coffscoastmom

We moved to Coffs from Melbourne 4 years ago and it is THE BEST decision my husband and I made. FYI we absolutely DO NOT know anyone from coffs - ZERO.
We were in a hunt for a coastal town to move into and luckily my husband can do an internal transfer within the company. The area that is covered is within Port Macquarie to Yamba and forunately Coffs store has an opening.
I had a harder time to get convinced as I will end up the doing is looking for a job, the move timed with me going on maternity leave which means I have my parental leave pay that kept us going for a year. I have a well paying job in Mebourne for a government agency which means the longer you stay the higher your salary will get.
But I have to gove it all ul which was really really hard to swallow at the beginning.
The reason I am telling you about our story is so you can understand my review which really affects how everyone will think about the big move. It is a HUGE decision and honestly, I have read reviews from homely that we also considered when we decided to move.
Ok I decided to categorise this into different secrions which I think were imporwhen we moved.

JOB SECURITY - I cannot stress enough that at least ONE of you (couple or couples with fam) have a job set up when you move. If you don’t have a safety net to fall to.

HOUSING CRISIS - We had the toughest time looking for a place to rent. It was highly competitive and I find very stressful. Every home we checked there is about at least 50 people viewing. My husband spoke to his colleague who then spoke about us to her Poperty agent friend and what do you know, we were able to secure a home after almost 2 months of searching. Prior to moving to a tental property, My husband moved to Coffs 6 weeks earluer than us and he stayed at a share home and when we (me and kid) stayed in a small motel. He has been looking home for weeks and cant land one. So in our case it helped to have some sort of connection. Price wise - we paid More than what we were paying in Melbourne in a much smaller townhouse. During that time a townhouse within 1k from city centre was 400 per week.
And after the pandemic, it is much harder as what my friend had said.

INFRASTRUCTURE -
Hospital - Check
Police/fire/ambo - check
airport - check
Schools - check
Mall - check (not that important for us but added for fun.
Accesibility to big cities were also considered if we need to travel international. Brisbane is about 4 hr drive and Gold Coast about 3 hrs
Libraries, aquarium, cinema, bowling alley were good plusses as well

FOOD SCENE - here we go, you coming from Melbourne, and working in Bourke St for 8 years you will really get used to hundreds of choices of food. I am not even an elitist, I just happen to love food. There are plenty of good restaurants in City Centre (which is where Coffs Central Mall is), Jetty area and Sawtell. You will NOT be able to go karaoke on a Wednesday night FYI :)
Although limited cuisines are available, example there is no Korean restaurant here. A few cuisines have emerged within the last four years which is very exciting. But keep your expectations on the down low ok?
But when it come to coffee you will have loads here PLUS coffee with a view is something melbourne rarely has :)

CRIME RATES (drugs etc) - ok let us be real here. We searched this prior to moving and read nasty things about Coffs specifically saying there is a drug problem. It was hard to really dig into this as we do not know anyone from here so we can ask questions. We then trusted the advise provided by people who have made reviews about this. Lef’s say it is not ZERO but it is not everyday that you will hear crime has been committed. I guess this is a hard part of your decision making but for us we feel very safe in our community and the neighbourhood we live in.

TRANSPORTATION - ok so if you are a commter, prepare yourself. There is a busline but it does not go everywhere. See if you are a family you might end up needing to have two cars. Fortunately for us me and hubby works 200m from each other and school is 100m from our work so one car is ecomical and practical for us.

COST SAVINGS - aside from that rent that we end up costing more. A lot of the things here cost leas or FREE. Plenty of beaches to go to, walking trails and there are a lot of free activities for kids that are set up by either council or nfp organisations. Guess what city dwellers??? There is no prking ticket machine!!! (Say what?) and prepare yourself for finding a parking spot everywhere you go (except for events ok)!!

LIFESTYLE - we go to the beach at least 3 times a week and almost everyday during Summer. You cannot ignore how much beaty there is in and around Coffs. You go to the boardwalk for a bit and you will see turtles or stingrays or dolphins just having a swim :) there are waterfalls just 45min to an hr drive from here. Lots of nice spot to go fishing, relaxing, and watch whales swim by! You will get really connected with nature and love the world we luve in even more.

COMMUNITY SPIRIT - i did a bit of research and found that there were a lot of people from the same country were i was born here and it was such a treat! I connectwith my community here. As a parent with young kids, there are a lot of fb groups and playdates which I attended to when I first moved in and luckily met one of my closest friend here in Coffs because of that. :)

Me and my small family absolutely loved living here. We go on adventures and wxplore all the little nooks across this coast and we feel so lucky to be able to have this experience. My kids love the beach and I think (hope) they will understand why we moved from the big city to this beautiful East Coast :)