All this talk about DHA houses - when I was moved to Brisbane (while DH was deployed), I accepted a house that was lower than our entitlement because it was only 20 minutes away from my Mum's house and it was only myself living there anyway (my sister moved in too, but officially it was only me). It was in Brisbane with no air con and only a ceiling fan in my room that squeaked all the time! As if I didn't get little enough sleep being heavily pregnant and having put on 20kgs! Anyway, I rang DHA only about the garage door not working and they got someone to call me really quickly. Turned out I just have to flick a switch and it worked again.

Beautitude - I understand what you mean about living far away from the base. My DH is in the Navy, so they don't really do anything anyway at the bases, but when I was living in Brisbane the DHA house we got was just around the corner from Ennoggera Barracks. It was great there - they had playgroup and craft weekly, plus ladies night in once a month. I used to get together with a lot of the ladies from there too and it was really good. Their husband's were deployed just before mine got back, so they understood what I was going through and were really supportive.

Does anyone else live in Canberra?