But look, stm1971 isnt encouraged by my description at all so I'm not really a bad girl

Canberra a nice place ,theres alot worse places to live, maybe its boring but so is Perth the number one destination for Poms. Try living some hell hole in the outback like Alice Springs and Canberra is paradise.

thanks alot everybody for such a wonderful analysis
i v already made my mind and applied for a state sponsorship .. hope i ll get it and land in canberra asap
i will be depending on public transport and some rented place to commute and live initially.... does the public transport cover major canberra?? and can i find a rented place ( an apartment or share or something in under 200 dollars)
thanks

You will have to choose carefully which suburb you live in as I tried to get by on public transport for a while but it was a nightmare. Apparently it is better than it used to be but it's still not great. Rental is expensive here - around $2000 per month for a small townhouse but sure you can get a small unit or something a lot cheaper.

You will be struggling to find a garden shed on under $200. Well, maybe a room in a house share if you are very lucky - student digs type sharing. You could check out The Gumtree although the bulk of lets will be in the Canberra Times on Saturdays. The disadvantage is that you will be competing with uni students for the cheapest places because ANU and UC are both central northside and that is really the centre of most things.

Public transport is OK if you live close to a hub but if you are out in Woop Woop then it can take you hours to get from a to b. If you dont live too far out I recommend a push bike to get you almost anywhere you need to go. However you will find that people do live all over and if you want to have a social life with workmates etc then you might have to be prepared to get from one end of town to the other and a car may well feature in your future.

Biily Connolly wasn't here long enough to know. Canberra is a massive city for it's population and everything is in the suburbs not the city centre. He didn't go anywhere near the suburbs, what a tosser! But please stay away as it's way to crowded now with all the refugees from Sydney, Melbourne, Qld, and Adelaide.

Weve lived in Canberra for about 10 months now and havent a bad thing to say about it apart from maybe the drivers which is more of a Australia wide problem if you ask me.
We have great views and wildlife but we are on the edge of the bush in the south. the hills and mountains here are a mountain bikers/walkers paradise.

Great commuting and everything we need in our satelite (Tuggeranong) and there always seems to be something going on here.

Anouther happy Canberran....I would big it up some more but I would be repeating whats already been said

Sshhhh don't give away our secret!

Arrived in Canberra in 1999 with a mate at 9am and left by 1pm - that's how bad it was to a couple of 23 years olds!

We had planned to spend 3 days and nights but after a couple of hours in the all but dead city centre, we changed our plans and buggered off to Sydney where we had such a ball that we moved up from Melbourne a year later

Haven't been back since then. Really should give Canberry another chance and explore it further but just not right now

Again Canberra isn't designed like other cities. The city centre is just for business, everything is in the suburbs, hence a car is mandatory. Not long ago they had a a Sydney vs Canberra dj contest in Sydney, Canberra won. A lot of Sydney people come to Canberra to go clubbing on weekends as everything is so much cheaper and with basically zero liquor rules (all shops and supermarkets sell alcohol so 24hr availability) and 5:00am club closing it's pretty much madness.

I'm thinking of heading for Canberra. Good to know that it's not that bad after all!

Does this mean that in Canberra there are people wandering around drunk at all times of the day and night?

No it's not England!

Is Canberra really that bad ?

Depends what you compare against........

This weekends weather forecast, as one example........

Canberra (Showers and Windy)
Sat: Min 10°C Max 17°C
Sun: Min 7°C Max 14°C

Brisbane (Mostly sunny)
Sat: Min 16°C Max 31°C
Sun: Min 17°C Max 31°C

Woo hoo, showers in Canberra, bring it on! I'll believe it when I see it. The wind I would believe though, I hear it ripped the tarp off my son's car in the garden the other day. Never humid like Brisbane though.