Well, the town centre is pretty flat. And y'know what it's not THAT far away. About an hour on the train but you always get a seat and I could actually get a head start on my day by doing some work on the laptop. TBH, I probably wouldn't be that keen if I was commuting every day but I only work 5 days a fortnight and I think the commute would be a novelty. You know I'm a kid at heart so I know I would be sitting there thinking, "hey, look at me sitting on a train with my laptop - I'm a GROWN UP!!!"
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE your area but to get the sort of house we want we'd need to double our mortgage and I just don't want to do that while working p/t and TTC.
Anyhow, you could come up and if you felt like it, do some practice driving on deserted country roads. Or not. It has some cute shops/coffee/lunch places but also has a Coles and a Target.
Fiona, one of my friends lived out there when her twins were 1-3 years. She LOVED it. It was brilliant for them. They rented a place that was on 1/4 acre and the twins loved roaming the property. I never heard her say a bed thing about it... And I lived in Eltham at the time - and it took me an hour door to door to drive to her house.
Great area. I live in Gisbourne, so we would be neighbours!!!!!
Yes - the train is great, and you do get a chair most mornings. For big shops, watergardens is really not that far, and there is also Sunbury, and the other direction is Castlemaine or Bendigo.
They have also just opened an awesome childrens playground there.
If you want that little closer to melbourne, but still with the rural feel, you could go gisbourne where we are. It's not bad, but not that cute little town look like Woodend.
Also woodend is not a defendable town, so in a bushfire, you basically have to get out, as there is no real safe evacuation point. (read that in my local paper)
Oh - and don't forget the hanging rock races. They are great!
Lilima - we considered Gisbourne but according to DP the train station is not close to the residential area. Ideally (and this is VERY ideally) we want somewhere that's walking distance to train and shops. We're moving from a place where we are a 30 second walk from the tramline and a 3 minute walk from the train station and as DP is a train driver with unsociable hours the less time he has to travel to the train station the better.
Having said all that, we've only been looking for a few weeks so our criteria may change. Walking distance has gone down the list a little and it's more important to me to have kind of an enchanting block. There's no point us moving there for just your run-of-the-mill suburban block. I want something with character that DD can explore, with established trees and nooks and crannies (but no dams). We went to a house in the hills near Healesville over Christmas and it was fanbloodytastic. DD insisted that she was going to find Peter Rabbit and Pooh every time we went for a walk around the property.
I'm not TOOOOO concerned about the fire stuff. To a city chick like me, it would be a no-brainer. Just get out of town and go stay in a motel. I know that's easier said than done if there's a run of bad days or one per week over summer which would be damn inconvenient but defending when we have DD to consider wouldn't even be an option.
I live 400 m from the rail station, so there is access. I am in New gisbourne. yes it is slightly larger than a suburban block, but really nice. There are other larger blocks around here that are fairly close to the station. Try looking at Hamilton street, or the few roads around there. I am also walking distance to 3 primary schools (catholic, public and Montessori) Also there is a bus that runs from the station in to town, so always an option to take the bus.
I still say go woodend as it is beautiful. we have to stay here as DH must be 8kms from the branch as he is an ambo, so we had limited options in where we could go.
Thanks for that info - we definitely have to do more exploring but it's hard with DP's shifts (he often works weekends).
Yep, I've heard that Mt Macedon is beautiful but not many shops (but good pubs).
I guess the thing I like about the idea of moving up there somewhere is that there's lots of little places to explore. Much easier to drive between the little towns up there than drive around the inner city here (for a nervous driver like me). And really, as it is, I only go to the end of my street to High Street, Northcote (well Westgarth), Clifton Hill or the city so it's not like being in the city means that the world is my oyster.
What d'you reckon the situation is with childcare/kinder up there? Easy/hard to get spots?
We used to live in Urquhart Street, Northcote....then had a sea-change to Mt Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula which we love. Sorry that is absolutely no help to you in regards to your question about Woodend, but everytime I see your username and location I think of our place in Urquhart Street....
Good luck with your decision and yes Woodend is a lovely spot.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks