Looking to relocate & overwhelmed.

A few years ago my husband & I almost bought a farm with full income to totally change our lives & the lives of our 2 (almost 3!) small kids. Unfortunately someone with finance ready bought before we could get everything together & we missed out. However, we've never stopped wanting to relocate to a country area. Our thought now is to do it in stages: relocate to a suburban area close to the country & then move slowly toward the lifestyle we really crave. We are looking to do a big move - we live in Townsville North Queensland and are looking to move South to a much cooler climate with seasonal weather (we get hot & hotter, that's it) and better conditions for growing produce (in the summer months our gardens are literally fried to death in the sun). I grew up on the Mornington Peninsula but while it is beautiful I don't want to go back there - it is far too expensive, too touristy and commutes to work would be long. I can do a direct, easy transfer to our office in either Wendouree or Bendigo. There are other offices in VIC that I could direct transfer to but they are more metropolitan than I would like (Melbourne, Moorabbin etc). There are also options for a possible indirect transfer but these would be subject to approval from management who may not be able to accommodate me in their budget. My husband can go pretty much anywhere, so our options are semi-open. Our idea is to come on a holiday in September & do a bit of a road trip from Melbourne up to Ballarat (to check out Wendouree) & then up to Bendigo. After that we will then head up to visit a friend who lives in Swan Hill. Given that we come from North Queensland we are not concerned about "distance to Melbourne" - it is 16 hours to Brisbane from here, so 2 or 3 hours to Melbourne is really nothing for us!! We currently drive up to Cairns numerous times a year which is 4.5 hours away so living only a few hours away from Melbourne seems absolutely luxurious! Any issues with summer heat are also obviously not going to be an issue, considering our weather here rarely drops below 30 degrees. Even winter rarely gets below about 26 here, so if anything we will struggle a bit with acclimatising to the cold (but we're not concerned - we've both lived in cold climates before). So I guess I'm now looking for advice from locals about where we should live and if we did move to these areas how close to the country we REALLY would be. What are schools like? My kids are at a WONDERFUL tiny state primary school that is like a little country school & I'd like to find a similar small country-school feel wherever we end up. OK sorry for the long question. TIA for anyone who responds!!