Suitable suburb for my family

See if you can hook into the internal classifieds at ANU or through contacts at the government departments that do postings (Immi, DFAT, AFP, Austrade etc), for good non-investment-housing rentals.

I’d like to put in a real plug for Weetangera, as well as Hawker, Aranda and Macquarie (probably in that order). Good schools in all of those areas, plus accessibility to shops & public transport.

I agree, Hawker, Weetangera, Aranda, Macquarie and Cook all have great schools, easy access to ANU and Acton, and are attractive, bushy, established suburbs if you like that. Hawker and Weetangera are likely to have more large houses available and probably in your price range than Aranda/Cook. If you need to go a little further out to get a house within budget, Giralang, Kaleen, Evatt, Melba, Mackellar and Florey all should have plenty of larger houses, have good schools, good roads getting in and out, and well established with decent sized yards. In the area, Canberra High is a really good public high school.

If you prefer a very new house, Gungahlin suburbs may be the way to go. The downside is the much higher housing density, smaller or non existent yards, larger schools (some of the Gungahlin schools are enormous), and in some parts there are traffic bottlenecks. I personally have a strong preference for the older suburbs though. Most have lovely long established primary schools which are of a reasonable size, not mega schools.

On the south side, suburbs in Weston Creek or Woden may also fit the bill of established suburbs, not too far out of town, with good local schools.

Allhomes is your friend in helping you find the kind of housing you want in your budget.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

Aragornerama said :

ps. Belconnen would be a good option too. Close parts (Bruce, Aranda, Macquarie, etc) are within riding distance from ANU and a 5-10 minute drive from Civic. Also Radford is reputedly excellent (albeit with a waiting list I think, so your kids might not get in). I’d recommend Bruce in particular – it’s close to Lake Ginninderra for pleasant runs/bike rides, Belconnen Town Centre for shopping, and along a major bus route with quick, regular services to Civic. It’s also reasonably inexpensive and has more established street trees than Gungahlin. Plenty of choice there within your budget if you’re happy with 4 bedrooms.

Between Bruce, Aranda and Macquarie there are a total of 5 houses with 4 bedrooms, starting at about $550/wk. Budget will be a problem!

True, but with luck they only need one! There were surprisingly few in Aranda and Macquarie, but a couple of nice places in Bruce (just) within the budget.

…available for rent, that is. (According to Allhomes).

Aragornerama said :

ps. Belconnen would be a good option too. Close parts (Bruce, Aranda, Macquarie, etc) are within riding distance from ANU and a 5-10 minute drive from Civic. Also Radford is reputedly excellent (albeit with a waiting list I think, so your kids might not get in). I’d recommend Bruce in particular – it’s close to Lake Ginninderra for pleasant runs/bike rides, Belconnen Town Centre for shopping, and along a major bus route with quick, regular services to Civic. It’s also reasonably inexpensive and has more established street trees than Gungahlin. Plenty of choice there within your budget if you’re happy with 4 bedrooms.

Between Bruce, Aranda and Macquarie there are a total of 5 houses with 4 bedrooms, starting at about $550/wk. Budget will be a problem!

For that price also check out the Woden and Weston Creek areas. Weston is fairly central and close to the main feeder roads to both Acton and Fyshwick. Woden has suburbs that are near the 300-series (direct between interchange) buses, particularly Mawson, Farrer, Torrens and Pearce, so are great if you want/need buses to the city.

ps. Belconnen would be a good option too. Close parts (Bruce, Aranda, Macquarie, etc) are within riding distance from ANU and a 5-10 minute drive from Civic. Also Radford is reputedly excellent (albeit with a waiting list I think, so your kids might not get in). I’d recommend Bruce in particular – it’s close to Lake Ginninderra for pleasant runs/bike rides, Belconnen Town Centre for shopping, and along a major bus route with quick, regular services to Civic. It’s also reasonably inexpensive and has more established street trees than Gungahlin. Plenty of choice there within your budget if you’re happy with 4 bedrooms.

Alexandra Craig said :

I agree with thatsnotme – $550 won’t get much in the inner north for the size you’re after. I live in the inner north, in a 2 bedroom townhouse and I pay only slightly less than your budget. For a 5 bedroom house in good condition in the inner north you’d probably be looking at prices upward of $700 a week. Canberra unfortunately is not cheap. You’d be much better off looking in Gungahlin, you could probably get a newish house there for $600 a week.

Gungahlin actually isn’t that cheap for what I’m guessing the OP is after. I feel for you kimmyr – when doing a search for rentals via AllHomes, there are 43 results with 5 or more bedrooms, compared to around 250 with 4 bedrooms. Of those 43, 7 are $550 a week or under. There’s not much to choose from even if your budget permits.

How do the kids go with sharing rooms? Might have to get used to it if they’re not already!

Gungahlin sounds like your best bet. The downsides are that it’d be a 10-20 minute drive from Civic (perhaps more in rush hour) and the trees/gardens there often aren’t quite established yet. The upside is that the houses are big, new and relatively cheap. There are also lots of families out there, and I think Burgmann Anglican School is supposed to be decent. You won’t have any problems with primary schools – they’re all fine. There’ll have a lot more choice if you look for places that have 4 bedrooms rather than 5.

If you’re prepared to put up with older, dingier houses in exchange for a more central location Lyneham, O’Connor and Narrabundah might have 4 bedroom places inside your price range. They’d be pretty rare though.

thatsnotme said :

kimmyr said :

Thanks for the advice everyone. I really appreciate it. We will be renting until we settle on the right suburb. Inner north was my first preference but as others have said, the houses are old and not big enough. Some are real dumps. My budget is around $550pw. I don’t mind an old house but everything needs to be working and have quality heating. Some houses I have seen actually have safety issues. The outer suburbs look nice with better houses but are there good schools out there? We will be looking at public primary and private secondary.

I think you’ll be limited when it comes to your rental budget, and where you can rent will depend on what’s available in your price range. I’m making an assumption that your family would need 5 bedrooms at a minimum?

I’d suggest going to allhomes, going to the rentals, and using the ‘search’ view. Choose homes with 5 rooms, and see what results you get. The areas you can choose from will probably be very dependant on what’s available in your price range. Once you’ve got a better idea of the areas you may be able to rent in, you can do more research on schools, etc in those areas. There’s every chance you’ll buy somewhere different anyway, so may not be at those local schools for long anyway.

I agree with thatsnotme – $550 won’t get much in the inner north for the size you’re after. I live in the inner north, in a 2 bedroom townhouse and I pay only slightly less than your budget. For a 5 bedroom house in good condition in the inner north you’d probably be looking at prices upward of $700 a week. Canberra unfortunately is not cheap. You’d be much better off looking in Gungahlin, you could probably get a newish house there for $600 a week.

At a guess, $550pw for a large family home rental in Canberra won’t go as far as you’ll need to drive.

Try if you can for Harrison, Crace or (new) Watson. Not sure what the stock is like, but they’re probably your best bets location/proximity to work etc.

Maybe, the new suburb of Wright will be suitable? It won’t have great services, but it is very close to Weston Creek which should have all the schools, shops, sport, recreation needs you are after.

Otherwise, I suggest you’ll need to start looking beyond Belconnen where the stock will be older, but services should be okay.

Queanbeyan may come into play as well.

kimmyr said :

Thanks for the advice everyone. I really appreciate it. We will be renting until we settle on the right suburb. Inner north was my first preference but as others have said, the houses are old and not big enough. Some are real dumps. My budget is around $550pw. I don’t mind an old house but everything needs to be working and have quality heating. Some houses I have seen actually have safety issues. The outer suburbs look nice with better houses but are there good schools out there? We will be looking at public primary and private secondary.

For $550p/w forget anywhere inner that isn’t a dump. As for schools in the burbs as good as any inner public school, just depends which one.

kimmyr said :

Thanks for the advice everyone. I really appreciate it. We will be renting until we settle on the right suburb. Inner north was my first preference but as others have said, the houses are old and not big enough. Some are real dumps. My budget is around $550pw. I don’t mind an old house but everything needs to be working and have quality heating. Some houses I have seen actually have safety issues. The outer suburbs look nice with better houses but are there good schools out there? We will be looking at public primary and private secondary.

I think you’ll be limited when it comes to your rental budget, and where you can rent will depend on what’s available in your price range. I’m making an assumption that your family would need 5 bedrooms at a minimum?

I’d suggest going to allhomes, going to the rentals, and using the ‘search’ view. Choose homes with 5 rooms, and see what results you get. The areas you can choose from will probably be very dependant on what’s available in your price range. Once you’ve got a better idea of the areas you may be able to rent in, you can do more research on schools, etc in those areas. There’s every chance you’ll buy somewhere different anyway, so may not be at those local schools for long anyway.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I really appreciate it. We will be renting until we settle on the right suburb. Inner north was my first preference but as others have said, the houses are old and not big enough. Some are real dumps. My budget is around $550pw. I don’t mind an old house but everything needs to be working and have quality heating. Some houses I have seen actually have safety issues. The outer suburbs look nice with better houses but are there good schools out there? We will be looking at public primary and private secondary.

Pork Hunt said :

I can’t believe people are suggesting Gundaroo or Wamboin when the OP specifically stated that kids do sport and scouts. Fancy spending the rest of your life driving them to these activities?

Sport and other activities don’t end at the ACT border. Towns in the region do actually have vibrant sport and social activities that are easier to get to than many in the ACT.

I can’t believe people are suggesting Gundaroo or Wamboin when the OP specifically stated that kids do sport and scouts. Fancy spending the rest of your life driving them to these activities?

dkNigs said :

It might not feel like location matters in Canberra coming from Melbourne, but trust me, travelling 35 minutes home gets old when Canberra is so small. You’ll also find your new work friends wont want to “travel to the end of the world” to Tuggeranong for a weekend BBQ, as Canberrans don’t take kindly to travelling more than 20 minutes to get somewhere.

To be fair, they may be taking up public service jobs, so the issue of “work friends” won’t arise.

Queanbeyan / Jerra is easily the best value if you’re looking for a family neighbourhood with decent houses and backyards. The local primary schools are generally good (a couple very good), but dodge the local high schools.

Forget the inner north – nice location but lots of poor quality housing at high prices.

Pot Holes said :

Queanbeyan also will meet all your needs, Tigers AFL, good junior netball competition, Scouts too , a number of public primary schools or a cathloic primary, 2 public high schoolsand and of city living with country benefits.

For a family of your size, ignore all the advice about looking at suburbs in Belconnen that are full of decrepit houses or inner North suburbs full of incredibly overpriced houses full of undersized rooms.
You will probably find by far the best bang for your buck is in Queanbeyan.

The drawback with Queanbeyan is that all the best schools in the area are elsewhere. If you want a decent primary school, you can find a handful of decent public schools scattered around, mostly the inner South and Woden, or just go with a Catholic school which are effective everywhere.
Your issue is more likely High School. Public high schools in Canberra range from the slightly dysfunctional to the fully dysfunctional and as a result of this, all the private schools are pretty much fully subscribed, so you will need to think about a strategy for getting yourself on the priority list, which means being a local resident of the suburb and/or getting your children baptized. If you can afford Radford, then cool bananas, and don’t waste money on Grammar, otherwise look at a Catholic high school (but not in Tuggeranong).

It might not feel like location matters in Canberra coming from Melbourne, but trust me, travelling 35 minutes home gets old when Canberra is so small. You’ll also find your new work friends wont want to “travel to the end of the world” to Tuggeranong for a weekend BBQ, as Canberrans don’t take kindly to travelling more than 20 minutes to get somewhere.

I’d say even the older suburbs of Belconnen, Melba, Kaleen, Evatt, McKeller, Evatt, Cook Macquarie, Florey.
Bu I agree with all the other posters it will be about 20-30 minutes to work from wherever you are in Canberra.

Assuming you’re going to rent, and assuming you have a generous budget, I would recommend looking in the “Inner North” (have a look on allhomes.com.au to familiarise yourself with the city and its various regions). Acton and the ANU are very easy to ride bikes to. Fyshwick is easy to drive to from there (and will get easier once the roadworks are all done!). O’Connor, Lyneham, Ainslie, Hackett, Campbell, and Watson are all located next to parklands (Mt Ainslie, Mt Majura and Black Mountain) so you don’t feel hemmed-in by the city. The public schools (Primary and Secondary) in that area are all good, there’s netball at Lyneham Netball Centre, AFL at the Ainslie Football Club, Scouts in Ainslie and O’Connor, and the community spirit is also great. Yes, I live here and I love it! The only challenge might be finding a house that’s big enough. But I agree with lots of other commenters – anywhere is good in Canberra 🙂

Heavs said :

If you liked living in a small country town you could do a lot worse than check out the rural villages dotted around the border. Gundaroo is a 30 minute trip to Fyshwick and 35 to Acton. Sutton even less.

If Acton is the ANU then they have to find a car park. From personal experience, not always easy. Hence I often preferred to cycle there or catch a bus, and for that it’s easier to live closer. Plus parking is pay parking. The student in particular might find this expensive.

Raging Tempest said :

Just keep in mind our bus routes are magical mystery tours of the suburbs and come hourly, except in peak times.

Another reason to go Inner South. Even the worse routes there run half hourly, rather than your hourly. The better routes every 15 minutes at least.

I would go for Campbell as the best bet for being close to both fyshwick and ANU and Acton, and having both primary and high schools. If your high schooler is in yr 11 or 12 they will go to a college, which will be a bit further away.

AFL is not that big in canberra. But Ainslie does have an AFL oval and is also close to all your requirements.

Do you want a new house (go to gungahlin) – although you won’t get much yard and schools are huge and new.

If you liked living in a small country town you could do a lot worse than check out the rural villages dotted around the border. Gundaroo is a 30 minute trip to Fyshwick and 35 to Acton. Sutton even less.

bronal said :

Since you’re coming from Melbourne, I wouldn’t pay too much attention to anyone complaining about travel times as they are a breeze compared to Melbourne. With the size of your family, I’d suggest the major determining factor is going to be finding a suitable house. I can only speak for the southside, but the Wanniassa/Gowrie/Monash area is well provided with facilities.

I agree with the post above. If you have kids and would like a decent sized block, I would suggest you look on the southern side of Canberra. Monash, Isabella Plains, Wanniassa, Bonython are all great quiet family suburbs. Tuggeranong, Erindale and Wanniassa all have local sporting and scout clubs you can join.

If you would like something a little newer, on a small block, then I would suggest the Northern suburbs. Prices dont vary too greatly between the areas, but if you havent check it out already, I suggest you have a look at the website below:

http://www.allhomes.com.au . It has all of Canberra’s real estate on it.

Please don’t listen to any NORTH V SOUTH arguments. Canberra is very similar all over, with great hubs located close to all areas.

But……… stay out of Charnwood

Given the size of the city, time isn’t such an issue, but as Holden Caulfield notes, whether you are buying or renting etc, plus how you intend to travel (car, bike or bus) will factor in. For somewhere between Acton and Fyshwick I’d go inner south (Red Hill, Narrabundah, Griffith, Manuka, Kingston or even Deakin/Garran/Hughes) or inner north (Campbell, Reid). That said, you can easily get to Fyshwick on the Monaro Highway and Acton on the parkway from inner Tuggeranong too. I can vouch for the amenities around the Wanniassa/Gowrie/Monash area too, but our local high schools are rubbish. Just keep in mind our bus routes are magical mystery tours of the suburbs and come hourly, except in peak times.

Inner south would be best logistically with one of you working in Fyshwick and the other in Acton. I lived in Narrabundah and easily cycled to the ANU in Acton. The student attending the ANU would have no trouble getting there from the Inner South, plus the person working at Acton. If that is the ANU, parking is difficult to find there, even with a parking permit. The ANU is also accessible by bus from the Inner South. The schools in the Inner South have a good reputation I’m told and you would reside in their area.
The Inner North side would be good for the person working at Acton, but not so much for the person at Fyshwick. That’s why I suggested the Inner South. It’s good for both Fyshwick and Acton.

IOW, what people are saying is that most of Canberra and Queanbeyan could meet you needs. Which is not surprising as it was desigend that way. I still say find your house first. There isn’t that great a selection of five or six bedroom houses in Canberra as there is in the larger capital cities.

Pretty much all of Canberra should be suitable for your family. Every suburb has good access to the ANU and Fyshwick, and the ACT has a fairly universally good school system. There’s not really any bad areas that you need to avoid.

Your decision should primarily be on personal factors like cost, house size, etc. One other thing you may want to consider is living in one of the surrounding rural areas (e.g. Wamboin, Bungendore, Murrumbateman) which are all within reasonable commuting distance.

And as others will no doubt say, check out allhomes.com.au which is the main local site for advertising housing.

“We are moving from a small country town in Melbourne ” ? Should that read ‘near’?

Queanbeyan also will meet all your needs, Tigers AFL, good junior netball competition, Scouts too , a number of public primary schools or a cathloic primary, 2 public high schoolsand and of city living with country benefits.

My advice would be Lyneham, as it has great schools, is cycling distance from both Acton and ANU with good cycle paths, and has a great community feel with good local shops.

Since you’re coming from Melbourne, I wouldn’t pay too much attention to anyone complaining about travel times as they are a breeze compared to Melbourne. With the size of your family, I’d suggest the major determining factor is going to be finding a suitable house. I can only speak for the southside, but the Wanniassa/Gowrie/Monash area is well provided with facilities.

Jerrabomberra is cheap right now, and is less than 20 mins drive to the city even in peak hour. Big blocks, lots of trees, very safe for kids, great access to facilities.

I lived in Gungahlin for a year. I’m young without kids but it seemed to be a very family friendly area – lots of parks and things for kids to do. I

Considering location of ANU and where you’ll both be working, I’d say you’d be mad to go southside. Go for O’Connor, Aranda, Bruce or Cook.

Charnwood or Kambah. And don’t listen to a word from anyone who says otherwise!

Seriously, though, we need more info. Are you buying or renting? Do you like newer houses/suburbs or something more established? Would you like a house with a big yard or will a smaller one do? What’s your budget?

Inner north/south would always be my pick.