NJJ

Or around where I am based near Bruthen, East Gippsland or the Alpine High Country - Suggan Buggan, Omeo, Swifts Creek etc. These are quite remote. Although it's only a 20min Drive to Bruthen for us and then another 25/30 to Bairnsdale so not as remote as most of the other states but quite remote for Victoria standards.

wombat42

Sorry to correct you but the population of Victoria is 5 million not 4 million.
Read the link below.
Makes you realise how crowded Britain is or how underpopulated OZ is, When
Victoria the second smallest state in OZ has a population of 5 million and is 1.5 times the size of Britain, while Britain has a population of 58 million.

www.philipwockner.com/press/victoria/

MarkMyWords

Depends what you're used to. Melbourne seems like a gigantic metropolis to me, especially the endless featureless eastern suburbs. It has, as many have said, horribly overcrowded rush-hour roads and wholely inadequate public transport. Of course that's probably true of any city its size; I'm not criticising it particularly, just saying that migrating to any huge city has its drawbacks as well as its advantages. I'm sure Hels and others would be only too happy to extol the virtues of smaller conurbations.

Badge

<Breaks radio silence...>

I used to live in Berwick, and I work in Richmond too.....it used to take me 80mins in the morning, crawling up small roads with traffic - the last 20 mins was the worst.... 1hr in the evening.....until I got Citylink - which makes it a lot quicker. My office is at the end of the city link turn off - so now very quick. I now live further than Berwick and my commute is STILL only 50mins...which to have the lifestyle I want is doable.

However, my other new trick is to leave home at 0830 - I get to work at 0920 - no traffic jams at all. If I lived in Berwick still, I would be at work at 0900ish !!! I get on the SouthEastern then at 0900...just when most buggers are arriving at work..

My bosses don't care what time we turn up.

If I got a job in the city, I would get the train, or I would mix and match it (depending on exact circumstances). Most companies these days are not that anal about times, if you have clients you can get up at sparrows fart and miss the traffic, leave earlier etc. I hope to work closer one day but at the moment its all good - and its no worse than London - in fact a LOT better - I wouldn't drive anywhere near London.

Mix and matching are the key if possible, stops the grind. When my eyes were killing me with the driving in the winter, dark and all that, a few weeks of getting the train worked wonders. I arrived at work feeling fresh and spritely. Within weeks I was back driving.

Its not QUITE as bad as OzT and others have made it.


BM