Peepster

Black Saturday refers to a day in February this year when 173 people died in the bushfires in Victoria.

Leedelta

I lived in Melbourne for 7 months and only spent 3 days in Sydney so I can't comment on Sydney too much.

Most of the big name artists stop off in both cities.

Melbourne has a lot of music venues and a lot of music going on. Most bars have live music a couple of times a week.

There are the Jazz and Comedy festivals coming up in March/April. There is the Port Fairy folk festival in March (looks like Colin Hay from Men At Work is there in 2010).

I'm a musician myself and I couldn't get my head around the variety of music in the city.

Here is the local music mag

http://www.beat.com.au/

Maybe you should do a reccie and spent a week in each city.

PW1

Hello,

Yes I was thinking of coming over for a couple of weeks in February I guess it depends on work commitments. I remember the bush fires and the deaths being reported on the news, but the expression 'Black Saturday' didnt reach over here as far as I am aware. I will check out the web link, thank you for that.

Regards,
Paul.

rob_bee

Hi all,

I'm new to this board but heard about it through a friend of mine. I have just come back from Sydney and spent a bit of time in Melbourne as well.

I much preferred the climate and lifestyle of Sydney. I think this is reflected mainly in what job and lifestyle you want to live. Myself being in my mid 20's and working in finance, I loved just being able to head down the better beaches in Sydney for a surf etc

Melbourne was not for me as I'm not really into the 'cafe culture' and the beaches are IMO nowhere near as good. Also with the weather just not quite what I wanted. Better if you do want more space though although the traffic in either cities is nothing compared to what you would expect from a UK city.


Good luck in whereever you end up though.

PW1

Hi Rob,

Welcome to the site (I'm new myself), what kind of weather did you want?

Cheers,
Paul.

Buzzy--Bee

The weather in Melbourne discussion has been done to death here, the most accurate summation of it that I have heard is "London plus 10 degrees" although as most of the rain seems to fall at night there's a lot more sunshine too.

I like the weather here.

Buzzy

JenJen

Oh just to say that on the whole we found Melbourne city much either to get round and through - i'm afraid in Sydney we got snarlled up in VERY VERY VERY slow moving traffic and thats going round the outskirts of the city at what I wouldn't consider to be peak times :$
However in sydney we had TomTom permanently programmed to avoid all toll roads??? Maybe everyone was just doing the same?

Bes of luck

verystormy

Why would you drive in Sydney?? We didnt even consider having a car. The train is good, the buses are good and the ferry amazing. Why drive when you can sit on a ferry and watch the most stunning harbour in the world go by. It a bit like complaining that central London is expensive and difficult to drive, when everyone known you have to be mad to think of doing so.

ozzieeagle

If there is a City that does things that Cities are supposed to do better than Melbourne then I would like to see it nominated... there would be very few..

I'm talking transport (where there are trams I mean)... Night Life, Restaurants and of course the Cafe Culture which has to be right up there with the very very best in the world. Plus the cultural mixes from buildings, galleries, museums and people.... Haven't even mentioned the shops and theatre yet

Petals

I have lived in Sydney and Melbourne. In my opinion you do get more salary but there is a reason everything is more expensive. Also there are nicer places to live on a budget in Melbourne than Sydney. Out west its pretty sole destroying in Sydney. it gets more smog than Melbourne, its humid and they do not seem to have as good a cooling systems as in Melbourne.

I and some friends originally migrated to Sydney and lived there but then moved down to Melbourne and it was the best move. Even when I returned to live in UK and then came back we came to Melbourne.

If you have oodles and oodls of dosh Sydney is lovely because you can live in the lovely areas around the harbour. We rented a house in Neutral Bay which overlooked the Opera House and it was very nice. Got the ferry to work. we lived in McMahons Point as well.

As for the beaches if you know where to go the beaches are equal and if not better down in Victoria, just the city beaches are not like Bondi but then I am not a fan of Bondi, Bronte is better and of course the northern beaches are nice.

scotty9000

The sea is quite a bit warmer in Sydney.
Otherwise I prefer Melbourne, I think it has more depth & variety, especially if you are a musician.

JenJen

Because my husband doesn't work in the CENTRE of Sydney he works on the outskirts and because of his shifts and the area we can get the sort of property we want -
so before you accuse people of being mad dont assume ! Some people will need a car and if you intend to go into the blue moutains and go to the quieter beaches you're gonna need a car - end of unless you want to make life difficult for yourself