Why Are Melbourne's Outer Suburbs So Boring? | Australian Neighbourhood | Life in Australia |

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!

[JamalHashe]

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.

[JubilationMedia]

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!

[stormblessed]

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.

[frankmccarthy]

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.

[hellothere]

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.

[The_Real_DreamM]

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

[frankmcelhill]

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.

[wasupdoc]

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.

[BenMitro]

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.

[lac]

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.

[beastslife_]

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

[melginger]

I agree with you. The outer suburbs have a dead feeling especially at night.

[joanneburford]

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.

[JubilationMedia]

does anyone want to hang around outside lighting and furniture stores in Brunswick and St Kilda?

[kinetically]

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

[magyaradam]

Lol this video thinks its pre-2009 where you could actully buy a house in a neighbourhood you want to live in.

[EclecticTastes]

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.

[amac]

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.

[bigdudeohyeah]

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.

[johnmuller]

Absolutely. I've thought that that virtually all my life and it depresses me