Discerning_eye

Soldiers Hill really is 'the Carlton of Ballarat'. We moved here after many years in Fitzroy and it's such a refreshing change, we love it. We felt pushed out of Melbourne by rapid gentrification and were open to a regional life style change after having kids. Soldiers Hill has such beautiful old world homes, wide streets and you can walk to everything. If you're commuting like us, it is a nice 10m walk from the station. So far the commute has been fine, annoying at times when the train is delayed, but you can spend just as long trying to get to the city from west preston on the tram in peak hour and we get lots of reading done. Will be even better when regional rail link is complete.

Ballarat is a great environment to bring up kids, it has excellent schools, the lake, botanical gardens, fantastic community infrastructure and such a grand history. It's so close to gorgeous regional towns like Buningyong, Maldon, Creswick and Dayelsford, we feel like we've gone to the country for a short weekend holiday every weekend.

Oh, I forgot to say that we have cable internet which is heaps faster than than the ADSL 2+ that we had in Fitzroy AND the NBN should ready any week now!