iolande

I'd like to try living on the East Coast of Australia and am thinking of the Gold Coast. Sydney is too big city, Melbourne too cold and Perth too isolated for us, so we would like somewhere warm and near to the beaches (swimming, not surfing)

We both work in the tourism industry in the UK and would like to continue with those careers (I'm a Tour Director and he is a Bar Manager).

Does anyone have any advice about what it is like living and working out there?

moneypenny20

Do you have a visa, or have you applied? Far more important to sort that long before considering where to live.

iolande

Hi - Lucky me has an Australia Passport - and my husband will be getting one soon (due to the bizarre lucky fact that he is adopted and his birth mother was a natural born australian citizen and he can claim citizenship via the descent method - beats going down the spousal visa route ). We are both in Sussex in England.

I lived in Perth for a long time and wild horses wouldn't drag me back there! I don't really know much about the Eastern States, but the Gold Coast is looking good from here. I've tried reading up about it, but I kind of want more personal insights.

We are in our early thirties and want to have children in a year or two when we are settled. Having children in Australia is one of the motivations for us moving over there.

moneypenny20

Cool. Well, what can I say, it's brilliant here. Will that do?

Nu-Shooz

It sure is, it's also absolutley nothing like Surfers Paradise is it Pen

moneypenny20

Nope That's a good line, I might use it

iolande

can I hold you to that?

Main things I want to know are . . .

Is the job market pretty good there? Especially in tourism (I assume it is - it is the Gold Coast!)

What is a good area for us to look for a rental property in - we are in our early thirties and no kids yet - we would like to be near the beach and cafes etc I have had a look on realestate.com.au to get an idea of prices, but I kind of want a heads up as to what areas attract people like us (kind of looking for somewhere a bit like Fremantle in WA)

Is public transport good - or is it definitely recommended to have your own car? Having lived in London and Perth I know that London spoils you, and Perth is definitely a car city.

Any advice?

moneypenny20

Job wise, obviously tourism is mega here but we are being hit by the global financial blah blah. Check out the likes of seek.com and careerone.com and see what comes up.

Places to live? Aggghhhhh I hate that question more than will my TV work. 95% of suburbs are within 30 minutes drive of the coast. There are suburbs I wouldn't give house room to, but there are stacks of people who love them and who wouldn't love where we are.

Best I can suggest is you do a search on here (pink toolbar at top) click advanced and put in some keywords - Gold Coast suburbs type thing, click on Aus and see what comes up. Maybe look around Broadbeach/Southport areas?

Transport. As usual depends on where you are and where you want to go. If you're close to the GC Highway, buses are pretty good, my girls happily get about the coast by bus and feel safe and they're 16 and 14. The train currently ends at Robina (goes up to Brissie and beyond) but they are extending the line and should be near the bottom of the coast in a few years. The journey from Robina to Brissie by train is about an hour plus.

I think they're finally planning some sort of light rail link around the central area but I've given up reading about what will or won't happen so can't be sure.

We're more compact than Perth so it's easier to get about in that respect but obviously no where close to London's transport systems.

Any thing else?