Shaun&Dee

Cairns is a possibility for me to live, just wondering how far from Cairns CBD people live when they work in the CBD. My job would be in the centre (office work as a quantity surveyor) and I wouldn't want to travel more than 20 minutes to work each day.

Does anyone actually live in the city other than backpackers?

Thanks

Shaun

framac

Bix, get out your scratcher. Shaun wants an answer. He's yer man Shaun but its 1.40am here so maybe tomorrow

youngy73

if you went to 30 mins that will cover you for All of the cairns burbs into town.that will get from palm cove in the north to gordonvale in the south into the cbd. cairns aint that big/busy but its getting there. and yes people other than backpackers live in the city and there are many nice places to live although in the city youll probably be looking at a unit or an old queenslander.just avoid murray st.

Bix

I'm awake Framac

Mmmmmm.....well as a rough guide you can get to the CBD in 20 minutes from Smithfield in the North or Forest Gardens in the South.
That encompasses one heck of a lot of good burbs to pick from.

My travel time averages out at about 1km per minute in busy work traffic morning and evening. That includes waiting at traffic lights and crossing the main road through Cairns. About a 14km journey.

In the city itself there are hotels and backpacker places but a growing trend is gated complexes of flats. Some darned nice ones too.
A new employee of ours has just taken a brand new 2 bed flat in a gated complex at $330 per week. Normal price is going to be $380 but there is some building work being completed hence a discount for a few months. That's on the fringe of the CBD.

youngy73

how would you define busy work traffic?

Bix

Batches of vehicles that become more condensed as you hit the city but always flowing apart from traffic light stops.

No jams at all unless an acident causes a temporary hold up.

Only seen one jam so far when the Captain Cook Highway flooded after Monica and everything had to hit the Reservoir Road.

youngy73

i remember that one last year. i just turned around and took the day off. no worries. as it happened everyone esle did the same including the boss. gotta love it.

Shaun&Dee

Whats wrong with Murray Street? I would quite like to be in the city but not where its too noisy. I thought Palm Cove was 45 mins away when I was there in November? Suppose just depends how fast you drive!!!

rachaey

hi bix and anyone else in Cairns, me and my family are hopefully comming to Cairns next year, just waiting for my skills assesment before we lodge visa ( i a nurse). I have a brother who is living in city view. Any advive of areas/suburbs that are good for schools, and children that are not too far away from the hospital, also my hubby is a plant operator/ fork lift truck driver do you know is ther much work of this sort, I have also asked my bro but he new there too,

cheers for any advice/help

RAch

snappy

Hi Rach

I live South of Cairns in Mission Beach my hubbie also drives excavators plenty of jobs in around the Far North. You have to get yourself assessed when you get here which doesn't take long but allow a bit fo cash for it as you have to hire a machine so the assessor can assess you. He also had to go on a quick course to get a H&S card or Blue card as it is known here which takes up a morning.

They do tend to like people to have a medium sized truck licence II think it is called a medium rigid licence???) as more often than not they will get you to transport the machine on the truck then you can load the truck and dispose of any material. My neighbour is the owner of Cheshire Contractors who also works around Cairns, hubbie worked for him for a while.

As for where to live my favourite spot is Redlynch but to get to the hospital I'm sure the other Cairns people can come up with a better suburb that woudl be closer. If you do go to redlynch though my friend has just enrolled her kids into a private school there and can't sing their praises high enough - it is called St Andrews.

Sasha

youngy73

murray st is the darkdise of cairns.its cairns most notorious st. if you want to score drugs, get your car smashed, your house robbed and yourself beat up move there. its full of black fellas and would just be a shite place to live. saying all that there are 3 police inspectors who live on murray st although for the life of me i cant understand why. the wife gets called there atleast once every shift for one disturbance or another. its the sort of place where when they run out of piss instead of going and buying more or calling it a night they hit the shed and start sniffing dulux then in there paint and alcohol induced state try and succeed in stabbing each other (wife attended an incident where that actually happened). youve not experienced nothing until youve been on the piss with a few black fellas.

steandleigh

Well, I reckon that should be enough to send 'em running into the hills for cover!

(And how apt it should be called: "Murray St"...)

Whingin Pom

I think thats why they call them murrys you dingbat

Bentley park area is a nice place to live, it has its own schools, is quiet and its easy to get into Cairns.

I lived right at the top of Roberts road almost in the rain forest and worked in Portsmith, it was 13ks and would take me about 15 minutes.

youngy73

i think you will find that they dont call them murrays because of murray st in cairns. thats bigging murray st up just a little dont you think

Bix

Hi Rach

I assume you would be working at the Cairns Base Hospital.
I've done a couple of Google Earth snapshots so you can see where it is.
GE is about 2 years out of date but it's good enough.

I would suggest living on the North side of the city for best access and have marked the good suburbs.

Where exactly would depend on a numer of factors such as:
How old your children are and hence school needs.
Whether you want private or state education.
What you want in housing or rental.
And of course for both schooling and housing what you can or want to afford.

Where your bruv lives is a good place and is just out of shot in the map below Kanimbla. Not as convenient for the CBH as it could be but not out of the question by any means.

Max time to the CBH from any of these burbs would be 20 minutes and likely to be less.

Here's a link to the education available.....
http://www.studycairns.com.au/

I agree with Sasha that work for the hubby should not be too difficult. As an example this week alone there were adverts for 6 forklift truck drivers and this seems to be ongoing. What the wages are I don't know.

Redlynch is very spread over severl km and there is an estate called The Grove that has a Catholic School for all school years and also state primary and secondary schools. Kids can walk or bycicle within the estate to these schools. A new shopping centre is just up the road too.

By the way there is a highly rated state secondary school just around the corner from the CBH so as I said it depends on what ages you have to consider.

Smithfield is another place where there are schools and shopping centre in pretty close proximity. All in all there will be a few choices for you. Generally the state school system is similar to the UK in that it works on catchment areas.