Ask an Australian

Mountain regions of Victoria, Tasmania and southern NSW get snow. There are alpine resorts about three hours drive from where I am in Melbourne. Canberra also gets snow once in a while.

Don't forget the rare snow that falls in various areas of higher elevation all the way up to the southernmost areas of Queensland (apparently the town of Stanthorpe there gets snow on average once every decade :p )
 
Canberra gets snow occasionally (very rarely) and it is usually of the piss poor variety. But I thought it was worth mentioning.
 
occasionally the hills down south get some snow, but not normally. I think on a rare occasion it has snowed in Perth, but never any further than the river, meaning where I lived hasn't recorded any snow.
 
So which are the best Australian cities to live in?

According to some posters here, if I have it right so far:

Melbourne is not good (my brother agrees) - yet it has pretty green trams.

Adelaide is not good - because of reasons.

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I have some family in Brisbane. Brisbane, according to my sister (I've never been to Australia myself), is a fairly featureless immensely spaced out (geographically speaking) place.

Sydney's got an Opera house and just stuff.

My brother works in Hobart, but wouldn't live there - but he's just strange so I don't know anything else about it.

Perth is on the west coast - so plainly odd.

Darwin sounds like a hell hole.

Canberra's just an administrative capital.

Where else is there?

My ex-sister-in-law (an Australian) came from Port Moresby, is that a nominally Australian sort of city? I mean I know it isn't - but is it? She was hell on legs.
 
Your post is quite accurate. Australian cities are overrated IMHO. Australia as a whole is an amazing place with so many different things to see and do, but the individual cities are expensive, hard to get around and once you visit the few "must see" spots, not a great deal that is of interest is left.

I'd say if I had to live in one forever, Brisbane for weather and lifestyle (Queensland is a beautiful place). I'd live in Perth if I was raising a family and Sydney followed by Melbourne if I was younger and still wanted to party the days away.
 
I think Canberra is the best, but then again I am incredibly biased on that front.

It's still the best though.

:p
 
International liveability rankings say something quite different. :p
 
My ex-sister-in-law (an Australian) came from Port Moresby, is that a nominally Australian sort of city? I mean I know it isn't - but is it? She was hell on legs.

Not even slightly.

In answer to your question: Melbourne for sport, bars and music. Sydney for food (sorry, Melbourne, it's just true) and beaches. Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide for being smaller and quieter. Perth for working for a mining company and hanging out with South Africans.
 
So which are the best Australian cities to live in?

My summary of Aussie cities:

Sydney: some decent tourist traps, and the beaches are good. Absolute nightmare to get around by car, most of the city hits gridlock around peak hours. Wouldn't live there if you paid me.

Melbourne (where I live): great for sport, art and cafe lifestyle, not much in the way of tourist traps. Much easier to get around by car than Sydney due to grid layout and really good freeway system. Melbourne is also the most "family friendly" city in Australia IMO.

Brisbane: TBH, I don't really like Brissy. Not too much to do there. However, it's less than an hour north to Sunshine Coast, and less than an hour south to Gold Coast. Brissy makes a good base to go to the other great areas of Queensland.

Adelaide: a quieter city, focused more on a north European culture. Adelaide is famous for having lots of churches. Not much else really, though a great base to head for the Barossa Valley.

Perth: absolute dump with nothing to do. Literally everything closes at 5-6pm. No nightlife to speak of. Only reason I'd go to Perth is for work, not play. Freemantle is okay if "colonial history" is your thing.

Hobart: basically another Perth with a little extra night life. Best bet is to hire a car and go see Port Arthur, then drive up the west coast of Tasmania through some of the best nature in Australia and catch the ferry across to Melbourne.

Darwin: don't even bother. Only reason to go to Darwin is to fly in on your way through to Kakadu or to drive south to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock.
 
Perth: absolute dump with nothing to do. Literally everything closes at 5-6pm. No nightlife to speak of. Only reason I'd go to Perth is for work, not play. Fremantle is okay if "colonial history" is your thing.

That is outdated info. Things don't close at 6pm any more since we have legislation for those who want to open to 9. It took a long time for us to even get to that.
 
I'd probably agree with Dale about Melbourne being better than Sydney for cars/traffic (though WTH hook turns?). On the flip side, Melbourne public transport is an abomination. The trams are a gimmick, stopping every 50m, which I guess is fine if you want to go somewhere within walking distance. People love to complain about Sydney public transport, but there's not that much wrong with it.

As you may or may not have noticed, there is an ever so slight rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. It is commonly said that the best view of Melbourne is in the rear vision mirror.

It should probably be mentioned that Melbourne is famous for commonly having four seasons in a day. Counter-intuitively, Melbourne often gets hotter temperatures than Sydney, and nothing much positive weather-wise to trade off against it.

In all honesty, though, I don't think living in Melbourne is all that different to living in Sydney. They're two pretty identical places. I have no idea what would possess a tourist to visit Melbourne, but that's because there's nothing of interest there, not because it'd be a terrible place to reside.

I think Canberra is the best, but then again I am incredibly biased on that front.

It's still the best though.

:p

Is this one of those 'if you say enough, it might come true' things?
 
Nah Canberra is a great lifestyle and the stereotypes are a good 20 years out of date.

It just isn't real visitor accessible because of the weird design, and a lot of Sydney people who move here make the mistake of going home every weekend and never getting to know the place or anyone who lives here.

Awful public transport though.
 
Nah Canberra is a great lifestyle and the stereotypes are a good 20 years out of date.

It just isn't real visitor accessible because of the weird design, and a lot of Sydney people who move here make the mistake of going home every weekend and never getting to know the place or anyone who lives here.

Awful public transport though.

I actually like the layout of Canberra, it makes more sense than Sydney. I know, I'm completely insane. :p

I agree on the public transport though. I could rant about that for hours.
 
I'd probably agree with Dale about Melbourne being better than Sydney for cars/traffic (though WTH hook turns?). On the flip side, Melbourne public transport is an abomination. The trams are a gimmick, stopping every 50m, which I guess is fine if you want to go somewhere within walking distance. People love to complain about Sydney public transport, but there's not that much wrong with it.

Hook turns are more or less CBD only, and there so you don't get a tram up your bum. It was fun to be driving with an international student in the passenger seat, who had no idea about the existence of hook turns, and then see them experience one for the first time. :lol:

I like Melbourne public transport. Though I've mostly used inner-city trams, and the trains. Never had to catch a bus in suburbia. What I've experienced of Sydney's was fairly crap. And yeah, Canberra's isn't the greatest from a convenience standpoint. Does run on time though.

In all honesty, though, I don't think living in Melbourne is all that different to living in Sydney. They're two pretty identical places. I have no idea what would possess a tourist to visit Melbourne, but that's because there's nothing of interest there, not because it'd be a terrible place to reside.

No way could I live in Sydney. Katoomba's about as close as I'd want to get. Melbourne I could happily move back to.
 
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