Hi to everyone living in beautiful Australia, but i have a really important question to ask "Living in Melbourne or living in Sydney" i am currently talking my husband around to moving over to u guys next year from France , and hopefully the Australians are welcoming and friendly compared to the French and there isnt a n anti brit attitude. And well i have been looking at both cities and trying to decide which city is better for my family.

So married two young children 3 and 5, professional couple will bring business out, enjoy going out to restaurants , bars, having parties at home, meeting up with other families, going to the beach. We live in the South of France and love the weather here.

Melbourne seems like a smaller laid back place with trendy bars , great beaches, plenty of space and the school seem good. Sydney faster pace and busy. Tell me where is better for a young professional family to live for the rest of our lives. Well nearly. Looking forward to hearing replies thye for and against would be perfect. We are coming over for 6 weeks Dec and Jan spending 3 wk in Melbourne. 2 wks in Sydney and 1 wk in Brisbane.

Thanks for reading


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Both cities have lots to offer and would be suitable for your needs. However, I question whether or not Melbourne's beaches are better!! Sydney, in my humble opinion, wins hands down when it comes to yellow sand and great surf

For little kids who want to paddle, there's a plethora of choice with quieter lagoons and non-surf beaches as well, such as Narabeen Lakes, Clontarf, Balmoral and Neilson Park beaches. Your budget will definitely determine your ultimate address in both cities.

Best of luck with it all

Hello Jacque

Thank u for ur reply do u work in real estate if so where would be a good place buy in both places (if u know Melbourne). I have downloaded all information on both cities but would love to hear someones opinion. Plus how easy is it to rent short term as, because when we come over for 6 week i am wanting to rent somewhere in Melbourne for 3 wks Sydney for 2 wks.
I do love to go to the beach but have to admit im not one for swimming in the sea Jaws put me off a long time ago hahaha. We live in the south of france its a beautiful place and the sea here is v quiet and shallow especially in St Tropez as its in a bay, and that suite me, we live in Nice and the sea can get choppy hence i dont go in. I am more interested in the life style cost of living, schools cause at the end of it all its not going to be a holiday, we have to work too,this is a big move which is quite scary really.

Hope you are enjoying the sunshine .

Why not hedge your bets and come to Canberra!

Who said melbourne is a smaller town... it has a population of over 4 million... for all potential migrants remember oz has big city popluation....its a great place to be but some of the advice on here is way off the mark

I totally agree.

However for standard of living & things to do & even the weather recently Melbourne leaves Sydney miles behind.

They are both great cities. I guess the fairest thing I could say as an emigrant Sydneysider (i.e. more prejudiced than even native Sydneysiders) is that Melbourne is like Chicago to Sydney's New York.

I havent really considered Canberra why !!!! i dont know maybe its because theres so much hype around Sydney and Melbourne. So tell me about Canberra please.

Thanks

CUFC

What is it about Melbourne that is way off mark, i really do want the fors and against the place so i know what to expect. O i am really excited about moving over to Australia and i do hope that is will be everything i want it to be, but with out being naive.

I rather like Canberra but in some ways it is not a 'conventional' city. I think it was 'created' as a sop to both Sydney and Melbourne so that neither would feel slighted if the other became national capital. I said not conventional because it's not laid out with a CBD surrounded by suburbs. I'm hoping someone will help me out here. It is a very open, leafy city surrounded by hills (sorry, mountains!) with a large lake - Burley Griffin named after the architect of many of the original public buildings. (He also designed many homes in the Sydney suburb of Castlecrag.)

I'm not sure what there is in the way of work outside of the public sector? Some people choose to live in NSW (which surrounds the Australian Capital Territory.) As the capital it houses the Federal Parliament building (very impressive) and various museums, in particular, the Australian War Memorial (have I got the name wrong?)

It's about four hours south west of Sydney, a couple of hours to the coast (at Batemans' Bay) and the same to 'the snow' if you want skiing. Population is about 200,000? and there is so much space they don't really have traffic jams. I found it hellishly hot in January and colder than Sydney in winter with overnight frosts but I could live there.

Now, I'm hoping someone will 'shoot me down in flames' and point out all my errors!_

And for yellow sand?

We prefer it bleached white here in Melbourne

Nope you are pretty much spot on the money except pop now 300 000. There is a private sector which seems to be quite thriving and supports the main industry which is the federal public service.

It is a nice clean open spaced place built around 5 satellite towns, 3 of which are built on lakes. You can see the mountains (yup, they are mountains) from anywhere and nowhere in ACT is that far from anywhere else really. About 50km from top to bottom but you can drive almost anywhere without too much traffic snarl up. Housing is getting expensive and rentals are hard to find at the moment but we have a nice range of housing from humble weatherboard to huge macmansions.

No beach which always seems to put most Poms off but we have big lakes which offer nice places to go for picnics and sailing. Sydneysiders and Melbournians claim that it is boring but I think that is jealousy on their part Canberra is just a little hidden gem!

hmmmm... I'd say Melbourne was more like San Francisco(!). Chicago has more of a negative connotation to me, personally.

San Franciso is one of the places I could live in in the US. Boston's another one.
I dare say there are more..

What do you want it to be ?

Funny enough my wife came to the same conclusion and she lived in SF for 2 years. And we are due to visit some friends in Boston next year.

I think of Sydney more as LA (both not my scene, but appreciate it hits the right chord with others)