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  1. #16
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    Mar 2006
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    I have no specific fondness for the city. I do not go out to restaurants, I do not back a football team, I do not go out dancing clubbing or yahooing. My day consists of having some coffee taking my dog for a walk and then I spend most of my day in the workshop. At night I am fubar and I shower and off to bed.

    City Positive

    - Wide range of quality ethnic foods both eating out and shopping
    - Strong dark coffee
    - Broad range of people from all over the world
    - Reasonable access to suppliers of goods and services

    City Negatives

    - Social Isolation
    - Difficulty to form meaningful relationships
    - Go Go Go

    Possible Country Negatives

    - Distance for goods and services
    - Being a non Australian with an accent being shunned as an outsider WOG Muslim Aboriginal take your pick
    - Work

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  3. #17
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    Oct 2011
    Location
    Langwarrin
    Age
    43
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    952

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    Whilst I am completely bias as I grew up there, Warburton (Yarra rangers) is a delightful place. VERY busy tourist industry, about 1.5 hrs from the city centre and nestled in a bloody amazing community. The rest of my family still live there so I'm up there a number of times during the year.
    Lost of walks for your dog.

    The major concern from your previous lists are healthcare. There are a number of doctors and such reasonably local however the closest hospital is Maroondah (1hr away - 45 in an emergency....danhik)

    Just my 2c...

    Large artistic and environmentally conscious community (I'll say ex hippie as being a full blown hippie these days is quite time consuming and expensive)

    Not sure of employment opportunities as there is only 1 highschool in the area
    "All the gear and no idea"

  4. #18
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    Warburton Is lovely and I have been there many times. I have been up to the sawmill and to see people.

    It would be great but I fear that it would be out priced as Melbourne grows in the near future.

    Health care is always better in the city. Last year I was admitted to emergency and while I was in agony due an infection - the lady in the next bed was being questioned- she was from regional town and was rushed to Melbourne she had a brain tumour and their were no specialists available to treat her.

    I also read that you have a much higher death rate in regional areas because ambulances are just that much further away. If you have a heart attack forget 10 minutes it takes in the city- you could wait for hours for emergency care.

    But it’s not just city vs regional. A lady near me was diagnosed with bowl cancer up in Qld. She was told she had but months to live. She refused to accept it and came to Melbourne to get treatment 10 years later she is still alive. She says that if she had remained up north she certainly have died.

    I have diabetes, and suffer from related conditions - hypos fainting nausea gout and infections I also have psychiatric concerns. I take a dozen tablets daily.

  5. #19
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    Mar 2006
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    Quote Originally Posted by FenceFurniture View Post
    I CANNOT believe it. YOU, of all people, have forgotten the vast range of beers on It was only 3 wasn't it? (plus spillage )
    I am fond a good beer when I lived in Canberra I used to visit Wick and Pen a fine establishment.

  6. #20
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alexandra Vic
    Age
    69
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    2,810

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    Quote Originally Posted by cava View Post
    Which church?
    The community as a whole was interested in establishing a community based nursing home in the early 1980's. Descendants of one of the early families were willing to donate ancestral land for the project, but somewhat uncertain as to who it should be donated to to ensure that it was used for the nursing home, and not kept vacant and sold for profit later. Ultimately they decided that they should donate it to the Anglican Church as trustees for the project, as they believed that the church was trustworthy.

    The local community has raised funds for the home through three iterations/upgrades since then, the primary input from the church has been to have the bishop show up for a speech and pics when a new stage or upgrade is being opened. The bish is a defacto member of the Board for the home, as is the local rector. There are another 7 community board members, 4 closely aligned with the bish and the Anglican Church, the others less so. We currently have a 50 bed nursing home and a number of independent living units, funded to the tune of $10-15M from local donations, government grants and managing the facility properly for more than thirty years. The facility has enough cash on hand or invested to be able to refund all resident bonds and ILU contributions as resident move on because they invest these funds and use the interest earned to support the facility.

    The Dioceses operates a substantially larger nursing in Wangaratta and the Dioceses office operates from those premises. The bish is chairman of the board of that facility, and regularly serves as its CEO as well because of high staff turnover in management positions. That facility has accumulated liabilities of around $40M and very little funds available to cover these. They have operated at a loss for more than 15 years, and the last 4 years of audit reports have included statements that they cannot continue to operate with losses of $300,000 to $500,000 every year, and need to do something radical to solve their financial problems. They lost 10 residents in a month last year in a flu epidemic that had the entire facility quarantined for some time, there will be inquests held sometime next year to investigate this issue. Apparently, a significant factor was the inability to, or lack of desire to employ replacement staff when more than 30% of the regular staff were of work with the infection.

    The bish has been working with consultants for about 3 years trying to improve the finances and management of the Wangaratta facility, in preparation to sell it. He negotiated with a church based provider to sell the facility, but ultimately received an offer of about 2/3rds of what they wanted. After additional work with the consultants, an approach was made to a private provider who investigated the facilities viability with a view to buying it. They withdrew their interest after the flue epidemic last year.

    In about March this year the Bishop proposed a motion to the Alexandra board that the local and Wangaratta facilities be merged under a new board which would have significant church and token local community representation. When this failed, he then had a relieving rector read a prepared statement from the pulpit stating that it was his intention to sack the Alexandra board and replace it with picked people loyal to him, so that he could force his proposed merger through.

    Although he has been denying it, the community truly believes that the sole reason for a merger is to fatten up the Wang financial situation to improve the chances of a sale to a private provider. Amongst the proposals that the bish has made, one particular one was the notion of dismissing Care Co-ordinators and similar level staff from Alex and using phones to consult with their counterparts in Wangaratta for instructions on how to handle particular situations like a resident falling and being injured.

    Through a lot of community uproar, public meetings etc one of our local business people has made a proposal to the Bishop that should completely remove our community funded facility from the church permanently and restore it to the community. However as a community, we do not know what this proposal is until a public meeting is held tomorrow and the proposal is explained and voted on within the community. However it expected that even if the community votes to accept the proposal, their will need to be a new round of fundraising, donations and maybe selling of shares in a new organisation to raise the funds to buy back a facility built and updated regularly by the local community over the past 35 years.
    I used to be an engineer, I'm not an engineer any more, but on the really good days I can remember when I was.

  7. #21
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    Mar 2006
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    I was reading the Wikipedia page on Macedon shire which led to a quality of life index by BankWest 2008.

    Top shire in Australia is a Ku-ring-Gai in the north of Sydney. The best in Melbourne is Nillumbick and Macedon (best in VIC outside of Melbourne).

    I grew up in Ku-ring-Gai in Sydney it’s a green edge of suburbia low density open space kind of place with lots of parks, reserves and rivers. The same as Nillumbick here in Melbourne.

    I find it very interesting. That more natural places score higher then more industrial/ commercial areas with more events, entertainment, jobs and services.

  8. #22
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    AU
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    If you're looking at about 2 hours from Melbourne I think I'd be considering larger towns with good medical services and a good train service.

    In Seymour we have an excellent train service, but the medical is ordinary.

    Ballarat would fit the bill but I gather rents are close to Melbourne rates.

    Castlemaine would be worth a consideration with a maker scene, good train service and as well has good access to Melbourne also is close to Bendigo.

    Shepparton only has 2 trains but good rural freeways and a large, mixed, ethnic population that is growing fast

  9. #23
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    back in Alberta for a while
    Age
    68
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    12,006

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    The 2 hours from Melbourne (3 hours max) is about locating where cashed up people from Melbourne spend their weekends.
    These people tend to have time on their hands to browse shops and markets and suss out bespoke makers AND the cash to purchase things. Particularly things that can go in the back of the car (or Toorak tractor) when they drive back to Melbourne on Sunday arvo.

    Now if the objective of moving out of Melbourne is to find somewhere cheap to rent, and you don't desire ready access to people who can afford your wares, then a whole lot of other possibilities open up.
    Unfortunately, nearly all of them will require ready access to a vehicle for transportation.
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

  10. #24
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    Oct 2015
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    Ringwood, VIC
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    575

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    I'd look around Yarragon.
    Developing tourism, not far from Warragul hospital and Latrobe Regional at Morwell.
    Only an hour or so to Melbourne.


    Russ

  11. #25
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    Thank you for your responses to my question. I have a few choices to consider. I now feel that some personal reconnaissance is required that means getting in the car and taking some trips to see first hand and how I feel about a place.

  12. #26
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    How life takes turns you do not expect.

    As I stated earlier in this thread I have been working as casual relieve teacher here in Melbourne and I had given up hope that I would find a contract position. Well November to January is the major recruiting period for schools. This year I really tried to put allot of effort into my applications and interviews, which are super demanding 30 - 45 minute ordeal where they bombard you with questions and one wrong word and you blow your chance. Well after 2 years of trying I have been very lucky to secure a contract at a regional school.

    So on Tuesday I become a jewellery/woodworking/website coding teacher at Traralgon in Gippsland. So it seems I am moving to regional Victoria. I am excited and nervous so much to do and so little time.

    Traralgon was not mentioned by anyone in their above posts, but its a very decent size town with all the basic amenities. I still think that I will be making monthly trips to Melbourne to stock up on my exotic foods.

    Now starts the rush to find a new home and moving my stuff from Melbourne to Traralgon.

  13. #27
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    Nov 2011
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    Melbourne
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    Congratulations Sir
    On a new job, new beginning and a new adventure.
    Traralgon is not that far from the big smelly smoke if you need something.
    Some beautiful country around there too.
    Plus the old gold mining town of Wahella too.

    Cheers Matt,

  14. #28
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    Thanks Matt, I have been told that old gold mining areas make good hunting grounds for natural waterstones. Something to do with the soil.

  15. #29
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    Nov 2011
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    Melbourne
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    Quote Originally Posted by thumbsucker View Post
    Thanks Matt, I have been told that old gold mining areas make good hunting grounds for natural waterstones. Something to do with the soil.
    Are you saying that if I take a few steps outside my creative zone in Ballarat, and just lay a cutting edge on the ground I should be able start sharpening it [emoji849].

  16. #30
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    According to Gadge old mining sites are good sources for the right kind of sedimentary rock for whetstones. He also says that pine plantations are also good hunting grounds.

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