RachelH

My husband and I are keen to move to Aus next year (he is an Aussie and has lived with me in the UK for 11 years now) to bring up our twin toddlers and baby due in November in a more relaxed and outdoor atmosphere.

One of my biggest bugbears is the noise in the UK - I have noisy neighbours, noisy roads, noisy everything and as a really light sleeper it makes me very very stressed.

My dream would be to live somewhere with lots of space and really quiet. However this isnt necessarily achievable as my husband's family live in Brisbane and he would want to be close to them plus he would also want to be able to commute via train (he hates rush hour!) into the city most probably.

Does anyone have any thoughts/advice on whether my dream is possible and if so where this utopian place is!!???

Sue from Manchester

That is going to be really difficult. If you want to be near a train line you will hear the trains (including the goods trains at night). New building is going on everywhere and previously quiet backwaters become built up.

I know what you mean about noise as we had the police around again on Friday night. Why do neighbours always have to row at 4am. I think there's something about the warmer weather that leads to them taking it outside as well. We had the guy walking up and down the street shouting "call the police, call the police". Plus you tend to have your windows open for fresh air. Add to that parties, barbecues etc. I think you just have to look for somewhere not on a complex and with plenty of space between you and your neighbour.

spalen

lots of acreage in birkdale, st james park, capalaba, which is all going to ensure you dont hear from neighbours . depending on which one they are about 20-30mins in car to CBD and about same on train. Im sure there are similar areas north of the city - these are south of the city.

www.realestate.com.au will show you some options. 600K$AU will be starting price for a reasonable acreage property up to 7 figures + above for really really nice ones

biggy

it will just be the wonderful noise of the wildlife that keeps you awake now. Our kookaburra alarm clock goes off at 4.45am every single day its brill

spalen

oh yeah and you wont be sleeping anyhoo because of the fear of pythons living in the roof and under the floor.

after the day we went to dreamworld whilst looking at the 5foot long and 6" thick snake (pythonus-scarius) and a friend said ' you know... those things are in 1 in 3 aussie homes , if you aint seen it its cos its in the attic ' .... I swear i didnt sleep for 2 days.

I should add however that in 2 years here we have only seen one (green) snake in a botanical park out wild roaming free. the others have all been in zoos (best place,if they're not already in a louis vuitton catalogue ). none of the aussies weve spoken to who live in residential areas have seen snakes in or aroundtheir homes. But some on acreage do get them.

wargod

Yeah and they have flick knives too