Moving to Canberra for 2 years

[buffersandbumpers]

We'll be moving to Canberra in Dec for 2 years. DC will be 8, 6 & 4. I've travelled a lot and am excited, but have no experience of Australia and especially Canberra. Please tell me about it...

Ooh there is another person on here with a thread a few below you and there is some useful info. Canberra is a fairly quiet city- outdoorsy, cold in winter but blue skies, warm/hot in summer. Not a huge amount of action packed activity in the city but everything you need and pretty close to skiing in winter and close enough for weekends away by the coast :)
Australia is awesome- plan lots of exploring while you are here and you will have a ball. I think it a fantastic place for kids- outdoors activities abound and it is just NICE!

I don't live in canberra btw but hopefully someone who does will come along soon!

I've never lived in Canberra, but have visited lots. Because it has many well educated high earners and is the capital it has lots of the advantages of a larger city (excellent museums, restaurants, theatre and film etc, airport etc) as well as those of a smaller place - clean air, close to the country (and the ski fields!), very little traffic etc. Its quite a suburban place, you'll need a car, but I think it would be a great place for a young family, very outdoorsy and clean, and safe. Sydney is just 3 hours up the road, you could easily go there for weekends if you want a taste of the Big Smoke!

Hi Buffers
I lived in Canberra for 20+ years before moving to about 30km outside (that's rural), but still work in Canberra. I'm a grandmother rather than mother of school-age kids. My elder 2 GC are 6 and 5 and are in public (government) school in Canberra. mrbob's description is pretty spot-on. Coming in December? Be prepared for it to be hot and get hotter before summer's over! Temps can get to high 30s.
Winter can see overnights down to minus 6 or 7, but as mrbob said, usually beautiful sunny days from 10-15. Today is like that - not a cloud to be seen and 15. Where will you be living? The population is 350,00, so in many ways more like a big country town than a city.
Please feel free to ask any questions.

Thanks all for your messages. I saw the other thread but didn't want to hijack it.
Not sure where the house will be yet. Glad to hear so many positive things. And so close to skiing?! Brilliant news:)