We report on a series of Be-doped GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG) structures grown on (110), (111)B, (211)B and (311)B oriented substrates and compare their properties with high-mobility samples grown on (311)A using Si doping. The samples were prepared and grown under the same conditions so as to render them comparable. They are found to have mobilities which are strongly anisotropic within the plane. The highest mobility is found on the (110) surface with ∼ 100,000 cm 2 V −1 s −1, while the (211) surface gave the lowest values ∼ 10,000 cm 2 V −1 s −1. However, the later samples are found to have quantum Hall effect critical currents of > 70 μA: an exceptionally high value for a hole gas which makes them suitable for metrology. All the samples show strong low-field positive magnetoresistance with resistance increases of up to 30% at magnetic fields of only 0.1 T. The presence of this feature on all the different planes shows that it does not depend upon the details of the band structure. It is identified with the lifting of the degeneracy of the spin sub-bands by the asymmetrical potential giving rise to a classical two-band magnetoreresistance.