Our home is set among eucalypt trees, in a twisting hilly street, in a dormitory suburb known as The Bellbird Area, due to the tinkling call of bellbirds all day long. Blackburn Lake - 130 acres of natural bushland as Melbourne was pre-European settlement - is only 300 meters away at the end of our street, and makes for delightful Australian bush walks each day. Melbourne is a beautiful city. Several years ago it was rated by a US research institute as the most livable city in the world. It has outstanding botanical gardens and treed suburbs with temperate climate, winters never seeing snow. The summer can be hot, which of course is good for the beach and surfing. A wide range of quality produce with a melding of multicultural elements results in the most diverse and exciting food and restaurants in Australia. Melbourne, with a population of 3.3M, has a rich cultural life befitting a temperate climate, with a wide variety of theatre, art and concerts; together with some of the best golf courses in the world, and there are many. It is currently undergoing a tourist boom. Day Trips from our home include The Great Ocean Road, one of the great scenic ocean drives in the world; Sovereign Hill Ballarat - gold rush town replica on the original 1850's gold fields; nightly penguin parade at a beach on Philip Island - very popular with Japanese; Sherbrooke Forest - lyrebirds; Lorne - mountains, sea and surf.

We are in our 60s, retired, seasoned global independent travellers, having visited nearly 60 countries. Since 2006 we have undertaken five wonderful four-to-six month home exchanges. We yearn for more exchanges particularly east coast USA and UK. Our children are in their 30s with partners, and we have 6 grandchildren. We are non-smokers comfortable with pets. Being retired, we are open as to dates. We can supply an excellent two-month itinerary used by some exchangers with our home as a base.