alexv9

We used to live in Alexandria and Kensington - apartments. Since we had children, we decided to move out of city area. From the beginning, we were sceptical about the south west area in term of security perspective as we had heard a lot of it. Since our apartment storages both in Erskinville and Kensington got broken in twice and my car windscreen got smashed once in our basement carpark; we wondered how worst it could be. Due to fact of the affordability and value of money, I justified myself to give it a go for South West Sydney. I managed to convince my wife to move there by investing additional $5k for advance technology CCTV in 2013. We bought it from Landcom at first release. We have been living here for more than 5 years so far. Overall, we are happy with it. To be honest, we still think it can be better in some area. Would I live at Bardia if I could pick again? Yes, I would live here again until my children going to High School.
I am trying to break it down fairly for you to make a decision. Please note that is my opinion only. I believe it is a fair and non-biased comment.
1. Sense of community – Average - Majority of neighbours are friendly, helpful and professional compared to when I lived in city area. Unfortunately, there is a small group people like to take advantage from others such as not willing to share cost of fencing. That is what I heard from my neighbours.
2. Multi culturism – Very Good - Surrounding with neighbours from Local Aussie, Chinese, Indonesian Chinese, Singaporean, Indian, Malaysian, South American.
3. Public Transport – Good - The train station is very clean and beautiful. Train every 15mins. The train station looks like up-market. My wife and I both travel separately to Parramatta and CBD to work. I used to drive to Parramatta but I have already given up. However, the parking of the train station is not enough to cater for the local. Fortunately, we could find many parking if we leave early before 7am and 7.30am.
4. M5 Motorway – Very good on weekend & Very bad on weekdays peak hours - 45-50mins to CBD on weekend only. Bad traffic at peak hours on weekdays.
5. M5 traffic noise – From bad to Good – It used to be really bad. For some reasons, the noise is slowly fading away. I guess it is probably because the new houses built around us is blocking the noise.
6. Security – Above average – we never have any issue in last 5 years – finger crossed. Unfortunately, we heard there were about 3 separate break and enter occasions between 2017 and 2018. All of them happened in the afternoon. The reason I claimed as “above average” is because we used to have more issues when we live around city area in 5 years period. All I can say is, please invest in security camera. Majority of “break and enter” incidents are without CCTV camera.
7. Childcare – From Bad to Good – Initially, there was only one child care called “World of Learning” near Denham Court. Now, there are more options. Ignite is a very beautiful centre open in 2019. Explorers is due to open soon near the big water tank area. All are new building. However, please put your name down earlier. Ignite is full now October 2019.
8. Primary school – Very good – I can say this is the most beautiful primary school I ever come across – Please note that you need to live in Bardia catchment area.
9. High School – N/A - Unfortunately, there is no high school in Bardia Estate.
10. Parks and playgrounds – Average – The park is average so far in “2019”. However, a very big new park is going to open soon in 2020/2021. Let’s see. Tips, we like to go to Mount Annan. It is about 20mins by car.
11. Road and Street Layout - Very Good – well planned by Landcom. Clean and organised. All roads and streets are straight and symmetrical. You cannot see an old house and electrical overhead poles in the middle of the suburb.
12. Grocery Shopping – Average for now – We go Aldi at Edmondson Park, Costco, and Coles at Willowdale. We can’t wait for the town centre to open soon.
13. Distance to Beach – bad – too far by car. If you are a beach goer, please go somewhere else.