fnord

OK, I'm hoping you guys who have lived in Melbourne a while can give me your assessments of the following suburbs that I've short listed based on:
1. Closeness to CBD
2. Closeness to beaches
3. Local amenities as defined by the suburb survey (can't remember the source now)
4. Crime stats from Victoria Police

Although places like Eltham and Mt Eliza seem very nice, I think they're too far away from the CBD for the commute given I'm in IT and I believe I'm probably going to find work there rather than the suburbs.
Most Londoner's would probably think a Mt Eliza commute is nothing but although I live in London, I actually commute away from the city on a train the takes 8 minutes station to station (every 15 minutes).
Anyway, here's my list, ordered by 2006 median house prices:

Oakleigh South $345
Dingley Village $348
Highett $425
Brunswick West $427
Burwood $448
Fairfield $460
Mentone $465
Ashburton $525
Caulfield South $566
Surrey Hills $650
Kew East $650
Beaumaris $675
Hawthorn East $698
Glen Iris $710
Brighton East $724
Sandringham $739
Armadale $787
Black Rock $860

Obviously somewhere like Oakleigh South would mean a smaller mortgage compared to Black Rock (if, in fact, Black Rock is possible at all).

So far my list has been created based on "what's out on the web" stats, but now I'd like to have some personal subjective assessments.
This might not be a simple request but can anyone rate any/all of these suburbs from 1 (not at all) to 10 (very much so) in the following ares?:
1. Village feel.
2. Good state or catholic secondary schools (not keen on private if I can avoid it)
3. Shopping facilities
4. Good restaurants
5. Easy for a Mum with 3 kids and no driver's licence to get around
6. Close to social sports, esp. volleyball
7. Close to aquatic centre
8. Good feeling of space. Difficult I know as I want to be close to the CBD but basically where I'm close to greenery or sea is better
9. Easy to buy 4-bedroom properties (that aren't crowbared onto the plot)
10. Easy to buy a teardown to build a 4-bedroom property (that won't need crowbaring onto the plot)
11. Easy access to theatre/cinema

So, as an example, if I were to rate Doncaster East (the only suburb I've lived in for a bit), I'd say:
Doncaster East
1 = 2 (nothing around houses apart from more houses)
2 = 8 (good state secondary)
3 = 5 (1 shopping mall < 5 mins drive, 1 larger mall < 15)
4 = 1 (none apart from shopping mall)
5 = 2 (only bus)
6 = ?
7 = 7 (Yarra valley reserve short drive away, houses all detached as spacious)
8 = 7
9 = 8
10 = ?
11 = 3 (nothing in suburb, requires drive to Eastlands)

Any extra comments would be welcome too, including any suburbs I should have considered but haven't.

WithIce

fnord - Just found this old thread and wondered if you'd found anywhere that met your criteria?

WithIce x

fnord

Well, apart from the fact that it doesn't look like we're going anywhere (long story), we had come down to two locations:
1st choice: Beaumaris (if we could afford it)
2nd choice: Bentleigh (not in the original list, but next to brighton east)
There was a bit more discussion on this on Britivics

WithIce

Thanks

WithIce x