Serpentine has a great group of helpful people. They are oldies building or tampering with their planes housed in 100 hangers however the club own the strip and it's like a secret society. I visited once by prior arrangement to get access through the gate. I walked from hanger to hanger chatting to helpful old guys and all was good until I attempted to get involved.
I liked the look of a plane that was for sale along with the hanger that faced right onto the main airstrip but I never got the chance. I had to be a member of the club to buy a hanger and I could only become an associate member for the first year before being considered for full membership and to get that far I had to have a couple of sponsors but at that time I didn't know anybody to give me a reference.
I left and never returned.
Northam is a different story. I've not met anybody from the club, they meet Sundays, but the airstrip is owned by the shire so is open to anybody unless you have a weight shift or similar aircraft. The workshop there, Northam Air Services is run by Roger Watson, a very helpful approachable guy. There's only Avgas available from the bowser but it's a very short trip into town. Northam has a population of about 12,000 and all services. It's an hours drive from Perth, not too much different in time to reach Perth but country roads vs city traffic.