Adelaide Hills

[north]

Hi,

I'm trying to find out as much information as I can about places to live in and around Adelaide and would really like some thoughts on where the nicest places are in the Adelaide Hills as I'm not exactly sure what's classed as the Adelaide Hills and I like the idea of being away from the main populated area, but also not being to isolated.

All points in the right directions would be most welcomed.

Thanks, Rich.

[NicF]

Adelaide Hills kind of covers rather a large area and there are lots of potential places to live in them, some more isolated than others.  Most of the Hills areas I'm familiar with are the tiny little places that are not much more than a couple of houses, so probably not much help.  We dream about moving to somewhere like Teringie because it is just a small collection of houses not too far from the city and suburbs and relatively close to where we are at the moment.  I also quite like Norton Summit, but that's a bit further out.  Some places to consider are places like Aldgate or Stirling and surrounding areas.

I don't think there are any areas of the Hills to avoid, but some areas will be more to your tastes than others.  You will be limited to an extent by whether you can find anywhere to rent in the areas you are thinking of.  Do you have children and do you need to consider schools?  There are school buses for some areas of the hills close to the suburbs that bring the kids down to the schools.  Other areas have there own schools of various sizes.  The best thing to do is rent somewhere when you first get here and have a drive around and see which areas you like and feel right.

[Sprinter]

We have literally just moved to outside Blackwood (still waiting for our container to arrive) which is sort of Hills area, previously rented in Stirling and Aldgate both very nice but getting a bit expensive property wise. Blackwood has a large village atmosphere and has everything you need for everyday life. Hills right on our doorstep, beach at most 30mins, Adelaide CBD 30mins.

As NicF said it is best to rent at first and have a good drive round at various times of the day to see the areas.

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[north]

Hi,  Thanks for the guidance so far.  One key concern for us would be our daughters schooling and we'd be looking at one of the top independent schools so we want to make sure she'd be close enough to one of those.  She's currently in year 7 here in the UK and is at a top private school so we are keen to make sure she continues at the same level of education, but also balancing that with the location that we're living in.

We have a budget of about $1 million when we decide to buy a house so we're hoping that in the hills we could find something nice that's not too remote or cut off for schools and friends for our daughter.

Thanks again for the comments so far.

[snifter]

As Sprinter said above, there are options for some outer lying suburbs that are in the hills. Blackwood, Hawthorndene, Belair... 

Then you can go as far out as Mt Barker really. Hahndorf, Ironbank, Mylor, Crafers, Aldgate, Lobethal and out to Cudlee Creek and beyond I guess. 

Here is a list of actual towns and some of the suburbs on the very outer fringes of the city. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_in_the_Adelaide_Hills

As has been said, if you have kids then you need to consider the schooling options (some country towns schooling is perhaps not to the same level as in and around the cities, though in the more affluent towns the schools seem to be rated well and highly sought after, those also seem to rank well on the educational disadvantage index).

Also consider the fire risk in the fire season. Its not to be taken lightly and being somewhere a little ways out on an actual hillside covered in gums you really do need to be fully bushfire aware. Many homes out in the hills are down dirt tracks of the roads so cannot even be seen from the road. Those in the small towns and so on, little bit easier to find. Places like Mylor for example as pretty much a few houses, a country store, cafe and oval and that is it (school too though possibly very small). Nothing close to like an English village either. 

We wanted to live further out but school options, fire risk and that it is just that bit too far here for us in terms of all the social things meant we opted for the edge of a suburb 100m from the foothills and open countryside on our doorstep. It was a good compromise for us. I'd have liked Clarendon or Bridgewater if we could have found a house in either of those when we were looking. We did look at one or two places in Stirling and Aldgate too but not right for us house wise. 

[snifter]

ETA Coromandel Valley isn't officially the hills I don't think but has some lovely properties out that way. Same for Cherry Gardens and up round there. 

Having seen what you say about private schools you are probably needing to look closer to the actual outer edge of the city than being further out, mainly for school transport or getting to and from school. If you want one of say the top 5 or 10 private schools in Adelaide, you need to work out where they are on the map and work out travel times (remember rush hour in the morning is potentially going to take longer). My husband used to take the train to his high school and it was about 45 minutes all up for him to get to his school from his home.