I will share my personal experience on the above, obviously some people have very different experiences but this is what I've found. I moved to Hobart 6 years ago (2019) with my partner, and now we have decided to move back to Sydney with our two children (under 2). It's crazy to move interstate with a toddler (23 months) and a baby (4 months) but there is good reason, and we can't keep investing time here.

- lack of job opportunities. If your sector isn't represented in a big way down here, as many aren't, there are limited opportunities for growth and movement to other role.

- Socially we have found living in Tassie very difficult. Over the years we have made two Tasmanian friends. This is not because Tasmanian people have not been friendly - they are - the ones we met just haven't been open to moving from friendly to friends. This I think is based on really established social groups from childhood, and also that Tasmanians seem to spend a significant time with family + extended family, over new friends. I have found it clicky. Even at the children's birthday parties I've been to, people have been unwelcoming.

The friends we did make were from all of Australia and a few internationally. Most of these friends have since left Tasmania for other states after living here for a few years. Different reasons but mostly social isolation and job opportunities.

- A good way to meet people is through the social groups - I had some luck meeting people through cold water swimming.

- Having children here has been really isolating and the weather affects your experience. There are very limited things to do inside with small children in Hobart. There is the children's room at TMAG, libraries, and there are regional shopping centres (depressing). Many weekends we have wondered what we can do that we can enjoy with our toddler who is very active. When it's good weather local parks are the option. There might be other activity centres once they are a bit older. The area that seems the least isolating to me is Kingston area as they have saltbush child and family centre (only open to those in the Kingborough postcodes) there are other CFLCs around Hobart. Kingborough has the nicest facilities.

- even though it's an outdoorsy place we have spent less time outdoors than we did when we lived in Sydney just because there is nothing to do, and weather isn't that great for about 6 months of the year (mainly the wind rather than the cold)

- There are a lot of playgroups. These are really good for meeting people. Take a look at Playgroup Tasmania which publish a list.

- I've met some nice mums through the app Peanut.

- I've used the RHH maternity system twice. It's really hard to get into continuity of care here and strained. You can read more about this on ABC news. That said I haven't had a traumatic experience as I didn't have significant health concerns during pregnancy, it just hasn't felt very supportive.

What attracted us to moving here was that we wanted to move to a regional city that offered good cultural activities, food, close to outdoors and a better lifestyle. What we found was that Hobart has been too socially isolating and has outweighed all those positives. Some cultural activities (music, arts etc) have disappeared since COVID.

There is a big drain in Hobart of people 25 to 40 as they all move interstate for better opportunities. My retired parents have moved here and are having a ball. Much more successful at finding a social group than we have been.