harryc

Murwillumbah itself is a delightful art deco country town - far more attractive and sophisticated (in recent years) than most Australian country towns. As the population of M'bah and surrounding villages has become "gentrified" with an influx of Brisbane, Goldcoast and Sydney "tree changers" in recent years, the town has kept pace with pavement cafes, speciality shops and delis to match any larger town - although on a smaller scale obviously.

Plenty of Doctors surgeries, dentists and Murwillumbah hospital take care of medical needs and there are all kinds of schools from RC to alternative. Nightlife is pretty much in one of the 5 or so pubs and many restaurants - although special dinner dances are a monthly feature of one such eatery and there's an active local drama group who stage regular events.

There's everything you really need for day to day living in M'bah itself, but for a "big shop", South Tweed Heads has a huge shopping centre (20 mins drive), Goldcoast is only 35 mins or so and Brissie less than an hour and a half - so within a day trip for something different.

I wouldn't choose to live in M'bah itself - why move to the country and live in town after all? Visit the surrounding villages and take a look at them - Crystal Creek (and Upper Crystal Creek in particular as it's stunningly beautiful) is only 10mins (12mins for Upper CC) from the town centre and has room to breathe, move and get a family pony. Uki is closer to Mt Warning so has more of a rainforest feel, Stokers is south and flatter but still very pretty. If you want to go further out then Tyalgum is charming, but it's a 25-30 minute drive to M'bah, so be aware you could get fed up with that after a while.

All in all a fantastic place to live - but don't only look at Murwillumbah central if you're thinking of moving here.