MartinLuther

It was definitely next to Dandenong railway station.

ozzieeagle

May take a while for me to get around to this, but will give it a go.

The central parks are ok, Botanical Gardens and Royal parade etc. It's the sporting grounds and suburban parks that have been hardest hit, plus things like nature strips.

I could take Photos of Sporting grounds around here that would make you think your in a very dusty part of Africa in mid summer. There is hardly a blade of grass on some of them. These places would definitely have been green 5 years ago, since then they have been in steady decline.

At our local football club (soccer) There is a very large roof on a factory behind the ground... runs the whole length of two football pitches. The owners have given the club permission to access their roof for water access for inground tanks, which the club can afford. The bloody council wont give permission because of 1 in 100 year liability issues... stupid b...stards...

johnnyx0

Yep, $4.50 for half a pint. Even worse on special nights when they expect trouble, as they serve beer into those little plastic cups (even less beer than half a pint!) and still charge $4.50!

Thats why I've just been out & got a six pack of stubbies to drink before I go out much later!

DownUnderPaddy

Girly Aussie schooners -
I remember thinking like that when we moved over here 7 years ago from Ireland. After a while here it became clearer to me when people pointed out to me...."why hold a pint of warm piss, when you can keep getting fresh pots of ice cold ones".

It also was a a nice change to not have to wait 3 deep at the bar to order a drink like you used to seem to have to in every bloody pub in Ireland

BadgeIsBack

Ours is 40 bucks...we reuse rain water for washing machine...and with 2 kids under 4, it is in constant use....

Downpoints - water is annoying - but we live in an area which does get rain when the city might not. And when it does rain, we might get 10mm - 30mm.

Anecdotal evidence/personal experience is that Melbourne winters were a lot colder/wetter a generation/5+ years ago. Since 2006 we have not had a wet winter to speak of....it's an issue so that by mid summer Melbourne looks terrible. Then - with a bit of rain in autumn, the grass comes back...Repeat....

S E A N

What I love most about Melbourne?

The completely wackiness, eccentricity and individuality of it's inhabitants! Of all the cities I have been to nothing beets Melbourne's residents. When I was in Sydney I didn't see an old man wearing a top hat dancing in the middle off the footpath to the sound of some African buskers nor did I see a goth lady wearing stilts walking down the streets of London when I was over there.

Every trip I make into the city never ceases to surprise me with some truly amazing people!

DownUnderPaddy

That is pretty efficient Badge. We come in at about $120, with 1 kid (under 1).
Have to agree with the "WT?" comment on the OP spending 200-300 bucks a quarter for water in Melbourne.
Guys, you either have a serious leak or you need to look at your water usage. That is a crazy figure !!!

Note : the Quarterly account will include a fixed service charge, sewage disposal and drainage charge. For us that is about 75% of the bill. Our actual water usage (approx 190 litres per day for the household) only comes to less than $20 per quarter.

The attached gives you a good indicator (looking at daily water use in Litres per day) as to how you pull up in terms of water efficiency.

DownUnderPaddy

Whoa ! 600 Litres/day for a 4 person household....
That would be efficient water use for a 6 person household with a large garden.

Your figure hits the 'typical' use for a 5 person household with a large garden.

Assuming you have a large garden, you need to cut your water usage back by about 33% to be 'efficient' (i.e. 420 litres per day)

Start looking for a leak (could be a teenager!!!!)

hevs

I was actually going to post the same type of thing...theres no way Badges total bill can be $40, the standing charges alone are more than that.

I'm actually really proud of us. We have lived solely on tank water for 5 years and have just had our first bill for mains water, it reads like this...

Step 1 water USAGE...$26.14
Sewage disp. .........$20.78

Water service charge $14.24
Sewerage serv. charge $48.16

Water ways and drainage $18.93

So it totals (with GST) $128 ish

Our ACTUAL daily use per person is 58 litres. (290 per day for 5 of us)
On our bill we have a tick next to the two people target....

The plumber is coming to hook the tank up to our toilets and washing machine as I just DO NOT water the garden and having a tank to do that just seems a waste (the old owners did the hard work for us!)

BadgeIsBack

It is. The last few have actually been around 45-48bucks a quarter for the last few years. I can scan and attach if someone 'badgers' me enough.

We are a different council to you Hevs. Does that make a difference?

BadgeIsBack

Have to admit, it can get cold at night. The last week has been cold - but the coldest nights are followed by sunny days. But most southern cities in Australia are cold at night, even Perth and Sydney.

Rarely a frost on your windscreen. In fact, many Melbourne nights hang around 7 degrees. Others seem positively mild at 10 degrees or so.

Back in February and March the entire city looked seriously awful. It really did.

I always remember Mike Stanton complaining about Melbourne trying to be European. He was one of the people commenting on lack of culture, variety in Australia (he was a Sydneysider) but then panned Melbourne. Sort of amusing. I reckon that Melbourne might have solved quite a few problems for some migrants.

I think Melburnians tend to be quite proud of their city and see it's strengths compared to other State capitals. It is traditionally Australia's cultural capital, but that doesn't have to mean European.

When it comes to the old Sydney vs Mel debate, I actually think that you'd be able to do most things in both. You can get to a good restaurant in both, see a concert etc, get a job in finance, law etc.

Supposed to have the most amount of Victorian architecture outside the UK - naturally - the city ascended on the back of the 1850s' Gold Rush. I would say that it looks nothing like London though.

It is weird Melbourne weather. Loads of myths, and I would add plentry of caveats. I would summarise it as :
-Not as changeable as people make out.
-Summer nights are cool and rarely hot or humid. Don't forget if you are visiting down from Sydney.
-It is extreme, in the sense, it is fairly cold in winter, and fairly hot in summer. But many other places in Australia have weather that is more extreme than tourists realise.

-It is certainly true that around April, someone turns down the thermostat and doesn't really fix it until the end of September/October. The thermostat seems to be turned down a bit later elsewhere. But I would say that the winter days are more like the UK's spring or autumn with shorter days and therefore colder nights.

paulg1770

well that seems to be the weather summed up, thanks

Buzzy--Bee

I would consider all the posts in this thread in the context of who makes them.

Positive posts about Melbourne are almost always made by people who live here.

Negative posts on Melbourne are almost always made by people who live elsewhere, but may have visited Melbourne briefly, seen something about it on the TV, or heard a second hand story about it.

You decide which group you want to listen to.

Buzzy

DownUnderPaddy

Now they are numbers to be proud of Hevs. Very well done indeed !

These links may prove helpful to anyone looking for further assistence in demystifying the charges :

Understand your account
http://www.yvw.com.au/yvw/YourHome/Y...rt_account.htm

Charges on water bills
http://www.ewov.com.au/site/DefaultS..._metro_www.pdf

MartinLuther

Here's my comments on the weather from a while back. No change to my opinion except that the flies were better this year than last.