Overview · Australia
Australia
I started a six-month assignment in Melbourne in June 2023. Nearly two years later I left Perth having seen a lot of the country on weekends — but it is a big place and I look forward to returning to see more.
The six-month assignment turned into about 18 months and I am glad it did. Melbourne is truly one of the great cities of the world and one of my favourite places I have ever lived. The people are great, both professionally and socially. There is always something happening — every week some event, many of them unexpected. I think it is because Melbourne is so remote that people focus on making it the best city possible rather than going somewhere else for the weekend.
I arrived in June 2023 — leaving summer in the US for winter in Melbourne, which is similar to Dallas or Atlanta. No snow, but everyone warned me it would be grey and rainy. It was fine. My first transpacific flight was cancelled, my reroute through Sydney was then also cancelled after three hours on the plane, and I arrived 24 hours late and 53 hours door to door. The glamour of international travel. I started in a hotel, then moved to the 66th floor of Australia 108 — the tallest residential building in the Southern Hemisphere. I had to get that out of the way before Sharon arrived, as she is not a fan of living in what she calls a shoebox in the sky.
We eventually settled into St. Kilda — the edgy, beach-adjacent suburb three miles south of the CBD. Everyone had a reaction when I said we were moving there: cool, dangerous, overrun, great restaurants, crappy food, cute for an expat. All of the above were accurate at various points. We loved it. Melbourne is a dense urban area and very walkable — I didn't need a car during the week and set a goal of 15,000 steps a day. The tram network is free in the CBD and covers the whole inner city. It is a liveable city in a way that has earned its high ranking on the Best Cities in the World lists.
We saw a lot of Victoria on the weekends — the Great Ocean Road three times, Wilson's Promontory twice, Philip Island for the little penguins, the Grampians, Ballarat, the Mornington Peninsula wine region (which is underrated), the Yarra Valley, Healesville Sanctuary, the Dandenong Ranges. Melbourne has a lot of world-class sporting events — we were lucky enough to go to two Australian Opens, an AFL Grand Final, Melbourne Cup festivities, and the Formula 1 Grand Prix both years. In 2024 we lived directly across the street from Albert Park and could hear it from the apartment.
Wine touring is a short trip from the city. The Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula both get dedicated winery visits, and the quality surprised me — Australian wine is stronger than the international reputation suggests, particularly the cool-climate pinots from the Peninsula.
The Melbourne food scene is great (although I am not a foodie) and the coffee culture is a real thing. I developed opinions about milk steaming that I did not have before arriving.
We had two trips to Tasmania — the first a February loop taking in Hobart, Wineglass Bay, Cradle Mountain, and Launceston; the second specifically timed to catch the Aurora Australis. We randomly picked the weekend of May 11th. It turned out to be the biggest geomagnetic storm in years and the southern lights were visible all the way up to Melbourne. Seeing the Aurora Australis from Hobart was genuinely one of the best nights of the whole assignment.
"Seeing the Aurora Australis from Hobart was genuinely one of the best nights of the whole assignment."
Port Arthur's convict ruins were excellent and the boat ride around Cape Raoul was spectacular. The MONA — the Museum of Old and New Art — is highly rated, but wasn't for me (although the building is very interesting). Tasmania consistently surprises people expecting a quiet island and delivering one of the most dramatic landscapes in Australia.
Perth was three months — and enough time to understand that everyone on the east coast of Australia is wrong about it. If you compare Australian states to US counterparts — Victoria is California, Queensland is Florida, and Western Australia is Texas: wants to be independent, relies on natural resources, and everything is bigger. Perth itself has more of a San Diego vibe than anything in Texas. Because of the mining wealth it has much more to offer than a typical city of two million people.
Our host told us on the first 110-degree day not to worry because we had the Fremantle Doctor — the daily sea breeze from the Indian Ocean. He was right, until March when it stops. The standout trip was a solo Easter weekend to Ningaloo Reef, 13 hours north by road. I'd never heard of it before I got to Perth. Most Australians consider it comparable to the Great Barrier Reef, and for snorkelling clarity and accessibility I'd argue it's better — two manta ray swims, a whale shark encounter, and drift snorkelling through a lagoon.
Ningaloo sits off the remote Exmouth Peninsula in Western Australia — about 13 hours north of Perth by road. Most Australians rank it alongside the Great Barrier Reef; for snorkelling clarity and sheer accessibility from shore, many argue it's better. It is the world's largest fringing reef and one of the few places on earth where whale sharks aggregate in predictable numbers. Two manta ray swims, a whale shark encounter, and drift snorkelling through a protected lagoon. Worth the drive.
Beyond Melbourne and Perth we made short trips. In Sydney, time in the city and a short ferry to Watson's Bay, as well as driving out to the Blue Mountains. In Queensland, we visited Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Noosa, Byron Bay, and the Great Barrier Reef. Adelaide was focused around visiting Penfolds and the Barossa Valley wine region.
It is a big place and I look forward to returning to see more.