mattd22
Reviews
"Pre-Covid rating 7, post-Covid rating 9.5"
We've been living here for almost 5 years in Doreen/Laurimar now and love it more each time we return home from holidays or visiting other suburbs. Doreen is just a very well urbanly planned and picturesque suburb. And when I say suburb I mean the whole suburb not just a couple of streets. Every street has well established greenery/trees. The roads are wide and smooth with bicycle lanes on the main roads and pedestrian footpaths that make every where walkable from park to park to park (there are a lot of parks!). The suburb is centred around a lake with lots of natural flora and birdlife which add to the scenery even more - I'm yet to find another suburb in Australia or the world like it. It's basically all young families here and everyone feels safe enough to let their kids go around the neighbourhood by themselves (no busy roads). It's such a wonderful feeling when you drive into the suburb from Hazel Glen Road or Flaxen Hills Rd and see the water, landscaped streets, neat lawns, brick houses. My only complaint was that it took 80mins door to door to get to work in the city, but post-Covid I only need to commute once or twice a week and can work remotely from home. I can see myself living here even after the kids are all grown up and I'm retired - there's 2 fantastic and affordable golf courses both within 9mins drive to Doreen.
Who lives here?
- Families with kids
Both golf courses have generous and picturesque layouts. Growling would be the more challenging out of the two and requires a bit more course management. Having said that, feel free to pull out the big dog on most holes! The greens and fairways at Growling are *chef's kiss*. Yarrambat definitely has a more social and younger vibe though!
I think I've played at Growling Frog a while ago and do remember how immaculate the fairways were. The views were pretty unreal. does it get busy at Growling Frog?
There's two public and four independent primary schools in the area, ranging between 0-5km from the "high street" (Laurimar town centre). My kids go to Laurimar PS and it's a great school with a zero tolerance to bullying stance. They're very well staffed and seem to be growing year on year. The school is very open and has strong links with the community and the teachers are absolute gems. The school is quite well positioned right next to the town centre and has plenty of outdoor play areas. They teach Chinese Mandarin language from Year 2 on once a week and my kids really enjoy that. Where are you coming from?
It doesn't really get busy at Growling. There's typically 240 odd tee times per day and I've only ever seen it as full as 50% capacity.
Doreen is split in two main areas by Bridge Inn Rd; Laurimar and Orchard Road, both with their own community centre, there's a few other little shops scattered around various estates. Orchard Road is closer to the train station. Laurimar has the bigger town centre with more retail shops, restaurants, health care services etc. The closest Westfields is Plenty which is about 15 mins drive straight down Plenty Rd. Greensborough Plaza is about 20 mins off peak. Traffic is minimal outside of peak times. Yan Yean Rd is currently being duplicated which leads to the Greensborough Bypass and the North East link tunnel currently being built. When complete I think the journey into the city via the M3 will be cut from 50 mins off peak to about 35 mins from Doreen. There are 3 secondary schools in the area, Hazel Glen College, Plenty Valley Christian College, Ivanhoe Grammar, in order of financial burden ;) there's a wait list for Ivanhoe Grammar so plan ahead. If you like open spaces, large modern homes, and clean streets, then Doreen is definitely worth considering.
Which is your favourite golf course out of the two? I'm assuming you're referring to Growling Frog GC and Yarrambat GC?