Why is Canberra overlooked as an immigration destination, Its a nice small city, low unemplyment, affordable housing, not far from Sydney and Melbourne, nice mountain countryside nearby , plenty of Parks and National Parks, very low crime rate.

I'm not sure. Canberra is a very liveable city in my opinion - we've been here since 2001. The largest employer is the Australian Public Service, and they often require people to be Australian citizens, but there are certainly opportunities in other fields.

It's been good to us. We have a nice house, getting to work is very easy (10 minutes drive for Husband, 30 minutes bus for me). There's a park just up the hill that our two year old loves playing in. Great restaurants.

The school system has a good reputation. A weekend in Sydney is very easy, but we only go up there to visit people - Canberra meets all our needs otherwise (but it could use an IKEA). Winter is a bit colder than Brisbane or Sydney, but at least it's sunny most of the time. Rain is pretty scarce, actually.

Canberra just feels "clean" to me in a way London never did. The air is fresh, the sunshine bright. Walking next to the lake is beautiful. It's laid out with a few (mostly self sufficient) town centres. We live near Belconnen (the North West), and have no reason at all to go to Tuggeranong (the South). The Tuggeranongites feel much the same way so it works out well.

I think it's well worth taking a closer look.

The people in Canberra like it the way it is, and don't want it spoiled by too many new arrivals, therefore it doesn't get talked about very much

Canberra is one of the most boring and soulless cities I have ever visited - I had to spend quite a bit of time working up there when I was based in Melbourne.

l've never been to Canberra maybe you are right , but from the words underneath you name it seems you don't like all of OZ. Alot of people describe Perth and brong and soulless and it seems to be the most popular city for Brits.

Its pretty artificial isn't it?

Wellington is much better in that regard. least you don't have to worry about water shortage etc. and surely more vibrant.

Wellington is a great city - we lived there for a year and loved it. The only knock on Wellington is that the weather can get depressing there - wet, windy and cold (but the gorgeous gems of days that come along every once in a while are true treasures).

"Vibrant" is not a word I'd use to describe Canberra. "Comfortable" fits. But then, I was over the nightclubbing, pub scene years ago. I like my more quiet, settled existence now. There are some people who it won't suit at all. Others will feel like it could be home.

I agree with you, however I can't imagine myself dealing the issues of water shortage.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=646615

Honestly, the water shortage doesn't impact us much at all. We don't wash our cars and don't water the garden. We're basically lazy, not much on car maintenance and crap gardeners anyway :-)

Nothing wrong with Canberra, it is one of the better places to live in Australia, especially if you have kids. I dont know about soul-less, I havent seen that much soul anywhere in Australia if truth be told and Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane dont exactly exude soul - the outer suburbs of said cities especially are dismal in the extreme.

Canberra is beginning to get a bit more vibrant - especially if you venture into Civic or Manuka or the other alfresco type suburbs of an evening there is quite a buzz going on.

The water restrictions here arent as bad as central Victoria for example - or even Melbourne where reservoirs are still very low. Just got back from Ballarat where you can nearly be sued for more than 3 minutes in the shower!

There is a national tendency to Canberra-bash usually by people who have never actually been here but just associate the city with the numpty politicians who gather here like gannets on a reasonably regular basis (they belong to the rest of the country, I just wish you would keep them!!!) and every news report of "bad news" is always prefaced by Canberra decided .... bollocks! the pm and his pollies decided but dont want to own up to it!

Edited to say the only bit I disagree with the OP is the affordable and available housing bit - accommodation is expensive and tight here at the moment although they are building new suburbs (OK so they may well be soul-less)

Canberra is great... for museums.

I think Australia is famous for the beach lifestyle with a large percentage of the population within a very short distance from the coast - which Canberra is not.

Canberra's great! I hear they even have a cafe now.

The coast is an hours drive from Canberra, great beaches on south coast of NSW, if you live in Sydeny or Melbourne it probably takes that long to get to the beach through all the traffic jams.

l supose its none stop action in adelaide 'the city of churches' Australias retirement village with the oldest population in OZ.

It takes us 45/60 minutes to get to the beach from where we live, but not quite sure which traffic jams you might be talking about?

I have quite a number of clients in Canberra (& Adelaide, country vic, Sydney,WA,QLD) and the one thing that stands out more than anything from conversations, is the fact that the city empties at the weekend/school hols.

Everybody heads off to their holiday homes near the coast etc. I know this isnt the case with everybody, but we deal with florists all over Australia, and Canberra sells less flowers in school holidays & weekends than Alice springs !

At least Kevin07 likes my roses.