# Sunshine Coast or Cairns???



## patrica

We are ex pats living in Melbourne for the last 14 yrs, and are selling up to move north to escape the cold.
Have looked at properties in both Northern beaches of Cairns and around Noosa/ coolum beach area of QLD. We have 2 boys under 4.
Much prefer scenery in Far North, and you defo get more for your money, but as far as children go is there much for them when they get a bit older, education wise??
The main thing putting us off Cairns is the stories of pythons/ crocs etc, does anyone live there, can they tell us if this is going to be a problem.
We are not planning on living in the bush or anything, but the stories seem to come from the Suburbs!! We have a cat and a dog, and would hate for them to be taken!! We realise there are salties in the rivers/esturies and not to swim there, but have read stories of crocs floating down suburban streets when it floods. Also 5 m pythons eating dogs/cats in the back yards.........How often and where do these types of things occour and should this be a reason for not going, even though we love the place, I was hoping we could get an honest answer from a local as the real estate agents say they know nothing{but then they are trying to sell us a house!] 
Sunshine coast seems ok bit cooler though and a little less tropical and built up.
Not interested in Brisbane/ Gold coast.....
Anyone help?

Thanks


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## Wanderer

Looks like there's no takers from Cairns Patricia so as one who has just visited a few times, I think a few things that you can consider are:
. You'll not regularly see Crocs swimming down flooded streets or sunbaking in the local park and though they are known to have been spotted in some mangrove lined creeks and drains, that is probably something of a rareity too.
You'll likely find that as with Darwin and other major centres, if a Croc is known to be about, the National Parks people will attempt to locvate and trap it for removal to a less urban area.
Pythons could be something else though I'd expect if their presence was a regular occurrence, there'd be significant news coverage.

That aside, I think you'll be in a real climate shock mode if you head to Cairns for humidity levels can be quite high compared to Melbourne, even away from the wet season.
Having made trips myself from Victoria to the GC/Brisbane region, it can be quite a shock to the system and then in moving north myself, it did take a few years to acclimatise and even now after about 13 years in Queensland, heading into summer you still notice it, especially if you have had some cooler overcast breezy weather and then all of a sudden the sun comes out and breezes drop off.
Winters however and later Autumn and early Spring are delightful.

We have two older dogs and they really feel the warmer weather too and you may find a lot of people do spend quite a bit of time indoors with airconditioners on in warmer weather, though probably best to get used to it and live as close to the coast as possible to enjoy what sea breezes there are and use natural ventilation.

We live in an out of town area on a few acres, still close enough to the coast to get plenty of breezes but with plenty of uncleared natural growth about and though I've heard of Pythons, my wife once being licked on her foot by one when she had nearly picked it up because it looked like a pretty stick and there are other poisonous snakes about, snakes usually do not want to be near humans and it is only if you disturm them or whatever you risk getting bitten and again it is something of a rareity and though one of our dogs once barked a warning because of a snake, they have never had a close encounter. 
The natural growth and tree shade probably also helps to give a better climatic effect than what living in a built up area does, all the buildings and roadways etc. being a natural heat sink and even at a small local village shopping area a couple of hundred metres from the beach, because it is sheltered from southerly cooling breezes because of a headland, the temperature difference between there and the beach can be quite remarkable and then when home it is cooler even though we are further from the actual coast but no neadland to block breezes.

So all that might say choose your area carefully, even in a cooler region and certainly the Sunshine Coast will be better for year round than Cairns.
As for other things like schooling etc., Cairns is quite a sizable city and growing so there should be no problem with schooling to secondary level and I know there is the James Cook University at Townsville I think but you could find there'll be something of a University at Cairns but certainly one on the Sunshine Coast and from somewhere between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, attending a Brisbane Uni would not be out of the question but that is a long time off and you may even be somewhere else by then.

If you're going to change location and that I imagine also means employment, why not look for employment [ Cairns not as good in that respect either as very reliant on tourism ] and depending on what you find, go and rent for a bit first which you'll probably do anyway.

My gut feel is that we are a long way from the GFC being over and whilst it is important that you secure employment, you might just see property prices fall substantially in coming years so waiting to buy again could give a significant advantage.


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