City of Whitehorse

let me introduce the municipal of whitehorse; where our suburb is bounded by.
we settled in the municipality almost by default. my workplace is here (forest hill), and a friend of mine who helps us settle in lives here too. we were also advised by friends, colleagues that eastern melbourne is the place to be. and since it is about 17km from melbourne city, it is not too far away if we need to be in town but far enough for a good dose of peace and quiet we crave.

the city of whitehorse, as it is called, covers an area of almost 64 sq kilometres and consists of about 16 suburbs. it has a population of about 151000 of which one third of them are born overseas. i guess we just added to that weightage.

we found that the name, city of whitehorse, almost funny and interesting initially. we later found out that it derives its namesake from a, what else, white horse dating back to the 1850s.

after 6 months, i have to say that we are completely comfortable living in this area. the suburb we are living now are peaceful and safe. there are also plenty of schools to choose from. the neighbourhood is a friendly one. there is really little (if any) that we can complain about. if there is one, that would be that it is `too hilly'; it puts off my cycling which i used to do back in singapore.

my personal top 3 reasons for living here are:

1. strong asian presence here but not imposing to where we are living now. if we crave for anything chinese/asian, whether food or otherwise, boxhill is 5 mins drive away where we can get good chinese/asian food aplenty and do asian grocery shopping. we can find our lee kum kee oyster source here, or the mjoyo mee that my wife craves for. the roast duck rice in boxhill is arguably better than any of the ones i had back in singapore. in short, it helps newbies like us settle in quicker.

2. parks abundance. this is a big plus. i found out that are more than 170 playgrounds and more than 330 open spaces within the municipality. we have a park and reserves land just behind where we live. i have recently started running again and the park serves as my fitness sanctuary; fresh air and traffic-free running paths are a dream.

3. convenience. suburbs' amenities are really well planned. there is no need to travel far for anything. the nearest supermarket is about 15mins stroll away. if i need anything urgently, i will cycle out for a quick errand and there is `no dramas' at all (an aussie expression i picked up). and 5 minutes drive away, we have a good size mall (forest hill chase) that we can go to and get a whole lot done. clinics, post office, etc. are all within reach.

i would like to add a fourth:

good designated cycle lanes around. i have not really gone for any (long) cycle trip yet other than in my neighbourhood but i notice there are a fair bit of cycling lanes set aside for cyclists. as a cyclist, this is heaven sent. to me, this is a hallmark of a good area to live in where the urban planners are conscious of the needs of the everyone. there are also good cycle trails close-by.

we fancy living here for a long time.

you can find out more about the city of whitehorse here: http://www.whitehorse.vic.gov.au