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Moving to Cairns,need help.

Moving to Cairns,need help.

Old Mar 25th 2008, 9:51 pm
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Default Moving to Cairns,need help.

Hi everyone!!!

We are leaving uk for Cairns on 14th june and need a bit of advice.1st of all we are thinking of the Yorkeys knob area is this a nice area, we are wanting to be somewhere near enough to the city centre but even more important is to be near a beach,it also needs to be near enough to shops and a school for our 5 year old??? Does any1 know any good primary schools around this area, I have found 1 on the Net but surely there is more? Any advice would be cool. We havent decided 4 deffo on yorkeys knob but deffo going to cairns as it looks amazing! Only thing offputting is the heat....is it really as hot as ive heard?

Thanks
Lisa
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 12:54 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

Hi Lisa.
Here's the official government rundown on Yorkeys.....

The Place Yorkeys Knob is one of the City's northern suburban beaches, approximately 15 kilometres from the CBD. The area is predominantly low lying cane fields and wetlands, with the residential settlement on the coastline. The Yorkeys Knob Yacht Club is located here.
Yorkeys Knob has a mixture of housing/ accommodation, with a large proportion of flats and units, and rental properties. It has twice the average proportion of couples without children living in the suburb, which includes younger and older couples. Many James Cook University students live in the area. The population is 2695.
The People
Community characteristics
The population of Yorkeys Knob consists of the following characteristics.
Proportion of Cairns population: 2.3%
Age
Less than 15 : 16.8%; 453 people
15-29 : 23.2%; 624 people
30-44 : 24%; 647 people
45-64 : 26.4%; 711 people
65+ : 9.6%; 260 people
Aboriginality (total)
Number of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples : 148
Proportion of suburb population : 5.5%
Language Other Than English (LOTE) @ home
Number of people speaking a language other than English at home : 194
Proportion of suburb population : 7.2%
Born overseas
Number of people born overseas : 558
Proportion of suburb population : 20.6%
Family type
Couple with children : 31.1%
Couple without children : 45%
One-parent family : 21.1%
Other household type
Lone person : 17.3%
Group member : 8%
Other : 1.2%
Housing structure
Separate house : 32.5%
Semi detached : 9.1%
Flats, units : 39.9%
Other : 5.5%
Housing tenure
Fully owned : 19.9%
Purchased : 15.7%
Rented : 43.4%
Housing Costs
Weekly rent : 69.8% pay $100-$199/week
Monthly loan repayments : 86.3% pay $400-$1599/month
Household income
Less than $15 599 : 14.9%
$15 600-$31 199 : 21.9%
$31200-$51 999: 23.3%
$52 000-$77 999 : 14.9%
More than $78 000 : 13%
Schooling/ education levels
Year 10 and below : 35.4%
Year 11/12 : 53.7%
Certificate : 16.8%
Diploma/ Associate Diploma : 7.8%
Bachelor Degree : 9.1%
Graduate studies : 2.8%
Schooling/ education current activities
Pre-school : 1.3%
Primary : 7.1%
Secondary: 3.5%
TAFE: 1.6%
University : 5.6%
Employment
Unemployment rate : 6.2%
Proportion of population in labour force : 66%
Primary occupation type : intermediate/ elementary clerical (32.3%)
Work at home : 4%
Method of travel to work : car, as driver (61%); combination/ other (20.8%); bus (3.4%)
These community characteristics are different from the broader Cairns population in the following ways.
  • Higher than average proportion of the population is aged 15-29, and 45-64
  • Higher than average proportion of the population is born overseas
  • The proportion of couples without children is double the Cairns average
  • Higher than average lone person and group member households
  • Mixture of housing, with a very high proportion of flats and units
  • High proportion of people renting
  • Higher than average levels of education, and current enrolment in University
  • Higher than average proportion of the workforce travels to work by bus and combination/ other means
Community life
Yorkeys Knob has a number of community facilities, including a community kindergarten, primary school, Community Centre Park (which includes a community hall, SES centre and a playgroup), and a range of parks, including the foreshore. There is a stinger-net enclosure on the beach at Yorkeys.
Sunbus provides a public transport service in the area.
Active formal community leadership in the area is provided by the local councillor, Margaret Cochrane, and state and federal government members.
Community needs and priorities
Key concerns that affect local people include;
  • Environmental quality, particularly of the beach
  • Planning and development issues, relating to housing and holiday accommodation (over-supply of flats/ units)
  • Provision of higher level infrastructure in parks
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 1:01 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

Here's a post I did a while ago.
I do prefer the North side of town.
Easier access to nearly everything.


CAIRNS SUBURBS

Loads of personal factors come into play when deciding where to live and everyone has different criteria as to what is good and what is bad.
I have tried to keep this concise without too much personal prejudice but that is difficult as my view is coloured by - my view.
I could have elaborated but would that serve a purpose ? I’m not sure.
I do not pretend to know Cairns inside out and have a lot to learn about it myself.


BEACHES:
Palm Cove – Caters for holiday trade with seafront hotels, apartments and restaurants along the Esplanade. Very nice. Housing could be pricey. Away from the beach will be cheaper.
Clifton Beach – No Esplanade as such. New small shopping centre out at the main Roadside. No real holiday industry here. Expensive at the water front.
Kewarra Beach – More affordable areas. Large development taking place. Not much in the way of facilities but not far to travel to them.
Trinity Beach – A mini Palm Cove. Very nice.
Trinity Park – No real beach. Water inlet. Big money going in here. Want to park your yacht at the bottom of the garden ?
Yorkeys Knob – Marina and beach. In flight path.
Holloways Beach - Flight path. Mmmmmm not my cup of tea.
Machans Beach - Flight path. Poor reputation.

NORTH:
Smithfield – Being developed a lot. Big shopping centre just revamped. Smithfield Heights area is very good. Gateway to the Tablelands and Kuranda.
Caravonica – Some very nice new housing.
Kamerunga – Mainly rainforest type living. Pole homes.
Freshwater – Older but seems okay.
Stratford – Tipped to become the next Edge Hill.
Redlynch – Offers a lot. New suburb spread over several km.
Brinsmead – Old and new. Better stuff tends to be up the hill. Good.
Park Ridge – East is virtually millionaire territory. West can be pricey. Good.
Whitfield – Older leafy burb. Some good, some bad.
Edge Hill – Older leafy burb in excellent location and has a good reputation. Where the yuppies live.
Kanimbla – New burb nearing completion. Looks good.
Mooroobool – Prime example of where good meets bad. Some very good and some very bad. City Views within Mooroobool is where a lot of big money people live.


CITY SUBURBS:
Old and undesirable places to be living unless it’s in a gated apartment complex:
Aeroglen – Read airport.
Bungalow – Old housing meets industrial.
Manoora – Probably the worst burb in Cairns.
Manunda – Similar
Parramatta Park – Just made the news due to increasing crime rate.
Portsmith – Not much housing. Industrial leading to the port.
Westcourt – Bordering the main Mulgrave Road.
Woree – Same as Westcourt.

SOUTHSIDE:
Earlville – Older. Better stuff is at the back toward the hills.
Bayview Heights – Where the original money people of Cairns live – or lived ? Better at the back toward the hills. New development there.
White Rock – Lived there 3 months. Never again
Forest Gardens - New burb nearing completion. Some good stuff.
Mount Sheridan – Older leafy burb.
Bentley Park – Nicknamed Nappy Valley. Cheaper housing. Lot of development out the back where it is now adjoining Edmonton.
Edmonton – High velocity expansion. Will be the largest burb I would think in terms of housing stock. Plans to join it with Gordonvale which is a 10 minute drive to the South so that will be a major development with new shopping centre. Plans to build another town centre.
Gordonvale – Semi rural. Farming and cane field country. About to go big over the next few years.Gateway to the Tablelands.
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 1:03 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

State schools.....
Attached Files
File Type: pdf
CNS state schools.pdf (400.4 KB, 208 views)
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 1:16 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

Originally Posted by ElsBells
Only thing offputting is the heat....is it really as hot as ive heard?
Cairns is one of the coolest places in Aus temperature wise. In summer many places will be trying to burst their thermometers with late 30's / 40 degrees.
Cairns will be a consistent 29-33 degrees. It's the high humidity that makes the difference here and a few other places too.

The place is built and designed to assist you in coping with it. No-one really gets used to the very bad days but you do learn to live with it. After just one wet season most people do acclimatise a lot. We now find anything below 25 is on the cool side.

A choice really. Put the fire on to keep warm or the aircon on to keep cool. Personally I had enough of the former and prefer the latter.
It's worse for the tradies. They work around it as best as they can but at the end of the day they will sweat buckets.

So it's a matter of tolerating in exchange for the majority of the year which is just booooootifal.
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 1:26 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

To directly answer your first question Lisa I would not want to live in Yorkeys.
Being directly under the flight path is not good and the planes do come in very low and loud over Yorkeys.

If I may suggest you should also look at Kewarra and Trinity beaches and perhaps Smithfield which is just a few minutes by car to the beaches.

Trinity actually has everything you want.
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 1:44 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

'Ey up Bix.

The OP should also be aware that for a lot of the year it is dangerous to enter the water on many beaches because of the box jellyfish.

If you really think a beach is important then make sure it has a stinger enclosure.

G
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 2:16 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

Originally Posted by Grayling
'Ey up Bix.

The OP should also be aware that for a lot of the year it is dangerous to enter the water on many beaches because of the box jellyfish.

If you really think a beach is important then make sure it has a stinger enclosure.

G
True G.

There are stinger net enclosures on all the main beaches here now.
They err on the side of caution and keep them in for 4-5 months.

Discovered a 2 meter croc in one this week. Got in there overnight and couldn't get out again.
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 2:39 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

You can check out the official suburb profiles here.....

http://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/cairns/...b_profiles.htm
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 3:05 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

You should try and be a bit more helpful Bix.
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 3:06 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

Told you Bix would help you Lisa

I'm really jealous of you going there but i'm coming up for my hols so save me a nice steak on your barbie.

speak later

kaye
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Old Mar 27th 2008, 9:40 am
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

Wow you were right wardy! And yeah barbie at ours anytime!!!!!!
Thanks Bix you were VVVV helpful, know who to ask for any more advice on Cairns lol. Think we will stear clear from Yorkeys, dont fancy living in the flight path.

Lisa
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Old Mar 27th 2008, 9:43 am
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

Are you moving into the rental on Spencer its just round the corner from us.

Kaye
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Old Mar 27th 2008, 10:22 am
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

Originally Posted by wardy2
Told you Bix would help you Lisa
Should my ears be burning Kaye ?
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Old Mar 27th 2008, 10:24 am
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Default Re: Moving to Cairns,need help.

Originally Posted by ElsBells
Wow you were right wardy! And yeah barbie at ours anytime!!!!!!
Thanks Bix you were VVVV helpful, know who to ask for any more advice on Cairns lol. Think we will stear clear from Yorkeys, dont fancy living in the flight path.

Lisa
You are welcome Lisa.
However feel free to seek a second opinion.
Opinions are in the eye of the beholder
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