Recommendations for best suburbs in Sydney ...

Matthew, we are in St Ives, great schools, train to the city from Gordon or 194 Forest Coach Lines city express bus runs hourly. We rent a three bed house with decent garden for $750. We moved into it in Sept and at the time were looking at several 3/4 bed houses - all were negotiable on the rent by 25/50 per week. We are 20 minutes from the northern beaches and surrounded by bushland. Hope this helps.

Excellent. Thanks for the tip.

@gabbycat

Is there much parks and recreation stuff in st Ives? Things for kids to do and places to take our dog out?

Sounds nice so far!

Thanks

TBH there are parks and recreation areas in most areas of Sydney, one thing this country is good at is open space

Here's the local council's list of parks etc filtered for St.Ives:

http://www.kmc.nsw.gov.au/Services_facilities/Facilities_and_venues/Parks_reserves_playgrounds?advance=0&dlv_dlv%20facility%20listing=(dd_suburb%3dSt+Ives)

But that's fairly typical of places here. One of the things that surprises many newcomers is how green it is in Sydney and surrounds

PS Agree St Ives is nice - I almost bought a house there last month. It's not on the train line (which makes it a bit better value than some other upper north shore suburbs) but is closer to the beaches. As above, you can get to the beach in 20-25 minutes, and the closest beaches (Newport, Bungan, Mona Vale, Warriewood, Turimetta, Narabeen) are all great

Also very good schools. St Ives North public gets particularly highly rated, St Ives public high also supposed to be v.good. And excellent shops. There is a shopping centre (St Ives Shopping Village) next to the "Village Green" which is a big park. It's a bit odd and carpeted but a good range of shops. Bigger shopping malls 15 minutes in either direction at Chatswood and Hornsby

By far from the only choice though, so I wouldn't get too fixated. Lots of nice places to live here

@gabbycat

 

Is there much parks and recreation stuff in st Ives? Things for kids to do and places to take our dog out?

 

Sounds nice so far!

 

Thanks

NothshorePom is right - St Ives is very typical of the suburbs immediately surrounding it, i can tell you what St Ives has and you will find similar in most of the surrounding suburbs. You asked about parks and things for kids to do. There are several ovals for the dogs to run around on and lots of green, leafy streets as well. You can't take the dog into the bush for walks but walking as a family there are a number of lovely bush walks. You don't say how old your kids are but there are a number of sports clubs and a couple of dance/ drama schools, although they can do that at school too. My kids are in a fantastic scout group which has really integrated them into Aus and given them brilliant outdoor opportunities - to be honest a lot of the kids they are friends with outside of scouts don't bushwalk or camp so they have done and seen more of the countryside than some of their their Aussie friends. My son is in the cricket club here and I know some of the team play soccer together in the winter. You really can't do far wrong with schools in this part of the north shore. As for which suburb in the area you might settle on - we didn't settle on St Ives until we moved over here and started to look around- we were looking from Hornsby to Epping, up to Davidson and down to Gordon - in the end it came down to finding the right house to rent as the whole area is lovely and all now part of our stomping ground.

Thanks for all this info. It's super useful.

My kids will be 11.5 years, nearly 9 and 5 years when we get there (later this year).

$1000/week will definitely get you something on Northern Beaches & if you go one suburb back from ocean like Cromer, North Narrabeen or Elanora Heights, even cheaper. Effectively that's the same as living right on beach with 5 mins drive if that & bigger plots & houses typically. The further up the Northern Beaches you go i.e. Avalon or Bilgola, prices drop a bit because of commute is a bit longer. We've been in Collaroy now for 9 years & love it - made the move from the UK worthwhile & great outdoor lifestyle for the kids...

Good luck with the move!

Sounds really nice. Do you (or anyone you know well) have to commute to the CBD (or central areas) for work?

And if so, how long does it really take? Any tips much appreciated

Just back from 4 weeks ther and agree with NSP, all lovely areas with lots to offer - we favoured Pymble, Wahroonga, West Lindfield and Killara but anywhere along the train line was "lovely" and had more pros than cons (with the exception of lask of pubs!)

Sounds really nice. Do you (or anyone you know well) have to commute to the CBD (or central areas) for work?

 

And if so, how long does it really take? Any tips much appreciated

My husband commuted into the CBD for about 6 years & i also go in occasionally for meetings. Express bus from Collaroy takes about 40 - 50 mins to Wynard (CBD station) & then depending on where office is, you'll probably have a short walk...

Buses go past Collaroy, Narrabeen & all the NB suburbs all the time in rush hour - some are express so faster & others limited stops...

As someone said on here, you wouldn't use the ferry from Manly as it is a bit of a trek to get there & parking is expensive. Scooters are becoming quite popular here though so that would be a great way to get to Manly in summer & then, get fast ferry if that was something you fancied.

You won't really know where you want to live until you get a feel for the place... We decided that being in a beach side suburb was a must for us so held to that as a pre-requisite.

If you get a house with a pool further inland, the reality is that you probably won't go to the beach as much as you have a means of keeping cool... My recommendation would be to think about the lifestyle you hope for... My inlaws live near Chatswood with a lovely pool in a very leafy suburb & apart from the weather, you could actually be anywhere in the world to be honest as lifestyle is quite different away from the beach!

So my advice to you would be think about why you're moving here & what's most important & then, decide on areas from there. For the rent you're looking at, you'd get an older house on NB which may or may not have a pool. If you look at other suburbs on the North Shore, further inland you may get a fabulous house with a pool but have to drive a fair way to the beach (i.e. 20 - 30 mins at least ). If you have kids who are doing sport on weekends, they may just be happy diving in the pool as swimming in the surf.

Decide what's most important & go from there, I'd say! Where we are is very laid back but it does feel like being on hols at weekends & if you or your kids are keen to surf, best stay close to the ocean or you'll spend your life in the car! My son can just stroll down after school for a surf which is exactly what we envisaged for our life here... However our house is really old:( so always a compromise!

Hi all

we hadn't sorted loads at the time when i posted this, but have since got a visa, an arrival date (4th July) - and are preparing to go.

We still haven't nailed down an area, but we have 3 or 4 possibilities. They include:

• The northern beaches (catchment for Killarney or Davidson High Schools)
  
• George River area (Oatley / Blakehurst)
  
• Shire area (miranda maybe)
  
• Eastern Suburbs (Randwick or Kingsford)
  

there are pros and cons to these - but my wife is applying for jobs. If one works out, we'll probably go there...

I'll be going through all my old posts to re read them all