Best Australian city

Ok, what do you love (or hate) about where you live and why?

Let's try to identify THE BEST Australian city :P

Well only ever lived in perth. I loved perth when I first moved here but now its to costly to live here unless you have a good paying job or got lucky and got a house back when prices where normal. Also the amount of anti social morons in perth is making the place a hole to live. I ride my bike around 15kays a day but now its becoming a pain as all the drunk morons like to smash glass each weekend on the roads and footpaths making for lots of punchers all the time. Also so backwards in moving forward with anything. Perth could be a great place to live with a few changes but not right now. I am thinking of moving to Melbourne as its a city I have always liked to look of.

I've only ever lived in Adelaide. But I love it because:

1) House prices are still pretty decent.

2) The whole metro area from North to South is no more than 30 mins from a swimable beach, no stingers etc.

3) Farmers Union Iced Coffee.

4) Villies Pies.

5) The majority of people will let you into traffic from a side street.

5) We got some pretty decent resturants considering our size.

6) If you're into wine, Barrossa is 60min North, McLaren Vale 40min south...

7) Feb to April ROCKS!!! The Fringe, Clipsal 500, BDO etc.


But at the same time:

1) Our roads suck, we have only 2 "freeways" in the metro area, one of them only runs one way and it swaps direction in the afternoon. The second one, well there is nothing exciting about Port Adelaide to Sailsbury. Everything else is at right-angles with traffic lights or round-abouts, so it takes ages to get places by Melb or Syd standards.

2) The people have no vision, everybody bitches and complains about boring old Adelaide, nothing but churches, heratige listed buildings, or asbestos filled 60's architecture, but then as soon as a company/developer puts up something new and interesting such as the new courthouses on the SE corner of Victoria Square, it's "MY GOD IT'S AN EYE SORE!!! TOO MUCH GLASS, WHATS WITH THAT? IT DOESN'T FIT WITH THE VIBE OF OUR QUAINT CITY..."

3) No right turns at the tram line through town... And why take it down North Terrace? It made more sence to me to lead it up O'Connel Street through North Adelaide then down Torrens Road or something?

I hear you Micra_King, Newcastle suffers from much of the same thing. There are some great community groups making some genuine progress against this thuggery lately which is very promising and I fully support. They have introduced some big curfews etc and assaults, general bashings and alcohol fueled crime has dropped in the CBD by about 33% which is just awesome, but still a long way to go. So leaving Perth won't necessarily get you away from these problems, it's happening all over the place. Some of these key issues are getting a lot of community backing lately that we need some decent changes to the law and policing powers to really clean the streets back up.

Canberra
- Clean, tidy
- Great infrastructure
- Abundance of jobs/money
- Expensive city to live in
- House prices ridiculous for what's on offer
- A few lovely months in spring/autumn, but weather mostly either freezing or stinking hot. Very dry, skin cracks etc.

Newcastle
- Great climate.
- Lush gardens and green grass.
- Plenty of rain, dam levels always full.
- Spacious/laidback lifestyle.
- Convenient to Sydney.
- Lack of jobs compared to Canberra and Sydney.
- Some good housing opportunities still available, get in quick before the next predicted mini boom.
- Huge bogan/boofhead factor.
- Crime/bashings/junkies levels are high, pick your chosen area to live carefully.
- EDIT: Some of the nicest beaches around :)

EDIT: See above :P Great point Geoff.

Yeah good points Geoff. I agree. Sydney is a great place to visit I think. I love North Sydney, there are many exceptional little pockets in and around there where you live amongst rainforest, close to beaches, harbour and yachts etc with your very own little slab of local convenient shops etc. But we are talking like $2m+ to get into an area like that, so it's simply unachievable for the common person.

You either need inheritance or a thriving business / high flying job to even think about it. A lot of wank too in those areas, rat race, competitive types who are just in it like a big competition to get the next latest merc to out class their neighbours and so forth. But that's not everyone, a lot of great, genuinely hard working types too who work DAMN HARD for the money. Some lovely, leafy suburbs to be found for the few who have that kind of cash.

There are some great opportunities for Newcastle with all these recent curfews etc to set a great example and show leadership in showing other cities, that thugs and alcohol related violence can be overcome to a certain extent. I hope the improvements continue to happen, it's really promising. Because at the moment, it's common even with the locals to say "Oh Hunter St, Oh Civic Park etc, you just don't go there at night time" which is really sad.

Darwin is great. Small city with a good number of modded cars great motorsport complex with events every weekend be it motorcross, speedway, track, drift, Drags, rally etc. And very cheap with motorkhanas only 20 bucks to enter and drift r track days are 60 bucks and to race a night at the drags its only 45 bucks. With not that many competitors you get 20-30 runs in a night of drags and 5 sessions of racing at 20 minutes each.

Good people and everyone drinks shit loads of piss. Great fishing, Down to earth girls never gets cold and not a bad town life if your into cludding.


Great roads and until not long ago open speed limits. But meh alas they are gone but we still have great roads. Pretty easy going cops.

Downs
very expensive fuel,power,rent,housing,food,groceries,water,rego shit like that. Basic all round living is alot higher in cost then most other states but in saying that we do get higher pay rates for most jobs because of that reason.


All in all not a bad place to live if you like the layed back easy going lifestyle with good people around you.

Though its a small place so you fuck one person over you will run into them and your reputation as a cock head travels fast.

Melbourne.
Good cross section of dining, entertainment and shopping in the CBD.
Once you get out of town nice places to visit and some good drives.
Cost of living not too high.
Climate used to be nice till the drought hit (if you prefer cooler)

Urban sprawl getting out of control.
Rail system outdated and overwhelmed.
Under resourced hospitals, police and Ambulance services.
Inner city nightclub violence/alcohol/liquor licensing issues.
Issues with emerging Asian Gangs and Somalian refugees. Especially in the Northern suburbs.
Traffic congestion and pushy/aggressive/stupid drivers.

Generaly less respect for people but maybe that's just a modern society thing happening everywhere.

Good read re:Melb.

I think the alcohol/violence theme is surfacing right across the country and reaching epidemic status. I reckon we will see some key changes in the next few years to make some changes in these areas.

Police/Ambos/Hospitals overloaded is also nothing new is it. Same goes in NSW and has been that way for a long time. Some key law changes such as curfews and no-tolerance attitude with some of the thugs can go a long way to freeing up police resources because deal with them once, not the same repeat offenders each and every weekend for example.

Japan has a smart system where they live by the "last train" ("shu den"). Everyone's last train in Tokyo to all the major areas comes by 12:30am MAX. After that, you're stuck with an expensive taxi. So you see so many people deliberately taking off by 12:30am and heading home because it just makes so much sense to catch the last train. I have although gone around the clock before and stayed on until the "first train" which comes again at about 6am lol. So there is always that option, which I am sure Aussies with their drinking culture would utilise more "first trains" than "last trains". The Japanese have a huge drinking culture too, just like Aussies, but slightly more controlled and conservative and many less angry thugs.

I love the culture/shopping of Melbourne, so much variety and yes a lot of sprawl heh.

I've never had the opportunity to be an overseas traveler but In a lot of things I've gathered that they do it better O/S. Rail systems are known for their efficiency in Japan. I'm also led to believe it's a very safe place to walk around, much less chance of assault then here in Melbourne or London/New York Etc.
If the Japanese could just get over their damm Whaling I'd visit there but until then it's a no go zone as far as I am concerned.

Actually I have been O/S once. To Sth Island NZ, lovely relaxed place, fantastic driving roads, no traffic congestion,ever, and polite courteous drivers and friendly people in general. Strangers in the street will smile and say hello if you meet their eye.

I say Canberra for too many reasons to list, and too few to negate.

By the way Cisco, I plan on visiting Nippon sometime soon before I start training in August :D

So you have to buy a 35 GTR for when I get there, I'll pay for fuel though!

Sean

Rockhampton. An extremely meh city, we have some big events every now and then that loads of people come to from all over the country eg: B&S Ball at new years or the beef week festivals but overall the city is pretty crap. An abundance of bogans and the fact that we are the beef capital makes for a dull city with cow statues everywhere. The public transport system is fked up and doesn't work properly (you get off your bus to find the next one you need to get on to continue left the bus stop 5 minutes ago and you have to wait another hour)
There aren't a whole lot of 'attractions' there's the public pools and the cinema and a go kart track. Not a whole lot for people to do... The beach is a mere 30 minutes away which is nice I guess.

The roads are in horrible condition with the local council sealing backroads and such that aren't that bad and leaving many main streets that are terrible alone (I think they have 0 logic skills)

Our fuel is expensive and for some reason it's cheaper if you travel further away (EG an extra 4 hours drive north to Mackay sees fuel come down at least 15c)

But all that said it's a fairly nice non-violent laid back city (usually) but you will find plenty of racism from the younger generations, but that's fairly common right?

All in all it's an alright place to visit but I wouldn't recommend moving here unless it improves.

I've worked in a bunch of countries / cities.
Rockhampton was good for a visit when I was in Gladstone. Some nice old buildings, & the view from the mountain you can drive up near by was OK.

If I had to choose a city in Australia to live, if it was only for the winter I'd pick Brisbane. If I had to stay in the same place the whole year, I think the best compromise would be Perth.

I melt in the sun & freeze in Melbourne's winter.

A bit surprising to hear coming from someone who lives in New Zealand :P

I've visited all the major east-coast cities for extended periods and I like Brisbane more than I like Sydney I must say - to me it's like Brisbane's a smaller and nicer version of what Sydney is. That said I'd choose Melbourne over each of them.

Yes, it can be hot as fuck in the summer but ignoring the weather anomalies I still think it's an awesome place to live - there's so much to see and do in the city and out in the sticks and most places inbetween :) I know that's not exactly the best pitch ever

Also daily_ricer, we have Farmers Union, BDO, Fringe and other stuff too :P I mean, you guys have the infamous Adelaide hills but we've got plenty of good driving roads over here too! That is what's important when you're selecting a new place to live after all.

---dens

Can't get good coffee in Adelaide -

and Ricer—what about Frog cakes!! ++

We don't seem to have Autumn or Spring anymore just fuckin' freezing one day and then bam- fuckin hot, no in between. -


Back to Adelaide -20 mins to anywhere +1, Family friendly +2, Good looking chicks +3 (Perth is better though)

Shootings -1, Bodies in barrels -2, conservative attitude to development (this is also a positive in so many ways which is completely lost on most other cities) -3, being called the 'City of Churches' -4 (get fucked)


I live in the hills just near a great section of the Classic Adelaide Rally which is awesome. ++

However if you are talkin the best city/state for diving it absolutely has to be Hobart/Tassie. - Awesome driving roads, everywhere. Go on, go to tassie and hire the fastest car you can find and you will smile from ear to ear for a month afterwards ++++

I agree with this, and I wholeheartedly blame Michael Atkinson.

---dens

NZ is a much smaller land mass surrounded by water, and so does not get so hot, and as a result does not suck the cold air up from Antarctica. Stats below highlight the point, maximum variation in Auckland is 1 to 32, Melbourne is -3 to 46.

Average Min & Max temperatures and Record Min & Max temperatures for each month in:
Auckland
Jan 16 23 7 32
Feb 16 23 8 32
March 15 22 6 30
April 13 19 4 27
May 11 17 2 23
June 9 14 2 21
July 8 13 1 19
Aug 8 14 1 19
Sept 9 16 1 22
Oct 11 17 2 24
Nov 12 19 5 27
Dec 14 21 6 32

Melbourne
Jan 14 26 6 46
Feb 14 26 4 43
March 13 24 3 42
April 11 20 2 35
May 8 17 -1 29
June 7 14 -2 22
July 6 13 -3 21
Aug 6 15 -2 25
Sept 8 17 -1 32
Oct 9 19 0 37
Nov 11 22 3 41
Dec 12 24 4 44

statistics...... now where getting serious.....

I'm just a serious guy...

there's a song like that, isn't there?

I can't do the freezing cold and dead gardens thing any more. I was raised on the coast and I need the lush green gardens and semi-regular rainfall to be really content.

PS I went up to Nikko (Tochigi prefecture) today and Japan and rolled around in the light and fluffy snow, pretty cool. It's bloody cold up there. Way too cold for me to live up there. In fact, Tokyo would be the furthest North I reckon I could live. It gets cold enough here, let alone up there. But Tokyo feels so mild now after getting back from up there.

If Canberra rained and had a touch more humidity, it would be the perfect city and I would settle there for life. But the climate cracks me.

Likewise, if Newcastle had less bogans/crime, I would too settle there for life. But the bogans really get to me.

Gah.

I would have to say Canberra is one of the best Australian cities:

*Great cafe culture.
*Public Service jobs.
*Great Summers/Cold Winters.
*Good roads.
*City design.
*Good schools.
*Nice play to bring up a family.
*Free preschool.
*Floriade.
*SummerNats.

I was born and raised in Canberra and I love it. I like the hussle and bussle of Sydney but I wouldn't wanna live there.

Canberra definitely has awesome roads, decent schools and an awesome cafe/bar culture. Some great points here Mallie (PS great to hear from you).

Summernats gah. lol.

Yeah,

Summernats was cool when I was 10 but I almost copped two defects today for nothing and all due to the cops looking out for 'hoons'..

Other than that Canberra's pretty cool :D

Sean