Reaver

Hey,

Long time before I upsticks, and Im just looking at things right now.

Looking at various places to rent, and I saw a few nice properties in Helensburgh, which seems to be conveniently situated between some relatives in Bulli and Sydney.

We have 4 kids ranging from 16 down to 10. Wife is a nurse with radiographers qualification and Im a mechatronics engineer. Anybody have an opinion on this place or live there?

Thanks in advance.

NickyC

Helensburgh is a funny place. It's definitely not part of Sydney, yet it's miles from Wollongong too. It's a small coal mining town (or it was once) but nowadays there are quite a lot of new builds there - probably because the land is cheap. It's on the rail line to Sydney, think it takes about 45 minutes to Sydney.

The main street is not very inspiring; from memory there's a big BiLo supermarket and a few other shops. If you want more than that you'd have to drive to Engadine or somewhere up that way or down towards Wollongong. It's OK if you want a small town in a bushy, rural area. Nearest beach is the gorgeous Stanwell Park, which is my pick in that area. Lovely if you can afford it.

Bix

http://www.domain.com.au/Public/subu...rm=Helensburgh

LittleKittyCat

We looked at Helensburgh, but decided against it in the end. It seems a nice enough place, but there didn't seem to be much to do with small children, plus it would have made hubbys commute longer which, given that he works six and seven day weeks frequently, wasn't ideal. I am a stay at home mum/run a couple of small businesses from home, and for me it would have been a step too far. Of course you have to consider the work situation too. I think that had the right house come up at the right time, we may have considered it more seriously, but in the end we settled in Woronora Heights which is the next suburb to Engadine.

We have the best of both worlds here. It is quiet, but there is lots to do in either Engadine or in Miranda. Plus we are 50 mins drive from the centre of Sydney, beaches in the Royal National Park only 30 mins drive, close enough to the airport to make picking the rellies up easy, but far enough away for the plane noise not to bother us. Maybe when the children are a bit older we may consider moving down that way if we are still here, but I don't think we'd have settled so easily had we moved down there when we first arrived.

We were in Bulli and on Austinmer beach last weekend, it is only about 30 minutes drive on the freeway. Definitely a beautiful part of the world!

paddyo

I live in Bulli now and regularly commute to the City, very straightforward and means I get to enjoy this lovely town and beaches. Hour and half to Kings Cross on a direct train in the morning.
As another OP said, Helensburgh is a bit of a funny one. It certainly doesn't inspire me and looks a bit drab. Houses and land is cheap but that's because you do need your own transport, the train does stop there however. I did not go 'wow' when I saw it so pretty quickly crossed it off our list.
We looked at a lot of the southern Illawarra towns, from Helensburgh down to Towradgi, my favorite was Stanwell Park but the train station is a small camel hike to get there. We then settled on Thirroul/Bulli area and just kept a look out for something that appealed to us, luckily we have found it!!