Whilst on the subject of retirement...

[pfitzgerald]

I have been thinking on this for some time now - albeit without my being able to do so for several more years yet.

However, I am interested in reading the thoughts and ideas that others here on IIS have had on the same subject - and have been able to bring to fruition, or like me are hoping that they can in the future - with one of the aims in choosing a new location to call home being the ability to have access to better skies for viewing, AP and getting into amateur (scientific) astronomy.

Currently I live in Melbourne and much as I love it, having grown up here, I'd like to be able to move somewhere else - 'smallish' country town etc with more dark nights, a lot less LP and stable skies.

Other more important considerations have been:
1. The chosen town has to have its own hospital, or there is one in another town relatively close by.
2. Needs to have a secondary school, or one within a 20-30 minute drive, so that I can do relief teaching to help with the financial side of things. I.e. Astro equipment upgrades;)
3. Should I build or buy? (can't say that I'm overly keen on paying stamp duty)
4. Possibly needs to be close to a train line for trips to Melbourne or other major cities (I'm not confining myself to Victoria, but most of our family is here)
5. Will build an observatory when I get there.

There are a few other things on my list, but over to you guys for your thoughts please.

Paul :question:

[Atmos]

I do not have a great knowledge of a good portion of Vic but I would suggest up Kilmore and Shepparton way. Both of those are on the northern side of The Great Divide, far more stable weather.

I know Kilmore East has a V Line and Kilmore has both primary and secondary schools.

[pfitzgerald]

Thnx for the thoughts Colin.

[Atmos]

No worries, I am seriously thinking of buying in Kilmore in a year or so.

[bojan]

Paul,
Your thinking exactly matches mine from 6-7 years ago.
We bought the investment property in Seymour then.... with a plan to convert it to our future residence, then sell the house in Melbourne and live on that for the following 10 years.. hopefully.

Unfortunatelly, my future Seymour neighbour also had his own plans.. and his newly built "super shed" above our northern fence last year ruined all my hopes for an observatory in the backyard, and with this the prospects of life in that house, so we decided to sell it.
See here:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=105922&highlight=neighbour+Seymour&page=2, post #28

Kilmore is a good pick regarding LP for now... but Seymour is generally better IMO (because ih has more urban facilities.. it has everything - shops, banks, coffee.. hospital... even graveyard ;)
You can expect Melbourne to spread to the north in the next couple od decades, so the LP there will get worse with time.

Perhaps Ballarat and surounding area is the next best option?
Daylesford area is quite dark (but expensive and considered as farming land.. so subdivision is difficult and I don't need/want the whole farm). I am considering this area at the moment, a friend of mine has a farm there and sometimes I spent evenings imaging from his property.. very dark indeed.

[el_draco]

Jesus christ!!!! Sh*$per-ton Noooooooooooooooooooooo! I grew up in that dump; left the second I could and haven't been there in 30 years but I'd still nuke it in a second if I had the chance. What a stinking flat ugly HELL HOLE... :eyepop::eyepop::eyepop:

(Panting subsides) Having said that, I am a little further along the freedom path than you. One teenager still at home and I'm a semi-retired teacher. We bought a big bush block and have left it pristine, (low maintenance, quiet, peaceful and can't be built out). Its about 35 km out of Hobart and 10 km from a small town, (dark skies). Currently building observatory and small shack. Will rent out/sell our current property.

Live small in the bush, grow own food. Drink scotch (Preservative ;)) Big scopes...:D

[MattT]

Beechworth direction is where I want to buy at some point or other....just can't convince my wife to leave Melbourne. Has all that you are looking for...Hospital, good food, coffee and beer :thumbsup: Really good sky too.

Wanna rent for a bit first just to make sure though...

Matt

[Atmos]

Suppose you're right about Shep, I have had some friends who lived there at one time or another and it isn't a place they're planning on staying.

I was talking to a meteorologist last year and apparently Ballarat is still on the southern side of the Great Divide giving it more variable weather. It is better than Melbourne but still suffers from some of the same problems.

[Merlin66]

We lived in/ around Heathcote for twenty years - The ASV dark site is close by.
I'd not necessarily recommend Heathcote but the southern areas of Bendigo could be an option.
(I would have gone back to Derrinal, but the "Manager" wanted the coast.)
My brother-in-law lives up in Echuca, and I've been impressed with the sky conditions during our visits......

[AussieTrooper]

This.
Shepparton is possibly the worst country town in Victoria.

Euroa might be worth a look. It's outside of Melbourne's light bubble, near the Hume, and on the Melb Syd train line.

[The_bluester]

I live just out of Kilmore and can not see myself ever voluntarily going back closer to Melbourne.

The skies are not as dark as Heathcote of course but they are pretty good, with limitations. Melbourne does produce it's fair share of LP, though when at higher elevations, objects like 47 Tuc, Tarantula etc are still pretty spectacular. The east is sometimes an issue too (We live west of town by about 6KM) when the racetrack is open for the trots at night they hose a lovely blue column of light up into the air. North and west are pretty well trouble free though.

It seems to cover most of your other considerations reasonably too.

Regards Shepp, The skies might be relatively dark but I would prefer to be over more in the Echuca direction. My parents used to live approx 15 minutes South of Echuca and my most vivid recollection of the place is of inky black skies! Strathallan (Roughly half way between Echuca and Rochester) was where my interest in astronomy was first piqued.

[pfitzgerald]

Afternoon all - and thank you all for your thoughts, suggestions and places to avoid! - and Bojan 'ouch' what an unpleasant experience!

Much of what you have said I had already been thinking on - which is reassuring. And there were also a few suggestions that I hadn't thought of.

I should also have mentioned that I've been looking at places between Yea and Alexandria and Mansfield (V-Line Bus to Melbourne if required) and Mansfield and Benalla, and Benalla and Wangaratta.

The really hard part on settling on a location once the financial side has been dealt with is the logistics associated with getting 'old' - that is once you get to 70+ and whether or not being more than 10-20 minutes outside of a town is a good idea (food, doctors etc). Ideally I wouldn't want to have to move again after retiring. I suppose the main thing is to keep doing the research and planning and discussing it all with the GLW so that when/if we move to the country and dark skies it will be to a place that we are both happy with.

Paul

PS Any other thoughts/suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Kunama]

Try before you buy! ( as Matt mentioned above )

Rent for six months in the area to see if you (single or plural?) like it.
Beats the h3ll out of buying, paying all the legals stamp duty etc and then finding out it really isn't where you want to be.....

[traveller]

A family friend has been looking into this tree change thing on and off for a few years. He wanted about 10-15 acres to start a small olive plantation.
I said I'd chip in a few grand so I can have access to a small parcel to run a remote site.
Another family friend has a farm that they share with two other families up in Nagambie way, and I have been keen to try there as well.
Just another option...

[AstralTraveller]

I enjoyed my one visit to Beechworth but the moon and cloud ensured I couldn't evaluate the skies. It's a nice looking place and at a reasonable elevation (600m??). Facilities are basic but enough (or they will be when the IGA supermarket is rebuilt - a local teen burnt it down). It's about 40-50km from Albury-Wodonga so you can get to more services easily enough. Unfortunately I don't believe the railway still runs there.

There is someone on IIS who moved to the Wimmera for the dark skies (and there is plenty out there). However, last I heard, they were also having problems with local lights. It seems these days you could move 300km east of Mt Newman and still have someone shine a light in your face. :mad2:

[Renato1]

While not as good as on the other side of the range, one can still get pretty good skies (especially of the north horizon) out Pakenham and MaryKnoll way, the train station being at Pakenham. Further north and away from the station, pretty good skies at Gembrook and Cockatoo.

Regards,
Renato

[bojan]

Yes.. we had couple of gathering at John's Hill lookout.
I still go there sometimes, it is not that far away from MtWaverley

[xelasnave]

I owned a real estate office for many years and can say many folk sold thru my office bought someplace (often where they spent holidays) and would return 6., 9 months later wanting to come back.
Well the move cost heaps....
So I suggest rent first even if you leave your home vacant (best approach leave it empty and pay to mow the lawn).
Sounds like throwing money away but it is not.

Alex

[xelasnave]

My uncle owned the bakery and milk bar and I spent many holidays there. I loved the place.

Alex

[xelasnave]

I moved to my 200 acres 20 years ago and wish I had gone there thirty years earlier.
I built my house built roads gardens all by hand and the sence of accomplishment was extremely satifying.
The years of dark skies came as an additional benefit.
Do not put off retirement.
I had a rather full life in law and real estate but that was nothing to living in the bush.

Alex

[OzEclipse]

I am minimum 7 years off retirement but enjoying work more than ever and if that continues, may not jump ship at the first opportunity.

Like you, I like the idea of "the good life" in a small town or semi-rural with a few acres, dark skies and room to grow my own veges, maybe some fruit trees and maybe a couple of olive trees.

However I have seen some older friends run into problems later in life when health fails or other family circumstances mean they want to move back to the city. Their small town property value didn't keep pace with city prices and they couldn't afford to buy back in the city.

Slightly off topic but with a similar financial result is something that has happened to my girlfriends best friend. She and her partner moved to the USA, Ann Arbor, Michegan about 15 years ago. They sold their Sydney house and bought in Michegan. Property prices tanked during the GFC while Australian prices have gone gangbusters. Net result, they are sort of financially trapped over there unless they come back and take a big drop in living standard.

Think it through really carefully before selling up for a tree change. A property that is out of town now but that Melbourne will expand and swallow in your later years might be compromise. However Melbourne light pollution means this strategy probably doesn't work as well as it can near Canberra.

Best of luck

Joe

[bojan]

Just came to my mind..
Would it be possible to place granny flat (or transportable home) on a block of land somewhere in Victoria?

[pfitzgerald]

Hi Bojan

Your idea, along with the idea of renting for several months before committing wholeis bolis (sp?!) to moving to a country town both rate a lot of merit - the granny flat option I hadn't considered before but will now look into it. Thanks for passing on the idea.

Paul