My Hubby will be working in the city, I will be out in Campbelltown at UWS.

We need a suburb that is somewhere in between with (hopefully) a train near for him, and good schools for the kids...

Can it be done?

The whole of Western Sydney is complete shite. completely different to the beauty and Glamour of Sydney...essentially it's a completely different city.

Live close to the city if you can. You can get trains out to UWS easily.

The whole of western Sydney is not completely shite. There are some very nice, established, leafy suburbs in western Sydney with plenty of large, old houses and excellent schools (public and private).

No-one who has ever seen the gorgeous federation houses in the streets of Strathfield or Burwood could ever describe them as shite - so completely disregard what Weebie says. He lives in Perth, anyway.

However you do have a bit of a problem being split between Campbelltown and the city. Will you need to travel by train to Campbelltown? If so, then probably a suburb near the the East Hills line would be best. The pick of the bunch would be the suburbs along the Georges River. Check out Oatley, Lugarno and surrounding suburbs. Voyagers Point is a newish area closer to Liverpool that is supposedly nice, but I've never been there.

Alternatively, you can get to Campbelltown by train via Granville so you could also look at the suburbs along the Parramatta River - like Concord, Strathfield etc.

This post is TOTAL rubbish, there are very nice areas to live in western Sydney, some are very nice green family friendly areas. I would much rather live in suburbs out West than in some of the suburbs close to the city centre!

I find the people that live out West are generally kind and honest people similar to northerners in the UK (maybe that is why people from the South in the UK might not like it out there )

I have lived near Neutral Bay / Mosman which is one of these so called beauty areas and I found SOME of the people very cold, snobby and cliquey. My wife calls them yummy mummy suburbs where they all try and out do each other with the bling and generally probably make themselves secretly very unhappy in the process.

I think the real Australia is to be found out West in the hard working family living suburbs.

There are of course places out West I wouldn't want to live, but you can say that about any region.

Western Sydney is actually a very large area - I live in The Hawkesbury and absolutely love it. I heard nothing but shite about these suburbs before moving here 5 years ago from the UK (after never having visited Australia), and I can honestly say that I haven't found anywhere else in Australia that I have felt more comfortable. There are good and bad areas everywhere, and i don't doubt for one second that there are bad areas where I live, but they have never impacted on me. I find the people here to be extremely friendly and I have never for one minute felt like a foreigner here. I am passionate about my suburb and will do as much as I can to support and promote it. I met one Aussie mum at the park within the first few days of arrival, and I can honestly say I would trust her with my life - such a lovely lovely family and someone I would find extremely hard to leave behind. I can honestly say that making the decision to leave The Hawkesbury to move back to the UK would be far harder than the decision to move here in the first place.

Hello lovely! How the devil are you?

Hello chicken - I'm good thanks! How the devil are you?! I'm actually in the gold coast at the moment on hols....what the **** is up with the weather?!!!

Sorry, you should have said, I'd have sorted it for you. It's been pants for about a year now. We're broke and sick but apart from that it's all ok. How long you up here for?

Sorry OP The thread will be back on topic soon

Oh no that doesn't sound good. What's happened? Hope you're all ok?

Wow...you really do have a chip on your shoulder about southerners don't you!
I have never in my life assosciated anybody's lifestyle or choices to thier geographical birthplace but some of the comments you made there from you and your wife are absolute rubbish and so snobby yourselves. Been hard done by have you? Jeez...I have seen and heard your type so many times in my life and its always the same...ya hate people who YOU think are better than you.

What she said!!

Burwood in particular I love, nice big wide leafy avenues. One thing that you MAY want to check out though is the social demographics of those areas, depends on your own comfortability with others and how you wish to integrate.
Also have a look at Sutherland and some other parts of the Shire which could be halfway between both areas.

Most People who live in Mosman I very much doubt have been past Balmain.

UWS by the way is a very underrated and interesting University.

God help us....BE is turning into a 'them and us' site!!

Ooh its kicking off here ;-)

I just moved from Cremorne/Neutral Bay to West pennant Hills. Both lovely areas. Agree with Jon77 in that NB was lovely but it is poncey - Mosman mums etc - must be a reason for that phrase

There are lot of lovely areas in the west. people make out its the wild west and rough etc. bear in mind this is australia - not Beirut. Everywhere is safe and if you are looking for trouble you will find it - anywhere. If you're a normal family/people etc you'll b fine.

To cut a long story short you cannot afford to live in a nice, big house in the northern beaches unless you pay $1 million plus. And that won't be a big house or somewhere within walking distance to a beach. Its too expensive now. I'd love to live there and i did enjoy it (not all ponces!) but the North west will do for us! ;-)