In this video, I'll discuss the reasons that make Melbourne's outer suburbs dull and boring. Join me as we explore some factors contributing to this perspective. Let's dive into the discussion together!
I grew up in Clayton area in South East. I remember back in my teenage years going to the corner shops to buy milk or bread. And also local fish & chips and Pizza outlets. We played with our bikes and skating boards and got refreshing drink from a local shop. All those are now gone, replaced by these Cookie cutter shopping centers.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It's sad to learn that Clayton has lost its charm and the unique character of local small businesses to shopping malls. We also think the younger generation doesn't go out as much, but honestly, there's just so much traffic nowadays that it's hard to enjoy outdoor activities without parents supervision like we used to.
I grew up in Boronia. It used to be a pretty vibrant suburb, especially when they built Boronia Shopping town. Now the mall there is full of $2 shops and not much else. Boronia is pretty much dead now, they get shoppers to Coles, Liquourland and Kmart and that's about all. Knox City being built hurt Boronia, and when all the banks closed, that was pretty much the death knell. I live in Mooroolbark now, and that's pretty much the same. The two main strips are just fast food outlets and a Coles/Liquorland. There's not much else.
I think you're comparing apples and oranges. Inner city suburbs were planned in the 1800s when population growth was steady. Point Cook, Truganina, Tarneit, Williams Landing, Wyndham Vale is what you get when a couple hundred thousand people move in over 20 years.
Correct. All of the inner city suburbs are a hundred years old. Most were industrial revolution pollution, crime & poverty riddled hell holes from the beginning. Wasn't till the late 1960s that gentrification began, staring with Prahran. It's not good to be a historical ignoramus.
I don't really understand why these neighbourhoods being new means they need to be boring and unwalkable. What's stopping these places from being denser with more mixed-use developments?
@@mr.moodle8836 what's stopping them is councils that simply want more ratepayers, and developers who are only too happy to divide up a medium sized piece of land into 10
@@mr.moodle8836 Bottom line, development of unique, mixed-use suburbs with proper commodities for the community costs alot, especially to australia that can barely meet half the demand for just the houses.
Guy just discovered that living in a filthy rich, inner city suburbs next to the botanical gardens is nicer than the factory areas in working class outer suburbs. 100 points for the observation!
The irony is many of these inner suburbs have large housing commission towers and the population density and crime is quite high in many inner city suburbs.
yes - the financial divide is staggering, its great to walk to work, doctors, shops and 24/7 public transport. Of course, everyone in the world immigrations here thinks so too. That is why you will pay 1 to 2+ mill for a shoe box in those areas and maybe 500+k to live somewhere else. Besides factories and depots are all located outside the nice suburbs. Great thoughts but unrealistic - more could be done to make the burbs more livable and greener but that is a developer and council call, and being one and the same they don't like spending your money on you, it's profit only today, build and design whatever makes heaps for them.
If money wasn’t an issue I’d agree with this vid. But good luck trying to buy into Fitzroy or Brunswick these days, hence why many are pushed into outer suburbia - not by choice but by financial necessity.
Sure, you're right! It's true that walkable inner suburbs is costly, but that shouldn't mean we have to create new suburbs that aren't pedestrian-friendly. As Melbourne expands, let's hope urban planners prioritize building neighborhoods in outer suburb that are easy to walk around too, making the city more accessible for everyone. Not just for those who can afford to buy near city.
People who need to buy weekly groceries just want a car spot near the supermarket. Unfortunately the strip mall allows the most car parking spots near the supermarket. A high street is often jammed with traffic.
@@MelbWestExplorerone way you’re right about walking to everything nearby as I use to live in Thornbury but I don’t miss that vibe anymore,parking on the street,electric poles everywhere,pollution,concrete apartments everywhere, narrow roads but if you do some research there’s some nice outer suburbs with plenty of public transport,bicycle tracks beautiful parklands,fresh air and plenty of nature around but I agree that in outer suburbs/estates you need more shopping strips with local shops for people to socialise and walk or ride to .
I can't stand being boxed into crowded spaces or copy and paste home in newer estates so i ended up moving to Tooradin where i have much larger land and trees around my house. The peace and quiet plus room for my cars made it worth the while to commute.
It's always been this way. Germaine Greer left her Melbourne suburb in the 1960s & moved to London because she said it was stifingly boring & couldn't stand the thought of a lifetime living there.
Yeah we do not need a Pompous Pommy Prig tell us what might have been Melbourne in the 1950s.. but the standard of living in Melbourne is way about the really crappy places around London like Basildon, Canvey Island, Clapton Pond etc…. She can have that!
@@hypercomms2001 It wasn't about standards of living. It was about boredom & lack of opportunities to make it big. I loved my time in Oz but it's not a country where there's big opportunities to make a difference in the world. It's just too far removed.
I live in the north side of Berwick where all the older homes are being knocked down and 3 town houses being built. Thank goodness for the old trees that Council ensure remain intact, otherwise developers would completely destroy the character of this suburb just for greed. Great video
the outer suburbs also have infrequent public transport and even in electrified trains that only come once an hour on the weekends between caroline springs and melton requiring you to travel on specific times. In the inner suburbs the trams come constantly so it pretty much allows you to just turn up and go. I do not know why anyone would want to live in copied and pasted suburbs that have poor infrastructure for pedestrians. I know it is cheaper to live in the outer suburbs, but at that point I dont see why anyone wouldnt just go to geelong or ballarat
Bike paths, parklands, green space interrupting streets is a feature of Casey where I live. Some progress is being made however the local shopping centres are massive and focused on car parking. You just can't do without a car here, though, I hope, the government will relax laws on e-bikes, trike and quadracycles for use within the area and to these shopping centres that will reduce the need for parking and allow for more green-space or even shops. We have to reduce the need for car use locally.
Very well said, there is no foresight in these urban developers. They need to seriously change the way they do things. They need to create neighbourhoods that are pedestrian friendly in the outer suburbs.
On the topic of urban morphology, during the 1960's, urban planners thought high-rise living was the most modern way to live - we could deal with population growth in an organized manner. So, the massacre began, many neutral-colored block structures were built in inner-city areas to hail in futurism - old was bad, new was good. This idea died by the 70's and inner-city high-rise flats quickly evolved into slums. They were then purchased by governments and rebranded as low-income housing estates. Many grand historical sites were also lost during this period. Thankfully out of this, the Heritage Act was created to protect historical areas that included architecture, parks and streetscapes.
My daughter and her husband have been living in a cottage in Brunswick for the past 4 years. They drive everywhere and when she was living here in Berwick, walked a lot more and I guarantee you, felt a lot safer. They've just moved this weekend to Queens Road opposite the lake and the first thing she said was, it's so quiet. It depends on the area mate. Personally I would never downsize to an area like Brunswick and I'm glad they're out of there.
now imagine the outer suburbs of melbourne being a whole city and then you have townsville, one big sprawling mass of 3 shopping centres and culdesacs.
To be fair, without the outer suburbs, we wouldn't have TISM. Sometimes they completely stuff up in the inner city too (Southbank and Queens Road come to mind). When I lived on Queens Road, the poorly-synchronised traffic lights made it impractical to walk to St Kilda to do my shopping, so I found myself driving to Prahran instead. I did however find myself leaving the car at home at other times. Even getting my car serviced was easy, especially compared to when I lived in Bulleen. I ended up finding a happy median of space and convenience in my current area, though sadly my work is in an infamously car-dominated area (thanks Reg Ansett, where's my helicopter?), so out comes the car (LPG, so it's slightly cheaper and cleaner than petrol). As for the outer suburbs, the biggest issue is that requirements for public transport are so weak. The devs don't have to spend much on it, so they only have to pay for a few bus stops. The older hellscapes (Doncaster, Rowville) get ignored by the government because they're not growing enough (or within marginal electorates). Don't get me started about the state government's role. It's not necessarily out of malice - they don't have as many ways to get revenue anymore since the GST, so the budget is tighter.
As a senior citizen, I've lived on the North, the South-East, and the West, and travelled around the city for work and play. The bottom line for me is the home and the facilities, with the landscaping of the suburb taking a back seat. For the last 30+ years, I've lived in a house that we had built for us, to our specification, based on the nuilder's standard design catalogue. The estate that I live on has a wide variety of styles and house sizes, with no two residences, in the same neightbourhood at least, likely to be the same as any of the housed around it. Every Christmas we have a street party, and we do know most of our neighbours. We have a major shopping center within walking distance - the exercise is most welcome, a suburban railway station, and a plethora of schools, medical and dental services in the neighbourhood. The one thing that I regret is that we didn't build a two storey house on our block. Why? Because in the first few years I had great views of Melbourne Airport from my back fence, which are no longer available due to the number of houses around us now. I have two daughters living in point Cook, and I agree whole heartedly with what you have said about that area - the houses tend to be all to the same (or similar) designs, no. 14 in the street where one of my daughter's lives has exactly the same floor plan as the house 5 doors away, the actual building materials appear to be less sturdy than those used in my house (the wall and cieling plaster appears to be just a draction of the depth of that used in my house, and the back yards are more remeniscent of the old Victorian dwellings on urban England than those found in most of Melbourne.
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So my issue with these new development is no milkbar or coffe shops in the estates. No community you have to drive to your franchise in a shopping mall.
Berwick is quiet diverse in that aspect. The north main street retained the old style. However come south near minta and alira estate you'll get the same feel as western suburbs. Come a little more south to lets say near the berwick side of "berwick springs" you'll see plently of green again. I found that to be a balance of old school peace and new school suburbia.
I live in the west. I agree with your assessment of Old Geelong Rd, but remember it’s full of warehouse type stores and car yards, which by nature are big and spaced out. It’s also not residential. We live less than 10 mins walk to Pacific Werribee, so don’t rely on the car every time we go there. Yes we are fortunate, but there are parts of the west that are pedestrian and family friendly. And besides, I wouldn’t want to live in the inner north, it’s full of wankers.
I live in Frankston, which is about as "outer suburb" as there is.We have parks, sporting facilities, a botanical garden, beaches, sea options, a CBD, malls, shopping strips, cosy cafes, an art centre, art gallery, sculpture park, private schools, public schools, tafes, minimial traffic congestion, rural access and no need to go to the inner city. I was amused by the way the narrator insulted one particuliar western suburb, saying his dislike was a lack of greenery and houses all looking the same and then stated an inner suburb, with streets full of identical terrace houses and nothing but cement and bitumen, as being ideal.
Hi Peter, thank you for your response. You're absolutely right; Frankston serves as a fantastic illustration of a walkable outer suburb, showcasing complex buildings in the town center. I realize now that I should have highlighted Frankston as an example to demonstrate that outer suburbs don't have to be designed in a way that is unfriendly to pedestrians. I want to clarify that my intention was never to insult the western suburbs; it's just that I personally live here and understand the challenges residents face in this situation.I aim to increase awareness of this issue.
I live near Frankston too and I’d take that as opposed to living in a tin can in the city. Got a great beach close by too. Hate traffic, trams and the prices in and near the city. Now the city is dead after covid many are finally realising the outer suburbs are better for families to have land and a quiet lifestyle.
City's dead? When was the last time you went to the city? Saturday is busy. Strangely, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, there are a lot of people eating out on the 'Grid'.
@@danielwalker8409 for a city of 5 million people I’d say it’s pretty bad. It should be a lot busier but I still don’t think it’s recovered since covid. People have realised you can get anything on the outskirts of the city. Good restaurants are popping up in the suburbs too.
I completely agree with everything you're saying, unfortunately the appeal of Melbourne's outer suburbs is the cost of the homes themselves. A house in Point Cook or Hoppers crossing is half the median house price of St Kilda or Fitzroy, the cost for entry into Melbourne's inner suburbs is soo high. But I do understand that the cost of housing wasn't really the point of your video, either way, solid vid.
Thank you for your reply! Inner suburbs are pricy for sure, and the new ones in the outer areas are seriously lacking that walkable vibe. And you get what I am saying, it seems urban planners and developers are not prioritizing walkability in new neighborhoods, making car dependence a necessity. It's frustrating how these new neighborhoods seem to lose Melbourne's charm, becoming these generic, car-centric copies everywhere you look. A neighborhood's special vibe comes from its people, not cars. It's just sad when people are stuck in their cars due to unfriendly pedestrian setups.
@@MelbWestExplorerthere's no urban planners. These massive housing developments are sold to the highest bidder and the developers are zero care for these metrics. They want maximum profit are all costs within the law. Considering the cost of any house in Victoria, people are just happy to own anything at this point.
@@HardstylePete Precisely. And the sociopathic greed of developers corrupt our politics. You know already what those flat pack housing estates will be like in one generation.
@@soulsphere9242 Unfortunately terrible build quality, high body corporate fees and overbearing body corporate restrictions on your own property makes this much less appealing than in Europe.
@@soulsphere9242 True, but many of the apartments developers build are just, as Jeff Kennett described them, dog boxes. A lot of people would be a lot more accepting of apartment living if there were more reasonably sized apartments for sale.
I lived in Camberwell for 2 years but in other similar suburbs my comments are the same. Let me say this as a summary of inner city, or near inner city. If I walked out to the balcony of my apartment with moistened paper towel pieces and rubbed my external windows with them, the paper towel was .. black. So air pollution and health dangers are a massive issue in these suburbs. Second, the traffic noise is horrendous 24/7 so you have got massive noise pollution. Add to that, Come say from Thursday night to Sunday nights in particular, the smart arse well to do roar down the roads in their lambos, mercs, Ferraris in their v12s and v 8 to show off their latest purchase and these exhausts totally invade every room in the house. The EPA told me that if the police pull them up ( never ever seen that) they sticker the car and the owner is required to fit the car with approved exhaust. However, he told me that soon after many owners put the massively noisy exhausts back on. THERE IS ALSO THE POOR HEALTH FROM THIS, THE HEADACHES, ETC ETC ETC and the unhappiness from living in a hell hole. I moved out to Werribee into a new estate into a brand new Townhouse,with massive open parklands , massive buffer zones, FRESH AIR, LOW LOW NOISE LEVEL, VERY VERY OCCASIONAL LOUD MOTOR BIKES, BUT NO SOOT ON THAT PAPER TOWEL. Blue wrens have recently arrived, cormorants, ducks , and many more as the trees pass the 2 metre heights, and the shrubs protect the birds. One month ago a new shopping centre opened just a 2 minute drive or 9 minute walk. What I am ashamed and what infuriates me are things like over filled garage bins in houses ( we are frightened to tell these people as you don’t want a beer bottle thrown at your home) , dog poo not picked, dogs not on leads littering everywhere… we must do a lot to dissuade this, employ LG enforcement with powers to heavily find offenders after an education program. I DONT HAVE AN OLD HOUSE, WITH LOTS OF PROBLEMS. You scoot over all this. A lot of these homes are massively over vegetated. In Camberwell, it’s a gold mine for plumbers trying to deal with houses that have major issues with roots of trees. The costs are horrendous, and many are just beyond fixing. So no, many of these old homes are in poor states.
YES , I AGREE WITH YOU 100 % . FITZROY AND BRUNSWICK - IN MELBOURNE'S INNER NORTH = vibrant lifestyle , best restaurants , great coffee shops , great shopping strips , Sydney road , Lygon street , Brunswick street , Smith street and Johnson street . The inner north = best place to live .
You forgot to mention drugs, traffic, noise, no sense of community, crime and house prices most people couldn’t afford in a lifetime. Best place to live? Come back to planet earth.
I agree with you on the modern design of houses, so sick of seeing the same grey colour bricks and walls on these houses but it's the only colour they seem to build with now. It's the last colour i would choose for a house, they just look like depressing jail boxes
It’s seemingly not occurred to you that if you’re shopping at the shops in old Geelong road. You just might need a car to take home your new tv, bathroom sink, BBQ etc.
Agreed. And not everyone wants to pay for the enormous costs of buying and maintaining a vehicle just to collect one or two large objects per year do they?@@maggie6
@@mudelta4068My car's three years old, so not that much to really maintain, I do like the luxury of getting around in half the time it would take without one.BTW, I am a cyclist.
Sadly the same in every major Australian city, including where I am in Perth. From the 60s/70s onwards planning went car centric and mixed use went out the window. We followed the same route as the USA in that regard as they have the same copy/paste suburbia obsession.
There is a reason why Melbourne eastern suburbs are more expensive than west. But key question is, are you willing to spend double the money for similar property just to have these advantages that you mentioned
Well said; Perth is almost all like the “suburbs that prioritise cars over people”. This prioritisation of cars leads to the absence of pedestrians and provide vast areas for homeless residences and youth crimes. You would always hear “why don’t you drive your car” if complaining about the safety of moving around on foot. Ironically the same people would never rent a car when travelling to places where walking isn’t an unpleasant experience 👀.
I used to live in a smaller than behind Chadstone and I used to walk through a park to get to Chadstone shopping Centre only to find I had to come home and get the car to go and pick up good s
Brother we live in the most dog shit concrete cookie cutter mind numbly boring places with barely any greenery at the low low cost of all of our money. If they make the new areas nicer with walk ways and things for pedestrians the price will be even higher. Basically it's fucked no matter how you look at it. Check the average house price in St kilda compared to point cook. it's insane
Inner suburbs want to decorate themselves because they're in good distance of the CBD, meaning a tourist or local daytripper can easily get a train/tram to get there. There's cafes, parks, restaurants, art, things you can find in a city centre are placed on the inner suburbs. For outer suburbs, there's really nothing to see. Train station. Woolies. Freeway link. The same black-roof house design that's been copy-and-pasted in every new neighbourhood since 2007. Shopping centre. Overall, nothing special for a visitor, because it's a place to commute. Whereas in inner suburbs it's vice versa, there's a lot of things to see that you can see in the CBD, but there's barely any money you can afford to buy a home there.
I live on an acre in Olinda, Wouldn't dream of wanting to be inner city.. We get all the Western tourists on weekends jamming up the roads and the bowling pins on push bikes on weekends.
I'd go along with the earlier commentary, though Melbourne's, "inner metro"(and ever so slightly afield), will never "stagnate", I really would think twice of buying, where I'd have to rely soley my own transport
My suburb has lots of wide trails within the housing estate that leads to great bike trails, I am 33km out from the Melbourne CBD. It is a bike friendly suburb and a good challenge as it has lots of hills.The one thing you spoke about is car pollution and you criticized the walk with many things including pollution. Cars emit less pollution when constantly running and emit more pollution is stop start situations like the 3:47 clip. There is far more air pollution in or near the city where I work (I take the train) than outer suburbs. My local area has local parks and playgrounds too which do get used a lot when it's a nice day. We cannot all live in the inner suburbs and as far as I'm concerned, my suburb has a great balance of car, bike, walk, play and relax.
Thanks for your reply! That's good to know there's a biker-friendly outer suburb. Can I ask which suburb are you talking about? I might want to go for a walk there.
I must admit, when I titled the video 'Outer Suburbs', perhaps I should have named it 'Pedestrians Unfriendly Suburbs'. Someone also mentioned that Frankston is a pedestrian-friendly and affordable outer suburb with plenty to offer, a point I agree with. Additionally, I believe the old Werribee Town Center area is walkable too. I don't mean to offend anyone living in the outer suburbs or the inner ones. My aim is simply to highlight how pedestrian-unfriendly neighborhoods can impact people's quality of life.
Hi, Endeavour Hills. We are close to the dandenong creek trail and also Lysterfield lake trails too. The only thing is the estate trails do not have cafes like inner suburbs, but we do not have the pollution of the inner suburbs. There are also lots of parks here including high point lookouts. There are gems in many outer area's. I use my converted mountain bike/ebike to ride around, it makes the up hills much easier. Keep the vidoe's coming mate, I love to see content on Melbourne and our suburbs, 181 subscribed.
Having lived in the northern edge of melbourne i can say the outer city urban planning is good actually. The big department stores have to exist somewhere and are generally out of the way. There are more small shops scattered through residential areas than you might think. The only issue is the modern architecture, which is just an inescapable fact of the times we live in. I think its still better than the awful stuff they put up in the 70s and 80s.
Totally agree. Outter suburbs are mostly terrible....traffic issues, rampant crime around the large shopping centres due to there being nothing else for kids to do. ...$100-150 each way for an uber into the city to go and see a concert, show or the footy.
@@MelbWestExplorer seriously 90% people i met in sydney implemented a fantasy about melbourne. they all told me that people are nice there, housing is cheaper and crime rate is very low. now i know the reality because of your video. :)
I appreciate your comments! The views expressed in the content are purely my own personal opinions. I believe that Melbourne is experiencing a rapid population growth, which poses challenges when the growth is not organic
@@MelbWestExplorer yeh i believe so. but i could still consider properly without spending 1 dollar to visit melbourne for interstate move. I was actually considering 'outer suburbs' for cheaper housing. i know why it's cheap now and know that fantasy is fantasy. I am not a good driver. so my reality is reality. i dont want to be fooled by fantasy. :)
In summary when building new suburbs they should build old buildings and plant mature trees! 🙃 Easy! All the observations made a valid. The sprawling development that has occurred over the past two decades is what I describe as “Lazy Development”. It’s the easiest way or path of least resistance to grow the city. More thought and effort needs to be put into how infill and inner suburb redevelopment can be done in a structured master planned way.
definatly agree, its all a cost effective way to build hence why the estates are so boring to look at. i grew up in coburg being near merri creek easy acess to the city but now live in the outter west an di cant stand it. i miss the culture diversity and so many other aspects of the inner to mid suburbs. the outter estates hurt my soul :( and im hoping to move oneday and have a decent environment for my kids to grow up in, and not around estates, industrial eye saws and trucks on the residential streets. i would be happy to live in the mid surburbs like keilor east, Aberfeldie, Avondale Heights or pascovale. port melbourne would be cool but wayyyyy to expensise
It’s all about what we looking for some people are happy to live in prison cell houses I mean closer to city and pay nearly million dollars rest of their life they will be paying to banks 😂and some people chose to live peacefully in outer suburbs where they have plenty of parking in streets and backyard for bbq 😅and they can free their property in 5-7 years 😊
not to mention that those places heat up way quicker, the lack of shade from trees, the entire suburb being plastered with concrete and of course the black roofs
Certainly! The absence of tree shades along pedestrian sidewalks and playgrounds makes these areas uninviting for outdoor activities. This could lead to mental health issues and obesity as well.
Cram as many houses possible in new estates, make them all rectuangular to fit more on the block and then for the brochure write "proposed" shops and railways that will never happpen for marketing...... as "proposed" is not an official goverment planning approval 😂
land closer to city has old 30s to 50s homes , that sell for alot at auction sometimes if renovated well , Wahroonga sydney 30s Mansion sold 10 million 18km from cbd
Lots of new permits for high density still required double garage space within train or activity centre as opposed to reduce it with single then bike space. Compare this with area like Clifton Hill or Brunswick where bike usage is encouraged
@@Out-Of-The-Box-AU it's more to do with the fact that monash isn't that close to the city like Brunswick or Clifton Hill where it makes sense to cycle and commute via active transport. It just happens not everyone lives near a train station in the monash area
Life also completely different in Melbourne . Inner Melbourne and outer Melbourne , two different Melbourne class of peoples clearly divide by two different class .
I think the main problem with Melbourne's suburbs compared to other Australian state capitals is that it is very flat, lacking hills, with long straight roads that stretch beyond the horizon. Just makes the place look boring and without character.
I’ve lived here around 25 years and while I love the inner north and some other spots I’ll never be a Melbournian. People who grew up here are tone deaf to the fact the 90%+ of this city is a car centric, flat, grey, sprawling suburban wasteland. The parochialism is something I’ll never understand.
This represents unscientific prejudice, because by your definition and out of suburb such as Lilydale, Warrandyte, Park Orchards etc must be pretty crap… well mate, they definitely are not!
Thanks for your reply! In places where walking isn't easy, cars zip around way too fast. It's not just bad for walkers, but also super risky for bikers. that's probably why fewer people choose to cycle in these areas.
