Advice Please - We were certain about where to go but not know

[Misplaced]

Hi,

 

To help you answer my questions I shall give you some background.

 

I am an Aussie who has lived in the UK for 30+ years and last year we decided that it would be good, as a family, to move back to my home city of Adelaide. We were still planning on this until this week when we have read on the POMS in Adelaide forum that Adelaide is in a poor state employment wise and things are only looking like they are getting worse.

 

My kids have Aussie Passports as do I and my wife has a Permanent Visa.

 

As I have been working in the UK Government for 24 years and 12 of those as a Business Analyst I have been looking at jobs within the APS (levels 5-6).

 

Now for the questions -

 

1 - What are the good areas to live around Canberra and what sort of income would be required those areas?

 

2 - As my kids are Aussie citizens what schooling costs would we have to pay?

 

3 - Outside of Canberra (say 45 min commute by car one way) are good areas to live?

 

4 - Of the areas given as answers in questions 1 & 3 what state schools are considered good - I know that schools are personal choice but an idea would be good.

 

5 - As we will not be near the sea what is there to do in Canberra and the surrounding areas?

 

6 - Are there any rugby union clubs and cricket clubs (rugby for the kids cricket for me and the kids)?

 

Sorry for all the questions but answers would be appreciated.

 

cheers

 

​Mis

[Guest Bazinga]

1. Look at allhomes and work it out. 2. No unless private. 3. Jerrabombera/Murrenbateman/Yass/queanbeyan 4. Look at Myschools. and once you've done 1 come back and ask abt that. 5. Lots. Google it. Sea/snow within 2hrs. Plenty of walks/cycling to do too. 6. Probably.

 

I suggest reading all the other similar threads on this board too to get some more answers.

[Booma]

Have you looked into the job market in Adelaide yourself? I live in a village in NSW and was told i wouldnt get any work but i was offered 2 jobs in my field within a couple of weeks. Im glad i looked into it myself or i wouldnt be living in such a lovely village near the sea.

[Misplaced]

Have you looked into the job market in Adelaide yourself? I live in a village in NSW and was told i wouldnt get any work but i was offered 2 jobs in my field within a couple of weeks. Im glad i looked into it myself or i wouldnt be living in such a lovely village near the sea.

 

Yes and it does seem to be on the down . I would really appreciate a response to the questions posed. Can you help?

[Booma]

Ive only visited Canberra a couple of times so cant help sorry.

[Misplaced]

@Booma thank!

 

What areas in NSW would you suggest for a household that we hope will be bringing in between $100,000 to $110,000! I am hopefully going to secure a job with the Oz Govt.

 

Ps - I know it's a big area but always good to have someone to suggest and look from there.

[Guest Ptp113]

Hi,

 

To help you answer my questions I shall give you some background.

 

I am an Aussie who has lived in the UK for 30+ years and last year we decided that it would be good, as a family, to move back to my home city of Adelaide. We were still planning on this until this week when we have read on the POMS in Adelaide forum that Adelaide is in a poor state employment wise and things are only looking like they are getting worse.

 

My kids have Aussie Passports as do I and my wife has a Permanent Visa.

 

As I have been working in the UK Government for 24 years and 12 of those as a Business Analyst I have been looking at jobs within the APS (levels 5-6).

 

Now for the questions -

 

1 - What are the good areas to live around Canberra and what sort of income would be required those areas?

 

2 - As my kids are Aussie citizens what schooling costs would we have to pay?

 

3 - Outside of Canberra (say 45 min commute by car one way) are good areas to live?

 

4 - Of the areas given as answers in questions 1 & 3 what state schools are considered good - I know that schools are personal choice but an idea would be good.

 

5 - As we will not be near the sea what is there to do in Canberra and the surrounding areas?

 

6 - Are there any rugby union clubs and cricket clubs (rugby for the kids cricket for me and the kids)?

 

Sorry for all the questions but answers would be appreciated.

 

cheers

 

​Mis

 

I don't have time to answer every question but I did go to school in SA and spent time there in the military. Much higher std of living in the ACT and much more going on.

[Guest Bazinga]

You'll get more for your money in SA but wages may be lower. Are govt departments hiring tho? I know MILs one isn't & is frozen at the moment.

[Misplaced]

You'll get more for your money in SA but wages may be lower. Are govt departments hiring tho? I know MILs one isn't & is frozen at the moment.

 

Some Govt departments are and I have applied for a couple of posts and waiting to here if I have an interview.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Guest Bazinga]

From application to starting the job took at least 4 months for my husband to get his govt job I think & we were in Oz at the time.

[Quoll]

1 - What are the good areas to live around Canberra and what sort of income would be required those areas?

Personally I like the inner north and inner south but your required income would be higher - as has been said, check out www.allhomes.com.au Bear in mind that the average Canberra salary is close to $80k and most families are two income so reckon on about $120 - 150k for most families. Anything over $120k should be comfortable enough but an ASO5/6 isnt quite there yet

 

2 - As my kids are Aussie citizens what schooling costs would we have to pay?

 

Just the voluntary contributions in gov schools plus excursions, extra lessons, visiting teachers, camps, stationery, uniforms, etc etc - probably $600 + pa if you pay the VC. Bear in mind that close to 50% of parents choose to send their kids to private schools (Catholic has a big system and fees around $3k pa up to Canberra Grammar with fees $12-15k pa)

 

3 - Outside of Canberra (say 45 min commute by car one way) are good areas to live?

 

Outside of Canberra is NSW and there are some downsides to that - you dont get automatic right of enrolment in ACT schools, some services are NSW rather than ACT based. But there are nice places out at Michelago, Murrumbateman, Sutton, Gundaroo, Bungendore, Wamboin. You'd need two cars though

 

4 - Of the areas given as answers in questions 1 & 3 what state schools are considered good - I know that schools are personal choice but an idea would be good.

 

Look at the NAPLAN site then go and visit to see what floats your boat. Personally I would avoid all schools in the Tuggeranong Valley - they are all open space, built in an era of team teaching pedagogy but not used in that way now - they have multi class pods with no walls in between so, with the best will in the world, the ambient noise levels in those teaching areas is quite high and can be distracting. Also, the class spaces arent often big enough to accommodate the number of kids that are crammed into them. Thats only my personal opinion of course - there are good teachers and all down there but ..... Also tend to avoid Charnwood and Narrabundah although they are gradually becoming gentrified and pulling themselves out of the poor reputation that they once had.

 

5 - As we will not be near the sea what is there to do in Canberra and the surrounding areas?

What do you want to do? You can ski, the beach is only 90 minutes away, the facilities are excellent for swimming, gym, cycling, art, music, bushwalking etc etc Not so great for knitters, the selection of wools is bog standard LOL

 

6 - Are there any rugby union clubs and cricket clubs (rugby for the kids cricket for me and the kids)?

Of course, and League and Aussie Rules and netball and softball and baseball and tennis and swimming and rowing and sailing and ....

 

Just one other thing to bear in mind - there is going to be an election on 14 September so I expect that recruitment into the APS is going to be a bit slow until there is a decision on who will be in power. If the Libs get in then expect to see some slashing and burning (quite justified probably, it's ballooned a lot as it tends to do with continuing governments) and positions could be hard to come by and there will be a lot of competition for them. OTOH it is likely, if it follows past trends, to lead to a relaxing of prices in the housing market as people move on - swings and roundabouts really.

Edited April 30, 2013 by Quoll

[Misplaced]

Quoll - thanks for such a comprehensive reply and just what I was after.

 

I was aware that if the Liberals get in they are going to cull jobs in the public services but I suppose they will have to balance that against the job market in the private sector and looking at what is being said in Adelaide and Perth it's not going to be easy.

 

No doubt they will still do the culling and hope for the best!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[ABL275]

Wow – some big questions but I’ll try and be more helpful than some of the others!

 

Q1 - Canberra’s basically like a big figure 8 with the lake separating the top and bottom parts. Consequently most people end up being ‘Northsiders’ or ‘Southsiders’ A quick decode might be useful: Canberra was designed to be a city centre surrounded by satellite towns so in the middle you have ‘Inner South’ and ‘Inner North’ (separated by the lake of course.

‘Inner South’ has the parliamentary area and the embassies while ‘Inner North’ has the shops, business district and university. Inner South is consequently quite (really?) expensive to live in and has plenty of nice widely separated houses on mature leafy plots (as well as large numbers of new ‘townhouse’ apartments).

‘Inner North’ has relatively few residential areas (until you go over to the east towards the Defence/military complex of Reid and much of that is military housing. The rest is shops, businesses and small flats (Vast over-simplification, obviously).

 

Then there’s the satellite towns; Woden Valley was probably the first build from about 1964 onwards (someone correct me if I’m wrong here) and is typically large mature plots with largish houses (many of which are horribly 1970-ish now as the (public service) owners all moved here at the same time when the area was constructed and got such good deals that they’ve all stayed put but never really updated them. $750/week will probably get you a nice 4-5 bedroom place, double garage, pool possibly but it varies hugely with location, age of the house, level of decor. O’Malley which is Canberra’s most expensive suburb (apparently) is in Woden – although I would have though Red Hill was the most expensive as its all embassies. Woden has its own 1970s shopping centre, loads of car dealerships, a clutch of government departments and some great open spaces.

 

Belconnen was probably built next built from about 1966 and has a much better, newer shopping centre, loads of facilities (Bruce stadium, home of the Brumbies and Raiders, the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra Institute of Technology, the Canberra Aquatic Sports Centre etc.) and seems to have some good housing, but I can’t speak from personal experience because.....I’m a Southsider!

 

As you get further north the properties can become much smaller (and cheaper). Charnwood has a poor reputation as it seems to have three rotting ute’s in every garden.

Tuggeranong followed in the mid-seventies and has its own lake (like Belconnen) but the shopping centre and main street just seem awful and ‘Tuggers’ seems to be suffering from a steady loss of population.

 

Gunghalin is still being built but they seem to have learned from their mistakes in Tuggeranong and much of it is beautifully landscaped. On the downside, many of the plots are tiny and the houses are either small or take up 90% of the plot leaving little more than a nature strip for a garden.

 

Obviously this is all a huge generalisation (many apologies to anyone I’ve offended but hopefully the resultant avalanche of outraged posters will at least provide more info!)

Q2 – Nothing. My daughter got an Aussie passport just before coming over (my wife is Australian by birth) and we went from having to pay $10k to paying nothing for state schooling.

 

Q3 – Canberra’s the sort of place where people move house to save 5-10 mins on their commute. As the average commute is only about 25 minutes that’s actually halving their commute in some cases, but by British standards it’s weird. Most Canberran’s wouldn’t consider commuting 45 minutes but if you’re up for it there’s Hall (just north of Canberra) which has a great village feel but I’ve no idea about house prices. Tharwa is another small village place just to the south-east and there are a few villages off to the north-east such as Sutton and Gunderoo (a great heritage village with a great pub) but other than that you’re probably looking at Queanbeyan (30mins East) Yass (45 mins to the NW), Goulburn (1hrto the NE) or maybe Bungendore (past Queanbeyan) or Cooma (45 mins+ south) and there really isn’t much in between. It’s not like the UK where there are small villages all over the place; the Monaro Plain is pretty sparsely populated outside those main towns.

 

Q4- Really difficult. Top private schools (c.$12k per pupil per yr) Southside-Canberra Grammar, Northside-Radford. Top semi-independent schools ($3-8k per year) Southside-Marris, St Peter and Pauls, Northside-no idea, I’m a Southsider, top state schools: Southside-Farrer, Garran? But you can check the published league tables for of these.

 

Q5 – You exhaust the museums and government things within a few weeks thereafter you need to make your own entertainment a bit. Most people seem to do some sort of sport or follow their kids sport so it’s quite outdoors-y despite the weather. Cycling is really popular and we’ve taking to doing more walking and hiking especially in the Tidbindilla Nature Reserve and Namadgi National Park (or even just within Canberra). I like going down to the Cotter Dam area for BBQs (the Molonglo river loops round and round so there are loads of little river beaches and shady islands between the various arms of the river. We’ve got friends who go cycling with their kids at the Stromlo bicycle tracks every weekend and a lot of people ride as there seem to be endless stables around town. People also follow the Brumbies (Rugby Union) or the Raiders (Rugby Illegal) or one of a dozen other soccer, netball, basketball, baseball clubs. People also do various weekly/month food/art/craft markets or just hang out at the lake – sounds naff I know but whenever we do drag ourselves up there we always have a great time. If you get really, really bored, then Sydney’s about the same distance from Blackpool as Milton Keynes but with only about 1% of the motorway traffic.

 

Q6- Apparently. Following Liverpool ** as I do it’s been of only passing interest but I’ve friends who take their kids to junior rugby somewhere over in Belconnen.

 

Shout if you need anything else

Edited May 3, 2013 by ABL275

[Guest Bazinga]

It's people like you ABL275 making statements like that about Charnwood that keeps its "bad reputation" going. If you look at the stats I think more robberies happen in Ainslie than Charnwood! It's going to have problems as it as the most social housing in Canberra (18% - o'Malley has none I think) but house prices are going up because people are moving in and doing up their houses etc. The demographic has changed. In fact there's more trouble Southside in certain areas than up here. We live next door in Dunlop but have friends in Charnwood and would probably buy there to be closer to school. Plus inner north isn't all defense housing, bits of it seem very nice!

[Guest Ptp113]

It's people like you ABL275 making statements like that about Charnwood that keeps its "bad reputation" going. If you look at the stats I think more robberies happen in Ainslie than Charnwood! It's going to have problems as it as the most social housing in Canberra (18% - o'Malley has none I think) but house prices are going up because people are moving in and doing up their houses etc. The demographic has changed. In fact there's more trouble Southside in certain areas than up here. We live next door in Dunlop but have friends in Charnwood and would probably buy there to be closer to school. Plus inner north isn't all defense housing, bits of it seem very nice!

 

Correct, Ainslie, Reid, Campbell are the robbery suburbs. Walking distance from the druggie areas. Friends moved out of 'upmarket' Reid after 5 burglaries, they just felt unsafe.

[Quoll]

Correct, Ainslie, Reid, Campbell are the robbery suburbs. Walking distance from the druggie areas. Friends moved out of 'upmarket' Reid after 5 burglaries, they just felt unsafe.

Anyone on the track to Ainslie village (from Civic or along Mt Ainsle) or within cooee of the flats is definitely vulnerable (have they demolished the flats yet? They've been talking about it for years!). They don't tend to venture much off that track though. I wouldn't like to live in Argyll Sq for example although I have friends who have lived there happily for years. My most burgled friend lived on a battle axe block in Flynn (and it was almost invariably on the days when Melba High had its free afternoons!). They do reckon that the Northborne Ave corridor is also particularly vulnerable as the interstate gangs arrive that way and pick as they go.

http://www.police.act.gov.au/crime-and-safety/crime-statistics.aspx

http://the-riotact.com/?s=Crime

Edited May 10, 2013 by Quoll

[Skani]

No doubt they will still do the culling and hope for the best!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

No - they'll do the culling and blame it on the previous government - as all governments do!:wink:

[ABL275]

.....soooooo......as I said..."...huge generalisation (many apologies to anyone I’ve offended but hopefully the resultant avalanche of outraged posters will at least provide more info!)".............

 

................we did get several outraged posters airing their views, which is great :smile: - hopefully hearing both sets of views has been helpful?