HELP! Where should we live????
 

We desperately need some advice - we have been considering Australia for some time now and have decided that we should go for it. However, the more we try to find the 'right' place, the more undecided we become.

We are a family of four, with two children under 10. I am a design engineer (although now a technical manager) that could pretty much turn my hands to anything if given the chance and my wife is a specialist paediatric nurse.

Our house wish list is as follows:

• Within 10km of the coast
• Priced up to $500k inc. around 0.5 acre (could never afford this in a decent part of the UK)
• Within 30mins of civilisation - shops, etc
• Within easy reach of good schools, a decent hospital and in an area where some form of technical/engineering/manufacturing work exists, although I don't know anything about the mining industry.....yet!

We have considered Perth, Melbourne and Sydney so far and are really struggling to find a location that we can focus our attention on. Unfortunately we seem to be immediately drawn to the cities as it's the obvious choice for good career opportunities, but surely there must be some decent jobs outside these areas.

Any suggestions or feedback gratefully received.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

It's hard to suggest one area in Australia as it's so big. Do you have a preference for one state that might get you started ? The $500k budget isn't going to buy you a 1/2 acre near any of the main cities, even 50km out you will stuggle to find a block of that size wth a livable house on it.

How about the weather - do you want to live a hot and tropical lifestyle or more temperate with cold winters and hot summers ?

I have noticed a lot of Brits arriving in the area where i live just recently, on The Central Coast 1.5hrs north of Sydney. Your $500k will buy you a three bedroom house on a 1/4 acre block around here and it has good amenities, schools, shops, great beaches, lakes, light industry and commuting distance to Newcastle and Sydney.

good luck with your search.

On the other hand, how about Tasmania ? $500k will buy you a nice block near Hobart. I'm sure others will chime in shortly with suggestions.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

$500k is not going to get you 1/2 acre block with a decent house 10 km from the coast in the Perth area.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Not an expert but think you should forget about Sydney and Perth for a budget of under $500k. Adelaide may suit - my school friend has a 500m block one street back from the beach in North Haven. Paid about $500k, you can go further out and get more for your money. There is some sort of submarine base/building going on around that area too. She gets train into the city 20mins I think - quite often dolphins swimming when she crosses a bridge! Lovely coast line, can park anywhere very easily and Largs quite a nice wee town nearby. Much easier to get about than Sydney or Perth too, some people say it's boring but I like the open feel of it. Wineries just an hour and half away with nice countryside.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Nor in Melbourne or Sydney for that matter.

$500k got us a 680sqm block with a really good 3-bedroom house about 25km from the beach and within 30 minutes out of peak hours driving to the CBD.

With your budget, you will have to either revise your wishlist or go quite rural.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Go back to the drawing board. Can you get a visa? If yes then move on to can you get work. If yes, where? What's the climate like in those places where you can get work. Do you like it hot, humid, temperate, dry etc etc. Then you narrow it down even more, finally coming down to how close to the sea you want, how close to the CBD you want, what suburb do you need to be in to go to a particular school etc etc etc.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Or Sydney or Melbourne.

Perhaps Brisbane or Adelaide are options.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

If you broadened your search from just coastal to inland areas with good aquatic areas , you could probably get all your list in North East Victoria in
Yarrawonga (pop.27000) or Albury-Wodonga (pop 105000), with Wangaratta (pop.16000) a maybe.

Specialist medical facilities in Albury (best outside Sydney in rural NSW )
One hour by plane to Sydney / Melbourne.
There are some great little villages just north of Albury. Lots of hobby farm blocks.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

You wont get anything for $500k in Canberra - and it is more than 10km from the coast anyway.

I dont fancy your chances with that wish list TBH - not if you want jobs as well as a place to live

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Sorry, I should have mentioned that when we had considered Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, we were not looking for a 0.5 acre plot! This has crept onto the wish list since then - we have always wanted a little space around us. There are houses that meet most of our requirements, but we're uncertain of the job opportunites in those areas. If we can find a hospital for my wife to work in, we should be OK for a visa, on paper at least.

Some of the places we have found are:

Warnbro, Rockingham, Aldinga Beach, Mornington and we very much like semi-rural.

But where do people work out there???

Thank you for your reponses so far.
As before, any ideas are very welcome

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Mornington is mostly a holiday destination for Melburnians so some of the real estate is not cheap. People nearer Melbourne commute to Melbourne to work, others I guess work locally in the area. Not sure about hospitals in Mornington, although I know Frankston has a rather large one. Commute to Melbourne will depend on how far you are into the peninsula. Trains stop at Frankston so it could take anything from one hour to 2.5 hours.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

You can buy acreage in Langwarrin South for about $500k, this is with NO house on it. This is an area about 50ks from the CBD and about 6ks from the coast.

You might get an old knock-down included in the price.

BB

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Like you we had a budget of $500,000. After looking at what that buys in Perth we decided to look 30-45km north and south of the city.

We have ended up Baldivis, which is 43km from Perth, a 10-minute drive from Warnbro and 15 minutes from Rockingham. Rockingham has a public hospital and there is a private hospital at nearby Waikiki.

The train ride from Warnbro to the CBD takes 40 minutes and this option is used by plenty of workers in this area.

The drive in rush hour can be an hour or more depending on whereabouts you need to be in Perth and if there are roadworks.

My husband works in Osborne Park in Perth but it only takes him 35 minutes as he leaves at 2pm and finishes work at 10.30pm so misses rush hour traffic.

There are lots and lots of British expats in this area, particularly families because $400,000-$500,000 goes a lot further here than Perth.

We've just bought a flat 770sqm block (35m long and 22m wide) for $208,000 on the new semi-rural Parkland Heights estate in Baldivis. Couldn't do this in Perth. We've just signed up with a builder to build a 4x2 house.

Have to be honest the only bit of Rockingham I like is the foreshore which is lovely. And the bit of Warnbro I like is by the ocean.

I would prefer to live closer to Perth - simply because all the jobs I am applying for are in Perth - and was willing to live in an older suburb in an older house which needed a bit of work but hubby insists on a new house with a swimming pool on a large block !!!

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

If the nurse LOoking to move is a RSCN and not adult as well then you can forget Waikiki private... RGH has a temp job freeze... Peel Health campus down in Mandurah might have jobs for paeds nurses...or Freo... Or Joondalup.. But best bet would be PMH until the Fiona Stanley has been completed...

Using public transport for shift working nurses IS difficult... And a lot of the hospitals charge staff for parking.... I understand its $75 for freo nurses right now... RGH and Peel dont...

If the nurse is general trained and doesnt mind going back to an adults job prospects will be better...

Another issue is... Being a specialist in the UK doesnt mean your qualifications and experience will be recognised here... Nurses often find themselves back at square one....

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

A possibility:

You could get a place like this 8km from the beach in a semi rural area on > 1 acre out the back of the Gold Coast. City of 500,000 so should have all your requirements though I don't know much about the Currumbin Valley so a local may be able to say whether they are suitable. Not the most useable land, not for traditional crops anyway:), but should be very private in a beautiful setting.

Listed at $499,000 (you should offer well under)
one and a quarter acre block
8km to beach

http://www.realestate.com.au/propert...lley-109575021

or

$542,000 (make them an offer under 500)
10km to beach

http://www.realestate.com.au/propert...lley-109096421

or

Dual living 5 bedroom
$550,000 (make them an offer under 500)
one and a quarter acre block
11km to beach

http://www.realestate.com.au/propert...gera-109605616

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Ah the lush tropical greenery. It's what I miss most about the eastern states. Queensland has some of the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen. Perth is SOOO flat and brown, apart from Kings Park and a few parks dotted around the place. Love the setting for properties 2 and 3.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Gorgeous part of the world. About 25 mins to nearest public hospital, and the nearest beach is awesome. A choice of excellent schools - both public and private. However I can't think of any technical/engineering/manufacturing type work down here so I have no idea how far you'd have to travel to find work. Living down here only works if you don't need Brisbane on a daily basis.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Really? Not in my neck of the woods. We back on to a national park, so loads of green where I am. Not to mention the ocean views (while not green, they are not flat and brown either).

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

I guess with 500,000 people the Gold Coast would have the standard industrial estates with those type of light industrial manufacturing jobs (if I am interpreting the job titles correctly?). The issue might be the softening employment situation so might depend how in demand the OP's skills are.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Hay with kids under 10 BRISBANE we have the best theam parks,we have a 4 & almost2 year old, are weather is 20 to 30 c humidity can be high for six weeks or so. $500 will get you two roads back from sea at Redcliffe area about 40 mins north of city. Jobs are on gumtree.we have been hear 3 years now and love it. We test run Pearth and Adelaide frends did Sydney.


QUOTE=sarisburysleuth;9947582]We desperately need some advice - we have been considering Australia for some time now and have decided that we should go for it. However, the more we try to find the 'right' place, the more undecided we become.

We are a family of four, with two children under 10. I am a design engineer (although now a technical manager) that could pretty much turn my hands to anything if given the chance and my wife is a specialist paediatric nurse.

Our house wish list is as follows:

• Within 10km of the coast
• Priced up to $500k inc. around 0.5 acre (could never afford this in a decent part of the UK)
• Within 30mins of civilisation - shops, etc
• Within easy reach of good schools, a decent hospital and in an area where some form of technical/engineering/manufacturing work exists, although I don't know anything about the mining industry.....yet!

We have considered Perth, Melbourne and Sydney so far and are really struggling to find a location that we can focus our attention on. Unfortunately we seem to be immediately drawn to the cities as it's the obvious choice for good career opportunities, but surely there must be some decent jobs outside these areas.

Any suggestions or feedback gratefully received.[/QUOTE]

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Ever the pragmatist MP! I always imagine you'd share my love of list-making.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

:lol: I do make lists. However I also seem to mislay them and forget what's on them. :unsure::lol: Anyway that's how I worked out the best place for us. Listening to random strangers on a forum discussing the 'ideal' suburb gave me a headache ;)

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

To me, it all comes down to job. Where there is job, there is money. Where is money, there is happiness with family and everything else that goes with it.

Landed in Perth a while back. There are huge opportunities out here. There is a saying heard more and more now, about a two tier economy, which basically means the west is running faster than the east. It doesn't mean that the west is propping up the east, which is often the way the expression is presented.

Take all the advice you can. However you may also want to try the expos, particularly where each of the states present to you, what do they have to offer. Many think the expos are naff, and to some extent they can be. There is certainly no jobs there, unlike the way they advertise themselves. However, they have loads and loads of information, and that's what you need.

And as someone mentioned earlier, first and foremost make sure you can get a visa and they will let you in !!

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Sovereign Hill Estate, Gabbadah, Perth ... 8kms from beach at Guilderton / Moore River.
Nice easy going lifestyle
2.5 acres with houses for sale under $500k
30 mins to shops at ocean keys, clarkson
45 mins to Joondalup hospital

:)

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Sorry, but calling Moore River or Guilderton 'Perth' is incorrect. http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&tab=wl A bit like calling Cambridge 'London'.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Oh stop being so pedantic :p Im sure the OP is capable of googling :lol:

As I live in sovereign hill I do actually know it is "WA", so thanks for bringing my "mindslip" to the attention of everyone.

To the OP ... If you do decide to come to WESTERN AUSTRALIA then it is definitely worth a look :)

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

We can all come up with great looking houses for not much money... check this one out

http://www.realestate.com.au/propert...eden-108971086

but they all have one thing in common... arse end of nowhere. ;)

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Sorry. :o I'm a terrible pedant at the best of times. 7 am on a day off is a particularly grumbly time for me.

On a side note I've been trying to talk the OH into buying some land up that way. I would love a couple of acres.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

:D You're right :o Did it quickly this morning and actually thought that one didn't look too far from Newcastle which I presume fits the bill for hospital and manufacturing work. It struck me this morning that somewhere a bit up or down the coast from Newcastle might fit the bill. Just checked and it is 64km away...bit too far I'm guessing.

Gold Coast houses I posted are not arse end of nowhere though ;)

BTW, That house you posted really is the arse end of nowhere....had to zoom out seven times before I could work out where it was :rofl:

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Kips - I found you at the Building forum, then followed link to your blog, but couldn't post there, so have tracked you here. I just put a deposit down on a block in Ruskin Brace, Parkland Heights. I love your floor plan, are you happy with Sumitt? I am so confused about plans and keeping the cost down to avoid Mortgage Insurance.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Toowoomba Queensland is worth checking out.
Largest inland City in Australia with every facility including a famous University. Lived there since 1981.
You need to want to be an Aussie if you come out. Support Australia in the cricket and Rugby.
David

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

If you change the OP's question so that it reads "Within 150km of the coast" then yes it is worth a look.

Within 150km of the coast certainly gives the OP one or two more options.

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Why? Nothing wrong with continuing to support home nations - Aussies do it when they are abroad too:) And it can lead to some great banter at work :thumbup: (says me, trying to ignore the packet of pasta left on my desk :D

Re: HELP! Where should we live????
 

Hubby has been here 46 years and he is either English or Aussie depending who's winning