We are hopefully coming out to Aus late next year and I am starting to look at locations to live. Given I work in finance IT I suspect the work will be Sydney CBD. The criteria we are looking for is as follows
1. 45 - 60min commute time, either car or train to CBD
2. preferably, good wave sailing spots near to home
3. Local horse stables for Wife and Daughter
4. Good schools
5. Reasonable rent
Now I know number 5 is probably out of the question if you want the other 4, but any ideas would be welcomed.
I was thinking of Wollongong?
It would also be great if there was a decent windsurfing fraternity in the area with members who don't have the heads up their arses. I like down to earth folk who have nothing to prove
Nowra ? 
Seriously, #3 with the horseys is prob. as much a showstopper as #1. Rules out Dee Why...
Commuting Wollongong-Sydney has got to be dreadful.
#4 is all relative, people usually chose the private system in order to increase chances of having proper school - good schools cost it seems...
#5 is most subjective.
Consider living much nearer to the workplace, and getting out for windsurfing and horsing on weekends, rather than the other way around. Anyways, all the commute to a place like Wollongong would afford you little time for windsurfing on weekdays, or even family...
Oh, forgot: nobody has their heads up their arses round here... 
Unless there are horses nearby I doubt I will get buy in from them to go for the move :-(
If you are putting the wife and daughter in horse stables just get a 1 bedroom apartment in the city for yourself. Stuff like that is pretty frowned on in Australia though, just givin ya the heads up.
The only place I can think of right now is around Terry Hills. There are horsey places around there, its not that far from the northern beaches and is around an hour commute to the Sydney CBD. Not sure of how much the rent is around there. There are decent schools in the area. I doubt rent is reasonable there though.
There is some kind of rule with Sydney real estate.
A property can be affordable, large or convenient but cannot be all three.
Helensburgh.....close to sydney and there are stables down at otford, 2 minutes away.
Sutherland Shire (kirawee / gymea / miranda / caring bah)
Can sail airport / kurnell / wanda / woolongong or 90 min to geroa.
There are stables (and horse jumpy thingie) on the road into kurnell - often see ppl riding their horses along the beach at kurnell.
Train line run to cronulla.
plenty of schools.
Give up the idea of living in Sydney as its a sh1thole, and go live in one of the million other great areas in the land of Oz.
If you must, a mate of mine has 60 acres at Gosford his daughter and wife have horses, which is only 45min commute to said S/Hole so that area may well suit.
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Given some of the negative posts, I think I might just give up now. Anyone have a noose I can borrow!
I was looking at rents last night, and was gob smacked that a 3 bed / 2 bathroom place in Wollongong start at around 500/week.
My brother works in Finance/IT and rents in Darlinghurst to be close to the office. Try $625 per week for a 1/2 share in a small but nicely renovated terrace house. He can walk to work in the CBD (45 minutes) but phuck me that is a lot of money spent on rent. I think he has surrendered his car bay at work for extra salary to cover the cost of living close to work and not owning a car. People complain Perth inner city rent is expensive but still behind inner Sydney.
From reading your wish list, I say you will have to weigh up the opportunity cost and most likely increase your commute time.
I imagine doing the commute on a motorbike would be quicker than using the train?
And I thought my train into London was slow
Australia has turned into an incredibly expensive place to live. An individual needs well over $100 a day to maintain a household. With the medium income probably less than that there are many Australians living in compartive poverty.
Meanwhile the bigwhigs running the electricity companies and so forth vote themselves million dollar payrises because they run the company so profitably, ie at the householders' expense. Same with local councils. They are incredibly profitable as they jack up the fees to even chop down a tree or build a retaining wall. By almost any standard this is verging on rent seeking, extortion and corruption.
Living in Sydney is more of a survival situation nowadays. You never seem to get ahead. The more money you make the more they increase the costs. Parking cops don't even get out of the car any more, they have cameras and go up the street going bang bang bang. Another $10000 for the council.
Forget the horses, it's no longer the kind of lifestyle that affords luxury like that, unless you are the top end of town.
Yes you can make good money here but it sure as hell costs.
Consider working in Melbourne as an option.
If you live South-West of Melbourne in the country townships outside of Geelong (e.g. Little River/Lara?) you could have 1, 2 and 3 plus a bit of 5 (possibly)...but you may not get much of 4 (possibly).
You could commute North-East to Melbourne during the week and then drive South to Torquay (Point Danger/13th Beach, etc.) at weekends.
I love how Perth is criticised for being boring blah blah by all you easterners
But I can think of a number of suburbs that would have all that and be a 20min commute to CBD (non peak hour), plus have option of world class wavesailing 1hr away, or river and ocean sailing within 20min of home.
I love the boring underdeveloped backwater. 
You want a short commute to work. You might sail 50 days a year but work 250, an IT guy can tell you that your travel time is a minimum when you select a house at a point 5 times the distance from the sailing location as it is from work.
Canberra is your best option. I lived there for 3 decades. Plenty of IT jobs with flexible work hours. Take the day off when a noreaster is forecast and drive 2.5 hours to the coast. The lake is very central for a lunch break blast in a howling westerly or for an easterly after work. I used to work 1 minute from the lake!
You should be able to get a place for $500 a week 15 minutes from work.
Plenty of places you can hire a horse for the day. Some folks own their own horse, but driving out to a nearby paddock with a bale of hay every morning seems to be a bit of a chore.
edit
Yes Mark's got a point, Perth. If you can ride a horse you can ride a camel.
Some good alternatives here and I need to get on and research them all. Sydney is mainly being considered because of better employment prospects, but I am totally open to other area. Even though that will result in reduced salary, it is all relative.
There is far more chance of the move working if my Wife and Daughter can continue with their passion for horse riding which they have been doing for years. Given we have 2 horses here in the UK, I cannot expect them to give it all up.
I was quite surprised that IT contract work will pay ~250k. based on that figure a rent of 3-4k / month is doable.
They have stables in and around centennial park. Which is about 12min from cbd (eastern suburbs)
@flan: also if you think Sydney is nice and sunny like you see on live TV, think again...
www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N51W000+2100+03772W
www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=S33E151+2100+94768W
Sydney has >2 x the rainfall of London.
Spain is a 30 pound Ryan Air flight away from LND.
