Sunshine Coast areas
 

Hi there

Just wanted to ask a question or ten about the Sunshine Coast if that is OK?

We currently are NZ citizens and have happily lived here for 7 years this December. My husband is working in Dubai at this point flying in and out when he gets his time off (Or we fly to him)

Anyway we love our trips to QLD and for years I have said I would love to live there, however we have only ever stayed in Brisbane and Palm Beach.

With my husbands work being based over seas anyway we have reached a point that we could move to QLD as Gary will just fly in and out any way.

The thing is I feel the Gold Coast is probably too busy, though Palm Beach is quieter but still I feel from what I have read that the Sunshine coast is probably a nicer/better place to stay.

We have an 8 year old daughter who loves to be out side and is a total fish, she would also need somewhere that does dancing classes etc as she is very active.

Other things that I would look for is a gym close by that offers classes, also cafes etc.

My question is to anyone that does stay there, what areas would you say are best for an 8 year old, for schooling etc.

I am looking to book a flight for mid July during our school holidays to come and do a recce.

Areas I have been told that are nice are Caloundra (Moffat Beach) and Moloolaba.

I want to be close to a beach, has to be walking distance I think.

Any advice is welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Sunshine Coast areas
 

I live in Mooloolaba and love it. The mooloolaba beach is great and there are endless beaches that stretch the whole of the Sunshine Coast, all of which are excellent, not only that but you can use the beaches all year round and I swim in the water for probably 8 months of the year. Mooloolaba also has tons of cafe's that do great coffee so no worries on that one.

Lots of gyms around here, my fiancee goes to gym classes every morning before work, the gym is called ezyfit (if you want to google it), it is a big modern gym with first class facilities.

I much prefer the Sunshine Coast to Gold coast, although it is a lot quieter but I guess unless you are in to going night clubbing or anything like that it wouldn't be an issue.

Not too sure on the schooling but there are plenty of school's around here, Mountain Creek is a suburb only a few minutes outside mooloolaba that has a couple of school's that I have been told are good.

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Thanks for that, yea I would say with having an 8yr old my clubbing days are over, give me a glass or ten of wine any day of the week in my jammies reading a book LOL.

I did see Mountain Creek school on one of the rental searches.

When in Mooloomba is it fairly easy to get everywhere? could I do a lot of walking? I love walking and am spoiled right now that in the nice weather I barely use the car. (not that it nice right now at all haha)

Oh and is the humidity better than Brisbane? I know the Gold Coast is way better.

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Yes mooloolaba is easy to get everywhere it is right in the centre of the Sunshine Coast. Lot's of nice walks along the beach paths. Humidity is about the same as Brisbane but you do usually get the coastal breeze here which makes it a bit more bearable but I do find December-March very hot and muggy.

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Yea the sea breeze can make a difference for sure.
Just looking up schools just now, so much to look up.

Hoping the real estate place will show me a few rentals just to get a feel for the area.

Have also found a good dance school for my daughter so that will keep her happy. Need to find a swim club but I am sure that will not be a problem, also as long as she can swim a lot she will be happy.

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Also check out beachside of areas around Buddina - Parrearra if you want walking distance to a variety of facilities.

The area is less congested than the centres of Noosa, Maroochydore, Mooloolaba or Caloundra all of which can be parking nightmares.

Kawana Shoppingworld on the doorstep along with other businesses close by including a gym. Several cafes around. Lots of businesses along the length of the Nicklin Highway.

It's one lovely long beach from Port Cartwright South to Currimundi and beyond. Not busy if you like beach walks.

Kawana Surf Life Saving Club is very good and would be something you could sign up the daughter to do.

Mooloolaba is great and only about 10 minutes away. However it is a very big holiday destination so I would not recommend it for family life. We loved driving to The Spit or Point Cartwright for walks but could rarely find parking in the main hub of Mooloolabah.

Don't know anything about schools but there is a very good looking one at Brightwater which is only about 10-15 minutes from Buddina. That may be the same one AJH was talking about at Mountain Creek as they roll into one.

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Hi there!

We have recently moved to the Sunshine Coast and we absolutely love it! When we first arrived we stayed in a holiday let on Golden Beach in Caloundra, which is really nice for families, with parks etc, the beach is very calm and there is a dance club on bulcock street. It looks good.

Then we stayed in Buddina which is fantastic! The beach is amazing and the Kawana shopping world is great.
My son goes to Buddina State School, its a really nice school just on the beach. There's a real family feel to the school and they really made my 9 year old son Jak feel very welcome. He has been there 7 weeks now and he is really happy and has lots of friends 😊

We stayed in Holiday lets for the first six weeks when we first arrived and it was great as it allowed us to explore and see what area we liked best.
We really love Buddina but struggled to find a rental property there so we are now renting in Kawana Island which is lovely and just a short drive to Buddina School and beach.
There is a dance class at Buddina school after school but I'm not sure of the details. There is a surf club behind the school, hopefully Jak will start little nippers in August.


Mooloolaba is really nice as the resturants are lovely on the beach front and a really nice harbour. Not sure about the schools in that area but it is a great place.

Sunshine Coast was a great choice for us!

Good luck 😊

Re: Sunshine Coast areas
 

Buderim.

Green, lush, quiet, safe, own bustling large village, restuarants, parks, pockets of rainforest, 5-10 mins up mountain from Mooloolaba and ALexandra headland beach.

Huge family area, state primary school, ( state high schools are chancellor or mt creek ) and the top private schools on the Sunshine coast . A new university set in lush grounds, full of kangaroos and architectural buildings, Huge Tafe/college campus.

Every kids club from dance to basketball you could think of, surf, swimming, diving, kayak etc for the water kids.

10 mins to 2 major shopping centres, own village with supermarkets, banks, restuarants, etc etc. 50 mins to brisbane on weekend, add 30 mins to that in peak though. Domestic and NZ airport 10 mins away.

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Thanks so much everyone, these all just came through on my email.
Heading out but will respond once home :)

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thanks for that, I never thought about parking and it is awful when you can't find anywhere.

Will check this area out thanks :)

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Thanks , I will check out clubs for her :)

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Can I ask what the classes hold roughly? my daughters school now is on average of around 30. Will google the school and the place you living now, it sounds lovely. So nice to hear you have settled :)

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Buderim really sounds lovely, just the kind of place we are looking for, right now we in a little town of 3000 outside the bigger city and it is perfect. Doesn't have a uni though or many restaurants but a small village feel.

Does it take you long to drive to beach?

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Just another thought, we never did a recce when coming to Nz we just chanced it and were lucky enough to love where we are.

We are a bit dubious about doing it this way again as we are sure we will not be that lucky twice.

What do you reccoment seeing/doing on a recce.

I am thinking so far:

schools
housing (We are in no rush to buy, in fact I quite like the idea of renting and not being stuck to a place) (we still own property in the UK that we earn an income from)
General feel (I go a lot with how I feel in a place)
Traffic
Shopping (Though not really important if one town so close to the next)
A good wine shop (not really, yes really LOL)
Dance schools
Swimming pools (For squad teams)
Things to do/parks/walking/biking etc

Anything else?

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I would definitely feel out what area you would like to live in. Some good mentions in this thread, mountain creek, buderim are both good choices in my opinion based on the life style you are after. Although buderim depending on which side you are can be a good 15-20 minute drive to the beach and it can be up some pretty steep hills depending on what street you live in.

I would recommend checking out a new housing estate called 'brightwater' in the suburb of mountain creek, it is a 5 minute drive to mooloolaba beach and is a very child friendly place with several new parks, a school, shops and a really good tavern that serves nice food and drink. We are hoping to buy a house there in the coming months. Mountain creek also has a nice out door pool which you could check out.

Check out Sunshine Plaza in maroochydore (next town to mooloolaba) for shopping, it is massive with load shops and a nice river walk way with restaurants etc..

For walks I would check out buderim falls and mount coolum (great view from the top).

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The more I am hearing about Mountain Creek the more I like the sound of it, 5 minute drive to the beach is nothing, I am about 25 depending on traffic lights right now. i saw a few rentals that looked nice and I think could be in that area you are talking about. I like to look at what is on offer rental wise as it helps get a good feel for the area too.

I need to sit and write a list of everything I need to organise, I am going to get a list of schools and email them to see if we can go in etc.

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If you lived there would you send your kids to Brightwater State school or Mountain Creek?

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From buderim main street you could be on the beach at alex in 7 minutes same for mooloolaba. These are white sand patrolled surf beaches, mooloolaba can be very crowded in school hols.

Traffic on the sunshine coast is really limited to the main streets at peak hour. Parking problem is going one street back from where you want to be.

The only serious traffic is the commute to brisbane mon to friday, it can be awful, like any regional to city commute weekday.

We now live between melbourne mainly but retain secluded acerage on sunshine coast, and a business. After going back to a city of 4 million and its associated problems coming back to the sunshine coast house is like going to some luxury retreat, the teens call our old home the resort now :lol: Pity I have to work when I come up.

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Funny as Melbourne is a city I love, but I just have never felt I could live there, I do love to visit it every year though, I do my own thing while my husband spend the week at the F1 with his mates. I just love how easy it is to get around the CBD and love the shopping.

I think I really just prefer a quieter place, I could not stay in Brisbane and have been caught in rush hour traffic there OMG it was like being in Glasgow again, crazy busy. However it is nice to have it close by for shopping. (not putting it down, just not what I am after right now)

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Jak's class has 30 kids in it 😊

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Well that is my flights and hotel booked. We arrive on July 10th for 7 nights and we staying at the Coco Mooloolaba.

Can not wait :)

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The coco looks nice have walked past it a few times, a nice bar right beside the entrance.

Hopefully the weather is good for you, usually nice clear sunny days in winter but been a bit up and down the past couple of weeks.

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Yea I am not sure what to pack to be honest, hate going away at this time of year and needing hot and cold stuff LOL

What have you been wearing? Im assuming no sun dresses?

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I'm male so definitely no sun dresses :thumbsup: I wear shorts and t-shirt every day, the day's are still pleasant temperatures, anywhere from around 19-24 degrees, today for instance was 22 degrees. If you are out earlier on in the morning or after the sun goes down then you will definitely need a jacket, night time temps have getting quite cold down to 8 or 9 degrees.

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hmmmm yea sundresses may look funny LOL

good to know, dresses and cardis it is then with a pair of jeans flun in just in case :)

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I think Buderim reached saturation point some time ago. It's no longer the sleepy suburb of it's previous reputation.

I agree with AJH that Brightwater is certainly worth checking out if you don't want to be in walking distance to the beach. It's a new and expanding development around a man made lake with plenty of cycle and walking tracks and green areas. The small shopping centre has an Aldi and a British fish and chip shop who do Scottish specials and the Italian pizza shop next door is really good to.

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Oh I would love a scottish special and will need to check that out :)

I would really prefer to be closer to a beach, I guess I am going to have to see what area I like best and then decide what will be compromised on.

Really would love to be able to walk to beaches though.

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It's the Fryer of Whitby. They do a night of Scottish fare e.g. fried Mars bar anyone?

The Buddina / Parrearra area beach side of the highway does offer everything in close vicinity and a lot of it walkable. Forgot to say there are also public tennis courts and a big council library there too. The Kawana Aquatic centre is within 10 minutes drive.

Look up Sportsmans Parade, Bokarina on Google as all sports are being centred there. In fact if the aquatic centre is very high up your list for the daughter then check out the Kawana Waters State College which is right next door. You could then perhaps live beachside in Bokarina / Warana area. Still an excellent location near everything.

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Just as an aside Caroline are you planning on using your NZ citizenship to live in Australia ?

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For now until we decide what we want to do, we may not like it and move back.

I will still need to look into the visas etc that I need.

I have been a citizen for a couple years now, and we never got that just to move to Australia, but because we love NZ. I just want to try something different, not sure if it is forever.

To be honest Gary was always worried about the spiders, he is happy living where we are, but with his job right now, in the next year or so it could end up being based in Australia, he does have his licences etc to work there. It just feels like the time is right to make the move.

Re: Sunshine Coast areas
 

Mountain creek is a flat area, most houses were built between 10 and 30 years ago, largish blocks. A good suburb for facilites it contains a large Tafe college, Childcare 1000 kid primary school and 2000kid high school. I was in there every day for years with our kids did some primary there and one did IB at the High school. School classes between 30 and 38 in our time, but the upper streams of the high school do have bigger classes as they maintained they were the better behaved kids :lol: Early primary was occasionally only 26 or so. Very handy location but nothing special.

Buderim. There is real Buderim the area around the village and down the mountain and a lot of housing estates that tacked Buderim on their name for the prestige. The areas 15 mins from the beach are actually Forest Glen and Mons or North buderim ( maroochydore really ) but even that is only 10 mins from maroochy alex beach. If you are looking at real buderim it will be very very green, lots of trees or ocean views, large land, quiet, private and if your lucky walk to the village and school area.

More costly than Mt creek, but older houses can be bargains, pockets of Doctors and lawyers acerage around the private schools and some houses in rainforest that you cant even see your neighbours once in the property, like being in the Daintree ( google it for images ) amazing. There are a couple of streets on the side slopes to avoid due to slip, but thats a few houses not the entire area.

Brightwater. It was originally called hideaway waters but was then marketed as Mountain creek or it probably would have been hard to sell. The man made lake like many (lake, waters, fields estates ..... ) is excavated to raise the land, the roads still cut in there in a big way just after it was first developed, but the blocks of course have to meet the 1 in 100 flood levels so should not flood but drainage could be an issue.

All new housing but houses V close together. Usual estate facilites, pub, shops, childcare, kids parks. Very handy location for getting places it has highway on 2 sides. During the construction faze it was called a less flattering name (swampwater :lol:) by the tradies due to the sandflies, a real problem in that entire area New estates are a love/hate thing, some love, some hate.

Kawana and buddina, off the highway to caloundra, new old and waterfront houses. Useful area, everything from trade park retail, to updated shopping centre, beaches beautiful but swim only on patrolled beaches, many people unaware of the severe currents and rips. Walk in the national park there its a beautiful beach/park area.

Mooloolaba, more residents would be young renters, the nightlife area, and very very busy patrolled beach in school hols/summer.

ALexandra headland. Lovely area, can be expensive, loads of competition for rentals or for sale houses. Loads of restaurants, walk to beaches or the largest shops on the coast. New town centre going in at Maroochydore just up the road but I think it will be coast pace, take years in other words.

Airports as you need them, brisbane, about an hour run in good traffic and maroochydore 10 mins at mudjimba which is south of coolum, which is beautiful but a bit out the way for jobs.

Noosa and surrounds, is about 40 north.

The amazing ranges of mapleton and montville, flaxton etc, are about a 40 min drive from the beaches, can be amazingly cheap, acerage land still in the 200's if you really look:( cooler by a few degrees day and night) lovely but was too far to drive for us with 3 kids.

Sunshine coast is humid from dec to march, jan an feb can be stonkin! but the coast is way cooler than brisbane, I have never not been to brisbane and felt the heat more. Sea breezes if you are within a K or so of the beach or on top of the mountain in buderim which can also be a degree or so cooler in summer.

Weather now is 22ish+ day time and about teens at night. Plenty of people in shorts and singlets out yesterday! summer dresses too, but I was in jeans and a light cotton sweater as after too many aussie summers I find 22 coolish:lol: Bring sweater at night for june/july.

Hire a car when you come out, you can see so much in a week that way.

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Thanks so much for all of that, lots of interesting reading for sure.

I was in Brisbane this March and it was awful, drove to the Gold Coast for a week and it was like being in another planet, crazy how the humidity changed.

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Thats fine I was lazing round drinking coffee so just had a typing moment :lol:

We built in most of those areas for a decade! so more than happy to pass on our experience of the nitty gritty :thumbup:

Oh and bum! its just started raining! you would need a sweater this morning for sure.

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Will hire a car for sure :)

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I am just sitting emailing all the schools to ask if we can visit while we over. (Fingers crossed a few agree)

Just wondering if anyone has heard anything about Matthew Flinders college?

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Hi there, we have been on the SSC for approx. 8 months, initially we stayed in Alexandra headland with family, but now we are renting in Mooloolaba. We have 2 children ( age 5 and 6) and they both go to Mooloolaba school, which is conveniently 2 minute's walk to the beach afterwards. The school is very welcoming, and encourage parents contribution, and our kids love it...
the follow on school is mountain creek high, and it is easy to get to from area without having to drive, as there is an under pass for kids walk/ cycle to get from mooloolaba to MC...


Unless you husband works in residential/ commercial building or tourism then work is difficult to find here, i'm in mechanical engineering and struggling... so hopefully his work is long term in ME. other thing to consider is income tax for other half, as if resident he will have to pay tax on oversea earnings, which I think you don't in NZ according my wife parents who are both kiwis.


hope the above help, enjoy your time on the coast and bring a jumper, as it a bit cooler in the evenings...

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Thanks for that, I have an interview with Mooloolaba, they were the first to reply and seemed nice (Though it is hard to judge tone sometimes on line)

I also have an interview set up for Buderim.

My husband is lucky as it looks like they want him long term, he is leading a project just now and they already have him down to head one after this one.

Yep tax a killer, he is being taxed in NZ just now too, but it is just what needs to be done.

There is a school right behind the hotel we are staying in when we get there, I think that will be Mooloolaba as it is only minutes from the beach.

How did you find Alexandria Headland? It is an area I wanted to check out too. Also Mooloolaba, do you find it OK with young kids or do you find it too busy? Are you walking distance to school etc?

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Yes the principles Mr Turner and Taylor are nice people, always engaging with the students... You should ask if you could attend school parade on a Wednesday, parents sit at back of hall and listen to what going on, achieved within the school. that's good work wise for husband..

Coco is on first ave, and school directly behind, walking to school is easy as it quite flat with plenty of houses situated in the area, depending on budget... Alex on the other hand is quieter, very hilly closer to shopping mall, but in general more expensive to buy. We couldn't really let our kids out on bikes.

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That is awesome, I am very excited about this school just from what I have been told be various people.

Being able to bike about is a must for Lucy, she bikes to school here unless it like now and icy/wet etc.