Hi,
I am planning to arrive in Canberra in the first week of June. I already have a job (Office in Deakin), and was looking at schools and suburbs in the south side. Are there any specific suburbs that I should avoid (Both in terms of the population and schools)? I have a 10 year old who will go to 5th Grade.

How's the commute if I live, say 10 -15 kms away from Deakin (on the south side itself) ?

Regards
Manumani

The usual recommendation is to avoid Narrabundah and Richardson on the South side (lots of govvie housing). Personally I would be avoiding most, if not all, of the Tuggeranong suburbs if I had kids still in school (the prevailing pedagogy at the time of school building down in Tuggers was open space and that has lead to multi teacher units with quite a high ambient noise level even at the best of times, and kids squished into smaller spaces than they would have been in traditional classrooms).

Deakin itself is nice but expensive, Yarralumla is nice but very expensive - if you do want to venture further out then head for Weston rather than Tuggeranong. You could head north of the lake and be travelling against the traffic to get to Deakin in rush hour (that works!) so basically it really doesnt matter whether you go north or south but more where you can afford a place that you want to live in 24/7.

Schools are much of a muchness really and there is a parallel Catholic system which, with the rest of the private system, educates close to half the population anyway. Close to Deakin you have the Grammars which, if you can afford it, are usually regarded as the best in town.

So does north of the lake work ? I was assuming that most people would be commuting to the Canberra / Acton region for work as that's the centre of the town, and hence had ruled north side out, as I would have to cross the Canberra region to reach Deakin

How is biking as a commuting option ? Is it feasible to commute 8-10 kms by bike ?