WILKINSONS

Hello has anyone gone to Ormeau or Ormeau Hills?
We have been looking at Upper Coomera and Coomera, because the Upper Coomera State College was featured on Wanted Down Under and looks fab..

However Ormeau seems a little cheaper with larger more private plots.
Can anyone give advise on this area as it seems a beautiful place.

Also what is Ormeau State school like?
Is Upper Coomera a better school? What else does Ormeau have to offer?
Any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks soooo much
Janexxxx

sassie

Hi Jane

We live in Ormeau and love it here. Basically, there are 3 housing estates, Ormeau Hills, Jacobs Ridge (where we are) and Norfolk Village . I don’t really know much about Norfolk as I have only been up there a couple times. We were originally looking at land in Ormeau Hills and it is really nice up there, and I believe they have some largish blocks available. I don’t know what size block you are looking for, but at Jacobs Ridge, they do vary from about 650m2 to around 800ms, and I think theres a few over 800m2.

Ormeau itself is a great place to live. We have the best of both worlds, 40-45 minutes from Brisbane, 20-25 minutes from the Gold Coast and 10 minutes from Jacobs Well, which is a lovely little seaside town. We often take a picnic down there and just watch the boats coming and going. We have a train station about 5 minutes away, and theres a bus service linking all the estates with both Ormeau and Beenleigh train stations.

We have a little shopping centre, which has everything we need, IGA supermarket, newsagency, chemist, bakery, fish and chips, Chinese restaurant, real estate, hairdressers, gym, dentist, and a few specialty shops as well as a Tavern right next door.

There was an article in the local paper a few weeks ago which mentioned Ormeau as one of the most booming towns on the coast. Just across the road from Jacobs Ridge, there is a huge development underway. The land is being cleared at the moment, I think it might be another housing estate. There is also a new shopping complex under construction at the moment, and across the road from that, a planning application has been submitted for another huge shopping centre, so things are finally starting to happen here.

I hope this gives you some insight in the area, but if you need any further info, please ask.

Regards

WILKINSONS

Hello Sassie,
Thankyou so much for all that information, it was so helpful. It has put my mind at ease and I hope to rent something at Ormeau when we arrive. As soon as the house sells we will be joining you, hope its towards the summer. Maybe we can meet when we get over for a coffee?
Do you know anything about the schools as I have a 7 year old?
Also some are saying that rental properties are difficult to get? is this the case in your area?
Where would you suggest initially staying on arrival, we will rent a car and travel down to Ormeau area straight away.
Speak again soon
Thanks again
Janexxx

sassie

Hi Jane. I'll do some research, re rentals, schools etc and PM you.

Regards

Gina

melbaby

hi gina

we are coming over in april and are renting in the city to begin with but really interested in jacobs ridge have soken to sales advisor about land and houses, could you pm me also any research you find for the other girlie much appreciated thanks a million

mel

sassie

Hi Mel, have just sent you a PM

acbh2

We have done exactly the same as you Jane originally were thinking of Coomera and Upper Coomera but are now seriously considering Ormeau. Where abouts are you at the mo and do you have your visas already?

Will be watching this one as we also have two children who will be needing schools.

Andreaxx

Paul&Nic

We're in Norfolk Village and have 2 teens in the Upper Coomera State College.

Norfolk Village is quite nice with small shopping centre with usual few fast food places, newsagent, pizza, bottle shop, Bi-Lo (currently changing to a Coles) etc etc.

Roads are very quiet and it's 3 mins to the motorway both ways ... VERY handy!!

A few lovely gated running grounds (handy for dog if you have one) and a small skateboard park (handy for the boy!)

Lovely Tavern with nice food!

I think they're def all pluses, but to balance I'll give a few negatives!

Haven't been able to get Broadband since we arrived, which with 2 teens is a nightmare! Telstra (BT equiv) are useless and cannot help. "wait and keep applying, you'll get it one day!" ... All about local exchange needs updating, and showing how Ormeau can be a bit backward really.

Buses don't run on the weekend, which funny enough is when my kids would actually use em! ... backward Ormeau at times, sorry.

On day one of moving in we introduced ourselves to the neighbours and was told how Ormeau had just been ranked as no5 in the most burgled suburbs in Queensland! ... it got better when we noticed ALL the doors and windows had a stick you could jam in between the wall so it couldn't be opened (been in 3 houses now and yeah, the locks look a doddle to get thru really). Also learned that the prev owner was burgled last year! ... nice! ... NOT!

Ok, that's a few downsides, but we DO like it here! The school bus runs from here the UCSC altho the kids say it pretty much covers the whole of Queensland ... ... but seriously it DOES take about an hour I hear. Still, it DOES go from here!!

Down the road is Peachy Road is where you'll find 'acreage' for $500 - $600k. LOVELY area and once upon a time we said we'd buy there but with the Broadband situation and a few other factors ... well we're not so sure now to be honest.

Now the UCSC.

Well, this school ticked as many boxes for ALL of us when we viewed it in 2005. We viewed about 15 State Schools in and around the middle and the upper part of The Gold Coast.

When viewing schools here we had a group of girls giving my daughter in one school the worst 'evils' you'll EVER see ...lol, but it looked VERY rough too. Needless to say we escaped rather fast and onto the next. One the flip side when walking round the UCSC a few girls asked my daughter "are you coming to this school?" ... she replied "I hope so" ... and in turn they replied "see you then!" Ok, maybe just a horrible bunch previous, and possibly the nicest bunch that time, but just how it went. Incidentally daughter has never seen em since she started! ...lol

We personally think that this school is probably for them as good as it gets for 'State Schools' but to be honest if we had the money for Private we wouldn't think twice. The thing is from our experience here the State Schools won't push kids (had this confirmed by a teacher and he actually told us Private would be better if we could afford it ... ... but 100% honest!!) Private will, or do (I'm told) push the kids more! His arguement was that if the kids want to do well, they'll accomodate, but it's almost like they'll get away with lack of effort if that's their choice. Wasn't like that in the UK in my experience, but appreciate this is NOT the UK too!

Anyway, In the UK my daughter was top of top groups in a very good Grammar school. I'm NOT sounding big headed but she has always been very advanced for her age and for example got a level 6 in her age 11 Maths SATS (someone will understand that), and was scheduled to do 13 or 15 (can't recall ... ) GCSE's. Now since arriving here she has completely slacked off with effort at school. We've had issues with a certain teacher, and a few other things. Anyway, my point is I don't think she could've got away with a lot that she does here in her old school. Admittedly she has said that she feels she's doing work that she did 2 years ago in the UK, and it just isn't pushing her at all, and I think this is probably some of the problem, but what can I / we do!

Ok, this could all be VERY well all to do with her age too (16). What with boys, regular parties that seem to go on EVERY weekend over here (I never had that ...lol), oh and the whole diff lifestyle over here! ... well, maybe it's all about timing! ... we'll never know I guess.

Anyway, for positives on the flip side my son who REALLY needed to be kept on track in the UK now has his head down and working hard to start and Air Conditioning Apprentiship next year hopefully! He's 14 and will soon be doing a bit of 'Work Experience' to get a taster, but I must admit the school is very good with all that.

Not sure what years your kid / kids will be in, but mine are in the senior part and school hours are 6.30am - 1.30pm (roughly) ... which can't be bad! ... and very handy for 'part time' work. Kids can work from 14 in some places with parent permission (Macca's to name one) but generally 14 & 9 months.

Anyway, waffled on for too long ... ... but just a few pluses and minuses for both the area and the school.

Feel free to ask anything if I haven't put you off ...lol, but seriously we're all VERY happy with it all really and wouldn't go back (Watford Herts) if you paid us!!

Hope that's of some use.

sassie

Hi there, just on the Broadband issue, we're only a few k's away from you, and loads of people have got it here. Is it just in Norfolk you can't get it? We use Airweb Broadband services.

Paul&Nic

Unfortunately (for us), yes I think it's just my exchange. I don't know how much of an area it covers, but it needs updating and Telstra won't say when ...

How long will I wait?? ... how long is a piece of string?? ...

I'd of guessed with all the new development goin on at Jacobs Ridge that demand would be high so it's in Telstra's interest to have it all up to date, but Norfolk is established and been here for 12 - 15 years I'm told, so demand won't be so high.

To be honest it's so much of an issue we'd move back to Upper Coomera, but funds simply won't permit so we're as good as stuck here for now.

I stopped using 'Dial Up' god knows how many years ago, but it's all that we can currently get. Even some of the Satellite services don't cover Ormeau altho Bigpoo will give you 3Gb a month allowance for some extortionate price, but 3Gb is as much use as a chocolate teapot! ...

sinead

Hi, we are also in Norfolk Village, since Sept 06, and we have Broadband with Optus maybe different network makes a difference??

We are settling into the area, youngest 2 are at Ormeau State School and 13 yr old at Chisolm Catholic College.

Not knowing where we were going to settle when arriving in Brisbane we are happy with the area although there's a lot of renovating to be done in this house!!

Paul&Nic

I wish it was the case. It's all about available ports at the exchange. Basically my one is full up and Telstra won't tell me when they'll upgrade it. I even resorted to asking Bigpond (Telstra owned) if they could get me a port but even they couldn't do it, and of they can't NO ONE will!

Had a leaflet thru the door today about how Airweb are covering this area with a Wireless Broadband so am going to look into that. It's expensive compared to ADSL but altho we're not flush, we do need Broadband really so will prob have some as long as there's no contract tie in, had enough of that with Bigpond!! ...

Still, the fact you have it shows there IS Broadband life in Ormeau after all! ...

sassie

Hi again. Airweb is who we are with. wireless broadband is definitely the way to go these days, although as you say, a little more expensive. To give you an idea, we pay $59.00 a month.

Paul&Nic

Ahhhh, perfect, so can you tell me if it's been reliable ?!

Yeah a nice bit is the upload being the same as download, that'll be handy for sending big email attachments etc

More expensive for sure, but this really is by far the best offer so far, as long as they get a good signal here ...

I had a 8mb line in old house and that WAS excellent. A 40GB cap which was getting eaten quick with how quick I could download stuff, but for $99. The same money will get me 512k and only 10Gb but it beats Bigponds offering of 3GB any day! We'll have to stop big downloads but after all fighting over my PC with current pathetic 56K connection, it'll be heaven to have Broadband browsing again! ...

sassie

The plan we're on is the BC OPEN plan, which gives us 3 gig of downloads a month. There is a cheaper plan, which we were initially on. I think it was about $39 a month but we found we were going over our monthly download quota, so decided to upgrade and we find 3 gig ample for our usage.

As far as reliablity goes, it's not too bad. We've had it about 6 months, and theres been a few times when we've lost the connection, and it usually takes a few hours to come back on line.