shelley77

Hi all

My Hubby and I are looking to relocate to Queensland and have thought about Townsville as it seems to be up and coming and busy enough to get stable jobs. Can anyone recommend moving there or have any thoughts about other places better?
Thanks

Sam

whilst it appears to be busy....... i found it...... not as nice as Cairns (sorry to those that live there)
My best mate has been there just over 6 months and is having trouble securing a permanent job.... it's a small town!

Although saying all of that.... they are redeveloping the harbour etc in anticipation of the troops arriving (not sure if thats this year or next) so will definatly expand at that point..... may be worth going there and waiting for a bit


but whilst i have offered my opinion....i live in Perth but i was there...i have seen....and have left lol

Max&Ozzy

Hi,

we're thinking of going from SA to FNQ too and had earmarked Townsville as one of our first choices. After our 4wd road trip last winter across the centre and up the east coast looking for suitable places we kind of felt a bit deflated after visiting Townsville. Looks like there was once something there and now everyone has gone? Plenty of re-development scheduled but also plenty of vacant city centre apartments and retail units.

On the way to Cape York we ended up really enjoying Cairns much more and are likely to start looking up there instead.

cappuccino

When I visited Townsville a few years ago, it was ok, nothing special and it was known as 'Dullsville' back then! I do however, remember a great Thai restaurant but the best thing about Townsville was getting the ferry across to Magnetic Island and driving around in a 'topless moke'. Happy days

spartacus

Is a 'moke' a one-piece bikini?

Or is it like a 'tank-top' only with arms and no 'body'? . . . I'm not exactly 'with it' fashion-wise . . .

Sally Simpson

DrDan has posted some good posts about TV such as
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ownsville+pics

We live in Cairns but my husband worked in TV for 4 months last year. He liked it but not as much as Cairns which is much more lush & green. TV also lacks a really good city centre but has plenty of shopping centres dotted around the suburbs.
There is a large army base there.
Job situation in Cairns currently is not great, one if not the, highest unemployment in Aus since the economic downturn & has yet to really pick up. However, hopefully this will change as this year goes on.
What sort of work do you do?

GETOOZ

Here you go !!!!!

http://www.mokemagnetic.com/

Quite cool on a very hot day ....

The A Team

http://mokemagnetic.com/

a really fun way of seeing this gorgeous island

The A Team

I have to agree with other posters, the city centre is awful and if visitors don't get to see much more than that they really aren't going to get a good impression of Townsville. The Strand area is beautiful, we've got the recently opened Willows shopping mall which is pretty good and with the free swimming lagoons at Riverway as well it has got plenty to offer. It's also home to the NQ Cowboys and Townsville Crocodiles and both have passionate supporters. There are also some really good restaurants and although it has the army base for the most part you would hardly know it. Job wise, things are certainly not as good as they were a year or two ago and far more jobs are casual, but it does depend on what sort of work you do. For bringing up a young family I would highly recommend Townsville...we're now considering moving to Melbourne in the future but only because our son is looking ahead to Uni and the courses he wants to do aren't available in Townsville.

spartacus

Aaaah . . .thanks for clearing that up. When she said she was driving around in a topless moke, i thought she'd been tanning her taa-taas . . .

cappuccino

Well glad that misunderstanding has been cleared up and btw, there is a nudist beach on the island where I did tan my 'taa-taas'

Brav

Is there much casual and/or part time work going around (Cairns)? I'll be a student there starting this Feb and really hoping to find a part time job, doing...whatever

CraigSarahGeorge

We lived in Bushland Beach which is the closest of Townsville's northern beaches, about a 20 commute into the City. Really lovley place to love, walking the dogs on the beach on a morning, watching the sun go down from the beachside tavern etc, definitely worth a look. If you want to live in North Queensland Townsville and Mackay are the only places where you can still find work relatively easily compared to anywhere else. Cairns is a holiday place, no industry so very little work,it has a very transient population. This makes it great for regular visits (We head up there 3 or 4 times a year) but I would not fancy living there. Townsville is having the City Centre demolished and completely rebuilt this year, it needs it and will give Townsville another focal point other than the Strand which is fantastic. If you can handle 3 months of hot and wet the rest of the years weather is great warm sunny days and cool nights. We have been here 3 years now and love it... ps we have just moved to Magnetic island a 20 minute ferry ride off Townsville Its fab

Sally Simpson

Plenty of bars etc but you will be competing against Uni students already here & Feb is low season here too.
There is casual work around though if you want it I would say!

spartacus

If it was a nudist beach I'd imagine it was more than the taa-taas that got a tanning . . .