fillinghams

We are moving back out to aus in the near future, but where

Plus and minus for

Melbourne v Gold coast please

Kiwikaye

I've only been on holiday to the Gold Coast, but lived in Melbourne for 13 years, so this might be slightly biased, however having made that disclaimer:

Melbourne is a great place to live - a big enough city to be interesting, without being huge. Brisbane strikes me as being a bit more of a big town, rather than a city (sorry, as I said, never lived there, only holidayed). Gold Coast is an awesome place for holidaying - not sure what it would be like to live there all year round coping with the tourists, etc.

What do you do or want to do? A lot would depend on that, I guess.

You say you are moving back out to aus - does that mean you have been here before - where were you then and what did you like/dislike about it?

We are contemplating a return to Melbourne from NZ, and the things that entice us back are the earning power in Oz compared with NZ, we still have friends in Melbourne from when we left in '09, and its a "known quantity" for us, rather than starting again somewhere completely new.

Melbourne - plusses:
Warm summers (some may say too warm), relatively mild winter (by UK standards)
Easy city to live in
Great food and restaurants
Good job opportunities (for us anyway)

Minuses:
House prices

Gold Coast plusses:
Weather
Beach
Theme parks (if you have kids, or are just into that kind of thing)

Minuses:
Tourists
Weather (I like seasons)
Not really a city in my opinion, more a series of towns

Good luck with the decision!

Buzzy--Bee

There will be a very limited number of people that have lived in both so most opinions you get will be biased.

I will merely dish out a piece of advice that I have dished out many times before -

A very common reason for a failed migration is assuming that a great holiday destination is also a great place to live permanently.

BB

Turban Explorer

Be a bit cautious about the job situation on the Gold Coast? I'm not living there but I hear people are, as the Natives say, 'doing it hard'

moneypenny20

Never been to Melbourne so can't comment on that other than what I've read on here and it's not for me simply because of the weather. Unemployment is high on the GC at the moment. The vast majority of the GC is not a tourist destination. A lot of the beach area is, obviously but to most people it's home and it's no more touristy than living in some areas of melbourne I'd guess..

If it were me, I'd ignore what random strangers say and look at both the a) the weather and what you prefer - Melbourne 'appears to me' to have hotter drier summers and colder winters than we get. We do get seasons, Spring and Autumn are awesome. Winter is fab until the sun goes down and then it's bloody cold (for me). Summer is gorgeous but I like some humidity and temps of 28-35. It rarely gets hotter than that.

b) work. Check out Seek.com and CareerOne.com and see where you're likely to find work easier.

Anything else is down to personal opinion that is irrelevant to you.

Matthew_Brisbane

The two locations are like comparing chalk and cheese. It really depends, as mentioned before, what you are looking for, what jobs you are looking at obtaining etc.

I believe work is a bit harder to find on the Gold Coast at the moment, due to the strong aussie dollar and the down turn in tourism. Saying this, Brisbane is only an hour to the North and has been progressing strongly over the years and has heaps to do if you know where to look.

Also further to the North is the Sunshine Coast which has beautiful beaches if that is what you are looking for, but again work may be harder to find.