you know! i've been thinking about this for a few months now. and it has only just occurred to me that i have oz at my fingertips. in fact one better i have like minded vw enthusiasts at my fingertips.

here is the deal. am tired of sydney and have relocated back to my old house on the central coast. but we want for something else, and my lady and i have talked about living here or there and what else but the hardest part to do is visit oz and get a feel for what its like.

so i would love to hear from my fellow dubbers what your town is like. benefits and or disbenefits. maybe even if you visited somewhere and thought "wow this is nice"
so please let me in on how nice it is where you are, and you never know you might get a black split droppin' by for a coffee and sqiz.

would love to say 'hi'.

Melbourne is my kinda town
- MCG
- Restarants
- Cafe's
- Chapel Street
- great pubs
- St Kilda (say no more)
- Acland Street cake shops
- Trams
- Casino
- Yarra River
- did I mention the cake shops

Down side.
- the weather, cold in winter and blazing hot in summer.
- bastard traffic , not anywhere close to Sydney though
But who cares we have the cake shops
Dean

now thats it. we thought melbourne because the culture is suppose to b better than sydney but we also thought that it would be cooler all the time.

i have family in melbourne and am looking at it in feb/mar i think.
have been down there a lot when i was working. but am wondering really how much diff it would be to sydney.

Oh yeah forgot about the kulture. We are well kultured.

Seriously tho there are a lot of differences between Melb & Sydney. I have spent alot of time in both cities, but I couldnt put my finger on why, there just is.

Also have a brilliant VW club down here.

Thought of a couple more if you are not fully convinced

- Grand Prix
- Australian Open
- Bells Beach
- Black Spur - Dandenong Ranges
- and the Otways

- and if you travel a lot (like I do) planes that run on time!!!

Sweet Vee Dubbs, great friendly Vee Dubbers, Acland St cake shops as pointed out (sorry just received my numerology for the day) previously

Vee Dub spotting in Brunswick St

Nice folk down Gippsland way!!!!

Otway Ranges -forests, Great Ocean Road for cruisin, brilliant beaches, alternate lifestyle if you want, near Geelong a growing, vibrant city close to Melbourne if you need more of anything. Surfing, beach walks, history, architecture, community. Hmmm, have thought about moving that side of town.

Hills communities near town, mud bricks, corrigated iron, markets stepping back into the '70's. Music, arts alternate lifestyle, local produce

OK you're form the coast must have a connection to water, go Otway Ranges, Bellarine Peninsular Victoria unless you like predictable weather:thumb

hey jenz. is otway ranges near geelong. how far would this be from melbourne and which direction.

wow jenz.
i did a search. thats a nice part of the world. have just put it on the white board for further discussion.
thanks.:thumb

Why would you want to leave "Mount Driut by the sea"?

thats it exactly. after 4 1/2 yrs having it rented and moving to sydney.
we come back to think yes wind down relax and enjoy the life a little only to find the other half of sydney has moved up. damn shame really. the beaches are nice but some of the people... well.

iv'e been to a few nice spots here and there, but before I get started - was that your split window but parked in a shopping centre carpark near north gosford area on sunday about 11ish. I missed the name of the centre and I'm not from around that way so north gosford might be a bit off. It could have been oriumbra / wyong. I don't know. But anyhow I was going to an 80th Bday party sunday and we were all playing spotto on the way when Sal and I both spottoed your ( or one that looked like your) split window bus. Black with white striping.

Anyhow...

I come from Emerald, an Oasis in the middle of Queensland. If you like dry heat let me know and I'll tell you more about it. It is a nice town with a lot going for it but it gets very very hot in summer, as in three weeks where every day is over 45. Winters are lovely with 5 degree mornings. It is a mining / agricultural hub of the central highlands of queensland. My favourite place in the whole of queensland (And Ive traveled most of it) where people are allowed to live would have to be Eunguella which is a plateau range 80 km west of Macky. It is cool, scenic, not to many terrorists and wonderful bushland, cafes and resturaunts. Fuel is expensive but no more than Sydney during school holidays.

Newcastle has been our home for five years. If you are living on the central coast you would be aware of the climate but it's not quite as humid as the central coast fo NSW for some reason. Hamiltons, Beaumont street is a cafe paradise and the foreshore is magnificient. Newcastle is no longer the industrial city. There is no more smoke and smog, land prices are skyrocketing towards sydney prices, there is planty of work available and the cost of living is reasonably low. Traffic is a hassle but then again I come from a town without traffic lights.

My favourite spot in NSW (I haven't seen much of it) would have to be Barrington tops to the immeadiate west of Gloucster about an hour and a half from Newcastle NW. You can't live up there but the hinterland to its east is full of wonderful villages, hillside retreats, hobby farms and hideaways. The climate is beautiful with it only warm on the still days.

Where would I move to?
If I had a choice I would like to probably head down to Tasmania for a while. I like the idea of a port in front of the fireplace, lots of rain, green grass and the odd snowfall. With kids who have posessive grandparents thats not going to happen anytime soon so in NSW I'd like to live around Tumbarumba in the high county of the northern edge of the snowfields snowline. You not near the terrorists os Jindabine / Perisher, the country is beautiful, the towns are a nice size and the lights of Canberra or even Sydney arn't that far if you need to touch base with civilisation. As you can tell im not into surfing, sailboard riding and scuba anymore.

As you can see I have been giving this some thought. How I ended up drawing Dubbo for a posting is anyones guess but I'm going to make the best of it for as long as it will have us. I seems a lovely place although I'm not a great fan of the heat. If the Bluemountians wern't crawling with people I'd probably look at Orange, Bathurst and their neighbours but would prefer the little hamlets and mountian nooks with privacy and security.

If you want to come up to Newey in the next couple of weeks let me know, I'll show you around a few choice areas, a couple of lookouts and of course the lake and foreshore. Truly a beautiful place, just too many people for this little black duck.

mate yes it was my bus.

in wyoming shopping centre. the missus and i were picking up the goods.

you r an absolute wealth of knowledge. you know ive never been to qld. have a sis that has moved up there again. she loves it but i do have a heat issue so am not sure. but am heading up to say hi and look around. i was originally from taree and so know the barringtons and gloucester etc. family still up that way also so have the north coast on my short list.newcastle we've pondered but am worried it will escalate like the c/coast. already know of people who live in newcastle but travel to sydney to work so we think we want to goa little further to avod the tenticals.
but when we r in the area we will forwarn you and have a quiet one.

Sounds great mate.

Queensland is a beautiful state, no doubt about it. It's not that crowded, even Brisbane seems relatively relaxed compared to Sydney and Newcastle, it's big but not crowded. There are a few cooler spots in Qld but the require a bit of height and most of those are now national parkes or full tourism destinations which stuff it for me generally I reckon.

I have been all over Queensland either with the military or just riding my KLR250 and 650's exploring. I bought a BMW K100 but it was too heavy to get into some of the best spots.

The cape is over rated, beautiful, but over rated and NSW has some wilderness spots that can rival the beauty of the cape now it has 1000's of terrorists overloading their tankotas and allterrain caravans.

Western Australia has the best roads in Australia, and Tasmania has the most beautiful countryside as does victoria. NSW is I believe the beach state of Oz while the NT is the true heart of Australia. They don't get much more fair dinkum than up there. Shame it's becoming commerical as well since the dundee bullshit. Bloody planes and boats, hoverscrafts, jetskis and hire canoes lined up on the shores of pristine gorges.

Yep - it the high country for me I reckon.

Oh, and if you ever over in New Zealand - go to the south island, and zigzag through all of the passes from the west to the east and back to the west again. Awesome landscape, wonderful people and lovely township. Just lock your car if you going for a walk anywhere thats all. I think NZ invented stainless steel quarter glasses.

Twoguns stop wingen.... cause u will be back to the BIG city....

u will be bored in a few weeks no doubt

I would suggest Brisbane but I too am bias. I have live in Sydney, Canberra, Townsville, Cairns, Newcastle, Raymond Terrace, Tea Gardens, Gladstone and several Over Seas Countires and I can happily say Brisbane is teh Best place of all. It is not so big that is bits likes Sydney but is big enough to have everything you could ever want.
We live on teh Nth Side near the mountains at it is a great area, 25mins to teh CBD and abot 5 from Major shops.
Take into account the cheaper that most capitols property prices and you can buy instead of rent.
One other place I would consider in Adelaide, which I think is one of Australias best kept secrets.

hey
hows about sawtell? or coffs????? sawtell where i live is a smallish villiage of about 6000 people or so right on the beach (lovelky beach) has a main street is known for its restuarants!! coffs is about 10 km away and offers alot of oppurtunities !!!!!!!!
there is no VW club but i wont to start one!!!
more info on sawtell can be found at

hey
hows about sawtell? or coffs????? sawtell where i live is a smallish villiage of about 6000 people or so right on the beach (lovelky beach) has a main street is known for its restuarants!! coffs is about 10 km away and offers alot of oppurtunities !!!!!!!!
there is no VW club but i wont to start one!!!
more info on sawtell can be found at :
http://www.sawtell.net/ 
cheers
rhys

Thanks for that Rhys, I was going to ask you about Sawtell at some stage. Some of the locations on this forum I have never heard of but sound really interesting.
Dean

I guess it would depend on what you want out of your new home, would you be working in the city?

keep 'em coming.

we visited sawtell last xmas rhys. we saw something about it and while on hols dropped in for a few days. tis nice and seems like a village with in a town.

coffs we have on the short list, to relook at next year.
but its trying to compare, lets say with adelaide, that makes deciding hard as they are very diff locations and benefits.

but am taking all input on board to help narrow the list.

hey
i even seen you driving through here!!!!!! and you parked down the main street!!!!!!!
what a small world!
cheers
rhys:tree

Hi

I reckon it would be great to live 45 - 60 minutes from Newcastle, have a few acres for the toys, the same could be said for Canberra. My brother inlaw moved down to Huskkison near Nowra, nice place to live but he had to buy himself a job. When his son needed to find a job he had to move to Sydney which is an expensive exercise for an apprentice.

1302Steve

Well, I live in Scone 320kms NNW of Sydney on the New England Highway, about 100 kms south of the COUNTRY MUSIC CAPITAL Tamworth...
Not too many jobs in the country though ,but lots of cheaper housing etc...
I really like and enjoyed Adelaide, its like a large country town.... or Mt Gambier... Actually I liked most of South Aust.. I also like Brisbane or Toowoomba in QLD....
If You like the cooler weather... then the lower end of South Australia is great...
Not forgetting Victoria... I am NOT a coastal person.... but to be realistic... and need to work.. it's best to live near a Large City....
Merry Xmas to All....:tree:rudolf:party