Why I Love Living in Canberra
I have been living in Canberra for a little over a year now and every time I head back to Sydney and catch up with friends I’m always asked something along the lines of “so are you surviving Canberra” almost as if I’m inflicted with some terrible terminal disease! This is just an extension of the comments I got prior to moving here, some of which included:
“Canberra is full of politicans and public servants - how boring!”
“Canberra has no night life and there is nothing to do!”
“Canberra is such a hole!”
“Canberra - why on Earth would you want to go there!”
Well, in 14 months I am yet to meet a politican here, thankfully, and the closest I have come is seeing the Chief of Army’s car drive down my street complete with ARMY 1 number plates. As far as night life is concerned I have been to more pubs in Canberra than I ever went to in Sydney and I can confidently say that if I wanted to I would have at least two invitations to do things every night of the week. Yes, geographically, Canberra is a hole - a beautiful valley just east of the magnificent Brindabella ranges. And why would I want to move here? Well, there were lots of reasons but I think the following article from the Sydney Morning Herald sums a lot of it up…
A Capital Idea For Getting Out Of The Rat Race
by Kerry Palmer - March 23, 2007
“WHAT do you think about moving to Canberra?” my husband asked. I looked at him as if someone had died.” Yeah, right. Over my dead body.”
Due to career opportunities and a rock-solid promise that we would return to civilisation within three years, I reluctantly agreed to relocate “there”. I adored living in Sydney and considered it a privilege to live in the greatest city in the world. I loved our suburb in the inner west, the beaches, the restaurants, the harbour. I was going to be miserable in our nation’s capital. Even John Howard refuses to live there.
How wrong I was! We have been here 18 months now and I shock myself with how much I love it. First of all, there is no traffic. Parking is 80 cents an hour in the city centre. My son’s soccer matches are a five-minute walk away. I walked into a day-care centre and walked out having secured places for my two daughters. We have a large house with a not so large mortgage, friendly neighbours, great friends and incredible scenery. We go to the coast all the time and decide on the morning whether to go to the snow. There are great restaurants and a cafe culture similar to Sydney’s. Best of all, Sydney is only a few hours away, so it is easy to get my Sydney fix without having to live there.
Canberra is not as bad as you think. It may not suit all but, for a young family, life is much less stressful. My husband gets to work in 15 minutes; it used to take him that just to cross the Iron Cove Bridge. When I visit Sydney now, the traffic shocks me, and I would struggle to deal with it every day again. In Canberra no one talks property prices and it’s not a badge of honour to have a $1 million mortgage. When we moved here my son asked why everyone was so friendly.
I implore you not to be as critical and dismissive of Canberra as I once was. Looking back, it makes me so cross to remember the looks of pity people gave me when I told them where we were moving.
I’m sick of being asked “where do you live?” and when I tell them, they look at me scathingly and quickly change the subject. “Won’t you miss all the trendy cafes in Balmain?” We have three little kids, we don’t go out. And don’t get me started on that radio ad where a planeload of people are shrieking in fright because they are being diverted to Canberra. There is more to life than being gridlocked in traffic to get to work to pay off an impossibly large loan on an impossibly small house. I still love Sydney but it’s not the be-all and end-all.
If hubby came home tomorrow and announced that we were moving back to Sydney, my response would be: “Yeah, right. Over my dead body.”