Choosing a suburb and a school in Canberra

Many thanks Jennifer!  Excellent advice and information. 

You ask why Belconnen??  Firstly, we cannot afford to live in the outskirts of the city suburbs such as Deakin, Yarralumla, Forrest, Reid, Acton etc..  Far too expensive for our budget (est. $480,000 - $530,000).  Hubby will be working in Fyshwick, and his employers and their colleagues mostly reside in the inner north or Belconnen region, so on their advice and research we've done ourselves, we are considering it as a reasonably good option for us. 

We are not averse to living further out from the city, as we are in the countryside here in Ireland, and we quite like Gordon, Condor, Banks, Calwell, and Theodore down in Tuggeranong (type of property, setting, layout of suburbs etc.) but we don't want the kids too isolated from the city centre and the 'hub' of things either, as we are aiming for a more outdoor, active life them - our twelve year old is very keen to take up water sports (we were thinking that Lake Burley Griffin probably offers the best access to these kind of activities - correct me if I am wrong by all means). 

One thing we don't want is to be in those new housing estates - up on top of each other with no privacy and no outdoor space!!!  The houses are lovely, but they are not for us.  We want neighbours or course, but also want privacy and space for the kids within our own property (I know, we are asking a lot, but we need to be steered in the right direction towards a suburb within our price range that will offer us the best chance of attaining all this).

We read some discussion on Canberra suburbs elsewhere on the internet and were horrified at the amount of negativity that is out there!  People were saying that Tuggeranong is "down-market", rough, bad schools etc.  We're sure that this is not entirely true of course, but when you don't live there yourself, it's hard to know what to believe - all the areas in Canberra look magnificent to us!  There were also bad reports about almost every suburb in and around Civic too.  Many of the Belconnen suburbs were slated as being "undesirable" also.  Life experience tells us that you will get 'elements' everywhere, but it would be nice to know if any of the above is actually to be believed, and if so, which suburbs in particular to avoid!

We will not be considering apartments to rent - just houses, and will definitely check up the websites on the schools etc.  We will be opting for a public school too, most likely.

I know it's difficult to advise people when everybody has a different idea of Heaven, but we appreciate your efforts to try and help us make the right decision on schools and indeed suburbs too!

Thanks a million!  To everyone out there, keep the info coming!!!!

Dave and Shirley
Clare
Ireland:)

Thanks again Jennifer for the prompt reply to my post. 

We are thinking that we might stay in visitor accommodation for the first three weeks of arrival in Canberra, and use the first week to drive around all the key areas and get a feel for where we would like to live - then we could channel all our energies into arranging an appropriate rental in our chosen suburb!  Sounds so easy and it probably won't work out like that - but at the moment, it seems the most logical way to approach the situation!

Thanks again for the information.

Shirley and Dave
(Clare/Limerick, Ireland)

Last edited by Shirl (2009-04-17 13:57:13)

Hi May

I believe Red HIll Primary School has quite a good reputation - I'm basing this on comments from a couple of parents I've known who were very happy with their choice of Red Hill Primary School.  Best thing to do of course, is visit the school personally before making a decision.

Regards
Jennifer

Hi May

The suburb of Mawson is quite close to both Civic (often called the city) and another major town centre Woden.   I think Mawson Primary School is a bit of a hub for  bilingual english and mandarin with links to other schools and universities in Canberra - so they are really putting a lot of effort into the bilingual education model. Mawson is about 15-20 mins away from Civic and about 5-10 minutes from Woden -pretty close.

Hope that helps
Jennifer

Hello

Yes, that means driving or bus time. There's a lake in Central Canberra which divides the city into north and south. Civic is on the north side and Parliament House is on the south side, but they are only about 5 mins drive from each other and you can see them across the lake from each other.  Mawson is quite close to the city - its not what people would call the inner areas but its is quite close.  The suburbs of Mawson, Chiefly, Warramanga, Weston, Curtin and Pearce are quite popular suburbs - they are well established and quite close to Civic and Woden.  Suburbs like Isaacs are getting a bit further south. Phillip is quite close in but it doesn't have such  a good reputation as the other suburbs - would really depend what part of Phillip you were in.  Price wise the Mawson area is cheaper to rent than Red Hill or Kingston which are really close in and very popular so they can be quite expensive. Those suburbs of Mawson, and others near Mawson like the ones listed above are close to Woden town centre which has a large shopping mall, cinemas, bus interchange, pool and several supermarkets.  Canberra does have a Priority Enrolment Area scheme for schools, which means priority is given to people who live in the catchment for that school, then places are offered to others. This website from the ACT Department of Education and Training explains PEAs (or Priority Enrolment Areas).

www.det.act.gov.au/school_education/choosing_a_school
Regards
Jennifer