Griffith or Armidale?

[Andrea-Familyof5]

As title suggests - have the opportunity to live and work in both places. Which is better? Anyone with any local knowledge? 

[Marisawright]

Armidale, by a mile.

I confess, I'm biased because I don't know Griffith well.  However I do know it's remote.  It's three hours from the nearest city (Wagga Wagga) and seven hours' drive to the nearest beach.  It gets bloody baking hot in summer (and freezing cold at night in winter, though the skies are lovely and blue by day).   It's a farming town, famous for its Italian wine-growing families.  

Armidale has the advantage that it's only a couple of hours from the coast (where there are gorgeous beaches), and three hours to Coffs Harbour.   It's lovely in summer because you're high on a plateau so you don't get the stinking humid heat of lowland NSW.  However that does mean you get winters as cold as the UK's, with frosts and fogs.  It even has snow sometimes, (on average two or three days a year).

Armidale is very much an academic town.   Not only does it have the university, it also has three or four prestigious private schools.  It may seem strange for such a small town to have so many schools, but they're boarding schools for the children of all the farmers across NSW.  Sometimes it feels as though everyone in town is a teacher or lecturer of some kind!   

For a new migrant, Armidale also has the advantage that if it doesn't suit you, the rest of Australia is more easily accessible to go for interviews etc.  From Griffith, you can fly to Sydney but that's all.  There is no train line (you may see 'NSW Train Link' mentioned, but that's actually a coach service).  From Armidale, you can fly to Brisbane or Sydney, or you can drive to Coffs and from there fly direct to Melbourne or Canberra. There is a train to Sydney, too.

https://www.homely.com.au/griffith-griffith-murrumbidgee-new-south-wales

https://www.homely.com.au/armidale-armidale-dumaresq-northern-new-south-wales

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Marisawright

[Quoll]

Griffith has nice cherries and if you're Italian you'd fit right in. 

[Bobj]

Armidale by a country mile. Both get bitterly cold in winter, Griffith is flat country whereas Armidale is almost 1,000 m above sea level and has some really beaut scenery. Lived in Glen Innes, only 60 km away and used to do weekly shopping in Armidale.

Cheers, Bobj.

[Toots]

47 minutes ago, Bobj said:

Armidale by a country mile. Both get bitterly cold in winter, Griffith is flat country whereas Armidale is almost 1,000 m above sea level and has some really beaut scenery. Lived in Glen Innes, only 60 km away and used to do weekly shopping in Armidale.

Cheers, Bobj.

Armidale definitley.  I also much prefer the scenery around that area.  Griffith, as you say Bob is just flat.  Not my cup of tea.  

I always remember newspaper headlines years ago "Mafia amongst the vineyards" referring to gangland murders and drug trafficking in Griffith.  I've no doubt things have improved drastically since then.

[Bobj]

11 hours ago, Bobj said:

Armidale by a country mile. Both get bitterly cold in winter, Griffith is flat country whereas Armidale is almost 1,000 m above sea level and has some really beaut scenery. Lived in Glen Innes, only 60 km away and used to do weekly shopping in Armidale.

Cheers, Bobj.

One thing I forgot to mention; Griffith is in an area known as 'The Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area', or, MIA and Armidale is in the 'New England' area, which speaks for itself.

 

Cheers, Bobj.