Before making the big move, we considered several factors:
The area around– We love the great outdoors and the natural beauty of the area we chose (in our case Port Huon) – we are surrounded by bush land, water, beaches, mountains, etc.
Yet, despite being in a rural area (with less neighbours, less noise, not much traffic), we are still not isolated as there are cinemas, dining options and shopping within easy reach
Location of the property- Is it accessible to transport, neighbours, amenities, etc Amenities- Are there schools? (if you are a young family- in our case we got two boys, one who just started university and another in High School who just started Year 9).
Are there medical facilities, supermarkets, banks, etc. For our eldest, he goes to the University of Tasmania in Sandy Bay which is around less than an hour by car or around an hour by bus. We made sure there are buses going to and from the city to our home.Here in our area, the service is not as busy and readily available so a close organising of schedule is needed.
Communication
The most important important tip I can give you is to make sure telephone and internet services are readily available and are working well in the area you are going to move in. It has become a big problem for us in the beginning as we’ve been assured by our initial provider but sadly, their service is not really working in our chosen place. So we asked around and found out it was only Telstra which was really working though there are plenty of time outs and problems..
However, we persevered, complained both in person and in the phone (despite the on call service being in the Philippines, we found it was readily available 24 hours a week and staff were good in communicating and efficient. They kept their promise and we hoped the great service would continue! ( As of today, 27 June 2014, we still have issues with Telstra,despite numerous visits to their store in Kingston, we still get charged $15 a month for mobile data which we do not need and we have told them about it and was refunded once. Since then, it still shows up in our bill and we've had to pay it as it is included. What a big waste of our time and money. We shall be complaining again soon, we are just busy!)
Source of Income
For many, this is an essential factor.
For us, not so much but we chose to be close to Hobart as it has more opportunities for our sons and possibly for us if needed. We’ve made sure the sale of our former home is going to be an advantage for us- we’ve managed to be free from mortgage and debts (after selling our home and obtaining some substantial amount to live on for a few years till we are allowed to access our superannuation (hopefully rules won’t change and the super will be invested properly by our chosen fund, fingers crossed!).
Luckily, we are able to work remotely at home using our computers (husband is a Computer Programmer and I run my own news website) so we also hope these are enough to pay the usual bills.
This is a bit tricky now as our circumstances have changed. We are still in search of better and more viable livelihood options but at the meantime, we've been accepting casual jobs in he area and working on projects and my website AUSINFORMER.COM (http://www.ausinformer.com/) is keeping me busy as I update it regulary.
Do visit it and share any relevant information, materials taht will benefit the public or your area. We give free ads to charity groups and we have soem loyal advertising who have been with us from day one when we had our newspaper in Sydney.
Those are some of the basic factors we considered and luckily for us, living where we are has been a bliss and we hope you too can lead a life that you’ve dreamed about.
For advertising options, please contact me at emtcrea@gmail.com or marietesscurarea@gmail.com
Cheers and stick around, will be sharing our other passions- fishing (a new hobby), travel and many more!
Some more photos of our tree change- we're now in the Huon Valley, south of Hobart
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