irishchick

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help me. Myself and my partner, Niall are hoping to move to Australia late 2010 and need some help in deciding where to live. His bro lives in Perth but we are not completely sure if we want to live in perth. There seems to be alot more to do in Queensland or NSW. I have a degree in chemistry and work as a lab technician in a pharmaceutical company and niall has a degree in information technology so we would need to be near somewhere that we could find employment. We have a dog too who we hope to bring out as soon as we get settled and find a nice safe area for us all to live. We would love an area that is safe and close enough to the beach, maybe max 45 mins to an hour away at most. Also we would like to find a nice house, preferably with a swimming pool and definitely with a bit of land, maybe an acre or so would be nice for our dog to run around. We live in the country in ireland so are use to living in the sticks but as i read some of the different posts i believe that the country in Oz is way different to the country in ireland. We will def rent for a while before deciding on buying or building and if anyone has any suggestions whether to build or buy too that would be great. We were looking at jimboomba but somebody said that the drought there is bad and also looking at tallebudgera but that person said also that that area is known as Crime central. I know we will always get a difference of opinions but maybe people who have recently moved out to Oz and to really nice areas could suggest something for us. Thank you so much in advance. Irishchick

Susan Wareham McGrath

Hi irishchick

I live and work on the Gold Coast and I can assure you that Tallebudgera is not at all a crime central area. It is a lovely natural area that offers a great lifestyle.

Jimboomba is a beautiful semi-rural location in the Beaudesert Shire that is poised to boom over the next few years as Brisbane continues to decentralise. It's no worse affected by the "drought" than the rest of Queensland.

Here are some links that might be of interest to you:

www.realestate.com.au
www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au
www.bsc.qld.gov.au

I hope they assist in your decision-making process.

Best regards
Susan

irishchick

Hi Susan,

Thank you for your reply. Can you recommend some areas that may be suitable to both of us for gaining employment. I work in a pharmaceutical company at the moment as a lab techician with a degree in chemistry and my partner has a degree in IT?? Someone said that we may need to look at NSW moreso as the job opportunities in this area in the IT sector and pharmaceutical sector would be better. Do you think this is the case? We really havent a clue about where to start looking at what area we want to live. All we know is that we want somewhere with a bit of land, preferably and acre or more and we don’t really want to live in an area where you can see into your neighbours back yard. We would like a little privacy anyway. Also we would like to rent somewhere first and get the feel for the area with the hope of building or buying sooner rather than later. We wouldn’t have a huge budget to work with but an average one I guess. So we would like to have a nice modern house with at least 3 bedrooms and a pool. Can you recommend anywhere that you think would be suitable for us to start looking anyway - just to point us in the right direction to a safe but family orientated area? When we move we will be married and will probably start a family a couple of years down the line so we would like somewhere that is nice for kids too.

Thank you so much,

Irishchick (Marie)

calNgary

Hiya
We are in Jimboomba ,not sure who told you the drought is bad,lol, but ask them if they want to come and cut my grass because its growing that quick we can't keep up!!! lol, My water tanks (all 4 of them) are nice and full too so ideal for topping the pool up over the hotter months of the year.

I know a few Irish family's who have moved out here and they like Beaudesert. Acreage is still affordable, loads of new developments, 2 shopping centers and a couple of big name stores setting up shop there, an hour to the coast or an hour and a half to Brisbane city yet a lovely rural feel and peaceful surroundings.

Hope this helps a little
Cal x

irishchick

Oh i wont say who told me - thats just his opinion. Sounds like a nice life in jimboomba except for all the grass cutting for you but thats good to know. I dont know why, maybe its the name or something that caught my eye at the very start of our search, but i like the sounds and looks of jimboomba. It seems to tick most of the boxes for us. It has some nice well established houses including acerage for sale and also some nice new hosues. With pools - thats a must especially for our hairy friend - the dog!! Do yse have golen retrievers over there? I'm sure she will need alot of time to get use to the heat - poor thing. Def not leaving her behind. She's part of our very small family at the mo anyway. There seems to be a budget for everyone there too. Sounds like the life we want too - where its close enough to shops and schools and activities for kids etc but not too close that you are looking into someones backyard. The only thing that might stop us looking in that area is work. We will need to be somewhere , and we dont mind commuting somewhat, for work. I will need to be near somewhere that has a lab, maybe soil testing but preferably pharmaceuticals and my OH has a degree in IT so he needs to be near somewhere that needs people working in computers etc. Also i rang an emmigration place yesterday to get going on our visa and he said he couldnt find my job on the list (SOL). So sad!!! Hope we can go now as i am the one with the experience so thought we could work around that. My OH brother lives in Perth and is a resident for years and his other bro has residency but is at home in ireland at the mo. I am going to ring another emmigration place today to hopefully get some better news about the skilled migration visa or someway to move over there. Any advice would be very grateful. Thanks

mohogony

Theres plenty of nice county areas in NSW and Queenland, try close to the coast the countryside in greener and nicer. Try realestate.com.au. Living in Country OZ is'nt totally different from country ireland, only if you lived way out in the outback would it be totally different. Someone said something about a drought, you can overcome that problem by having a few large water tanks to collect all the rainwater in winter then you have enough in summer for the pool, garden and everything else you need,

calNgary

Hiya

There are quite a lot of dogs around here, you see most breeds and sizes. I heard you can buy cooling jackets, from what was described they are a bit like a dog coat but somehow keep the dog cool. As long as you can provide some shade your baby should be OK,lol, our neighbours dogs love sleeping on the cool tiles under the patio,lol.

Have you looked around Wacol and Carole Park for work, its very industrial around there and im sure there are some pharmaceutical company's there somewhere.

Hope this helps a bit
Cal x

irishchick

ya our "baby" loves to sleep on the cold tiles in the kitchen too sometimes or goes outside in the freezing cold and lies flat out on the slabs out there as we have the heating on alot at the mo cause its sooooo cold at night unlike where you are. it must be so nice to have nice weather. we dont get a summer anymore over here - just rain and more rain cant wait to be able to lie by the pool just outside our own home. i hope i'm not just dreaming. i want it to become a reality. we'll keep trying. thank you so much for all your advice. Jimboomba is def high on our list of hopeful places to move to. we could be neighbours one day lol. dont worry our "baby" doesnt bark that much unless she's playing. As for the cooling jackets - them i have to see. its like an ice box for the dog to wear then basically lol Must check out those industrial parks - thanks for that

Wendy66

We stayed in Jimboomba for a couple of months before buying a house, we came over with 4 dogs and stayed at one of CalnGary rentals that allows dogs. You'll probably like semi rural best, we are 15km out of a town and it's perfect for us (ended up in NSW though). We looked at acreage places in Jimboomba, Greenbank which are both close enough to plenty of work options. Attached to Jimboomba is Flagstone which will be huge and plenty of building work going on there, all properties are acreage and good prices, although it was too built up for us personally but probably offers best of both worlds if you want rural but not too much LOL!!

Also all in the same area as Jimboomba and a little cheaper as 'slightly' further out, Cedar Vale, Cedar Grove, Tamborine and Tamborine Mountain and surrounding areas are all nice (from top of Tamborine mountain you can see the Gold Coast, the views are stunning and it's about 25 mins I think to get there, not long anyway). Go to www.realestate.com.au and search for houses in the area, if you put in semi rural it'll come up with acreage places, pretty reasonable prices.

We had a few ideas of places we liked from a reccie but it was over two different states so we did a mass ride round when we got here, then had the rental booked for when the dogs came out of quarantine. Even though we didn't settle in SE Queensland it's a lovely area and one we'd certainly think about moving to in the future.

Good luck

irishchick

Thaks for your reply wendy66. Where are you originally from? Ireland? We havent looked into much about our dog yet so could you tell me how long dogs have to stay in quarantine for before they can come over and do they have to be in quarantine in both ireland first and then oz? Hope they are well looked after and not just left in a cage all day Also i heard that it is very expensive to bring a dog over to oz? is that true? we are def not leaving her behind. where in nsw did ye settle after? we really do like the looks of jimboomba and greenbanks actually but it all depend on work really so we have to think about that too. we may end up having to go to nsw to find IT and lab jobs. someone said that there are more in nsw. do you know if there would be many pharmaceutical or lab based jobs near enough to jimboomba? also a big question i need to ask is have you seen many snakes and spiders? i would think they are a bit more plentiful in rural areas. and how do we keep our dog safe from them? we have a golden retriever so i'd say its going to take her a long time to get use to the heat over there - poor thing but if we had a pool and shady areas for her i'm sure she'll be ok. anyway thanks again