Is Victoria the new place to be ?

I have been lucky in some ways in my life and not in others ways ,like most of us I would imagine. I have lived and travelled in many other countries and I have travelled around Australia in my past. ,But at the end of the day I always end up living back in Sydney along the northside as thats where I am from originally. Over the past few years I find myself longing to move to Victoria. I go there quite often and whenever I do I find the people to be friendly and chatty, But I also find something I'm very I interested in down there and that is """"old worldly """""" Yep it seems to have more old makets ,more old houses, and lots of old stuff,, which is what I love in life . I feel very at home when I walk down the street and see old houses and to be honest I like them to be a bit ratty looking rather than looking like a Dulux catalogue photo. I have also found it to be cheaper down in Victoria , Not just housing ,but when buying general things etc etc,, Gosh the butches down the road from me charges $21 for a kg of snags.
I Think I can convince my wife too ,as long as I put a heater in every room

Pete ,,,,,,,,,

Gosh its hard to type this on a phone,, computer is on the blink,,fridge to waiting for the 3rd one to go next.

I doubt I will ever move interstate as I take comfort from familiar surroundings. That said, I've been on numerous interstate trips by car and have generally enjoyed them.

Personally, I find Melbourne's road network a bit of a nightmare - again it is just a matter of what one is used to. I don't mind competing with trams (we'll be doing more of that in Sydney in a year or two as the additions to the light rail network take to the streets rather than being on a reservation as per the existing line) but I will never be able to work out who the hell designed the Victorian hook turn which seems more like a game of Russian roulette than a nice safe turn to the right.

Whilst a lot of Sydney's older buildings were swept away to make room for the pioneering skyscrapers, which were for a time the tallest buildings outside the US, there are a lot of old buildings that remain if you know where to look. George Street, Bridge Street and Macquarie Street contain the most, including two surviving wings of the original Rum Hospital, with one serving as the Houses of Parliament since the 1840s and the other as the Sydney branch of the Royal Mint. I think the latter is a museum now. Then there is The Rocks precinct and most of the inner suburbs which contain thousands of terraces - a few of which are four storeys high.

The downside is the expense. There's no such thing as affordable housing anymore and every time a government sprouts that affordable housing is available I am usually known for sprouting an equal number of four letter words in reply. Whilst Melbourne is a bit cheaper for housing overall, it's not that far behind and you'd still have to live on the fringes to find anything resembling value for money.

A word of advice if you are a leadfoot too: Victoria's speed cameras are giftwrapped. (They come as a surprise). No huge warning signs like those in NSW and this is probably why the VIC Government raises a lot more money from them.

Over the years I've gotten the impression, from the number of VIC-based eBay auctions for valve radios and other vintage stuff, that Victorians rarely throw anything away.

Natural hoarders? Too far to the tip? No hard rubbish council cleanups?

If you leave for economic reasons, you can probably make it a one way ticket. In which case you might end up feeling like Tommy Leonetti:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFy703E6PsE

Hey 'G" Gosh I have not seen that clip in many many years, oh how I wish sydney was still like that, that was a trip down memory lane.

You could be right about Horders in Vic,,,That maybe why I feel at home there.

Ps Brad , I totally agree regarding housing in sydney,,Its madness.
Imagine what it must be like for a young man and woman say 22 years old with ideas of a family?.. what a mountain they face,