ChrisH1

He might find that the International Baccalaureate offers him lifestyle and access to the university of his choice: http://www.aaibs.org/ Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

Absolutely not, unless the child has a particular need to pursue certain aspects of what is traditionally thought of as rapid educational progression. The political pursuit of achieving numeracy and literacy from an earlier age is not supported by the educational and psychological literature. We have opted out of the mainstream education in favour of promoting childhood for our children. Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

I get a request from cloned Facebook pages of friends every couple of months. There is no reason a friend would make a second request. There is little that Facebook seem able or willing to do. Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

I've now had a chance to read the thread. Cairns is not rural or remote, so your wife would not attract increased pay on those grounds. Your lack of employment may be a major issue in Cairns. It depends on your skill and transferability of previous qualifications. You may need to re-skill in a whole new area. That should be factored into into your financial equation. I like the climate of both Cairns and Canberra. Although I just would never choose to live in the cold ever again. Most people get used to the tropical wet season (with occasional cyclones) here within a year or so. In my opinion I would choose 16-36C and tropical wet over -3 to 40C and bush fire risk every time. Check the map of greater Cairns area. Gordonvale gets frost in winter, whereas in central Cairns a very cold winters morning is 16C. Education in Cairns is good, but probably not as good as ACT or NSW. Unless you go out of mainstream education as we have done, every school is blighted with NAPLAN. Property in ACT is cripplingly expensive. You would probably choose to live in NSW anyway. Cairns is much more affordable. Yes, energy costs more, and I would agree on needing a pool when it is warm. Nearly everyone has solar hot water. Many have solar electricity. Once you have been here a while your air-conditioning use will fall. We hardly use it at all at home. But you can't work without it. As I reflect on your responses I think it depends: on cultural demands, your employability, and desirable climate. Personally, I never been happier in my life. Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

I live in Cairns, work in the hospital and my wife is a midwife. That being said, I would suggest that you describe more the ages of your children (to provide discussion on educational, and subsequently employment goals), and your occupation to also allow discussion of your employability (if indeed that is an issue). While I have have not worked in ACT, I have worked in southern NSW. We love living in Cairns, our children love living here, and we have no plans to ever move. But we know that we are very lucky. Cairns has many wonderful aspects to the lifestyle and climate. However, we visited Canberra many time while living in NSW, and found it also has great aspects, it's just that climate is not one of them! I would be happy to make more specific comment, with further information.

By the way Freshwater is a lovely suburb. Many of the houses are wonderful.

There seem to be a lot of comments from people who visited, spoke to someone who visited, have heard of someone who visited from a friend, or saw something about visiting Cairns on TV! So, I live in Cairns with my wonderful wife and children. We have two girls: a five year old, and a two year old. I grew up in the UK, arrived in Australia in the 1980's and up until 5 years ago spent nealy all of my time in Australia in the southern states. Cairns is a great place to live and bring up children. Give me a python (Cairns) over a brown (Melbourne) snake anytime. Both very rare sights. I'll have a cyclone (Cairns) over a bushfire (Victoria and NSW) anyday. I would have 100% humidity and upper 30s over high 40s and the smell of bushfires. And on it goes. It took 2 wet seasons to get used to the humidity. Now I don't even think about it. It is currently the closest we get to winter - it was 17C this morning, brrrr (-: Cairns is a lovely. It is unique and not like the rest of Australia. The tropics is just wonderfully different to everywhere else. Australia is famous for its flying, biting insects. This is not unique to Cairns or the tropics. Whether your bitten or not is largely dictated on your genetics, not where you live. Ross River and Q fever is now in southern NSW. Dengue has been reported well south of the tropics. If you're terrified of flying insect bites live in an inner city capital suburb (that'll be like any capital city around the world, just warmer). You'll see the light when you visit your sister in the future! We are both lucky to have good jobs, but I would agree that securing employment could be a challenge. It depends totally on your occupation / profession and transferrability of skills and qualifications. I gather the cost of living may be a bit higher here than capital cities. But housing is much more affordable in regional areas. Also I drive to work in 8 minutes instead of 45 (in Melbourne) and can always park with ease. I could go on and on. But what specific questions do you have?

It's a great way to travel. Consider an SUV or 4WD if going truly outback as the highways will not be sealed. If traveling extensively in the centre consider an epirb. Read widely on safe traveling in the outback. Every year there are reports of Europeans perishing due to breaking down and not knowing how to survive. Finally, distances are massive. Cairns to Brisbane is 19 hours constant driving and is only 200kms different than London to Barcelona, and you haven't even driven end to end of Queensland. But it is amazing.

Very sensible. Parking is a pain in major cities though. If you plan to sleep in your car, choose the your location carefully. Many local councils (including Cairns) do not permit sleeping in cars in the tourist areas.

You haven't indicated how you intend to travel. First, definitely get it fitted. Second, if you only intend to carry it from the baggage carousel to the bus then from bus to hostel, your requirements are very different from trekking. Wheels would even be an option for the former, while a well fitted quality backpack for the latter.

I am diagonally opposite from Perth. But in an equally wonderful part of the country. We are very lucky. Let's hope our elected representatives leave it alone, to be as beautiful as it is today.

The Age (Melbourne), The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney) on Saturdays. Courier Mail for Brisbane. seek.com.au for the whole country. LinkedIn if your research shows your sought after demographic are likely to use it. Facebook in my opinion is likely to be too broad.

Certainly along the coast, for access to hotels. I live in Cairns, and we have a 4 year old and a 22 month old. We love the tropics and the lifestyle. The other major concentration of hotels would be the Gold Coast. A very different climate (still very nice though) and a major concentration of hotels. Personally, I prefer the far north lifestyle.

For retirement it would indeed be lovely. Cost of living is high though, and work could be a problem of a working income and is required.

Surfers also has one of the highest crime rates, second only to Fortitude Valley!

We pay. As far as I know, so do everyone else. Our 3 yo goes to a K&C kindergarten 5 days a fortnight for about $500 per term. They are privately run in Australia. Or there is home care.

I know very little about the health care system in SA these days, as I live in far north Queensland. Queensland is currently experiencing a right wing state government who appear to be intent on major reductions in the public health system. There have already been major redundancies throughout Queensland Health. I would suggest the you closely follow the state level online newspapers for the next few months to help you assess the likely working conditions. And not only the Murdoch press. The Queensland Nurses Award is due for review in the second quarter of 2015. I suspect that it won't go well, when one considers the problems medicine is currently having.

Lovely time of year here. Coldest months have passed, and it's usually dry.

We live in urban Cairns, and love it. If you are interested in this area, yet want to be on the tourist trail, I would suggest Kuranda. About 40 minutes from the centre of Cairns, it offers many of the lifestyle options you seek. Buying property with acreage would certainly be an option. An alternative f you wish to establish holiday accommodation could also be the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Obviously more temperate, yet still on the Australian and international tourist trail. I certainly would not go much further inland than Kuranda (in FNQ) or Montville (on SSC) as in my experience tourists mainly travel the coastal route. If you have any chronic health needs consider the current medical industrial dispute within Qld Health. It does not seem to have really grabbed public attention yet. I am prevented from making public comment due to the threat of instant dismissal for social media commentary. I suggest you read widely about the dispute before you commit.

Being in Sydney you have considerable choice. I used Optus in Melbourne and found them very good. Another option would be iiNet, and also consider there voip. But you would need >3Mb/sec to provide adequate voice quality while not degrading www access when on the 'phone. Also consider bundling mobiles (if you only plan to use your mobile phone in Sydney). If you have plans to move to a regional location, the only barely adequate provider is Telstra.