Comments on: Melbourne Vs. Sydney: The Debate Continues

By: Trish

Trish — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:42:11 +0000

I agree. It’s stupid, and you really can’t attack Sydney (or Melbourne!) unless you’ve lived in both. Shallow blonde? Really? Want to get a bit more politically incorrect?
And what do tourist attractions have to do with anything? You do the rounds when you first move here and then you take your overseas visitors. They don’t influence your every day life. Personally I love Melbourne and I’d love to live there, but being a Sydney girl my whole life, I really don’t think you can dismiss a place based on the tourist experience. What do you learn about living there after visiting the Opera House? The inner city population isn’t representative of the whole city. I worry about you people if this is how you formulate all of your judgement calls on the places you encounter!

By: A Person

A Person — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:03:56 +0000

THe whole rivalry is stupid, there both great

By: MsM

MsM — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:26:25 +0000

I love culture, heck, I’m a Critical & Cultural Studies major Which is why, like many others on this forum, cannot live in Australia for the long-term. Not even Melbourne is truly a satisfying city for the arts/music/fashion especially when you have lived in places like NYC, New Orleans, London, and yes, Los Angeles (which I dare is chockful of subcultural brilliance). I’m truly looking forward to heading back to the Northern Hemisphere because Australia, and yes, even Melbourne, pales in comparison…

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 09:58:38 +0000

So I say:
Choose Sydney if you prefer the touristy things, comfortable temperatures, but don’t mind the rain, and a beach lifestyle. You will need a lot of money, however.
Choose Melbourne if you want to emmerse yourself in the culture, sports and art. A cooler climate in winter, and warmer in summer. It’s generally much more cheaper

To me, Melbourne suits me perfectly which is why I am here. I do not like Sydney as it does not fit my lifestyle, and I do not like the public transport and the people, and I find the landmarks to be overrated. I just see Sydney as a plastic and fake blonde with nothing on the inside, but Melbourne as the intellectual brunette with character and depth.

Your opinions may vary.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 09:50:58 +0000

I am going to try and put my bias aside and speak from a neutral position. I am from Melbourne, by the way.
You can’t compare these cities as they offer completely different lifestyles. If they were to offer the same lifestyle as the other, then you could compare them and decide which is truly better.
The way I see it, Sydney is basically just a city built for tourists, but not necessarily to live. You can see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and visit the beaches…….but then what??……… Those are great and all, but I just feel once you have seen those, then there isn’t really much left unless you leave the city centre completely. I hear the Sydney Aquarium and Taronga Zoo are great. The weather appears to be the same all year round (23-27 degrees and either sunny or raining).
On the other hand, Melbourne is much better for living and raising a family rather than for tourism. Of course, there are some touristy things to do such as the Melbourne Aquarium, Melbourne Zoo and Old Melbourne Gail, but not much else unless you leave the city. It has a wonderful and vibrant arts & culture scene, and is considered the sports, fashion, entertainment, culture, art, food and cafe culture of Australia. Laneways are popular with fashion, cafes and art. And the weather really isn’t as bad as what people make it out to be. We get much less rain than Sydney, and it is cold-cool during winter and most of spring, but then it is very warm, sunny and dry for summer and autumn.

By: Keith

Keith — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 06:09:44 +0000

Perth is the best city. Both Melbourne and Sydney have too many people. in Perth we don’t have as many people but we have lots of cashed up cashed up troublemakers in Northbridge so that makes the city exciting. Other than that Perth is desserted for the most part but that is how I like it.

By: sam

sam — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:21:37 +0000

If you dont live in sydney you are camping out. The most spectacular harbour, the beautiful blue ocean beaches, the vast fantastic national parks, the big city vibe, the breathtaking harbour side walks, the quiry suburbs of newtown, kings cross, leichardt, balmain, darlinghurst, paddington, surrey hills, innerwest to the spectacular suburbs in north shore with its beautiful northern beaches, eastern suburbs and its spectacular blue beaches with breakfast cafes with spectacular views, the top world class restaurants in Australia, best asian food in oz, biggest chinatown in oz, just the sheer natural beauty of the landscape all round makes it the best anti depressant city in the world followed closely by vancouver.

By: MsM

MsM — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:50:41 +0000

Glebe was great in the 1990′s. Now there’s nothing to do there except eat. The soul has looooooooooong gone and truthfully, it just feels dirty these days

Newtown has GREAT stores. Problem is, you can buy everything cheaper online, the prices are jacked up enormously. Again, was great in the 1990′s.

Surry Hills used to be filled with grungy artist types. Used to be a tonne of great lofts. Gentrification began pre-Olympics. You still have cool folks, you just gotta turn over the rocks

For food, you can’t beat the West. BEST Lebanese/Asian dishes. I don’t eat pork and I was compelled to eat a pork stirfry it was that orgasmic. But come Summer the heat is unbearable. The West is a place I choose to visit, but when I live in Sydney I live on the Coast. You can catch a bus directy to Leichhardt from Coogee for a day of shopping and browsing and eating and than come back and enjoy a swim

By: trish

trish — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:34:21 +0000

Haha I think I might have been the Trish that posted this, sounds like something I’d say—

Personally I like it in Glebe and Newtown, Glebe is a good mix of community housing, students and then young families. They’ve got nice markets on weekends and it’s the kind of place where you get to know your barista.

Newtown is ‘grungier’, I guess, but it’s got some good pubs and super cheap eats. Everleigh (Carriageworks) has great weekend markets now- Saturday morning for organic fruit & veg & foodie things, it’s become a bit of a hangout for the inner west and their dogs.

Surry has some great bars and fantastic cafes but I always feel underdressed when I go there! It’s a bit of a hipster neighborhood. Likewise Paddington, but I’m not there much.

Darlinghurst & Surry have sprouted a bunch of little bars now that the liquor laws have changed. It’s probably no where near Melbourne standards but there’s some pretty good ones- like Shady Pines and Dr. Pong and Pocket and Cafe Lounge and Chingalings.

The top end of Kings Cross down to Wooloomoloo has all these lovely old art deco apartment buildings, I like the feel of history about it, like the original Cross personalities still live there.

It’s funny that when people come to Sydney they generally see the CBD and then go to the beaches, but the inner west is completely different to the north/costal/eastern suburbs, I rarely go to these places. If I did, it would probably ‘average out’ my view of Sydney!

By: MsM

MsM — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:39:51 +0000

I also have to agree with the other folks who prefer American/European cities. Australia is fine for a couple of years but living here longterm I could NEVER do. I think because of how isolated it is as well as the Immigration Restriction Act/White Australia Policy that was in place until Whitlam disabled it, Australia lacks the ‘vibes’ and ‘soul’ that places like ‘Nawlins, SF, London etc just REEK of. Also, as someone who has grown up in multi-cultural settings I really miss the Caribbean vibe that barely has any presence in Australia. I’m cool with my Asian and Polynesian people, love ‘yall, but I prefer my Americans, South Americans, European and Caribbean folks and there food/culture/fashion Mx