skuttle

Hi there,
we have recently received our pr visa's and hope to come out to oz as soon as the house is sold!
Our dilemma is where to choose to live, we have 3 children aged 11, 8 and 5 years old and will be bringing two dogs with us,

We are looking at acreage properties as we would like in the future to have a couple of horses,

We have looked at Adelaide, Happy valley and surrounding area, And qld around Bundaberg and surrounding areas, any info on these areas pros and cons would be helpful also any other suggestions welcome!

CatWithClaws

You can get quite a nice place with a bit of acreage in the countryside around Adelaide - have a look at www.countryestates.com.au and select Properties for sale and Houses in Townships or on Acreage.

Do bear in mind though that with three kids, that could mean you spend a lot of time driving them here, there and everywhere, especially as they get a little older and into various sports and activities - one nof my friends (with four sons) who lives out in Kersbrook finds she has some really long drives at weekends because the football team is in the Hills League which covers a huge area, so away matches can take nearly an hour to drive to!

Happy Valley isn't really what I'd call 'rural', but it depends on your needs (and definitions!) We fell in love with a lovely village called Houghton when we first arrived here, but the thought of the kids as they get a little older driving up and down the windy hills roads after a night out with their friends, or coming back from part-time jobs made us reconsider!

Wendy66

Hi, can't help with Adelaide but researched similar to what you want in Qld. Areas you might like to look at with fairly cheap acreage are; Jimboomba, Flagstone, Greenbank, Cedar Vale, Tamborine, Mount Tamborine (more exp than Tamborine), we visited all of these and stayed in Jimboomba in a rental that took dogs (inside the house) we booked it before we left the UK the owners are English, used it whilst we looked for places to live. All areas above are what you want but within about 45 mins of Gold Coast and about 40 mins of Brisbane CBD by road.

If you go further out, look at Gatton, Nanango - about 2 hours inland but near Kingaroy that has everything.

All above have vets as it was one of our priorities.

Further up at Gympie lots of nice places on outskirts such as Mothar Mountain, Kenilworth, Imbil - found lovely house at Imbil in first class setting but no vet there it was about 25 mins to Gympie.

If you need any info on areas above just email me, we saw lots of place in between and further up as well, up to Hervey Bay on the coast. All were pretty good priced acreage. If you have over 2 dogs then there are rules about how much land you have to have.

We used Overhills for shipping the dogs and they were first class.

Good luck with the house sale, it was our hardest part

mohogony

Why only QLD or Adelaide, have you thought about country NSW or VIctoria?

skuttle

Thanks for the help, its been really useful, spending some time now looking into the areas mentioned, Gympie and surrounding area looks good, in the area we would like, so will research a little more around there!

Just the two dogs will be coming with us, we have contacted petair.uk who seem really helpful,
Many thanks again Dawn

OzWannabee

Hi Dawn

We live in Gympie at the moment but we are building a house just 10 mins north of Gympie on acerage. We have 3 children still at home aged 11, 9 and 6. We really like the area and think its great being able to live in lovely countryside but only an hour from Rainbow Beach/Fraser Island/Tin Can Bay and Noosa. Gympie is great if your kids are into sports and there is a good selection of schools.

Let me know if you need anymore details!

Jo

skuttle

Many thanks Jo, thats been really helpful,
Just one more quick question,
Im a non driver so was wondering if most rural properties have a school bus service, i did notice on realestate, some are advertised with school pick up in other areas,
Sorry if its a dumb question, thanks for your help x

aussiedreamer

Most school buses pick up in desiganted places we are really lucky as the school bus picks up at the bottom of our drive. When your looking at the properties ask the owner or contact the local bus company they will let you have a route map so you will see exactly where they run. If you are not a driver then you could feel really isolated on a rural block. We are 10minutes drive from town and it can feel isolated when we have only had one car. but then it depends what your used to.

Jane

OzWannabee

Most areas around Gympie are on a bus route or you will just be a walk from a pick-up point. The local bus company here is called Polleys and they will give you all the routes. Normal bus routes however are not very good. Will you need to go to work?

Not a dumb question at all! Happy to help!