Undecided99

Hi All,

Where is the best place to live on the East Coast? We are looking at a big stretch from the Illawarra up as far as Coffs Harbour... For a long time we were very keen on CH and were pretty much decided that that was where were headed until a former work colleague of my Dad's who emigrated over to Oz in the 70s absolutely blasted the place! Now, this is only one man's view but it has made us wobble a bit. We need a bit of advice. Where else should we consider?

We are classic 'sea changers'. We're looking for a location by the sea (OH is a keen sailor) with a good, but not too hot, climate where property prices are still fairly reasonable. We have three young children (12, 10 & 7) and are keen to have access to good schools. As for work, OH has been working in the City for the last 15 years and is keen to avoid the city working lifestyle so would not ideally want to work in either Sydney or Brisbane but thinks his IT skills should be transferable to a smaller town environment. I run my own interior design business and hope to continue this in Oz too and it would be helpful to be reasonably close to a big city for sourcing etc. Coffs appears to be a growing town which ticks many of these boxes (except being close to a big city, of course). However, this guy said it was a town with no real centre and no soul and he couldn't understand why anyone would want to live there!! It looks great from our internet searches and we've read many positive reports. We'd love to hear from anyone who can counter his negative views.

However, we really feel we should research some other possibilities. Can you help? Where else should we look and why?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions....!

NickyC

I've lived in Sydney for nearly 30 years and know that stretch of coast pretty well.

I'd recommend that you DO live close to Sydney/Newcastle/Wollongong - not necessarily because jobs are more plentiful but because the education opportunities are better for your children.

I reckon the ideal spot for you would be the Northern Beaches of Sydney - up around Pittwater. It's not the slightest bit 'city-like' up there and if you don't need to commute - so much the better (because it will be a long one!). You have a beautiful environment with all the facilities that the city offers, including good schools, access to Uni etc for the children.

To me the main disadvantages of living away from the city is the fact that your kids will have to leave town if they want to get on. Places like Coffs Harbour (and Port Macquarie, Forster, Port Stephens etc) are lovely to visit and to live in for retirees but education and career opportunities are extremely limited for your children, once they finish High School.

Hutch

Agree with you Nicky - but isn't moving away from home to go to college part of the adventure!

iamthecreaturefromuranus

I would check on those 'transferable' IT skills very carefully as you may find that there just isn't any demand for them in a small town setting... and I just did a jobs search for 'Interior Designer' in the Illawarra, where I live, and came up with a grand total of nil. !!

To make the most of the skills you have you may have to live in one of the major cities, Sydney or Melbourne, or be prepared for some serious commuting.

datamile

It would really depend on the IT skills, but its hard enough to get an IT job in brisbane let alone a small coastal town.

Most IT here is supporting vendor products and there appears to be very little development. You choice is to work for a vendor consult or support something you can't changed.

IT hasn't really hit small business here yet, and you'd be lucky to find one with a website, and even why would they want one. MS Access is seen as a corporate solution is many big big companies. I'd check out seek.com.au etc to get a real view on the applications used here and the work levels.

NickyC

You're right in that in the UK it's very common (and exciting) to move away from home to go to Uni. I think it's different here, though. Most kids here don't move away to go to Uni/college - they go one in their home city. That means that there's not the same culture at Uni here - where everyone is away from home and they all get stuck into having fun away from Mum and Dad for the first time in their lives. Here when lectures are over, the kids go home. The majority of students that live on campus (at UNSW at least) are overseas students.

Just had a thought - Kiama would be another good pick for the OP. Nice, smallish town but close to Wollongong for an excellent Uni, and close to Sydney for the odd city-fix. Alternatively the Central Coast is another area they could check out

Petals

I am not sure I agree about uni, both my children went to uni in Melbourne and then they went to uni in the country as well and lived away from home. Each uni has different courses and set up so its finding the course and going where it is.

That said I agree about small country towns most professional people who are living in or around them are working from home. A lot work from home here on the Mornington Peninsula and do not need to go to the office every day. Of course you need to be established before you can make that sort of move.

bourbon-biscuit

I think the Northern Beaches areas of Sydney are gorgeous but you need a fair number of dollars to live there whereas if you head up the coast to Newcastle housing is more affordable. I'm not in Newcastle yet so I won't share my impressions of the place (have visited and know two people living there- one for 50 years), but I think it's well worth investigating.

Don't bin off Coffs entirely though- if you bin off everywhere on someone's negativity of the place you're going to struggle to find anywhere at all!

DrWho

Up here on the Beaches the house prices are still fairly stunning though...

I'd have a look around the Central Coast... although I'd agree with everyone else that trying to get employment in IT might be a tad difficult up there... Maybe do what Hutch has done and set up one's own consultancy...???

Undecided99

Thanks everyone for your replies. We'll have a look at the places suggested but don't worry, we won't bin Coffs yet! It's a wobble - we may still decide it's the place for us. Thanks also for your comments about the IT skills - if OH goes down this path he will be looking to set up his own consultancy. However he's quite keen to try something completely different so we're quite flexible. Anyway, the search continues!

Merry Christmas to you all.

harrip

I moved up from Sydney to the central coast (specifically Terrigal) 1.5 years ago. Absolutely no regrets. Its that bit more laid back than Sydney but with still enough going on to keep you interested. If your in IT, maybe remote working could be a possibility but I certainly would not want to do a daily commute to the big smoke even though quite a few folk do. House prices on the Central Coast are also certainly a lot more accessible than the Northern Beaches of Sydney.

australianinleicester

like nicky c, Sydney

moneypenny20

Also, don't rule out Sydney or Brissie. Brissie in particular is nowhere near as claustrophobic as London so city working isn't the same thing at all. The commute can be a total pain but it depends on where you settle and where the work is.

NigelWaring

We looked at the Central coast about 1980 but it didn't have enough to offer then, we settled for Cowan on the edge of the Sydney area with a mainline station. We are now retired and in a position to visit Sydney or the Central Coast finding that both are useful. We do our general shopping at nearby Hornsby but will occasionally visit the Central Coast which now has so much more to offer than it did nearly 30 years ago. The two shopping centres at Tuggerah offer just about anything and Erina Fair will compete with anything in the Metro Area. When we need a service centre for warranty work or similar often the Central Coast is the nearest for us and the roads are much easier.

renth

Coffs is an absolute shitehole, don't move there FFS.