cookiestar

When we visited Brisbane last year we really liked North Lakes as a place to live, and in particular McCarthy Homes. I'm now looking at other areas that might be nice to live, and have seen that McCarthy have a display home at Thornlands.

Can anyone tell me a bit more about Thornlands - is it a big development, are there good local amenities (shops, bars), how's the transport into Brisbane CBD - both by car and by public transport? Is it generally a nice place to live?

datamile

Its a suburb of redlands. You can cross redlands in 15 mins. Thornslands is mostly housing, with the main shops being at victoria point, cleveland ( Council ) and capabala.

There's a slow train from cleveland, or catch a bus out of vicky point going via bus way or capalaba. Average travel to the city I guess is around 1hr. You can drive, but you'll come up against limited and expensive parking in brisbane CDB.

Council Site

http://www.redland.qld.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Typically redlands was an aged farming area but now has many houses. Its very relaxed, and quiet, and you'd be lucky to find anyone eating out after 9pm.

A large number of brits live here as you still get better value for money, and that sea view.

brendan_brissy

hi, i lived there for 3 years its on the outskirts of cleveland, a great place to live as its about 40 mins from both city and gold coast. Shopping centres of victoria point and victoria point are few mins away. I am back in uk but will be going back to live in cleveland in January.
Having lived there before with 2 teenage kids i have to say i prefer cleveland but tends to be bit more expensive for housing.
Brendan

cookiestar

Great. Thank you both. Gives us a bit more to think about.

bobbyftm

Much more amenities etc in Cleveland than there is in Thornlands which actually borders Cleveland.Also in my opinion better facilities in Victoria Point (no train line but)or Wellington Point

Petals

Ormiston is right next door to Cleveland and a nice area too.

spalen

The main part fo Thornlands is nice its a mid-size estate like much of australia suburbia but its surrounded by water. There are tons of parks, bikeways, walkways, etc that you are on your doorstep. There is an older part of thornlands that has more established houses and ismore inland. Cleveland is also nice and if you have the dollars there are some stunning homes in Raby Bay marina on water, or along some of the streets fronting the bay there are lots of new and colonial houses. There are tons of houses for rent and for sale inthornlands - because its all quite new, and there is still the last few phases of development.

Goldcoast is 40 minutes along with theme parks (and Ikea)

Commute to CBD is 1hr for sure each way at peak times. 45 minutes off peak. Trains are 2 options, 40 minute express at about 645am (yeah right) or the 25 stop slow train (it really does stop like every 3 minutes) which is 1hr .

Not busy area - not congested - plenty of shops, cafes, supermarkets, infrastructure, public pool, libraries x 2 , loads and loads of schools (ormiston state, thornlands state, victoria point state, etc).

You can get ferry for about 5$ over to Coochiemudlo island which is 5 minutes ferry and you could be on a desert island (albeit with a chip shop).

Birkdale, Wellington Point are nice and 15 minutes closer to CBD with similar features but more mature areas.

ormiston is beautiful older style area.

ABCDiamond

Thornlands is between Cleveland and Victoria Point, and it all seems joined together, so it's difficult to know exactly where the borders are.

The shops in Victoria Point are excellent. Rarely need to leave the area for anything these days.

Parts of Thornlands are so close to Victoria Point, that some kids at one of the Thornlands schools walk to the Vic Point shops at lunch time.

We also tend to miss all the really bad storms that hit the area. I tend to watch them on the radar, and they almost always divide and bypass us with part going below us and part going above us. I've never worked out why though.

Cleveland is the closest railway station, and the normal travel time to Brisbane central is 1 hour.

The area does seem popular with the British, with about 8-9% being British born, although many of them having lived here for many many years. My British born neighbour moved here 70 years ago. The average British born is only about 5% for Brisbane in general.

Places to eat in Victoria Point:
Luscious Café
Big Chief Flame Burgers
Indique Indian Restaurant & Bar
Toscani’s Cafe Bar & Restaurant
Hogs Breath
Fasta Pasta
Elysium Wine & Tapas Bar
Ahmets Turkish Restaurant
The Espresso Bar
Sushi Point Restaurant
La Madrina
Ya Hoo Seafood Restaurant
Haveli Indian Restaurant
.... and this list is not complete, I grabbed it from the website of ONE of our shopping centre areas, we have 4.

ABCDiamond

Hmm... It takes me about 10 minutes to get to the Thornlands school at 3pm, due to "school traffic' congestion at the lights. Normally only takes 5 minutes outside peak time...

spalen

Ok.. so its not congested by english standards , but you've gone native ABC after all these years....


practical gridlock ;-)

ABCDiamond

I suppose I have, haven't I

I've just realised, I haven't driven in a Brisbane rush hour for some years now. I always go outside peak hours.

wanderingwombat

How well I remember Victoria Pt in gridlock around school time

WW

ABCDiamond

It's all good now though, school finished yesterday !

Oh.. wait a minute... my daughters one finished, but I think the State school has another week!

I'll just have to avoid driving at that time
Just realised...I won't be, as I don't need to pick her up (I am thinking fast today)

cookiestar

Fabulous replies. Thank you very much. Will definitely check the area out when we eventually make it over - sounds ideal, and especially nice being near the water

spadgersdad

Because the Bayside is a more established area it has a varied spread of types of housing , shops , restaurants ,ammenities etc. There are new estates being built near to the waters edge or at the other extreme there is acreage. Like previously said there are shopping centres at Victoria Point and at Capalaba which is a more established area. There are numerous good restaurants around Raby Bay Harbour, Victoria Point and Wellington Point. Housing tends to be a bit more expensive than some areas but when you take into account whats around its well worth the extra