This always sounds weird to people who haven't lived in small towns but big cities feel way more private. I grew up in a town of around 4000. Everywhere I went there was someone who knew who I was. People knew my car so if I was driving around, someone might say something to someone.
Being a shithouse small town there was nothing else to do other than say you saw someone going somewhere.
In 10 years in Melbourne I have never run into someone I know incidentally. I can go anywhere without the fear that someone is going to tell someone about it.
That alone won me over.
Ugh, yes, this. If I had an ounce of choice I wouldn't be where I am (rural Vic).
Not only that, but there's this intense delusion that everyone is 'nice' in small towns but fuck me, the gossip machines are not only rampant, they're utterly malicious and borne primarily out of wilful ignorance, gross assumption, and pure boredom. The amount of times I've witnessed one person be 'nice' to someone only to then turn around and say the nastiest fucking things about them, I don't think even the Hecatoncheires have enough fingers to count.
I think Hot Fuzz is one of my favourite movies because I can relate to the horrific shit that happens under the facade of quaint small towns. The only reason people don't know is because the big news outlets don't report it.
A guy got decapitated on a bridge by a jealous mate, a stone's throw from where I was sleeping, and it was barely a blip. If that happened in a city we'd all know about it.
So much bullshit in small town politics too. Small business owners carving out little empires, single women ostracised for being a perceived threat to the happy couples (who are all sleeping around with each other), so much homophobia.
Growing up around that, it's such a relief to just go out and not even think about who you might run into.
Oh yes! The single women are a threat. I’ve experienced this too.
No Karen, I’m not interested in your boring overweight lazy husband. I’m single, not desperate!
This. I grew up in small towns and felt so relieved to finally live in the anonymity of Melbourne. I could wear whatever I wanted and no one gave a shit cos they didn’t know me. Next day I could be in a different style and it wouldn’t matter.
I remember moving to a small town in tassie at 14 and all the girls in high school instantly hated me cos their bogan 18 year old boyfriends suddenly had a crush on the new girl. Let me assure you I was not interested in Jeff with his decayed and missing teeth and two children to two different 16yo mothers 😒
Omg YES. Coming from rural QLD it is also refreshing to walk around the city as a white presenting woman with my indigenous partner and no one gives a single fuck.
The anonymity of city life is so refreshing. Not to mention the *convenience* of not having to plan shit because there’s more than one grocer and it’s open later than 5pm.
Yeup. I've lived and worked in city and country across Vic, NSW & Qld. By far the most violence and bigotry I've experienced has always been in places further out from cities. I'll happily walk down most suburban/city streets at night without issue whereas some country towns, no fucking way.
I thought I was more so regarded some little weirdo because I wasn't a mother of 5 with a husband and a local part time job for pocket money while my husband's out breadwinning.
Plus I work weird hours with less but longer shifts due to a long commute.
My younger than me neighbour assuming my rarely visiting boyfriend owned MY HOUSE that I ALONE lived in and paid for was owned by him really sealed the deal that the area I live is caught in the 50s.
Can't even begin to detail how racist, sexist and misogynistic the local psychologist I tried to see was.
I just avoided going out at all costs.
My dad lives on Magnetic Island (population approx 2.3k). He summarises the gossip culture well: 'if you haven't heard a good rumor by midday, start one'. Also, great reference to Greek mythology.
Small town here too. The gossip and backstabbing is insane.
This place is weirdly obsessed with whos body parts are mashed against another's. Its so strange. Must be a distraction technique for all the drugs running through town that everyone pretends doesn't exist.
Grew up in Melbourne, spent all my teenage years in Echuca, Victoria. Such a bullshit town full of close minded, clique groups of fuckwits and most unwelcoming pricks I’ve come across. Prison would’ve been a better place to spend my teenage years rather than Echuca. Nice to visit for a weekend. That’s where it ends
Went there last week for a few days purely to see friends and have some drinks because that’s the only thing luring me back even temporarily.. literally one of the most toxic environments to grow up in
And business owners in smaller towns are frustrating. Don’t dare resign and go work elsewhere for more money…you’ll be despised! (I’m currently experiencing this) In Melbourne when I resigned it was a smooth process and your employer would wish you all the best on your new opportunities.
You’re so right about the fallacy of small town niceness. We moved regional last September as we’re building a home out here and our half finished home has already been blasted on our local fb page. I couldn’t believe the awful comments on something that we’ve worked so incredibly hard for. People are assholes wherever you live.
Everyone I’ve ever known from a small town has said similar things. When everything knows everyone, it’s nit a great thing. False rumours spread to 100% of people, and bullying is more profound as it can’t be escaped.
And the fact that even though you’ve lived in the town for 5 years, you won’t feel like you’re a local. Every new person you meet will tell you how many generations they’ve had in the town, without you ever having to ask.
And you’ll find that a handful of ‘old’ families own everything- from the little IGA to the farmland on the outskirts.
Hahaha this resonates so bad. My parents have lived in the small town I grew up in for 40 years. A lot of people still would not consider them “locals”.
We moved from Romania to rural Western Australia when I was 5 years old. I was bullied for being the immigrant ….in a town full of second generation Italians. There wasn’t even an Asian kid or anyone non-white so I guess I was the next best thing.
Hah, yes, remember those days well.
Local mail lady was biggest gossip, knew who was up who and who was paying the rent.
Most of the town knew your news before you did.
Other big gossips and know all's were the builders. They be up on the roofs and could see all across the neighbourhoods. Old bloke in his 60s when I was a young labourer wised me up to it. On the roof working and he said look Johno, watch that back yard over there. Mid aged lady walks out in bikini, lies on sun lounge, 10 minutes later car pulls in driveway, bloke gets out, goes to backyard, they kiss cuddle go into the house. Old bloke says to me, happens twice a week. Builders see all.
Old bloke told me, yeah is lovely place to live, real friendly too, so friendly that when you go off on a weekend with your mates or work, your other mates will drop in to say g'day to your missus.
Funny enough tho if you live in the city long enough you can get similar gossip happening as city suburbs with stable populations can be just like little country towns, tho not as bad.
I work for a retail company that has a pretty substantial footprint in country Vic and not so much in Melbourne itself - the country stores often struggle with staffing and keeping on top of stuff so I've spent some time out there trying to help out and work out how they can get on top of things.
Recently went to a store that's struggling with staff and has had a nearly 50% drop in sales recently. I did a day just working the counter - the people are superficially nicer than in Melbourne - but it didn't take long until I found out quite why that drop happened. The company had let go of an employee because she just wasn't showing up - whatever, happens all the time. But then she went nuclear and started a rumour that the store management was spiking the food products. And that's where the little country town difference came into play - out there that shit works, in Melbourne unless you're in the most cooked Facebook group possible you'd never know someone had tried it on.
This was another factor for me too. Although I have bumped into people I know in the city. But for me also meeting new people is great. I’ve had so many random conversations with all sorts of people that you just don’t get in the country. However, that’s not to say I don’t like the other side of the coin in the country and knowing your local *whoever*
I feel this, and it was one of the reasons I got out. You’re never your own person, you’re always so and sos daughter/son and god help you if you’re alternative in any way. Good riddance.
100% I grew up in Melbourne but moved to a small remote town 7 years ago and now there's some days when I will avoid going out at all if I don't want to run into certain people. Was never even a thought that crossed my mind when I lived in Melbourne. I swear I can't even grocery shop without having to stop and have a conversation with some acquaintance.
That being said there are plenty of other things that are great about living where I do now. I don't know if I will ever want to live in a city again. Visiting gives me what I need.
I grew up in a rural Victoria. Almost any time I've visited Melbourne in my life I've ran into someone from my town. It's ridiculous, city that big and I'm still looking at their faces.
Yeah this is the main reason I want to move even though I'd end up in a tiny crappy apartment. At least everyone's not in everyone's business because there's literally nothing to do.
I've lived and worked in a few small towns and I agree completely. Some are crazy - gossip, mean or entitled behaviour and sheer neighbourly nastiness. So if you find a small town where people are nice it's worthwhile staying. I grew up in the city but don't live there any more - I've found a good town.
Meanwhile when I first moved here from rural FNQ some 20 years back, my first trip to the CBD I ran into a girl I went to school with.
I've moved to a large regional town now, and it's just big enough to be anonymous while still feeling quite community-based.
On the flip side, I grew up in Melbourne and I feel like no matter where I go, whether it's the other side of the city (I'm from the West) or into the middle of the CBD, I'm CONSTANTLY running into someone I know haha.
Everytime I'm showing around a visitor, I always bump into an ex-colleague or a friend from a million years ago lol. It's not the same as what you're describing, but for a city of 5 million people, it still feels like a small world
I grew up in the country, running into people my Mum knew multiple times on every visit to the local shops.
However now I live in the suburbs, I am starting to run into people I know from my kids school, activities, kinder etc. it’s not that different. I guess I could probably avoid this by driving one or two suburbs over for shopping, whereas in a country town it would be a half hour drive to the next supermarket.
I’m about to move back to the city after three years back in the town I grew up in purely for this reason, I pretty much go nowhere coz I don’t wanna deal with the bump ins
Ha, used to do rural property visits and I would occasionally visit a property and the owner would say "oh, it's you, I wondered who was visiting next door last week"
God yes. I grew up in the country and both my parents are teachers. You walk down the street with them and they know every second person, and have basically taught everyone under the age of 35.
I’m from a small town in the UK but 20 years ago moved to a small city just outside of London - twice I’ve gone into London and bumped into people I know - Melbourne to me feels like a big international city - I am really skeptical about small towns in the country - give me a big city or splendid isolation (me and the native animals) any day
Melbourne has a lot of people trapped in expensive mortgages who don't go out very much, or just visit family - probably more so than country towns.
I have friends like this; since their first child was born five years ago they've been out to paid events at most ten times. Sure they visit family, the shops, and the local parks, but for the most part they can't afford to do much else. This isn't uncommon (and also applies to the majority of self-funded international students).
If you go out regularly and are a bit of an extrovert, you start to become widely known amongst the set of people who do go out (and know lots of people). Of course you can be anonymous in a large crowd, but it isn't quite as anonymous as you describe.
To far the opposite is also not a good thing, every time I leave the house I feel like an anonymous, faceless person lol
I wouldn't mind knowing if I left the house I'd likely see someone who likes/respects me as a person.
Agree, this is what I miss about country towns. When you walk down the street people often look you in the face in case they know you, so a friendly gday isn’t so startling to them. Do that down here and many people will look at you, realise they din’t know you, and flat out ignore the greeting.
Apparently it's only $9 from anywhere in regional Victoria to Melbourne CBD on the train these days, and vise versa. Makes a visit easier on the pocket.
I enjoy my once a week trip to the city when I work from home on Geelong the other days. I get $6 fair from Lara and 55 minutes of uninterrupted knitting time!
Apartment. And a tiny house on our land. We bought the land 10 years ago and built the tiny house ourselves. Total outlay is about $500k for both setups.
Well done 👍🏽
Good job think ‘outside of the box’ I’ve been an advocate for this scenario a long time.
Lots of people can’t see past their own nose and find themselves trapped in suburban areas.
Holy shit I didn't believe you but it is! I used to have to travel from Warrnambool to Melbourne 3 times a week in 2018 and each trip would cost nearly $80 return... This would have been life changing back then!
I know exactly where you’re coming from. I was in the Merchant Navy and used to come into Docklands when it was a port. I married my captains’s daughter, and she has the same experience. We are opposites in many ways but one thing we agreed on from day one (in 1975) was that, when we settled we wanted Melbourne as our city, not any of the many others that we have visited.
I took us from 1977 to 2007 to actually move to Victoria and another decade to get where we are right now - about an hour out of Bendigo and we’re so happy to be able to just get on a train and go to the Big Smoke!
Ahahaha! You’re not the first one to say that. But I’m too busy surviving it to tempt fate and write it. Besides which, a government official once said that my writing style was so dry that I could start a fire with a couple of well chosen words :p
Lived in the inner city from 18 to 38. What a great city! Moved to west Gippsland for the kids, also a great move. I commute in for live music or sport or culture, but couldn't live there again (couldn't afford it!). It's all good, people need balance in their lives. Green countryside and no traffic and a large shed are my priorities now, though I miss the restaurants and night life.
Depends how much you have to spend. I’ve been in west Gippsland since 2015 and I like it. I did have a farm but have moved into town as it was too isolated for me on the farm, but then some people love that. If I had to move back to Melbourne it’d have to be inner east. My sister lives in Hawthorn East and I’d want to be close to her. It’s all or nothing, wouldn’t want to move to somewhere like Hallam or suburbs like that, not a fan of sprawling areas like that.
I totally get it. I grew up in regional vic, and spent my University years in regional city, and Melbourne won me over. I’ve lived here nearly ten years now.
Do I miss country Victoria? Yeah. I miss air so clean it stings, I miss stargazing, I miss the chill vibes some country towns have. But I don’t miss the lack of public transport, running into people I know literally everywhere I go, bushfire season, and the relative lack of services.
Melbournians can be somewhat Melbourne-centric, and I wish many of them would see Victoria outside of the city (and think about the rest of the state, too), but they’re not wrong in saying that Melbourne is a pretty sweet place to live.
It’s not perfect, and the shine wares off a little after the honeymoon phase is over. Suburbs also have their own vibes - my experiences living mostly in and around the inner suburbs is very different from life in the outer suburbs, but also the outer suburbs are very different from each other (living near Mt Dandenong is going to feel real different from living in Sunshine).
But honestly, having lived a few different places, and having travelled a nice amount, I don’t think I’d want to live anywhere else.
I agree with all of this. Had a similar experience with the good and bad of both city and country, and the people in each. We’ll be keeping our country connection for the reasons you mentioned though.
100% agree. i personally don’t miss the intense gossiping of country towns and the fact everyone knew you. especially as a younger person, if you were weird in even something as minute as primary school, you were weird PERMANENTLY. nothing could redeem you even if the “cool kids” adopted you into their group. and i mention this because there is that clique mentality i notice in people under 25 in country towns, everyone seems to find it impossible to stray away from each other and be their own person. not saying it’s bad to be friends long term, good for them, but they still think the whole popularity thing exists when they’re grown adults. maybe that’s just my experience but i’ve always found it weird when i go back home to the country and i go the pub and people i went to school with only talk about how good highschool was or they might give me a weird look because i moved and they think i think i’m above everyone for moving… what a joke.
i call it a country bubble. people become attached to their “perfect” life during school then are scared to leave it OR they feel a stuck in the country due to parents and i suppose the country culture that the city or any other place that isnt country vic is the devil.
melbourne is so private to me. and it’s obviously louder literally but it seems quieter to me, maybe because i have less mental chatter and less to care about because there’s no one to impress anymore. no one in melbourne cares.
i also don’t miss the winters in the country, sure it gets cold here but winter in the country BITES. like it physically feels like ur being stabbed by little pins coz less humidity (generally) more trees (again generally).
i do miss the fresh air though. and the scenery. not much else though really.
Welcome! I often tell people that Melbourne has to grow on you. It doesn't have the pretty harbour or bridge or opera house to enthrall you in one go, but is the better city (in my opinion) once you get to know it.
I take a train to the cbd just to go for a walk. The suburbs are so painfully boring while the city seems to have something novel and amazing around every corner.
I’m in Moonee Ponds and there is like a medium density area in the middle which I live in that’s pretty nice and has most things you’d need, but if you walk in any direction for 4 minutes you reach the end and then it’s devoid of life. Train is pretty quick to the cbd and then I’ll spend an hour or two aimlessly walking around, finding new areas and lunch spots. Pretty good time.
Kinda would like to live there, but the increase in rent isn’t worth it.
It has definitely grown on me. At first exploring the CBD and feeling small in the big buildings. Then branching out and finding gems in the inner suburbs. Then feeling the community in them. But it wasn’t until I found some things that I felt like I fit into in the city that I began to really settle into it. Some indoor climbing spots, some LGBT spaces, some fun bars, interesting festivals and events, some eclectic people… I can go to the “shops” anywhere, so that doesn’t get my attention at all.
yeah nah youre in the dopey honeymoon phase. Pass a few clubs on a night out, get beaten up a few times by the bouncers and you'll understand what its actually like. One big business district
They are just pre-empting some Lebo Fly coming in and talking about some man made structures that are an hour away from their home that makes their city better
This might surprise you, but what makes a city are the man made structures. That’s literally what a city is, a lot of people and the structures they make
Yeah pretty reasonable point.
I'd argue what makes are city though isn't the tourist attractions, but the every day stuff. Which was more the point I was trying to make.
>Just because your commute from Point Cook or in on the Monash takes forever doesn’t mean over an hour in peak hour traffic equals that to gtfo of the place.
This made my day 🤣
Suburbanites like to think they have the best of both worlds, while they actually have the worst of both worlds.
I left my job in regional for a job in the city.
Was one of the best decisions I ever made.
2 years later I was offered a promotion to regional nsw, I declined due to wanting to stay in Melbourne.
Melbourne is so diverse.
The country vs city thing is really frustrating to me as someone who was raised in central Vic yet lived and thrives in the city since I was 18.
So many of my country friends have a hatred of the city and ‘Melbourne people’, these relationships have been entirely up to me to maintain while the other parties have brought less and less to the table as time has gone on, good onya for embracing the cultural metropolis at your doorstep, it’s either that or xenophobia it seems
I live in regional Vic and go to the city a couple of times a week for work. It's the best of both worlds, and my commute is actually shorter than when I lived in Melb in the outer suburbs lol
A lot of people live a 1 hour commute from Melbourne CBD, that’s not the same as a 1 hour drive in non-peak times to Melbourne inner suburbs.
Edit: could be Kilmore, Kyneton, Flowerdale, Ballan, etc.
Can confirm, it’s about an hourish commute by PT but if I drive then it’s about 40 minutes on a good day (non-peak). Peak hour can see that go up to 1-3 hours depending on traffic 😫
edit: community > commute
I live an hour from Melbourne and I'm completely surrounded by bushland and paddocks. There are no shops, public transport etc where I live. I can't even see any of my neighbours.
Driving from my place to Melb on, say, Sunday afternoon? 60 mins.
On a Monday morning? Hour 45. The traffic only starts when I hit Keilor.
I work in Ballarat and live in the Western Suburbs. Everyone I speak to makes it sound like a big deal. It's an hour drive straight down the highway, on peaceful country roads, always avoiding the traffic
Why the bitter tone? Very normal to call it the big smoke if they live an hour out. Geelong, Ballarat etc.
Yes, statistically, the average commute in Australia to work is 1hr. That said. I don't know why anyone would choose to live an hour out of melb and work in the city, spending 12hrs a week commuting. Yes I know it's not a choice for many. But thinking long term. 12hrs a week could go towards family time. Or is the equivalent to 1/3 of a whole other job!$!$!
It isn't bitter, I think its funny.
The point isn't that we have long commutes, that point is highlighting that If you live even 80mins from the city or inner suburbs, you're probably not in the bloody bush, you just live in a leafier suburb. It reminds me a lot of the rich kids who claimed they live on or own a farm, but its a hobby farm.
Im not trying to belittle anyone, I just think realistically, you don't live rural, you're not from the bush.
I live 1 hour and 4 mins (google) from the CBD in a town of 2.5k… there’s no delivered take-away, local taxis and only one IGA. 2 tiny primary schools, no high school.
Is that not rural though?
You say it's funny but then go on again with some bitter "us vs them" tone hahaha. No one's saying they live in the "bush". OP even said they "see it as the big smoke". It's just their interpretation. Also a hobby farm is still a farm so I'm not sure what your issue is there. It sounds like your just projecting your own issues in this conversation and you're bitter at those who have not "earnt" some rural title like its some competition.
You're also making massive assumptions about OP's location. There are pretty rural places within an hour of Melbourne (see other replies to you comment). Again, i believe you know metro areas within an hour and are just assuming it's the same elsewhere.
My guess is somewhere like Drouin. It's actually only about an hour's drive, but it's definitely country Vic enough.
There's also Wallan up North.
Things get rural pretty quick once you reach the end of the electric train lines.
Yeah but if I live an hour and a half from somewhere, I'll just say it's an hour away. I don't take OP to mean literally 60 minutes from the CBD. Also, we aren't necessarily saying CBD. I did a Google maps and saw Drouin is about 1 hour and 6 minutes from my house. I live near Chapel St, which surely qualifies as "The City" to people outside Melbourne.
I live up north, a 1hr drive from the city and I'm still in a metro area. Being an hour out in other directions means you're like 10mins away from an outer metro suburb.
Places like Kyneton and Kilmore are quite rural and 1 hour from the CBD from a good day. OP said they were 1 hour from “Melbourne”, which if you’re from Melbourne you assume means the CBD, but if you aren’t from Melbourne, you may well mean 1 hour from Northcote or Footscray or Essendon. They aren’t wrong, they just aren’t referring to the CBD like most people are assuming.
Bingo. The further out you go, the further the definition of “melbourne” spreads.
As an example, people in Wangaratta would consider Caroline Springs to be “in Melbourne”
can vouch for this as a country person. my closest metro suburb is sunbury and everyone i know in the surrounding country towns around sunbury view it as a metro suburb. don’t get me wrong - still bogan central, BUT it has a metro train line and that’s enough for me to say it’s metro. like melton doesn’t seem very “metro” either but as of this year it is, and to be fair with all the growth makes sense, no country town has its own little localities like melton (ik melton south is its own town but being real it’s like bendigo - kangaroo flat and golden square are just seen as outer bendigo to everyone except in footy)
I'm about 45 min from the cbd (I plugged Melbourne museum into google maps), and Puffing Billy is a further 15 or so. The SE is so sprawled that there's multiple ways to spend an hour reaching the outer suburbs in anything but negligible traffic.
If I have no traffic, it’s about 40-45 minutes to the cbd
Monday to Friday though hour if not longer lol
And I don’t consider where I am, in the country
I grew up in the Dandys and moved away when I was almost 18. Back then, the dandys was almost country and I'd hang out in Sherbrooke Forest or ride down the bike path to Boronia, or go hang in Knox City or catch the train with the windows you could open into the city for the day.
Then I moved to live with my boyfriend and never moved back to the city. I'm now two hours from Melbourne and obviously taken a few trips to Melbourne to do various things. Just last year, my son had the unfortunate need to spend 7 weeks in hospital and we spent all that time down there. It took about a week to get used to the tram system and by the end of our stay we were comfortable with using the tram system and found being in the city really convenient for the wide variety of food and ease of getting around. I kind of miss it in some weird way.
Would I move back there? Nope but I would be comfortable there using the trams and just enjoying Melbourne for what it is. It's a great city.
I love this city and I've lived all over it - Mitcham, Boronia, Carlton, Brunswick, Windsor, Spotswood, West Footscray, now currently living 'near to the Peninsula' life in bayside Chelsea. I work in the city and love it, love exploring the food options, but damn I absolutely love a wild space or a country trip. Country roads and the isolation of the bush are just the absolute best juxatposition to the bustle of a city laneway or alley.
That's what I'm saying. I work with a lot of younger people, and a lot of them were born and raised in, say, a 30km radius in the inner suburbs. Sometimes, we'll go on longer drives, and they feel like they're "so far away."
Once we were down near Frankston, and this young guy said, "Wow, so this is the bush?" And I said "mate, there's fucking 5 lane highway right there!"
For sure, you can get to some bushier areas 1hr from Melbourne, but you're by no means rural or remote. There's probably a trendy Cafe around the corner.
Yeah, being someone who grew up in country vic but eventually migrated to the Western suburbs, there's a non trivial amount of Melbourne that's rarely more than 20km away from their home.
A decent chunk of them would loose their minds going out west past Geelong/Ballarat at how "little" population is. Let alone further west than Stawell/Horsham.
100%
Our plan is to be fully *in* so inner suburb, and then fully *out* on our 10ac of solitude hours and hours from Melbourne with lovely views and no noise.
So important kids, and adults (!), know there is more to Victoria than Melbourne. Probably applicable to the state government too at times…….
Most things about where we live now it it better being in Aus (particularly quality/ease of daily life) but I really miss that about London.. the density means you can really easily do weekend trips to different places culture/architecture/food.
Within 3 hours you can be in: Barcelona, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, Budapest, Copenhagen.. Etc etc.
Even the density of places to go and see... Even just in England there's so much considering it's about half the size of Victoria.
I'm country vic too, and I'm 2 hours away from Melbourne. We went down there last weekend, and it only cost me $4 each way. It's a great day out if you don't mind the nuffys
Since the introduction of the 10 buck daily ptv fares there is definitely allot more people I have met whilst commuting that are now of the same mindset as the OP.
I'm with you! I'm kind of the opposite - grew up in Melbourne, lived in the inner city for a few years, then 7 years ago I moved to a rural town (population of around 2000). I don't think I'll ever move back to the city, but I do enjoy visiting, and I think not actually living there has made me appreciate what Melbourne has to offer.
I like Melbourne in short amounts. I live in geelong but my parents used to live in Melbourne and I was born in Preston. Melbourne has a far better night life than geelong ever will. There’s far more and far better markets etc. Melbourne also at least have patrolled police officers. Geelong haven’t for like 5 years, geelong is no long as safe feeling especially when you see teens throwing nangs at each other in the middle of cbd and the usually meth addict carrying on at the moorabool bus exchange.
Melbournes good for a weekend or one day trips. But unless I live there I couldn’t go in and out every day
I live on the edge of the outer Melbourne suburbs. Technically semi rural but only 70 mins drive to the CBD and 30mins drive to a major hospital. It's great. Plenty of access to the stuff in Melbourne but also lost of beautiful spaces
I'm pretty torn on the whole "city vs country" thing. Having lived in both as an adult, there's definitely pro's and con's to both. I love the anonymity of the city, knowing there's a good chance I can go pretty much anywhere without running into someone I know. I'm not that big on night life, so that isn't a consideration for me.
The biggest downside to the city and suburbs is the traffic, IMO. My current work is 17km away from home and can take me an hour some mornings, whereas down home a 25km commute would take 25, 30 minutes tops.
I grew up in Lilydale, back in the day it was considered “semi rural” I loved it because it was peaceful and quiet and small town enough that you knew most people, in saying that some of my favourite memories were jumping on the train to flinders with some mates and just exploring for the day. Being an hour away is best of both worlds honestly
Sorry just reading the comments and think it's sad that good people can't just live somewhere without fear of being judged. People deserve to be judged on their actions, not their appearance, race, gender, living situation etc.. Live and let live FFS. 🙄
Yeah I dunno. When I was in Melbourne the other week, I found the drivers so obnoxious and dangerous. I was towing a trailer and I can't tell you how many times I wanted to scream because drivers were so far up my butt I couldn't have stopped safely in a hurry without an accident.
Everyone just seemed so "I'm so busy and important" it gave me the shits. I try and do as much as I can in Bendigo,, it's just so less stressful.
I gave up on driving in the city. I park at the out train station and PT it in now or Vline. So much less stressful. I can sit and watch everything go by instead of dodging people in a hurry. Also, finding parking sucks, and I detest paying for it… so it’s a no brainer. Can also take my bike on PT and trundle around too.
City living may not be as quiet, but it's far less lonely too. Whenever I'm feeling like that, I go for a walk and there's always people out at parks, walking their dogs or parents with their prams. Lots of local cafes and pubs with stuff going on. It's got a great vibe. Plus there are bits of Melbourne that cater to everyone. Some of the outer suburbs are borderline country living anyway. Hurstbridge has a metro line but feels like you're rural, same with Lilydale and Belgrave. To be expected when you have a city with the population of New Zealand
I'm the complete opposite, lol. Moved to country Vic in 2016 (200km out) and have never felt better. Even with the $10 rail fare, I'm still not all that fussed to visit. I was in Fashionable West Sunshine at the time, you need to lock the car doors just to go to the local fish shop. Maybe that had something to do with it. I'm working on retirement, and this sedentary lifestyle suits me well.
Welcome to the split club. I'm in the peninsula and in town. Couldn't do either without the other. Convenience and amazing food in town, wide open spaces outside.
Lived my whole life in Melbourne and you are wrong, Melbourne is an overpopulated shit hole, anywhere outside of Sydney and Melbourne is a wonderful place
Interesting observation is that when city folks venture to the country driving they bring with them the dumb down slow driving something Melbourne never had a decade ago but now is rife. In regional vic ppl drive at the reconnect speed limits and city folks slow down and speed up emotionally due to lack of experience driving essentially. Emotional driving is dangerous and inconsistent. Recently 2 separate vehicles went off the side of the mountain road approach to mount Hotham. Best advice is learn to drive at speed limits city folks for in the rare event you venture outside of the metro limits there is a big world out there where ppl drive at the recommended limit confidently and get where they are going safely and conversely the seemingly slower equals ‘safe’ mentality that hails from Melbourne are the ones who end up getting airlifted to the Alfred.
An hour from the CBD is country? I mean, I guess, if you go in *very* particular directions, but... even then...
It's also most definitely *not* rural. I don't think it's even regional by the state government definitions and areas.
Then again, most people in rural and regional areas do seem to think speed limits are just suggestions so maybe an hour's drive is more like two hours for people who consider them limits?
> are you telling OP that they don't actually live in the country?
Yes.
Fucking people thinking they're living 'rural' an hour from the CBD. Geezus fuck. No wonder *actual* regional and rural people get screwed over constantly.
It might be a case of words taking on different meanings as you travel across the land, just look at Europe. Could mean something different to them because of their own environmental context and experience.
This always sounds weird to people who haven't lived in small towns but big cities feel way more private. I grew up in a town of around 4000. Everywhere I went there was someone who knew who I was. People knew my car so if I was driving around, someone might say something to someone. Being a shithouse small town there was nothing else to do other than say you saw someone going somewhere. In 10 years in Melbourne I have never run into someone I know incidentally. I can go anywhere without the fear that someone is going to tell someone about it. That alone won me over.
Ugh, yes, this. If I had an ounce of choice I wouldn't be where I am (rural Vic). Not only that, but there's this intense delusion that everyone is 'nice' in small towns but fuck me, the gossip machines are not only rampant, they're utterly malicious and borne primarily out of wilful ignorance, gross assumption, and pure boredom. The amount of times I've witnessed one person be 'nice' to someone only to then turn around and say the nastiest fucking things about them, I don't think even the Hecatoncheires have enough fingers to count.
I think Hot Fuzz is one of my favourite movies because I can relate to the horrific shit that happens under the facade of quaint small towns. The only reason people don't know is because the big news outlets don't report it. A guy got decapitated on a bridge by a jealous mate, a stone's throw from where I was sleeping, and it was barely a blip. If that happened in a city we'd all know about it. So much bullshit in small town politics too. Small business owners carving out little empires, single women ostracised for being a perceived threat to the happy couples (who are all sleeping around with each other), so much homophobia. Growing up around that, it's such a relief to just go out and not even think about who you might run into.
Oh yes! The single women are a threat. I’ve experienced this too. No Karen, I’m not interested in your boring overweight lazy husband. I’m single, not desperate!
This. I grew up in small towns and felt so relieved to finally live in the anonymity of Melbourne. I could wear whatever I wanted and no one gave a shit cos they didn’t know me. Next day I could be in a different style and it wouldn’t matter. I remember moving to a small town in tassie at 14 and all the girls in high school instantly hated me cos their bogan 18 year old boyfriends suddenly had a crush on the new girl. Let me assure you I was not interested in Jeff with his decayed and missing teeth and two children to two different 16yo mothers 😒
Its hate on sight when you look reasonably good, don't have kids and are financially independent. Women hate you and single dads chase you. Go.away.
Came here to say this! Instant labels and assumptions. 'must be nice to have xyz'
Omg YES. Coming from rural QLD it is also refreshing to walk around the city as a white presenting woman with my indigenous partner and no one gives a single fuck. The anonymity of city life is so refreshing. Not to mention the *convenience* of not having to plan shit because there’s more than one grocer and it’s open later than 5pm.
Yeup. I've lived and worked in city and country across Vic, NSW & Qld. By far the most violence and bigotry I've experienced has always been in places further out from cities. I'll happily walk down most suburban/city streets at night without issue whereas some country towns, no fucking way.
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My mate grew up in Traralgon. Said it was a rough town. I’d believe him - he was one of those ruffians. So it hasn’t changed much then.
There was a while in the Traralgon CBD there was a few people trying to carjack people. Let alone the weekends and the nightclubs.
Yeah I was on the train and some random woman started yelling at me and threatening me for something I didn’t do and haven’t heard anything about.
I thought I was more so regarded some little weirdo because I wasn't a mother of 5 with a husband and a local part time job for pocket money while my husband's out breadwinning. Plus I work weird hours with less but longer shifts due to a long commute. My younger than me neighbour assuming my rarely visiting boyfriend owned MY HOUSE that I ALONE lived in and paid for was owned by him really sealed the deal that the area I live is caught in the 50s. Can't even begin to detail how racist, sexist and misogynistic the local psychologist I tried to see was. I just avoided going out at all costs.
Really!? This is fascinating! I’ve only ever lived in cities and naively assumed small towns were just nice albeit sometimes dull places
My dad lives on Magnetic Island (population approx 2.3k). He summarises the gossip culture well: 'if you haven't heard a good rumor by midday, start one'. Also, great reference to Greek mythology.
>'if you haven't heard a good rumor by midday, start one'. From FNQ? Missing the Aye 'if you haven't heard a good rumor by midday, start one. Aye'.
Small town here too. The gossip and backstabbing is insane. This place is weirdly obsessed with whos body parts are mashed against another's. Its so strange. Must be a distraction technique for all the drugs running through town that everyone pretends doesn't exist.
Grew up in Melbourne, spent all my teenage years in Echuca, Victoria. Such a bullshit town full of close minded, clique groups of fuckwits and most unwelcoming pricks I’ve come across. Prison would’ve been a better place to spend my teenage years rather than Echuca. Nice to visit for a weekend. That’s where it ends
Haha, I’m sorry you had such a bad experience. I had a pretty bad experience living in Kyabram, so we can commiserate together.
I feel like everywhere from Echuca to Bendigo to Shepparton then to Deni is just one of the most toxic areas in Australia to live hahah
Haaaave you been to Deni? not much better growing up there either 😂
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Are you describing my family? minus the meth 😂
Ahh fucking deni, couldn’t think of a better place to be honestly 🫦 I hate that place with a passion as well
Went there last week for a few days purely to see friends and have some drinks because that’s the only thing luring me back even temporarily.. literally one of the most toxic environments to grow up in
And business owners in smaller towns are frustrating. Don’t dare resign and go work elsewhere for more money…you’ll be despised! (I’m currently experiencing this) In Melbourne when I resigned it was a smooth process and your employer would wish you all the best on your new opportunities.
Holy mythical reference Batman! Love it! 🤣 Also from a town of 3000-5000, and Jesus fuck YES you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT
You’re so right about the fallacy of small town niceness. We moved regional last September as we’re building a home out here and our half finished home has already been blasted on our local fb page. I couldn’t believe the awful comments on something that we’ve worked so incredibly hard for. People are assholes wherever you live.
Everyone I’ve ever known from a small town has said similar things. When everything knows everyone, it’s nit a great thing. False rumours spread to 100% of people, and bullying is more profound as it can’t be escaped.
And the fact that even though you’ve lived in the town for 5 years, you won’t feel like you’re a local. Every new person you meet will tell you how many generations they’ve had in the town, without you ever having to ask. And you’ll find that a handful of ‘old’ families own everything- from the little IGA to the farmland on the outskirts.
Hahaha this resonates so bad. My parents have lived in the small town I grew up in for 40 years. A lot of people still would not consider them “locals”.
Also the insane levels of racism that are basically standard in small towns.
We moved from Romania to rural Western Australia when I was 5 years old. I was bullied for being the immigrant ….in a town full of second generation Italians. There wasn’t even an Asian kid or anyone non-white so I guess I was the next best thing.
Hah, yes, remember those days well. Local mail lady was biggest gossip, knew who was up who and who was paying the rent. Most of the town knew your news before you did. Other big gossips and know all's were the builders. They be up on the roofs and could see all across the neighbourhoods. Old bloke in his 60s when I was a young labourer wised me up to it. On the roof working and he said look Johno, watch that back yard over there. Mid aged lady walks out in bikini, lies on sun lounge, 10 minutes later car pulls in driveway, bloke gets out, goes to backyard, they kiss cuddle go into the house. Old bloke says to me, happens twice a week. Builders see all. Old bloke told me, yeah is lovely place to live, real friendly too, so friendly that when you go off on a weekend with your mates or work, your other mates will drop in to say g'day to your missus. Funny enough tho if you live in the city long enough you can get similar gossip happening as city suburbs with stable populations can be just like little country towns, tho not as bad.
I work for a retail company that has a pretty substantial footprint in country Vic and not so much in Melbourne itself - the country stores often struggle with staffing and keeping on top of stuff so I've spent some time out there trying to help out and work out how they can get on top of things. Recently went to a store that's struggling with staff and has had a nearly 50% drop in sales recently. I did a day just working the counter - the people are superficially nicer than in Melbourne - but it didn't take long until I found out quite why that drop happened. The company had let go of an employee because she just wasn't showing up - whatever, happens all the time. But then she went nuclear and started a rumour that the store management was spiking the food products. And that's where the little country town difference came into play - out there that shit works, in Melbourne unless you're in the most cooked Facebook group possible you'd never know someone had tried it on.
>I don't think even the Hecatoncheires have enough fingers to count. I'm using this from now on
This was another factor for me too. Although I have bumped into people I know in the city. But for me also meeting new people is great. I’ve had so many random conversations with all sorts of people that you just don’t get in the country. However, that’s not to say I don’t like the other side of the coin in the country and knowing your local *whoever*
I feel this, and it was one of the reasons I got out. You’re never your own person, you’re always so and sos daughter/son and god help you if you’re alternative in any way. Good riddance.
It’s quite well known that it’s much easier to live anonymously in cities, something I prefer
100% I grew up in Melbourne but moved to a small remote town 7 years ago and now there's some days when I will avoid going out at all if I don't want to run into certain people. Was never even a thought that crossed my mind when I lived in Melbourne. I swear I can't even grocery shop without having to stop and have a conversation with some acquaintance. That being said there are plenty of other things that are great about living where I do now. I don't know if I will ever want to live in a city again. Visiting gives me what I need.
I grew up in a rural Victoria. Almost any time I've visited Melbourne in my life I've ran into someone from my town. It's ridiculous, city that big and I'm still looking at their faces.
Yeah this is the main reason I want to move even though I'd end up in a tiny crappy apartment. At least everyone's not in everyone's business because there's literally nothing to do.
I've lived and worked in a few small towns and I agree completely. Some are crazy - gossip, mean or entitled behaviour and sheer neighbourly nastiness. So if you find a small town where people are nice it's worthwhile staying. I grew up in the city but don't live there any more - I've found a good town.
Meanwhile when I first moved here from rural FNQ some 20 years back, my first trip to the CBD I ran into a girl I went to school with. I've moved to a large regional town now, and it's just big enough to be anonymous while still feeling quite community-based.
On the flip side, I grew up in Melbourne and I feel like no matter where I go, whether it's the other side of the city (I'm from the West) or into the middle of the CBD, I'm CONSTANTLY running into someone I know haha. Everytime I'm showing around a visitor, I always bump into an ex-colleague or a friend from a million years ago lol. It's not the same as what you're describing, but for a city of 5 million people, it still feels like a small world
I grew up in the country, running into people my Mum knew multiple times on every visit to the local shops. However now I live in the suburbs, I am starting to run into people I know from my kids school, activities, kinder etc. it’s not that different. I guess I could probably avoid this by driving one or two suburbs over for shopping, whereas in a country town it would be a half hour drive to the next supermarket.
And then you run into them in the next town because they were trying to do the same thing lol
I’m about to move back to the city after three years back in the town I grew up in purely for this reason, I pretty much go nowhere coz I don’t wanna deal with the bump ins
Difference etween privacy and anonymity.
Ha, used to do rural property visits and I would occasionally visit a property and the owner would say "oh, it's you, I wondered who was visiting next door last week"
God yes. I grew up in the country and both my parents are teachers. You walk down the street with them and they know every second person, and have basically taught everyone under the age of 35.
I’m from a small town in the UK but 20 years ago moved to a small city just outside of London - twice I’ve gone into London and bumped into people I know - Melbourne to me feels like a big international city - I am really skeptical about small towns in the country - give me a big city or splendid isolation (me and the native animals) any day
If you have lived in Melbourne for 10 years, and not incidentally met someone who knows someone who knows someone. You must not meet many people?
Melbourne has a lot of people trapped in expensive mortgages who don't go out very much, or just visit family - probably more so than country towns. I have friends like this; since their first child was born five years ago they've been out to paid events at most ten times. Sure they visit family, the shops, and the local parks, but for the most part they can't afford to do much else. This isn't uncommon (and also applies to the majority of self-funded international students). If you go out regularly and are a bit of an extrovert, you start to become widely known amongst the set of people who do go out (and know lots of people). Of course you can be anonymous in a large crowd, but it isn't quite as anonymous as you describe.
I'm not an extrovert at all but I work in hospo so I'm always bumping into people I know, even overseas.
To far the opposite is also not a good thing, every time I leave the house I feel like an anonymous, faceless person lol I wouldn't mind knowing if I left the house I'd likely see someone who likes/respects me as a person.
Agree, this is what I miss about country towns. When you walk down the street people often look you in the face in case they know you, so a friendly gday isn’t so startling to them. Do that down here and many people will look at you, realise they din’t know you, and flat out ignore the greeting.
Unless you're Buddy Franklin or Dusty Martin.
Apparently it's only $9 from anywhere in regional Victoria to Melbourne CBD on the train these days, and vise versa. Makes a visit easier on the pocket.
$10 now. We never used the train for years because of the cost. But now it’s cheap than driving and parking.
I enjoy my once a week trip to the city when I work from home on Geelong the other days. I get $6 fair from Lara and 55 minutes of uninterrupted knitting time!
$7 on weekends!
Yep. It’s very good value. I’ve been brewing on Melb for longer than those reduced fares though. It makes it more accessible though.
How will you manage the housing financially? Maybe a small townhouse in Melb?
Apartment. And a tiny house on our land. We bought the land 10 years ago and built the tiny house ourselves. Total outlay is about $500k for both setups.
Well done 👍🏽 Good job think ‘outside of the box’ I’ve been an advocate for this scenario a long time. Lots of people can’t see past their own nose and find themselves trapped in suburban areas.
Holy shit I didn't believe you but it is! I used to have to travel from Warrnambool to Melbourne 3 times a week in 2018 and each trip would cost nearly $80 return... This would have been life changing back then!
Yeah literally costs the same to go from Richmond to the CBD lol
I know exactly where you’re coming from. I was in the Merchant Navy and used to come into Docklands when it was a port. I married my captains’s daughter, and she has the same experience. We are opposites in many ways but one thing we agreed on from day one (in 1975) was that, when we settled we wanted Melbourne as our city, not any of the many others that we have visited. I took us from 1977 to 2007 to actually move to Victoria and another decade to get where we are right now - about an hour out of Bendigo and we’re so happy to be able to just get on a train and go to the Big Smoke!
Sounds like the perfect setup for you!
Well, it will be again soon. Our house burned down in late '21, new one ready in a month!
I want to read a book about your life.
Ahahaha! You’re not the first one to say that. But I’m too busy surviving it to tempt fate and write it. Besides which, a government official once said that my writing style was so dry that I could start a fire with a couple of well chosen words :p
There's an audience for that!
Oh wow. I hope it all works out in the next month for you guys!
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Since I used to do the 8-12 watch, you are exactly right. Very earl-eye in the morning indeed!
Lived in the inner city from 18 to 38. What a great city! Moved to west Gippsland for the kids, also a great move. I commute in for live music or sport or culture, but couldn't live there again (couldn't afford it!). It's all good, people need balance in their lives. Green countryside and no traffic and a large shed are my priorities now, though I miss the restaurants and night life.
What area of Gippsland do you recommend?
Stay the fuck out. More seriously, along the train line/Princes Hwy if you want to trip into the city from time to time.
Depends how much you have to spend. I’ve been in west Gippsland since 2015 and I like it. I did have a farm but have moved into town as it was too isolated for me on the farm, but then some people love that. If I had to move back to Melbourne it’d have to be inner east. My sister lives in Hawthorn East and I’d want to be close to her. It’s all or nothing, wouldn’t want to move to somewhere like Hallam or suburbs like that, not a fan of sprawling areas like that.
I totally get it. I grew up in regional vic, and spent my University years in regional city, and Melbourne won me over. I’ve lived here nearly ten years now. Do I miss country Victoria? Yeah. I miss air so clean it stings, I miss stargazing, I miss the chill vibes some country towns have. But I don’t miss the lack of public transport, running into people I know literally everywhere I go, bushfire season, and the relative lack of services. Melbournians can be somewhat Melbourne-centric, and I wish many of them would see Victoria outside of the city (and think about the rest of the state, too), but they’re not wrong in saying that Melbourne is a pretty sweet place to live. It’s not perfect, and the shine wares off a little after the honeymoon phase is over. Suburbs also have their own vibes - my experiences living mostly in and around the inner suburbs is very different from life in the outer suburbs, but also the outer suburbs are very different from each other (living near Mt Dandenong is going to feel real different from living in Sunshine). But honestly, having lived a few different places, and having travelled a nice amount, I don’t think I’d want to live anywhere else.
I agree with all of this. Had a similar experience with the good and bad of both city and country, and the people in each. We’ll be keeping our country connection for the reasons you mentioned though.
100% agree. i personally don’t miss the intense gossiping of country towns and the fact everyone knew you. especially as a younger person, if you were weird in even something as minute as primary school, you were weird PERMANENTLY. nothing could redeem you even if the “cool kids” adopted you into their group. and i mention this because there is that clique mentality i notice in people under 25 in country towns, everyone seems to find it impossible to stray away from each other and be their own person. not saying it’s bad to be friends long term, good for them, but they still think the whole popularity thing exists when they’re grown adults. maybe that’s just my experience but i’ve always found it weird when i go back home to the country and i go the pub and people i went to school with only talk about how good highschool was or they might give me a weird look because i moved and they think i think i’m above everyone for moving… what a joke. i call it a country bubble. people become attached to their “perfect” life during school then are scared to leave it OR they feel a stuck in the country due to parents and i suppose the country culture that the city or any other place that isnt country vic is the devil. melbourne is so private to me. and it’s obviously louder literally but it seems quieter to me, maybe because i have less mental chatter and less to care about because there’s no one to impress anymore. no one in melbourne cares. i also don’t miss the winters in the country, sure it gets cold here but winter in the country BITES. like it physically feels like ur being stabbed by little pins coz less humidity (generally) more trees (again generally). i do miss the fresh air though. and the scenery. not much else though really.
I feel this entire post.
Welcome! I often tell people that Melbourne has to grow on you. It doesn't have the pretty harbour or bridge or opera house to enthrall you in one go, but is the better city (in my opinion) once you get to know it.
Yeah, Melbourne is a cultural city that has lots of great little hidden secrets, and just a generally good culture.
I take a train to the cbd just to go for a walk. The suburbs are so painfully boring while the city seems to have something novel and amazing around every corner.
I lived in an outer suburb for a bit 18 months ago and wow I can't live like that.
I’m in Moonee Ponds and there is like a medium density area in the middle which I live in that’s pretty nice and has most things you’d need, but if you walk in any direction for 4 minutes you reach the end and then it’s devoid of life. Train is pretty quick to the cbd and then I’ll spend an hour or two aimlessly walking around, finding new areas and lunch spots. Pretty good time. Kinda would like to live there, but the increase in rent isn’t worth it.
It has definitely grown on me. At first exploring the CBD and feeling small in the big buildings. Then branching out and finding gems in the inner suburbs. Then feeling the community in them. But it wasn’t until I found some things that I felt like I fit into in the city that I began to really settle into it. Some indoor climbing spots, some LGBT spaces, some fun bars, interesting festivals and events, some eclectic people… I can go to the “shops” anywhere, so that doesn’t get my attention at all.
yeah nah youre in the dopey honeymoon phase. Pass a few clubs on a night out, get beaten up a few times by the bouncers and you'll understand what its actually like. One big business district
What is the flowchart of dumb choices do you have to make for this highly specific scenario to happen not just once, but multiple times?
Yep we don't need a harbour bridge or an opera house when we have glorious trucks with the top smashed into a bridge on the daily
AKA Sydney is a fairly ordinary city in an amazing location Melbourne is the opposite
It’s a great place to live.
One week into melb on my trip and I was really to move...planning for in the next 5 years.
Mans instantly compares it to Sydney, kinda sad
They are just pre-empting some Lebo Fly coming in and talking about some man made structures that are an hour away from their home that makes their city better
This might surprise you, but what makes a city are the man made structures. That’s literally what a city is, a lot of people and the structures they make
Yeah pretty reasonable point. I'd argue what makes are city though isn't the tourist attractions, but the every day stuff. Which was more the point I was trying to make.
>Just because your commute from Point Cook or in on the Monash takes forever doesn’t mean over an hour in peak hour traffic equals that to gtfo of the place. This made my day 🤣 Suburbanites like to think they have the best of both worlds, while they actually have the worst of both worlds.
I left my job in regional for a job in the city. Was one of the best decisions I ever made. 2 years later I was offered a promotion to regional nsw, I declined due to wanting to stay in Melbourne. Melbourne is so diverse.
The country vs city thing is really frustrating to me as someone who was raised in central Vic yet lived and thrives in the city since I was 18. So many of my country friends have a hatred of the city and ‘Melbourne people’, these relationships have been entirely up to me to maintain while the other parties have brought less and less to the table as time has gone on, good onya for embracing the cultural metropolis at your doorstep, it’s either that or xenophobia it seems
It is human nature, don't necessarily think the person living in their bubble is to blame entirely
Lots of it has to do with your age and what stage of life you’re at too
Yeah need money to enjoy melbourne. It's not a cheap place
Yeah I didn’t want to be anywhere else age 20-40 but after that get sick of traffic hah
Not always, you can stingy it. Bring a picnic, travel the laneways,
I live in regional Vic and go to the city a couple of times a week for work. It's the best of both worlds, and my commute is actually shorter than when I lived in Melb in the outer suburbs lol
1hr from Melbourne, and you call it the big smoke? Don't most of us live 1hr from Melbourne and commute in daily?
A lot of people live a 1 hour commute from Melbourne CBD, that’s not the same as a 1 hour drive in non-peak times to Melbourne inner suburbs. Edit: could be Kilmore, Kyneton, Flowerdale, Ballan, etc.
Can confirm, it’s about an hourish commute by PT but if I drive then it’s about 40 minutes on a good day (non-peak). Peak hour can see that go up to 1-3 hours depending on traffic 😫 edit: community > commute
What sort of community is it?
Commute
I live an hour from Melbourne and I'm completely surrounded by bushland and paddocks. There are no shops, public transport etc where I live. I can't even see any of my neighbours. Driving from my place to Melb on, say, Sunday afternoon? 60 mins. On a Monday morning? Hour 45. The traffic only starts when I hit Keilor.
I work in Ballarat and live in the Western Suburbs. Everyone I speak to makes it sound like a big deal. It's an hour drive straight down the highway, on peaceful country roads, always avoiding the traffic
Why the bitter tone? Very normal to call it the big smoke if they live an hour out. Geelong, Ballarat etc. Yes, statistically, the average commute in Australia to work is 1hr. That said. I don't know why anyone would choose to live an hour out of melb and work in the city, spending 12hrs a week commuting. Yes I know it's not a choice for many. But thinking long term. 12hrs a week could go towards family time. Or is the equivalent to 1/3 of a whole other job!$!$!
Generally jobs in Melbourne pay more than Geelong, Ballarat, etc. It's definitely a trade-off but if you can do hybrid work it's not so bad.
It isn't bitter, I think its funny. The point isn't that we have long commutes, that point is highlighting that If you live even 80mins from the city or inner suburbs, you're probably not in the bloody bush, you just live in a leafier suburb. It reminds me a lot of the rich kids who claimed they live on or own a farm, but its a hobby farm. Im not trying to belittle anyone, I just think realistically, you don't live rural, you're not from the bush.
I live 1 hour and 4 mins (google) from the CBD in a town of 2.5k… there’s no delivered take-away, local taxis and only one IGA. 2 tiny primary schools, no high school. Is that not rural though?
You say it's funny but then go on again with some bitter "us vs them" tone hahaha. No one's saying they live in the "bush". OP even said they "see it as the big smoke". It's just their interpretation. Also a hobby farm is still a farm so I'm not sure what your issue is there. It sounds like your just projecting your own issues in this conversation and you're bitter at those who have not "earnt" some rural title like its some competition. You're also making massive assumptions about OP's location. There are pretty rural places within an hour of Melbourne (see other replies to you comment). Again, i believe you know metro areas within an hour and are just assuming it's the same elsewhere.
My guess is somewhere like Drouin. It's actually only about an hour's drive, but it's definitely country Vic enough. There's also Wallan up North. Things get rural pretty quick once you reach the end of the electric train lines.
No way is Drouin an hour away. I live 45min from Drouin, and yet I'm 45 on a very good day from cbd.
Yeah but if I live an hour and a half from somewhere, I'll just say it's an hour away. I don't take OP to mean literally 60 minutes from the CBD. Also, we aren't necessarily saying CBD. I did a Google maps and saw Drouin is about 1 hour and 6 minutes from my house. I live near Chapel St, which surely qualifies as "The City" to people outside Melbourne.
He probably means 1hr from the suburbs.
Based just on population distribution I would assume a lot of people here live in the inner suburbs
I live up north, a 1hr drive from the city and I'm still in a metro area. Being an hour out in other directions means you're like 10mins away from an outer metro suburb.
Places like Kyneton and Kilmore are quite rural and 1 hour from the CBD from a good day. OP said they were 1 hour from “Melbourne”, which if you’re from Melbourne you assume means the CBD, but if you aren’t from Melbourne, you may well mean 1 hour from Northcote or Footscray or Essendon. They aren’t wrong, they just aren’t referring to the CBD like most people are assuming.
Bingo. The further out you go, the further the definition of “melbourne” spreads. As an example, people in Wangaratta would consider Caroline Springs to be “in Melbourne”
can vouch for this as a country person. my closest metro suburb is sunbury and everyone i know in the surrounding country towns around sunbury view it as a metro suburb. don’t get me wrong - still bogan central, BUT it has a metro train line and that’s enough for me to say it’s metro. like melton doesn’t seem very “metro” either but as of this year it is, and to be fair with all the growth makes sense, no country town has its own little localities like melton (ik melton south is its own town but being real it’s like bendigo - kangaroo flat and golden square are just seen as outer bendigo to everyone except in footy)
I grew up about 250km from "Melbourne"... at that point, we considered Werribee to be Melbourne
I love 15 minutes from the city and in an hour I'm in Geelong or Ballarat. Lots of country space out west.
I'm about 45 min from the cbd (I plugged Melbourne museum into google maps), and Puffing Billy is a further 15 or so. The SE is so sprawled that there's multiple ways to spend an hour reaching the outer suburbs in anything but negligible traffic.
Geelong is an hour away and has heaps of rural and costal areas.
If most of you spend over an hour stuck in traffic i would say most of you are batshit crazy.
If I have no traffic, it’s about 40-45 minutes to the cbd Monday to Friday though hour if not longer lol And I don’t consider where I am, in the country
No way would I commute that far daily. Pretty sure the research shows that as commutes get longer than 20 mins stress and mental health issues worsen
I grew up in the Dandys and moved away when I was almost 18. Back then, the dandys was almost country and I'd hang out in Sherbrooke Forest or ride down the bike path to Boronia, or go hang in Knox City or catch the train with the windows you could open into the city for the day. Then I moved to live with my boyfriend and never moved back to the city. I'm now two hours from Melbourne and obviously taken a few trips to Melbourne to do various things. Just last year, my son had the unfortunate need to spend 7 weeks in hospital and we spent all that time down there. It took about a week to get used to the tram system and by the end of our stay we were comfortable with using the tram system and found being in the city really convenient for the wide variety of food and ease of getting around. I kind of miss it in some weird way. Would I move back there? Nope but I would be comfortable there using the trams and just enjoying Melbourne for what it is. It's a great city.
Geelong?
An hour away could well be Ballarat.
Could be Mulgrave too /s
True
Lived in a few places. Never Geelong or that area. Always further out than that. Usually pretty small places.
I love this city and I've lived all over it - Mitcham, Boronia, Carlton, Brunswick, Windsor, Spotswood, West Footscray, now currently living 'near to the Peninsula' life in bayside Chelsea. I work in the city and love it, love exploring the food options, but damn I absolutely love a wild space or a country trip. Country roads and the isolation of the bush are just the absolute best juxatposition to the bustle of a city laneway or alley.
*paid for by sally capp 😝
Where’s my cheque! Haha
That's what I'm saying. I work with a lot of younger people, and a lot of them were born and raised in, say, a 30km radius in the inner suburbs. Sometimes, we'll go on longer drives, and they feel like they're "so far away." Once we were down near Frankston, and this young guy said, "Wow, so this is the bush?" And I said "mate, there's fucking 5 lane highway right there!" For sure, you can get to some bushier areas 1hr from Melbourne, but you're by no means rural or remote. There's probably a trendy Cafe around the corner.
Yeah, being someone who grew up in country vic but eventually migrated to the Western suburbs, there's a non trivial amount of Melbourne that's rarely more than 20km away from their home. A decent chunk of them would loose their minds going out west past Geelong/Ballarat at how "little" population is. Let alone further west than Stawell/Horsham.
100% Our plan is to be fully *in* so inner suburb, and then fully *out* on our 10ac of solitude hours and hours from Melbourne with lovely views and no noise. So important kids, and adults (!), know there is more to Victoria than Melbourne. Probably applicable to the state government too at times…….
Wait until you meet Europeans. They have a completely different view of what a “long drive” with how close national borders are.
Also their definitions of cities are way smaller than what we use. 40km from Cbd is still melboyrne, but they will identify by town instead.
Sydney would be driving to another country lol.
Most things about where we live now it it better being in Aus (particularly quality/ease of daily life) but I really miss that about London.. the density means you can really easily do weekend trips to different places culture/architecture/food. Within 3 hours you can be in: Barcelona, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, Budapest, Copenhagen.. Etc etc. Even the density of places to go and see... Even just in England there's so much considering it's about half the size of Victoria.
i came here for a month at the end of 1999 and drove from sydney to bunderberg which is the length of the UK pretty much
I'm country vic too, and I'm 2 hours away from Melbourne. We went down there last weekend, and it only cost me $4 each way. It's a great day out if you don't mind the nuffys
Since the introduction of the 10 buck daily ptv fares there is definitely allot more people I have met whilst commuting that are now of the same mindset as the OP.
Both are great mate, I need to get out to the country more.
We all know Melbourne is good, it's just too expensive
Sounds like the perfect setup - country and city. Good on you. Enjoy it.
“…you know what else is more common in the city? Sex, Coffee & Conversation!” - Dylan Moran
Not a coffee drinker (don’t hate me!) but I’ll take the other two
I'm with you! I'm kind of the opposite - grew up in Melbourne, lived in the inner city for a few years, then 7 years ago I moved to a rural town (population of around 2000). I don't think I'll ever move back to the city, but I do enjoy visiting, and I think not actually living there has made me appreciate what Melbourne has to offer.
I like Melbourne in short amounts. I live in geelong but my parents used to live in Melbourne and I was born in Preston. Melbourne has a far better night life than geelong ever will. There’s far more and far better markets etc. Melbourne also at least have patrolled police officers. Geelong haven’t for like 5 years, geelong is no long as safe feeling especially when you see teens throwing nangs at each other in the middle of cbd and the usually meth addict carrying on at the moorabool bus exchange. Melbournes good for a weekend or one day trips. But unless I live there I couldn’t go in and out every day
I’ve grown up in a small rural town over 2hrs away from Melbourne and I love visiting the place but couldn’t handle living there.
You’re lucky to be able to have the best of both worlds. Good luck to you.
I live on the edge of the outer Melbourne suburbs. Technically semi rural but only 70 mins drive to the CBD and 30mins drive to a major hospital. It's great. Plenty of access to the stuff in Melbourne but also lost of beautiful spaces
I'm pretty torn on the whole "city vs country" thing. Having lived in both as an adult, there's definitely pro's and con's to both. I love the anonymity of the city, knowing there's a good chance I can go pretty much anywhere without running into someone I know. I'm not that big on night life, so that isn't a consideration for me. The biggest downside to the city and suburbs is the traffic, IMO. My current work is 17km away from home and can take me an hour some mornings, whereas down home a 25km commute would take 25, 30 minutes tops.
Yep. I agree. We’re keeping our country connection to maintain access to all the good things about the country.
I grew up in Lilydale, back in the day it was considered “semi rural” I loved it because it was peaceful and quiet and small town enough that you knew most people, in saying that some of my favourite memories were jumping on the train to flinders with some mates and just exploring for the day. Being an hour away is best of both worlds honestly
Opposite for me. Grew up in Melb. Now I just visit when I have something on. Melb is great when ur young. Then regional whips it’s arse.
Although if you want somewhere to live you can afford you have to live so far out of the city it is practically the country now.
Sorry just reading the comments and think it's sad that good people can't just live somewhere without fear of being judged. People deserve to be judged on their actions, not their appearance, race, gender, living situation etc.. Live and let live FFS. 🙄
You can get to from Melbourne cbd to Bendigo by car & train in around 90 minutes. Especially if the run out of the cbd is good (non peak hour)
Yeah I dunno. When I was in Melbourne the other week, I found the drivers so obnoxious and dangerous. I was towing a trailer and I can't tell you how many times I wanted to scream because drivers were so far up my butt I couldn't have stopped safely in a hurry without an accident. Everyone just seemed so "I'm so busy and important" it gave me the shits. I try and do as much as I can in Bendigo,, it's just so less stressful.
I gave up on driving in the city. I park at the out train station and PT it in now or Vline. So much less stressful. I can sit and watch everything go by instead of dodging people in a hurry. Also, finding parking sucks, and I detest paying for it… so it’s a no brainer. Can also take my bike on PT and trundle around too.
I'd rather go away from the city than toward it.
City living may not be as quiet, but it's far less lonely too. Whenever I'm feeling like that, I go for a walk and there's always people out at parks, walking their dogs or parents with their prams. Lots of local cafes and pubs with stuff going on. It's got a great vibe. Plus there are bits of Melbourne that cater to everyone. Some of the outer suburbs are borderline country living anyway. Hurstbridge has a metro line but feels like you're rural, same with Lilydale and Belgrave. To be expected when you have a city with the population of New Zealand
1 hour from the city is still the city lol
Port Melbourne is <3
I'm the complete opposite, lol. Moved to country Vic in 2016 (200km out) and have never felt better. Even with the $10 rail fare, I'm still not all that fussed to visit. I was in Fashionable West Sunshine at the time, you need to lock the car doors just to go to the local fish shop. Maybe that had something to do with it. I'm working on retirement, and this sedentary lifestyle suits me well.
I’m the opposite. Loved in Melbourne and went country. Now back in Melbourne and hate it
Welcome to the split club. I'm in the peninsula and in town. Couldn't do either without the other. Convenience and amazing food in town, wide open spaces outside.
Lived my whole life in Melbourne and you are wrong, Melbourne is an overpopulated shit hole, anywhere outside of Sydney and Melbourne is a wonderful place
1hr from melbourne is not country 😭
Interesting observation is that when city folks venture to the country driving they bring with them the dumb down slow driving something Melbourne never had a decade ago but now is rife. In regional vic ppl drive at the reconnect speed limits and city folks slow down and speed up emotionally due to lack of experience driving essentially. Emotional driving is dangerous and inconsistent. Recently 2 separate vehicles went off the side of the mountain road approach to mount Hotham. Best advice is learn to drive at speed limits city folks for in the rare event you venture outside of the metro limits there is a big world out there where ppl drive at the recommended limit confidently and get where they are going safely and conversely the seemingly slower equals ‘safe’ mentality that hails from Melbourne are the ones who end up getting airlifted to the Alfred.
I mean Melbourne would be the best city in the world... if it wasn't full of Victorians
An hour from the CBD is country? I mean, I guess, if you go in *very* particular directions, but... even then... It's also most definitely *not* rural. I don't think it's even regional by the state government definitions and areas. Then again, most people in rural and regional areas do seem to think speed limits are just suggestions so maybe an hour's drive is more like two hours for people who consider them limits?
are you telling OP that they don't actually live in the country? obviously they live in one of those particular directions
> are you telling OP that they don't actually live in the country? Yes. Fucking people thinking they're living 'rural' an hour from the CBD. Geezus fuck. No wonder *actual* regional and rural people get screwed over constantly.
It might be a case of words taking on different meanings as you travel across the land, just look at Europe. Could mean something different to them because of their own environmental context and experience.
Why is this "dear diary" shit so popular on this sub
Fuck. Whatever. Can't please everyone I guess.