CHOOSING A NEW HOME

For those that may not have heard….we have a winner! Dennis and I have become residents of the Coffs Coast – the call of the Big Banana being impossible to resist!

This changing your life business is not for the faint-hearted! We made our decision 5 days ago, arrived in Coffs 3 days ago and already I am plagued with doubts about our decision. It’s quite a culture shock! When I get tired I find myself wondering why I keep doing this to myself, but then we get up early and go for a walk on the beach in the glorious morning sun and everything feels right again.

We are trying to rent a house without much luck, and in the meantime we reside in the Sawtell Caravan Park. Love Sawtell….great beach, great little village. But honestly, I’m over living in a camp trailer. I long for the day when I can wake up in the middle of the night for a pee and not have to walk through the rain to get to the toilet block. It doesn’t seem like a lot to ask!

I’ve provided a summary of the decision making process at the end just in case anyone else out there is thinking about moving to the NSW coast. If you are actually planning to fully retire up here I would say you can’t go past Yamba. As you will note, it didn’t actually get full consideration simply because it is geographically awkward being midway between Ballina and Coffs. For us, the difficulty in getting in and out of Sydney and Melbourne didn’t suit, but if you’re just looking for the quiet life, or you love sailing, fishing or other water sports, this would be my recommendation – absolutely picture perfect! And now, a few words from Dennis (who has already started filling in his membership forms for the Coffs Harbour Golf Club)….

The NSW coast region is great with an easy going lifestyle and lots of outdoor activities, beach, walks fishing, swimming etc. Starting a new life in a new location certainly has its challenges and we are certainly getting our fair share here in looking for housing, I’m quite sure that we will find the right place in time as the adventure continues.



WHERE TO NEXT REPORT

This provides an overview of our rating on each area. Please refer to the front page, right hand column of the blog (www.wordsfromthebush.blogspot.com) for the criteria.

Byron and environs

We checked out most places from Ballina to Tweed Heads and inland as far as Lismore. The area scores well in terms of access to Melbourne: two airports to choose from (Coolangatta and Ballina) and plenty of cheap flights. The golf courses rated well, as did access to activities for me, and there are certainly plenty of cafes nearby. Where this area fell short was in affordability, demographics and traffic. It was school holidays and there were a lot of roadworks, so perhaps the traffic isn’t always bad – but it was certainly unacceptable when we were there. The housing that was in our price range was largely in new developments that made us feel like we were in Caroline Springs, not a coastal paradise. And the demographics were all wrong: too many backpackers in some places, too many retirees in others, too many holiday rentals just about everywhere.

The area also fell short in the “Feels Right” measure. This is the criterion that we added to cover all the things about a place to live that we couldn’t seem to put into words. It gives each of us the opportunity to veto a place without having to find the right words to explain our discomfort. We both agreed that this area didn’t feel right. While we loved some of the hinterland areas like Bangalow – we quickly realized that the leap from a major urban centre to a sleepy rural hollow was too great for us. Brunswick Heads on the coast is a perfect holiday spot (when the sun comes out) but it’s a place to which one escapes, not a place to create a new life.

FINAL SCORE: 6/10


Coffs and environs

My oldest Australian friend, Mark, and his wife Emma, live in Coffs so we had the benefit of knowledgeable guides in assessing this area. We rambled up and down the coast from Woolgoolga to Urunga and inland to Bellingen. Coffs itself is bigger than we remembered, with pretty much all the amenities you would need. The airport is central and easy to get to, but it loses points for frequency and affordability of direct flights to Melbourne and Sydney. There are a number of good golf courses, and one “top 50” course and plenty of outdoor activities for me. There are little beachside villages with great cafes, and in Sawtell there’s even a local cinema with international films so that box is ticked. The housing is well within our price range in the areas that we liked. The demographics are balanced, albeit relatively blue collar, with above average unemployment. There are plenty of small businesses, a university – this is a place where people live, not just a holiday joint. There can be traffic build ups on the Pacific Highway, but overall it rates well in the traffic jam department. Big bonus points were scored in the “people we love already live there” criteria. With Mark and Emma in town, plus other friends Anna and Neil close by in Bellingen, Coffs already feels a bit like home.

FINAL SCORE: 8.5/10


Port Stephens

This area is the Mornington Peninsula of NSW. Within 1.5 hours drive of Sydney this is where rich, overworked Sydneysiders come to play, relax and retire. It rates very high on cheap and frequent access to Sydney and Melbourne, has great golf courses and is within easy reach of Newcastle with all its amenities. Dennis rated the golf courses very highly and the surrounds offered good opportunities for other outdoor pursuits. Housing is more affordable than you might expect as the global financial crisis has meant many Sydneysiders had to sell off those second homes. Except in Nelson Bay itself the housing felt quite suburban and somewhat bereft of the village life we were seeking, and Nelson Bay suffers from having only one way in or out, meaning traffic jams during peak holiday periods. The demographics do not seem as diverse as we wanted with too much emphasis on retirement and tourism.

It has to be said that Dennis liked this area far better than I did. We think this is because he is starting to relate to the idea of being retired – and it certainly would be a lovely place to slow down. But I’m not ready to retire so was unable to give Port Stephens the “feels right” tick.

FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10


Newcastle

We had received rave reviews about Newcastle from various friends and were looking forward to exploring the city. It is absolutely ideal in terms of access to Sydney and Melbourne. The city is remarkably attractive, with lovely old buildings and an attractive sea frontage. Certainly plenty of cafes, cinemas etc and it’s very centrally located to access Port Stephens and the Hunter with all their golf, outdoor activities, food and wine. It’s really quite an exciting little city and I commend it to everyone for a visit (apparently it scored in the Lonely Planet Top 10 Cities for 2011).

However, both Dennis and I had exactly the same reaction – this feels just like Abbotsford, and why would we move away from friends and family to live in another Abbotsford? Moving here felt like it would be a change of address not a change of lifestyle.

FINAL SCORE: 7/10