Daph1

I grew up in Bellingen, when it was still primarily a dairy farming community and the "hippies" had just started arriving. I still go back to visit my mother once a year.
It's a beautiful town which has, if anything, improved since my childhood. There are so many creative things happening and it has such a lively and friendly vibe. It seems like a very tolerant, open-minded community. It now has some great cafes and restaurants and I love browsing the shops. Some of it is expensive, but there are some beautiful things. I never come away from a visit without having bought something.
We grew up swimming in the river and it is still a great place to swim. Just watch out for the bullrouts--fish that will give you a very painful sting, resulting in a trip to the hospital for pain relief.
I'd love to buy a property there some day.

I have lived here for just over 7 years. There is a redneck element here, but there is also a good community spirit. Once a month the Dayboro Lions Club put on a family movie (recent release) in the community hall for $18 a houshold. The movie is played on an old projector from the 1940s. Because the reel has to be changed halfway through there is an intermission and you can grab a cup of tea of coffee and some homemade chocolate slice and catch up with friends. When our kids were young they would bring their blankets and pillows and sit on the floor at the front. It's a great old-fashioned night out.
We have become good friends with our immediate neighbours on one side, but wouldn't know the ones on the other side if we ran into them. They make no effort to socialise even when invited. Apart from the occasional outbreak of hooning on the weekend nights it is VERY quiet. There are lots of beautiful birds and wildlife, including wallabies, goannas and the very rare koala (we've seen 2). Wild dogs are a problem for livestock and domestic dogs, but good fencing and keeping your dog locked up at night helps avoid any problems. As for ticks, our dog has had two, but we are now vigilant with keeping a good tick collar on her and haven't had any ticks for years.
Lack of close high schools are our biggest problem. It means long days for our kids. They leave home at 6.40am and get back between 4 and 5pm. Also the bus doesn't come close enough to our home for them to walk so they have to be picked up from the bus stop. Because of this we are now considering moving closer. Reluctantly.
On the up side there are now some nice cafes doing great coffee and food (esp Dayboro Deli, Buzz Stop and Ya Ya Bar). It's also a very creative area--lots of artists and musicians.
The threat of bushfire is an issue, but it's one of the risks of living in a beautiful, quiet green place. The last significant bushfires were in the early 70s. We've had nothing since we've been here, but we are prepared with fire-fighting pump etc.
One of the things I love about it is being on tank water. It tastes so much better than town water. In 7 years we've only had 4 water deliveries and in only one case would we have actually run out of water. In all the years of drought we always had plenty of water.