stevenglish

I'm with creature on this, wouldn't swap the gong for anything, the drive down mt Ousley road on the way home is simply stunning. Not a city person myself, but let's face it, 3 houses in a row constitutes a city here

Vash the Stampede

Righto, Perth boy here flying the flag for his home town!

BadgeIsBack

Someone once said (on the internet I suspect) that Melbourne sometimes looks better at ground level. Walk through some of those cramped Sydney CBD streets and all of a sudden the Harbour city is not so great.

It has been quite warm in Melbourne this last 2 weeks(?) without a change and it is this weekend I wish that this change coming in now would arrive faster! It's strange because normally it is hotter but the hot days are broken - we've strung together a load of middling days of 33-34. If they were humid too then I would be sick of it.

Is the N end the main entrance?

irishbloo

Make sure you drink plenty water with it.

ProudVIC

The entry coming in from the NW of Melbourne isn't all that great either mainly because it is the driest part of the metro area and often yellow/brown grass, although the Keilor valley along the Maribyrnong river with the market gardens is quite nice and it is definitely more hilly than the other major approaches into the city.

A lot of US cities have similarly bland approaches (I haven't been there but seen it all on street view so as good as being there). The development of Australian cities has been highly influenced by the USA model over the past 30 years or so. You have to remember though that during winter and spring, those photos that were posted of the Hume Fwy entrance are a lot more green. In Summer it almost always yellows off by January.

Central Melbourne and inner suburbs do have fantastic architecture, also magnificent parks and gardens and street trees with some reasonable autumn colour most years. Sydney definitely does lack in this department.

BTW I've seen the approach to Glasgow on street view (it's all in HD) and was struck by how similar the general countryside looked to the area around Melbourne. The central city area though is extremely old compared to anything in AUS, it almost looks medieval.

IvanM

Sydney has some good architecture but most is dire and the result of corrupt state governments. The natural geography more than compensates but it means the city rests on its laurels. We will see what Barangaroo brings.

Melbourne has some good recent buildings but has nothing outstanding. Southbank, especially Crown are lowlights. Brisbane is an architectural wasteland and certainly the result of multiple corrupt state governments.

EvannTel

Where abouts Eds?
I had a spell in that part of the world with a few villages like that around.

bingobob777

How very dare you

ozzieeagle

Ahh looks like Fairy land or Prague or similar

In Exile

The recent development of Sydney actually annoys me. In the late 50s and early 6s Sydney still had some of the most beautiful European influenced architecture of anywhere in the southern hemisphere.

Had it been left alone, and the CBD been developed in a neighbouring area like Pyrmont, Sydney would have been like a Vienna of the south.

Unfortunately though the CBD went through a high rise revolution and much of it was destroyed and built upwards. The Rocks, the QVB and much of Martin Place were only saved at the last minute.

There are flashes of the past along every street, and they are usually the standout buildings, but the predominant feeling (for me) is one of chrome and glass illumination and experimentation, which I just dont see aging too well.

roaringmouse

That's something I noticed with Sydney - it's constantly rebuilding itself. It's like the city is a junkie looking for its next high.

I'm surprised the Town Hall and neighbouring Cathedral have survived, but you only have to look up and down George Street from there to see evidence of the constant rebuilding.

With that in mind I find the harbour setting of central Sydney fantastic, but this is let down by quite a lot of the architecture. Too many buildings to list as examples (although there are some nice ones), however in addition to those I find the elevated train line & expressway by Circular Quay to be a massive eyesore which is a huge shame, and lets not go on about the hideous white elephant called the monorail.

Here in Melbourne we have some examples of eyesore building work as well - the elevated train link between Flinders St & Spencer St stations, the West Gate Bridge, and although the buildings on Fed Square can raise eyebrows, it's a whole load better than when there was nothing there.