lesleys

Those are pictures of Eagle Heights on Tamborine mountain. There are 3 village areas on the mountain - Eagle Heights, North Tamborine and Mount Tamborine. Total population about 6500.

Tamborine, otherwise known as Tamborine village, is a different place at the bottom of the mountain. It's not going to be a village much longer as a huge expanse is being developed.

Sherlock Holmes

sliverfish.

fish.01

Yeah I was reading about the 3 of them when googling as I can never remember which one is which....I was going to split them into all 3 but thought that might be over the top even for me so figured Tamborine was enough for the OP to find them Didn't know Tamborine Village was at the bottom...though probably passed the sign all my life Might go tomorrow and have another look

fish.01

I agree totally with this...so many factors to consider how the hell does anyone get it right

BadgeIsBack

To regugitate and put on a fresh slant, UK villages are often spread across the entire of the UK and not far from a city. Australian equivalents are country towns and not really villages in the UK sense but will have a sense of community. The longer distances in Australia mean there will be a greater sense of isolation - perhaps - but there are stories on BE of people who have claimed to have lived in a 'remote' area of England.

Australian villages tend to be found in hills and corners on the edges of the state capitals - where the city abuts the bush...(bushfires?) if they are commutable they might still be expensive but still represent good value for money. ie a house will be 700k rather than 3M, say. Depending on the type they might attract the disinterested, apathetic, alternative, tree-change, hill-lover, tradie, professional or the well-heeled or all of the above. Ours seems to fulfill all of the above. It is not everyone's cup of tea. Many people prefer the sea and the coast which is not unreasonable.

Don't read too much into architecture but you will find 100+ year homes, and a bit of history too.

Research!

odyssey

I am from a village in Wales - live on the Sunshine Coast and to me it seems just like home - in that it is a community, you keep bumping into the same people, there are villagy things going on, there are allotments etc. Not many jobs though, nursing is ok but you cant have everything.

To me its not the size of the whole region that makes it a village - although there are smaller places like palmwoods that are very villagy. Its the community.

sarisburysleuth

A big thank you to everyone that has replied! It has given us a lot to think about
The village-like feel, I suppose, is more to do with the layout, style of buildings and, of course, the sense of community. The size of the 'village' is not really a concern, a small town would be suitable. We don't expect to find a UK style village, but would like to avoid the uniformity of a modern suburb. It would be nice to have the best of both worlds; a semi-rural area close to shops and other amenities.
Schools will be important to us too as our daughter is 8 and our son is 3. We are sure there will be further compromises as a result of this.

Thanks again to everyone - we look forward to further postings.

ProudVIC

Central Victoria is full of small towns with a distinct village atmosphere. Some of these towns are more or less preserved from the 1850s gold rush period and there is some fine and in some instances rather grand architecture in some of these towns, even with populations only around 1000 in many of them.

The Macedon Ranges area about one hour drive north west of Melbourne and the area beyond that, (the 'goldfields' region), spreading out towards Bendigo and Ballarat have a distinct European feel. This is in part due to the history of settlement of these areas, eg. the Daylesford area was heavily settled by Swiss Italians and other areas were settled by other Europeans, Cornish miners that came out during the gold rush etc. etc. A lot of the early settlers of the Macedon Ranges area were Scottish.

The very European like climate, especially on the central ranges is also a factor that led to European style development of towns and villages. There are a lot of deciduous northern hemisphere botanic gardens, private gardens and street trees in central VIC.

If you want to see for yourself, Google street view has updated a good deal of imagery around Australia and most of it is now HD, especially around the township and urban areas.

ProudVIC

WOODEND
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=woo...1,,0,7.62&z=13

DAYLESFORD
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=day...12,208.06,,0,0

KYNETON
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=kyn...cbp=12,15,,0,0

MALDON (Preserved gold mining town)
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=mal...bp=12,225,,0,0

As some others have mentioned, Australian towns are more spread out as a rule, as we have a very low population density compared to anywhere in Europe and people over here appreciate space, it is engrained in the culture.

There is probably more in common with USA and Canada with respect to the layout of Aus towns than England and Europe.

Wendy66

We never lived in cities in the UK and certainly didn't want to here. We live 15km outside a NSW regional country city of Tamworth about 50,000 people it has a friendly feel that is much like England of a good few years ago. Few hospitals and plenty of jobs about, 3000 houses going up on the outskirts. The main street is tree lined with coffee shops every few shops and has a lovely feel to it. We live on 6 acres and have Roo's in the garden, deer in the hills and the bird life is fantastic, children are children here longer, no traffic on the way to work and yet you can get everything you want in the town.

Most on this forum seem to think that anything outside the cities is the outback each to their own, personally when visiting the areas nearer the coastal regions and cities, the sheer amount of traffic is the first thing that puts me off.

We visited lots of similar areas in WA/Vic and Qld if you want to pm happy to share an opinion on areas, best thing to do is research areas constantly, tie that in with house prices on the realestate.com website, along with a list of what you want for your family from your chosen areas.....If your not sure where to start just visit Google maps and look at areas surrounding major towns.

fish.01

We need more people on the forum like you who live in country towns. I imagine a lot of people don't consider them an option just through not knowing much about them. And the govt is desperate to get people to move into regional/country areas.

ProudVIC

I do hear a lot of strange assertions on this forum about elements of Australia, eg. anywhere outside the cities is wild outback Mad Max/Wolf Creek territory with no culture or sophistication whatsoever, that there are no green fields or rolling hills, all the trees are gnarled eucalyptus, no four season climate etc. etc.

I always wonder what country I have lived in all my life because it is not the one that so many people on here describe. It makes me feel like I am in a parallel universe or something.

The area that I live has all the above elements I mentioned in spades and many parts of Australia are similar right up the east coast and ranges.

Sherlock Holmes

I live in a small town and love it. The snag is that there aren't any high paying jobs here. There is teaching and nursing though and I think the pay scales are the same and with low property prices you can do well.

Many people are in IT or trades like gas and electric, carpenter etc and there just wouldn't be enough work.

People here drive 100k to work and are happy to do it. It only takes an hour (not much longer than a rush hour drive in the cities).

There are also lots of bigger towns though in regional areas. No, these aren't village like but are not cities either. More chance of work there though perhaps.

Petals

Lots of lovely small places to live in Victoria. My son lives in a town on the Murray river and I love visiting him. He can get to the snow in winter if he wants, get to Albury Wodonga easily and there are lots of other small towns around which are easily accessible.

He is a teacher and has a wonderful social life. He lived in the Mallee in a wee farming community for a few years near Mildura and he could commute in easily

Places like Wangaratta, Beechworth, Rutherglen, Yarrawonga, Yackandandah lovely small places, well Wang is not that small. Not a fan of Shepparton though and that is not a small place either.

Alexandra is lovely little town we always stop there for a coffee and a meal.

BadgeIsBack

I know of a Scot who has brought a fair amount of land up near Mt Macedon - he spends his time between South Yarra and there.

Not all Scots are feckless and angry...he could and does pass as an Englishman...


It has been said before! Good posts BTW.