Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

We are a family of four thinking of moving to Lilydale as hubby has been offered a job there. Our two kids are 1 and 3. Can anyone tell me what Lilydale is like, is it a nice place to bring up kids? Any info welcome.

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

Hi Mooo and welcome to BE :)
I grew up in Coldstream which is just outside Lilydale in the 80's.
I've been back twice in the past 3 years and still love this area.
Lilydale has a very long main street with loads of little shops and pubs from hairdressers to fish and chips.
http://elocal.com.au/index.php?cPath=8565 (good pics of main street)
There is also a car dealership, gym and casino which are just on the outskirts.
Lilydale Lake which is popular for bbq's, walks etc.- built on the site of the old bush hospital. The lake has a newer estate built with views over the lake too.
http://www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Pa...sp?Page_Id=223
I'm pretty sure there is also a university campus near my old school, Lilydale High School although I did not see the campus.
The closer to the main street the older the housing is, smaller weatherboard and colonial style houses. There are plenty of newer style houses nearby too.
The train station is used by locals to travel further afield for work - CBD.
I have used the local buses to other towns and they are pretty good too.
I'm not sure if the local outdoor pool is still open as it was winter both times I have been.
A 5 minute drive is Chirnside Park shopping Centre and it has supermarkets, Target, KMart etc. Chirnside Park also has a huge housing estate too.
I like Lilydale. It has grown a lot since the 80's but it still has it's character as a small town which you could choose to blend in with or know everyone with if you know what I mean.
Just ask if you need to know more :thumbsup:
J x

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

I have been to Lilydale and enjoyed it. My parents live in Kilsyth, which is also good for kids and they love it. Go for it definitely. BoL:thumbsup:

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

Welcome to the forum Moo.

Lilydale & surrounding areas is very nice.

There are a couple of very good high schools there as well. Lilydale High (public), & mount Lilydale (mixed private) Other areas close enough which might be worth looking at are Montrose, Mt Evelyn, Mooralbark all very different from each other, but all very nice.

Housing pretty affordable in that area as well IMO.

Close by is the Canterbury road, and they have every furniture or electrical store/DIY centre etc you can think of over a stretch of about 6-7 km. and as already mentioned you have Chirnside park shopping centre close by as well.

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

Thanks guys, that's really helpful. I'm really excited now! Fingers crossed visa applications go through OK.... :)

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

Hi MOO
We too are hoping to move to Lilydale at some point next year. We have never been there but have a few friends that live there with kids and they all say it’s a nice place to live and bring up kids.

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

mooo;6782670

Lilydale is very nice, there is lots of open places for the kids also a large park with a nice Lake with amenities Public barbies most are free, we live about 20 mins from Lilydale in Rowville as i say the Area is very nice.

if i can be of assistance then just ask

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

At the moment we have a UK family who only arrived down under last week, in our unit here in Monbulk, and one of the partners has work in Box hill, and they have been looking all over at rentals & different areas (the majority more towards the coast/closer to CBD etc) and today they signed a lease for a rental in Lilydale, and the daughter starts school tomorrow at Lilydale primary, so I think it must have made a good impression on them as well. :thumbsup:

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

furkew;
the schools in lilydale are fine, i know the secondary college there is very large but a new school built just a few years ago so its all modern.

i hope your friends settle in OK, as for renting what can one say its not cheap, but if they rented in the Uk that's also not cheap there so i think its swings & roundabouts.

Box Hill is a fantastic place, if the like the Asian food i can fully recommend the Dumpling King for steamed dumplings they are just fantastic, have you suggested to them to visit any asian restaurants for Yum Cha again fantastic variety of food on the weekends very popular with all denominations.

i hope they are Ok && settle in quick.

regards

Arthur

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

furkew;

i see one of your hobbies is computers, if you ever need any help with the pc email me, i work in computer networks Monday to Friday, then weekends i do electrical work for people, i have the A Grade license also qualified in computers.

Arthur

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

Hi Arthur.

I'll pass on the info.

We are just simple hills folk, so we dont get into the "big city" much ;) but i'm sure that any info they can get, the more it will help them to settle.

We did look at Lilydale High ourselves for the eldest, but was a little to big for our liking. Mount Lilydale does also come very highly recommended by many friends, but we decided to go for a private school (St Josephs) in Ferntree ourselves, but have not heard any real negative feedback on any schools in Lilydale since being here.

Dont know much about the rental they have taken as I was at work till late today, and they had only spoken to my wife, but if I hear anything worth mentioning, i'll post it up for everybody, to hopefully give you all a bit more info on rental costs etc.

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

furkew;

may i ask what part of the Uk are your friends from we used to live in the county Lancashire town called Blackburn.

always bloody cold there, my friend has just emailed me telling me its poured down for 3 weeks now in Blackburn so that's the end of there summer.

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

Thanks for the offer Arthur,

I spent half the weekend & 2 1/2 hours this evening helping out a friend that has been making back ups of her accounting program for the last 3 years, without realising she has not been backing up the data, only the data on the screen at that moment :eek:

Luckily she hasent lost any data, but I just re-installed their old system and went to back up the data, and there was no back up !! Got it sorted, but i'm definitely cured of my computer addiction for the rest of this week. (except that my laptop is probably on its last legs as well :mad:)

I would love to get into computers in a bigger way, but I dont think I have the patience for some of the clients. ;)

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

Boston, Lincs.

They only lived there for about the last 6 years (I think) previous to that the lived in Germany for a number of years in the British armed forces.

I'll send them a link to this thread, and they might want to join in. They dont use BE themselves, they are on a couple of the other expat sites themselves.

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

furkew;
May i ask what software is she using for her business, some of the software packages are a nightmare to find the data, i work for the dept of education there is 3 of us in the school i work at looking after a network for 1600 users i also do all pc repairs 500 machines & do all the network cabling, i sometimes do pc repairs for people in the evenings your right when you mention patience some people can be a bloody nightmare i never advertise for pc work its just not worth it, most people dont have the correct software if you need to reformat & reinstall windows.

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

Quick books.

She was running 2004, and needed to upgrade to 2008/09, but because she had not upgraded in the meantime to 2007, the old data was not compatible with the latest version. :curse:

I got it sorted out, but only because I used a new HDD to re-format, and kept the old HDD untouched. By reconnecting the old HDD, I was able to make a proper back up, and then after a lot of faffin about, got the data sorted.

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

furkew;

you have done well there mate, i have not used quick books for years i would not know where the data would be stored now its been that long.

arthur

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

If he's working in Lilydale you can look for accommodation nearer the city or further into the country along the Maroondah Highway.

I had a couple of friends there who said they didn't feel save in the town after dark (though you can say that about most places), and it's surrounded by lovely rural areas like Wonga Park and Healesville and by larger shopping centres and cinemas etc. like Chirnside Park and Croydon.

It's good value out that way and a place many would like to live if they didn't have the long journey into the City - oh and it has a train station.

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

pom from oz & brownie

do you two know we are all in the same trade??

i did my vetassess exam in London with brownie (how you doin...?)

you may both already know eachother???

i live near blackburn...!!! small world eh?

ad

Re: Lilydale, Melbourne?
 

advic;

ive only just done the Air Con license last year, so waiting for summer to come so i can get some real experience on the Job, ive been doing the electrical part of things for people at weekends.
during the week these days i work for the dept of education working on a computer network doing the normal stuff for 1700 users also do there electrical work, then weekends i work as a spark for people, it all helps pay the bills.

Arthur