Life in the ’burbs
Opinion
Opinion
My bayside suburb is split in half by eight lanes of pain
When I moved house, friends in the “Bayside Bubble” promised they would visit. But one thing turned out to be as much of a psychological barrier as a physical one.
- by Sofia Dedes
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North Melbourne
My suburb attracts a cult-like loyalty, despite the grit and the gangsters
We haven’t had a gangland funeral across the road for years, but North Melbourne has always been an in-between place – a suburb of two identities.
- by Virginia Trioli
Opinion
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My suburb used to embarrass me. Now I get why its homes come at a 30% premium
I’m proud to live in McKinnon now, but as a child, I was embarrassed by the suburb my grandparents called home. Why couldn’t they live in the more fashionable Caulfield South?
- by Melissa Singer
Opinion
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Like the legendary soapie filmed there, my suburb is going through a revival
After leaving Nunawading in the 1980s, the quest for a refrigerator recently drew me back to my childhood suburb. Somehow, the neighbourhood survived without us.
- by Daphne Briggs
Opinion
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My suburb was meant to be the ‘Toorak of the north’. It didn’t quite get there
Ivanhoe might sound like a place of nobility but its colloquial name tends to dampen notions of upper-class superiority.
- by Claire Burke
Opinion
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My little-known suburb has no cafe. Yes, you read that right: no cafe
My family always said we lived in Rosanna East, which my friends from Viewbank found funny. Were we snobs?
- by Carolyn Webb
Opinion
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In my suburb, no home is complete without staff, security and a six-car basement
If you can get past the assumptions people make when you say you live here, Toorak really is a wonderful place to live … when you’re not at your beach house.
- by Henry Kalus
Opinion
Richmond
Families once fled my ‘struggletown’ suburb. Then the gentrifiers arrived
I once disembarked the tram at Bridge Road to wafts of Cussons Imperial Leather soap from the factory. But times have well and truly changed.
- by Claire Heaney
Opinion
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‘Chap laps’ and Botox: South Yarra’s curated glamour isn’t what it used to be
South Yarra has pretty much everything you’d want in a suburb, but I’m not sure I belong here.
- by Karl Quinn
Opinion
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Old Willy: The industrial sights and sounds that newcomers will never know
My sons’ enthusiasm gave me pause to think about my own happy childhood in Willy. But its newfound popularity comes with a dispiriting consequence.
- by Darren Dawson
Opinion
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Lamborghinis next to old Commodores is the norm in our beachside suburb
Port Melbourne isn’t as affluent as Albert Park or as hip as St Kilda, but it has an honesty that embraces public housing, multimillion-dollar apartments and everything in between.
- by Alan Reynolds