We relocated from Melbourne to Ballarat 5 yrs ago.

We were so sick of the city, I was communting into the city from Cranbourne (taking me 1hr on the train - standing almost all the way home) and DH was driving to Box Hill to work via the Monash Freeway so some days could take him over an hour. We were sick of having to spend so much time communting and having no quality of life and our Mortgage and living was so expensive that there was no chance of kids while living there.

For the first 2 years we were here we commuted to Melbourne to work - just over an hour on the V/Line trains - and for some of that I was having to do interstate travel so I was driving to the airport. DH then got a job in Ballarat and we decided to buy a house instead of renting, we now live in a small town called Linton (about 30km's west of Ballarat) so for us a 30min trip into Ballarat is nothing, plus our cost of living dropped hence us now having our 3 children. Ballarat has everything you need ie: shopping and has some of the best private schools as well, plus house prices are much cheaper than Melbourne.

Yes it does get cold in winter - on average it is about 4c cooler than Melbourne during winter and generally we get 1 day of snow during winter each year, although we haven't had any snow fall in the last 2 years.

For us making the move is the best thing we have ever done and we will never move back to Melbourne, we even hate having to go back there for visits.