you are entitled to your own opinion of me, just as I have my own opinion of you.

Good manners, moderators rules and pity for those who are so obviously afflicted by some form of geographical tourettes syndrome prevent me from posting mine.

Plus, sadly, you come from the same county as I do, and therefore i have a degree of compassion.

You are even more pompous than I thought

Get over yourself

I think the personal stuff needs to stop for the good of the forum. I cant speak for Grayling but I dont think anyone in this thread hates Australia, anyone that knows me knows I certainly dont but I do hate the way lots of things are done and I hate misinformation but most certainly dont hate the country.
To the OP, there is good and bad in every area anywhere, try to do some independent research and see what people actually living in a specific area are saying. Good luck with your search, it isnt easy.

Fully Agree. I don't take kindly to being told I talk out of my arse, i am pompous, or that I am egotistical. I deliberately avoided personal attacks as I think they have no place on BE.

I think that a small number of posters display (perhaps subconsciously) a dislike of Australia. It certainly has been noticed and commented upon in PMs. Perhaps next time it happens someone could remind these posters that no one here dislikes Australia.

(Incidentally, if you read my posts I said "Anti Australia" and "dislikes Australia". I didn't say hates Australia.............. )

I also think posters could try to stick to the context of the thread - which was about safe areas in Australia, rather than turn it into a UK v Australia urinating contest.

This thread hijacking was the issue that I originally raised, before i was told i talk out of my arse etc.

To be fair it wasnt an 'anti' that made it UK v OZ.
Im not saying there arent people on the forum that dislike Australia, I am often laughably placed in that category by people who know absolutely zero about me. Its fine as I laugh it off but it does create lots of tension which achieves nothing unfortunately.

Fully Agree, but i restate my original point. The OP asked a very important question, and is going through the trauma of migrating to a new country. They REALLY don't need smart arse comments about safety compared to the UK - they hadn't asked that question.

The 'problem' with the question if you like is that it all comes down to the individual. We knew people who lived in Woodridge in Brisbane and were very happy but we wouldnt live there if given a free house. We lived in a really good area but there were robberies and 2 stabbings that we knew of, one right outside the house following a party gone wrong (that I was accused of making up) We felt much safer in the apparently good area than we would in a 'bad' area.

Indeed. The issue is one of subjective v objective. The NSW state government publish crime rates suburb by suburb. This is the only realistic way of making an informed judgement.

http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Lawlink..._lga_crimemaps

What else can I give on here other than my opinion? You want me to dig up some crime stats

Ah cool. Stats

By the way guys.....OP is from Ireland...just saying!!

Australia is only slightly safer than the UK but both countries are well above average for assaults.

Assault victims (most recent) percent population per year

1. St Kitts and Nevis - 3%
2. United Kingdom - 2.8%
3. Australia - 2.4%, New Zealand - 2.4%

Weighted Average - 1.4%

9. United States - 1.2%

20. Japan - 0.1%

From here

Hi Lettie

To try and return to the original question, I have relatives who live, and have done so for 20+ years, in Penshurst. I lived there briefly in 1989 and loved it, close to the train station at Hurstville, nice friendly area and lots of parks for the kids. From memory, it only too about 20 minutes to get to the beach, and is about 25 minutes to the city from Hurstville by train.

Hope that helps, and good luck.

Beach time from there is thirty to Bondi or Cronulla unless you count Brighton as a beach. 25 mins to city is probably midnight.

Hurstville is a MASSIVE Asian, i.e Chinese/Korean etc, dominated suburb. Nothing wrong in that whatsoever but it might be nice to know for demographic purposes.