Tree Change Dreaming

[AussieTrooper (Ben)]

Originally Posted by Wavytone

Ben take your wife to Bright sometime. It is cappuccino city, fine dining, 90 wineries within 90 minutes drive, and everything you could possibly want if you don't need to work for a living.

There's a trout river running smack through the centre of town compete with a weir and swimming hole. In summer my wife spends the afternoon in a rubber tyre moored upstream under a shady tree, with a nice book.

And the whole area is simply gorgeous.

That's actually a possibility. My best mate lives in Wangaratta, and when we visit, my wife likes going to the wineries around there.
Not exactly a dark sky site, but far far better than Melbourne.
My company has a depot up that way too.

[Wavytone]

... it's also easy to find a dark sky site nearby though, for example Wandiligong or Harrietville. And it's a short drive to the lake on Mt Buffalo which offers excellent dark skies.

[JimIrish (Jim)]

Like others, I'm tempted to be a tree-changer. In my case, from a polluted city in China (2008-2015) via (at present) Hoppers Crossing near Werribee in Melbourne to central or north Queensland for winters.

Melbourne is too cloudy and cold in winter for my taste. Astronomical twilight ends too late in summer for an old guy who likes to get to bed before midnight but still fit in some observing if there's no moon or it's not overcast. The latter factor rules out dark sites in northwestern Victoria or anywhere with daylight saving and favours latitudes north of Brisbane, the further north the better. For example, astronomical twilight ends no later than 8:10pm at Rockhampton, but as late as 10:40pm in Melbourne.

I'd like to have a supermarket nearby, internet and a basic rural hospital - not because I like hospitals but places without a hospital generally don't have a GP or pharmacist. Places with affordable housing and modest light pollution include the Gemfields (The Willows, Anakie, Sapphire and Rubyvale) west of Emerald; Monto; and Charters Towers. Further afield, well-known over-wintering sites for southerners include Greenvale. Pentland, west of Charters Towers, is also on the list.

I've used the map of artificial skyglow published by Kyba et al. (2015) to aid site selection.

Thoughts?

[AussieTrooper (Ben)]

Given your criteria, I would recommend the Atherton tablelands west of Cairns. You are not too far from a major city, don't have to worry about daylight savings, no icy nights, a bit of elevation, and you don't need to go far at all to get to proper black skies.

[glend (Glen)]

Originally Posted by JimIrish

Like others, I'm tempted to be a tree-changer. In my case, from a polluted city in China (2008-2015) via (at present) Hoppers Crossing near Werribee in Melbourne to central or north Queensland for winters.

Melbourne is too cloudy and cold in winter for my taste. Astronomical twilight ends too late in summer for an old guy who likes to get to bed before midnight but still fit in some observing if there's no moon or it's not overcast. The latter factor rules out dark sites in northwestern Victoria or anywhere with daylight saving and favours latitudes north of Brisbane, the further north the better. For example, astronomical twilight ends no later than 8:10pm at Rockhampton, but as late as 10:40pm in Melbourne.

I'd like to have a supermarket nearby, internet and a basic rural hospital - not because I like hospitals but places without a hospital generally don't have a GP or pharmacist. Places with affordable housing and modest light pollution include the Gemfields (The Willows, Anakie, Sapphire and Rubyvale) west of Emerald; Monto; and Charters Towers. Further afield, well-known over-wintering sites for southerners include Greenvale. Pentland, west of Charters Towers, is also on the list.

I've used the map of artificial skyglow published by Kyba et al. (2015) to aid site selection.

Thoughts?

There are some excellent property margains to be had around some of the towns like Dysart, and Moranbah. Due to the downturn in the mining boom there are many low cost, but very nice, housing options in these towns. There is a hospital in Dysart, I have been in it, and a visiting dental clinic. I have spent time in both towns and they have the facilities you seek, and both are about two hours to Mackay, or a little longer to Rocky via Capricorn Way. The issue with any town in the coal fields is the possibility of light pollution from the mining operation. Dysart is pretty far from a working mine, Saraji being the closest at about 45kms. My choice on your list is Charter Towers, near enough to Townsville but up on the plateau and dark, as long as your not right in the city centre - but there are alot of old mine shafts all over the place outside of town so choose your site carefully. More options than Dysat and Moranbah, which can also be very hot in summer.