Interesting topic this one.
Having grown up in Hobart and moved to G'Town about 6.5 years ago, we are going through the 'to stay or move home' process currently.
For us, Geelong has served it's purpose, we chose it for the university, proximity to Melbourne & Hobart and the fact it is close to beaches and roughly a similar size to Hobart.
Granted both cities have their weaknesses, unfortunately for Geelong there are probably more negatives with respect to the socioeconomic state of certain areas, add to that the recent announcements for Alcoa & Ford don't help.
Having said that we have two school age children in a great school and have brought two further children into the world down here and have found the health system (public & private) to be more than adequate for the care we required. The missus does a good job of shopping smart to keep our overheads down and we manage to get by on one salary (I'm in construction). I have travelled to Melbourne in the past but am lucky enough to have a project in Geelong currently. All in all we have a pretty good life here in Geelong, but it is tough without immediate family around to help out with 4 kids, and our hearts (and extra heads) are still in Hobart...
I like the laid back and non pretentious lifestyle of Tassie (we visit a couple of times a year), and I have been fortunate enough to ride down there on a number of occasions. We were all set to move back as my company was to undertake a major project down there, but it has fallen through. There are a few other irons in the fire, but we don't want to rush back and find ourselves in a compromised financial position, given the state of the industry down there.
As far as riding goes, I think each city has good trails. Hobart has the luxury of being in close proximity and enough variety for the average trail punter, however the breadth of riding in regional Victoria seems to only be limited by your imagination. Add to that mainlanders don't have an issue with driving a couple of hours for a good trail (the amount of people with MTB's heading down the Princes Fwy every weekend confirms that), whereas in Tassie, people complain if traffic stops still for more than 5 mins!
Personally the recurring advice to actually go and spend some time in both areas would probably be the easiest way to determine which city suits your vocational and leisure requirements!
Not sure if this adds any value to the discussion, but the topic has a fair relevance to my myself...
Cheers
Having grown up in Hobart and moved to G'Town about 6.5 years ago, we are going through the 'to stay or move home' process currently.
For us, Geelong has served it's purpose, we chose it for the university, proximity to Melbourne & Hobart and the fact it is close to beaches and roughly a similar size to Hobart.
Granted both cities have their weaknesses, unfortunately for Geelong there are probably more negatives with respect to the socioeconomic state of certain areas, add to that the recent announcements for Alcoa & Ford don't help.
Having said that we have two school age children in a great school and have brought two further children into the world down here and have found the health system (public & private) to be more than adequate for the care we required. The missus does a good job of shopping smart to keep our overheads down and we manage to get by on one salary (I'm in construction). I have travelled to Melbourne in the past but am lucky enough to have a project in Geelong currently. All in all we have a pretty good life here in Geelong, but it is tough without immediate family around to help out with 4 kids, and our hearts (and extra heads) are still in Hobart...
I like the laid back and non pretentious lifestyle of Tassie (we visit a couple of times a year), and I have been fortunate enough to ride down there on a number of occasions. We were all set to move back as my company was to undertake a major project down there, but it has fallen through. There are a few other irons in the fire, but we don't want to rush back and find ourselves in a compromised financial position, given the state of the industry down there.
As far as riding goes, I think each city has good trails. Hobart has the luxury of being in close proximity and enough variety for the average trail punter, however the breadth of riding in regional Victoria seems to only be limited by your imagination. Add to that mainlanders don't have an issue with driving a couple of hours for a good trail (the amount of people with MTB's heading down the Princes Fwy every weekend confirms that), whereas in Tassie, people complain if traffic stops still for more than 5 mins!
Personally the recurring advice to actually go and spend some time in both areas would probably be the easiest way to determine which city suits your vocational and leisure requirements!
Not sure if this adds any value to the discussion, but the topic has a fair relevance to my myself...
Cheers