Ask Josem about visiting/living in Australia

[Josem]

Hawklet,

Damn. I just wrote a lengthy response to your questions, and 2p2 lost it.

That sucks.


Anyway, the short version is ('cause I'm annoyed and don't want to re-write 1,000 words on it):

[ QUOTE ]
I'm leaving in February to study in Australia for the next few months. I'll be in Brisbane at the Australia Catholic University.

[/ QUOTE ]
ACU is not a great university.

Australia's leading universities are www.groupof8.edu.au

[ QUOTE ]
Is there any information you can tell me that would be of interest to an American student traveling to Brisbane soon?

[/ QUOTE ]
High stakes player TeddyFBI studied at Sydney recently.

His story starts here: http://zbasic.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

[ QUOTE ]
What are the big social differences? Are laws very different (especially in terms of alcohol consumption)?

[/ QUOTE ]
Info on drugs & alcohol legality in Queensland: http://www.police.qld.gov.au/services/drugs/

[ QUOTE ]
I'll be receiving an internship while of there so any other information in regards to work etiquette would also be very helpful.

[/ QUOTE ]
Meh. No different to US, I imagine.

[ QUOTE ]
And obviously, how is the night life? Thanks a lot.

[/ QUOTE ]
My city nightlife ratings:
1. Melbourne
...
...
...
2. Sydney
...
...
...
3. Brisbane/Gold Coast
4. Adelaide
5. Canberra*


(*Canberra's very good if you're a little older and you like highly educated public servants. Not loud music, but lots of decent, quieter bars for a more "refined" demographic)

I don't know about Perth.

[HoldingFolding]

Hi Josem,

I've spent quite a lot of time in Australia & am thinking of emigrating there; however, having been there at Xmas I realise that Sydney is probably out of my price range, where would you recommend moving to? Pertinent information:
1. I have a wife & 2 daughters under 10
2. I have a steady income from real estate so I don't need to work
3. I have friends & family in Sydney so I would like to be within a couple of hours drive.
4. I would like to be close to a good beach

Cheers.

[Josem]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Josem,

I've spent quite a lot of time in Australia & am thinking of emigrating there; however, having been there at Xmas I realise that Sydney is probably out of my price range, where would you recommend moving to? Pertinent information:
1. I have a wife & 2 daughters under 10
2. I have a steady income from real estate so I don't need to work
3. I have friends & family in Sydney so I would like to be within a couple of hours drive.
4. I would like to be close to a good beach

Cheers.

[/ QUOTE ]


I'm not a fan of living outside major cities. Be aware that my own demographic (25 year old, single, mobile, etc.) is not reflective of yours, so my view of the world might be biased.


If you want to live outside Sydney, in a decent sized town (I'm going to exclude country towns simply because they're unlikely to have the services and schools and facilities you want) but within driving of distance of Sydney, you have two main options:

1) Newcastle region, north of Sydney.

2) Wollongong region, south of Sydney.


Co-incidentally, I currently live in Newcastle. Newcatle (and surrounds) have some sensational beaches, and I reckon they're better than Wollongong's. I also suspect that Newcastle is likely to grow more in the future than Wollongong, and is currently a city of over 500,000 people.

I took a photo of the beach at the end of my street; it is here: http://www.michaeljosem.com/uploaded...ach-789928.JPG


Other possibilities include the North Coast (4 or more hours north of Sydney; literally the best weather in the world; smaller cities/towns than Newcastle/Wollongong); the NSW Central Coast (which to me seems like a suburban extension of Sydney without the excellent services you get in a main city).

Some more info:
www.nsw.gov.au (State Govt Website)
www.realestate.com.au (Real Estate)
www.domain.com.au (More Real Estate)
www.education.nsw.gov.au (State Education Dept)



Hopefully this is a start - if you have more specific questions let me know.

[WhoIam]

Did you ever figure out why there are so few fat guys compared to fat girls?

[goofball]

How would you solve the crisis of the aborigines?

[Josem]

I'm not interested in answering questions about my own political views - while I'm sure they'd make for an interesting discussion, they don't fit here with the purpose of answering questions about people visiting/living in Australia.

[goofball]

where wer you 6 mos. ago? :-p

Have you ever been up to cairns?

[Josem]

I assume there was some discussion about Australian aborigines 6 months ago - I dunno what forum it is, and obviously I missed it.



I have never been to Cairns.

[goofball]

No, 6 mos. ago I was getting ready to go to Aus. for a month

[josh_x]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Josem,

I've spent quite a lot of time in Australia & am thinking of emigrating there; however, having been there at Xmas I realise that Sydney is probably out of my price range, where would you recommend moving to? Pertinent information:
1. I have a wife & 2 daughters under 10
2. I have a steady income from real estate so I don't need to work
3. I have friends & family in Sydney so I would like to be within a couple of hours drive.
4. I would like to be close to a good beach

Cheers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Josem's reccomendation of Newcastle or Wollongong is spot on IMO. I don't know a heap about newcastle, but i lived in Wollongong up until about 3 years ago. It is about 90 minutes from the middle of sydney, has great beaches, super nice people, and great weather. Geographically it is fairly unusual in that it has an escarpment on one side of the town and the ocean on the other, so depending on what you want you will be able to find a place to live that you really like. I used to live towards to mountains and it was only like a 15 minute to the beach. Plenty of things to do there like fishing and sailing etc, on top of the usual things. I think there are ~300,000 people living in the greater wollongong area.

Anyway that was my little plug for wollongong - picture