Melbourne, Victoria
Melbourne's population of 3.5 million enjoy living in a world-class city that offers an enormous range of career opportunities and lifestyles.Melbourne provides its residents with a myriad of dining and cultural opportunities and can lay claim to being Australia's cultural capital.
The shopping is the best anywhere in Australia and there is an enormous variety of parks and reserves around the city. Melbourne is also Australia's sporting capital, playing host annually to the Australian Tennis Open, the Australian Golf Open and the Australian Formula One Grand Prix,.
In quality of life surveys, Australia's big cities compare very favourably with cities in other countries. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Melbourne as Australia's best city and (equal with Vancouver and Vienna) as the most liveable best city in the world.
Melbourne, despite a reputation within Australia for changeable weather, scored the highest climate mark of any Australian city, partly because its dry summer heat leads to fewer days than the other cities on which a combination of heat and humidity cause discomfort.
Melbourne scored the highest possible mark for all categories, including: education, infrastructure, housing, crime rate, culture, access, diversity, environmental focus.
Houses in Melbourne
Housing is more expensive in the southern and eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Houses in better areas are priced at over $500,000. The most sought after inner eastern suburbs can be particularly expensive. For example, Malvern has a median price of $750,000, while Brighton's median price is close to $1,000,000. Inner western suburbs - within half an hour's train ride of Melbourne's central business district (CBD) - are usually more affordable (median prices less than $300,000).Where to Live in Melbourne
Melbourne is often said to be a city of two halves - the western half being working class while the eastern half is professional class. This is a very general picture and is an oversimplification of the true situation.Melbourne's different suburbs are not equally desirable. There are enormous differences in education, quality of life, and crime rates. Simply looking at house prices as a guide to the best place to live may not produce the results you hope for. Some areas of Melbourne - with high property prices - have higher than average crime rates, while others - with more modest house prices - have very low crime rates.
A train journey of one hour will take you into the Central Business District from all but the outermost suburbs.
People
According to the Bureau of Statistics, one third of the people who now call Melbourne home were born overseas.People from the UK are Melbourne's biggest migrant group, making up 5 percent of the population. The next biggest groups are Italians (2%), Vietnamese (2%) Greeks (2%), and New Zealanders (2%).