Another coppers wife here but in QLD - when DH graduated from the academy his first posting was Maryborough, about 2-3hrs drive from Brissie where we had both lived all our lives. I had a 6wk old and no family but it was great - met so many nice people and the slow lifestyle was perfect. Next move was to Mt Isa a mining town out near the border to NT.Loved that even more - still miss it to this day. Also spent some time in Boulia for about 6 wks - Tiny little one street town - fantastic!!!! Dh would have loved to taken a permenant position out there - as would I but we were expecting #2 and had complications so had to move to a more central location. . Now living in Townsville, although here is more hectic and more traffic then we have been use to it is still a small city and it has grown on us but the time has come to move back ome to brissie for family support so we are in the process of transfering again - neither of us are looking forward to the rat race again.

If you have the opportunity do it - but take it on as an adventure, yes it is a pain not to have big shops to go shopping in but they mail order and you get to drool over the catalogues with your friends and you are the envy of the town when you have a new shirt that doesn't come from the 1-2 stores in town It is a fantastic experiece. Do your research and find out what the population is like - all the places we have moved to have been very family friendly. Google it and find out how many schools are in the area - this will give you an idea of whether it is a young community or an older community. One of our rules at frst was not to move toa town without a maccas - this was our measure of how big/small a place was- although Boulia didn't have a Maccas and it was lovely

Good luck and have fun on your adventure