ellie10990

hi

In SA at the moment,still thinking of moving up to queensland,mainly for better weather.Just weighing up the pros and cons of areas any help appreciated so far Im thinking
1 better weather more outdoor lifestyle but

Brisbane no beaches

Sunshine coast more expensive

both coasts no swimming at certain times of year due to stingers

All areas in queensland get dark much earlier than here eg 5pm in winter and 6 ish in summer.so no teatime bbqs

Am I correct in this?? and any more advice

muffinoz

hiya .. we live in cleveland on moreton bay about 30k from brisbane cbd ...

yea there are no beaches in brisbane but there are plenty great beaches on the sunshine coast and down the gold coast and on the islands like stradbroke and bribie

its safe to swim year round on the sunshine and gold coast with the usual beach rules

its dark at 5 in winter as you say but it's 7 mid summer before it's dark ... loads of people barbie in the dark ... it's certainly warm enough for most of the year ... the new state premier has said that it will not be reviewed .. this is the one thing that annoys us about qld

the weather is much more consistent than in other parts of oz ... can be bit hot / humid in jan - march .. and a bit cold overnight (down to about 5) in jul / august but it's great apart from that

re house prices can't really comment as we've only lived in qld .. but there's a property supplement in the courier mail this weekend with average house prices in each area ... might be online

plenty work round SE Qld ... very bouyant economy ... traffic is a bit grim (but not by uk standards) particularly going over the gateway bridge over the river during rush hour

great lifestyle state though

hope that helps ... David

jad n rich

Brisbane hasnt got beaches, thats not quite correct, we have a house 24klm from the CBD and theres a beach and pier seconds from the front door, its not a surf beach, you need SC or GC for that, but loads of beaches along the north brisbane peninsula, thats at woody point, council spent millions on the beachfront at redcilffe and is now doing the same here.

SC or GC or brisbane, none are affected by stingers thats the tropical north of qld.

Dark in winter at 5 summer its 7.

SC is expensive, so is GC, so is brisbane now, especially compared to SA. House prices avg around the half million, but there are cheaper homes just depends how fussy you are, the new 4x2 with pool poms hanker for is not the cheapest option, but the housing estate option, is obviously far cheaper than the beach suburbs.

You could still find a house under 400 if not after dream property, just check the commute in rush hour when buying, traffic in SE qld - plenty of areas where its a flaming nightmare.

ex Tassiemum

You DO get stingers in SE Queensland and also at the beaches in Sydney, its just worse in the far North of Qld. Apparently Summer is the worse time for stingers. I have walked along beaches on the GC and have seen stingers washed up on the sand and that was before Summer.

The lifeguards will also let you know when stingers are in the water.

themerlin

But not the nasty buggers that kill.

Nerine

I've always thought that the really nasty ones were further up north in QLD, they are only supposed to be a problem after it's rained and a lot of nutrient rich water has been washed into the sea. Having said that I've been diving on the Barrier Reef off Port Douglas during stinger season and not had any problems....but then we were wearing rather fetching stinger suits and probably frightened off the little blighters .

The lifeguards are pretty good to alerting people to dangers in the water. Is QLD the only state to display "swim between the flags" signs on its motorways? made me laugh out loud when I first saw that.

I'd recommend the GC over Brisbane, more to do down here and it's a few degrees cooler, Brisbane is good for culture though (e.g. Theatre, Museums, Andy Warhol exhibition) House prices seem to be high no matter where you go but there are some cheaper areas if you choose carefully. Not had much experience of the SC - has more of a retirement feel to it than here but I'm sure that's just a generalisation.

The further north you go the hotter and more humid it gets, more risk of cyclones and "big" weather too I guess.

NickyC

But they're just bluebottles (in Sydney, anyway) - not the Box Jellyfish that you get in FNQ that can kill you.

Jan4kids

Hi There!


We came to the Gold Coast after spending our first two years in Adelaide. We chose to live just far enough away from the 'razzle dazzle' areas of the Gold Coast so that it wasn't in our faces, but close enough to get to interesting stuff when the need arises. We live just at the very start of 'The Hinterland' which lies inland from Southport at the base of Tambourine Mountain. It offers amenities of good old suburbia nearby, but also a feel of being away from it all.....hope I'm making sense Work location as usual goes quite a long way in deciding on where home will be, but the 'M1' freeway means there is a vast commuting corridor that you can choose from.

The main 'pro' that we are here for is the employment opportunities...both at present for ourselves and for when our kids need to find work. Compared to Adelaide some 'cons' might be....transient population (holiday makers as well as Australian inhabitants), locals seem more aloof and less openly friendly than in Adelaide, driving....many, many more vehicles travelling faster on bigger roads (makes 'South Road' in rush hour look like kindy stuff!) The humidity can be a killer, especially Jan-Feb time.The getting dark thing doesn't bother me....but I sure do miss watching the sun set over the sea like you could in Adelaide. The flies are far less annoying here, but the mossies possibly more (grrrr)

Just remembering....when I was looking at maps for The Gold Coast and being bewildered all over again I assumed that suburbs that sat right on the beach must be 'elite' and wonderful places...but many are no better than slums full of hostels for back packers...no community to them and not much wealth....although having said that I reckon with some clever investment, there's a small fortune to be made in the coming years in some of these areas.....mass rejuvenation is underway almost wherever you look.

Once again only you know what kind of lifesyle you are seeking (ie beach, suburbia,isolated etc....), learn from your mistakes (if any) that you made when settling in Adelaide....so for us we used 'High Schools with a good reputation' as one of our main criteria.

I wish you all the best in your coming move. If I can help any further, please feel free to yell.


Jan

tonyk38

Blimey O' Riley, there's more to Qld than just Brissie, GC and SC....

You can safely swim in the sea up here in stinger enclosures or as has been previously mentioned, if you wear a stinger suit.

Oh, and you can live in shorts 365 days a year.

jad n rich

OP was asking about the stingers that close the beaches, that would be box jellyfish, Irukandji, the sort of stingers that cause severe pain, and in some instance, death. They are up north in the more tropical waters. They do close the beaches for some months, and some beaches have stinger nets. Here we just have shark nets

What you see down here and much further south are the little blue oval shaped ones with long blue strings, painful but not deadly. Big difference.

Nerine

We used to get the bluebottles washed up on the coast in Auckland so I guess they're fairly ubiquitous around this part of the globe

Good post Jan, we used similar criteria to yourself.

melaniee

Coming from Perth (and you will notice coming from Adelaide) that it is very grey here at the moment. I was used to blue skies most days in Perth. Am told it is like this all summer whilst we have the storms- but at least it is warm !!

Nerine

Phew!!! it certainly is this morning. Not quite got the air con on yet but the fans are certainly going full blast

SarahJane2007

We live at lota, Bayside which is about 25/30 mins drive from Brisbane and 20 mins to the Airport, although we are not in a flight path so no overhead noise. We love it here, we were lucky enough to buy a property right on the Esplanade and see the seaevery morning when we wake up. The house prices start from around the 450k mark and go to well over a million. The weather is pretty consistant and the skies are always blue.

melaniee

Is it really that different just down the coast ? Another grey day here on the SC !