DeadVim

Now, there is a thought, a less Brisbaney view of life in the area ... caught between the City That Never Wakes Up and the Glitter Strip Of Crassness And Random Armed Robbery ... It has potential

fish.01

Hmmmm, then again, maybe not

weezypenguin

Thanks for the info everyone. It is really appricated

Pollyana

You're wasted in IT you could have a glittering career in real estate

lucylis

Hi everyone we could possibly be moving to Brisbane within next month (find out this week) anyway potential job is in Coorpora! so wanting advice as to somewhere to live for myslef husband and 2 1/2 year old son. we are going to rent for several months first to get the feel of things! I would like to be near to coast if possible or not far from it! but dont want a long commute to work our friends live in north park but that is other side of city and far to long to get to work! also another factor... my husband hasn't got a job as yet hes a PE teacher so any one who has any advice in that feild would be great .... thanks in advance

lis

asprilla

Your friends live in North Lakes and you will be working in Coorparoo.

You could rent in a place like Manly, or Cleveland, and perhaps catch a train to work. Both of these places are quite nice and are on the bay right next to the water. No real beaches near Brisbane though. If you want to live near a surf beach, you need to live on the gold coast or sunshine coast.

If I were in your shoes, I'd forget about the coast for the time being and have a look around Camp Hill, Norman Park and Coorparoo in that order for a place to live. Just my opinion. Coorparoo is a nice suburb but it has a few not so nice spots hence why I'd pick the others ahead of it.

lucylis

hey thanks I was looking at clevelnad but did initially think nearer to work but given my job (mental health nurse) dont think its to wise to live in vicinity! are those other two areas you mentioned nice? suppose I just want somewhere with a bit of space we where over in feb and stayed at friends in North lakes... personally I didn't like it! everywhere felt on top of each other!

asprilla

Yes norman park and camp hill are pretty nice suburbs, I reckon.

At the end of the day, that extra bit of space you are looking for, comes at a price. It all comes down to $$$. Unless you are well off, you can't have space, convenience, close to city, close to work, nice house, nice garden, good transport, nice restaurants nearby etc etc....all in the one package. So you've got to think about what is most important.

Have another read of Fish.01's posts they are very useful.

Antney

Hi,

Well I can only speak from personal experience.

We live in Pullenvale, which is about 16km from the CBD and what most people refer to as the "sticks", not sure I really agree there though!!

SCHOOLS

My kids go to Brookfield Starte School which has excellent results. We are spolt in the est though as we have some very good schools in the local area:-

Chapel Hill SS
Pullenvale SS
Kenmore SS

SHOPS

For shopping the big shopping centres are best and they've been listed on here.

For food it's Coles, Woolworths, IGA or Aldi although we have have great selection of independent retailers for fresh food.

gmralston

Queensland and probably the rest of oz seems to be the last developed country to still pump massive amouns of money into roads and hardly anything into rail. The cultural centre bus station is already at full capacity at rush hour, so crowded there is going to be a nasty accident there before long.

Chortlepuss

Try to get somewhere near a busway or near a train station. distances that seem short in Brisbane take a long time to drive by car. Don't even think of living anywhere where you need to use Coronation Drive (Toowong, Milton) - it's a nightmare. Today 'cos it rained a little, there were a lot of accidents with people driving into each other. it rains a lot here, but people struggle to drive safely for reasons I don't understand. If you work southside, try to live southside - crossing the river makes for a very long commute. I like southside 'cos it seems to be a bit quieter, with some nice suburbs (I'm in Mount Gravatt East ). Bulimba is great but too $ for most, and limited schooling.

bcworld

I don't miss that place - 'Sorry, Bus Full', 'Sorry, Bus Full', 'Sorry, Bus Full', 'Sorry...' - you get the point! And it was only the second stop!

Like Chortlepuss I also used to live in Mt Gravatt East...which could be as little as 15 - 20 mins to the city via the busway. Also very easy to get to Coorparoo.

fish.01

Yes obviously in the last 10 years Brisbane has put more money into the busway than rail. Maybe something to do with the very low population density by world standards leading to a very spread out area to serve with few unused rail corridors to build into. The busways have proven hugely popular which has lead to the situation at the cultural centre.

There will always be arguments about whether the busways should be railways, I can see advantages in both. The busway is one of the most successful in the world so I guess they can point at that. Certainly well known that something must be done around the cultural centre....I wonder what they will do? Have seen suggestions of tunnels under Victoria bridge etc but all seem to have some hefty engineering challenges. Read yesterday that the south east busway takes the equivalent of 9 lanes of traffic off the south east freeway. There were 72 million trips on the busway last year.

The focus is turning more towards rail now though with the cross river rail tunnel and new line extensions to Kippa Ring and Springfield.

gmralston

In the sequipp plan there is $10m allocated for saftey upgrades at the cultural centre for 2011-2012 but I don't know what they will do, a victim of its own success for sure. I have horrible feelling that cross river rail may never happen, it was very quick to get delayed by at least 2 years after the flood but at $8.2 billion it was an easy target.
At least the other two are funded though.

DadAgain

One thing that the cultural centre busway coudl do with is MORE platforms.

Its no good having 1 inbound and 1 outbound platform when theres 20 different busroutes going through there - it end up being a bunfight with everyone running up and down the busy platform to get to the bus .

Some side-by-side platforms could aleviate that a bit so at least passengers had a clue where their bus woudl arrive.

(It doesnt help the 'bus full' problem which was the main reason I first quit public transport and discovered the joy of motorcycle commuting!)