What's not good about Melbourne

[richdownunder]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to PIO, but have been reading threads relating to Perth and Melbourne which are two of our favoured locations for some time and still am confused about whether Melbourne is the place for us to move too (already done a similar post for Perth), so I'd like to understand from existing residents in Melbourne what is good about living there and what's not so good.

We have previously visited Melbourne and stayed in Mount Martha and looked at Mount Eliza, Ringwood, Croydon and Berwick as places to live, so have some idea about the layout of the city etc, but as we all know holidays are different from living there.

We are a family in our 40s with a 6 year old, so we need to be in an area with good schools and good commute into the CBD as one of us sadly will have to work - probably me:(

I would really appreciate some views on the positives and negatives about living in the Melbourne area. Also, if anyone has some thoughts on good places other than what we've seen it would be most welcome - We will have a budget of about about $550,000 to buy and rent of about $400-450 PW as we want to buy as soon as possible as don't like the thought of lining a landlords pockets for too long and too much.

Thanks so much and I look forward to some interesting feedback.

Rich

[The Pom Queen]

Hi Rich, the biggest down side for us was the weather, it's ok at first but after a few years you start to deal the cold more. I love where we are now but Melbourne has everything you could ever want and you have a great choice of schools, hospitals etc.
The areas you looked at, Mt Eliza/Martha, Berwick etc are my favourite areas in Melbourne

[Petals]

Personally I find nothing bad about Melbourne and we have lived here a long long time. The weather does not bother me, although this winter has been wetter as we were in drought for the last 10 so not used to so much rain.

Guess it will depend where you work and how long you want to spend commuting and what transport you intend to use to get to work.

There are lots of nice areas closer in such as Mentone, Parkdale, Cheltenham, Moorabbin on the Frankston line.

I find its not so congested with traffic over nearer the beach, no cars coming from the sea.

Easier once you know where you are going to settle.

Forgot to mention Life in Victoria is a forum specific to the State and there is a lot of good information on it. There is a link at the foot of the page, join up and speak to the locals.

[Perthbum]

It rains a lot i have been told and gets cold....seems brilliant for a brit

[Tea4two]

Hiya, I've been both. Perth I like for a holiday but I fail to see what else other than beautiful beaches they have? And it's isolated. For that kind of rent you won't get much out east and we had to go west to get a lovely house for that price. Point cook. We have a pool on the resort and tennis courts/gym which is great. But the commute is hard. Fab city though, always something going on and close to great ocean rd beaches and mornington peninsula. But the cold weather is a downside. It's been cold now for 4 months and I'm over it! Depends what you value more I guess- weather or things to do :) xx

[Westward Ho]

It rains a lot i have been told and gets cold....seems brilliant for a brit

Four seasons in one day is Melbourne weather!!!!Where i live in Victoria we had snow showers yesterday,its currently only 5.5 * C.so it does get cool here,haha.
I was in Melbourne[West] on Thursday arvo,hadnt been there in 10 years,it has so changed,i didnt recognize a lot of where i was going,so developed nowadays,i assume the other side[s] of town have all changed/developed too.....

[dalejaneaustralia]

We've been here for 5 and a bit weeks and Melbourne really does seem to have everything!!

Things to do.....beach, city (if its your thing), the hills (Emerald is lovely), so many choices for food, if you can't shop in Melb and it's suburbs you never will!

I've been surprised by the amount of traffic, but I guess you expect that in a massive city and surrounding areas.

Berwick is really nice!! Great fish and chip shop (very important), Bar 81 (good food and bands), Moods (awesome cake), has most of the banks, shopping centre and probably more we haven't discovered yet.
You'd be well positioned for the beach or the hills and good road links.

Haven't been to Perth, but read up on here as I remember reading about folks finding it hard to secure work, but saying that there will no doubt loads of folks who have had no problems.

I guess the climate over there will be totally different too.

Cheers

Dale

[starlight7]

You would get a nice house out round Ringwood, Croydon or Berwick for that money. Personally I think there is no comparison between Perth and Melbourne but I am very biased and have lived in Melbourne more or less continuously since 1975. Perth to me is like a frontier town-not enough infrastructure and it has that 'new' feel about it. Very pretty and all that but no soul... as I said, i am very biased!

[buzzy--bee]

I think this is an ideal opportunity for me to quote one of my favourite maxims - that a place that is great for a holiday is almost never great to live in. Fantastic beaches believe it or not can get very boring if there is not much else to do. The most important thing in your choice between Perth and Melbourne should be whether you can get well paid meaningful work, if you can't then everything else is irrelevant.

BB

[fish.01]

I think this is an ideal opportunity for me to quote one of my favourite maxims - that a place that is great for a holiday is almost never great to live in<snip>....

BB

I had a great holiday in Melbourne so maybe you're right Buzzy