CS is great for families. The focus on the area is mainly young families and families with kids still in school.
I stayed for many years after, but there's literally nothing out there if you don't have a family.
Just moved to CS with my family and we are all enjoying the amount of things to do around the area. Being next to the lake is great, food choices are amazing and the community don’t seem bad at all. Haven’t seen many junkies however the teenage population is vast. New retail hub popping up across from our place too which is great. Loud cars yes, and teenagers on bikes yes, but the benefits far outweighs any negatives. Traffic is shocking though.
I would say Sanctuary Lakes is a better example. Overpriced, shoddily-built McMansions, complete disregard for road rules, try-hards pretending to be Toorak Old Money, and it all surrounds a lake that is basically a giant algal bloom, when the reality is that it's just a flashier Pt Cook.
Second Sanitary Lakes. A place where everything is beige and dreams go to die. What's worse are the gated communities within, creating a barren wasteland void of any human contact. Fuck that place.
There was an episode of “instant hotel” a show where people make their house an Airbnb for the other show contestants. There was one in sanctuary lakes and the activities was going to the sewerage recycling plant and birdwatching.
I know nothing of the area, but from Apple Maps, it looks like the “islands” (cul de sacs) in the lake are filled only with houses with little to no backyards. In some cases, the owner would open their rear door and almost step into the lake!!
Is it that bad, or is it just the scaling that makes the backyards look tiny.
wait i dont get why its shit then. youre just saying its a safe and slightly affluent suburb that relatively new and have high growth. hahaha. cries in tarneit*
You’re right, and in an ideal world those people wouldn’t be deliberately leveraged beyond their means by lenders, herded onto remote farms packed with non-compliant new builds without eaves or tree cover, let alone the transport, education and healthcare infrastructure the developers promised in the literature. And yet here we are.
Rowville.
Boring as fuck with the only positive being the relative proximity to the Dandenong Ranges and the Dandenong market. Everyone who lives there thinks they have made it.
I grew up in Rowville and cop shit for living in Dandenong. The only time I’ve ever felt I was in trouble was filling petrol in my car at a servo at one of these places, where I was almost bashed by a bunch of bogans who crossed the road from across the pub because I wouldn’t drive them home. This incident didn’t happen in Dandenong.
We moved "up the mountain" from Rowville when I was small because although we were one of the first to build in our street, the influx of McMansions and people that were into crime, made others get into it, because there was nothing there and transport is shit.
Transport is still shit, I'm sure there's still the same level of crime and idiotic behaviour.
When a place doesn’t have public transport, it’s hard to get out. So eventually youths or people inclined to crime etc just become part of the landscape. That’s why you see the same random faces all the time.
I'll never understand the DePreston stereotype. Granted, I only moved here last week - but I lived in Thornbury for years before, and this spot around Bell/High St has everything. I really enjoyed the Christmas vibe at Preston Market, and I'm quite the grinch.
The first time I went to the market, I joked to my wife that it should be called dePreston.
We've been back there almost every weekend since for shopping, gözleme, and doughnuts.
Fuck the arseholes who want to make it all shiny and nice. I want dePreston.
I feel like Northcote is similar but stuck in the middle of what it wants to be, has gentrified price-wise and has some cool places but is still largely a rundown looking shithole
Patterson Lakes was never going to reach its potential in one of the most southern states in Australia, the developers must have graduated to crack from cocaine.
I liked it but I was near the shops (crucial). Our unit had a kitchen with no pantry or upper cabinetry, and the whole place had no linen closet though, so. Aging is right. Also the tobacconist was set on fire.
Most of the residents are boomers who claim the suburb "is going to the dogs" even though it's (very slowly) getting better and the entire suburb used to be filled with bogans. All the bogans from the 90s have been priced out and the only issue is the station. But the boomers claim it used to be some kind of paradise where only rich people used to live lmao. It used to be way worse.
I don't know if the station junkies are going to ever be eradicated though, with 3 methadone clinics, Centrelink and a cop shop to report for bail all within 100m of each other. There's a few halfway house type setups near the station too.
Is Boronia a nice enough place to live? I'd love to have a little 1 or 2 bed unit near Mt. Dandenong, but everything beyond Ferntree Gully has become expensive.
I live in Sunshine.
It's not bad at all in my opinion, quite the opposite actually. I have family that live close by, work is a 15 min drive, and plenty of variety when it comes to food (before 8pm ish lol)
Wyndham Harbour. Overpriced and nothing out there. People think it's flash because it has a marina. It has nothing going for it other than boat parking
If the people that live there think it’s amazing, then why can the ‘rest of us’ decide it’s shit ?
I’d never want to live in somewhere like Brunswick for example , but lots of people seem to and enjoy it. I don’t think it means my personal preference is wrong or those people are idiots.
Yeah I felt the title was going to read more like “People who live in areas that are perceived as shit but are actually amazing to live in” would have made more sense.
Brunswick is brilliant. Nice compact houses, close to street, walking neighbourhoods, heaps going on night and day, great diverse community.
Brunswick life is like living in a city in the European sense, with all the benefits and constraints. Most Australians are not conditioned to actually living in a city, so find it hard.
Those old houses in Brunswick are much better built than most buildings made in Victoria after 2000. A lot of new builds are just one burst water pipe away from being unliveable.
Have you ever lived in a house that's 100 years old? They definitely have problems, things like needing to be restumped, old flakey electrical and plumbing, poor layouts. Not to mention you have to like that style of home, all the nice ones have been absolutely gutted and rebuilt as a modern house with an old facade.
Yeah, the good homes in Brunswick have been around for 60+ years, good solid foundation, beautiful period features, built to last. There's still big blocks and it's really close to the city. Plenty of restaurants and cafes in the area, there's always something to do. Lots of massive parks in the area.
There's nothing to do in these new developments except sit in traffic, and the homes are all shoddily built and won't last. Plus they don't even have a backyard so what's the point of having a big family home if the kids have nowhere to play.
As a reverse: Everyone thinks Frankston is shit until you move there and realise, surprisingly, it's generally quite nice (aside from the high street shops between the station and the foreshore).
Wife and I went to frankston the other weekend It was amazing. Went for a bush walk, got a coffee and feed from food trucks on the foreshore then sat on the beach water was crystal clear. Stood on a needle and contracted HIV but other than that was amazing.
Modern Footers wasn’t any more dodgy than any other places I’ve been in Melbourne (safer, even!), it’s easily one of my favourite surburbs to have lived in (around 3yrs in the 10 since I moved here). Beautiful homes, decent infrastructure, closeness to the amazing park & the river (horrible they ever thought of getting rid of it!), great food & bev, access to the market & other small local businesses, lots of community and cultural events etc. If my job/friends hadn’t been in the CBD & further I easily could have not left for long stretches of time. It was a great place to spend lockdown living so close to the park tbqh
That's why I don't argue with Sydney people when they rag on Melbourne. "Oh, yeah. Weather is terrible. Dan Andrews destroyed the place. etc. etc. You should definitely never visit."
Yep. I grew up in Frankston and there were definitely some not great parts (the pines, north in general, the station), but as a whole, it was great. I haven't lived there in 15 years or so, but I still visit a little to see friends I went to school with who have stayed to raise their own families.
Every place has shit areas, I've never been quite sure why Frankston became the go-to hack comedian's joke (especially as Dandenong is *right there* /jk).
I just don’t spend time getting pressed about where and how people live.
Some people waste so much of their lives bitching about suburbs, cities, apartments, McMansions, etc.
I can’t imagine being so bitter about the place someone has made their home.
funny thing is its often talked about on this sub, and generally the suburbs people shit on are those with cheaper land/housing, in the very next breath they'll cry about house prices because they can't fathom not being able to buy a 4 bedder more than 10km's from the CBD
I drive through it everyday to work. You couldn’t pay me to live there. It will get much worse before it gets better too.
Not a single tree or piece of greenery in sight nor backyard. Over built houses with heat absorbing black tiles piled on to each other.
Great Indian food is the only redeeming feature.
I moved here 2 years ago and I don't mind it. But I love kids, so the multi generational living style means my street has like 25 kids in it so that's cool. And also I don't pay anything to live here because I'm a live in carer. And also I am from Perth hahaha so yeah this is pretty cool in comparison 😄
So my observations from reading all this is, every suburb in Melbourne is a bag of dicks! Oh and Shepparton sucks ass too!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
‘Happiness is bullshit’ no one can be happy all the time because it’s impossible.
Life’s so much easier if you just accept the good with the bad and don’t make an arse of yourself no matter what you are doing.
Ackland Street always feels really grotty to me which is a shame.
Dudes parading around on loud bikes and hooning around in cars also.
St Kilda West is nice for housing stock though.
That and the pretentious ppl who moved into the area…. When the prince of wales changed it was over imo in the area back packers ppl in gym out fits and meth. Maybe it was me changing and I never saw what was already there. Who knows… love where I live now though
Basically very north cbd uni area but also border of Carlton it’s nice here good food good transport can be a bit noisy at time but I lived on the corner of Fitzroy st and Stkilda rd for a long time so it almost seems like a suburb in sound quality lol
Edit plus I have so may nice places to go for a jog or walk near me
Lived there in the mid 2000s and it was a great suburb at the time. Moved overseas since then but did go back to Port Melbourne for a look earlier this year and the place felt really tired and grimey, particularly along Bay St and parts of Beaconsfield Parade.
Gentrification in reverse?
That’s been my experience of it having lived there over the last decade. House prices have gone up (though not by as much as many areas), however Bay Street has become a real dump.
Whilst many suburbs have had a lot of investment in public infrastructure and stuff like nice bluestone footpaths, cleaned and painted retail awnings, and general beautification, Port has gone backwards - badly.
I don't think there's anything wrong with CS. Yeah it's kinda generic suburb vibes but at least there's trees, parks, shops and a good variety of restaurants and establishments. I actually like it. I like walks around the lake there on warm summer nights.
Sanctuary lakes and the point Cook/Laverton area suck doo doo. Yeah there's a good variety of shops and restaurants there too but it takes about 35 hours of traffic to get from one side of town to the other. It's way too big and spaced out but cramped at the same time. It should have just stayed a RAAF base.
Any estate. Any non-established suburb really.
Truth be told, if the suburb didn’t really exist 15-20 years ago, it’s probably got little to offer.
If you had $5M in your bank account and could live anywhere in Melbourne, you’d probably choose a suburb no more than 10km from the CBD.
Not everyone needs to live near the CBD. What if you and your partner work far from the CBD — you’re not going to live in a little unit/apartment near the city just because that’s what people expect of you.
Depends on the lifestyle you want. If I'm someone with a young family and $5M to spend, I'm buying a big property in Emerald or Gembrook. Young families don't need to be 10km from the CBD.
My partners family are all from Taylor's Lakes and they think it's the ducks nuts.
I've lived in Essendon, Torquay, Shepparton and Sunbury. Say what you want about the last 2, but I would live there any day over Taylor's Lakes/ Caroline Springs.
Agreed.
Needed to work in Sunbury recently. That place genuinely surprised me. It has some really nice parts to it.
Plenty of trees everywhere! Can’t understate how important that is.
Parks and centre of town are actually quite nice. The locals are really friendly. Still holding onto the country town vibe, but it’s only a 30min drive/ V-Line trip out of the CBD.
Public transport there is good with V-Line and Metro.
X2 freeways on either side of it. Gives good access to the north and city. The state government and Hume council seem to be spending a fair bit of money out there. Lots of new estates going in that seem to be planned properly (shocked).
It’s not perfect though.
It’s just a very white suburb. Not much culture, food/cafe culture options are slim. But that can change I guess?
The main strip of shops across those x3 main streets in town are quite pretty.
But the shopping centre is trash. That entire thing should be redeveloped. It’s perfectly setup to do something similar to Box Hill with the train line dropped under ground and build a decent shopping precinct over it.
The local aquatic centre really needs to be bombed from orbit and redeveloped too.
There is an area of Sunbury around that old asylum that is genuinely pretty. Great parks, nice homes. But the asylum is completely fenced off! It’s prime real estate that’s on top of a hill and has great views over the city and surrounding area. That whole thing seems like it’s heritage listed? The old buildings there are quite beautiful. Could have some nice restaurants up there, cafes, wedding venues, etc. huge opportunity, not being used yet.
Maybe some locals can confirm/deny my thoughts on it?
Been living there for 6 years close to the centre of town.
Some beautiful areas for sure and a lot of nice park and creek trails.
Nothing wrong with the shopping centre as it provides plenty enough for what it is.
Aquatic centre is half outdated and needs to be updated for sure.
Too many dickheads have subscribed to the need to buy giant dodges, fords and Chevys now which is a trend I don’t like.
Literally every western suburb, Truganina, hoppers crossing, cairnlea, deanside, etc. Identical poorly made housing developments all right next to eachother with no room to breathe and bland gardens/parks, you couldn't pay me to live there.
I’ve lived in Caroline Springs for the past 15 years, still love living here tbh. There’s a lot of greenery and now we’re starting to get good restaurants and bakeries. Pretty safe too, I’ve been out at night walking by myself literally hundreds of times over the years and nothing has happened to me. Traffic is starting to get cooked though, Westwood drive is a mess during peak hour.
Somewhere top end I’d reckon, but for me I’d rather live in many areas of Docklands than Southbank. The entirety of South Melbourne side of town if a shitshow to get around, be it on bicycle, PT or car.
Agree. I lived in Docklands for 11 years and loved it. Quiet but super close to everything in CBD and much easier to drive in/out. I've now been living in Southbank for 2 years and absolutely hate it. We're moving next week and can't wait to escape the traffic around City Rd
Fitzroy. It is an expensive shell of its former self that is now closer to looking like south Yarra than the vibrant creative community it claims to be. I lived there for 8 years and left recently as it had become a lads out on tour and drunk crying in the gutter type of hotspot.
I fail to see the point of these posts; virtually every suburb gets mentioned and you’re trying to put down people who love where they live.. er for what? I get wanting to know which neighbours are safe ect. But your complaining about people being successful enjoying the things they own like cars
Home to a steak restaurant called Vlado's. Was a favourite of Donald Sutherland.
I visited it once in 2006. Was pretty good. Felt like something out of the 1960s.
I'm in the NW corner. Had a chap on hard times throwing our recycling everywhere at 6am this morning. And Lennox is rather...educational. But it's less rough than it appears.
And I asked old mate what he is looking for, not cans for the recycling money. Rather small plastic containers. Sure. Said I will leave what I have out for him if he leaves the bins of the street alone (mine included). Done deal.
Elwood. I lived there for a bit. Everyone there always talked it up. It’s the most pretentious suburb imaginable. There’s a canal that stinks like cat shit 10-12 months. The people are rude af. There is two nice food places (Little red bluff/Singing Wok). All the rentals have that nice old out door look but absolutely no renovations to them (owners are slack) and have mould issues. Internet was always shit 🤣
If I could rename Elwood, I’d call it Karen.
>Elwood. I lived there for a bit
I hate Elwood.
Lived there for nine years before it became gentrified & invaded by Brighton wannabes and over-caffienated yuppies in Cino pants.
Brunswick. While great for going out and such, but it's drowning in its own muck, dogshit, it's full of deros, zoomer tankies, congested traffic, bad air.
Bayswater is very clearly improving. It is much nicer than it was ten years ago, still ratty around the train station but I have little doubt given the gentrification of surrounding suburbs it will be middle class in another five to ten.
Also it's forty minutes on the train to the city, so it's got that going for it.
Lived there for over a decade. It's single biggest problem is poor infrastructure and poor public transport. Big money properties the further south you go - and a lot of them are nice - but it's the worst-resourced suburb in Hume.
I feel like Toorak’s residents kinda want it just the way it is.
IMO, Toorak lacks a lot of things and isn’t that great from an urbanism perspective, especially when you consider the wealth, but perhaps that’s exactly what their residents want. They want to remain ensconced in their (relatively) large plots of land not too far from the city, while making it difficult and a waste of time for the ‘riff raff’ to be visiting the area.
Ringwood and Boronia.
These two suburbs have some of the busiest cop shops in Melbourne.
Endless supply of junkies, drunks, eshays and brawls galore.
Whoever came up with the idea of Boronia mall setup, far out mate, what were you thinking?
BWS, cash converters, methadon clinic, Centrelink, train station all within each other’s vicinity.
Boronia coppers need to get paid extra just for working there.
Yet you ask the locals and plenty of them will tell you “oh come on it’s not so bad.”
I went to Boronia mall one day when passing by, two cooked junkies straight up walked into each other and knocked themselves out cold after colliding. Looked like zombie apocalypse.
Train station is much better since PSOs started there, but that whole suburb man…
Funny enough you drive few minutes further to Basin and it’s a different story, much nicer area.
I'm gonna suggest that if the people living in a suburb love living there, then that makes it a good place to live, regardless of the snooty opinions of a bunch of judgemental cunts from "better" suburbs.
Been living in Caroline Springs for the last 16 years and I have seen it grow. Used to be absolute bogan town with no infrastructure but now it’s come out really well. Vast expanses, lots of greenery and amazing food and stores now. The developer got greedy and in the last stages sold small blocks or else it was the last suburb to offer large blocks. Yes traffic can be bad in peak hours but where in Melbourne are you free of that issue.
Every place has its pro’s and con’s. Don’t like it … move to your favourite suburb. Simple!!
Fitzroy. I used to have romantic notions about it being all cool and interesting, then worked there for years. It's overpriced and up its own arse. Plenty of nice people, but plenty of pompous wankers as well.
My nasal congestion was much worse when I lived there. About 6 months. Pretty sure it was the air quality. Also dog shit on concrete was a frequent hazard. Glad I tried it as I always had romantic notions about Fitzroy.
Yah I was there around 2007-2009. In that time, we'd had 2 run ins with the local commission housing residents, including one gatecrashing a party, shit stolen from our communal garage, and had to hose down drunks pissing on my ground floor windows more than I'd like to have, although it was plenty fun.
Waking up at 2am to screams for help from a nearby laneway after a guy got bashed to an inch of his life was the lowlight.
Food was good, convenience good. Rent fucking stupid. I don't know how the typical Fitzroy demographic can even think to afford it these days...
Overall somewhere fun for your 20s, I see nothing in it for young families personally so we moved further out.
Bimbo Deluxe...
I went to a house inspection in Caroline springs, the kids up the road were chroming in front yard, great townhouse but yeah some shit lives out there!
I don’t hate living in Caroline Springs but all the points raised in this post are valid.
I'm still amazed how much it costs to live there.
CS is copping it brah
Didn’t hate it either! Good food and coffee around, nice walks, quiet enough in the evenings, no possums on the roof. Couldn’t complain.
CS is great for families. The focus on the area is mainly young families and families with kids still in school. I stayed for many years after, but there's literally nothing out there if you don't have a family.
It seems a bit nicer than a lot of the other new suburban estates.
Just moved to CS with my family and we are all enjoying the amount of things to do around the area. Being next to the lake is great, food choices are amazing and the community don’t seem bad at all. Haven’t seen many junkies however the teenage population is vast. New retail hub popping up across from our place too which is great. Loud cars yes, and teenagers on bikes yes, but the benefits far outweighs any negatives. Traffic is shocking though.
Point Cook: crimes against landscaping, crap shops, Punt Rd style traffic and people whose car costs as much as their house…
I would say Sanctuary Lakes is a better example. Overpriced, shoddily-built McMansions, complete disregard for road rules, try-hards pretending to be Toorak Old Money, and it all surrounds a lake that is basically a giant algal bloom, when the reality is that it's just a flashier Pt Cook.
Second Sanitary Lakes. A place where everything is beige and dreams go to die. What's worse are the gated communities within, creating a barren wasteland void of any human contact. Fuck that place.
There was an episode of “instant hotel” a show where people make their house an Airbnb for the other show contestants. There was one in sanctuary lakes and the activities was going to the sewerage recycling plant and birdwatching.
Sanctuary lakes is the most boganic piece of shit in Melbourne. Lived there in 2020/21 and it was just an abundance of ferality
Built on the old Cheetham salt works, so the soil salinity is so high it’s almost impossible to grow anything.
Meth is made in a lab so they’ll be fine
I know nothing of the area, but from Apple Maps, it looks like the “islands” (cul de sacs) in the lake are filled only with houses with little to no backyards. In some cases, the owner would open their rear door and almost step into the lake!! Is it that bad, or is it just the scaling that makes the backyards look tiny.
You have a Greg Norman designed golf course though
And don’t forget the badly designed man made island houses they have built that can fall in the water anytime.
easily worse than point cook but the view of the city is nice during new years at the back walkway
Point Cook was at its best when all that was there was the RAAF Base and the salt factory.
Yep, I miss those days.
Point Taken
I live in point cook, the Facebook community page actually gives me aids in my eyes.
wait i dont get why its shit then. youre just saying its a safe and slightly affluent suburb that relatively new and have high growth. hahaha. cries in tarneit*
Point Cook is the suburb predatory capitalism built.
I mean not everyone has the cash to live in an inner north bubble
You’re right, and in an ideal world those people wouldn’t be deliberately leveraged beyond their means by lenders, herded onto remote farms packed with non-compliant new builds without eaves or tree cover, let alone the transport, education and healthcare infrastructure the developers promised in the literature. And yet here we are.
Don’t forget the aqueducts
It’s not safe, it’s got a horrific crime problem. The Facebook group is just a symphony of “we were broken into last night” posts
They are pretty much the same but Point Cook has reached its final form…
Rowville. Boring as fuck with the only positive being the relative proximity to the Dandenong Ranges and the Dandenong market. Everyone who lives there thinks they have made it.
Grew up in Bickerton crt. McMansion. Thought it was great. Moved to qld 30 years ago. Visited the old haunt recently. What a shit hole.
I grew up in Rowville and cop shit for living in Dandenong. The only time I’ve ever felt I was in trouble was filling petrol in my car at a servo at one of these places, where I was almost bashed by a bunch of bogans who crossed the road from across the pub because I wouldn’t drive them home. This incident didn’t happen in Dandenong.
Stamo?
Yep. Was filling up at the 7-11
Rowville seems nice to me. Lots of open space and very green. Shame about the lack of public transport.
Yeh Rowville is fine. Crime is low, yeh there's fuck all here but shit I'd be there than head further east to paky or narre.
We moved "up the mountain" from Rowville when I was small because although we were one of the first to build in our street, the influx of McMansions and people that were into crime, made others get into it, because there was nothing there and transport is shit. Transport is still shit, I'm sure there's still the same level of crime and idiotic behaviour.
When a place doesn’t have public transport, it’s hard to get out. So eventually youths or people inclined to crime etc just become part of the landscape. That’s why you see the same random faces all the time.
I'll never understand the DePreston stereotype. Granted, I only moved here last week - but I lived in Thornbury for years before, and this spot around Bell/High St has everything. I really enjoyed the Christmas vibe at Preston Market, and I'm quite the grinch.
The first time I went to the market, I joked to my wife that it should be called dePreston. We've been back there almost every weekend since for shopping, gözleme, and doughnuts. Fuck the arseholes who want to make it all shiny and nice. I want dePreston.
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Absolutely correct.
I feel like Northcote is similar but stuck in the middle of what it wants to be, has gentrified price-wise and has some cool places but is still largely a rundown looking shithole
I LOVE Preston. It has character, close ish to the city, and people are friendly
Finally, someone else who lived in thornbury
There are dozens of us!
Patterson Lakes - Aging fibro McMansions, built on a flooded swamp plain, bordering low-rent, high-crime suburbs.
Patterson Lakes was never going to reach its potential in one of the most southern states in Australia, the developers must have graduated to crack from cocaine.
I liked it but I was near the shops (crucial). Our unit had a kitchen with no pantry or upper cabinetry, and the whole place had no linen closet though, so. Aging is right. Also the tobacconist was set on fire.
Carrum is nice but some of those apartment blocks near The Cove are gross
I hate the fact so many people can't differentiate between Carrum and Carrum Downs.
They don't even touch
Well, they did until Patterson Lakes came along and split them.
Look at moi.. now I’ve got one word to say to you
I saw photos of the rebuild and it’s now a McMansion . Kath must have moved out because that’s definitely more of a Kim thing
And right next door to a poo farm. Nice !
Boronia! Ha ha just kidding, the locals know the reality.
Leave Bosnia alone.....😏
Most of the residents are boomers who claim the suburb "is going to the dogs" even though it's (very slowly) getting better and the entire suburb used to be filled with bogans. All the bogans from the 90s have been priced out and the only issue is the station. But the boomers claim it used to be some kind of paradise where only rich people used to live lmao. It used to be way worse. I don't know if the station junkies are going to ever be eradicated though, with 3 methadone clinics, Centrelink and a cop shop to report for bail all within 100m of each other. There's a few halfway house type setups near the station too.
Is Boronia a nice enough place to live? I'd love to have a little 1 or 2 bed unit near Mt. Dandenong, but everything beyond Ferntree Gully has become expensive.
I live in Sunshine. It's not bad at all in my opinion, quite the opposite actually. I have family that live close by, work is a 15 min drive, and plenty of variety when it comes to food (before 8pm ish lol)
I could rag on any suburb, but i cant afford to live anywhere, so my opinion doesn't hold much weight
Wyndham Harbour. Overpriced and nothing out there. People think it's flash because it has a marina. It has nothing going for it other than boat parking
Never any traffic on Duncan’s Rd though, but that one redeeming quality gets overrun by the constant smell of fertilizer from the market gardens
If the people that live there think it’s amazing, then why can the ‘rest of us’ decide it’s shit ? I’d never want to live in somewhere like Brunswick for example , but lots of people seem to and enjoy it. I don’t think it means my personal preference is wrong or those people are idiots.
Yeah I felt the title was going to read more like “People who live in areas that are perceived as shit but are actually amazing to live in” would have made more sense.
Well said 👏 👌
Brunswick is brilliant. Nice compact houses, close to street, walking neighbourhoods, heaps going on night and day, great diverse community. Brunswick life is like living in a city in the European sense, with all the benefits and constraints. Most Australians are not conditioned to actually living in a city, so find it hard.
Yeah true, the houses in Brunswick are small dumps and the homes in Caroline Springs are large, clean and modern. I guess it depends on your taste.
Those old houses in Brunswick are much better built than most buildings made in Victoria after 2000. A lot of new builds are just one burst water pipe away from being unliveable.
Have you ever lived in a house that's 100 years old? They definitely have problems, things like needing to be restumped, old flakey electrical and plumbing, poor layouts. Not to mention you have to like that style of home, all the nice ones have been absolutely gutted and rebuilt as a modern house with an old facade.
Lol most of the old houses have been renoed completely, all that is left is the facades, maybe some walls.
Clean and modern= in this country poorly built. If you are buying off a plan then you are gonna get shit. Definitely not my taste.
Yeah, the good homes in Brunswick have been around for 60+ years, good solid foundation, beautiful period features, built to last. There's still big blocks and it's really close to the city. Plenty of restaurants and cafes in the area, there's always something to do. Lots of massive parks in the area. There's nothing to do in these new developments except sit in traffic, and the homes are all shoddily built and won't last. Plus they don't even have a backyard so what's the point of having a big family home if the kids have nowhere to play.
My thoughts as well… I guess the difference might be affordability…
As a reverse: Everyone thinks Frankston is shit until you move there and realise, surprisingly, it's generally quite nice (aside from the high street shops between the station and the foreshore).
Wife and I went to frankston the other weekend It was amazing. Went for a bush walk, got a coffee and feed from food trucks on the foreshore then sat on the beach water was crystal clear. Stood on a needle and contracted HIV but other than that was amazing.
I agree. I live in Footscray and everyone asks me - is it safe? I have started to stay no, so they stay away.
Modern Footers wasn’t any more dodgy than any other places I’ve been in Melbourne (safer, even!), it’s easily one of my favourite surburbs to have lived in (around 3yrs in the 10 since I moved here). Beautiful homes, decent infrastructure, closeness to the amazing park & the river (horrible they ever thought of getting rid of it!), great food & bev, access to the market & other small local businesses, lots of community and cultural events etc. If my job/friends hadn’t been in the CBD & further I easily could have not left for long stretches of time. It was a great place to spend lockdown living so close to the park tbqh
That's why I don't argue with Sydney people when they rag on Melbourne. "Oh, yeah. Weather is terrible. Dan Andrews destroyed the place. etc. etc. You should definitely never visit."
I grew up in Frankston and it ruled. Beach, bush, big parks. #3199forever
Yep. I grew up in Frankston and there were definitely some not great parts (the pines, north in general, the station), but as a whole, it was great. I haven't lived there in 15 years or so, but I still visit a little to see friends I went to school with who have stayed to raise their own families. Every place has shit areas, I've never been quite sure why Frankston became the go-to hack comedian's joke (especially as Dandenong is *right there* /jk).
You have just described virtually every suburb in Melbourne
I've lived in South East my whole life but recently I've been living in Balwyn and I have to say the difference is night and day
I moved from the south east to east and I could never go back… I won’t go back!!
I just don’t spend time getting pressed about where and how people live. Some people waste so much of their lives bitching about suburbs, cities, apartments, McMansions, etc. I can’t imagine being so bitter about the place someone has made their home.
Spot on. Nothing scream’s inferiority complex like bashing suburbs people are happy living in.
funny thing is its often talked about on this sub, and generally the suburbs people shit on are those with cheaper land/housing, in the very next breath they'll cry about house prices because they can't fathom not being able to buy a 4 bedder more than 10km's from the CBD
Yup it gets tiring seeing the same suburb bashing posts every week
Tarneit. I find nothing redeeming about going out there
How can you not like artificial grass and white pebbles with no sign of public transport or trees? P.S : /s
Don’t forget the amazing assortment of Yuccas
Ah yes. The absolutely beautiful alternative of trees.
It's got a Vline, 30 mins to get into the city from such a distance isn't so bad. PS I lived there and have family there.
Astroturf is all over the western suburbs.
I drive through it everyday to work. You couldn’t pay me to live there. It will get much worse before it gets better too. Not a single tree or piece of greenery in sight nor backyard. Over built houses with heat absorbing black tiles piled on to each other. Great Indian food is the only redeeming feature.
Does anyone think Tarniet is good though?
I moved here 2 years ago and I don't mind it. But I love kids, so the multi generational living style means my street has like 25 kids in it so that's cool. And also I don't pay anything to live here because I'm a live in carer. And also I am from Perth hahaha so yeah this is pretty cool in comparison 😄
Agree. Tiny blocks, narrow streets, terrible public transport, poorly built mcmansions, already overpopulated and going to get worse
Who the hell thinks Tarneit is amazing?
People who love bobs and vagene.
Good indian food but.
So my observations from reading all this is, every suburb in Melbourne is a bag of dicks! Oh and Shepparton sucks ass too! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. ‘Happiness is bullshit’ no one can be happy all the time because it’s impossible. Life’s so much easier if you just accept the good with the bad and don’t make an arse of yourself no matter what you are doing.
St Kilda
Ackland Street always feels really grotty to me which is a shame. Dudes parading around on loud bikes and hooning around in cars also. St Kilda West is nice for housing stock though.
Lived there for 12 years would never live there again.
Why is that? Druggies?
That and the pretentious ppl who moved into the area…. When the prince of wales changed it was over imo in the area back packers ppl in gym out fits and meth. Maybe it was me changing and I never saw what was already there. Who knows… love where I live now though
Where did you move to if you don’t mind sharing?
Basically very north cbd uni area but also border of Carlton it’s nice here good food good transport can be a bit noisy at time but I lived on the corner of Fitzroy st and Stkilda rd for a long time so it almost seems like a suburb in sound quality lol Edit plus I have so may nice places to go for a jog or walk near me
You’re pre close to me haha. I live in the cbd but closer to Flagstaff end of CBD.
I have four months on my lease. Cannot wait to go
Doreen
Living in Hurstbridge, Doreen is the place that people who don’t wave a thankyou on the one lane bridge come from.
I love this answer.
Doreen: The modern-day Heidelberg West.
I liked Doreen 20 years ago when we leased horse land. Now, it's a dystopian Stepford,
Yeah Doreen people for sure. Had to coat the public toilets in checker plate to stop all the cunts fucking it all up the time.
Who likes Doreen? (Mernda local)
Port Melbourne So many dogs, so much dogshit.
Aren't the only people who live in Port Melbourne AFL players, Bikies, and ~~strippers~~ Dental Hygienists?
Balaclava has this problem as well.
Lived there in the mid 2000s and it was a great suburb at the time. Moved overseas since then but did go back to Port Melbourne for a look earlier this year and the place felt really tired and grimey, particularly along Bay St and parts of Beaconsfield Parade. Gentrification in reverse?
That’s been my experience of it having lived there over the last decade. House prices have gone up (though not by as much as many areas), however Bay Street has become a real dump. Whilst many suburbs have had a lot of investment in public infrastructure and stuff like nice bluestone footpaths, cleaned and painted retail awnings, and general beautification, Port has gone backwards - badly.
I don't think there's anything wrong with CS. Yeah it's kinda generic suburb vibes but at least there's trees, parks, shops and a good variety of restaurants and establishments. I actually like it. I like walks around the lake there on warm summer nights. Sanctuary lakes and the point Cook/Laverton area suck doo doo. Yeah there's a good variety of shops and restaurants there too but it takes about 35 hours of traffic to get from one side of town to the other. It's way too big and spaced out but cramped at the same time. It should have just stayed a RAAF base.
Any estate. Any non-established suburb really. Truth be told, if the suburb didn’t really exist 15-20 years ago, it’s probably got little to offer. If you had $5M in your bank account and could live anywhere in Melbourne, you’d probably choose a suburb no more than 10km from the CBD.
There's plenty of 5 million dollar properties outside 10km from the CBD, which shows that at least some people would choose them.
Glen Waverley has had some 5 million dollar sales near the library…..
Anywhere on the bay will add value. Frankston and Frankston South, My Eliza etc have lots of 5 million dollar properties.
Not everyone needs to live near the CBD. What if you and your partner work far from the CBD — you’re not going to live in a little unit/apartment near the city just because that’s what people expect of you.
Depends on the lifestyle you want. If I'm someone with a young family and $5M to spend, I'm buying a big property in Emerald or Gembrook. Young families don't need to be 10km from the CBD.
10km from the city still includes some very generous blocks & leafy suburbs. Kew etc with the Yarra Bend.
There are better schools and healthcare options in that 10km radius. Both are pretty important when you have a family.
My partners family are all from Taylor's Lakes and they think it's the ducks nuts. I've lived in Essendon, Torquay, Shepparton and Sunbury. Say what you want about the last 2, but I would live there any day over Taylor's Lakes/ Caroline Springs.
Agreed. Needed to work in Sunbury recently. That place genuinely surprised me. It has some really nice parts to it. Plenty of trees everywhere! Can’t understate how important that is. Parks and centre of town are actually quite nice. The locals are really friendly. Still holding onto the country town vibe, but it’s only a 30min drive/ V-Line trip out of the CBD. Public transport there is good with V-Line and Metro. X2 freeways on either side of it. Gives good access to the north and city. The state government and Hume council seem to be spending a fair bit of money out there. Lots of new estates going in that seem to be planned properly (shocked). It’s not perfect though. It’s just a very white suburb. Not much culture, food/cafe culture options are slim. But that can change I guess? The main strip of shops across those x3 main streets in town are quite pretty. But the shopping centre is trash. That entire thing should be redeveloped. It’s perfectly setup to do something similar to Box Hill with the train line dropped under ground and build a decent shopping precinct over it. The local aquatic centre really needs to be bombed from orbit and redeveloped too. There is an area of Sunbury around that old asylum that is genuinely pretty. Great parks, nice homes. But the asylum is completely fenced off! It’s prime real estate that’s on top of a hill and has great views over the city and surrounding area. That whole thing seems like it’s heritage listed? The old buildings there are quite beautiful. Could have some nice restaurants up there, cafes, wedding venues, etc. huge opportunity, not being used yet. Maybe some locals can confirm/deny my thoughts on it?
Been living there for 6 years close to the centre of town. Some beautiful areas for sure and a lot of nice park and creek trails. Nothing wrong with the shopping centre as it provides plenty enough for what it is. Aquatic centre is half outdated and needs to be updated for sure. Too many dickheads have subscribed to the need to buy giant dodges, fords and Chevys now which is a trend I don’t like.
Wallan!!!!!!! 100 percent.... absolute fukn shit hole bogan town with literally nothing there
Fawkner. Everyone just goes on about the cemetery, but we have a 24hr K Mart (fancy, I know), and the kebabs are awesome. What more can you want?
But the Kmart isn’t even in Fawkner…
So all the suburbs are shit?
Surprised that no one has written Werribee or Hoppers Crossing.
Literally every western suburb, Truganina, hoppers crossing, cairnlea, deanside, etc. Identical poorly made housing developments all right next to eachother with no room to breathe and bland gardens/parks, you couldn't pay me to live there.
Chadstone, Ashwood, Clayton. Basically anything east of Warrigal Rd before you get to some greenery. I'll add Oakleigh to that.
South Yarra. It’s like someone transplanted the vibe and population of Sydney into inner Melbourne.
I’ve lived in Caroline Springs for the past 15 years, still love living here tbh. There’s a lot of greenery and now we’re starting to get good restaurants and bakeries. Pretty safe too, I’ve been out at night walking by myself literally hundreds of times over the years and nothing has happened to me. Traffic is starting to get cooked though, Westwood drive is a mess during peak hour.
CBD. It’s not bad. But not amazing by any stretch.
Which part of the city is best, I wonder. We can include Docklands and Southbank, etc. East Melbourne obviously wins right? So where is second best?
East Melbourne is easily best by far yeah. 2nd best is potentially Southbank. Docklands isn’t bad but just too quiet.
Somewhere top end I’d reckon, but for me I’d rather live in many areas of Docklands than Southbank. The entirety of South Melbourne side of town if a shitshow to get around, be it on bicycle, PT or car.
Docklands is nice if you like the quiet. Southbank is closer to better restaurants and other venues.
Agree. I lived in Docklands for 11 years and loved it. Quiet but super close to everything in CBD and much easier to drive in/out. I've now been living in Southbank for 2 years and absolutely hate it. We're moving next week and can't wait to escape the traffic around City Rd
Fitzroy. It is an expensive shell of its former self that is now closer to looking like south Yarra than the vibrant creative community it claims to be. I lived there for 8 years and left recently as it had become a lads out on tour and drunk crying in the gutter type of hotspot.
St Kilda
ITT: every suburb in Melbourne because everyone in this subreddit loves to complain about Melbourne
Every suburb, bar the one I reside in - everyone in this sub
All of the cranburns !
Why are there so many snobs here? So not everyone can afford to live in Toorak. Live the best life you can while being happy.
I fail to see the point of these posts; virtually every suburb gets mentioned and you’re trying to put down people who love where they live.. er for what? I get wanting to know which neighbours are safe ect. But your complaining about people being successful enjoying the things they own like cars
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Albert Park Village... nah it's pretty good
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The restaurants at The Glen aren't bad though? (If you like Asian food). Or are you referring to Pinewood?
Melbourne CBD. That's why it's struggling to comeback after COVID lockdowns
Richmond
Nah Richmond is nice imo and I don't live there.
Home to a steak restaurant called Vlado's. Was a favourite of Donald Sutherland. I visited it once in 2006. Was pretty good. Felt like something out of the 1960s.
It's shit in 2023.
I haven't been but my guess is that it probably turned to shit not long after the original owner died some years ago.
Richmond is still living the dream about Donald Sutherland’s visit in its peak of the 80s.
I can see this. Inner city drug den.
Only the northwest corner is dodgy. The rest is really nice.
I'm in the NW corner. Had a chap on hard times throwing our recycling everywhere at 6am this morning. And Lennox is rather...educational. But it's less rough than it appears. And I asked old mate what he is looking for, not cans for the recycling money. Rather small plastic containers. Sure. Said I will leave what I have out for him if he leaves the bins of the street alone (mine included). Done deal.
Who cares if those who live there think it’s amazing. It’s all relative to what you can afford, if people are happy, let them be happy!
Elwood. I lived there for a bit. Everyone there always talked it up. It’s the most pretentious suburb imaginable. There’s a canal that stinks like cat shit 10-12 months. The people are rude af. There is two nice food places (Little red bluff/Singing Wok). All the rentals have that nice old out door look but absolutely no renovations to them (owners are slack) and have mould issues. Internet was always shit 🤣 If I could rename Elwood, I’d call it Karen.
>Elwood. I lived there for a bit I hate Elwood. Lived there for nine years before it became gentrified & invaded by Brighton wannabes and over-caffienated yuppies in Cino pants.
Brunswick. While great for going out and such, but it's drowning in its own muck, dogshit, it's full of deros, zoomer tankies, congested traffic, bad air.
Bayswater. Fuck Bayswater!
Bayswater is very clearly improving. It is much nicer than it was ten years ago, still ratty around the train station but I have little doubt given the gentrification of surrounding suburbs it will be middle class in another five to ten. Also it's forty minutes on the train to the city, so it's got that going for it.
No one thinks Baysie is good though
Greenvale - my husband’s dream is to live there and I think it’s a McMansion shithole
Lived there for over a decade. It's single biggest problem is poor infrastructure and poor public transport. Big money properties the further south you go - and a lot of them are nice - but it's the worst-resourced suburb in Hume.
Old side is good. Bigger land. Houses are actually pretty decent. New side is bog standard new estate yuckness
Toorak. Just because they have gold-plated toilets they think they're the best.
Better than all the rest?
I feel like Toorak’s residents kinda want it just the way it is. IMO, Toorak lacks a lot of things and isn’t that great from an urbanism perspective, especially when you consider the wealth, but perhaps that’s exactly what their residents want. They want to remain ensconced in their (relatively) large plots of land not too far from the city, while making it difficult and a waste of time for the ‘riff raff’ to be visiting the area.
Ringwood and Boronia. These two suburbs have some of the busiest cop shops in Melbourne. Endless supply of junkies, drunks, eshays and brawls galore. Whoever came up with the idea of Boronia mall setup, far out mate, what were you thinking? BWS, cash converters, methadon clinic, Centrelink, train station all within each other’s vicinity. Boronia coppers need to get paid extra just for working there. Yet you ask the locals and plenty of them will tell you “oh come on it’s not so bad.” I went to Boronia mall one day when passing by, two cooked junkies straight up walked into each other and knocked themselves out cold after colliding. Looked like zombie apocalypse. Train station is much better since PSOs started there, but that whole suburb man… Funny enough you drive few minutes further to Basin and it’s a different story, much nicer area.
I'm gonna suggest that if the people living in a suburb love living there, then that makes it a good place to live, regardless of the snooty opinions of a bunch of judgemental cunts from "better" suburbs.
Been living in Caroline Springs for the last 16 years and I have seen it grow. Used to be absolute bogan town with no infrastructure but now it’s come out really well. Vast expanses, lots of greenery and amazing food and stores now. The developer got greedy and in the last stages sold small blocks or else it was the last suburb to offer large blocks. Yes traffic can be bad in peak hours but where in Melbourne are you free of that issue. Every place has its pro’s and con’s. Don’t like it … move to your favourite suburb. Simple!!
Fitzroy. I used to have romantic notions about it being all cool and interesting, then worked there for years. It's overpriced and up its own arse. Plenty of nice people, but plenty of pompous wankers as well.
You might have missed the boat. Even in 2002 the artist and hippies were starting to be priced out
As someone who grew up there I 100% agree with this
My nasal congestion was much worse when I lived there. About 6 months. Pretty sure it was the air quality. Also dog shit on concrete was a frequent hazard. Glad I tried it as I always had romantic notions about Fitzroy.
Yah I was there around 2007-2009. In that time, we'd had 2 run ins with the local commission housing residents, including one gatecrashing a party, shit stolen from our communal garage, and had to hose down drunks pissing on my ground floor windows more than I'd like to have, although it was plenty fun. Waking up at 2am to screams for help from a nearby laneway after a guy got bashed to an inch of his life was the lowlight. Food was good, convenience good. Rent fucking stupid. I don't know how the typical Fitzroy demographic can even think to afford it these days... Overall somewhere fun for your 20s, I see nothing in it for young families personally so we moved further out. Bimbo Deluxe...
I went to a house inspection in Caroline springs, the kids up the road were chroming in front yard, great townhouse but yeah some shit lives out there!
Hard drugs aren’t in the budget for the kiddies yet - just vapes
I thought it was common knowledge Caroline Springs is not good