Meredith, VIC 3333

2 cafes, 2 pubs, great town spirit, wonderful primary school, great candle shop and lolly shop. Love this town.

Meredith is a great little town with lots going for it. It now has a 2 cafes (Foxy's makes great pizza!) and a bakery, plus the corner shop and two pubs! It is also home to the infamous Meredith Dairy, makers of the most wonderful Marinated Goat's Fetta! The dairy also employs a lot of locals to keep it running. Meredith is also home of the Meredith Music Festival and the Golden Plains Music Festival which generate interest and business to the area - the locals pull together during music festival time to work on in the Community Tucker Tent to raise money for local interests (including the cricket club, footy club, school, kinder, hall, tennis club etc).

We have a great school and a kinder available to us and at times, childcare. The school has just been rebuilt and has a great new deck and basketball court as well as new school buildings - they run some great programs and the kids love it. The staff are caring and willing to help.The kinder has also had some refurbishments and also runs a great program.

Living in Meredith you have the option of living in the town, or having some land to run some sheep or keep horses. The kids like to spend time outside and are kept busy doing all sorts of things country kids do. The bonus of Meredith is that it is smack bang in between Geelong and Ballarat - approx 30 mins both sides, so it's not that far away at all! When choosing a place like Meredith, you don't choose it for convenience, you choose the lifestyle, and that means sacrificing some things, but benefiting in others - come and see for yourself!!!

Meredith is a quite place to live were the people are friendly. Dont listen to the reviews sounds like some one has a chip on her shoulders

Meredith is a small country town located approximately half way in between Geelong and Ballarat. The town consists of 2 classless pubs, one fuel station (which is gradually falling apart) and a single tragic milk bar with visible rat poison underneath the cooking appliances. This same place gave me food poisoning after consuming a "fresh cooked" bacon and egg roll, complete with mouldy bread.
The town no longer has a police man, after some conveniently unknown corrupt activity at the local Music Festival, which is like a drug and alcohol farm during the two times a year it's on.
There are zilch walking tracks or gyms, and one tiny Primary School. The in-town neighbourhood are quite unfriendly, and the farming people are just ignorant. Because of the lack of police and control on this town, my friends who currently live there are concerned about their safety.
There are tennis courts in the town, however the ash-felt is lifting and they're uneven. The small park next to these courts is a gathering of trees, therefore not substantial. There are no medical facilities, the closest hospital being 45 minutes away, and the closest doctor surgery being 25 minutes away, at Bannockburn. Moral of the story is - Don't get sick.
My friend's house, last winter, was absolutely infested with spiders and mice. She is a very clean person and has frequent cleaners. You'd be sitting on the couch and a mouse would come and sit behind you. No joke. Not to mention the huntsmen, they'd love watching TV with you too - however the feeling was not mutual.
Public Transport - nada, apart from the occasional bus from Geelong to Meredith, which runs once or twice a day.
The food at all places is absolutely terrible, almost on the verge of inedible. I wouldn't recommend any places there, at all. My suggestion is go into Geelong, as Bannockburn is quite limited in the amount of quality food options too.
I wouldn't visit there, let alone live there.

It's been described as 'a living ghost town'. Surrounded by a mixture of private land & over 7,000 hectres of National Park. Where once lived over 2000 people trying to strike-it-rich, now there are only 7 houses (1 with a cafe), 2 churches & a gothic-type courthouse in the township itself. And all the land between each of these handful of buildings is owned by the Parks - so there can never be another house built. Infact, the entire town has been recognized as so historically important it has recently been protected from modern devolopment.

Yet this is still a strong, thriving community, for the surrounding bushland is bursting with a great blend of farmers & growing families who realize how special Steiglitz is. And it's these locals who are behind organizing the annual Back to Steiglitz Festival every October - a fabulous day of old fashioned family fun & games (like billy cart races, kite flying, country cooking, sack races, etc).

Steiglitz is the last town in Victoria (Australia?) without electricity. Infact, there are no services, bar the phone. When you drive in to the town it feels like you've stepped back in time - for even though people live there, the town seems untouched. Hence the title - 'living ghost town'. That's one of the main attractions to the 60,000+ tourists who come to photograph, and stroll through, the town every year.

It's set amidst a Shire rich in popular wineries & eateries. And you'd never believe you were only 1 hour away from Tullamarine Airport, 30 mins from Avalon Airport, less then an hour from Daylesford, 15 minutes from that incredible fantasy world of Fairy Park, & an hour from the Great Ocean Road. Why's it hard to believe? Because it's so, so quiet.

This little town is also home to both endangered & rare flora & fauna (such as as the powerful owl - truly awesome). There's great walks, evidence of the gold mining era everywhere, an incredible museum, room-a-plenty for the kids to run themselves silly & enough serenity to calm even the most frazzled of city folk.

Like most other visitors to Steiglitz, we fell in love with this quaint little hidden jewel of a village the first time we visited.

Meredith is the perfect half way point between Geelong and Ballarat offering a convienient yet affordable lifestyle for anyone looking for a country break. Shopping center is soon to be build in the heart of Meredith that will tripple the retail and area of the town. There is also talks about releasing an additional 70 house blocks in the town center. Meredith has a golf club, realestate agent, sporting field, Motor bike race track, 2 pubs, 3 cafe's, service station, pizza outlet and many other things that make this quiet town still very livable. 2 thumbs up!

What a wonderful community. The locals are fantastic and more than welcoming to new residents. You are only 1/2hour to Geelong or Ballarat - the best of both worlds. Only 1 hour to Melbourne if you want to get away from the hustle & bustle of the city. There are 2 pubs to choose from, a service station, milkbar, cafe, nursery, stock and feed, primary school, community centre, football club, tennis club, cricket club, Angling Club, Book Club, Historical Society and much much more. There are fantastic swimming holes, Public Reserves and lots of country space to enjoy. It is a little slice of paradise only a short drive from the city. Who wouldnt want to live there!

Maude is a family friendly community. It has access to good primary schools, and is only 20 minutes away from Geelong, 5 minutes to the ring road, and if you catch the train into melbourne for work, it is 10 minutes to Lara train station. I love waking in the morning to the open space, and the moorabool valley. At the moment the moorabool valley is covered in mist, and as the sun rises it lifts to see the green valley, that is lines with huge red river gum.Once you have lived country you can never go back to living in town. Maude is a great place to live, surrounded by vineyards, wildlife, and friendly people with out being too far from the convience of a major town.

I love to go for walks, and do so along the moorabool river and walk to a few reserves in the area. I find that the Bannockburn is the base town that I use the most. It has a doctor, dentist, pharmacy, supermarket, plus the other conviences such as a great school, a few local pubs and bistro's that serves good meals, and are very friendly. I find when I go up into town I always find it takes half an hour longer because you are always catching up with friends.

I have lived in major towns closer to melbourne, and in rural area such as Deans Marsh, but Maude has the best of all worlds. You can have your seclusion of living in the country, if you want privacy you can just enjoy the space of living in the country. If you want to become a recluse then Maude will let you. Then if you want town, and shops Geelong is not far away; though it is not a bustle town like inner melbourne, and does not have the trendy, quirky cafes.

Maude is a great place to raise a family, and a great place to experience a change of country life. Something I recommend if the glitter of the hustle and bustle has lost its charm.