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Rural/outback or city, where do you prefer to live?


PommyPaul

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I quite like living rurally in the UK because I can still access the amenities of the city with relative ease due to smaller distances. It would be another story in Australia, not sure I would like to live in a regional town, although there is a bit of me that thinks living in a really tiny outback town for six months would be a good experience.

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Assuming I could get, or didn't need, work I'd quite like to live rurally. Probably somewhere not too far from a reasonable sized town but still somewhere remote would appeal. After a trip to the Flinders and driving from Adelaide to Melbourne I've found I really like the space and quiet of Australian countryside.

 

Just to add, big cities don't do anything for me at all. I hate crowds of people and I hate not being able to get from A to B easily or not being able to get to know a place easily without getting lost. I hate large roads and lots of traffic. I like Adelaide precisely because it isn't a big city and it's not too busy. I didn't like Melbourne and felt really uncomfortable there for most of the time (although the MCG is amazing). But I loved all the little towns we have passed through on our way to other places.

Edited by NicF
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City for me, for sure. I've tried living in a small country town in Australia and hated the lifestyle, although I found the people far more friendly than in the cities. If I could afford it I'd be like MaryRose, living practically in the city centre.

 

I'm having a hard time adjusting in the UK, because inner city living doesn't seem to be a "thing" here. As a result, city centres seem a bit dead in the evenings, and leisure activities are scattered all over outlying villages rather than being concentrated in the city and inner burbs. The funny thing is, I think Brits are much happier with driving long distances than Sydneysiders are! So for instance, I see people travelling all the way from Poole and Fareham to take flamenco classes in a village in the New Forest - in Sydney, no one would dream of travelling that far to take a one hour dance class.

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I really dislike big cities, give me a a nice coastal town with a community feeling any day of the year... I had the chance to live and work in Barcelona about 10 years back but knocked it back, we preferred visiting it for 3 or 4 days max. Outback has no appeal to me besides a holiday.

We'll be looking for a coastal town close to hinterland when we take the plunge. best of both worlds imo.

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Every now and then I miss the Christmas crowds up Oxford Street - best to go to a concert and/or big sporting event. The people here are so polite and they let trains go by when they are really not that full. Shove your way in I say- do the London bit!

 

Yeah you must miss being squeezed in like a sardine under someone's smelly armpit! Lol!

If I was on my own I'd live rurally, with kids it's easier to be in a town with parks/ amenities etc. Hubby would be happy in a shack across the road from the surf!

Edited by Bound4Tassie
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Ruralish with good transport links. Would love to live in the mountains but just takes too long to get to work/ do the school run. Also like to be within 30 mins of a hospital because you never know what is going to happen when you have 2 adventurous boys!

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When we emigrated the idea was for us to be able to live close to Perth but near the coast. We love the suburb we are in. Has a nice "villagey" feel to it. We've been here over 20 years now and very often nip over to the local shop and see a few people we know and a 2 minute trip can turn into 10 easily. We are away from main roads, nice quite road and suburb without having to cross any major roads to get to the beach.

 

We are very close to Joondalup, 10 minutes away and far enough away from Perth not to get caught up in the busy traffic. I've never been one for big cities and much prefer quieter, friendlier suburbs. With the beach close by it's been our dream location.

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I prefer rural. Thats in England. Rural here in Aus for us is different. Bush is bush, outback, loooooong way from anywhere. Rural could be 3-4 hours from Adelaide but still not outback. But hardly a soul in the space in between. Or it could be 20 minutes into the hills and you feel like you are a long way from anywhere and again, population drops off rapidly out there very quickly once you leave the city and built up area.

 

If we could have stayed living rural in England I'd happily have remained there. Loved it. But we had to move for hubbys job and going back was nigh on impossible due to the cost of houses etc in villiages and so on. Once you step out of that, its so hard to get back as the prices are silly.

 

Here we compromised and live right on the edge of a suburb with fields, hills and woodland for miles about 100m from our door. But only 30 minutes into the city. I would love to live a bit further out but finding a house we liked was hard going and the fire risk and isolation while our son is younger bothered me.

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i live by the sea on the edge of a large coastal village in nsw. we have all the services we could possibly want or need for day to day living. the only thing we dont have is a hospital but there is one 30mins away. if we want to go to the city it takes about 2 hours. life here is wonderful & i enjoy the sense of community which i have never really experienced before. coming from london it was a big change but i dont think i could live in a big city again. our house is small by ozzie standards but huge compared to what we could afford in london & one of my favourite things is sitting on the front verandah watching whales, dolphins & seals.

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We lived in a rural area in the UK, just outside a small village, but within a 30-40 minute drive of four bigger towns. Here we live in a suburb which is right at the edge of Sydney, and have the best of everything in my opinion. We back on to bush and it is fairly quiet in our suburb, but a 7 minute drive takes us to a bigger suburb with schools, shops, cafe's etc. Within an hour we can be in the centre of Sydney, within 30 minutes we can be at the beach, and within 2 hours we can be in Jervis Bay.

 

I would like to live more rurally again, but not until the kids have flown the nest. I think that it is important for them to be near school/friends etc. I don't think that I would enjoy living too remotely though. Remote is great for a holiday, and as someone who is a bit of a loner I think I would enjoy it for a while, but eventually I think it would drive me mad! I quite like the idea of Tasmania having visited last year. Quieter, but not remote.

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We love the town we picked as it has everything we want.

 

Freeways within 5 km get us to the hills within an hour, central city within an hour, airport within an hour (outside of peak), yet town is surrounded by paddocks

 

Yet, no real traffic issues around home,

 

500m to school and kinder, 7 min for oh to work, 22 min for me,

 

Beaches all around, 10-20 minutes drive give the pick of at least 10,

 

The local shops are fine for everyday stuff, Frankganistan is ten minutes away for anything we cant get here......

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