A little help with choosing a gym from a guy who knows very little about gym quality?

You could have someone here vet a gym saying it's great, but it might be a terrible gym for you. An excellent piece of advice I read is to try out all the gyms in your area and not settle for the first even if it's a great fit for you.

So yeah, try the gyms out and see how YOU like them.

FYI -

There are also 3 other dedicated BJJ schools run by Black belts within 5 minutes of this one ;)

Eltham - Research - Templestowe - Thomastown

And at least 30 schools run by black belts within a 30 minute drive of there. Ranging from small community clubs to major internationally known clubs with world championship level competitors, multiple UFC fighters, etc

(AET, Dominance, Absolute...)

The specific gym you're asking about is absolutely suitable for you as a beginner.

Gotta say their website is hilarious:

Timeline: 1974 Craig is born via an epic hip escape

I like their tongue in cheek attitude.

Even the bad bjj schools tend to have decent BJJ. Ultimately the big issues are always culture issues which you cant tell until you attend a trial class. Being a bit humorous shows they dont take themselves too seriously which is a plus for me. But other people might want a school that is super serious ass kickers or something.

Even if their BJJ isnt the best, as a white belt it wont matter very much. As long as you have solid / safe rolling partners you can even learn from instructionals.

An hour away would be a dealbreaker for me. It seems like you are closest to melbourne which has a ton. They would only be an hour away if you were like an hour northeast of melbourne. I personally would move closer.

If he is a Blackbelt under John Will and he is teaching your classes you are in good hands. Doesn’t mean you’ll 100% be besties with everyone or you’ll love his teaching style or you’ll be able to afford it or the times will work out for you to train there. But it does mean he knows good jiu jitsu. Things to watch out in general is if they claim to teach their own hybrid system or a special Magical blend of styles to make you an ultimate warrior. The other slightly less shady but still super lame trick is to put up who is head of their organization on the website. So for example in this case they would put up John Will and all his accomplishments and make it seem like he is teaching at your school. Only to find out your classes are taught by a random purple belt that affiliated or worse the guy just once attended a seminar or trained with him.

Anyway try to train whatever gym you choose more than once before signing a contract. For me the people on the mat are as important as the instructor. If there aren’t any good training partners or the vibe is off it might not be for you

Vibe. Price. Cleanliness. No contracts.

Better gyms have women training there which means they don't break little people.

Coming from a guy that was fortunate to have an amazing bjj lineage (just being at the right place at the right time), lineage doesn't really matter all that much. Just take a trial class and see if you like the vibe of the instructor and students, and the level on instruction.

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But, you also mentioned that it is the only place within 1 hour- so you may just have to suck it up and join either way.

You should definitely go check it out.

Give it a shot, and try other nearby gyms. Everyone has different wants in a gym. Some people may want a traditional place practicing the holy art from the ordained black belt, and others may want something more laid back.

So did you end up trying them? How was it?