Moving to Tasmania from mainland (qld) questions

[Quoll 6,119]

45 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

It depends where in country Victoria, though.  If you're up in the mountains, e.g. Ballarat, Woodend, the Dandenong Ranges -- it's 2 or 3 degrees cooler than Melbourne.  We've been in the habit of watching Tassie weather because we periodically think of moving there.  One of the attractions of Hobart is the cooler weather, but usually whatever Melbourne is, Hobart is only 2 or 3 degrees cooler on average -- in other words, similar to Ballarat. 

A few years ago we went to visit the rellies in Ballarat and the thermometer in Sturt St said 41°C, the next day the max was 13°C - that was one heck of a cool change. Ballarat certainly does extremes - I remember it sleeting on Christmas Day one year! 

[Marisawright 10,269]

57 minutes ago, Quoll said:

A few years ago we went to visit the rellies in Ballarat and the thermometer in Sturt St said 41°C, the next day the max was 13°C - that was one heck of a cool change. Ballarat certainly does extremes - I remember it sleeting on Christmas Day one year! 

Funnily enough, that's one of the things I love about living in Victoria.  Of course you get the odd day in the high 30s, like everywhere else in Australia.  However, even on those days, it's cool and fresh in the morning until about 11, and then cools down again in the evening.  Whereas when I lived in Sydney, on a hot day it would be sticky by 10, and it wouldn't cool down in the evening unless there was a thunderstorm. 

[Tjsmum 16]

On 12/03/2023 at 19:18, Skani said:

Definitely not as hot as country Victoria.  We have the odd 30+ day in parts of Tasmania - not the northwest where Toots lives - but it only lasts a day or two.  We've had a total of 7   30+C days in Hobart this summer - but the average max. for both January and February was only 23C.

@Skani Could you describe the difference between the two? Dry heat, humid heat? 

[Tjsmum 16]

On 13/03/2023 at 09:03, Marisawright said:

Funnily enough, that's one of the things I love about living in Victoria.  Of course you get the odd day in the high 30s, like everywhere else in Australia.  However, even on those days, it's cool and fresh in the morning until about 11, and then cools down again in the evening.  Whereas when I lived in Sydney, on a hot day it would be sticky by 10, and it wouldn't cool down in the evening unless there was a thunderstorm. 

@Marisawright The weather in Vic sounds like my kind of weather! Cool and fresh! I’ve seen the list of places to not live due to bushfires but looking on the flood map seems like all the places we like and are affordable are flood prone and have flooded recently. 

[Tjsmum 16]

On 13/03/2023 at 08:04, Quoll said:

A few years ago we went to visit the rellies in Ballarat and the thermometer in Sturt St said 41°C, the next day the max was 13°C - that was one heck of a cool change. Ballarat certainly does extremes - I remember it sleeting on Christmas Day one year! 

@Quoll Ballarat is one of the places where we’d like to move to, but it’s flood prone and has flooded in the past year, I don’t fancy moving to flood prone areas, could you please ask your rellies how often it’s flooded since they’ve lived there? 

[Quoll 6,119]

45 minutes ago, Tjsmum said:

@Quoll Ballarat is one of the places where we’d like to move to, but it’s flood prone and has flooded in the past year, I don’t fancy moving to flood prone areas, could you please ask your rellies how often it’s flooded since they’ve lived there? 

They've never mentioned it. Only time I ever saw it was a flash flood on the Creswick road which came and went. It was an odd year last year though and I vaguely recall a bit of flooding in Delacombe but my DH lived in Alfredton for years and never had any problems. Creswick had a flood problem but it seemed to have recovered by Christmas. It's not like Benalla or Albury which regularly get flooded. The rellies that still live there are outside the town and more concerned about bushfires than floods.  

[calNgary 9,176]

1 hour ago, Tjsmum said:

@Quoll Ballarat is one of the places where we’d like to move to, but it’s flood prone and has flooded in the past year, I don’t fancy moving to flood prone areas, could you please ask your rellies how often it’s flooded since they’ve lived there? 

Using Greater Brisbane as a guide, lots of areas that are listed as flood risk might just get some flash flooding that blocks low lying roads for a few hours, but not necessarily flooded enough damage to homes and property. I had a quick read for Ballarat and it say to avoid areas near Gnarr Creek ???? , so im guessing its the creek that is maybe prone to flooding.

This is the council page for that area - https://www.ses.vic.gov.au/plan-and-stay-safe/flood-guides/ballarat-city-council

Cal x

[Marisawright 10,269]

11 hours ago, Tjsmum said:

@Quoll Ballarat is one of the places where we’d like to move to, but it’s flood prone and has flooded in the past year, I don’t fancy moving to flood prone areas, could you please ask your rellies how often it’s flooded since they’ve lived there? 

When someone says a place is "flood prone", it doesn't mean the whole city goes underwater.   It means that certain suburbs, or even just certain streets, might get flooded sometimes.  

To give you an example, PART of the Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong had a huge flood recently which indundated hundreds of homes.  All the surrounding suburbs stayed completely dry, because they're all on higher land. 

Edited March 15 by Marisawright

[Quoll 6,119]

1 hour ago, Marisawright said:

When someone says a place is "flood prone", it doesn't mean the whole city goes underwater.   It means that certain suburbs, or even just certain streets, might get flooded sometimes.  

To give you an example, PART of the Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong had a huge flood recently which indundated hundreds of homes.  All the surrounding suburbs stayed completely dry, because they're all on higher land. 

Yup, I asked my husband whether he thought Ballarat was flood prone and he was surprised I would think of asking! I think it is just the odd suburb on rare occasions.  

[Skani 5,342]

19 hours ago, Tjsmum said:

@Skani Could you describe the difference between the two? Dry heat, humid heat? 

It's very rare to get humidity associated with heat in Tasmania.  I've lived in both northern New South Wales and Sydney and we don't get humidity like that.  The odd 30+C  days we get in summer are the result of strong northerly winds blowing down from inland mainland Australia so it's a dry heat.  It cools as it crosses Bass Strait then heats up a bit again as it travels south over land (which is why Hobart has a few more 30C days than Devonport on the north coast where Toots lives. It may even be years since Devonport had one of those). Coastal areas generally get a cooling sea breeze in summer.  

[Tjsmum 16]

8 hours ago, Quoll said:

Yup, I asked my husband whether he thought Ballarat was flood prone and he was surprised I would think of asking! I think it is just the odd suburb on rare occasions.  

@Quoll I can’t find the article where I read Ballarat had flooding but I found this one: https://amp.theage.com.au/national/victoria/before-and-after-aerial-imagery-reveals-early-impact-of-victorian-floods-20221018-p5bqos.html

Shepparton is another place we are looking at but it has floods last year too 

[Tjsmum 16]

19 hours ago, calNgary said:

Using Greater Brisbane as a guide, lots of areas that are listed as flood risk might just get some flash flooding that blocks low lying roads for a few hours, but not necessarily flooded enough damage to homes and property. I had a quick read for Ballarat and it say to avoid areas near Gnarr Creek ???? , so im guessing its the creek that is maybe prone to flooding.

This is the council page for that area - https://www.ses.vic.gov.au/plan-and-stay-safe/flood-guides/ballarat-city-council

Cal x

@calNgary thank you for the link, I’ve found this very useful, comparing affordable houses to where the flood areas are/waterways. 
 

I feel for people living in brissy, they don’t seem to catch a break with floods, and yet their housing prices are phenomenal! And their flooding isn’t just a bridge going over it’s houses fully submerged 

Edited March 16 by Tjsmum
Missing sentence

[Bulya 2,761]

18 minutes ago, Tjsmum said:

@Quoll I can’t find the article where I read Ballarat had flooding but I found this one: https://amp.theage.com.au/national/victoria/before-and-after-aerial-imagery-reveals-early-impact-of-victorian-floods-20221018-p5bqos.html

Shepparton is another place we are looking at but it has floods last year too 

Nasty place (crime, drugs).  Give it a wide berth 

[Tjsmum 16]

9 hours ago, Marisawright said:

When someone says a place is "flood prone", it doesn't mean the whole city goes underwater.   It means that certain suburbs, or even just certain streets, might get flooded sometimes.  

To give you an example, PART of the Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong had a huge flood recently which indundated hundreds of homes.  All the surrounding suburbs stayed completely dry, because they're all on higher land. 

@Marisawright thank you, our best bet is to find parts of country Vic that are atop of a mountain, where we live in Atherton tablelands is atop a mountain,  we do get local flooding but it isn’t in Brisbane’s scale, our bridges go over, certain low lying roads go over but nothing high enough to reach the front door step or drown the cars.

I will make it part of our trips next year to figure out where is the least disaster prone, yet affordable and not remote places to live in tas and Vic 

Our good friends are moving down to country Vic at the beginning of next year, yay! At least we won’t be on our own, where they are moving to isn’t known yet but we will hope to move near them.

[Tjsmum 16]

20 hours ago, Quoll said:

They've never mentioned it. Only time I ever saw it was a flash flood on the Creswick road which came and went. It was an odd year last year though and I vaguely recall a bit of flooding in Delacombe but my DH lived in Alfredton for years and never had any problems. Creswick had a flood problem but it seemed to have recovered by Christmas. It's not like Benalla or Albury which regularly get flooded. The rellies that still live there are outside the town and more concerned about bushfires than floods.  

@Quoll this is good to know, thanks!

I’ve got a list of the most bushfire prone areas

[Marisawright 10,269]

20 minutes ago, Tjsmum said:

@Marisawright thank you, our best bet is to find parts of country Vic that are atop of a mountain, where we live in Atherton tablelands is atop a mountain,  we do get local flooding but it isn’t in Brisbane’s scale, our bridges go over, certain low lying roads go over but nothing high enough to reach the front door step or drown the cars.

Haha, Ballarat is already on top of a mountain, that's why it's so cool. 

The floods that make the news in Victoria are caused by the mighty Murray River and the Maribyrnong River, which overflow.  Brisbane floods because it's on a river, too. Ballarat is nowhere near those rivers or any major rivers for that matter.  Most flooding in Ballarat is FLASH flooding, which is when rain falls so heavily that the drains can't handle it fast enough.  Obviously if you choose a house with a creek at the bottom of the garden, you might have a problem with water overflowing, but that's just common sense.

I live in Victoria and we see reports about flooding in various towns all the time. I can't remember, in my six years here, ever seeing a news item about flooding in Ballarat so I doubt it has any serious problems.  I know a couple who live there and they've never mentioned it either.

Edited March 16 by Marisawright

[Quoll 6,119]

1 hour ago, Tjsmum said:

@Quoll I can’t find the article where I read Ballarat had flooding but I found this one: https://amp.theage.com.au/national/victoria/before-and-after-aerial-imagery-reveals-early-impact-of-victorian-floods-20221018-p5bqos.html

Shepparton is another place we are looking at but it has floods last year too 

Shep is prone to floods - you've only got to look at the big rivers - Campaspe, Goulburn, Murray and Ovens and they regularly flood and impact the towns along their routes so Wangaratta, Benalla, Shepparton, Seymour, etc all cop it regularly.  Ballarat is south of them in the hilly area and not on the flood plains of the big rivers.

[Quoll 6,119]

1 hour ago, Tjsmum said:

@Quoll I can’t find the article where I read Ballarat had flooding but I found this one: https://amp.theage.com.au/national/victoria/before-and-after-aerial-imagery-reveals-early-impact-of-victorian-floods-20221018-p5bqos.html

Shepparton is another place we are looking at but it has floods last year too 

They're miles away from Ballarat! - a good 3 - 4 hour drive.

[Skani 5,342]

15 hours ago, Tjsmum said:

Shepparton is another place we are looking at but it has floods last year too 

Not  a good place if you are trying to avoid heat.  Being so far inland it can get very hot in summer:  January and February averages are over 30C and it has had extremes into the 40s in recent years, in every month between November and March.   

[Marisawright 10,269]

2 hours ago, Skani said:

Not  a good place if you are trying to avoid heat.  Being so far inland it can get very hot in summer:  January and February averages are over 30C and it has had extremes into the 40s in recent years, in every month between November and March.   

I agree.  If you're looking at inland cities, you need to look for ones that are in the hills or mountains.  Cities that are down on the lower land get hot in summer (though it's not a humid, sticky heat like Queensland,  so I don't mind it that much).  For instance, if I had to choose between Bendigo and Ballarat to live, I'd probably choose Bendigo except that I prefer the cooler weather. 

[Tjsmum 16]

18 hours ago, Bulya said:

Nasty place (crime, drugs).  Give it a wide berth 

@Bulya Shep or Ballarat? 

[Bulya 2,761]

3 hours ago, Tjsmum said:

@Bulya Shep or Ballarat? 

Shep.  Can’t think of many places in the country with a worse reputation 

[Tjsmum 16]

7 hours ago, Skani said:

Not  a good place if you are trying to avoid heat.  Being so far inland it can get very hot in summer:  January and February averages are over 30C and it has had extremes into the 40s in recent years, in every month between November and March.   

@Skani Every summer without fail here it’s the best part of 30*c just a month ago we had 2weeks of 40+ so we are used to it but it’s not the kind of weather we want to live in

As others have said, Shep is a flood prone area so we will be avoiding it altogether, but thank you for the info I appreciate all the insider information I can get  

[Tjsmum 16]

5 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I agree.  If you're looking at inland cities, you need to look for ones that are in the hills or mountains.  Cities that are down on the lower land get hot in summer (though it's not a humid, sticky heat like Queensland,  so I don't mind it that much).  For instance, if I had to choose between Bendigo and Ballarat to live, I'd probably choose Bendigo except that I prefer the cooler weather. 

@Marisawright Bendigo isn’t an area I’ve looked into yet, thank you for the suggestion, if you’ve lived in Ballarat, what would you say is the difference in the weather? Other than hotter or cooler? Much rain? Dry summers? 

[Marisawright 10,269]

54 minutes ago, Tjsmum said:

@Marisawright Bendigo isn’t an area I’ve looked into yet, thank you for the suggestion, if you’ve lived in Ballarat, what would you say is the difference in the weather? Other than hotter or cooler? Much rain? Dry summers? 

The difference is that Ballarat is in the mountains, so it's generally cooler, with more rain.   I think you might find Bendigo too hot in summer