Snazishaz

Hi quoll thanks for your reply, i have researched the history of australian earthquakes and emailed someone from geoscience Australia regarding the most seismic areas. From the reply i got Canberra is the least seismic in the whole of Aus, i know they have had smaller events in the past with nothing significant. WA, Melbourne, Queensland, and many other places had significant events in the past and apparently Adelaide the biggest hazard and has a major fault line. History does repeat itself unfortunately, so im aiming for the safest option. In saying that chrischurch although has many faults and as now known has many blind faults, i would say definitely a high risk here. Some faults havent ruptured in a couple of hundred years and are due to go anytime soon. I didnt know we had earthquakes here or i wouldnt have came here. But hey i have been in them all and lost colleagues and know people who have lost family its a sad situation and life to short so making a move hopefully this year or end of next. On a whole canberra sounds exactly what im looking for !

paddyo

In that case look at Murrumbateman or Yass as a place to live or Queanbeyan. All actually NSW but could be classed as outer suburbs of Canberra and, particularly the first two pretty rural but easy to get into Canberra via a decent road.

Snazishaz

Guys thanks for all your replies, really appreciate your help, have another question, is it worth shipping our furniture? Reasons to why ! when we came to NZ we were told its cheaper to buy here (Bull****) i say to that it has cost us thousands to furnish our new home and nothing under a yr old and didnt do it with buying cheap stuff either. Big mistake wish i had shipped my whole house from uk. Any way we live and learn. Dont know wither to sell everything and get a furnished rental or take it ? We arrived here with a couple of suit cases and clothes and some other important items shipped but nothing big. So dont want to make the same mistake again.

Advice on this be great !

Snazishaz

Cheers so are these pretty nice areas to live then? do they have good shopping facilities and how far to travel to city because i think thats were i will get work.

paddyo

Compare cost of shipping with cost of selling and re-buying. Plus is you get all new furniture suited to your new home (do NOT go furnished, can be a real pain and do you really want to sit on others dryed out fluids???), negative is you arrive with just a bean bag to sit on and have to look around for furniture shops and sort out deliveries etc.

paddyo

Well you said you liked rural!!! They are about 20 mins from decent shopping areas on outskirts of Canberra, the first two. Queanbeyan has shops and Bowlo and other stuff, is a small town. I just thought that they would also be a bit cheaper than the main Canberra suburbs and would be a good base as an introduction to the area, then, once you have settled in and got used to the place you could make a more informed decision.

Snazishaz

Yeh no what you mean had to do it here! think originally i wil head over on my own and maybe flat share or something. Will give me time to explore areas and poss rentals houses. Made so many mistakes and would do things differently this time round. Do you no off hand how long it takes to ship to Auz?

P.s i didnt even have a bean bag when i arrived here would have came in handy lol

paddyo

God knows how long it takes, UK to Oz was 6 weeks, NZ to Oz must be half that time at most. Ask shipping companies, they will give you accurate estimates.

Sea Of Love

Sounds like you would suit Canberra fine. There are heaps of restaurants and wineries within the region. I know of one area that is just restaurant after restaurant along the street with every kind of cuisine you can think of from McDonalds to Etheopian, I think its in a suburb called Dickson.

Its a great location for weekends trips away because you are about 2-31/2 hours from the Snowy region, the beach and Sydney! Everytime I am in Canberra it always seems so outdoorsy to me lots of bike riding and hiking plus other agricultural things like the Canberra Royal show and garden shows, hot air balloon shows etc etc etc.

I think outgoing people will make friends wherever they go. Australian's, like New Zealanders as a whole can be a little more insular in accepting friends in comparison to people like the Scottish or American's for example, but if you have made friends in NZ then I am sure you will find friends in Australia you just have to wine them and dine them

Canberra isn't in 'pretty' looking countryside like a lot of NZ and certainly not the UK. It does (IMO) get unberably hot because you don't get the sea breezes but it seems to suit the type of lifestyle you are after.

Can't really help with the boring stuff like jobs and houses because I have never lived in Canberra.

moonsurfer

Definitely - definitely - ship it, furniture in Canberra is generally outrageously expensive and of poor quality and choice, especially in the large retailers. Much of it made in Asia and then marked up in the 1000s of %. There is not much of a range and unless you want to go custom made you will not get value for money with new stuff here.

quoll

Your friend is quite right, it is quite a sterile place and friendships are hard to forge - ones that last that is. I know it isnt just me that feels this way, a lot of the people I work with have cited the insularity as a real issue for them and I can understand why. If you like your own company you will be fine. If you expect to find lifelong bosom buddies you are likely to be disappointed.

I have felt a couple of earthquakes since we have been here but both very small and one was exacerbated by the fact that I was in the bathroom at the time and the tremors were magnified by the plumbing - my DH, outside in the garden, heard nothing at all even though to me it was a very loud noise.

paulry

Yes definately bored here but hoping that future income will make it a bit of a brighter and more rewarding place in which to live. Both of my sons have already made it very clear that they'll leave town as soon as they're able to. The mrs and I will probably do the same - maybe move to the coast somewhere.

Socially this place is the pits. As an example my sons are a fun, sporty, entertaining, chatty and outgoing couple of kids - in London they had tons of friends and used to go out a lot but here it seems that other kids just can't be arsed to socialise. I used to think that maybe it was because there were very few youngsters in Canberra but the number of teenage attendees at the big Commonwealth Park fireworks display several months ago definately put that theory to rest. The only kids socialising that I've noticed here is between those kids who hang around at shopping centres. The rest are probably all glued to their computer screens playing CoD.

quoll

I did tell you! What makes you think things will be different on the coast?!

As you know one of mine just loves the buzz of UK and when he has come back to Aus has become progressively more and more bored on his holidays. Small pond really.

paulry

Just playing with ideas really. We could probably get ourselves a nicer house for our money down there. And it'll be freehold. I wouldn't mind buying a holiday apartment/bungalow near somewhere like Bateman's while we wait for the kids to get through uni. After that, who knows?

quoll

Well there will be lots of older retirees down at the Bay so the bowls club will be on your list of things to do no doubt!