I think most of us would still think of Altona as being Melbourne - some of us even think of Geelong as being Melbourne but that is ignorance on our part I know
!!!! My BIL and his family live in Lara which would be within daily commute of Altona and it seems very nice - quite a few new estate type places but not bad. I was thinking of real Victoria by the title of your post - places like Hamilton, Orbost, Bairnsdale, Bendigo, Ararat and possibly even Ballarat. My favourite of all those would be Orbost - I could definitely be persuaded to move there only trouble is that there is very little employment! The BIL had hoped to find a place in Anakie but had to opt for Lara instead just thinking of a countryish place within commute distance.