northshorepom

I don’t live over that way but try and have a search on this site: http://www.privateschoolsdirectory.com.au/sydney-schools.php Getting into private primary schools is usually pretty easy if you can pay, especially for girls. High school is where it gets competitive I wouldn’t worry about aircraft noise that much in “south Sydney”, which I’m interpreting based on the coastal desire to mean what we would call the “eastern suburbs” - the coast from Watson’s Bay down to La Perouse. The runways at KSA are NNW/SSE and the planes come in over the Inner West (particularly Marrickville and Leichhardt) one way, and Kurnell the other Budget will be a major consideration for all coastal suburbs: all are quite expensive and some very expensive. Commutes can be OK from some coastal places, it’s pretty good from Bondi/Coogee/Maroubra for example, and on the north side Manly & Freshwater. Commuting gets pretty ordinary further up the northern beaches, though

At the risk of making life harder, if your boys enjoy female company I wouldn’t completely write off some single sex schools: my son is at Sydney Grammar Prep (all boys) and has closer relationships with girls he knows at Brigidine and Roseville College than his mates at co-ed Wahroonga public This isn’t posted in favour or against any particular school, it’s just to say that single sex education is common here and things work slightly differently: so if you like a school but it’s single sex, don’t discount it

I live locally but don’t know the schools, so will try and help I *think* St Ives possibly has a better reputation, but I don’t know people with kids at either school - people we know with secondary age kids in the area have them at one of the catholic schools (2 in St Ives, 1 in Normanhurst), NBCS at Terrey Hills, one of the private schools in the Upper North Shore, or Turramurra High Personally I am sceptical when it comes to academic reputation, having gone to a comprehensive with a terrible rep that was actually pretty good, and a sixth form college with a great rep that was ordinary. My advice to people is always to visit the school and see if it FEELS right - which you have done Berowra to St Ives is a horrible schlep in rush hour even by car. I think that’s too long a journey in a bus. It’s less distance from Hornsby Heights. Put it this way, we live in Wahroonga and my son goes to school in St Ives, it’s a 25 minute drive at best at school times. I think you you are looking at nice places to live, Berowra/Mt Kuringai/Mt Colah/Asquith/Hornsby Heights so much cheaper than anywhere from Hornsby south and there are some lovely close to the bush areas, particularly Berowra, Asquith and Hornsby Heights I think. Did you write off Asquith boys/girls or visit those too? I know it might seem weird having so many single sex schools but it’s very common in Sydney. Both have good reps and will be convenient geographically. I believe going out of catchment for high schools is not that hard except for the really sought after ones (only really applies to Killara of the comprehensives around here for some reason, and all the selective schools) because lots of kids go private for secondary school. So pick where you want to live, and pick a school you like where the travelling won’t be horrendous, after a quick check with the schools direct on their catchment policy/reality

After eight trips any more in that week (Monday-Sunday) are half price the gates will only let you through if you have enough for a short trip on the card - about $3 - but yeah, you can get on with a card that has $3.50 on it, get off at airport and have a negative balance of over $10. Some people game it but most can’t be bothered

I disagree in terms of needing forced sales- fewer buyers has the same effect and this is already very clearly happening in Sydney Lots of the investor buyers have disappeared, at Sydney’s house prices and rents it doesn’t make much sense to buy to rent unless you are confident you are going to make good capital gains, and that’s a confidence thing. These people are not buying any more A colleague is trying to sell his house in Leichhardt currently, it’s probably dropped about 10% off the peak of the market about 6 months ago. Went to auctio last week, no registered bidders, almost no interest, none on the day. It’s quite a nice place too but parking is a drag and buyers can afford to be picky

.....actually just thinking about it, pick anywhere on the Metro line. Rouse Hill, Kellyville, Bella Vista (close to Glenwood), Norwest, Showground (north Castle Hill), Castle Hill, West Cherrybrook/West Pennant Hills. Gets more expensive, generally, the closer in you get

100% agree with NN. If you like new build areas and working in North Ryde, then the Hills is a total no-brainer - it’s everything you want: modern housing, reasonable cost, community, schools The newest areas are Kellyville/Rouse Hill and around. Transport is currently by bus and not too bad (express buses down the M2 to Macquarie Park and North Ryde), in 18 months time the metro will open which will take you from Rouse Hill to North Ryde in less than 30 minutes I would look very hard at Rouse Hill. Really feels like a town centre there and growing all the time with lots of good housing around. But most suburbs in that area pretty good

Port Stephens is really nice and has year round holiday trade due to proximity to Newy and Sydney, so doesn’t suffer from too much seasonality Traffic over the bridge at Hexham is crap - backed up to Heatherbrae going south and from the end of the M1 going north regularly. But the road through Tomago is OK Raymond Terrace is a bit ordinary, anywhere else pretty good I think beautiful part of the world!

All just shows how stupid the initial populist, no consultation idiotic announcement in April was Australian governments are prone to making this sort of bad policy on the hoof and then backtracking. Fundamental weakness in the civil service IMO. They need a few Sir Humphreys saying “are you sure you want to be so courageous, Minister?”

Includes everything - so no, you won’t pay more after hitting the cap

What Nicky said I still love the view and I fly in to Sydney about once a fortnight. View over George’s River & Royal National Park on take off (RHS, plane taking off to the south) also quite lovely

They are very solid cars. Have essentially been Volkswagens for about 20 years now Octavia is based on the same platform as the Golf, Audi A3 etc

If anyone in the UK has a background in roads, rail, infrastructure design and construction, we are on the cusp of a very significant boom taking us through to the mid 2020s on projects that are already committed - and there is more in the pipeline There are a few forthcoming projects missing from that as well - Sydney Metro West (2021-2028), Parramatta Light Rail, a stack of slightly smaller projects The industry is already feeling the pinch with salaries escalating and resources hard to find. There are jobs at all levels from field section/site engineers upwards, likewise in design consultancies. Visa rules mean it's much easier for professional (Chartered) engineers to make the cut but plenty of work for trades too. Particularly niche specialists like signalling electricians & testers Worth searching on Seek or similar to see what's out there or approaching companies, particularly if you have a history with any of those operating here. This applies for design engineers the most as the consultancies are mostly global these days and the same ones operate here as do at home, by and large - Jacobs, WSP, Mott MacDonald, Arup, Atkins, AECOM etc. The only big ones you might not be familiar with would be GHD, Aurecon, SMEC. Tier 1 contractors in all sectors here are basically Lend Lease, John Holland and CPB Contractors. In rail you can add Laing O'Rourke to that list and McConnell Dowell if you were feeling particularly generous. In roads add Fulton Hogan, BMD, Seymour White (VINCI). There's a bit of international involvement with Salini, Bouygues, Acciona, Ferrovial but not much. All states have regional contractors at the next tier down In the rail systems space the big players are UGL and Downer, both locals, plus the international tech providers like Siemens, Alstom and Ansaldo It's harder for companies to hire on temporary visas than it used to be but the industry is going to have to get some experienced people from elsewhere as well as train up because there's too much on. Anyone with experience of mega projects (like London's Crossrail) might be particularly well placed. Sydney Metro, Melbourne Metro and Brisbane Cross River Rail (if it happens, the other two definitely are) need way more people with experience of multi-project programmes than are here on the ground Look at some of these: https://www.sydneymetro.info/ http://metrotunnel.vic.gov.au/about-the-project https://www.crossriverrail.qld.gov.au/ https://www.westconnex.com.au/ http://westgatetunnelproject.vic.gov.au/ https://inlandrail.artc.com.au/ http://www.pta.wa.gov.au/projects/current-projects/metronet http://www.canberra-metro.com.au/ http://www.parramattalightrail.nsw.gov.au/

Yeah. It’s all comparable (if not cheaper than some places like Melbourne and Perth) except the housing.........

You should be OK with high school space as lots of people in these areas go private post year 7. Primary schools are under more pressure with most being picky about out of catchment kids and sometimes temporaries, which they weren’t 5 years ago Both St.Ives high and Turramurra high have decent reputations. Ku Ring Gai creative arts slightly less so, but I would contact all schools and see what the entrance is like. Killara high is very highly rated but that might well be restricted on space and won’t take temporary residents Check on the my school website for results and get in touch with each school direct. And do pay attention to the cost and enrolment requirements for temporary residents that Quoll has posted I live near Turramurra fwiw, have friends with kids in both schools