Is Mogo/Batemans Bay a great place to live, work and bring up a family?

Where did you end up going?

We moved to Canberra and love it! we miss the beach but go down that way regularly to visit family and go for swims

Alas the area is bad for doorknockers, particularly the religious kind.

Rubbish, I commented 2 years ago as Rachm1, and we are still here in Malua Bay. We have a fantastic lifestyle and my husband and I have great jobs. Our three kids are thriving, with two in the local Catholic high school and one in primary. My parents now live here too. We will never relocate back to Sydney. It is a horrible place to visit, living there is hell, traffic wherever you go at all hours of the day. We have many friends in Batemans Bay who have come from Sydney, Canberra and other regional areas. Life is what you make it. We have skills, our 16 year old works as do most of her friends. Malua Bay is growing and our home has gone up 75% in value. Shops may be suffering but you can thank online shopping for that. You go and enjoy the slums of western Sydney! Well keep living the good life in beautiful Batemans Bay!

BB is like, I would imagine, many small coastal towns, essentially a retirement haven not a thriving commercial hub. People tend to bring their money here rather than make it here. Good luck in the Crime Capital of Australia (or is that Melbourne?)

Yep, sadly I concur. It's not for nothing places like Rosedale, around Lilli Pilli and the foreshore areas of Malua Bay are called millionaire rows by local agents...who are in the business of making housing big business, and as unaffordable as possible. The Bay is just a mecca for privileged boomers wanting to park 'hard earned' equity in prime real estate, just same old bog standard greed and more greed. Go out to the great little Cafe Crumb at Batehaven for a morning coffee, and overhear the table talk: property prices, buying more investment properties, scanning the local real estate listings..or bragging to friends about their brand new land rovers. Dripping with privilege and arrogance...it's pretty appalling. It's all about money...and if you're not into the beach and endless days of al fresco living, it's no different than any other coastal holiday town with rich people buying up real estate. Like you I'm here only for family reasons. Once their schooling is done, we're going back to the Mountains Blue. People aren't consumed by material stuff, showing off their big ego's and trying to run you off the road because you drive a clapped out Corolla...And you're right, it's a big cosy homeowners club...if you're not in, aren't cashed up, forget it..

I was just crossing the road at the lights at Batehaven near the bakery with my dog about nearly 2 weeks ago. This woman in her car trying to do a right hand turn (early 70's), nearly crashed into me and my dog on purpose. Nasty and Unreal! Gee I let out some 4 letter words out I did! These rich Boomer gang bangers don't want you here, really no different than some no go areas of Sydney or Brisbane that claim there own because they claim it is there own turf, is no different here! Oops I lived in a rough area like Goodna just outside Ipswich (A fighting town), never in my 26 years that never happened to me like that. What I can say is that the people that live in Goodna are a lot more accepting and caring of people than here in Batemans Bay. No people think that these Big City Ghettos are bad, but after living there in one and being here how I see it from my experiance, has been a learning curve for me, not to ever rubbish those areas again sadly what I seen some of the people's behaviour here lately being no different claming this area being their own! I would considering thinking very seriously about moving to a seaside area like Batemans Bay because a lot of these places have a lot of problems also and very minimal services of support areas because the well off dont want it in these areas sadly. The sad fact after people found after that they have moved to these areas and a lot of them have returned to where they moved from.

And much like these comments its the whingers that scream the loudest. We love it here. Life is what you make it. Plenty of families here and good schools. Work is plenty if you have skills to offer and a good attitude.

Ah rachm1...it's sounding like pre-paid advertising. Curious that it's almost word for word like your previous commentary. Truth is more complicated than the glowing reviews you paint it to be...and given that we've had 2 crises in a row here, with massive business closures, half the light industrial area burnt down, and job losses left right and centre...it's still not even cause to reflect, that it's not all just about you and your house values...but then that goes to what neilk8 is saying. There's a smug self satisfaction with a certain aspirational class down here, that hold the unshakable belief that buying into a 'good area' their set for life, and that's all that matters. Take a look around and have a think...'work is plenty'? That's a new level of denial. 'Plenty of families' ? Really.. there's also lots of elderly pensioners living alone who can go weeks without talking to a soul. Lots of single parents struggling to make ends meet with all the job losses and closures and lockdowns. Pretty sweet that must be. And neilk is spot on: the prime motivations of property owners here is pretty basic: protect their capital gains and rents and make sure the club is cosy and well connected. It's pretentious and arrogant. And pretty small minded. If you don't shape up your just an outsider. Batemans bay is no special than any other coastal town here on the south coast or anywhere else in NSW. There's a rich propertied clique of established money, and all the other aspirationals looking for paradise...but it's pretty uninviting. And when ever you call out the truth, and give another perspective, you ridiculed and belittled, and get told to rack off....further proof of how unwelcoming this place can be. Advance Australia fair.

I grew up in Batemans Bay. I went to Primary and High School here. I got married here. My kids were Christened here and go to Primary School here. They are the 5th generation of my family who have lived in Batemans Bay. I concur with everything you have said. The snobs as we called them back when I was a child are now called cashed up ped Baby Boomers. They are arrogant, think they own the town and make life here very unpleasant if you are not part of the rich club. I had to move away for uni and work as my kids will do if they want to experience life outside this bubble. I moved away for many years but find myself back here for family reasons and I am miserable. Batemans Bay is a nice place to visit but not to live. And don't get me started on the Council. They have done nothing to revitalise the town centre. There is no vision. Just a lot of old, rich people who drive badly. Housing is expensive, if you need to see a medical specialist you have to go to Canberra and no industry for our kids. If you like surfing and bongs then the Bay is for you.

Well kayk6...i wasn't going to post here again, but what you say is spot on. You'd think after the worst bushfires in living memory, then the floods and now Covid that a local Council would get an action plan up and running to revitalise the devastation to retail. Every second shop front closed. For good. No. All they can do is stick up glossy pink LoveTheBayBB poster and car stickers. Great job. So where are the tens of millions of $ in donations/grants etc? where has all that money gone? The CBD is locked in the late 80's. No vision, no action, no ideas, nothing to see here. No new industries, no rebuilding, no training. A lazy disgrace. And meanwhile the only businesses doing a roaring trade are Elders/LJ Hooker/RayWhite and all the other real estate agents. Rubbing their hands together, as investors flock to buy up bargains, flip a few houses, and get even richer, and make sure that housing gets even more expensive. A colleague told me a manager of a realty in Batehaven - a well known figure around town, a real pillar of the community, owns dozens of properties and blocks of units, a multi-millionaire. They said there's a clique of very wealthy property owners, who own entire streets like Bronte Crescent, and promote themselves as community elders and business leaders, hanging out at clubs and doing the rounds of those in the know. For these people towns like BB. are just places to rip out profit from their property portfolios. While there's no medical centres that bulk bill. If you need a specialist, sorry bud go to Sydney, or Canberra. And that's paradise is it? After my sons done with yr 10, then it's discussion time about relocating to where there's more prospects for schools, training, and jobs. There was very little here before the fires and Covid, now there's nothing. My advice. Once your family obligations are done, get the hell out. The last thing you want to be doing is get to your 50's, working casual jobs, for crap money, then getting seriously sick. Then you're well and truly stuffed. Rule one: move close to a major teaching hospital. It's a no brainer. You've got to have the services. Over and out.

Positive side ? New bridges at BB Nelligen & Moruya . Road upgrades & numerous minor bridges replaced . New One Hospital soon . First class government & private schools . Good online shopping . Plenty of small business people having a go . 85 pristine beaches . Mild all year round temperatures . Extreme events like fires only once every 25 years. An airport to link us with the big wide world . UOW Campus . Uof 3 Age. Meals on Wheels . Maccas & top class restaurants . Dont forget Murphys & Smokey Dans. Magnificent golf courses . Boating fishing & water sports galore . Land of many waters. Unpolluted air . Sports clubs . Nature parks , a zoo , botanical gardens oyster growers. Wild life:maybe koalas ? Whales . Friendly people . Its really what you make of it in this land of many waters . It is paradise for all ; the young old & the in between. Be happy you are lucky to live in the land of many waters with a living Batman . Dont despair for well soon have a new elected council ie. if you vote & make it count . Vote the current mob out.