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Comment on Discussion Thread 🌷 Wednesday 17 December 2025

LowExperience2368@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

east/west "divide" of Melbourne

Meetup event yesterday exposed the whole East/West divide amongst the locals in the group. I noticed that a lot of us stick to “our sides” of the Yarra and the CBD or just rarely venture across. e.g. there was a guy who lived in Surrey Hills and a guy who lived in Yarraville, and neither had heard of each other’s suburb. I found this so fascinating. Even inner suburbs people don’t really seem to venture much? Which makes sense because public transport can be inconvenient at times. I know we have people like Seagoon who have been the exception to this “rule”. I have to say though, the CBD makes it a bit inconvenient to get from one side to the other. Also Melbourne is quite big, with places like Pakenham and Sunbury being far out from the CBD but still being part of metro Melb. So a bunch of us are thinking of swapping sides and taking notes. We are starting in the west, with the west-siders wanting to take everyone to Yarraville as it’s one of the best suburbs in the west according to them. Admittedly, I have never been there, but I hear there is a cool theatre. Now to find the Yarraville equivalent not in the west. We are thinking of doing inner north as a buffer and then going to the east or south east.

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SpinMeAround@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I agree that people seem to mostly stick to their area - my boss rarely ventures outside of 5km from home. I’ve had a friend who wouldn’t cross the Yarra to see me, even when I lived in Southbank. Once I had a bunch of IRL PokemonGo friends while living in the South East and we’d all hang out, have dinners, visit each other, but as soon as I moved towards the city that stopped unless I went to visit them.

Now I live in a Southern suburb that no one’s heard of.

I have no issues with going to the other side of the city to go to a market or shop I want to visit. I grew up in Country Victoria so have no qualms driving an hour+ to get somewhere - I used to drive from my hometown to Shepperton because they had a Cold Rock and a JB Hi Fi before my town.

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StudChud@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I grew up in the south east (think The Basin, Croydon, FTG, and Knoxfield areas), and have never been out west except for a few times. I’m pretty well versed with the suburbs though, having worked in call centres servicing Victorians, but there are still suburb names I hadn’t heard of before (Dallas for one, but that’s more north than west).

I have one friend that lives west, but other than that I don’t know anyone that side of town.

I think it comes down to size and travel time.

Size: Melbourne is really big. It’s urban sprawl is huge, there are new housing developments everday, new small suburbs being names and built up.

Travel: because of it’s size, it can take a while to get anywhere in Melbourne. Driving can take ages because of the roads and traffic, and PTV takes ages inherently. It takes me an hour and a half to get to Ringwood for Sunday lunch from Brunswick (train/tram into melb central, train out). Travelling across the city can be anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours.

I think both of those factors, and others, are major contributors to many Melbournians not mingling often with areas outside of the immediate area of their homes/work.

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- Seagoon_@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The divide has been there in my whole memory. The prejudice is deep.
  
  The idea is the West is a scary working class place that you don’t want to even visit.
  
  Now swathes of it aren’t even working class, they are underclass with a poverty I have never seen in Melbourne before.
  
  Yarraville/Seddon is nothing special, old factory town near Coode Island, badly polluted by heavy industry, with worker’s cottages that have been renovated. But it’s trendy with the young because it’s more affordable than the much nicer Williamstown.
  
  Visit Williamstown for nice or Altona for non trendy nice working class.
  
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  - CEOofmyhouse56@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    We went to Williamstown hospital the other day and couldn’t believe how quiet it was. It was like a scene from A Country Practice. People walking past saying hello. So peaceful.
    
    Been to Williamstown plenty of times just not that side.
    
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  - StudChud@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That is certainly a factor, generally speaking. My parents were working class when we lived SE. Dad was an engraver at a trophy supply store, and mum was a night cleaner at a factory in Bayswater. Exceptions exist everywhere, but yes, there is definitely a class divide between East and West, I agree.
    
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tone212_@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The running joke in Melbourne is about crossing the Yarra (so a north / south divide), but east / west divide makes sense too. Crossing from west/north suburbs to east/south suburbs with PT or a car is a pain in the ass so that’s a huge barrier to travelling across all sides of metro Melbourne easily. The Metro Tunnel will change that somewhat from a PT standpoint.

I live in a middle/outer NW suburb so travelling to only things close to me isn’t really an option, most of my work and social activities take me to inner north / western suburbs and the CBD. Rarely do I travel to the east/south unless I visit a few friends that live in the Bayside area, or if I want to visit a bay beach. Anyway, I think it’s a great idea for your Meetup to cross over and experience places in Melbourne you haven’t visited. Yarraville / Seddon is a great pick for those from the east side.

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melbaboutown@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It’s some weird snobbery thing I guess. Like Melbourne vs Sydney which I also never saw the point of.

There are rough suburbs in the West which is where the reputation comes from but there are other perfectly fine suburbs. Fashionable inner city suburbs also have their own rough spots.

Getting around can be a pain because some areas are not walkable or have less good public transport, some areas of the city are divided by extremely annoying traffic sections, and the existing train lines are a hub arrangement that requires going into and then out of the city.

I hope there’s going to be some improvement because our population is set to grow even more with recent developments.

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