Melbourne

Melbourne has been classed as one of the best cities for providing a high standard of living. It has been consistently ranked amongst the world’s leading cities for a high quality of life and here are a few reasons why.

You’ll find life here more relaxed, slower, gentile. The city has a cosmopolitan edge that is almost French in its style and outlook. Its neat, angled streets hide a creative flair that can often surprise and delight the visitor.

Melbourne is the place to be if you like shopping, the arts, theatre and culture. Federation Square is the hub of the cultural elite and one of its most visited tourist attractions. It also boasts a wide range of restaurants, cafés, bars and shops. For major events Melbourne leads the way in family friendly entertainment with its huge Summer Fun in the City from 9 January to 14 February attracting all kinds of acts from music to trapeze lessons and lots of activities for the kids - best of all it’s free! And if you like museums, Melbourne has plenty, from the Chinese Museum to the Museum on Australia Immigration.

In the Spring for all those fashionistas there’s Melbourne Fashion Week which showcases the very best in fashion talent and proves just why Melbourne is called Australia’s retail and fashion capital. So if you are thinking of moving to Australia and are considering Melbourne as a place to live, let’s have a look at what this magnificient city has to offer.

Melbourne Transport

Transport is excellent in Melbourne, being well served by trams, trains and buses. For driving, the city is served by three major freeways; the West Gate, the Monash and the Tullamarine, all linked by CityLink, a non-stop expressway. The only danger for drivers is that roads are shared by the city’s many trams and the trams rule the road. Car parking is also a nightmare, the streets are filled with parking metres that are hideously expensive, around $5 for one hour and that’s if you can find a space to park! If you need to commute into Melbourne and your place of work doesn’t have an allocated car park, then we recommend you use public transport.

Education in Melbourne

Schooling is excellent with Melbourne offering a huge range of state and private schools. As with most of Australia, many of the private schools do tend to be catholic and although you don’t have to be catholic to send your child there, it does help. There are also plenty of single sex and mixed grammar schools if you can’t quite afford the private school fees. For secondary schools Melbourne High is a top selective state school for boys that scored second in the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). For girls the top scoring high school was the Mac Robertson High School.

Melbourne Healthcare

Medicare is available to all citizens and covers basic healthcare, other treatments such as dental work, may be subsidised by the government. Read here for more information on healthcare in Australia. Melbourne itself provides excellent medical facilities. The Royal Melbourne Hospital is the main hospital situated in Parkville and they recently won a Premier Award for their Cardiac Care. The Royal Childrens Hospital is nearby. There are also a number of private and state hospitals that offer emergency care as well as providing drop-in centres.

The Melbourne emergency number for an ambulance is 000 and if you want emergency dental information call (03) 9341 0222. There is also a medical advice helpline called Nurse on Call that is manned 24hrs a day and available anywhere throughout Victoria. The number is 1300 606024.

Melbourne Climate

Melbourne has a temperate climate with warm/hot summers, balmy spring and autumn and cool winters. The hottest months are January and February where the temperature peaks at around 25.8°C. The coldest it gets is in July where the temperature can drop to lows of 5°C. The most rainfall is in the spring months of October and September.

Crime Rates

Melbourne has a lower crime rate than Sydney and the lowest per capita rate of any Australian capital city.

Sound good? Of course it does! This city is ideal for families or professional couples wanting a more cultured pace of life. If you are moving to Australia you really should put Melbourne near the top of your list. So lets look at the best places to live in Melbourne.

Vital Statistics

Around half of all Melbourne citizens are Australian, with the biggest immigration population being British. Approximately 3.5 million people live in Melbourne and are known as Melburnians. The average age of the population is 20-39 and a high proportion of those are married. Your typical dwelling in Melbourne would be a house and full ownership here is more common than renting. Average house prices are $750,000, but these vary widely from district to district as we’re about to find out.

North Melbourne

Here you have the areas of Brunswick, Coburg, Northcote, Ascot Vale, Pascoe Vale, Parkville and Essendon. The average price of a house is $545,000 although the prices will come down the further North out of the city you go. Rentals are around $400pw for a two bedroomed house.

Transport wise there is a train service into the city centre that runs from Swan Hill in the topmost North down to Bendigo and into the city. There are also regular bus and tram services.

For things to do, North Melbourne is home to Melbourne Zoo situated in Royal Park. There are also plenty of picnic areas, playgrounds, woodlands, bike tracks and so on. This is the ideal suburb for families and professionals and overall it’s our pick of where to live in Melbourne.

South Melbourne

They say that Southern and Eastern parts of Melbourne are the most expensive, and they aren’t far wrong! To buy a house here will set you back $805,650 with an average rental price of around $480pw for a two bedroomed house. Districts include Albert Park, South Yarra, Windsor and St Kilda.

The suburbs south of Melbourne are some of the most attractive, such as Albert Park and St Kilda. This is the area where the professionals live, sipping latte at a beachside café whilst watching the elite of Melbourne pass by. It’s clean, it’s safe and has plenty of cosmopolitan bars and cafés.

Transport wise it’s not as well connected as North Melbourne. There is a tram that runs from St Kilda through Albert Park and into the city and trains that reach as far out as Sandringham and Frankston on the Southern Cross Line.

West Melbourne

West of the city includes the areas of Docklands, Footscray, Kensington, Port Melbourne, Spotswood, Williamstown and Yarraville. The average house price here is $530,000 and you can get a decent 2 bedroomed house for just over $350pw, making this the cheapest district of Melbourne to live in. However just because somewhere is cheap doesn’t mean to say you’d want to live there and unfortunately the cheaper parts of West Melbourne are probably best avoided.

West Melbourne is an eclectic mix of people, giving this area a vibrant feel. Williamstown is probably the more bourgeois end of town, full of preserved Victorian architecture and four wheel drives, whereas Yarraville is full of studenty-types, singletons and gays. The huge advantage of this area is that it’s close to the port and the city, giving it a lively atmosphere, however parking is a nightmare.

Transport-wise there is a train service that runs from Ararat to Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne. Regular tram services also run into the city and there’s a free tourist tram called the City Circle that does a circular route through the central business district (CBD) which includes East Melbourne and the Docklands. It runs every 12 minutes from 10am, so no use for commuters but handy if you just want a lift into town with the kids.

East Melbourne

The districts in East Melbourne include Carlton, Collingwood, Fitzroy and Richmond. Now make sure you’re sitting down for the prices, the average house price in East Melbourne is $1,200,000! However if you go further out into the East they drop to around $750,000. You might find renting easier on the pocket, with an average rental costing  around $600 pw for a two bedroomed house.

Over half of East Melbourne is devoted to parkland or sporting activities. Here you’ll find the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground which is a huge stadium that plays host to many football matches in the Grand Final as well as cricket matches. So overall, you can see why this area is so popular with those in the money.

Swinburn is home to one of Melbourne’s universities, so there are plenty of students, but the further in you go towards the city, such as East Melbourne itself, the classier the area and consequently the more expensive. However further out there are good public transport links. What’s more it’s home to some rather good private schools so parents tend to move in this area in order to send their little darlings to the best possible institution.

Hawthorne has some great parks and impressive buildings whilst Richmond is home to a diverse bunch of migrants, making it a real multi-cultural hub. Transport is good here too, there are 5 train stations in Richmond, seven tram-lines and it’s within walking distance to the city. Further afield the main train line runs from Bairnsdale and there are further coach services from Yarram and Inverloch.

If you are thinking of emigrating to Australia, don’t forget to check out our great guide on removals.

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More information

Information on Melbourne’s public transport. 

Search for a school in Melbourne.