Living in Braidwood

The best advice here so far is the person who said to rent there first.
Properties do not move quickly in small towns. It would be a tragedy to buy a place, decide after 6 or 12 months that the plan was a poor one, and then spend 2-3 years trying to sell – and that timeframe is not unrealistic.
My partner was in love with Bungendore. Until we lived there for a year.

I thought Canberra was a village, and you want to move to eer that. well at lest you can get good fresh bread but it will take 30years to be excepted as a Local and become part of the community. You could try marring into to place but I don’t think that applies to you.

I,ve been out off Sydney 5 years but all my friends there still keep in touch and it only took a few years to get to know them in the first place.

pegsbooks said :

I see no-one commenting lives in Braidwood. I do, and have done the commute. Winter is hard for commuting, and I recommend staying overnight and doing just two days a week in Canberra. Many people do commute, and car-share. There are no cheap houses in Braidwood, but it is a lovely place to live – 2 primary schools and the public one goes to Year 12. A childcare centre and preschool, about 65 active organisations, sporting and cultural, a fabulous golf course, bowls, tennis (competitions), massive soccer commitment for kids (240 families involved), other codes of football for adults, squash courts (and comps), an extraordinary cultural life available with no less than 3 theatre groups/companies which put on regular and high grade performances, regular classical music recitals (4-6 a year) at ‘Mona’ and the Anglican Church, a half dozen galleries and active Braidwood Regional Arts Group (BRAG), an arts business which has 150 students of local musicians (drums, guitar, piano etc), very little crime except the yahoo element after the pub now and then, and first rate health care and facilities. Major or serious health needs are met with an ambulance service (3 fulltime staff), but although some services are fortnightly or monthly (women’s health nurse, podiatry, Relationships Aust, dietician, etc) we have two male doctors close to fulltime and another woman doctor once a week, and a simply wonderful hospital (minor matters and after-surgery care, special care unit for palliative care), hostel and nursing home, Bendigo Community Bank branch and outlets for Commonwealth and Westpac – and a really friendly and welcoming community all round. I moved from Canberra to Braidwood 13 years ago, work from home now, and couldn’t be more contented. If you must have opera or city theatre, there are always people who travel to Sydney or Canberra, carpooling, to do so. We have an active Transition Towns movement here, with many people moving into climate change mode one way or another, and teh Urban Landcare group has just acquired land for a community garden on the Commons beside one of the creeks. The skies are filled with stars, the winters are a few degrees colder than Canberra, and the sea breeze does in fact come in late afternoon (occasionally dropping temps by 10 degrees, but more commonly by 5-6) much of the time, and though we have heatwaves, these usually don’t last more than 3-4 days. You can always go to the local pool, or as locals tend to do, out to our own special places on the Shoalhaven.
You’d be wiser to build a home that suits this climate with all the improvements of modernity – like insulation in the walls, proper orientation, etc.
But it is worth renting (difficult – there is heavy demand) for a while to see if you like the place and can handle the commuting needed. Otherwise, it is a great place to bring up kids, or to live out an older age, or anything in between! Good luck.

That’s a great post (I’m serious).

Although, I hope you don’t miss out when the next shipment of paragraph returns arrives in Braidwood (I’m not so serious).

jasmine said :

sloppery
I didn’t hear any duelling banjos out there last week. 🙂

🙂

Jokes aside, it’s a really nice town. If you can manage the commute, it could be a really interesting lifestyle change. It’s also only about 45mins to the beach!

sloppery
I didn’t hear any duelling banjos out there last week. 🙂

Thank you very much everyone for your input. Thanks pegsbooks for a first hand rundown.

It is a major decision and we are still mulling over the idea. It was either Braidwood or Yass and Braidwood is tops purely because we have always liked the town, it is close to the coast and is not as dry as Yass (possibly). We often go out there for lunch and drive around the streets looking at the houses for sale.

Renting first sounds like a sensible option and one we have thought about. My hubby is lucky that he works from home but has to see clients from time to time.

Some food for thought anyway.

I’ve got one word for this: Deliverance.

My brother just bought in Braidwood and commutes to Canberra 5 days a week. Moved the family from Sydney and rented for awhile until something suitable came on the market. Salary packaged a small fuel-efficient car for the commute and his wife keeps the larger family car for ferrying the kids around.
Must be something in it if after the try before you buy (renting) period they wanted to stay and made the commitment.
Horse for course I suppose.

I did it some years ago, my partner wanted a tree change but the commute was brutal for us as we finished work late (6-7pm), so in winter it was dark and cold. Weekends were great except when there were things on in Canberra which we would have liked to have gone to but could not be bothered driving for two hours (it’s a solid one hour each way). There is no piped gas so it’s gas cylinders which is annoying. We would like to have a house there as a weekender, it’s a beautiful town with some lovely people. Not much in terms of dining which is a shame. The road is quite wretched but a lot of people do commute and don’t mind so it’s up to you. Three times a week could be manageable.

The road between Canberra and Braidwood isn’t all that terrible! What makes it bad is the thousands of idiot Canberra drivers heading to and from the coast.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been stuck behind some moron who rides his brakes around EVERY corner, can’t stick to one speed and then who speeds up when there’s an overtaking lane, I’d have $63.

I see no-one commenting lives in Braidwood. I do, and have done the commute. Winter is hard for commuting, and I recommend staying overnight and doing just two days a week in Canberra. Many people do commute, and car-share. There are no cheap houses in Braidwood, but it is a lovely place to live – 2 primary schools and the public one goes to Year 12. A childcare centre and preschool, about 65 active organisations, sporting and cultural, a fabulous golf course, bowls, tennis (competitions), massive soccer commitment for kids (240 families involved), other codes of football for adults, squash courts (and comps), an extraordinary cultural life available with no less than 3 theatre groups/companies which put on regular and high grade performances, regular classical music recitals (4-6 a year) at ‘Mona’ and the Anglican Church, a half dozen galleries and active Braidwood Regional Arts Group (BRAG), an arts business which has 150 students of local musicians (drums, guitar, piano etc), very little crime except the yahoo element after the pub now and then, and first rate health care and facilities. Major or serious health needs are met with an ambulance service (3 fulltime staff), but although some services are fortnightly or monthly (women’s health nurse, podiatry, Relationships Aust, dietician, etc) we have two male doctors close to fulltime and another woman doctor once a week, and a simply wonderful hospital (minor matters and after-surgery care, special care unit for palliative care), hostel and nursing home, Bendigo Community Bank branch and outlets for Commonwealth and Westpac – and a really friendly and welcoming community all round. I moved from Canberra to Braidwood 13 years ago, work from home now, and couldn’t be more contented. If you must have opera or city theatre, there are always people who travel to Sydney or Canberra, carpooling, to do so. We have an active Transition Towns movement here, with many people moving into climate change mode one way or another, and teh Urban Landcare group has just acquired land for a community garden on the Commons beside one of the creeks. The skies are filled with stars, the winters are a few degrees colder than Canberra, and the sea breeze does in fact come in late afternoon (occasionally dropping temps by 10 degrees, but more commonly by 5-6) much of the time, and though we have heatwaves, these usually don’t last more than 3-4 days. You can always go to the local pool, or as locals tend to do, out to our own special places on the Shoalhaven.
You’d be wiser to build a home that suits this climate with all the improvements of modernity – like insulation in the walls, proper orientation, etc.
But it is worth renting (difficult – there is heavy demand) for a while to see if you like the place and can handle the commuting needed. Otherwise, it is a great place to bring up kids, or to live out an older age, or anything in between! Good luck.

Hello Jasmine

I lived on a property out near Yass for 6 years, commuting to Canberra and back every day for work. It aged me 10 years. No kidding. Spending 2 hours a day travelling, 155 kilometres a day, $10 petrol a day, and nightmare drives home during storms, icy roads, lunatic drivers or rain??? Oh, and a pregnant red-bellied black snake in my house on a regular basis? No thanks! Never again!

Braidwood to Canberra road is not the best. This should be a factor when you make the final decision.

Rural lifestyle? You need to be organised. Ie, you can’t just pop into Woolies at 10pm to get some Panadol or milk. Groceries in small towns are not cheap – not even the local supermarket. Yes, Braidwood has history, but that’s about it. Oh, and loads of Summer traffic for those travelling to the beaches.

The novelty wears off after a while and now I’m happily relocated back in Canberra with my own little piece of paradise that includes plenty of fresh air, essential services, Government agencies, shops, social events, and trees! This is not Sydney after all, so pollution is not a factor.

I wish you all the best and hope you make the right decision. Sometimes, you just need to do these things so you can say you’ve tried it. Wishing you well. 🙂

@trevar #12 – Retiring in Braidwood is an entirely different proposition to commuting to Canberra three days a week.

Ceej1973 don’t understand your comment. The Nerriga/Sassafras road starts before Braidwood proper if your heading east. We only use Braidwood to access the old Moruya Rd. Wouldn’t want to live there again ’cause the pies are crap.

The naysayers are probably the same people who live in Canberra and whinge about it…

I intend to retire to Braidwood. My logic is that, being en route to the beach from Canberra, the kids will be more likely to drop in with the grandkids that way than if we went any other direction from Canberra. We’ll also be able to get to Canberra for theatres and cinemas and the airport without much hassle. The other thing that attracts me is the climate. Cold in Winter like Canberra, but a little more bearable in Summer. The locals I know tell me about the Summer mistral, which is a breeze the sweeps up through canyons to the south and straight across Araluen and Braidwood at about 3pm every day, dropping the temperature by 10 degrees or more.

But the naysayers are right about one thing; the road is terrible, and particularly inconvenient if you need to commute. Which is why I don’t really want to be there until I retire…

Why not Goulburn? Same distance, same character homes, same small town feel, same entry cost, but much safer road, much more amenities and conveniences (better than Canberra actually), and big enough a population that if you have a falling out with someone, you don’t trip over them and their friends every five seconds. (Hasn’t happened here, but happened in Yass, which has a smaller population, and it was ugly).

The travel is fine. You get used to it. And it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than the extra housing costs you’d pay to live in Canberra.

worst road ever, esp holiday season with the Canberra/Bay migration.
I’d rather live in Goulburn (and that’s saying something)

Why Braidwood? Why not Bungendore or Yass. Just about the whole of Braidwood is heritage listed which could make renovating a house a problem and it’s also a long way from specialist medical facilities and these tend to be important as one gets older. If you are really serious about Braidwood why not rent there for 6 months and find out what it’s like first hand.

Commuting to Canberra once or twice a fortnight from Braidwood might be alright, but I would not recommend doing it 3 times a week. Keep in mind it is a 180km round trip from Canberra to Braidwood, and depending on the time of day and where you’re commuting to, it could take as much as an hour and a half each way. I find my 35 minute commute each way onerous enough, I’d really hate to be commuting as much as 3 hours each day.

Also consider that driving 180km in your average car getting say 9L/100km, with petrol at $1.20 a litre, you’d be spending $20 in fuel alone on each trip too and from Canberra. God help you if you drive a 4×4 or the price of fuel goes up.

Also Braidwood is (as far as i know) genuinely a small town, and with that you lose many of the conveniences of living in a city, that is something you REALLY want to think about. I’d suggest you look at other small towns much closer to Canberra. Yass, Bungendore, and Murrembateman are all more viable options for commuting to Canberra, and still retain a small town feel. I’m sure there are others around I’m forgetting.

Good luck

It might take off after the road from Braidwood to Nowra is completly sealed. Then again, that may mean the main street gets even more traffic than it does now!

The pub is for sale out there – got a spare million??

Thanks for the comments so far.

We kinda do like small towns but want our cake and eat it too by being close to Canberra. My hubby would only be going into Canberra during the day – generally not those times with frost on the road.

There may be a chance he can do most of his work from home.

LlamaFrog why did you say Don’t? Be honest, this is a downshift move for us (if we go ahead) and we are looking at all pros and cons.

I commuted from Yass back in the day and that wasn’t too bad. Although, with increased traffic from Yass/Murrmumbateman and Gungahlin I don;t think it would be the doddle it used to be. Especially as Gungahlin didn’t exist when I was doing the commute.

So, I reckon Braidwood is taking the “I want to breathe the country air” thing a bit too far. Still it’s only three days a week.

I suggest driving out there and back on Saturday and Sunday for a few weekends in a row to see how long you reckon the novelty will last.

i know i wouldnt want to drive on that road on a cold frosty night if you break down or god forbid hit something like a roo.

quaint, but not if you want to commute to canberra.

Don’t.