chrisg72

Hello there,

My wife and I are planning a trip to Australia (specifically Queensland) in April.

Im posting this today to try and garner as much advise and info possible.

Our trip to QLD is more of a recci and my wife & I have looked at QLD as a place we would like live. Qld’s ideal as we love the outdoors, ocean , surfing & climate etc. We like the idea Qld can offer us a live, work & play environment.

The recci / fact finding exercise in April is to find out if its for us basically.

I’d appreciate some info on the following if at all possible.

Im a plasterer and Lynn (my wife) is a senior manager at ASDA/Walmart. Lynn would look to continue in retail within a management capacity ideally and I would continue plastering within construction industry. Not really sure how we’d go about finding out how to see if work was available and where though.?

As we’re planning this trip now I would like to have within our itinerary a list of great affordable suburbs to live that we can visit.

I know of a few that ive had good feed back on but I don’t know many. The likes of Townsville, Cairns, Caboolture, Morayfield, Gympie, springfield lakes, Nerang Boondall, and Redcliff to name a few. Feed back on them and others would be truly appreciated. Im aware all these places are going to different but I need a list so we can visit them.

Ive also had numerous friends tell us that employment is pretty hard to come by in many of these towns. As long as we can get jobs we’re not too bothered about driving up to an hour plus to commute.

I have also been told to plan our trip between Bne and top end of sunny coast, more opportunities, better beaches. Can anyone confirm that?

I know im asking a lot but all im looking for is a starting point on our itinerary and an end point. Don’t want to go to far north as we don’t want to much humidity.

So yeah, a list of great affordable suburbs to live that we can visit would be ubba helpful.

Thanks guys,

Chris

LoopyL

Hi welcome to BE I'm sure peeps will be along to help soon. I have been in the Sunny Coast for a few days doing research for moving over so if you want to ask any questions I will try and help. Hopefully any guys that live there might get back to you.

Lynz

asprilla

hello there,

just my opinion, but I think that as a "tradie" you will find more opportunity on the gold coast, not the sunshine coast.

I am not sure what the demand for plasterers is like over here... someone else will hopefully know?

On to the locations, if you are really interested in surfing I suggest you strike cairns & townsville off the list. Gympie is at least an hour's drive away from the nearest surf beach, so also not good in that respect.

Re: your missus, when you say senior manager, do you mean manager in head office, or store manager?

If I were you, I would look at Nerang & surrounds, and redcliffe. Sunshine coast is much nicer than gold coast (in my opinion) but there are less work opportunities up that way, more retirement opportunities instead.

good luck !

calNgary

Hi
You mention Springfield Lakes on your list,,, quite a few tradies i know who have arrived in the past few months are all managing to secure work out this way. The growth corridor from Ipswich down to the Gold Coast is still ticking over and work is there, just not nearly as readily available as a couple of years ago.

Springfield Lakes itself is ideally located for accessing Brisbane or Ipswich City, its a purpose built estate ,growing by the day and quite popular with new migrants. It has a huge new shopping ctr, good schools and uni close by and the main estate is focused around a lovely lake with bike paths all around.

You also have the industrial areas like Wacol and Carole Park not too far away where you may also find job opportunities.

Hope this helps a little
Cal x

spartacus

Queensland is a massive place . . . from Brisbane to Noosa (Sunshine Coast) is a two hour drive . . . from Brisbane to the QLD / NSW border (bottom of Gold Coast) is another two hour drive. If you don't like humidity, I wouldn't go much further north than Noosa.



Best work opportunities: Brisbane - Gold Coast
Best holiday opportunities: Sunshine Coast, touristy on the coast, 'laid back hippy' feel in the hinterland. Finding work can be difficult, I suppose a bit like living in Cornwall.

Work wise, wet plastering might be limited to external rendering work, vast majority of new builds are plasterboard on timber frames internally.

Sally Simpson

Cairns, insufficient opportunities with large retailers, very humid in summer, no good for surfing, one of the worst unemployment rates in Aus currently.
As someone else said, you should probably cross it off!

Good luck though!

jjinoz

hi there, we live in Samford, not too far from Brisbane and love it. A lot of pomms go to Northlakes on the northside. Itsa massive housing complex growing by the day and has its own shopping mall, schools medical centers etc and is not far from Redcliffe and has good access to the Bruce Highway, which is the motorway to Brisbane the Gold Coast,the Sunshine Coast and up north. Other areas I would recommend are Eatons Hill, Albany creek Cashmere and Ferney Grove, all north of Brisbane. Not a lot of interior plastering over here, its mainly plasterboard tape and setting, but plenty of supermarkets Asda type shops for your wifes work. good luck, hope you like it,

chrisg72

Hi Lynz, thanks for your reply. Yeh, id be keen to pick your brains. Are you thinking of moving over? Are you there on a recci too?

chrisg72

Cal, thanks a lot for your advise and help. Its really appreciated