Oh, and I forgot to mention in my last reply...

Some of you mentioned government housing and waiting lists. I was under the impression that I could rent a house normally through a real estate agency or private and receive some rent assistance from centrelink?

I had it in my mind that I could maybe get a small place for say $200-$250 per week and have it subsidised with rent assistance. If this is not the case, oh dear!!

My parents have investment properties and have indicated that maybe they could buy one that would be suitable for me and DD to live in, but even so, I would still have to pay a decent amount of rent.
im not sure if its the same as here (WA) but we can apply to ministry of housing to pay the full bond, and yes u get rent assistance but it isnt much (upto $60 a week i think), im paying $100 a week where im sharing and get about $20 a week rent assistance. but as a single mum u will get FTB a and B and single parenting payment. if you go to the clink website they have a calculator thingy you can put in how much u earn (you have to take into account anything youve earnt this financial yr) and ur expected rent etc and itll give u an estimate of what benefits u could receive. like i said before im on full benefits (full spp, ftb a and ftbb and rent assist) and i get about 850 a fortnite. GL