Clarkson is the suburb people end up in when they wanted Mindarie and looked at the prices, and that is not the insult it sounds like. It has the train, the shopping and the beach, and it costs less than its neighbours.
Around 13,900 people live there, in the same northern corridor as Butler but one stop closer in. About one in eight residents was born in England.
Transport, Which Is The Selling Point
Clarkson station is on the Joondalup line and the run into Perth takes under 35 minutes.
Like Butler it is a proper service rather than a token one, and it is the reason the northern corridor works for families where one person commutes and the other does the school run.
You will still want a car, and two if you both work. But you are not dependent on one in the way you would be further south.
Ocean Keys
Clarkson has the shopping centre the rest of the corridor drives to. Ocean Keys has over 120 stores, including Coles, Kmart, City Beach and JB Hi-Fi. If you are arriving to an empty house with a shipping container still on the water, this matters more than you would think. Most families spend their first fortnight buying the things they did not ship.
The Beach, And The Marina
Claytons Beach is the local one, a little over two kilometres away, and Mindarie Marina is a few minutes north. The marina is where people take visiting family when they arrive from the UK, and it is the photograph that gets sent home.
Schools
Clarkson Primary, Somerly Primary and Clarkson Community High School cover kindergarten through year twelve within the suburb, with more choice a short drive away in the surrounding suburbs.
The Australian school year starts in late January and finishes in December. It does not run September to July. If you are arriving mid year your children will be joining part way through, and if you are timing your move around schooling you are aiming at January rather than September.
Being Honest About Clarkson
It is an established suburb rather than a new estate, so the housing is more varied and generally older than Butler or Baldivis. Some streets are lovely and some are ordinary, and that is true of anywhere.
The honest advice is to look at a specific street rather than at a suburb name, and to ask somebody who already lives there.
The Questions We Cannot Answer Here
Mortgages, visas, insurance and shipping come up constantly, and we are not licensed to advise on any of them. What we can do is point you at the firms in our directory who are, and who deal with British and Irish arrivals every week.
Ask Somebody Who Lives There
40,000+ British and Irish people in Perth are in our community, across the group, page and Instagram, and a good number of them live in Clarkson. If you want to know whether it suits your family, ask them. It is free to join, and somebody will answer within the hour, usually several somebodies with strong opinions.