Yeah I know, we had a bad 4 or 5 days of humidity this year

(Note: Brisbane Bayside, not Brisbane inland)

Beleive the rain when I see it

Anyhow will be in Mackay for the next 2 weeks so will not see it even if it does (hope it does as my garden needs it)

No, as Todd Carney is now playing in QLD somewhere!

Great!

After weeks of 30C and days of continous 40C the change is nice. Canberra is desperate for rain though as usual these days with dams at 44%. Oh and boring it isn't but most people never leave the CBD and here it is just the CBD.

I didn't rate Canberra when we first went there 30 years ago, but now we live in the Southern Highlands and visit the place every month or so we find it's growing on us.

It's far more civilised than Sydney (IMO) and has all the advantages of any "diplomatic/government" city - ie. loadsamoney courtesy of the taxpayer.

Nice cafe society areas like Manuka, big malls in the centre, large Bunnings outside the centre. Lovely scenery a few minutes from the town, and Lake Burley Griffin in view almost anywhere.

The main bugbear is the layout when you are driving - even with GPS you get lost regularly (not just me, I am always meeting people who are going nuts trying to get from A to B there!

Even colder than where I am in Winter, too!

The majority of the General Government Sector (GGS) revenue is from own source taxation (32 per cent) and grants from the Commonwealth Government (42 per cent).

The ACT has a relatively narrow tax base. The Territory faces revenue raising disadvantages due to its limited capacity to raise revenues from sources normally relied upon by other States, that is, payroll tax, land tax and mining revenue.

A significant proportion of the Territory’s economic activity is related to the Commonwealth Government, which is exempt from payroll tax. The Territory has small employment bases in manufacturing, wholesale trade, agricultural, and mining industries. Although average wages for all employees in the Territory are considerably higher than the national average, per capita wages for private sector employees are lower than the national average. All these factors limit the ACT’s capacity to raise revenue from a source that constitutes, on average, around one quarter of tax revenue for all States.

http://www.treasury.act.gov.au/budge...3/06revenu.rtf

Understand the politics. ACT govt (which the populace didn't want and voted sgainst) is in a running battle with the Feds. Everything is skewed to get more monet as ACT residents are the highest taxed in australia. Offset that though that the per capita income for ACT families is much higher than the rest of the country (dual income most with degrees). Other anomalies include four times the retail space per head of population of anywhere else in the country and that was before DFO was built. Not sustainable of course but a shoppers delight and again cased by local dentities and politicians vs federal politics. There's more but you get the drift.

mmmm - i'm considering state sponsorship - I know that rent is expensive - how far out do you have to live for it to become cheaper (and I mean within ACT not as far as QLD - yes and I meant QLD!!!)?

Any ideas about the availability of IT teaching jobs? Also my head tells me that the education system for my 12 year old would be good - am I right in thinking that??!!! Anybody who can tell me anything about ACT - please let me in about it - ta chucks!!!!

I'm moving to Canberra at the end of the year and I can't wait... even if its a stepping stone to where I really want to be (Brisbane) who cares... anywhere is better than the UK (just my opinion by the way dont want to cause an arguement hehe)

Sometimes in life, we have to start at the bottom and work up to the top....



Think I should go for a run now........

ACT is a small state so you don't have much scope to live "out of town".

Not sure about IT teaching jobs. Probably, it's no worse than elsewhere in Australia - there are loads of schools and a couple of very good universities in Canberra.

From the research that I've done, it's a great place to finish raising kids. I have two: one aged 14 and the other 11. I'm confident that they'll be just fine there. In fact I'm hoping that we can make the move ASAP. So far they've been happy to do whatever my wife and I plan which means they haven't been kicking about the streets as much like so many other kids particularly of my elder son's age. But lately, we've noticed a change our older son who's beginning to express his independence more and will soon be wanting to do his own thing completely.

Good luck with whatever you decide

How bad are mosquitoes are in Canberra?

Not as bad as Brisbane i'll bet.... Too cold for Mozzies down there...

I was thinking that. When I was in Australia ten years ago (Sydney and the Gold Coast), I found that there were loads of them - and they were terribly aggressive too.