almost 3 years and the old man got a job offer here so we thought what the hell. It isn't that bad, some folk find it boring but you are from March so it will feel like metropolis to you

Cambridge girl here too!

You could do worse than Canberra. The Bush capital - nice cross between big city and country town. 4 seasons in the year, within easy driving of beaches and snowfields. See the mountains/bush from anywhere in town. Houses not as dear as other big cities, good facilities etc etc. Certainly in dire need of nurses.

lmao well yes, anywhere is a Metropolis compared to March! I used to live in Newcastle and while I am now not used to large crowds of people I do miss the variety of shopping, for example!!lol Typical woman I hear men cry...lol

And its the "getting a job offer thats the blooming hard part"

Would I need to retrain thats the question, and would my age be a barrier ( I am 42 this year) my hubbie will be 34... so I guess everything pegs on him? Or am I mistaken.

Canberra sounds nice....:-)

Hi, sorry to but in on your post, but thought I might mention. When I moved over as a child my parents were not sure where to settle so they took a couple of months out. Brought a old camper and toured the east coast, Melbourne to just north of cairns. Amazing trip still remember it now (26 years ago). We settled on the north gold coast (although moved back to uk 8 years later). It was a great way to get a feel for the country.

Also i see you are a nurse, me too although I have let my registration lapse. I trained in uk and am yet to find out if i can update in Aus when i move back in Nov.

noproblem flods...my nursing qualification is VERY lapsed butI wouldn't mind going back to it....thats what I am curious about,if it might help no matter that it is lapsed?? :-S

North Gold Coast must have been incredible 26 years ago! I think we are now more thinking of East Coast anyway.... just not sure where ?? lol

I made a few prelim enquiries and think i can update at griffith uni in Brisbane.

Yes, the gold coast was completely different then paradise point was really the most northerly point and we lived on a road called oxley drive that was a small dead end road that i used to roll a skate down, now it's a dual carriageway.
However, thats where we are headed to for now because thats where my family are.

where abouts on east coast are you thinking

We originally lived on Sydneys northern beaces, if we could have afforded it we would have stayed there (we rented for 3 years but couldn't afford to buy without crippling ourselves) so moved up to Brissy. We contemplated Melbourne which we love for its culture and the fact it seems to host everything we love (F1, tennis etc) but it was just too cold for us. We go to the beach a lot - Sunshine Coast - which is about an hour's drive, but had to be closer to Brisbane due to OH's job. We love the climate here, some of summer is a bit too hot and humid but the rest of the year more than compensates for it and it allows us the outdoors lifestyle we want.

Hi again,

Well we have no been thinking of Adelaide, not the East coast, the weather weems more consistant, and my mum has a very old friend there, she has lived there since the mid sixties. and I liek the idea of the Meditteranean temps!

I've been here in Brisbane for 10 years now.

Weather wise everywhere has its plusses and minuses - Brisbane in March/April is fantastic, warm sunny, bright and colourful and again in September/October - abd although winter days (June/July) arent generaly cold and do come usualy with clear skies and bright sunshine there is the odd day where wind picks up and you feel like its almost icy cold (sometimes below 10C). 10C doesnt sound cold but local architecture is designed to optimise airflow and allow heat to escape so you WILL get cold and runnign inside doesnt help - heating is a rarity!

Summer in Brisbane is something else - this year we got off lightly and it was thankfully grey and rainyand below 30C a lot. More typically though there can be periods of a couple of weeks where its stinking hot and hummid - you get up in the morning and step outside at 7am and its already 30C - by lunchtime its 37C, the sunshine is so bright you cant step outside without sunglasses it HURTS - walking 100yds to a bus stop is enough to have dripping in sweat and gasping for breath and you will wonder why anyone is stupid enough to live in a place like this! - In the evenings though there is sometimes relief as sumemr storms are frequent and often violently exciting, huge thunder, really powerfull lightening crack and torrential rain (standing under an upended bucket kind of rain) - After a short time these storms usaly move on and theres a brief euphoric period where the air is cool and fresh and the world seems nice.. then of course it heats up again and the ground starts steaming as all that rain evaporates again!

All in all I love being here - I'm 30 minutes from a lively CBD, but 5 minutes from bushcovered mountains full of interesting twirps and 'pings' of birds and crawling with intriguing goannas and snakes. Nestled in this bushland setting every few kms along the road is a picnic clearing complete with benches, BBQs and everything you need for a relaxing wind-down (except perhaps the food which you have to bring yourself!).
45minutes down the road are beaches of fine white sand with pounding surf that on summers days are occupied by all sorts of humanity - some suitably fat and ugly people (so you dont feel too bad) - and some fairly pleasnt eye-candy!.

If you're thinking of coming then come for a holiday (but remember its a holday and that real life isnt *that* good!!). Check the place properly - one persons nirvana is another steaming hell-hole and no amount of reading is really going to tell you whether a place is for you or not.

Thats quite a funny post there! hehehe thank god the beaches have all manner of humanity, I feel better already!! lol

I guess we want a bit of everything... I would look forward to he violent rainstorms!! Sounds like fun to me, where I live in the Fens we get quite violent storms occasionally and some summers it hs been in the mid to high 30's in our back garden, with no relief for it so I know what you mean, kinda! It's got so bad here in the summer people ARE buying aircon units, us included!

And of course you have to see these thigns for yourself, makes sense... but I hope they aren't all stinking hell holes!! :-S What a disappontment that would be!! lol

Hi,
If you want peace & quiet with huge open spaces WA is all that. It seems like it's about ten years behind the rest of Australia and anywhere outside of Perth is (in Englands terms) a small town.
When my other half and i arrived in November we bought a car and spent three months driving around the state, clocked up 23 000 kms and really just eliminated the places where we really could not live. (ie. town size, job opportunities, enough civilisation, climate) We ended up renting a place in a small town called Binnigup (1hr 45 min south of Perth) about 15 minutes north of Australind and about half an hour from Bunbury. We like the small town feel and a beach we can drive the 4x4 down with next to nobody on it. Although trying to find a rental property is getting harder and harder. We were lucky and found one within a week of looking.
I have been here on four different occasions over the past 15 years and have seen most of Australia and it is changing year by year.
The East coast seems too populated for us (but really liked the sunshine coast, Buderim to be exact) as we came here for empty beaches and a more relaxed lifestyle and WA is known as Wait Awhile which seems to be the way it is here.
We like it at the moment, but it's really difficult to judge a place until you personally have lived and worked there. If you like the heat, go north. If you like the seasons and a changing cooler temp, head south.
Good luck and hope it all works out for you.

John & Jenny

I could easily write a book about the frustrations and delights of moving across the world. Almost every day there'll be something unexpected - sometimes its wonderful and you can 'glow' in the wizdom of having carved out this improved life - other days you can tear your hair out and wonder what planet you were on when you decided to live here.

I guess thats true of life in general anywhere though isnt it?

I've thought about doing just that - you've summed it up well. One day your entire garden, car and house roof get shredded/dimpled/holed by a hailstorm, the next you have the most incredible blue sky that no-one would believe if you described it to them, lorikeets, king parrots, galahs and black cockatoos overhead and a koala in the tree outside your bedroom window. This is certainly a land of many contrasts and the unexpected. I have no idea why I feel so at home here, coming from Englands south east!