Toowoomba City, QLD 4350

Toowoomba has lots of money. its just a pretty town cause it has lots of trees and the cold weather makes you wear your good clothes . it double lane throughfares and grid layout make travel easy. Toowoombas forfathers did it all themselfs without any help from the goverment and voted against the goverment of labor for near70 years straight last century, so that is where the saying comes from 'toowoomba is conservative' its not actually concervative at all it embraces change and does try to be progressive. Toowoombas rich history of doing it all its self has resulted in very solid industy.

We followed ''the yellow brick road" in search of a better life, and arrived in Toowoomba over ten years ago. We discovered an emerging city with a beautiful highland climate and a quaint, country club vibe. Liberal-minded people here often laugh out loud at the conservative attitudes that still persist in certain sectors of the community. But I'm glad to say that a different generation of younger people are leading a social and cultural shift away from the old, provincial mindset.

In more recent years we've seen some positive changes such as: the growing food scene - new expresso coffee bars, vegan restaurants and farmers' markets. Young hipsters, artisans and other creatives taking local culture to the next level with cool street art, craft fairs and contemporary art galleries. The urban catchment of Toowoomba has expanded with new housing estates and suburbs, along with major infrastructure developments like the Toowoomba International Airport and the Mountain Pass Motorway - which is currently under construction.

Toowoomba is Queensland's largest inland city close to the state capital, yet there is no commuter train service for people who commute to work in Brisbane. A regular, high-speed passenger train connection to Brisbane would further boost population growth and the economic prosperity of the whole region. City officials need to make high speed rail a high priority, then negotiate with state and federal governments to make it happen. In spite of some public transport issues like this, "the garden city" is still a popular choice with first home buyers and others who are looking for an alternative to the unaffordable housing market in Brisbane.

I don't live in Toowoomba but frequent this city often for work and also with my kids on weekends. There is so much to do and see and with so many events there really is something for everyone in Toowoomba.

Moved here 2 years ago, people are unfriendly, and its not for the lack of trying. Examples include greeting people as you walk past them ie with your dog, not 1 single person greets back. People are rude. I see people beeping horns at eachother over stupid things. Its crime capital. Weather is rubbbish and there is nothing to do for families. We spend out money supporting surrounding Cities as atleast there are lower cost family friendly things to do.

The Garden City is a laid back leafy sub-tropical delight - It's cool winters & comfortable summers transition to a burst of incredible colour throughout late autumn & spring with an abundance of glorious flower powered colour - the locals are friendly - the beer cold - the food - straight from the paddock is great - & the passion rising - Land & house prices still very reasonable & a great tree change option for young families & those seeking a rural / country blend to enjoy whilst enjoying easy access to Brisbane only an east hour & half drive away - largest inland rural City in Aus - growing fast - get here for visit or permanent stay

I’ve been in Toowoomba for about 5 years now having lived in a number of other states/cities and I’m still surprised by how busy it is.

Traffic is intense in daylight hours, everyone seems in a rush and there’s so much hostility on the road. I’m not sure where everyone is racing to…shopping centres? Since there isn’t much here besides roads & shops.

It’s certainly gotten busier since I’ve been here. It used to be that the weekends were more chilled out on the road, but I’ve noticed that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

This is certainly not the relaxed Queensland vibe you may have heard about in years gone by. This is not the country. Hostile suburbia is the term that springs to my mind.

I know that many locals like the expansion of Grand Central shopping centre, but I think it’s really killed the vibe of the town. Walk a street back from Grandie and everything is dead, empty shops, closed down cafes.

Making connections in this town is almost impossible. People aren’t very friendly and don’t really talk to each other (maybe a sign of the times in general).

I just don’t get any sense of community in this town whatsoever. Just a bunch of individuals in cars hurrying to some sort of shopping centre or fast food restaurant.

I don’t hate Toowoomba, I’m happy to live somewhere outside the major cities, but am puzzled why it isn’t a little more friendly and chilled out. There’s a lot of bogans here, alot of old people, and a lot of tradies, all of them in a rush and not very friendly. ‘Get out of my way’ is the vibe.

If you’re moving here with your own family unit, this place may suit you since there are lots of supermarkets, schools, medical facilities and rent is cheaper than the capital cities.

However, if you are hoping to make connections, find something beyond a mundane suburban existence, or live somewhere chilled out, this is definitely not the place for you!

Far enough from Brisbane to have evolved it's own "culture", Toowoomba is an odd place within an already strange state. ,. Nationwide, It is often easy to tell if someone is from "Woombie" due to the uniqness this town imparts into its residents!!
The perfect, nice gardens of the 'Carnival of Flowers' entrants contrasts ironically with the groups of disillusioned teenagers hanging about on skateboards and bmx bikes, wisxhing that there was something to do... anything to break up the boredom and (in summer) perhaps even escape the heat.
I've never actually lived there but feel like I have, having heard so many stories about the place from friends that spent their formative years in Toowoomba.
They were the smart ones... they got out as soon as they were old enough! None of them came from the houses with the nice, competition ready, gardens though!

I would not recommend Toowoomba to anyone not for a holiday not to live I doubt I'd even want to just pass through the place. They boast how they're size rivals even Townsville yet not building over three stories overcrowded rds jammed pack with poorly controlled traffic signals and even worse driver knowledge of how to obey Rd rules and follow a roundabout, and if your thinking of shopping forget it the city has the worst range of shopping centres and availability of even your most common items is rare. School zones are a joke expect at least an hour or two just to drop off.

First some qualifiers:

Having lived in more rural centres than most and also a few capitals (Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Townsville, Toowoomba, Moura, Biloela, Singleton, Newcastle, Dalby, Ballarat, Launceston and, probably, a few that I forgot to mention), I think it's fair to say that Toowoomba is no different to any other regional centre in Australia of comparable size.

Anybody saying that crime here is off the charts, or is profoundly worse than any other town of comparable size in this country, is either exaggerating the issue or has been a victim at some stage. If you are one of the latter, then I apologise, but you're likely experiencing a touch of confirmation bias. Like most country towns in Australia, Toowoomba has seen a dramatic upswing in illicit drug consumption and all of the knock on effects associated with it. Still, some of the worst suburbs from my childhood (Wilsonton, Rockville and Harlaxton - especially Harlaxton) seem better now than when I first left sixteen years ago. Walking down the street at night is no more daunting than anywhere else - put down your phones, pay attention, use an ounce of intuition and you'll be fine.

As for as people being cold and distant, racist or it being difficult to make friends here. It's no different than anywhere else, which is to say that everybody has their head buried in their mobiles, staring at <ironically, insert social media platform of your choice here> and is too busy discovering how to be thicc like Kim K. to pay attention to what's going on around them. I do somewhat agree with people saying that there's not a lot going on here too, which does further compound the issue by limiting the opportunities to meet new people. Realistically though, the vast majority of people make friends through work these days - as long as you're working, and aren't a complete social hand grenade, you'll be fine. If you live here and you think it's bad, you should try Newcastle, Ballarat or some of the... less affluent suburbs in Melbourne (for reference: I lived on the border of West Footscray and Sunshine for a year).

The weather is decent, maybe even great, and unless you're some kind of born and bred northerner, or spent most of your life living under a sheet of tin on the equator, the winter is nowhere near as brutal as Canberra or Melbourne (bonus points for not raining in winter) and the summer is child's play when compared with Townsville.

Racism... I'm not really sure how to address this one. Seeing as though I am a cis-gender, straight, white male - everybody's favourite blend at the moment - I'm clearly a billionaire, own ten houses and hate everything that isn't white. That being said, the community really seems to have diversified since I left (especially the suburbs surrounding the uni) and the small proportion of the population that was referred to in some previous posts as disliking the Sudanese community has probably all died of old age. If you're reading this in 2020, are some kind of minority and you're struggling to make friends, the Polynesian princess (she's not actually royalty, but you would think she was the queen of Samoa) that I'm engaged to and I would be glad to make new friends with stories that centre around something other than getting "maggot" at the local pub.

Elitism and classism is no worse than anywhere else. Opportunities for people who dwell more on the fringes of society to meet like minded individuals are going to be just as limited as anywhere else out side of capitals as well, but I doubt that you would be run out of town by crosswaving biblebashers armed with pitchforks for being a little different.

The university seems just as incompetent as any other university in this country (I'm currently completing post-graduate study at USQ).

Rental and housing prices are extortionate in the more sought after suburbs. Probably no worse than Townsville and better than Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne in terms of bang for your buck.

If you're moving from a capital, you'll probably appreciate not having to spend four hours commuting to and from work every day and, coming from a motorcyclist, the drivers are no less inattentive and dangerous than anywhere else (noticing a theme yet?).

Whoever it was that was complaining about there being quite a few roundabouts was correct. They're great and I love them - there's nothing worse than unnecessary traffic lights on every corner of a town.

I can't really comment on the schools, as I don't have any children of my own. If you have the money to buy your kids a leg up in life, there are dozens upon dozens of reasonably priced private schools dotted all over the town (Toowoomba serves as a hub for farmers out West to send their kids to bording school). If public schooling is more your speed, then Harristown State High School (despite it's reputation for being a little rough) churns out plenty of high achievers, is very well resourced and ranks among the best schools in Queensland for academic achievement.

I'm running out of steam at this point...

As for rough neighbourhoods. If you were to look at a map of Toowoomba, the suburbs East of Ruthven Street and South of Bridge Street tend to be decent to look at, if not a little passed their use by date. Everywhere else is littered with good and bad pockets. That being said, most of the public housing was sold in '90s and the riff-raff moved on, so a lot of the poorer suburbs are, for better or for worse, beginning to be gentrified - most notably Harlaxton.

One big negative that was accurately called out (this is entirely subjective though and may not bother some people at all) is the total lack of night life. The pubs and clubs are a shadow of their former selves and the CBD is practically dead, even on a Friday or Saturday night - my guess is that the kids all head to Brisbane to get cross-eyed and have a good time. For the most part, the cafes and restaurants are also fairly bland and not worth the time or money spent going to them. If you like to wear skinny jeans, flannelette shirts, drink soy lattes and expect to find cafe's that play music nobody has ever heard of and are also full of cats (looking at you Melbourne), you're also going to be sorely disappointed. That being said, for gigs, festivals and other big acts, heading down to Brisbane is a mostly painless, ninety-odd minute journey and could even be considered a point in Toowoomba's favour. All-in-all, I would say that even Townsville has better local pubs, clubs and restaurants, but this is easily rectified by a short trip to Brisbane and back.

As far as I'm concerned, the biggest negative for Toowoomba is that there's not a lot of jobs available, so I would probably advise against moving here if you don't already have work lined up or possess highly transferable skills that are always in demand, regardless of location. One caveat to this is aged care or disability services. If you have the qualifications required, and don't mind the pitiful wages, then you'll struggle to not find work in this field in Toowoomba

Very long story short: Toowoomba is just another large, Australian, rural centre. If you can't live without being packed into trains like cattle, hipster cafes and barbers, soy lattes on every corner, 24 hour K-Mart and spending a quarter of your life commuting, then move to Melbourne or Sydney. If your daily routine consists of work, followed by another mind-numbing session of MKR after dinner before heading to bed at 9PM, then Toowoomba may very well be the place for you.

For those looking for a recommendation for a place to live that didn't really have anywhere specific in mind, my vote would actually go to Canberra. It's big enough to have just about anything you will need, without being too big. It's not a huge amount of effort to head to Sydney or Melbourne to get your metro fix. The cafes and restaurants are (or were in 2010) top notch. Housing can be a little on the expensive side, but there are reasonably priced places around, provided you don't have a burning desire to live in the middle of the CBD. Winter can be brutal, but, for those who don't mind the cold, it's not anywhere near unbearabl and, finally, for those of you who can't bear to live within the same post code as a **gasp** conservative, it's a bastion of progressivism.

To any who made it this far, I wish you all the best in finding your own little utopia - even you unwashed liberals - and sincerely hope that this wall of text may prove useful to somebody along the way.

<3 Dan

.