Australian cities an Irish impression
May 10th 2011, 12:37 am
#16
Mostly Harmless
Joined: Jan 2010
Location: Semi-rural wonderworld, Brisbane
Posts: 15,109
Re: Australian cities an Irish impression
Having read the very informative initial post it's a shame this thread seems to have gone pear-shaped for reasons I cannot fathom.
Yeh, the bit on Brisbane is a little rose-tinted but we need more stuff like this on the forum.
Yeh, the bit on Brisbane is a little rose-tinted but we need more stuff like this on the forum.
May 10th 2011, 1:26 am
#17
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: Limerick-Shropshire- Perth.
Posts: 3,215
Re: Australian cities an Irish impression
May 10th 2011, 2:00 am
#18
Mostly Harmless
Joined: Jan 2010
Location: Semi-rural wonderworld, Brisbane
Posts: 15,109
May 10th 2011, 2:25 am
#19
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 339
Re: Australian cities an Irish impression
Brisbane is a hole!!!! Lived here 6 years after meeting the wife and the best way to describe it is a little village 'trying' to be a big city.
The people think it's the bee knees and great yet most have never even left the city yet alone the state.
The public transport is terrible. Trains, busses and car routes all lead into the city on main arterials but there is little to no orbital roads of any worth so fine if you want to get into the city but crap for getting 'around' the city. The mayor is trying but his 'experts' aren't even asking the residence whether they would use a tunnel or bridge b4 building it. Also, the train takes as long to get from the outer suburbs as it would to go twice the distance heading into London. The lines can't handle higher speeds but it bearly breaks even so they don't put hardly any money into making it better. Rush hour is terrible esp the northside as the raillines cross the main suburbian roads every 15-20mins so raod traffic is appalling.
Mossies are terrible and you have to be miles from any water source to not get bitten.
House prices have become crap lately and you'll be 30k outside the city for a shabby old Queenslander for $350-400k if you're lucky. In the city a small apartment will easily cost 750k-1m.
Also, just coming out of a 30yr drought period so with the ground nicely wet now the summers are terrible. For 3-4 months it's like walking around in atomised honey. No one goes outside of air-conditioning.
Melbourne is much nicer place to live except for the random weather. Adelaide is cute but small. Darwin is very hot and very wet and rather hicksville. Perth, dunno but looks nice. Canberra, just don't do it. Sydney, nice if you can live with the spreadout nightspots, restuarants etc.
The people think it's the bee knees and great yet most have never even left the city yet alone the state.
The public transport is terrible. Trains, busses and car routes all lead into the city on main arterials but there is little to no orbital roads of any worth so fine if you want to get into the city but crap for getting 'around' the city. The mayor is trying but his 'experts' aren't even asking the residence whether they would use a tunnel or bridge b4 building it. Also, the train takes as long to get from the outer suburbs as it would to go twice the distance heading into London. The lines can't handle higher speeds but it bearly breaks even so they don't put hardly any money into making it better. Rush hour is terrible esp the northside as the raillines cross the main suburbian roads every 15-20mins so raod traffic is appalling.
Mossies are terrible and you have to be miles from any water source to not get bitten.
House prices have become crap lately and you'll be 30k outside the city for a shabby old Queenslander for $350-400k if you're lucky. In the city a small apartment will easily cost 750k-1m.
Also, just coming out of a 30yr drought period so with the ground nicely wet now the summers are terrible. For 3-4 months it's like walking around in atomised honey. No one goes outside of air-conditioning.
Melbourne is much nicer place to live except for the random weather. Adelaide is cute but small. Darwin is very hot and very wet and rather hicksville. Perth, dunno but looks nice. Canberra, just don't do it. Sydney, nice if you can live with the spreadout nightspots, restuarants etc.
May 10th 2011, 2:53 am
#20
Mostly Harmless
Joined: Jan 2010
Location: Semi-rural wonderworld, Brisbane
Posts: 15,109
Re: Australian cities an Irish impression
Brisbane is a hole!!!! Lived here 6 years after meeting the wife and the best way to describe it is a little village 'trying' to be a big city.
The people think it's the bee knees and great yet most have never even left the city yet alone the state.
The public transport is terrible. Trains, busses and car routes all lead into the city on main arterials but there is little to no orbital roads of any worth so fine if you want to get into the city but crap for getting 'around' the city. The mayor is trying but his 'experts' aren't even asking the residence whether they would use a tunnel or bridge b4 building it. Also, the train takes as long to get from the outer suburbs as it would to go twice the distance heading into London. The lines can't handle higher speeds but it bearly breaks even so they don't put hardly any money into making it better. Rush hour is terrible esp the northside as the raillines cross the main suburbian roads every 15-20mins so raod traffic is appalling.
Mossies are terrible and you have to be miles from any water source to not get bitten.
House prices have become crap lately and you'll be 30k outside the city for a shabby old Queenslander for $350-400k if you're lucky. In the city a small apartment will easily cost 750k-1m.
Also, just coming out of a 30yr drought period so with the ground nicely wet now the summers are terrible. For 3-4 months it's like walking around in atomised honey. No one goes outside of air-conditioning.
Melbourne is much nicer place to live except for the random weather. Adelaide is cute but small. Darwin is very hot and very wet and rather hicksville. Perth, dunno but looks nice. Canberra, just don't do it. Sydney, nice if you can live with the spreadout nightspots, restuarants etc.
The people think it's the bee knees and great yet most have never even left the city yet alone the state.
The public transport is terrible. Trains, busses and car routes all lead into the city on main arterials but there is little to no orbital roads of any worth so fine if you want to get into the city but crap for getting 'around' the city. The mayor is trying but his 'experts' aren't even asking the residence whether they would use a tunnel or bridge b4 building it. Also, the train takes as long to get from the outer suburbs as it would to go twice the distance heading into London. The lines can't handle higher speeds but it bearly breaks even so they don't put hardly any money into making it better. Rush hour is terrible esp the northside as the raillines cross the main suburbian roads every 15-20mins so raod traffic is appalling.
Mossies are terrible and you have to be miles from any water source to not get bitten.
House prices have become crap lately and you'll be 30k outside the city for a shabby old Queenslander for $350-400k if you're lucky. In the city a small apartment will easily cost 750k-1m.
Also, just coming out of a 30yr drought period so with the ground nicely wet now the summers are terrible. For 3-4 months it's like walking around in atomised honey. No one goes outside of air-conditioning.
Melbourne is much nicer place to live except for the random weather. Adelaide is cute but small. Darwin is very hot and very wet and rather hicksville. Perth, dunno but looks nice. Canberra, just don't do it. Sydney, nice if you can live with the spreadout nightspots, restuarants etc.
May 10th 2011, 4:19 am
#23
Almost more Oz than Pom
Joined: Aug 2010
Location: Brisbane northern suburbs
Posts: 1,154
Re: Australian cities an Irish impression
Perth is still hamstrung by antiquated shopping hours laws. Trying to find anything open on a Sunday (or even Saturday afternoon) is like searching for the Holy Grail. The laws were changed slightly recently but they are still way behind the other states.
15 years ago you couldn't even buy fuel at weekends unless you could find the servo that was on roster!.
Which reminds me - if anyone in Adelaide has ever wondered why there is a strip of neighbouring servos at the bottom of South Road near Sturt Road, they date back to 30 years ago when filling stations were not allowed to open at weekends in the Adelaide metro area. The bottom of South Road was just outside the metro boundary and so all the servos did a roaring trade at weekends - there was a similar stretch north of the city.
15 years ago you couldn't even buy fuel at weekends unless you could find the servo that was on roster!.
Which reminds me - if anyone in Adelaide has ever wondered why there is a strip of neighbouring servos at the bottom of South Road near Sturt Road, they date back to 30 years ago when filling stations were not allowed to open at weekends in the Adelaide metro area. The bottom of South Road was just outside the metro boundary and so all the servos did a roaring trade at weekends - there was a similar stretch north of the city.
May 10th 2011, 4:57 am
#29
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 15,526
Re: Australian cities an Irish impression
I'm sure that vast majority of people on here, will be very interested in how you go here in Aus.. Especially as you are open to changing your mind about things.
I"ve got to check out Dublin now.... like Melbourne eh ?
May 10th 2011, 5:19 am
#30
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 90
Re: Australian cities an Irish impression