Please share your murder recovery method. I seem to be in the wrong video game.
Comment on Discussion Thread 😛 Friday 17 April 2026
RustyRaven@aussie.zone 1 day ago
Trying to figure out what different areas are like to live in based on people’s online opinions is very challenging. The area I am looking at ranges from a really nice place to live (as long as you avoid a small problem area with housing commision flats) to an absolute hellhole where you need to sleep with one eye open and can expect to be murdered every couple of years.
Catfish@aussie.zone 1 day ago
RustyRaven@aussie.zone 1 day ago
I don’t think I can get the secret until I actually moved there, but I’m guessing it’s some sort of zombie virus spread through meth.
Whatever it is I’m sure it will be worth dying on occassion as the area has good public transport and has large house blocks which are still affordable. The great Australian dream’s not available without sacrifice these days, and giving up the avocado toast is nowhere near enough sacrifice in the current housing market. Dying every few years or giving up a kidney seem like the going rate now.
melbaboutown@aussie.zone 1 day ago
It’s so hard, yeah. Been having that problem myself.
I check out the historical news, see if people on various sites mention any trouble spots, and kind of keep a weather eye out for red flags. Unfortunately it’s easy to miss things and then you’re stuck until you can get another place.
RustyRaven@aussie.zone 1 day ago
I do have the bonus information that comes from working in emergency services, I get to see a lot of things that are going on that most people don’t, so that at least reduces the risk I’ll get stuck with the dodgy neighbour.
melbaboutown@aussie.zone 1 day ago
Oh you are so lucky on that one
CEOofmyhouse56@aussie.zone 1 day ago
Is Melton really bad? What parts? The bird cage? Help? You will not offend me? I’m stuck here anyway? Help? Please!!!.
RustyRaven@aussie.zone 1 day ago
Melton’s biggest downside is that it up with Rockbank to become a bunch of new suburbs no one ever heard of. The huge advantage of that is the suburbs creeping down towards the south stopped the weir being a great place to torch stolen cars, which a decade ago was Meltons main claim to fame (as far as emergency services go).
Realistically speaking there are no suburbs or towns I’d say are overall really bad. Where there is a problem spot it’s generally at most a street or two, or isolated dodgy neighbours. I read a study a while ago that looked at the crime distribution of a bunch of areas and identified that there were crime ‘hotspots’ but they generally were no bigger than a block or two, and outside of those areas there was not much impact felt from it.
Seagoon_@aussie.zone 1 day ago
I look at crime maps, public transport and facilities maps. Go visit the area in person. Look at online house sites. Looks at Google maps street view
One thing I really like about Australia is I have never heard anyone ask if a city or suburb was decent to live in. This is white people code for “are there any black or mexican people living there”
RustyRaven@aussie.zone 1 day ago
Vicmap also has the overlays for flood, bushfire etc. and I’ve also been looking at maps of the soil type in various areas (as having a garden is a major thing for me). Ballarat also has the bonus issue of a major gold mine right in town, which adds issues like underground blasting, tailings dams and possible toxic dust/water runnof, plus there are unmarked underground tunnels which occassionally lead to surprise sinkholes.
It’s quite challenging pulling all the information together. Unfortunately street view here is quite out of date for most areas - plus when the car last went through in 2010 a leaf got stuck to the camera and the entire area has the centre of the frame blocked out by that. It is on my way to work though, so I’ve been trying to drive down a different street every time to get a better feel for the area. I plan to take Mr Woof over there and spend some time walking it as well.
As far as I can tell most of the negative stuff is just prejudice from people who don’t have any connection to the area and just denegrate it because its a lower socio-economic area.
melbaboutown@aussie.zone 1 day ago
You might want to look at the lead/heavy metal contamination map too if the gardening is edible!
researchgate.net/…/Map-of-soil-lead-concentration…
One advantage of LSE areas is that they haven’t gentrified yet which may mean more affordable grocery prices and cheaper more practical shops. And sometimes the thieves go more afield to rob the richer suburbs. But you definitely can still get interpersonal and property crimes for sure
RustyRaven@aussie.zone 1 day ago
The other one here is arsenic which is high in some areas due to the gold mining. I found some maps from the GardenSafe program where you can send in your soil samples for free testing and was able to identify that the areas of the inner east in Ballarat are the ones to watch out for - which coincides with the soil types I was looking at on another map. I’m likely avoiding that area because of that, as well as it being a bit more hilly - but it does have some beautiful leafy areas filled with historic homes that would make it a bit nice to live in too.
There are definitely some cheaper shops - multiple op shops, NQR etc feature prominently which is definitiely the sorts of shops I appreciate. The biggest crimes around here seem to be theft from/of cars that are parked outside, but that is happening everywhere.