Bulimba, QLD 4171

Bulimba blesses its residents with quick, easy access to the CBD, but shelters them from the hustle and bustle.

Picture it. A quaint village where jacarandas and honeysuckle bloom. Chic cafes & boutiques blossom. And you can still buy a choc-top and catch a flick at the cinema for under $15 bucks.

It’s a place where you share cuppas with neighbours on the verandahs of charming Queenslanders. Walk your dog along the waterfront. Make play dates at leafy parks. Your kids attend schools that are highly regarded. You meet mates for brunch on Sundays at any one of dozens of exceptional eateries along Oxford Street. You browse the bookshop. Inspect the art gallery. Check out the brew pub. ALL within walking distance.

Your drive to the airport is just 15 minutes. Your commute to the city for work - by ferry, taxi or bus-is under 25. Residential streets are quiet. Crime rate is low.

Bulimba is not for everyone though. While it’s close to major universities, the cost of rent will blow most students’ budgets. But if you can afford it and are seeking a community-oriented,
inner city oasis to escape to at the end of a busy day, Bulimba may be the suburb for you.

To check it out, take Bus number 235 from the city. Hop off at Stop 32, Oxford Street Memorial Park, 90-94 Oxford Street and explore!

We've been living in Bulimba for the past 6 years since moving from New Zealand, we love it and wouldn't move anywhere else. Bulimba has a great community and you soon feel part of it, great for families.

We've lived in Bulimba for 5 years after 15 years of travelling the globe for work. It is the best place we've ever lived, and from our experience it's the best suburb in Brisbane. Bulimba's village centre is stunning — the shops, cafes and restaurants along Oxford St are wonderful, as is Bulimba Memorial Park. Being right by a ferry stop is worth its weight in gold and we love catching the ferry whenever we head to the city. And the houses around Bulimba are generally beautiful with renovated Queenslanders everywhere you turn. To top it all off, Bulimba is only a few minutes drive from the motorways north to the sunny coast and south to the gold coast, providing easy access to some of the best beaches in Australia. From a quality of life perspective it's hard to imagine a better place to live...

Bulimba has everything you need in the one location.....cafes, restaurants, cinemas, supermarket, parks, schools and transport. Oxford Street is home to a bustling cafe and shopping scene which is well-known around the area. There is also public transport options available with bus and ferry services within close proximity. Bulimba is a popular suburb to visit or reside in.

Russell Peter - Pure Real Estate

There arent many places in Brisbane that are close to the river, offer good schools as a drawing card and also have restaurants that open past 9pm.
After moving up from Sydney we were looking for a river suburb that would let us enjoy raising our family (lots of parks in the area) and Bulimba has proven to be a great suburb.

My husband and I plan on living in Bulimba for many years to come.
It’s close to the city, beautiful green parks and oxford street has endless restaurant options.
Our kids went to local schools (all are fantastic) and enjoyed growing up here.
It’s a bustling, friendly suburb that continues offer lots to do without being too urban.

I’ve lived in a few Brisbane suburbs and I won’t be moving from Bulimba. Great schools for my kids, an easy suburb to get to the city from, and lots of spots for dinner & weekend brunches.
I reckon we’re pretty lucky to be able to catch a city-cat to work, being on the river is a beautiful way to travel to work!
The community feel here is great and my family and I are looking forward to seeing Bulimba grow. It will be great to have even more good restaurants and boutiques.

Our young family moved to Bulimba about a year ago. We were looking for somewhere that was close to the city with an easy commute (the ferry gets us to the city in no time!) and we also wanted a suburb that we could get to restaurants/grocery stores/parks without having to be in the car.
Bulimba was the one suburb that ticked all the boxes for us. Our kids love riding their bikes and Bulimba has plenty of parks for us to ride to, and great cafes to enjoy. We can walk everywhere, and we especially love being close to the river.
We love it here.

We researched a number of Brisbane suburbs and Bulimba came out on top as the place to buy. We love that it is close to the city (and the river), has a vibrant restaurant scene, beautiful parks and good schools.
It’s also a plus that we can get around on foot easily with few steep hills to contend with (this was a turn of for us about Paddington/Red Hill).
Bulimba is one of Brisbane’s top inner-city suburbs.

I've lived in bulimba for 6 years and it's an excellent location for couples and families. There are loads of parks, it's right by the river and has a beautiful walkway, it has dog park, and there is a couple of excellent retail precincts within walking distance. The community spirit is excellent, it is really safe to walk around day or night and for families there is great kindergarten and schools in walking distance and churches and community halls offering every type of club that you need. For adults who like exercise there are yoga, cross fit,Pilates, boxing and regular gyms, there is a 9 hole golf course, a sailing club and there is also an excellent public pool 5 mins drive away. The retail precincts have a cinema, bars, independent clothes shops, hairdressers, beauticians, supermarkets, restaurants and book stores. There is a street festival once a year and during the rest of the year there are always free plays and events in the park.
The only con is the morning traffic between 7 and 8 am on Hawthorne road- our answer is to take public transport or leave earlier. Both options work well. If you live on the main streets there is probably some traffic noise but we live on one of the other streets and never hear any noise. It's lovely and peaceful!

We love living here, I have never felt safer. Plenty of great food and drink choices near by on Oxford Street and about three different parks within walking distance, if driving in peak hour there is a lot of traffic but it has excellent public transport options into the city. Great for professional couples and very family friendly.

I have lived in Bulimba for the last 3 years. In some ways I really like it here and in some ways I'm not too fussed. I like being really close to cafes, cinemas, pubs, Woolworths, 24 hr petrol station. The suburb is generally pretty tidy and well maintained. People are friendly. I love the little village feel here. The transport options are great. You can get a bus or Ferry into town or if you just want to taxi it, there is a taxi rank outside the pub with a permanent line of cabs for the most part. People have complained about traffic to the city - I've never really faced this - however I pick my times wisely. Now for the negatives - Properties tend to be built very close together here. I feel like there is zero privacy. Developers are constantly building apartments. For the last 3 years there has been constant construction noise in my street during the day with 3 new apartment complexes having been built. I doubt it's going to cease soon with yet another house demolished to give way for another unit block just a few doors down. There are a lot of cafes here however they are mostly so so. I'd rather drive somewhere else to get a nice meal. Lastly, Bulimba is surrounded by really average suburbs and shopping precincts like Cannon Hill which detract from it's up market status. To give an example in the opposite direction - St Lucia - it's an up market area with lovely surrounding area and shopping precincts.

Dial-up speed internet. Majority of streets are subject to year round swooping magpies and the council are too useless to do anything about it. Full of poor quality nasty new apartment blocks. Very poor road access to the city. Can be a 2 hour commute by road at peak times. Parking usually impossible due to people parking for city cat. Seems to be zero council planning. High crime. Car theft, burglaries, sex attacks recently (although sex attacker is being deported).Lots of bogan residents (I gather houses here used to be dirt cheap). Lots of pests. Infested with giant cockroaches most of the year. Rentals are overpriced. Sale prices are for those who can't do maths. Postal deliveries are sporadic. Lots of strange old people shuffling about and shouting at imaginary people, from the old folks home. On the plus side, Brisbane Boxing rocks.

Beautiful trees and a shopping village initially it's great to live here. It does have great schools and is close to lots of pools and parks. The house lots are a lot bigger than other inner city areas and it's quiet...Until you realise if you live anywhere near the ferry or Oxford st due to total lack of council planning commuters take all the car parks from 7am-6pm. Wanting to pop into a cafe, impossible to park. Wanting a friend to come over for lunch? No hope they will find a park anywhere near your house. Unlike other suburbs parking is not restricted to 4 hrs apart from residents. Also commuters constantly park across driveways blockin entry. There is ' no park and go' car parks for commuters and soon with the huge development at Apollo Rd about to start I imagine it will be worse. Also there are new apartments being built everywhere, creating huge traffic issues. I also imagine no infrastructure will be built to cope with this. A bus takes 45mins to get to town and are infrequent. The main playground in the oval has one park bench for seating, one! So parents stand around for hours or sit on plastic bags on the ground to avoid the morning dew. The other playground in Riding Rd also has one or two seats only. Not conducive to meeting other parents. The restaurants are, as everyone writes, mainly awful quality 90's food, apart from the Jetty, the Paleo cafe, Barcadia and Raw, which are lunch cafés mainly, you really need to drive for a nice dinner, although the Pub actually does lovely meals it's not family friendly. There are no nice river walks as the houses are built right to the water and the ferry to get to the board walk at Teneriffe is too $$ to use daily, and there is no bridge anywhere to go across the river by bike or foot. A real disappointment. Regarding neighbourliness, I really noticed on Neighbour day the total lack of st parties in Bulimba while all friends in other suburbs told us what a great time they had there were none to be seen on Bulimba. There is a difference to having a neighbour say hi! to being a great neighbour, we really miss that here, however older residents tell us it used to be great that way in the past. I still think it's a nice suburb and would be great if 'community' was encouraged, and I think the restaurants will slowly improve as great new bars have opened up.

We recently migrated to sunny Brisbane from NZ and chose to live in Bulimba after reading a number of positive reviews and driving through the area. As new 'migrants' I thought I'd post a review to help others looking to make a similar decision.

First, the pros - at least from our perspective;
- It has a great village feel (for anyone that knows Auckland well, it's similar to Mt Eden) with a variety of places to shop, dine and have a glass of wine
- There are a lot parks around the area including a small Par 3 golf course (which is a little tired to be frank but ok)
- The cinema is really cheap both for food and tickets
- Close the ferry if you need to work in the CBD or on the ferry route - it's a great way to get to work when it's sunny!
- It's relatively quiet with regards to street noise and neighbours (see Flight path info below)
- The buses are fairly frequent and go through some of the streets to save you having to walk to the main road
- It's fairly close to the city - we drive most mornings leaving at around 7am and it takes 20 mins to get the city IF there are no roadworks or the traffic is light. This is the shortest duration from our experience
- It's near the airport and has great access to the motorways taking you to the Sunshine & Gold Coasts
- The neighbours and locals are great, we seriously haven't met one rude or miserable person yet - and we're kiwis so were expecting a little bit of cheeky!

Now the cons - at least from our perspective;
- It's directly under the flight path and near the airport. This means that planes are flying fairly low over your home so the noise is rather loud. On days that I work from home it varies from 1 an hour to every 5 minutes. It's not too peaceful sitting in your backyard after work enjoying a glass of wine with planes flying overhead. I think this is reduced if you live on the south side of Oxford St (nearer Hawthorne)
- Whilst there is a variety of restaurants in Bulimba, don't expect a high level of quality for the price. We regularly eat out at cafes and restaurants, have done for years and decided to stick to a few in Bulimba or travel into Fortitude Valley & the CBD. For service, food & value, we rate Delizioso, Paleo Café & The Jetty. This differs from the urban spoon reviews but we've eaten at all of the cafes and restaurants here (in the hope of finding a great local) and that's our view.
- Traffic into the city out of Hawthorne road is VERY slow if you travel at peak times. It took us 25 minutes one time just to get to the end of the road (approx. 2 kms). We leave at 7am most mornings to avoid traffic
- Internet speeds - unless you are near the exchange (which is on Wynnum Road), the Internet speeds here are atrocious. Not quite 3rd world or dial up but we're on VDSL & consistently get around 4-5 megabits per second.
- The size of the block/section is small (most are around 405 sqm) with the house taking up most of the space and not a lot of space between your and your neighbours so there is little private outdoor living in most of the homes here in Bulimba. It's offset somewhat by the number of parks around. If you are looking for something a bit larger or private then expect to pay a lot more.

Bulimba has everything, shops, cafe's , restaurants, parks, great hills for walking, good free parking, great access to city cat, great public transport, 20 minute drive into the city.......what more can one want from somewhere so close to all Brisbane has to offer.

I have lived here for sometime now and for the absorbent price i don't think its worth its weight. Also traffic to work is terrible, it used to be a nice quiet area but i think times are a changing.

Bought home and moved here Feb 2011.

Best decision ever. Within 500 metres there's 3 parks, Oxford St with Woolies and a lot of other shops. Cinema ($6 for new release movies!), Bris river and Ferry.

Very family orientated. Can't think of anywhere better to raise a family.

Bris CBD is 4kms away.

Very in demand area and popular. Great growth prospects.

Easy access to Gateway freeway (multiple ways)

Bulimba has it all.

Love it, best place to live.
Even best place to visit.
It's high class and elegant, yet relaxed and friendly.
Never ceases to provide fun and class.
Definitely very trendy and stylish.

Lived here for six years, since moving in from western queensland. I absolutely love the area as its so close to everything, yet has a feel of being tucked away. Oxford St. reminds me of Hastings St. Noosa 25 yr ago.

I personally find Bulimba an oasis in the city. It has old trees that line the streets, cinemas, restaurants, up market shopping opportunities and a relaxed vibe that just whispers "Sit down, order a coffee and read the paper." The beautiful Riverbend Bookstore on the main street sells some exquisite books and regularly hold book launches and poetry readings by Brissy poets. The real estate in the area is incredibly expensive, but the return will always be guaranteed, as people will always want to live here. It's quick commute into the city by bus or ferry and the locals seem to be young, hip and best of all friendly. The local schools are also top notch.