karen p

We're beginning to narrow down our areas and
like the look of Ormiston, Manly, Wynnum etc

We were wondering if any of you have any advice/information
about these areas (particularly any to avoid).

Also about the schools in the area, we looked at Ormiston college
and liked the look of it, but it seems the waiting list might be a
problem. So what are the State schools like around there.

Mrs Dagboy I know your boys are at school around there, could you let me know whcih one and whethered you'd recommend it.

My daughters would be in Year 4 and Year 7 if they were in Australia now.

Thanks for any help/advice/info.

Sorry I have been in touch for a while, but I haven't been able to log on for the last few days. Especially frustrating as there
were quite a few threads I wanted to reply to.

I have to take the cats to the vets now, so i'll do the replies when I get back.

Thanks again

Karen.

MrsDagboy

Karen, I'll cut & paste what Ive written about Wynnum/Manly in the past for you to have a read. Cookies (Steve) now lives down at Wynnum, he might be able to give you a different perspective/opinion. Anyway this is my view.

We love it here, so nice to have the bay breezes & be close to the water. Wynnum is the more commercial district & is where the council library, police station, courthouse, banks, shops etc are. Still a villagy feel to it with lots of individual small shops although they have just completed a small shopping mall with about 10 shops in it. There are some older parts especially around Wynnum North, but even the older run down houses are being replaced with new as people flood to the area. There are some beautiful old queenslanders in the area as well so its a mix of old & new housing. Manly is more upmarket & has a *high street* with a cafe strip etc. Manly is where the boat harbour & the yacht clubs are & has alot of very high areas which make for fabulous views (& expensive real estate!). Cross section of the community would show a large amount of 40+ professionals & elderly & my guess would be a lower than average crime rate in the area.

You do get quite a few people from the rest of Brisbane down here on the weekends & the waterfront is usually busy with people picnicing & having BBQs especially in summer when they tend to come down to escape the heat. The joys of living somewhere so nice I guess . No different really (& alot less people!) than the Gold or Sunshine Coast. There are only a couple of places where there is actually sandy beach, most of it is silty mud, could be depressing if you saw it for the first time at low tide & you werent expecting it LOL. And no surf. There are 2 swimming pools, 1 council run pool (at Manly freshwater, pay to swim with a small waterslide) & a public (free) saltwater pool that they fill on the incoming tide. Have to say though, I think its more suited to the kids, I dont think Ive seen it much more than about 2 foot deep LOL. The length of the waterfront (about 3 kms) has had a small retaining wall put in & the entire length is park with playgrounds, BBQs, picnic tables & seats dotted around & walking & bike riding tracks. It is extrememly popular with joggers, walkers & families alike & very very safe. The view looks right across the water to Stradbroke & Moreton Island.

For eating out etc, try the Manly Hotel (very popular with the locals) or the pub across the road from the fish market called Seafood World in Fox Street (name escapes me just now) at Wynnum. There are numerous fish & seafood places, try Seafood World that I just mentioned, they do takeaways & have plastic tables setup outside for you to eat at. For a more upmarket experience try Fish Cafe on the corner of the Esplanade at Manly, but be prepared to pay quite a bit more for your fish & chips . We quite often go down & buy fish & chips for dinner from Seafood World & eat it right outside sitting on the foreshore. Cant get much better than that, but then maybe I am biased .

Karen, the state school our boys go to seems to be excellent. I'll PM you which one it is. Its only fairly small (300 or 400 kids, I always forget which it is) & has fairly small class sizes (23 & 22 in the boys Year 1 classes). Last year they competed in some statewide exams for English/Maths & got excellent results. In fact one of the students got the highest mark in the state for English & more than half got high distinctions in the maths section. They have a very active P & C which does alot of fundraising & it seems to show. The staff, especially the headmaster, are extremely approachable (we're on a 1st name basis with the headmaster after only 2 weeks in Year 1 , but the boys did go to the preschool last year ). In general, so far we are very very happy with it.

As for other schools, I have heard that Manly state school is fairly good as well, but Cookies had a bad experience with Wynnum Central school & they have since put their boys in a private school.

I dont know a great deal about Ormiston despite living so close to it. Sorry!

cookies

Hi Karen

We came to Wynnum because of the research we did on schooling - there are 2 High Schools in Wynnum and both have excellent records. Our boys had a couple of days in the primary school before Christmas and we were a bit disappointed so we ended up putting them in the catholic School. This school is excellent and the fees are not too bad - $1,800 for 3 kids per year.

This does, of course, exclude uniforms and books - these will set you back quite a bit - I reckon I have spent $900 so far in total on these.

I don't know much about Ormiston, but I know it's just down the road. Wynnum and Manly are great places to live - right by the sea - but no beach to speak off. This is fine by us - and depends what you want. The Esplanade runs for miles and there are loads of parks, the marina and the wading pool in Wynnum.

Wynnum/Manly are ideal for commuting on the train - as is Ormiston, but a further 10 minutes or so. It all depends where you live relative to the train station of course - all of the stations have car parks which are free.

House prices are booming - but I sence the market has peaked if not started to fall. A few houses we have had our eyes on have started to come down in price. Wynnum/Manly houses by the sea are really expensive - one of the biggest growth areas in Australia over the past few years I think. I can't comment on Ormiston, but as its close to Cleveland I am sure they are fairly high as well.

Hope this helps

Steve

ABCDiamond

I am about 10 minutes on the other side of Ormiston, and I can't say much about it either, other than what i have heard. Parts of it are Very nice, the part that is on the waters edge.
The part that I have driven through looks just the same as any other area around here.

Ormiston College is rated very high.
Fees are: per term (4 terms per year)
Junior School (Pre School to Year 7): $1,297.00
Senior School (Year 8 to Year 12): $1,497.50
10% discount on Tuition Fees for 3rd child and 40% discount on Tuition Fees for 4th child.

The location is very good, near to Cleveland & Capalaba.