[jacques_chester]

I've been to all of Australia's mainland capitals (sorry, Hobart). I've lived for long periods in Darwin, Sydney and Perth.

I prefer Melbourne to Sydney based on the time I've spent in each. Melbourne seemed a bit more cosmopolitan, the people a bit less artificial.

I'd rather live in Perth than either, but the startup scene here is quite anaemic. You can round up some geologists and raise tens of millions to do some mining exploration; but raising a few thousand for a startup is, from what I've heard, nigh on impossible.

I prefer Darwin most of all, but it's a government town and FIFO base. There's some IT service outfits but that's it.

[hugh3]

I'm a native Sydneysider, but I have to agree that Melbourne would be the place I'd go to start a startup. Apart from the costs (lower) and the general frictional costs of life (getting around takes less time) and the coffee (oh, the coffee!), Melbourne just has a much better atmosphere for creative work. Sydney seems to have mutated into a town where all the smart people are either in law or finance, and the highest ambition a person can have is to have a slightly better view.

[jacques_chester]

It seemed to me, as an ignorant bumpkin who visited from Plant Normalperson, that social status in Sydney is based entirely on the square metres of the harbour you can see from your home.

[hugh3]

That's a pretty accurate description of life in Sydney, yes.

[mambodog]

I grew up here in Perth and while I'd love to stay here, I feel like I'll need to move to Melbourne (at the very least) sooner or later.

[mwill]

I'm from Perth as well, and this is almost word for word how I respond when people ask me about Perth. I get the feeling that there's much cooler stuff happening elsewhere more and more these days.

[jacques_chester]

Which is a shame. Perth has awesome Californian-style weather, plenty of cashed-up mining millionaires for capital, 4 halfway decent universities and relatively low costs.

[mmahemoff]

Back in the '90s, there were a few reverse takeover attempts, where some Australian Mining companies - already on the stock exchange but with negligible value - looked to buy aspiring dotcoms. Risk profile kind of matched, and it was a hack to get listed on the stock exchange without going through the IPO process.

[narcissus]

"where some Australian Mining companies - already on the stock exchange" ... "to get listed on the stock exchange"?

I heard that it was the small dotcoms that were looking to get on the stock exchange would buy enough shares in the inexpensive mining companies and then as majority shareholders have the mining company buy out the dotcom (or at least merge with it)... or something like that.

I'm guessing it's the same thing that you heard, but the way you worded it confused me. Or my coffee hasn't kicked in. Either way.

[mmahemoff]

Actually I think you're right, I remembered "reverse takeover" and this makes mores sense for that term.

[brc]

Yes but the weather. The weather. I would find it so hard to move there and stay there.

[fuzzylizard]

I have to agree, Melbourne is just too cold to live in year round. The idea sounds great and I hope it works.

[bh42222]

I have to agree, Melbourne is just too cold to live in year round.

Huh? I thought... well let me go check Wikipedia:

Melbourne is colder than other mainland Australian state capital cities in the winter. The lowest temperature on record is −2.8 °C (27.0 °F), on 4 July 1901

−2.8 °C - Ahaha! Oh my sweet summer child, what do you know of cold? Today I learned the secret weakness of Australians - so called "cold" weather.

[fuzzylizard]

I am actually Canadian complaining of how cold Melbourne was when I lived there. And I was there during the record breaking 47C day and the Victoria fires.

The problem with Melbourne is a combination of no humidity to retain the heat a wind chill from Antarctica. The combination of these means that 27C, on a sunny afternoon, requires a light jacket and the evenings/nights are never warm. I am used to 80-90% humidity and going out at 3am in shorts and a t-shirt in the summer. Melbourne rarely has this.

Granted, there are two months were the weather is very nice (january, february), but that is about it. Yes, it never gets to -40C, so cold is very relative here, but for a city that you would expect to be comparable to Sydney, Perth or Miami, it is cold.

[brc]

I make no bones about being raised in a tropical climate and being unable to deal with cold effectively. In the same way that people who come from a cold climate can't deal with a bit of tropical summer heat.

[rmc]

Melbourne seemed a bit more cosmopolitan

I was recently in Sydney and Melbourne, and you're probably about right. I don't know how to say it, but Sydney seems very, ahem white and very English.

[ra]

Sydney is a very multicultural city, a far cry from 'white and English'.

People generally agree that, as a city, Melbourne has better 'city things'; meaning bars, restaurants, theaters etc.

Sydney is regarded as having better geography - eg: dozens of stunning beaches, extensive waterways and very close proximity to national parks.

[brc]

You must have been visiting a different Sydney to the one I know. Or maybe you were just at Bondi Beach, which is overrun with english and nz expats.

Sydney is very ethnically diverse. Incredibly so.

[jacques_chester]

It depends where in Sydney you are. According to the statistics Sydney is very diverse, though in practice people from different countries, or with different professions/politics, tend to wind up in different districts.

This map gives a humorous account of Sydney's layout: http://i.imgur.com/gOxZP.jpg

[boomzilla]

oh, tharunka, the life saver in those boring lectures :)

I really miss Sydney (specifically UNSW and the eastern suburbs), but there is just no start up in Sydney. If you are a top CS grad from UNSW or USyd, there are only two options: Google or Macquarie bank (maybe three, but I heard that Canon research is not doing so well these days).

[bhoung]

Why is rmc downvoted for having an opinion? Maybe that's just how he saw it.