JenKnow

any one have any advice for moving to townsville

my husband and i are moving there in december from the UK we are in 29/31
and we have a little dog

any advice would be great
Thanks

jimtrish

Hi,

We have lived in Townsville for 8yrs from the UK. We really do love it, I wouldn't say you get sick of the very hot summers, as you really just learn how lucky you are to have your own pools...a necessity here in my opinion. I love it...and Christmas day is fab, up early, pressies, a long swim, dinner and more swimming...bliss. I never get bored of it, but it does get very very hot and it's amazing how excited you get when you finally see some rain...or Cyclone action!
We go all over for our holidays, Atherton is beautiful, Kuranda, The Daintree and then you can go out to Charters towers, Hughenden (out west) and down south you have Airlie, the Whitsundays, Bowen, Mackay....all take around 5hrs drive. You do have to fly to go other places, like Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, but the prices I think are good and we have an airport which is great.
Magnetic Island is wonderful you feel you are a million miles away, and yet you are 20mins by ferry away from home!
Our kids love it here too, lots to do for them, cinema, kingpin, laser quest, go karting, skydiving....
I work at the local hospital and love it, my husband is a trucky and goes all over Oz.
Our uni is one of the best, my daughter attends James Cook Uni and her course has been fantastic, and the facilities are now second to none.
My two boys attend a good high school and have done well in the Australian system.
We absolutely love life here, it isn't for everyone and that's ok. We love that our weather is gorgeous all year round and the coldest we get for possibly one week, is 10c..and that is at 6am and by 10am it's usually 26c in the Winter.
Our beaches are perfect, cafe culture is fab...and our shopping centres are finally getting to be as good as the larger cities.
Hope this helps

Trish

JenKnow

Hi Trish,

Thank you so much for your reply!! You have put my mind at rest as all i seem to read is negative comments about TV

We live in Ipswich at the moment in suffolk, so we are used to a quiet lifestyle, we love outdoors, and taking dog out for walks etc. we live in a nice safe environment and just want something along the same lines.

Its lovely to hear from other brits who are happy about living in TV

We will be moving when its at its hottest, but we dont mind the heat! I have family that live in Florida so we have been over quite a bit in its hottest summers so we have some idea what to expect

We recently visited Mackay as my husband had some training there with his company and we really liked it there so I was just wondering if townsville is anything like Mackay. We spent a week there and it felt like home quite quick, so thats what we are hoping townsville will be like

if you could advise the best (safest) suburbs to live that would be really great

Thanks for your reply
Jenna

jimtrish

Hi Jenna,

Mackay is very similar...only TSV is alot bigger, so if you like it there you should like it here. Florida summer and ours are very very different, our temps can be 45c with 100% humidity, and of course, the risk of cyclones is very real.
Suburbs that you might like will depend on where you hope to work really, but we love Kirwan, have lived in Annandale and it's lovely, Idalia, Pallarenda (right by the beach), Douglas, Aitkenvale.
We moved in Nov 2005 and it was the hottest summer they had experienced, we then moved in the March to Pallarenda....just a week before Cyclone Larry haha
We live in Kirwan now as it's central to everything and we love it. There are good and bad elements of any suburb though, as is the same in the UK.
Townsville is one of the friendliest places I have been to, and I have been all over the world. You make friends quickly here and neighbours are always happy to introduce themselves and lend a hand.
Please don't hesitate in sending me a pm.

Have fun planning

Trish

JenKnow

Hi Trish

Thanks for your advice!!! whereabouts in the UK did you come from?
Just wondering what your thoughts are on living on magnetic island and commuting to towns ville everyday? is this achievable or is it to costly? do you know anyone that does that?

bit scared about the heat now, especially for my dog! I just assumed it would be like florida (woops) I suffer with heat rash as well so i guess i will be indoors a lot lol!!

thanks again for your help

CraigSarahGeorge

Hi Jenna,

We are originally from the UK and lived in Townsville for two years. We loved it, it's proper laid back Australia. We then moved over to Magnetic Island and comuted to Townsville for work each day. There are loads of people do this the early morning ferry 6.20am is packed. The cost is $90 a week for unlimited travel. Unless you work in the city ( you can walk from the ferry) you would need transport on both the island and the mainland. We had to move due to my work, I now live in Airlie Beach, but our heart is still on Maggie. We still own property there and will back one day for sure.
Your dog will be fine you just have to be carefull to walk him/ her early in the morning or at night in the summer when it's cooler. We brought our British Bulldog with us from the UK, he loved Maggie as much as us, walks on the beach and playing in the sea etc.

Good luck with your move

Craig

JenKnow

Hi Craig

Thanks so much for your reply great to hear from uk people loving life out there ! We recently visited airlie it's incredible we went over to Hamilton Island and whitsundays one of the best trips of our life !!

We do love the thought of living on magnetic island getting the ferry to work seems like dream compared to driving down the motorway every day lol

Do people keep their cars in Townsville then and just get the ferry over to Maggie ? Then have a car over there as well ? We were looking at ferry prices and it seems really expensive to take your car over?

My husband will be working in Hyde park area is this a long way from the ferry ?

I'm glad to hear your bulldog loves aus !!! We have a shar pei!! How did you find quarantine for her (if you flew her from uk ) that's the only thing about moving over I'm worried about she's very close to us never really on her own so not sure how she's going to cope in quarantine for 30 days ??

Lovely to hear from you
Say to airlie for us !!

jimtrish

We are from Swindon originally. Magnetic island is absolute bliss and as Craig has said, it is something many people do, I have heaps of friends that do that.
You will be fine, we just ensured we had a house with a pool and knew that we would have high electric bills for the first summer
We have a great dane and sharpei and although they don't like the summer, they get walked early and late and have heaps of swims...they cope fine.
I used to suffer from heat rash really badly, since moving here I have never had it.

hope this helps abit too.

Trish

CraigSarahGeorge

Hi Jenna,

Hyde park is about 3-5 Kms from the ferry so not too far. Yep you need transport on the island and mainland and then you can use the foot ferry, it only takes 20 minutes. The car ferry is expensive about $160 last time I looked. If you are an island resident you get a discount. I think it's around $110 but still expensive and takes 45 mins.
As for quarantine 30 days is a long time but what can you do? You just hope they get well cared for which I believe they do. When we picked George up from Sydney we saw the crate he was shipped in. It had a great big sign on it saying " hi my names George please talk to me" lol

Cheers Craig

JenKnow

Aww that's brilliant !! I'm sure she will be fine !! Thanks for the advice !! Can't wait to finally be there woooo

nickperkz

Hi Jen

Be interested in your first impressions of TVL (assuming you are there by now) as my family will probably be moving back there from Europe later this year

indiana

We are in Townsville and hoping to get out, they're are a lot of things happening here at the moment, the crime page is fantastic and keeps you informed of what's happening to the minute so you can avoid areas etc. there's also a YouTube video that they are trying to get shared called 'Townsville everybody hurts' because the streets are not safe there are vigilantes out hunting down the supposed criminals which in turn is causing more problems as innocent people/ kids are getting attacked. It's totally out of control, the worst thing is its mainly kids as young as 8 high on drink and drugs. I avoid willows/ Kirwan altogether, today they're was an attack in McDonald's, and you see all the kids with the Rexona chroming then they throw the empties at the cars. If you want more info on the crime group let me know, they're doing their best to improve the area and need all the support they can get

Perpetual Tourist

Well that was a depressing video...

Fairly differing views/experiences of Townsville in this thread...

amomentofstillness

My sister has lived there for a year and my parents are there for a holiday at the moment and haven't had any bother at all. Granted it's a little rough at times but not anymore than some parts of Glasgow etc.

I've visit from Sydney a few times and it's not somewhere I could live but then I don't like the heat all that much and I'm a youngish single guy. I've did rural Australia for 6 months (Tamworth) and you either like it or you don't

indiana

I suppose it's what your used to, we've never lived in a high crime area before so to us being a victim 3 times in 8 months is a lot, but to some people probably pretty ordinary, there were 11 cars stolen Sunday, and I think 37 arrests over the weekend for break ins etc. a pregnant lady from one of the groups I'm in was in the news yesterday for chasing down an intruder. I've not just made up 'its not safe' it's on the news, it's on all the crime pages, tcad have daily clips on YouTube, I think it's tcad win news off the top of my head, in the last few days car jacking has gone crazy, with kids running out to the lights when they are on red to get people out of their cars, people having to step over chroming kids in shop doorways because security can't move them, axes, rocks and other missiles thrown at passing cars, and a couple of nights ago they were blowing up the zip lock bags, leaving them in the road, because it was dark they weren't seen, one lady stopped as she thought she hit an animal, then her car was descended on, luckily she put her foot down and drove, but the warnings are to avoid areas, keep car doors locked and don't stop. The guy who stole the car with the baby inside recently was given a slap on the wrist because he was high on drink and drugs, since then he was caught stealing 5 more cars! Campbell Newman is in town today and people are going crazy, they have admitted there is a huge problem and its gotten out of hand, a lot of what's going on is kept out of the media, there are a lot of racial issues, it's come to a point that these kids break into and steal cars in broad daylight knowing they are being watched and knowing they can get away with it, I've spoken to 2 people last week who have been targeted and they picked on the wrong people and gave them a good beating, they put a warning on local news last night not to fight back or give chase in case they are armed etc. we stay safe by locking up, we take all wallets, keys in a bag to bed with us, and our children aren't allowed out without us, this is working for us and the last time something happened to us was over a month ago now. The Townsville crime page has over 15,000 members and its definitely a must fb group to join if your spending time here, even if its just to give you the heads up. The page is constant 24 hrs a day and the crimes are shocking, people who have lived here there whole life's are now desperate to move, it's a very sad situation,