I was in Geelong but moved up here six months ago.

Spent most of my short life there and like Vintrar said it has everything you ever need. It is a truly short ride to Melb and HealthCareCard makes it roughly $7 return ticket... Beaut!

I have lived on the highway in Belmont, in East Geelong and in Lara.

East Geelong was probably preferential as a PP mentioned it is literally 20 minute walk to the city but it is a pricey area. High end was always Highton (& Wandana Heights), Newtown, Geelong West, East Geelong; low end was always Corio, Norlane & maybe Whittington, but having lived near there (W) it's not so bad.

It took me and DF at the time earning $2500 between us a fortnight, 3-4 months to find a house. That was back at the end of 2007 so I can say that the rental crisis back then had hit Geelong hard... I'd say still similar now. We applied for so many houses including dumps in areas we did not want to live in with no luck... so my BIG suggestion is to look PRIVATELY. Keep an eye on the paper because Estate Agents seemed to be balls for young famillies ... on your own with two kids might really be a push... KWIM?

I loved Lara because I was 800m from the train station (and it never bothered us, awesome!), 200m from the Safeway and takeaway joints etc. There is also a 24hr APCO so if you run out of milk in the middle of the night etc. 40 mins to Melbourne too. Really quiet while we were there.

Anyway darl, good luck with it all. When I was there last year I hated it as it was small compared to my previous 3 years in the city, but now I am in a town thats not that much bigger in its' entirity that my old 'suburb' i think i have learnt to appreciate Geelong again.


xoxox