Carbery

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the SC in 2005, nearly buying a House & business but now live in Carrara, Gold Coast.
The Sunshine Coast is beautiful, but as other posters have said seems a bit quiet. Mooloolaba even at the weekends seems to close at 6:30pm, the infrastructure seems to be badly planned and will not cope in the future if there is large population growth and there seems to be a lack of employment opportunities.
What we like about the GC is that you can pick & choose so many different lifestyle options - for our 2 teenagers there is plenty to do with public transport available even to the theme parks (my daughter has annual passes for the parks costing little more than a day ticket), different beaches to suit your requirements our faves our Currumbin, Kirra & Burleigh & so many restaurants that you will never be bored. The Coast economy seems to be booming so jobs should not be a real problem.
The downside of the GC cannot be ignored either - DRUGS. They seem to be everywhere, It is quite worrying to see and is not just contained to Surfers.

sammyg

Burleigh Have you had breakfast at Mermaids??
It's my fave!! Beaut brekkie over looking the surfers in the sea!!

Carbery

Not Mermaids, but been to Point Break for lunch, thats what I call 'absolute waterfront'

sammyg

oohh!! I'll have to try that too!

moneypenny20

That's no different from any other part of the 'western world' where there are people I can't imagine there's a school, club, bar anywhere that doesn't have some sort of drug culture and that includes SC. I'm not disagreeing that there's a problem here, I would just hate people to imagine it's worse here than other places.

jad n rich

But the sunshine coast only has old people so the drugs are more nulax, endep, laxettes, deep heat, asprin

Serioulsy, IMO, having lived in both, cant think of 2 places more similar to live if your talking on a day to day normal routine basis, both have similar population /unemployment/housing figures etc etc. Similar dist to brisbane too, anything from 45 mins to nearly 2 hours depending on the area.

GC wins hands down on theme parks, but two themeparks are now planned for the SC anyway. Mid GC has more nightlife too, but dont know how many on this website would be out backpacking and shagging every night, but then they could be

Sheilas Wheels

Agree, drugs are everywhere in the world. OH's a cabbie in Essex and they snort in the back of the cab and ask if he wants any Charlie!!

GC has tonnes going on - went to races today - right on our doorstep - great day out!

rabsody

I've lived on the Gold Coast (granted only for 3 months) and only holidayed up at Sunshine Coast (numerous times) but IMO I much prefer Sunshine Coast, not a big fan of the GC (apart from Tamborine Mountain).

I shan't elborate on here because I think I will get slaughtered LOL!

tonychef

hi im tonys girlfriend alison but decided to add my bit to BE

hi we live on the sunshine coast at the moment in noosa which has fab beaches great scenery, emundi markets, farmers markets and the stunning scenery at first we found it hard to adjust to the laid back lifestyle we come from manchester !!!!!!!!!! but we settled here in feburary after spending a year travelling all round australia in a campervan. the purpose of our trip was to have a year out and not work which we did and we had the most amazing year seeing all oz has to offer the big cities as well as off the beaten track the ' real australia' The other agenda was to find out where we really wanted to live . We are very lucky as in no kids, money to travel and not work and find our bit of heaven here in oz. We started of in cairns then Darwin, Broome, Northen WA,Perth,Adelaide, Melbourne,Sydney,Brisbane and still i had not found home.

Tony by this time was getting a bit worried as he thought we were back off to Manchester !!!!! I loved Byron Bay and the north of NSW but no work for me but as tony is a chef he can get a job basically anywhere And then we found Noosa and the Sunshine Coast and i fell in LOVE

Our story is not much different from most peoples here on BE but we got jobs pretty easily and rental accom in a holiday resort so still feel like we are on holiday.

Going back to the orignial question i personally love it here we have fab weather great beaches. Drinking wise we have 2 backpackers so you can have the rough with the smooth, Irish Murphys which has live bands and sells CIDER on draught which is a great plus for me and you have the posh resturants and nightclubs if you want it
I personally didnt like the Gold Coast far too touristy but then noosa has lots of tourists too

We are thinking of moving to Sunshine Beach which has the added plus of a village feel and a great surf club and a few bars that stay open late and within a cheap taxi ride into noosa

Comparing our life back in the uk yes there are lots of things i miss but we are living in a foreign country and you have to get your head around that before you have any chance of settling here life is slower but a lot safer than Manchester or our suberb Sale and i must say i feel very safe here and the locals are v friendly and we are making friends v easily but you have to be open and friendly yourself, smile and they will smile back talk and they will talk back

sorry i have been rambling and when tony reads this thread i will be in trouble

alison x
,

winedonju

You have cheered me up...thank you. We are coming out to sunshine coast in about 4 weeks, OH has a job in Noosa, but we are stuck here waiting for our visa Was feeling a bit..........dunno really....just want to get out there now.

tonychef

hi its the first time i have actually written on BE normally its Tony and you get so many negative comments about life over here Truthfully its not all its made out to be but if you are positive and try to fit in you can make it work we have and we are no one special just a bit more clueded up and prepared to give as well as receive

We went through the visa wait its bloody awfull but when it happens its great and then its all the goodbys.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have skype which is a godsend i speak and see more of my mum and dad and family than i did in the uk and its free !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good luck

alison xxxxxxxxxxx
Let me know when you arrive here because it would be great to meet up if you want its not very nice knowing now one ive been there and its quite hard to make new friends but now we are both working its getting a lot easier

good luck l and stay positive

winedonju

Thanks.
Can't wait........have good days and bad days really. Check my emails every 5 minutes.....just in case!

Your doing a great job on BE bye the way!

tonychef

Thanks for the postive feedback as they say here on BE !!!!!!!!!

its been great talking to you in cyber space and no im not a nutter just a nice person trying to help someone else through the move from uk to oz

Where abouts are you in the uk and what work has your OH got are you here as PR s or another visa

Rental wise we heard all the horror storys but we had refs from friends and all they want bascially is proof you can pay the rent for the next 6 months so we had no probs

Are you settling here perm in noosa in 4 weeks or are you comming on a RECCI i hate that word !!!!!!!

any other thing i can help you out in just let me know as im almost a local now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

winedonju

Your a natural
OH is a glazier, cannot get PR visa, as they stopped the Skills pathway D, so we are coming out on a 457 vise, then after 2 years we can go for PR (all being well)

Defo be staying (not reccie)will holiday rent for a few weeks till our furniture gets there then rent for a while till we find out exactly where we want to buy....think Noosa itself will prob be a bit too pricey for us, but we have been looking at Coolum and Peregean (pls forgive spelling?????).

As for being a nutter......I thought it was one of the requirements for BE

shark bait

cheers for the replies
we have made the decision to head to the sunshine coast
think the fact its not as busy or built up(in places)
now just need to find somewhere nr the coast so i can kitesurf , yet with easy commute to Nambour college.