koolkat

Hi all.

I was planning to migrate to Melbourne (I now recieved my visa) but I went to visit Melbourne for a couple of weeks and I was really dissapointed. All the "we love Melbourne" and "Melbourne is great" from everyone who lives there convinced me until I saw it myself. I went to Sydney, and Sydney people liked Melbourne and Sydney, but Melbournians seemed to slag off Sydney (maybe jelousy?).

Anyway, what Im trying to get at is, whats so special about Melbourne. OK its the most "Livible city" but what a dull title!

I was only there a couple of weeks mind you and my impression was:

1. Crap architecture (80s)
2. Crap nightlife (The Crown Casino The Crown CasinoThe Crown CasinoThe Crown Casino, anywhere else?)
3. Crap culture (gambling and 'bistos')
4. Dull suburbs
5. Small beach
6. No big city vibe

This was a typical example: My oz friends kept boasting about this Mall they had which was the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere (there is bugger all in the southern Hemisphere.) But it was nothing speciel even compared to malls in the UK.

Another one: I went to the Melbourne National Art gallery and it was all European exibits. I came from Leeds and there was all Henry Moore sculpures everywhere!

Anyway. Someone please convince me. Part of me wants to go there (from all what I hear) but my gut instant was I prefered Sydney. My gut instant now tells me Sydney but everything I hear is expensive there and dont want to end up in a sydney rat race.

Bermudashorts

Well there is no right or wrong, it is a subjective matter. If you prefer Sydney and really did not like Melbourne then move to Sydney not Melbourne. Easy.

DeadVim

You mean, like, trust your instincts?

Surely all decisions have to be run through an anonymous collection of people?

I'll be posting my 'What to have for dinner?' poll later, be sure to vote.

ozzieeagle

Personally I love Sydney... Heres a good URL to start comparing....

Bars and Clubs Sydney .... 795 Listings http://sydney.citysearch.com.au/bars...burb=&x=21&y=4

Bars and Clubs Melbourne....897 Listings http://melbourne.citysearch.com.au/b...urb=&x=34&y=11

You never went to the right places.... and to be frank I cant be arsed to tell you where.

Check it out for yourself.

Lets put it this way... if your expecting Sydney to blitz Melbourne on entertainment, your going to be very disappointed.

Melbourne is an onion... layers and layers and layers.

MAR001

Just arrive here,
I went to Melbourne from Sydney for an interview and to be honest, my opinion is just like "great city - no soul".
Didn't have too much time to sneak around but for me definitely Sydney has the wow factor.

Turban Explorer

That's Australia!!! (except for beaches - they have lots of good ones) - I do think Sydney is the nicer place - the Botanical Gardens and harbour thing is very nice - try the Potts Point/Paddington area? That wasn't so family orientated and had a bit of cafe/wine bar culture going on. I wouldn't expect great excitement anywhere if you compare Oz to big cities in Europe but if you want a pretty city where you can live a more 'wholesome' life with some beaches and decent weather give it a go?

gelato

I'm from Sydney and have spent a bit of time in Melbourne. I think what a lot of people like about Melb is that there's more going on in the CBD itself. Also, unlike in Sydney, they didn't pull down a lot of the Victorian buildings in the CBD in Melbourne.

In Sydney, most of the nightlife and cafe' culture is in various suburbs. If you're looking for that kind of thing, I'd have a wander in Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Bondi, Bronte, Balmain, Glebe, Newtown etc.

I agree, though, most Sydney people think Melbourne is a nice place. People in Melbourne seem kind of bitter about Sydney. I suspect there might be a bit of jealousy there as Melbourne used to be the financial capital a looong time ago but it was superceded by Sydney. Also, Sydney has traditionally been looked down upon as it was populated by convicts whereas cities such as Melbourne and Adelaide were populated be free settlers. I know this was important back in my grandmother's time when people used to refer to the "convict stain" in NSW and this kind of attitude hangs on a bit especially amongst older people.

sonlymewalter

To the OP: Sydney and Melbourne are as different as chalk and cheese. It's like comparing Aus with UK - there aint no right nor wrong it's just different and depends what you want. Do yourself a pro's & cons list and then decide what you want.

Easy as mate

DeadVim

But we'd bypass the 'pointlessly arguing the toss' phase

I've made an autonomous decision ... meatballs and pasta.

sonlymewalter

Now....are you sure you really want meatballs?

I reckon we should have a vote. You might get to eat by midnight

DeadVim

It has to be meatballs, everyone on the interwebz says meatloaf is crap.

I'd eat anything for lunch but I won't eat that.
(No I won't eat that)

newjersey

At the rate it's moving, it's going to be a frozen pizza or a PB&J sandwich. I vote a sword fish steak with some lemony-orangy sauce or a red wine/port reduction with herbs. Now I am undecided

In trying to help the OP, you need locals to show you around, then rate the dullness of the place. Prague is a good example, most good places are not advertising to keep crowds of tourists out, who tend to ruin everything. you may be coming off a certain perception of what the city life should've like, and that is natural, but it is much less stressful to tag along for a few days/weeks and then decide if the sum of all y have seen is up to your expectations. Trying to rebuild your lifestyle in a new place in all the details is not impossible, but stressful and expensive. So I do not believe in convincing anyone to live anywhere in the world, but i do believe in showing (be shown) around and making your own decisions.

sonlymewalter

Decisions decisions

sonlymewalter

ok

ProudVIC

Not wanting to sound rude or dismissive but to me it is blatantly obvious that the OP didn't see much of Melbourne or even so much as bother to and probably just hung around a few of the suburbs for a bit.

The reasons......

1. Crap architecture (80s)- Melbourne is absolutely full of 19th century architecture and not just Victorian era. Gothic Revival, Italianate, Classic, Federation etc. is all well represented.

And then you get to the early 20th century styles, eg. Art Deco etc.
The modern skyscrapers and post modern style architecture is also excellent in Melbourne and contrasts dramatically with the older buildings.

Melbourne is well known amongst Australian cities for having grand architecture of significance, and it would be one of the better southern hemisphere cities for this. OK so it is not to the same extent as Europe, perhaps because Australia was settled at a time when Europe's architecture, culture etc. was already very firmly established.

Sydney is actually fairly well known for not being up to scratch in terms of historic architecture because a huge proportion of it was knocked down in favour of modern skyscrapers etc. The same happened in Melbourne but nowhere near the same extent. Sydney has some great old architecture as well but being the oldest and original city in Aus you would expect it to be much better.

Australia is a new country, one of the youngest in the world. What on earth do you expect?

2. Crap nightlife (The Crown Casino The Crown CasinoThe Crown CasinoThe Crown Casino, anywhere else?)

This is just laughable. Melbourne is absolutely full of great nightlife, from classy bars to musical venues and clubs, pubs to microbreweries, all sorts of clubs and nightspots catering to a diverse clientele, an excellent music scene covering many genres with heaps of international acts in the city all the time and excellent local acts as well.

The casino is most popular with Asian tourists and fat cat businessmen and is not the entertainment venue of choice for most of the cities residents. Melbourne didn't even have a casino until 1997 whereas most of the world's cities have had one for years and years and are much more central to the nightlife of the city than Crown is to Melbourne

3. Crap culture (gambling and 'bistros')


Yes, Melbourne has the world monopoly on gambling venues and bistros. They just don't exist in Sydney, or any other city in the world apparently. Nup, all the world's gamblers are in Melbourne and they have to settle for crap bistros to eat out. No good restaurants in Melbourne of course. They are all in Sydney I'm afraid, or elsewhere in the world. Melbourne is not known for food culture I'm afraid.

Also forget about the Art Galleries, concert hall, grand theatres, eg. Her Majesty's, Princess, Regent, Australia's first world heritage building, the Royal Exhibition Building (listed 3 years before the Opera House was). Also the botanical and horticultural heritage of Melbourne with all the parks and gardens which are amongst the best in Australian cities, etc. etc. I could go on for quite a bit more but I won't bore everyone.


4. Dull suburbs-

This is only partly true. Once again, if you are comparing Melbourne to Sydney and using the dull suburb argument that is extremely hypocritical. Sydney has it's fair share of extremely dull suburbs stretching out for miles and miles, just like Melbourne but perhaps even worse, Sydney's western suburbs for example stretch on for an eternity and most are as bland as anything.

Once again, because Australia is a new country there are many similarities to the USA in terms of city layouts and infrastructure. Melbourne and Sydney and all Australian cities for that matter are modern, whereas European cities are ancient in comparison.

5. Small beach

Melbourne is not located on the ocean, it is situated around a shallow bay that was formed by sea levels rising just 10,000 years ago and flooding a river delta area. As a result the surf beaches are outside of the Melbourne metropolitan area. If you want world class surf beaches then Philip Island, the back beaches of Mornington Peninsula and the coast around Geelong are excellent.

The bayside beaches in Melbourne are charming in their own way and provide a safe sheltered environment for swimming, pleasant foreshore areas and also a backdrop to cafes, classy shopping strips and bars etc. Bayside suburbs like Brighton, Sandringham, Hampton and Elwood are very upmarket places.

The comparison being made here is between two disparate places, one is located on the ocean, the other is not. This does not make the former place better at all just different.

6. No big city vibe-

Absolute nonsense. The CBD and inner suburbs of Melbourne are vibrant and bustling.

If you want a true big city vibe why not try Los Angeles, Bangkok, Tokyo, Paris, London, Mexico City or some other city that is truly large and as a result over populated, over congested, over polluted etc. Of course these places have a bigger and grander vibe than Melbourne purely as a result of the size of these places.


Another one: I went to the Melbourne National Art gallery and it was all European exibits. I came from Leeds and there was all Henry Moore sculpures everywhere!

Try the Ian Potter centre at Federation square which is dedicated to Australian art including indigenous art. Obviously you never went near there because you have no recollection of having seen any 'non European' art.

Once again, apologies for sounding rude and dismissive but I have been only a fraction as rude and dismissive as the OP was. With so much trolling on internet forums it is hard to take some posts seriously.

I think we should all go on facts rather than irrational and emotionally motivated statements about places that are grossly innacurate and show a high level of ignorance.

Sydney has heaps of good points as well, it has it's own strengths and certain things that are better than they are in Melbourne, I'm not slagging the place off, but Melbourne is clearly the more livable city and a better place to live IMHO.