TonyGilbert

We bought a home in Bellbowrie about six years ago after renting in Kenmore and Chapel Hill for many years. We couldn't afford to buy anything half decent in Kenmore or Chapel Hill, but in Bellbowrie we could afford a 4BR house with a pool on a 1/4 acre of land in a nice street. Yes, it's 10 minutes further out, but that's a small price to pay for the lifestyle we can have here. And Bellbowrie has a community spirit that we never saw in Kenmore. Although it's not that small town feel where everyone knows everyone, you do get to know people out here and we do pull together as a community when times are tough. Yes, we were isolated for a few days by the floods last year, but all in all only about 1% of the homes in Bellbowrie were flood affected, despite our suburb being right on the Brisbane River. We are are 15 minutes off the Centenary Freeway and 10 minutes from the Ipswich Motorway, so it's easy enough to go anywhere. We have our own local Coles Supermarket, sports club, medical centre, vet, child care centre, one of the best primary schools in the western suburbs, churches, parks and, of course, the beautiful Brisbane River.

The extra 10 minute drive to Bellbowrie from Kenmore is like a life change in itself. It's very hard to convey the sense of peace and tranquility that Bellbowrie offers, the beautiful birds that come into your yard to feed on the flowers, the absolute silence in the evenings (except for an occasional dog barking), the bellbirds in the morning as the sun comes up, the kookaburras singing as the sun goes down. It's just so relaxing. Yeah, ok, there's no nightlife to speak of here, but Indooroopilly is only 15 minutes away and Park Road is only 25 minutes away, so it's all there when you want it. You just have to get off your butt. And we do have our own Thai restaurant and sports club bistro if you're desperate or don't want to go too far.

Another reviewer complained about the public transport here, but the fact is we have a Buzz bus service so there's a 444 bus to the city via Indooroopilly every 10 minutes during peak hours and every 15 minutes the rest of the day. Plus we have a 443 City Express bus every 15 minutes during peak hour. On average it takes 40 minutes from my front door to the city on the 443, or 45 minutes on the 444. I can drive into the city in 30 minutes most of the time.

Fernvale is in the Lockyer Valley, nestled between Esk, Lake Manchester and Wivenhoe on the Brisbane Valley Highway. It's like the best of both worlds, less than 20 minutes from Ipswich CBD and only 35-40 minutes from Brisbane, yet it's a peaceful, semi-rural paradise. What attracted us to Fernvale was that it was obviously going ahead. It already had most of the things a small town needs to make it viable like pubs, shops, cafes, a school, etc., but there was so much new infrastructure development happening there including a supermarket/shopping centre, a medical centre, child care centre and more. For us, Fernvale has all the charm of nearby Esk, but without the inflated prices. You can walk anywhere in the town, but if you want to take you care it's easy to park too. And you can still buy a house and land here for $300,000!!!