Guest fleagle Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Phew - how's that for cramming it all into one line ! Hello - brand new to the forum today and have spent a couple of hours reading through the excellent information already here. I'm wondering if any of you resident experts can help me. Both me and my husband are moving in the summer (your winter) to take up jobs at Canberra University. I've been doing my online homework and have come up with a list of potential places to live. I don't want a great distance between home and work, plus we have to find a nice school for our daughter (aged 6) as well as child care for our son (aged 3). Soooooooo, below are the sorts of areas I've narrowed it down to. There seem to be quite a lot of rental properties available at the moment. Does anybody have any comments, warnings, advice etc about any of them please - both/either the neighbourhoods and the schools? Really hope you can help - I'm a natural worrier and sleep is not coming easy at the moment! Here we go: Aranda, Cook, Fraser, Hawker, Weetangera, Kaleen, Macquarie or any other areas nearby you could highly recommend? Thanks in advance! :biggrin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WARDStoOZ Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Hopefully someone will be along to help you out soon, Dan xx :smile: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 You havent done too badly at all there with your selections. Cook is one of those suburbs where the primary school was closed down a couple of years ago so your daughter would be off to Aranda, Macquarie or Weetangera primary school rather than one close by in the suburb - not that any of them are far to travel. There is also Bruce but the houses there tend to be quite expensive. You could also go further into town and look at O'Connor and maybe Nth Lyneham (Lyneham is a bit mixed). Schools wise I'd be opting for Aranda at this point in time although none of them are total avoiders. You definitely want to steer clear of Charnwood and "lower" Evatt and some parts of Melba IMHO. I hope you are doing your real estate searching on Real Estate & Homes for Sale, Rent and Share | allhomes because that is far and away the biggest site for Canberra properties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fleagle Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 Thanks very much Quoll. Very reassuring! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest edard Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Finding rental places in Canberra can be hard work especially at the beginning of the year and also at the beginning of either uni semester so I'd bear that in mind. (It's not like the UK where a helpful estate agent helps you find somewhere nice and shows you round options at a time that suits you.) They're all nice areas and I'd agree with Quoll about O'Connor (v nice) and Charnwood (bad rep, although I don't know if it's deserved) and using all homes. I live in Melba (so I disagree about avoiding it!) and work at the uni. We're a short walk to my daughter's school (she's our only school aged child) and I ride my bike to work. I'll ask around about schools in other suburbs - all my daughter's friends just started primary schools across N Canberra. Childcare at the uni is great, but there's competition for places. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Finding rental places in Canberra can be hard work especially at the beginning of the year and also at the beginning of either uni semester so I'd bear that in mind. (It's not like the UK where a helpful estate agent helps you find somewhere nice and shows you round options at a time that suits you.) They're all nice areas and I'd agree with Quoll about O'Connor (v nice) and Charnwood (bad rep, although I don't know if it's deserved) and using all homes. I live in Melba (so I disagree about avoiding it!) and work at the uni. We're a short walk to my daughter's school (she's our only school aged child) and I ride my bike to work. I'll ask around about schools in other suburbs - all my daughter's friends just started primary schools across N Canberra. Childcare at the uni is great, but there's competition for places. Ed LOL I only said some parts of Melba:biglaugh: and it is certainly much better since they demolished the flats and sent everyone down to Richardson. I agree with you about the pressure on finding rentals though it's pretty tough at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evenflo Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Hi, My name is Eve and we moved over to Canberra in Dec 08 for my husband to take up a position at Canberra Uni as well. We personally live in North Lyneham, it takes Nick 15 mins to cycle to work and there are a variety of child care centres in the area, again all cyclable so driving would be no problem. Child care places are a problem, the Uni has a excellant centre but have no places, we are on the waiting list with it at the moment. "Kirinari Early childhood centre". Anyway, Im sure I could answer other vquestions you may have but best of luck.xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fleagle Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Thanks everyone! Ed, if you could ask around about other schools that would be great. I've been in touch with several childcare places and the answer is always the same "we're full but can put you on the waiting list" and that includes Kirinari. Got an offer of a place in Bruce but only if started paying for it now! If we had the spare cash I probably would have done that since it seems the only way we'll get in! I'm quietly panicking under the surface I think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest edard Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 don't panic. Schools: I have recommendations straight from the parent's mouth for: Aranda, Kaleen, Mount Rogers (Melba), Hawker and St Monica's (catholic school, in Evatt) - actually I think Canberra's education system is pretty good, so you'd be OK with most schools. Childcare: the uni also has the Wiradjuri early childhood centre which takes kids from age three, but is probably very competitive. And I know there's a childcare place at Calvary Hospital, which isn't too far away and is apparently pretty good. My kids have never been in childcare, so I'm relying on what people tell me. Accommodation: the Uni will probably put you up for a couple of weeks (Eve might know how this works) and if you're both working here, you might be able to stretch that to give you time to look around. If you guys (or a future colleague) can get on the uni email and sign up for the chat list there are often appeals/ads for accommodation, cars, advice. good luck. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest paradisi Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 oconnor, ainslie, dickson, bruce are more suburbs to choose --- all the old inner suburbs - excellent schools just about anywhere in canberra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.