sherman989

Hi everyone,

My partner and I are just about to submit our visa application having got as far as getting our skills assessments done. I'm a pharmacist and Mandie is a nurse and we have 3 children aged 10,7 and 6 months.

We are currently getting excited about our month long fact finding trip in Feb next year. We fly in to Sydney, work our way up the coast and fly out of Brisbane a month later.

We are going to look at Port Stephens, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour with a view to finding out which one to settle in when we arrive permanently.

I may be opening a can of worms but what are peoples thoughts on which one is best? Is there anywhere else we've overlooked? We like the outdoor life - beach / body boarding / cycling / camping etc etc.

All opinions welcome and good luck to all those potential Aussies out there in cold damp UK land!

Sherman

sherman989

I'm sure somebody must have an opinion - anything appreciated.

Cheers

debsy

Ever thought about the Gold Coast, Qld? That would be a great place for all of the things you like.

debbiemc

personally, port stephens for me was the best out of the three although i love port maquarie, coffs harbour lovely but again personally i thught it was a bit behind the other towns, maybe a bit more of a retirement place.

you'll get loads of different views from lots of people on here i'm sure, but its down to personal choice and i think until you've actually been and had a look round for yourself, then no one else can make that choice for you.

if you go onto google and type in these areas you can find sites that'll tell you or even do virtual tours around the towns.

good luck
debbiemc

Trevglas

I spent a year in Raymond Terrace, which is in Port Stephens, and the port is a superb bit of countryside. If you want big city, Newcastle is just over the bridges, you also have Stockton Beach if you like driving over sand dunes in 4x4's. The Hunter vinyards are also relatively close by

You have your choice of calm waters (inside the port) or ocean breakers on the Anna Bay side. The bay is full of dolphins, and the Tillygerry peninsular is supposed to have one of the largest populations of wild koalas in Australia.

On the downside, the area is also famed for its own species of mosquito, the Hexham Grey, whish is a huge mother!

Grayling

Probably moving out to the Central coast fairly soon.

I liked Port Maquarie but Have been offered more in Gosford/Newcastle area.

Property is cheaper away from the bigger towns but nowhere hugely expensive considering the proximity to Sydney.

The further North you go the quieter and more touristy it gets.

G

NickyC

To me, all three places are holiday destinations, but I don't know that I'd want to live in any of them. Port Macquarie has a lot of retirees and Coffs Harbour has a lot of unemployed.

Coffs Harbour is the sort of place where people go on holiday, see the cost of housing (cheap compared to Sydney), sell up and move there - only to find there's very little work, and they're unable to move back. A lot of work there is seasonal. The town is not attractive, but the beaches and hinterland are nice.

Port Macquarie is slightly smaller than Coffs Harbour and is nicer to my mind. I have friends who lived there happily for years - until their kids reached High School age and they realised that to give them any sort of future they had to move to Sydney.

Port Stephens is a lovely scenic area but the main town, Nelson Bay, is smaller than both Coffs and Port. It's advantage over the other places is proximity to Newcastle. The other places are just too far away from anywhere else - Port Macquarie is five hours drive from Sydney so if you can't get what you want there, it's a long drive to find it anywhere else.

You have to think about what your kids will do when they finish school, if you live in these types of places. Jobs for school leavers is a big problem in Coffs Harbour and to access anything other than a TAFE, they'll have to leave home. Same for Port Macquarie.

I'd say the Port Stephens area has the edge on the others.

Good Luck...

Trevglas

One other benefit of Port Stephens is the proposed upgrade to the railtracks from Newcastle to Sydney, which will allow high speed trains. OK this has been talked about for over 10 years, but if it ever does happen, the house prices in sleepy old Port Stephens will probably skyrocket as commuting to Sydney will become feasible for the well paid.

When I was there (about a year and a half ago), already waterfront prices were rising dramatically, with many of the properties being sold to Sydnesiders as weekenders and holiday homes

Grayling

When I was there in June Seafront properties in Newcastle were already in the $1 million bracket.

G

wombat42

Many people find the gold coast to be too much of a tourist center and those high rise buildings ugly and much perfer to live in one of the nice coastal towns along the north coast of N.S.W.

tonyk38

I spent a week in Coffs Harbour and loved it. Not the town, which is ug, but the surroundings. It has beautiful beaches to the north, but for me the real draw is the hinterland which is mountainous and rainforested. Deffo a good destination if you like nature.

Having said, as others have pointed out, if you're bringing up kids, these small northern NSW towns don't have very diverse economies so opportunities will be limited for them. Northern NSW must be a wonderful place to grow up though, it's my favourite part of Aus bar none.

HeatherandTim

The places you mentioned are holiday places or retirement places. You'll probably find them fairly dull after a few weeks. What about Byron Bay area? More younger people are moving to that area. Its a lovely laid back lifestyle.

sherman989

Thank you everybody for all of your thoughts. The reason we selected these places was due to their similarity with where we live in the UK. We live in Exmouth in Devon which is a coastal holiday town with a population of about 30 thousand.

It's maybe wrong for me to work on assumptions but I'll be surprised if we get bored. We should pass through Byron Bay en route to Brisbane so we'll be able to have a look there as well.

10 weeks today until we fly - not that we're counting at all!

Cheers - Sherman

stevereed

Certainly not an expert, but this year we drove to Brisbane along the coast via Iluka, Ballina, Byron Bay etc.

I liked the area, and Ballina is pretty close to Lismore which is a regional centre and by all accounts a fairly large town. Maybe a coastal property between Ballina and Byron would allow employment options in the Lismore area, and still fairly close to Brisbane.

Hadrian

I think that you will like the Byron Bay area with the hills behind the bay, we certainly did on our visit in August.

We travelled up from Coffs Harbour to Byron Bay, basically there is nothing north of Coffs Harbour until you get to Ballina.