Has anyone ever lived in Aussie?

my sister moved there in march, to just north of brisbane. i dont know if she is totally loving it there yet, not knowing many other mums, and they do thigns a bit different when it comes to preschools and kindy's etc.. and its quite pricey from what ive heard... but i odnt know much. i do know that her kids love it there (boy 3.5yrs and girl 1.5yrs)

My dad lives in Brisbane, and has a 9 year old daughter (half sister).. I can ask him about it next time he calls

I'm a Brizzie girl, I was born there and would go back there any day any time. Everything is great there, the public transport, the roads are all good. Big difference in temps there. The north is slighty colder than the south. I would say the Gold Coast is more of tourist desitignation than a place to settle down with children. You would be better to live in Brisbane in the suburbs and go to the coast for holidays. Apart from the toll roads and the little and big creepy crawlies its a great place.

Becks how bad are the creepy crawlies? That has always been my biggest worry about moving there, I have a huge fear of our little spiders let alone thier huge ones. Do you see them often and is it safe for kids to play in the back yard or are they just everywhere? Hubbys dad and step mum live there but we dont want to tell them we are thinking of moving there at this stage so cant ask all these questions. We have been to brisbane a few times but love surfers, would go out into the suburbs rather than right in town though.

Paws I know what you mean, as much as I like Darrons dad that isnt enough reason for me to go there and leave my family but my brother lives in melbourne, one sister might be moving to melbourne later this year and I think I have talked my other sister into moving with us (wont go unless she does) that just leaves my mum and dad plus grandparents here but Mum wants us to move so she can come and stay with us then follow when the oldies die (i know that sounds horrible but she cant just up and leave them)

Hey there,
I lived in Brisbane (in the city) for 3 years. I loved it there but found it quite hard to adjust to the climate. It probably didn't help that I lived in an old Queenslander house with no air conditioning! I didn't really see many spiders etc thank god although when I first moved over I stayed with my ex for a few months and they had loads of Huntsman spiders which scared the living daylights out of me. I made some really good friends over there (whom I still have contact with and they all come over to NZ for my wedding).

If we had the opportunity to move back I would but only for a year or two. We can't really pack up and move at the moment because hubby has a 9 year old from a previous relationship - perhaps when she is a bit older we can move somewhere and she can fly over for visits.

oh thanks for that link, I might have a nosey. I was wondering if there was a site like oh baby but for aussies cos I have meet so many cool people here it would be great to be able to do the same in Aussie if we go.
Aargh the huntsman spiders are what scares me!

I lived in sydney for three months, and although it was innner city, I was expecting to see lots of creepy crawlies, but honestly I didn't see a thing! every outing I would look for kangaroos, crocodiles, koalas, but nothing. No snakes, no spiders. I saw a fair few tiny geckos.   that was it. how disappointing!

oph, and by outing I mean going to the country, not going to the Opera House and expecting a kangaroo in front or something.

hehe seems to be a re accuring comment here, we all want to move there for a few years but no one wants to leave family. My mum is encouraging me and my sister to move there but for me family is more important and I dont want to leave her here. But at the same time as she pointed out it would be cheaper for her to visit us in Aussie than fly up to Auckland or somewhere if we moved there (not that we would)

I am currently living in country victoria, haven't seen too many creepy crawlies - we got the house, exterior and garage sprayed when we got here so that has helped. Sorry can't tell you much about living with kiddies over here. I do like Aussie, but would prefer to be closer to the city (Melbourne or Adelaide) than out here (3 hour drive).

Edited by mellybelly

I grew up with Huntsman spiders the size of your hand in Sydney which I think is probably why I'm not bothered about spiders and creepy crawlies now. Birds are a different story however...

Anyways, I personally would never want to live in Australia - I spend far too much time there as it is! I'd love to be close to my parents in Sydney but it's not financially viable (daycare costs up to $700 per week per child, and the waiting lists in most areas are so long that you have to enrol your child before you are even pregnant. Plus property prices are phenomenal. Although on the upside, pay rates are higher and conditions are better as most industries are unionised (although a new collective workers agreement has undercut a lot of the unions in the past couple of months).

Oh, and don't get me started on Medicare - the biggest waste of time in history. I used to complain about our NZ health system till I spent time in Australia. My u/s there at 17 weeks was $175 of which I got about $110 back from Medicare, and private insurance doesn't cover the gap.

Not that I don't like Australia, it's a great place to visit, I just love coming home again to NZ.