Dandenong Melbourne or Parramatta Sydney?

Question

Were moving to Australia in July and are still trying to choose which area to move to as my husband has family in both Dandenong Melbourne and Parramatta Sydney!

Which place is better for jobs, rental houses, public transport, safety, higher pay, higher living costs, proximity to CBD, schools etc...

Any answers will be greatly appreciated! We dont know where to move yet but we have done more research in the Parramatta area than we have for Dandenong.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I can't comment on the Parramatta area, but I grew up in and around Dandenong, and have worked, played and lived in an around there nearly all my life.

Public transport is very accessible from their, Dandenong is one of the bigger outer train stations from the city and you can get a train directly into Melbourne with no change overs, there are also some express trains through to Melbourne that don't stop at all stations. There is also lots of bus services. It's about a 30-40minute train ride into the CBD, and about 20minutes driving.

As for rental houses, this is a cheaper area of Melbourne, and there are a lot of much older homes available, some that are quite slummy in my opinion, but if you have a hunt around you could probably find a decent home for fairly reasonable rent. Living costs are quite reasonable (as far as you can say "reasonable" these days!) with petrol being on the lower end of the scale for Melbourne.

Safety, my personal feeling is that I wouldn't be walking around Dandenong on my own at night, and have had some slightly scary experiences during the day there as well. There are lots of large groups of young people that hang aroudn the local shopping centre, and there is a fairly high crime rate.

Jobs - there are loads of them, but that is going to depend on what you're looking for, Dandenong has a very large industrial area and is in close proximity to many other business districts. The traffic in the area, however is TERRIBLE and often gridlocked and can take 30-40 minutes to get from one side of Dandenong to the other.

There are plenty of schools to choose from, and if you aren't happy with any of the schools in Dandenong, there are many schools in close distance that have an excellent reputation, including some private schools.

Dandenong is a mini-CBD all on it's own, quite a large place, massive shopping centre, it's not the prettiest place, but it's within close driving distance to nearly everything, half an hour down the road is the Dandenong Ranges, another half hour int he opposite direction gets you to Port Phillip Bay and some of the beaches there, an hour away is Philip Island, and of course the city is within a half hour drive, so it's a great location for getting to other places.

Hope this local opinion helps!

Answer 2

I would say Parramatta would be better safety wise.

Dandenong is cheap to live in but there is a reason for that, it's definitely not one of the nicer places of Melbourne. It is however closer to the Melbourne CBD than Parramatta is to the Sydney CBD i think. Melbourne's public transport is also a lot better than Sydney

Answer 3

The best part about Dandenong is that you can now use a Bypass to avoid it.

The prevalence of drugs, gangs,etc is a reason NOT to go there. I lived near there (moved out a long time ago) & still work in Dandenong( at night) when i'm on my way home the car doors are locked & i stop for no-one.

Answer 4

I live near Parramatta and can tell you this about the area. It is a large town with many avaliable jobs and many retal homes with an abundance of schools around the Parra area, there is Parramatta station which in about 30 mintues can get you to the Sydney's West of middle of Sydney CBD.

That's the best i can give you off the top of my head.