Hi - I thought I'd quickly share our last 6 months living in Murrumba Downs - North of the city of Brisbane. After an initial couple of months staying with friends after arriving 17th October we secured a 4 bed house to rent with pool and air con in a lovely estate in the Castle Hill area of Murrumba Downs - a safe place to bed in to Aussie life. The kids - Cerys who is 5 and Saul who is 3 have settled in nicely into Undurba School and Murrumba Downs respectively and I cant recommend these establishments enough. My wife Niki fell into work as a Hairdresser in a funky salon in Chermside but after 6 months and countless interviews I am yet to find work and still have to be Mr Mum picking up the kids from school and doing the domestic chores - NICE !!!
The Castle Hill estate is beautiful with great houses and allows easy accessibility to the main Bruce Highway and the Gateway motorway 5 mins drive away , but after renting here for 3 months we have found no sense of community to speak of - you never see your neighbours and thats something we miss desperately having come from a tight knit community in Penclawdd in Wales.
We have however never regretted for one moment leaving the UK - the predictably mostly sunny climate is good for the soul and every weekend we head off to the beaches for some boogey boarding practice!
Its not everywhere you get to see wild Koalas ( along the river in Pertie ) and Kangaroos ( Tinchi Tamba wetlands in Bracken Ridge ) 15 mins drive from your doorstep.
The only 2 days we have cried have been Christmas Day and New Years Day when Family and friends play on your mind - but 2 days tears are more than compensated for by the rest of the year.
We think to head south to Coff Harbour for a rekkie over easter - its 5 hrs south of Brisbane and seems to tick all our boxes - small community and glorious beaches and enviable rainforests to explore - wherever we end up its going to be a hundred times better than grey and gloomy UK - GOD BLESS AUSTRALIA !!
wow weeeeeeee thats great really pleased that you are soooo happy and have settled in well (know what you mean about work thou same problem for me !!) yep i agree "God Bless Australia"
gizmo
__________________ ** Here There,Where Ever Be Happy**
Hi - I thought I'd quickly share our last 6 months living in Murrumba Downs - North of the city of Brisbane. After an initial couple of months staying with friends after arriving 17th October we secured a 4 bed house to rent with pool and air con in a lovely estate in the Castle Hill area of Murrumba Downs - a safe place to bed in to Aussie life. The kids - Cerys who is 5 and Saul who is 3 have settled in nicely into Undurba School and Murrumba Downs respectively and I cant recommend these establishments enough. My wife Niki fell into work as a Hairdresser in a funky salon in Chermside but after 6 months and countless interviews I am yet to find work and still have to be Mr Mum picking up the kids from school and doing the domestic chores - NICE !!!
The Castle Hill estate is beautiful with great houses and allows easy accessibility to the main Bruce Highway and the Gateway motorway 5 mins drive away , but after renting here for 3 months we have found no sense of community to speak of - you never see your neighbours and thats something we miss desperately having come from a tight knit community in Penclawdd in Wales.
We have however never regretted for one moment leaving the UK - the predictably mostly sunny climate is good for the soul and every weekend we head off to the beaches for some boogey boarding practice!
Its not everywhere you get to see wild Koalas ( along the river in Pertie ) and Kangaroos ( Tinchi Tamba wetlands in Bracken Ridge ) 15 mins drive from your doorstep.
The only 2 days we have cried have been Christmas Day and New Years Day when Family and friends play on your mind - but 2 days tears are more than compensated for by the rest of the year.
We think to head south to Coff Harbour for a rekkie over easter - its 5 hrs south of Brisbane and seems to tick all our boxes - small community and glorious beaches and enviable rainforests to explore - wherever we end up its going to be a hundred times better than grey and gloomy UK - GOD BLESS AUSTRALIA !!
Morning!
We have been in Sinnamon Park in BRisbane for 2 and a bit years now. We are in the western suburbs. We love it too. We went to Byron Bay for a weekend - that was nice too. Can recommend Montville, Maleny and Australia Zoo of course for days out. Noosa is nice too. Enjoy, continue having fun!!
U will get homesick, the worst times are if something happens to someone at home. We have had that twice. My Nan died while I was here and so did a friend of ours only last week. Those times hurt but as I always say Life is what u make it and everyone at home will always wish u the best! our families see what we have now and BEG us not to come back!
I am a nurse and OH is a bus driver!!
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Glad you have settled well ,we have been south of brisbane for about 4 months now and too are settling well,i have had contact with a few people from north of brisbane and like you they say there's no feeling of community and no neighbourly chat,,we must have been blessed when picking here ,my neighbours are great, we often sit on the little roundabout at the bottom of the cul de sac having a chat whilst watching the kids play,everyone is so friendly,could anyone tell me why its so different Northside/sunshine coast ,,i'm intrigued as thats originally where we fancied living ??
Cal x
Good to hear you don't regret it, we will hopefully be heading for the Murrumba Downs area as we have friends there who are incidentally in the UK at the moment on holiday. We saw them last night and as you can imagine had 101 questions for them, they have been over there for about 16 years now and have never regretted it.
Can I ask what you do for a living? As six months with no work is quite worrying, and i'm not a hairdresser so prob wouldn't find it easy to get work either!
regards
Hi - glad to hear you are settling down well and not regretting your decision! We have now been in Sydney 7 months and apart from missing my parents, my youngest daughter (even thought she came out here for 3 1/2 months) and some other family members and close friends............there is absolutely NOTHING I miss about UK!!!!! If I could ship all my loved ones over here I would be the happiest person on the planet - Oz is a wonderful country and I wish I had moved here years ago and brought my children up here but then years ago I didn't know my husband and my ex never liked going further than the end of the street - hahaha!!!