare exception. If you don’t like Aussie wine, you might be in strife - the Aussies import only a few bottles per year.

In terms of media coverage of the other country, there is a strong parallel. Canada is not on the radar here, in the same way Australia is not on the radar in Canada, except on the rare occasion. Currently the Huawei drama is getting a bit of coverage here, but that’s about it. There is coverage of the US, but not as much as in Canada; however, Asia gets more coverage which is no surprise given the geography. Speaking of media, one major difference is that there are no ads on ABC TV nor radio. Bliss! ABC radio also provides a much wider range of quality broadcasting than is currently available on CBC. Only one problem, there is one clock radio which barely works, so we rely on listening to ABC podcasts instead.

One of the contrasts that we really enjoy is that there is unlimited barbequing!!!! Many of you will know that we are forbidden from participating in this simple but fundamental pleasure in our condo in VIctoria! Here we even do breakkie on the barbie - one half of the barbie is a plate rather than a grill! Our sympathies go out to our friends and neighbours at Ocean Park Towers in VIctoria!!

The Weather

The weather has been typical for this time of year, although perhaps a degree or two lower than average. In the third week in January a winter storm blew through - lots of high winds, heavy rain shower or two and cloudy skies. Although it lasted less than 2 days, there was a lot of leaf raking and garden clean up to do - something we are not accustomed to since moving into our condo in 2001. The pool had a lot of debris, but fortunately the pool maintenance man made a visit the day after the storm so he took care of the “big stuff”. The weather has returned to normal now - not a cloud in the sky!