Belconnon ... advice on the good, the bad and the ugly please ...

**drstu** · 23-07-2012, 10:17 AM

Hi All,

We are making the move to Aus next year (me, my wife and two children who then will be aged 3 and 2). Canberra is one possibility and West Belconnon has been suggested.

We have travelled to Australia before but Canberra was not one of our stops, let alone West Belconnon. What's the +'s and -'s for the area?

Thanks for your time with this.

Best wishes,

Stu.

**Jurls** · 23-07-2012, 12:20 PM

Out of interest, who has suggested West Belconnen to you and why?

I've been in Canberra for 2 years, my husband was born here and we have actually recently moved to Holt in West Belconnen. I love it, there is a really good community feel about it, good facilities and bus at Kippax. Reasonable size houses on reasonable size blocks but then I prefer the more established suburbs to the newer ones. The trade off with this is that you get an older house to live in and people seem to generally prefer new build, although this doesn't guarantee you any decent insulation and energy savings lol. I'm not overly enthusiastic about Kingsford Smith School, mainly as it is huge (a super school) and I'm wary about children from primary right up to high school all in the same place. However only the Holt and Higgins suburbs feed into the Kingsford Smith at primary level, the other suburbs have primaries still. Everyone will tell you to avoid Charnwood of course as it has a bad reputation but it's not as bad as people make out and there are some nice houses in Charny lol.

Canberra overall is a great place to bring up children with heaps to do, lots of open spaces, few people and traffic. It's only a couple of hours or so to the coast or to the snow and it is a very, very sunny place. The sunniest place I've ever lived in fact.

It's not the sort of place you can give pros and cons for the area. It's only 40 minutes drive across the ACT and I think most areas are much of a muchness overall. People tend to choose where to settle when they know where they will be working as it is better not to cross from Northside to Southside and vice versa for a commute if you don't have to. I think really you have to be here to decide where you want to live as you will definitely get a feel for the suburbs and different people like different things and have different deciding factors in what is important to them when it comes to where they want to live.

You could do worse than West Belconnen and indeed Canberra as a whole.

Good luck! :)

**drstu** · 23-07-2012, 12:24 PM

Thanks Jurls. What is the bad reputation that Charnwood has?

**Jurls** · 23-07-2012, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by drstu

Thanks Jurls. What is the bad reputation that Charnwood has?

Charnwood or Charny as the locals like to call it, was historically a lower income area. There were a lot of Govvy houses (similar to council housing) built in the 70s/80s and I think it was considered a bit rough and the reputation stems from that. I don't think it is really that bad now and certainly if you were coming from a city in the UK you'd probably find it laughable that Charny is considered rough. It's all relative, although there are certainly some streets in Charnwood I wouldn't live in. Having said that, there are streets in every suburb that I probably wouldn't live in either. We did consider living at the top end of Charnwood and if the right house had come up there, we would have done without too much concern. Several of my husband's family have lived in Charny at one stage or another and they are all (relatively) normal people.

You will find that people normally quote Richardson, Narrabundah and Charnwood as the suburbs to avoid. You can normally tell because the rent is cheaper. Haha.

**Quoll** · 23-07-2012, 06:55 PM

Jurls is 100% right - a higher density of govvie housing in Charnwood and a history of dysfunctional Charnwood families which have inter married and remained since the inception of the suburb. Holt and Higgins didnt have the best of reputations latterly although they were considered quite (upper) middle of the road in the 80s and 90s and I think a lot of people are concerned about the SuperSchool - mind you there are easily accessible Catholic equivalents. Hawker probably has the best rep for suburbs in this area and Hawker College generally does quite well in the year 12 results. Belconnen High has its ups and downs and not sure if it is up or down at the moment, I've been out of the system for a while now. Fraser is another with a slightly better reputation and Fraser PS does a good job - the Melba Copeland experiment is still a bit ho hum I believe but they have certainly worked hard to attract kids to the school with the IB and all.

I dont know why anyone would suggest West Belconnen over any other part of town and where you live is probably going to be largely dependent on where you work - if your job is in Tuggeranong for example you dont really want to be living in West Belconnen. Similarly if you are working in Gungahlin then Gordon and Banks are probably not going to be the most sensible of options either.

Personally I prefer the inner suburbs and being a Northsider obviously have a bias towards Ainslie, Downer, Hackett, Watson, Lyneham (or, if I could afford it Reid or Campbell LOL). All nice and close to Civic, good local facilities and better than most places for public transport but close enough you can walk or ride into town.

**Thom** · 25-07-2012, 02:07 AM

Cook and Aranda are, for me, the best suburbs in that area.

**Angela820** · 29-07-2012, 11:04 AM

If I lived in Belconnen I would live in Aranda probably and like Quoll prefer the inner north and south. Schools and where you work will drive your decision along with cost.

**leilabelle** · 02-08-2012, 07:12 AM

Hi I'm hoping to work in majura, can anyone tell me what the area is like. I have two children 6yrs and 10yrs so also interested in finding out about schools nearby and nice areas to live. Any advice would be great.

**Slean Wolfhead** · 02-08-2012, 08:32 AM

Majura's outside the "city" on the east side of Mount Ainslie ..mainly retail and the airport, a shooting range, vineyard and army training grounds. It's not a residential area but is only 10-15 minutes drive.
Have a look on google earth/maps....mainly countryside with new buildings.

**Bazinga** · 13-08-2012, 12:44 PM

As someone who lives next door to Charnwood (in Dunlop) I can say there are bits I wouldn't live in but also bits I def would and in fact will probably buy there as my son goes to Charnwood-Dunlop school which is a bit of a hidden gem despite the issues it faces. Look on google maps where majura park is then look at neighbouring suburbs then look on allhomes.com to see what fits in your budget. I love Dunlop but my husband works in Belconnen so easy commute.