Bellbowrie, QLD 4070

I'm a practicing artist who bought and moved to Bellbowrie in 2011 (just before the 2011 floods) because my family and I find it tranquil and community oriented - people are generally kind and helpful. There is a free bus service to nearby schools for children and young adults. It is quiet and pretty and full of wildlife - many species of birdlife, snakes, lizards, tortoise and echidna (we once found one in our carport). During the floods, many families reach out and helped the affected families. We are still here (nine years on) and loving it. We love the nature and the trees and 444 bus takes you to the heart of Brisbane City in less than 40mins. If we can get the ferry to come up Brisbane River to Booker Park - it will be perfect. :)

You can't beat the value for money when buying a house in Bellbowrie. Huge blocks of land, spacious houses (many with swimming pools), express bus service to Brisbane City and access to amazing schools in Brisbane's western suburbs. A safe and ideal place for raising children. Bellbowrie is Brisbane' s best kept secret.

Good for families who value Australian way of life.
I'd say it comes as a package with good size backyard, Pets, good schools, parks and safety ....

Moggill and Bellbowrie both excellent suburbs. hidden gems
put the suburb in to crime map... you get nothing comparing to other suburbs !.
put it into flood maps, you get nothing comparing to other suburbs...!
put the suburb in to good school catchments... you get excellent public primary & high schools
suburb is only 16km radius to Brisbane city
get the reports from data- the value's been increased and you can see lot of young and professionals
Coles, public pool, Tavern, medical center , fruit shops etc etc already in the shopping plaza and .. woolies & IGA coming up.
If you need little bit more spending you can go to Kenmore and if you need empty pocket you can go to indooroopily which means saving money.
It's a leafy suburbs and has big properties
We have been living here for 10 years
never seen great community spirit anywhere else in Brisbane like this

A lovely small village with a great community spirit. Gardens are beautiful at any time of the year. Lots of bird life. Plenty of walking trails for the hiking enthusiast. Spectacular scenery. A great place for both young families and retirees. Easy transport to the city and excellent primary and secondary schools.

The last 2 years has been interesting ... bogan neighbours has helped make our decision to leave to go to The Northside.

No eating out options. Few Asian places which aren't nice. Terrible fish and chip shop. Small Coles.

Very bad drivers. Community whinges about everyone and everything on their facebook page. Very bad for snakes, spiders and pests. Terrible internet, was meant to be updated 2 years ago. We average dial up speeds and can only get adsl 1. Very cheap living but comes at a price. Very peaceful and quiet ... no entertainment at all. Seems to be mostly renters who don't care or owners that have been here since Noah and try and lord it over new owners.

Families and old people may like it. Not suitable for young - Middle Aged professional people

A wonderful village atmosphere, with great regular bus links to Kenmore or the city.
We are lucky to be able to hop on a bus at the end of our road and be in the city within 40 mins, which means we have the benefits of living within a fabulous friendly community, with the city only a bus ride away.
The shopping centre is steadily gorwing with more shops opening, and the Tavern will be opening soon which will just add to our community.
It is a very safe area, with plenty of parks and even a gym which we use regularly.

We bought a home in Bellbowrie about six years ago after renting in Kenmore and Chapel Hill for many years. We couldn't afford to buy anything half decent in Kenmore or Chapel Hill, but in Bellbowrie we could afford a 4BR house with a pool on a 1/4 acre of land in a nice street. Yes, it's 10 minutes further out, but that's a small price to pay for the lifestyle we can have here. And Bellbowrie has a community spirit that we never saw in Kenmore. Although it's not that small town feel where everyone knows everyone, you do get to know people out here and we do pull together as a community when times are tough. Yes, we were isolated for a few days by the floods last year, but all in all only about 1% of the homes in Bellbowrie were flood affected, despite our suburb being right on the Brisbane River. We are are 15 minutes off the Centenary Freeway and 10 minutes from the Ipswich Motorway, so it's easy enough to go anywhere. We have our own local Coles Supermarket, sports club, medical centre, vet, child care centre, one of the best primary schools in the western suburbs, churches, parks and, of course, the beautiful Brisbane River.

The extra 10 minute drive to Bellbowrie from Kenmore is like a life change in itself. It's very hard to convey the sense of peace and tranquility that Bellbowrie offers, the beautiful birds that come into your yard to feed on the flowers, the absolute silence in the evenings (except for an occasional dog barking), the bellbirds in the morning as the sun comes up, the kookaburras singing as the sun goes down. It's just so relaxing. Yeah, ok, there's no nightlife to speak of here, but Indooroopilly is only 15 minutes away and Park Road is only 25 minutes away, so it's all there when you want it. You just have to get off your butt. And we do have our own Thai restaurant and sports club bistro if you're desperate or don't want to go too far.

Another reviewer complained about the public transport here, but the fact is we have a Buzz bus service so there's a 444 bus to the city via Indooroopilly every 10 minutes during peak hours and every 15 minutes the rest of the day. Plus we have a 443 City Express bus every 15 minutes during peak hour. On average it takes 40 minutes from my front door to the city on the 443, or 45 minutes on the 444. I can drive into the city in 30 minutes most of the time.

My children and I recently moved to Bellbowrie from Chapel Hill. We love our house and the surrounding areas of natural bush and wildlife. It is very close to the Brisbane River and although the floods of January 2011 was devastating, it is still a very beautiful and safe place to bring up children and enjoy life.

I lived in Bellbowrie for 4 years from 2006-10, and during that time had children. We moved closer to the CBD due to lack of infrastructure. i.e. no train means a trip to/from the city via bus regularly takes 1.5 hours, and often having to stand. For us 3 hours commuting a day did not suit work/life balance. There is no library, (apart from a bus once per wk, not kid friendly), poor shopping availability at Coles, over-crowded school, and impossible to get a doctor's appointment on the day due to there being so many people in the area.
Alot of people have poor internet service, and there are some pockets where Optus does not work, so you have no mobile access.
Bellbowrie/Moggill were originally sleepy and leafy suburbs, but have undergone a major change due to huge developments, whereby the blocks have become tiny, (no room to grow trees), the number of people and cars have quadrupled, and the traffic is unbearable to/from the suburb.
If you don't mind long commutes in your car to get to anything be it doctors, shops, schools etc., or work around hours outside peak traffic you would be happy here. Alternatively if you're a home body who prefers to stay put, this could be perfect for you.

A very peaceful place and a very safe one too.

My wife and I moved to Bellbowrie (Bellbowre Chase) 4 years ago with the intent of starting family in a more country-like environment within 30 mins drive to work in the city. The quiet leafy surrounds attracted us, as did the fact that Bellbowire/Moggill is pretty much a dead end as far as traffic is concerned. Sure, there's the Moggill Ferry, but that there is no high throughput road through Bellbowrie to somewhere else helps keep traffic to only the locals.

Since arriving we've made friends quite easily in the local community and enjoy the more relaxed lifestyle, including access to nearby bushland reserves for mountain biking and hiking.

We were the only young family to catch on to this great suburb though, as moggill.net reports Moggill with the highest proportion of babies an infants at November 2008 ( http://www.moggill.net/hot-issues/21-high-school-for-mt-crosby/2496-moggill-the-baby-capital-of-brisbane.html ). With only two Day Care Centres this might mean that day care places are in high contention, but we found it not too difficult to get spots for our two kids on a part time basis.

Another slight negative point is the lack of variety at the local Shopping Centre. We've found on many occassions that we've had to go to Kenmore or Indooroopilly to get some variety in our groceries. Also, the fresh fruit and vege is usually not very fresh.

Safety is great and I've never felt fearful walking the streets from the local shops (when the gym existed) to my home at night and there are minimal "hoon elements".

Nightlife is limited while the BCC buses are freqeunt, they provide the only public transport, with rail over 12 kilometers away, if you choose not to use the Moggill Ferry to get to Riverview. I see this as a positive though, as a lack of a Pub or Club (save the local Sports Club near the shops) and a rail station makes it less desireable for the less desireables.

All round a great community and place to live to escape the feeling of living in a busy city suburb. A welcoming place for the country boy in me.

We're a young couple in our early 30's and have lived in the newer, but now well established part of Bellbowrie ("Bellbowrie Chase") for 8 years. It's a really lovely community. It's far enough away from the hustle and bustle to enjoy peaceful surrounds - verrrrry quiet - yet conveniently located only half hour to the city and 20 mins to Indooroopilly shopping precinct. Bellbowrie has also grown with it's own primary school, Coles, Blockbuster, Pizza hut, Swimming Pool, RSL etc. Heaps of sporting activities and public transport virtually at your door. There are so many options now with small developments within the area - homesites ranging from 800sqm to 1/4 acre and even 1.5/2acre blocks. We live on Westaway Cres. The neighbours always say hello when you walk by, but respect your privacy. There is a police beat just for Bellbowrie which gives peace of mind being a little distance from Kenmore, but we have never had a problem with crime in our immediate area. If we didn't have family obligations to move, I would never leave.