Melbourne, Australia

[daniel01 0]

Melbourne, Australia:
is one of the world's Most livable cities, it's famous for its Multi-cultural bakgrounds, and history
Anyway here's a poll, see what you like or don't like about Melbourne.
Fell free to say what you fell like about Melbourne, good and bad. (not rude though)

[cityhawk 12]

The second pic looks good, but the first one is kind of dark. Melbourne looks like a beautiful place, although I would have to see it more in depth before I could take the poll.

[koretake 0]

Aah... Melbourne. Well, it's a little too cool for me in winter there, and it gets damn hot in summer. They don't play proper footy there either and the place is crawling with Aussies. Apart from that, it's brilliant mate. I've given you a nine.

[zane900 1]

I think I like the higher density parts of town, but, the lower density parts of town seem tod be somewhat "dirty" might be a good word to describe them. I don't really know, I don't think I'd like to live there, I defenatly prefer New york City, but there are some places where I'd not rather be more then australia.

How's the commercial district there? I know it's not as big as new york city's, and new york city's commercial district is one of the things I admire about new york city. A city without a really, really big commercial office district is not the place for me.

So, as you see, I don't think australia would suit me.

[daniel01 0]

The thing that really puts Melbourne off is the damn Housing Commissions. These housing commissions used by the homeless people, and the migrants who came to Australia. So the Government decided to put the homeless people in the residential disasters, for them to sleep in. Soon when Migrants started to arrive from Italy, Greece, all over Europe, and Asia, They too lived there, for a cheaper option, (Qoute me on this, i might be wrong). Any way, these disatser buildings, should be re - done, if not torn down and re - built.

Don't get put off about these buildings. The rest of Melbourne and it's outer suburbs, are grand, new housing booms, meaning new estates, with good looking houses. The further out you go the newer the area's and housing.

[3018019 1]

Yea those housing commision buildings are absolute eyesores. On top of that they were built in the dingy area of town way back when and those areas have since become very trendy. Some of these flat have great views and the land they occupy would be worth millions. I think it's only a matter of time before the government can no longer resist the cash that could be had from a sell off.

Also i feel i need to correct zane. It is an extremely broad and inaccurate statement to say that the low density suburbs are 'dirty'. I'm assuming that u mean they are the less desireable places to live. The greater Mebourne area occupies almost the same area (approx 8000 square kilometres) as the greater New York City area, inclusive of New York City, Newark, New Jersey, etc, yet it has about a sixth of the population. Melbourne's low density suburbs are actually very nice places to live. Out of the entire city there are only 3 or 4 suburbs (totalling maybe 10 square kilometres) that one might class as undesirable or 'dirty'. Melbourne and indeed Australia in general has no urban areas at all that one might class as ghettos. This is almost undoubtably due to Australia having far less people below the povety line than in the US. THe CIA factbook stats that Australia's % of population below the povety line as N/A.

Anyway it's a given that Melbourne's commercial zone is smaller than that of New York. Most cities in the world have smaller commercial zones than New York does. All Australian cities have less skyscrapers then the average city because down here space is not at a premium (at least up until recently). In a city like Sydney of some 4 million it is not impossible to have a stand alone house with a garage and backyard. That would be unheard of somewhere like New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and a number of other places. However things are changing, it is becoming more desirable to live in proximity to the CBD and the various governments are actively trying to limit the urban sprawl and the drain in puts on infrastructure and the environment. In all the cities over the last few years residential talls are starting to spring up. In Melbourne alone a few of the recent buildings include Eureka, Verve, and Freshwater Place and i'm sure many more will follow in the not too distant future.

In short i put melbourne as a 9. Its a great place to live but like everywhere in the world there is always something that could do with improving.

[BroncosXR8 0]

Melbourne is a very eye pleasing city, especially the inner city very nice parks and public ammeneties (spelling?), anyway Melbourne has a great nightlife and commercial district, also is very sport orientated. The outer suburbs I agree are very far from dirty, although they are cramped (by Aussie standards). All in all Melbourne would be a great city if the played real footy and there were no Victorians living there.

[sloppet 3]

The Best thing in Melbourne?? The Big Day Out festival! I would like to visit this city one day, maybe I'll have an opportunity to do that in the future...

[Ephphatha 0]

No, the BEST thing about melbourne is, The Cat Empire! I'd visit melbourne more often if my grandparents didn't live there.

[hamsterTK 93]

ive never been there, but what ive read its just any other major world city. its got its good and its bad parts, and it has all the amenities a major city would. I would say its comparable to most other cities its size. im sure its got its share of sprawl and is full of punks/gangstas/chavs whatever you want to call them and also has nice pedestrian friendly areas with rapid transit and also is relatively safe due to a good police presence.

7/10

[Tickford 0]

I live in Melbourne and I have to say that it is one of the best cities in the world. It also has a large Greek and Italian community, might I add it has the biggest grek population outside of Greece and I happen to be one of them. Lygon Street, the Italian district is beatiful and it is shop after shop of italian restaraunts with a few good gelati shops in there as well. Football (soccer) is on he move upwards thank god and we do love our sport, the transport netork is a bit dodgy, but what I like the best, well in my suburb anyway, is there is no crime. My parents have lived in the same house for 30 years with no alarm sytem and have never been robbed.

Melbourne also hosts the Formula 1, Australian Open Tennis and Australian Open Golf

There are many parks around Melbourne, and if you get to see the city at night it is beautiful and we love trams!!!

[Asimov 0]

Wow, that looks like a nice place to live, especially the last picture is astonishing

Could you please post some more pictures and Infos about the Tram-System?

[deadwoods 542]

Originally posted by: Tickford...

...quote>

Not to mention a huge Vietnamese community. You want a variety of people, cultures and esp. foods, we've got em!

If you look closely at the pic above, you can see my work to the right rear of the Arts Centre spire. That must be an old pic, it's missing Freshwater Place, the PWC building and a few others on the south side of the Yarra.

There are some great pics of the Flinders St station there. I was looking at it tonight (I'm up on the 22nd floor facing the city) and it looks amazing with the yellow flood lighting. I must get around to BATting it one day.

As to the poorer areas, there are some dumpy working class suburbs, but as mentioned they are nothing like the ghetto's of major cities in other parts of the world. Melboure grew like many of the big cities. If you were poor you lived near where you worked, if you were well off you could afford transportation. So the inner suburbs of Melbourne were the small single-fronted places close to the factories. To add to this, the river in the pic above (the Yarra) divides the city along roughly North/South lines. If you were working class, you lived north of the river near the factories as you couldn't afford the punt (thus the name Punt Road) to get across. So some of the richest suburbs are south of the river and close to the city (such as Toorak and South Yarra). Of course all the old workng class single fronted homes in places like Richmond and Collingwood are now prime realeastate and the average working folk can't afford to live there.

Melbourne is also called the garden city. The city centre is ringed by parks on three sides (you can see some of it on the bottom left of the pic above). It's very pretty in Spring and Autumn (we don't have "Fall" in Australia as most of our trees are evergreen). It can be cold in winter (down to 0C or 32F) and hot in summer (up to 40C or 100+F), but the big issue with the weather is the variability. The rest of Oz loves to stir us about the weather... "four seasons in one day" or "if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute".

Incase you haven't guessed I'm from Melbourne, so I had to give the poll a 10! Now where's Lakeyboy and the other Melbournites?

[Tickford 0]

Melbourne's tram network:
1) Trams through the suburbs



2) Through the CBD (City)

3) Some of Melbourne's various trams

[Asimov 0]

Interesting, thanks for the pics. But to be honest, all trains except the third one look more like they should be in a museum..

What the situation about the Tram in melbourne in general? Is it an efficient system, any expansions planned and whow well is it accepted by the people? Do they like that system or do msot people stick with their cars?

[Tickford 0]

Originally posted by: Asimov Interesting, thanks for the pics. But to be honest, all trains except the third one look more like they should be in a museum..

What the situation about the Tram in melbourne in general? Is it an efficient system, any expansions planned and whow well is it accepted by the people? Do they like that system or do msot people stick with their cars?quote>

 

We have a lot of new trams like the third one, and a few other different looking new trams, but the old one's still run on the tram system.

People in Melbourne love the trams, I ride on it every so often for short commute, and i rode it once for a long commute to Box Hill and it took over an hour, on the train I think ,although someone can back me up, it's 20 min from flinders street station. I think it's effecient especially for short commute, but I dont ride the tram to school so someone else can answer that better.

As far as extensions go, the latest was the line to Vermont and before that it was the line to Box Hill. 

Us in the north eastern suburbs (ie Bulleen, Templestowe, Doncaster) are getting robbed of tram service although there may be a proposed extension of the route 48 from North Balwyn to Doncaster, but that may be a while out. 

Every Sunday when I was young, I used to get the Bus to Collins Street and take the 112 to South Melbourne to watch the National soccer league. One Sunday evening we beat our arch rivals and as I was going home in an over capacity tram with freinds down Claredon Street, someone lit a flare on the tram and left it on the ground, within seconds the smoke fills the tram, we all escape and the orange flare smoke billows out of the doors and a few open windows. It was quite a spectacle and an unbelievable scene, just wish I had a camera with me.

Here's a few more pics

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A tip for all visitors, if you love trams find a spot on Swanston street and watch trams go whizzing by every half minute.

Sorry for the big post

[mattb325 28,893]

Nice Pics

I used to live in Melbourne for a while, and I loved the trams. Sydney (where I live now) used to have the biggest tram system in the world but they ripped it up in the 60's in favour of roads. 

Everyone in Melbourne loves their trams.

BUT the great news is - Sydney put the trams back!!!! They've been expanding it ever since the restored the network, and they'll keep expanding it as well. Trams are far better than buses and more reliable. It goes without saying that they are exponentially better than cars.

Here's a pic:

[Asimov 0]

Yeah, the Tram has a kind of revival all over the world, I read thast in the last 10 years 60 citys all over the world started a new Tram-Network, usually very innovative types which use both, the existing railwy-network and new road-on-Tracks (Actually a system that was invented in the german Citys Karlsruhe, that why this new form of the Tram is often called the "Karlsruhe-System". Unfortunatley my current place of study, L

[lakeyboy 12]

Only just noticed this thread today because my visits are unfortunately getting less and less frequent as I have now lost interest in SC4. But I have to say 'Who are the two members who gave Melbourne a zero?' I want to buy them both tickets to fly to Melbourne, see an aussie rules match at the MCG, buy them a meal in a restaurant on Fitzroy or Lygon streets, take them to the top of the stunningly beautiful new Eureka Tower and take them down to Phillip Island, the Mornington Peninsula and the Great Ocean Road! (Just kidding of course!) Here is my favourite picture of Melbourne which is currently my desktop wallpaper:

And my favourite Melbourne building? I would have to say Flinders Street Station closely followed by Eurkea Tower. I love Flinders Street. Such a magnificent building. The crown of Melbourne's streets and I'm also one of the half of Melburnians who like Federation Square. And also don't forget the mighty MCG. The Melbourne Cricket Ground. Melbourne's biggest church with services running 2-3 times a week celebrating the religion of sport with up to 100,000 people at once.

But you must be thinking there has to be something about Melbourne I don't like. Well there is 2 things. The first is Graffiti. Melbourne is quite frankly full of it. In the CBD it is rare but on the railway lines and in the inner city suburbs there is quite alot. This is slowly getting fixed with new programs and funds to eliminate it. The second is poor public transport. Sure, the inner city suburbs of Melbourne get great public transport with trams and trains not too far from their doorstep but in the outer suburbs public transport in the forms of trains and trams is rare with only infrequent bus services covering areas such as Mernda, Point Cook, South Berwick, Narre Waren North, Rowville, Doncaster and other similar suburbs. The problem is that Bracksy and Batchy care more about roads than public transport.

But to me, Melbourne is the best city in the world and I couldn't think of living anywhere else on this planet.

P.S. Go Pies and Socceroos!

[plasticboy 36]

More images:

[daniel01 0]

This might have nothing to do with Melbourne's votes but
here is a new picture, of Melbourne's tallest Skyscraper, and the World's tallest Residential building.
Although Queensland's Residential building Q1, which is higher, plans have been made for the Eureka Tower, to have a mast 53.75m added, after its completion.

The Eureka Tower was completed on the 23rd May, 2006. The Cranes were brought down, and it looks a bit like this.


If you cannot view the picture, here is a link.
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=131515

You can post your own pictures of the Eureka's construction, or the completetion
remember keep voting for Melbourne, Australia.

[Exocet 0]

Originally posted by: daniel01

This might have nothing to do with Melbourne's votes but

here is a new picture, of Melbourne's tallest Skyscraper, and the World's tallest Residential building.

Although Queensland's Residential building Q1, which is higher, plans have been made for the Eureka Tower, to have a mast 53.75m added, after its completion.quote>

 

Spires don't count, and if the spire's only in "planning" stages then its certainly out of the equation.  Q1 remains unsurpassed

Trixy Melbourne hobitses trying to steal Queensland's crown

[daniel01 0]

Whoa mate, this topic has been dead for a year
revive alive

 

[Sardonic Arbiter 0]

Its in Australia +10, it has trams +3, its in Victoria -2, they play AFL there -3, they won't sign the Murray Darling Deal -2, they are sticking it to John Howard +2, they are too close to Tasmania -3, the Boxing Day Test is played there +4, Americans pronounce the word wrong -1

=7

PS In case someone hasn't already told the Americans Melbourne is pronounced MEL-ben and if you ever come over here make sure you remember and tell all your friends especially any Southerners, they seem to be the worst offenders.

[jarrod321 0]

some pics that i took from the rialto observation deck and from westgate freeway

[jacqulina 162]

awesome place beautifull pics

[ajay_law 1]

I love Melbourne, I was there yesterday in Templestowe. And considering I only live 45 minutes away from the most livable city in the world is pretty special.
These are some shots that I took while I was at the Commonwealth Games last year. 








I like the second one the best!

[lukazoid 0]

Melbourne lookes really good.. im a queenslander =).... from brizzy.. i have life planes to travel there for the architectual university.. the best in aussie turf!! i love architecture.. because i suck at getting images on the web.. jusat look up google go on images and type brisbane , australia and theres some really wonderful pics!!!

[jotauveefe 24]

Melbourne seems to be really nice , and a good place to live

[Shortie12 1]

I looove Melbourne.