AFreshStart Posted January 24, 2015 Report Share Posted January 24, 2015 Hey Guys,I shared this on Facebook and thought it might be relevant to others with families."One of the best things about our new home in Australia (and suburb) is the community. Today a neighbour and her daughter stopped by for an impromptu chat, brief play date and to pick veggies from our community garden (basically our front porch).Another neighbour took Nathan (our 4 year old son) to the park with her girls and yet another neighbour came around with her son for dinner.The weird thing is this is our normal! Tomorrow I'm going to pick up a friend of Nathan's and walk them over to the sports field before meeting another friend for a play date with Olivia. This is life I've always wanted for our kids & family."We came from the Southern Suburbs in Cape Town, where we hoped to find this sense of community, but never fitted in, but here, in the city, we've found more family community than we ever did in South African. We have loads more play dates and have a family in our home for a meal at least once a week.Community has been vital in helping us settle, being able to call on a neighbour to look after the kids while you pop off to the shops, clean, or just need a break.So for those used to the suburbs, don't write the city off just yet.CheersMatt 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donovan83 Posted January 24, 2015 Report Share Posted January 24, 2015 I looooove living in the city. I've done it in Perth and now in Melbs. It costs (a lot) more, but it's so worth it. Especially if you work in the city, my commute is at most about 15 minutes, and everything is so close by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFreshStart Posted January 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2015 Hi Donovan,In South Africa I find many people aspire to this 'dream' of having kids, moving to the suburbs, big house, 2 cars etc. Many leave SA for Aus and try recreate that idea here which usually means living further away from the City, lengthy commutes and the like.To be honest when we started looking at suburbs we were setting ourselves up for the same trap, but my wife has commuted for 1-2 hours a day for a decade and we wanted to be closer to the action and change things up. Like you she now has a short commute, walking to the office takes 15-20 minutes each way or 5-7 mins by Taxi or Car. We are smack bang in the center of things. We are a 20-minute walk to the Sydney stadium, 20-minute walk to the CBD and 20 minute drive to Bondi Beach.Strip that all away and what we are left with is an amazing family based community here in Surry Hills, 4 of our immediate neighbours all have kids and we are constantly doing things together and have one of the families popping in for tea and cake later.Being in the city we've experienced more of a community than we ever did in the suburbs in CPT, which was an eye opener and something for families to consider.CheersMatt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riekie Posted January 25, 2015 Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 I LOVE Surry Hills and the surrounding areas! I work in Rushcutters Bay in a renovated industrial building (very arty farty!) We go to the park during lunch for a picnic and play bocce. It's a whole different life! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rozellem Posted January 25, 2015 Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 Matt, I hear you. We rented in the Inner West for years and moved out to the Frenchs Forest area two years ago. Initially, I struggled with not being IN the action, but I have a bigger "problem". I am a Libra and for some reason, deep, deep down in my DNA, I am only truly settled when I live in a house I own. Its nothing to do with being a snob, its a cant-put-my-finger-on ROOTS thing. As we are never going to inherit a red cent from anybody (they will only cost us), we had to look further a field. Two years down the track we are very happy with our slice of ugly 1960 suburbia. Most of the neighbours moved out from the centre as their babies became toddlers. In eight houses on our cul de sac we have 11 kids under 7. They roam like a little pack and everybody keeps a eye on them. I can hear mine squealing in the neighbours pool as we speak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFreshStart Posted January 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 (edited) Matt, I hear you. We rented in the Inner West for years and moved out to the Frenchs Forest area two years ago. Initially, I struggled with not being IN the action, but I have a bigger "problem". I am a Libra and for some reason, deep, deep down in my DNA, I am only truly settled when I live in a house I own. Its nothing to do with being a snob, its a cant-put-my-finger-on ROOTS thing. As we are never going to inherit a red cent from anybody (they will only cost us), we had to look further a field. Two years down the track we are very happy with our slice of ugly 1960 suburbia. Most of the neighbours moved out from the centre as their babies became toddlers. In eight houses on our cul de sac we have 11 kids under 7. They roam like a little pack and everybody keeps a eye on them. I can hear mine squealing in the neighbours pool as we speak. Hi hear you Rozelle, the funny thing is this is the first time in our married life of 10 years we haven't owned our own home, but we've made piece with it and realize that we couldn't have this quality of life here in Surry Hills if we had to buy, we just couldn't afford it. In making the move we've probably stepped back 5-10 years from where we were finally in SA, paying off a home etc, but have years to make it up.My wife works in the CBD, it's not changing anytime soon and so while we pay a premium for being here, the commute is short and buys us an extra hour to two as a family and we can't put a price on that. We sold off most of our belonging so need less space and while we might not settle in a buy here, we'll probably still stay in the City, at least for the foreseeable future, primarily over in Zetland, Alexandria or Redfern.I'm glad you have a community feel over in French's, I'm sure there are many places you can foster it, I didn't didn't expect to find it like we have here in the City.CheersMattI LOVE Surry Hills and the surrounding areas! I work in Rushcutters Bay in a renovated industrial building (very arty farty!) We go to the park during lunch for a picnic and play bocce. It's a whole different life! Rushcutters is lovely! We've been over to the park a couple times and used it as our vantage point on NYE to see the fireworks. Edited January 25, 2015 by AFreshStart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted January 27, 2015 Report Share Posted January 27, 2015 (edited) Add me to the list. Love living close to everything...we're around 4.5km from the city centre. Brisbane makes it a bit easier as family houses are more available and affordable a lot close in than the larger cities so can have more bedrooms, more living area, pool etc... There is also a lot of nature very close to the city so you can have the best of both worlds. With regards to my work commute I have to purposely make it longer as the bicycle ride to the city became too short after doing it for a while. Edited January 27, 2015 by Fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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