Sydney vs Melbourne vs Gold Coast

One of my first attempts at writing was after I moved from Sydney to Melbourne and I wrote an article to break down the differences and confirm/squash the stereotypes.

Years later I’ve moved from Melbourne to the Gold Coast and with all the questions I get about what it’s like to live here, do I miss Sydney, do I miss Melbourne etc, I thought it was time to do an updated version.

For context, I was born in Sydney and lived there for 30 years and spent time in the Inner West, North West, East and Northern Beaches. I then moved to Melbourne and lived South side in Windsor/Prahran and then Carnegie.

On the Gold Coast, I live in a semi-rural suburb that is 10 minutes from the beach but not right on it - as most people assume that if you live on the Gold Coast, you have waves and lifesavers in your yard.

I’ll break these down into the categories I get asked about the most and give them a score out of 10 where applicable but one caveat first.

Surfers Paradise is not the real Gold Coast. Like many, I had been here for bucks parties and that was my impression of the GC but to put it politely, it’s a hole. It’s run down and in need of an overhaul and in the nearly 4 years I’ve lived here, I’ve been there 3 times.

Ok so now I’ve got that off my chest:

The Weather

Sydney 7

Melbourne 6

Gold Coast 8

This is obviously a category where your score would change depending on personal preference. Not everyone wants warmer weather and sunshine:

But a few assumption people made of each of these cities.

1. Melbourne weather is crap
2. Gold Coast is always sunny
3. Sydney is perfect

All are wrong, IMO.

Melbourne winter is hard if you don’t like the cold but they have some really under rated days of cool breeze and sunshine through the year. Yes, the weather will change through the day but that’s generally over exaggerated.

And Sydney siders love to throw shade at Melbourne weather but let me say this, no where rains torrentially for a week at a time like Sydney does. When it rains in Sydney, the city shuts down. People can’t function, public transport dies. In Melbourne, everyone just gets on with it.

Now the Gold Coast, yes it is warmer most of the year. Winter here you do wear a jumper but it’s 4-6 weeks. Winter in Melbourne is like May to November.

It’s not always sunny here, it’s grey and rainy as I write this. But it’s also not as humid as people think, Brisbane is humid, the ocean breeze cools most locations down.

The beaches

Sydney 8

Melbourne 5

Gold Coast 9

Let’s start with the ugly duckling, as Melbourne’s beaches often get called “beaches” by people not from Melbourne. Some of the ones around the bay aren’t great but there are some hidden gems especially heading down past Frankston.

Unfortunately you don’t get a lot of great beach days in Melbourne, compared to the warmer states.

Sydney has some of the most iconic beaches and I’m guessing there might be someone from the Eastern Suburbs furiously typing a request to their Daddy to send me a cease and desist letter for not giving them a 10.

The main reason I can’t give them a 10 is how packed they are and how much of a mission it can be to get to many of them. My personal preference is not for a Bondi or Manly but smaller beaches like Freshwater or Camp Cove but on a nice day, the traffic and parking can be torture.

The Gold Coast has so many different types of beaches and imagine this Sydney siders; sometimes you can park at the beach and it’s free.

Employment

A hard one to score as it does obviously depend on what you do.

While Sydney has more of the bigger companies and offices, in general you also have more competition for those roles.

Then when I moved to Melbourne, I felt it was totally under rated in the quality of companies and talent in Tech & Creative - Many would argue creative talent is stronger in Melbourne - that was also going through a lot of growth prior to Covid. (this may still be happening, I’m just less connected to the local market as I was in 2017-2020).

And yes, The Gold Coast is much smaller and basically doesn’t have a CBD. But there is a thriving and growing StartUp community and it did become - particularly Burleigh - a mecca for remote workers in the post Covid migrations up north, alongside the Sunshine coast.

Remote roles have dried up in the past few years but should that market swing back again, you might find more of your friends and colleagues moving here for the next category.

Affordability

Sydney - 44

Melbourne 6

Gold Coast 8

Of course the cost to buy or rent in any city depends on what part of the city and the type of property but some of the prices I have seen in Sydney blow my mind.

Growing up in Sydney, there were suburbs you thought you’d like to live in one day. Then we had ones that would be your backup if you couldn’t afford the first choice.

Those backup suburbs would all be pushing $2m for a really average 3 bed room house.

Put it this way; when we moved here we sold our small and very average 2 bed apartment on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. It cost $70k more than that sale price, to buy a 5 bedroom house on the GC.

You could still spend $10m on a house up here but you can also still get decent places for under $1m. It feels like nothing is under $1m even on the very outskirts of Sydney these days.

And Melbourne falls in the middle, it’s not cheap in the nice parts but there are still options to live close to the city without a combined income of $400k.

Culture

Sydney 5

Melbourne 9

Gold Coast 3

I was always amazed at how many things there were to do in Melbourne, I’m not an art gallery guy but the quality and frequency of museums, events, shows was just non stop.

If you’ve ever been to the Night Noodle Markets in Sydney and your honest, you’d admit that it’s a great concept but it’s a ball ache. It’s so packed and over priced but something like that would be somewhere in Melbourne almost every weekend.

Sydney to me still lacks this, it often feels like more of a tourist destination and shutting down of Kings Cross to push everyone to the Casino all those years ago was just one example.

The Gold Coast is trying in some parts but it’s light years behind Melbourne.

Food and Coffee

Sydney 8

Melbourne 9

Gold Coast 7

The number of quality restaurants in Melbourne is actually ridiculous. If you’re a foodie with money to spend and good metabolism, it’s heaven.

But I will say I don’t think some of the restaurants in Sydney get enough credit. Melbourne has more and if I stack ranked the top 20 I have been to in both cities, Melbourne probably has 12 to Sydney’s 8.

Then the Gold Coast, the poor bogan cousin but many times I’ve been really pleasantly surprised at the quality of food up here.

When it comes to coffee specifically, it’s a similar story but let me say this; Melbourne, some of you need to relax. It’s coffee, you’re too intense about it.

Example: I met with a client in a very well known Melbourne establishment and client ordered a cappuccino. It came out as a fluffy flat white, so I took it back.

“oh you wanted an American style cappuccino with chocolate” the hipster rolled their eyes at me, I’m sure for the 900th time that day. You knew exactly what I mean dickhead, don’t lecture me on the historical origins of my clients coffee order. Sprinkle your little shaker of chocolate on there and let this man enjoy what I’ve just paid you for.

GC Coffee - not as many great places but plenty of really good ones and 1000% less likely to be judged for your order. Just bloody hard to get one after 2pm.

Average wake up time on weekends

Sydney 7am

Melbourne 10am

Gold Coast 5am

Before any tech bros in their ice bath at 5am choke during their Wim Hof session, this is an average and an extreme generalisation/exaggeration.

In Melbourne I lived off Chapel Street for years and if I went to get a coffee at 8am, absolutely dead. I would actually go and stand outside Revolver to watch these dry lizard zombies who had been in there for 48 hours see sunlight for the first time in days, desperately seeking water or an uber or the kick-ons.

Come 10am, the cafes were PACKED.

Now one of the things no one warns you about the Gold Coast is the sunrise. Not how beautiful it is but the fact that it’s f*****g 4am.

I got up “early” to walk my dog down at Burleigh Beach, by 5:30am it was basically peak hour there.

Nightlife

Sydney 4

Melbourne 9

Gold Coast 5

I will admit that I’m not the most qualified person to judge this category anymore. I stopped drinking and haven’t had regular access to free baby sitters for 7 years.

But man, Sydney became a real tough sell for a night out. I would work with people who arrived in Sydney from Europe, the US and Asia who would ask if it’s normal for a restaurant to close at 9pm.

Melbourne never stops. Not everyone wants to go somewhere like Revolver at 4am but you can, you have the option. But if you want to see a show and then go for a meal at 10pm, easy.

The Gold Coast has a couple of pockets, more like you’d have one or two places in close proximity and I don’t count Surfers Paradise. I have done a pub/bar crawl around Burleigh, Nobby’s Beach is always busy but it’s place where you are better to start in the arvo and finish early.

Casino’s in every city are the same. Same vibe, different sizes, great if that’s what you want and terrible if it’s not.

Which do I prefer

If I was rich, I would maybe move back to Sydney because I know the most people there.

I did really like living in Melbourne and the people there but there were days in Winter we felt trapped inside, it was too cold to take the kids out to play.

I really like living on the Gold Coast and raising our kids here but you sometimes get FOMO of the industry events, catchups with old friends and the culture of the other cities.

If I was in my twenties and single, I’d probably choose Melbourne.

Did I miss anything about any of these cities?