this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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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.
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"
Back in the 80s when I was 'touring' western NSW, there were stickers/flyers in the bus stops of Deniliquin (and other places like Forbes) from the 'League of Decency' advocating 'keeping our town nice'. Needless to say, those towns were then off my radar as a place to actually live. Dunno if the League of Decency still exists, but at that time it seemed to be closely associated with the local protestant churches.
Sounds like code for no First Australians allowed in town. π So racist.
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 Unfortunately street view here is quite out of date for most areas - plus when the car last went through in 2010 a leaf got stuck to the camera and the entire area has the centre of the frame blocked out by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.
You might want to look at the lead/heavy metal contamination map too if the gardening is edible!
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-soil-lead-concentrations-in-Melbourne_fig2_327021918
One advantage of LSE areas is that they havenβt gentrified yet which may mean more affordable grocery prices and cheaper more practical shops. And sometimes the thieves tend to go further afield to rob the richer suburbs. But you definitely can still get interpersonal and property crimes for sure
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.
Yeah, you can even send off soil samples directly if youβre worried.
Envious, NQR has some pretty mint stuff
Please share your murder recovery method. I seem to be in the wrong video game.
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.
Itβs so hard, yeah. Been having that problem myself.
I check out the historical news, see if people on various sites mention any particular streets or trouble spots, and kind of keep a weather eye out for red flags when I see the place. Unfortunately itβs still easy to miss things that become a problem and then youβre stuck until you can get another place.
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.
Is Melton really bad? What parts? The bird cage? Help? You will not offend me? I'm stuck here anyway? Help? Please!!!!.
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.
Interesting. I've swam in the weir. They used to have boat races or water skiing or some shit down there. It's down the hill, left to Werribee or right to Bacchus Marsh via Eynesbury/ Exford. Basically the back roads. Always seen burnt out cars. Green Gully road in Keilor use to be the same or they'd push them into the dam there.
Rockbank/Cobblebank used to be farmland until a collective of owns sold their properties for a Victorian record to developers.
If you speak to anyone associated with Melton they will tell you to avoid The Birdcage (a bunch of streets with bird names) or Melton South which is where I'm at. Honestly I feel safe here but I will not let YL walk home from the station but I wouldn't let anyone walk alone anywhere. Safety in numbers.
Amusingly I'm currently living in an estate of bird names. In Ballarat area you mostly want to avoid the flower name streets in Wendouree. But Wendouree also has the most expensive property in the area around the lake.
Sebastopol where I am considering moving to is probably second on most people's list of dodgy places, but there is just one section of ministry housing and along the main road that seem to actually have some problems, the rest is just a bit poor. Which suits me perfectly, as it has let to a bunch of larger parcels of land that still have small unimproved homes on them which is exactly what I am looking for. I want a big garden, I don't want four bedrooms, two bathrooms, three living areas and 17 sheds covering every spec of land, which is what happened to most of the bigger blocks where people had the money to do it.
See Sebastopol is "apparently" the dodgy part but I say go for it because it's bs. Victoria pretty safe.
That's what I'm thinking. But it will take a while to actually tee up finance etc. and then actually find the right spot, so I'll probably be poking at my decision like it's a loose tooth right up until everything is finalised. And then It's going to be a whirlwind of moving and planning what to do with the property and I won't have time to think about where it is actually located again!
Oh you are so lucky on that one