On a grey day it can look grubby and horrid, but on a spring day trees coming out, near some amazing historic building, it can be actually look great.

Yesterday on the tram, a short 15 min ride, saw absolute filth, then movie worthy scenes like the parks and gardens and buildings up parliament area. So many weddings going on, not surprising.

Its a city of contrasts thats for sure.

It really depends on what you can carve out for yourself. And its crowded its competitive.

Weather today is amusing, roof in rental is about to lift by the sound of it 95 klm+ wind gusts, getting closer to summer the wild weather looks set to start. Luckily no real heat yet, thankfully

Without knowing anything else about your circumstances...I'd have to say that you live in one of the areas of the English countryside that I think offers a pretty exceptional quality of life. Living in a sprawling major city will no doubt take some adjustment. I wouldn't be particularly worried about Melbourne's crime though.

We live in SE Melbourne, in one of the suburbs that gets mentioned a lot in the newspapers

I have to say that in the year we've lived here (out of 18 years in Melbourne in total) we have had no issues at all. Our neighbours are wonderful and the schools are great. Yes, you do hear about stuff, but it has no impact on my day to day life and I have no problems walking around our local town centre, shopping, etc.

Yes, it will likely be more lively than the village you are coming from, but certainly no worse (and a lot better than some) than other 1st world cities.

Good luck with the move. Melbourne is a lovely place to live.

It certainly isn't one of the prettiest around, Brisbane does give it a good run though

I would take Melbourne over Brisbane though. There's just a little bit more going on.

Never seen anything at all of this sort in 9 years in Melbourne - just seen it on the news.

I feel safer in suburban Melbourne than I did in suburban West London. No idea whether I am or not.

Do you an idea of what part of Melbourne you would be looking to move to?

Coming from the area you have mentioned, you may find it a shock some of the outer suburbs in terms of that English rose village feel.

Jad has it right :it's what you carve out. No one need stress about crime unless in the dodgy areas and I could barely name them.

Anyone moving from rural UK does have to remember they are moving to a suburban sprawl. Only a few outer burbs have any equivalence to rural UK locations and the swanky inner burbs cost a fortune and need a city slicker adjustment perhaps. Some UK rural people might find it exciting having the best of both worlds but do not make the mistake of moving to a Legoland house in burbia...unless you are 30mims away in the outer West

Hi,
We were looking at 3 completely different places - Altona (SW), Taylor's Lakes (NW) and Eltham (NE).

No idea about the first two places. It Eltham is lovely. Very green, good links to city, right on edge of Yarra Valley, great community feel to it. We live nearby in Yallambie and would definitely move to Eltham if we were settling in Victoria x

Eltham getting expensive, houses listed around 750, actual sale price more like high 800-900.green hilly about 22 stops from city on train. Lots of older people. Altona very developed, thousands of units is the main thing that struck me. Taylor's lakes is modern and new , suburban but about 10 stops to city , reasonable house prices , the station is water gardens.

I'd pick Eltham...I really like it up there. Train journey is about 45-50 minutes. You might have to stand half of the way home though.

Eltham, Taylors Lakes and Altona is a very varied choice.

Of course, what Altona has which the other 2 don't have is the beach. As Williamstown and Altona are basically the main/only beaches for most of the western suburbs then any prospective enquirer should know that means huge crowds of visitors in summer and from time to time the odd bit of trouble that may attract. Prices along the Esplanade are much higher than you'd find in either Eltham or Taylors Lakes but this goes down drastically as you move a few streets back. When I was young Altona used to have a very high percentage of British migrants and Altona North developed predominantly for southern European migrants (Greek, Italian, Yugoslavian etc) and was much cheaper. At that time Taylors Lakes didn't exist as the NW stopped at Sunshine/St Albans.

I must admit I think of McMansions when I visit or pass Taylors Lakes but you certainly get a lot of property for your money there (a notable feature for me is that as you go by on the Calder Fwy there are over 40 properties with floodlit tennis courts on the edge of the Fwy).

Eltham used to be a sleepy, quiet country town but it is now very much within the spread towards the hills of the city and has changed in nature too. As pointed out it is a long way out but if you don't need to go into the city a lot it certainly has many plus things going for it. I can remember visits to Montsalvat (artists colony) with my brothers and parents as a day out in the bush!

Thank you all for your replies, advice and information - all of which we are mulling over.

Maybe City living just isn't for you. I don't know why you want to move but be it Australia, UK etc. all cities attract scum and with millions of people you have millions of problems and the population is not declining. People who are willing to commute/can afford to live in nicer parts and aren't affected personally obviously won't see any issues.

Yeah, out of those three I'd pick Eltham too. One of our friends grew up there and it's lovely. Agree about the situation on the train, but it's the same for us in the outer east.