I live in Ipswich and it’s lovely. The river link shopping centre is nice right next to the river and there are some lovely older houses with beautiful colonial architecture. The city is older than brisbane. It is a lower socioeconomic area but it is nothing like the Uk equivalent. Don’t be put off by one bad experience. Hubby and I ride motorbikes and we go out west from ipswich. 20 mins to beautiful lakes and mountains with low traffic. Cormorant bay has a lovely restaurant that overlooks the reservoir. It’s stunning. We have beach days too all are around an hour or two for the Sunshine Coast. Each to their own, but we have settled well here. Daughter went to USQ university of southern Queensland. If we need the city we can drive there in 40 mins. We rarely go there though with such natural beauty in our doorstep, more likely to drive up to Toowoomba through Cunningham’s gap and enjoy gorgeous scenery on the way. Toowoomba is about 1.5 hours inland and is called the city of flowers for the annual flower festival. The botanic gardens are lovely there and the Cobb and co museum. The Logan motorway takes us down to the M5 and the Gold Coast beaches/theme parks in an hour. We like it.
