sammyg

Hya all,
We're hoping to move to Brisbane early next year and wanted peoples opinions on where's best to live for families. We are a small family with one 10 year old and we are not put off by the so called 'legoland' estates, infact they are probably good for us -kids playing out in a close community is ideal

Sister-in-law lives in a plantation home in ipswich, beautiful apparently but houses are far apart due to 1000m2 plots of land! We want our daughter out and about making the most of it!

We've been looking into North Lakes and Springfield Lakes, mother-in-law went to have a look over christmas and bought lots of stuff back. Don't really know much about gold coast though.

All opinions welcome please, i know there are a few of us that would like to find out more and hear others opinions and I know everybody likes different things but there's no harm in a bit of research is there?!

Thanks Sam

Centurion

1000m2 blocks are SMALL!!! 6000m2 is an acre. Even thats quite small once you get outside the estate builds and into semi rural.

The average lego land block is 700m2 now. Although they are still managing to sell off 400m2 blocks the size of postage stamps. Suppose its all relative though compared to a crappy UK terrace effort.

In all seriousness though - I wouldnt live in Ipswitch personally. I'd prefer the Sunshine Coast as would many others. But its hard to find work there, hence thats why I live in Bayside - heaps of work and an hour either way to sunshine and gold coast.

themerlin

I think you would have more garden in a terrace house back in the UK.

themerlin

close community? Where did you get that from the Delphin adverts, what happends if you don't like the people next door

I'm sorry but I don't know why people buy in these estate. Look around and see what you can get in slight older areas before you buy or you will end up on the MBTUK forum in six months

Katehn

Hi Centurian,
We have been looking at the bayside suburbs. Any info you could share would be great.ie what are the schools like? are there any area to avoid!
Shops etc. I was in Brisbane 5yrs ago & had a couple of days out in Wynnum, which seemed a nice area. My children are currently in Primary school but I hope to choose an area that is ok for teenagers as well.
Sunshine coast is the other option, hubby a chef so hopefully work not a problem.

sammyg

Re:
(close community)
I was refering back to some old threads really, where some people were moaning about children playing out and dogs being on the streets. I wouldn't really mind that - well maybe would mind rabid dogs!!

Kids playing out is good!

I know a lot of people have strong feelings about 'legoland' estates but if i'm happy in my 4 bed detached on smallish plot of land in England, why wouldn't i be happy in a similar home aus. Looking at these kind of houses they are still substantialy bigger anyway. Don't really speak to neighbours here anyway - if they don't like you or you don't like them, stuff them!!

Point taken though, and when we are house hunting we may change our minds but we are trying not to look into our move with rose coloured spectacles, trying to keep it real! if things end up being bigger and better then great!

Thanks though

sammyg

Yea, Ipswich also sounds very hot in summer.

Is Bayside really like 'little britian'? Lots of posts suggest this! Don't get me wrong i'm proud of my Nationality but i do want to mingle and become part of an australian community and not live in a 'home away from home'!!

But this is the thing, i can listen to peoples opinions who don't actually live there, but what we need to hear is first hand experience.
People could be saying they don't like an area purely they can't afford it or they don't like someone who does live there.........do you get my drift?

Look forward to hearing from you
Sam

Centurion

The little Britain comment is purpetuated it seems by a few select posters from the Northside of Brisbane and happens to be entirely untrue. I would frankly move out of the area where that the case.

As much as I enjoy posting here in a virtual world I am not as proud of my original nationality as you and voted with my feet on that one. I dont feel any need to surround myself with any British friends I'm afraid and nor would I live in an area where I felt that was the situation.

Bayside Brisbane is a nice area to live. Of course thats going to make it attractive to migrants. Fortunately it also makes it very attractive to Australian born and breds.

Centurion

Sorry I cant really help. We have a dog and he wouldn't do well in school we think We did think about children a couple of years back, but fortunately we got better a couple of days after

Bayside is a very big area to comment on. It encompasses many suburbs but luckily most are very nice. Personally I like Wello Pt, Ormiston, Cleveland, Vickie Pt, Redland Bay, & the acreage sites on the Thornlands/Mt Cotton corridor.

Demented Ferret

Hi SammyG

We rented on North Lakes when we first arrived and found it to be a great place for families - the blocks are getting much smaller at the top of the Estate (which by the way is about a 10 minute drive from the front of the estate as it's getting so big). Our boy is 11 and he fitted in really quickly, we had so many kids round our house and he had so many friends it was scary. He could cycle to school in relative safety. There are loads of cycle ways and walking paths, they are doubling the size of the shopping center at the moment, with further expansion due after that. It's getting a cinema and I believe bowling at a later date. We are a 35 minute train ride into the city from - 10 mins drive to the station or a 40 min drive into Brissy, 40 mins up is Caloundra. We are now on Halpine Lake at Mango Hill, which is another new development, much smaller estate on the opposite side of the main road, and we love it here - may not be for everyone but we feel we haven't seen anywhere we'd rather be.

sammyg

Thanks for that, it's really useful!
did you have your house built? 'Mango Hill' just sounds so cool!

Sam

Demented Ferret

Yeh we think so.

We built with Cavalier Homes, although that's quite another story, bit of a nightmare to say the least - it's fine now it's finished, but not a part of my life I would want to re-live.

Notice you're from Derby - we're from Mansfield - moved out Oct 05 (best thing we did).

sammyg

Small world hey, my best mate lives in mansfield-berry hill on a new estate. Had a few drunken nights out in mansfield!!!

When our mother-in-law went she said she really liked the look of north lakes and mango hill so it's definatly on our list of places to check out. i'm going to look at houses in mango hill in general too!

Ta

rebnatoli

I can't remember the link - will post it if I do but looked at a website that gave % figures on where people in a suburb came from - the Bayside suburbs at 7% Bristish were the same as most of the others - very few had less than 7% and a few had more. I can still remember nightmarish scenes from a New Life Down Under a few years ago where a whole street had Welsh flags hanging out their windows -so know what you mean (btw not a dig at the Welsh - equally horrific if English/Scottish flags).

heres the link - using Birkdale as an example
http://www.domain.com.au/Public/subu...hTerm=Birkdale

sammyg

Yea, i remember it too, it was in perth - it wasn't a nice advertisment at the time!!

Thanks for link too!
Sam