Beoz

For most renovators the asbestos issues are in the kitchen and bathroom. Under flooring and behind the tiles. Walls and roofs only become a problem if you touch it and more often then not, home renovators aren't touching that.

Interestingly you can remove and dispose of 10m2 yourself. Wet it, and don't breath in. You could eat a birthday cake of the stuff and all is cool. Just don't breath it in.

Or just be old. It takes about 40 years before you see issues.

Pollyana

This isn't renovations with the jobs we get involved with. They are the ones where storms/cyclones have ripped houses apart, releasing the asbestos.

astera

The Gold Coast is significantly cooler than Brisbane. Heck, it's literally on the NSW border after all and that speaks for itself.

It's always nice to have aircon but in reality I've rarely had to use it, just on occasion during a handful of weeks in the entire year. Nothing more. Aircon will probably be used a lot more in places like Sydney or Melbourne where they get these crazy heat surges and temps soaring towards (or beyond) the 40s sometimes. You don't get that crazy summer heat in the GC.

I too would prefer the pleasant humidity of the tropics over a dry, desert-like climate. So to me places like Singapore or Thailand will be more comfortable than the desert heat of the Middle East (maybe someone who has been to Dubai during the peak summer period can pitch in).

Beoz

Are you kidding about humidity on the Gold Coast. Last year I spent a week with a client at Southport in March.

For lunch (get this) we would stroll to the local shopping centre, some hideous 70's monstrosity full of purple haired retirees and unemployed, sleeveless bogans. Apparently the shopping centre was the place to lunch as it had aircon.

The walk there 5 minutes created sweat monsters. Same with the return. The humidity was just awful.

You see. Brisbane and the Gold Coast are just dumps. You pay for what you get.

Gordon Barlow

Australia's deadly relationship with heat - BBC News
This latest from the BBC on the "sunburnt country"... the Australian Medical Association of New South Wales told the BBC. "Many people don't know that heatwaves are actually more harmful to human health than bushfires and floods."

I have reminisced about my childhood "Life in the bush" in a thread of that name in the Barbie forum, but have scarcely mentioned the heat in summer time. It was a dry heat out there, not the humidity of Brisbane (where I went to boarding school, and later worked in an office). The heat - and the climate generally - wasn't the popular talking-point it is today. Looking back, it's surprising we coped so well. Our little one-room schoolhouse on the Darling Downs had no fans (this was in the 1940s), and if there wasn't a breeze coming through the windows, our sweat soaked the books. And we ran around like mad things at break-times and lunch hours, as little kids do regardless of the temperature.

In Brisbane we had desk-fans - which had to remain on "gentle" to avoid blowing the papers all over the place. No air-con, in those days. On holidays down on what is now called The Gold Coast we lay on the beach sunbaking - in the days before the ozone layer began rotting away. Or before we learnt that it was, anyway.

Kim67

It's all a matter of personal preference. I don't find low to mid 30's with humidity unbearable, in fact it's my preference. I left Brisbane in 2008 and went back to Perth for eight months, the winter was hideous and I hated it. I then went to Dubai for a couple of years and it was hot, but you survive and just change your lifestyle a little to accommodate the heat. When I returned to Brisbane at the end of 2010, I froze and was wearing ugg boots and coats on the school run every day.

moneypenny20

You went to Australia Fair and you're judging the GC on that experience? That's both the funniest and saddest thing I've read in years. Here's a thought, have some real experience of a place then judge it. However as has been said many many many times, we all have our own opinions and bodies. We all deal differently with every experience. You and others find a place too humid. Others don't. No one is wrong.

Australia Fair. smh

Beoz

Southport Park Shopping Centre actually. Falling short of living there, I'm up in Brisbane and Goldie all the time for work. That's my experience of both places and as you say, no one is wrong. Horrible experiences all round I'm afraid.

On the flip side, I'm down in Melbourne for work too. Yes it can get a little cold in winter for a few days here and there, so what? Put a jacket on. At least Melbourne has a little bit more going for it other than weather.

moneypenny20

Oh dear.

Gordon Barlow

I was baptised in the Southport C of E - Nerang Street, if I recall (!). Do us a favour and hop in and check out the Parish Register sometime? Ta.

Beoz

Does it have air con?

moneypenny20

Probably not, doesn't seem to exist There is a St Peter's Anglican Church Gordon if that helps.

Gordon Barlow

Ah, Penny, Penny, Penny... The Church of England became the Anglican Church several years ago. It was in all the papers at the time; surely you noticed.

moneypenny20

Nope. Someone mentions god I tend to turn off.

jad n rich

Meanwhile... Brisbane seems to have temporarily dropped down in humidity, for something resembling a southern state heatwave, but mid 30's, not the roarin 40's delight that sometimes hits down there.

I am checkin out of brisbane on weekend back to melbourne, business dictates the dates but it had better be wet, cold and windy, looks like I may get a couple of days of that but very wary, its now the First day of Furnace February.