Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Just got back from a holiday to Canberra. 1st time there and we thought it was great! It was very un-Australian if that makes sense. It seemed to have a much better work ethic and service in the shops was so much more than just jobsworths. The chav to not chav ratio was very small and a very refreshing change. The Bryson book make have been accurate about Canberra a few years ago, but to me it's a proper city now with a definite European class feel to it.

So if like me you are not finding chav Australia to your liking it might be worth you checking out Canberra first before flying home too quick.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Quick tell Arkon. Someone his using his name in vain

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Took a while for my poor brain to work this one out, having spent a week with a much more educated populace it's difficult to dumb your brain down again!

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

None taken!

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Firiends of ours live there and love it and we visit when we can. I must say that if work allowed it then we would definately move over there. Saying that though we are in the middle of nowhere so it doesn't take much to impress us :rolleyes: ;) .

Nicky

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Has it changed your mind about going back to the UK , do you plan to stay in Canberra a few years before going back

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Looks like someones stolen his username and pretending to be Arkon. :eek:
Theres no way the real Arkon would say customer service and work ethic is good in OZ :confused: :confused:

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I was wondering the same thing. I hear people saying try somewhere else before heading back but it is often harder to do when you are tied to work.
Nicky

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I'm with Bill Bryson on this one, but each to his own!

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Just curious - Have you actually visited Canberra - or just founding your opinion on a book?

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Hi,

Why didn't you let me know you was coming - I would have liked to have met you.

Glad you liked it here :)

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I agree that BB got it wrong about Canberra. It's amazing how people can give the wrong impression of a place when they have a blinkered view.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Whatever Bill Bryson's personal views on Canberra, he told it all in such a funny and entertaining way! We went to Canberra once, and I'm sorry to say we did actually agree with Bill Bryson, but then again we were in a bit of a hurry and didn't actually manage to find the "real" Canberra. We couldn't see where people lived, and the city centre was dead as a dodo - it was as though everybody had just left the city and gone home, which was probably true, even though it was about 4.00 in the afternoon. I would like to visit again to see what we missed out on, as I am interested in the opinions of those who live there. We have a friend in Australia who is from Canberra and raves about the place so I would like to see it again when we're in less of a hurry.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Good for you - you certainly missed the 'real' Canberra - but it all depends on what your priorities are I suppose

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Our priorities were getting to our next accommodation before dark, and a longer drive than anticipated! Otherwise I think we would have been able to spend a lot more time in the city. I would certainly give it another chance. :)

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I visited my sister in Canberra a couple of years ago and that would have been my preference for location but as my husband is a truck driver work was limited for him. We loved Canberra.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

My hubby is a truck driver and so is ZX????? what's his name (we met on Sunday) there is work here fro truck drivers

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

If the house sells before the boy is 4 years old then yes we will rent something in Canberra and try it for 6 months or so first.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I was tempted to meet people but I'm shy! Also the wife is a bit suspicious of me spending so much virtual time on BE. Maybe next time as we are most likely going back to Canberra. I found it a very pleasant place with none of the things I hate about Australia seemingly too present.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Bloody hell! Are you actually saying that not ALL Australia is crap and that not ALL Australians are thick?


Glad you had a good time. :)

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Too cold and too far from a beach mate.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I found the city to be very deceptive, on the face of it it looked like there wasn't much there. After a bit of exploring we found about 30+ attractions, 2 westfields, The main City shopping area, Civic. The war memorial and questacon were great. Driving was a doddle. Rush hour was basically 'what rush hour?' I've done a city by city comparison on excel I'll export it to text and put it here to give people some idea of how the place compared in my eyes....2 ticks.....

Syd Mel Can Bris

Access to good shops 3 4 3 3
Road Quality 1 3 4 4
Traffic 1 1 4 3
People Friendlyness 2 3 4 3
Good State Schools 1 2 4 1
Good Private schools 3 4 3 3
Teach Psychology 0 4 0 0
Good Job prospects for Son 3 3 4 1
Access to good restaurants 2 4 4 2
Climate in winter 4 2 2 4
Climate in summer 1 3 3 1
Crime 1 1 4 3
Car access to another city 4 3 4 1
Air travel abroad 4 4 1 4
Chavs 1 2 3 1
Affordable housing 1 1 4 3
Ease of visiting attractions 1 3 1 4
Safeness for Son 1 1 4 2
Dog Friendlyness 1 1 2 1

TOTALS 35 49 58 44

1 means bad or poor, 4 means great or good.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Well there were a lot of non Australians there, most seemed to be well educated and well dressed, or should I say dressed appropriately for the occasions. Plenty of accents that most definitely were not Australian and those Australians I did meet seemed to have a despair for the rest of Australia. Probably because of all the Canberra bashing that goes on. My chart came out a bit pants, sorry. Can’t figure out how to maintain formatting on the forum posts.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I want to say something here but I really just can't bring myself to do it. :D

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Mate, there are a lot of non Australians everywhere, but it's all down to the type of non Australians you click with at the end of the day. :)
I guess I'm used to non Aussie accents up here too, so it's no big deal for me.... and the same goes for the 'despair' thing too.

I love that chart. Oh I do, I do, I do. :D

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Yea - all those ****ing Australians in Australia!! ****ing nerve of them.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I know! It's a bloody national disgrace Hutch. :D

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I'll say it, it looks a bit shit, couldn't get the format to keep the spacing.
It is our views thogh, for example the amount of chavs was very small and the roads were the best I've seen in the country, Crime is supposedly very low too. Kingston had about 30 excellent restraunts within a minutes walk! Just need to loose a stone again now.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Go chase some alpacas... that should do it. ;)

(It's not so much shit, it's just funny. I bet you're a Gunzel too!) ;)

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Cool stuff Arkon. Hope it works out there.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Nice one Arkon :)

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Eating out is good here arkon - so much choice and so little calorie intake allowed on my diet :D

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Tell me about it. In the last 7 days I've had 3 chinese, 2 italian, 2 indian meals. I'm now very stuffed! I'd almost forgotten what it was like to eat out somwhere that was a bit better than a greasy cafe. It wasn't all roses though, I paid 17.99 a kilo for bananas at Belconen and 1.70 a litre for fuel at a place called pointer or somthing like pointer, about 30k north of Canberra. There was a cucumber shortage causing SubWay some problems and it rained on the last day. But all in all a positive experience.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

ACT govt will now be forced to upgrade the domestic Canberra Airport to an International one as a result of this post. :D

I can see the Courier Mail headlines in the future: "Over supply of bayside homes as British immigrants abandon Brisbane and move to Canberra...."


Canberra Times: "Housing shortage now dire"

:D :D

WW

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

We had a fantastic Indian takeaway while we were there but the goat recipes were a little too authentic for me :eek: . I must say that although I am not a suburb person I was really taken with the place and having things like shopping centres nearby was wonderful :D . Just got to get a job there now :rolleyes:
Nicky

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I wouldn't want to live there but I thought it was a great place to visit for the day. It is like nothing else I have ever seen: the whole place was designed rather than happening by accident; the war memorial was impressive; the parliament building unusual and open to the public and best of all seeing all the embassy buildings built in the national styles. :)

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Me and the other half are moving to Canberra in early Sept due to his job. Although we have visited Australia before we have never been to Canberra, so I was a little bit worried about how we would fare there.

After reading this thread it does make me feel a lot better about moving to a place we had never visited, and I am sure he will be pleased to learn about the Indian takeaways!

Louise

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

Hmmm very interesting. Especially when you consider how close Canberra is to the other cities, and the possible low cost of housing. Very few people that I've met praise Canberra though. There again I only use heresay as a guide and not a rule. We are having major issues with changing from Junior to High school at present, I can imagine most schools in Canberra would perform at a higher average standard.


It's the easiest place to transfer to in my and my wifes line of work (she is a Pysch nurse), So not a popular choice for most working people.

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

I like BB and I agree that he is funny. However he can make mistakes. His opinion on the British involvement in the Whitlam dismissal being an obvious one.

Canberra like other cities has nice parts and crappy parts. Last time I was there I drove around some areas near Belconnen which was obviously designed by a multi-story car-park and bus station architect. Also the business district does close down after hours and becomes a ghost town. This happens in other cities that have separate business and entertainment districts - the City of London becomes a ghost town on the weekend.

:)

Re: Bill Bryson was wrong about Canberra!
 

True about Belconen but it having a big shopping center for me within 10 minutes of the rest of the city was a bonus so I forgave it its poor architecture. The city does wind down out of hours but I wouldn't say shutdown. We found most of the book shops, food shops, gift and other non suit and tie type businesses stayed open late. Where I am now you get turned away at the door to most places at about five to five so it was very refeshing to go for a walk and find plenty of places still open. One of the negatives we had quoted at us before we went was that the city becomes a ghost town at the weekend, true it did but it felt great as we seemed to have the city to ourselves. A bit like 28 days later I must admit but you could still get a decent beer or pizza. For me the most underrated place I've been to so far.

Did I mention we drove to cooma near the skiing resorts and it less than an hour and the snow was about an extra hour and a half away. Now who wants to buy a farm?