Life in the 'Burbs interactive map of Melbourne
Opinion pieces from local writers exploring their suburb's cliches and realities and how it has changed in the past 20 years. See all 53 stories.
How many stories are there to be told about Melbourne? To adapt an old line, there are at least 5 million of them in this city, one for each of us.
In The Age' s hit series, Life in the 'Burbs, we invite ordinary Melburnians to share their story of what it's really like where they live, and they have embraced the opportunity.
Whether they are a professional writer, a food truck owner, an accountant, a schoolteacher, a speech pathologist, a singer-songwriter, a nurse, an interior designer, a horticulturalist, an organist or a game designer, in this series everyone has the opportunity to celebrate and affectionately poke fun at the streets that surround their homes.
This week, we proudly celebrate the 100th instalment of Life in the 'Burbs with a new interactive feature for readers to easily search our story archive. Take a look at the map below to see which of Melbourne's hundreds of suburbs have so far been featured, and type your suburb's name into the search bar to find the story.
How it all began
In February 2023, we published an impassioned opinion piece by writer Lyndall Thomas in defence of her home suburb of Frankston. The beachside neighbourhood was, she wrote, much more than a place full of bogans driving Monaros. Thomas' affectionate and mocking defence of her community instantly struck a chord.
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The good-natured rivalry between Melbourne's suburbs has been a distinctive feature of the city almost since its inception – name a well-known suburb and most Melburnians can instantly reel off a reputational cliche or two. As Thomas wrote, a defining feature of this city is 'that it matters where you live. I've known Melburnians who care whether people live on the wrong side of the river, the wrong side of the highway and even the wrong side of a creek.'
We asked 10 more Melburnians to write about their suburb, whether the cliches about it are true and how life has changed there in the past 20 years. We titled the limited series 'Life in the 'Burbs'.
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The Age
27-05-2025
- The Age
Life in the 'Burbs interactive map of Melbourne
Opinion pieces from local writers exploring their suburb's cliches and realities and how it has changed in the past 20 years. See all 53 stories. How many stories are there to be told about Melbourne? To adapt an old line, there are at least 5 million of them in this city, one for each of us. In The Age' s hit series, Life in the 'Burbs, we invite ordinary Melburnians to share their story of what it's really like where they live, and they have embraced the opportunity. Whether they are a professional writer, a food truck owner, an accountant, a schoolteacher, a speech pathologist, a singer-songwriter, a nurse, an interior designer, a horticulturalist, an organist or a game designer, in this series everyone has the opportunity to celebrate and affectionately poke fun at the streets that surround their homes. This week, we proudly celebrate the 100th instalment of Life in the 'Burbs with a new interactive feature for readers to easily search our story archive. Take a look at the map below to see which of Melbourne's hundreds of suburbs have so far been featured, and type your suburb's name into the search bar to find the story. How it all began In February 2023, we published an impassioned opinion piece by writer Lyndall Thomas in defence of her home suburb of Frankston. The beachside neighbourhood was, she wrote, much more than a place full of bogans driving Monaros. Thomas' affectionate and mocking defence of her community instantly struck a chord. Loading The good-natured rivalry between Melbourne's suburbs has been a distinctive feature of the city almost since its inception – name a well-known suburb and most Melburnians can instantly reel off a reputational cliche or two. As Thomas wrote, a defining feature of this city is 'that it matters where you live. I've known Melburnians who care whether people live on the wrong side of the river, the wrong side of the highway and even the wrong side of a creek.' We asked 10 more Melburnians to write about their suburb, whether the cliches about it are true and how life has changed there in the past 20 years. We titled the limited series 'Life in the 'Burbs'.
The Age
18-05-2025
- The Age
As the only child of immigrants, I know the discomfort of moving into the middle class
I'll never forget the feeling of awe – and acute discomfort – the first time I walked into The Age 's newsroom. I was 22 and, for as long as I could remember, had wanted to work with the big (news) wigs in town. After two blissful and terrifying weeks working my butt off, I was asked to stay for another (I readily agreed), and eventually landed a permanent job. Little did I know how much coming in as an employee, and no longer an intern, would make me feel like a fish out of water. Yes, I had a degree from one of Australia's best universities, but I was still living in an outer western suburb, which felt like a world away. Conversations revolved around the inner north and south, with high-profile journalists I'd read for years talking about their weekends at book readings and music festivals, dining at new restaurants or checking out museums. Unlike most media professionals, I don't come from an English-speaking background, and while my working-class Polish roots have equipped me to fight and never give up, they didn't expose me to the world of theatre, musicals, overseas travel and multicultural cuisines. While in some ways this was my dream life, it still felt out of reach because I was a class migrant. Loading In an article for The Conversation, UK researchers Dr Madeline Wyatt and Samantha Evans found that people who experience social mobility through education often 'felt under pressure to change mannerisms, adjust their accents and conceal behavioural habits to fit into a workplace'. As one participant in their 2022 study said: 'The [work] culture is very middle class, where it might be that you can quote Latin, that you drink wine rather than beer, that you socialise in a certain way.' This kind of social mobility also tends to affect family dynamics. In Australia, we like to pretend that class doesn't exist or, at the very least, matter all that much. But as Dr Alexandra Coleman from the University of Western Sydney points out, education has become a dominant hope for a good life. Take, for example, riot police recently being called to manage unruly crowds at Sydney's Canterbury Racecourse, where selective school exams were being held, and unruly parents jostled for their children to enter the test and, by extension, a better life. While I have learnt to 'pass', the natural trappings of wealth and comfort are easy for us outsiders to recognise if you know the signs. I once dated a guy whose dinner table guests included famous playwrights and political figures, and who asked me, 'Three prime ministers came out of my school. How many came out of yours?'
Sydney Morning Herald
18-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
As the only child of immigrants, I know the discomfort of moving into the middle class
I'll never forget the feeling of awe – and acute discomfort – the first time I walked into The Age 's newsroom. I was 22 and, for as long as I could remember, had wanted to work with the big (news) wigs in town. After two blissful and terrifying weeks working my butt off, I was asked to stay for another (I readily agreed), and eventually landed a permanent job. Little did I know how much coming in as an employee, and no longer an intern, would make me feel like a fish out of water. Yes, I had a degree from one of Australia's best universities, but I was still living in an outer western suburb, which felt like a world away. Conversations revolved around the inner north and south, with high-profile journalists I'd read for years talking about their weekends at book readings and music festivals, dining at new restaurants or checking out museums. Unlike most media professionals, I don't come from an English-speaking background, and while my working-class Polish roots have equipped me to fight and never give up, they didn't expose me to the world of theatre, musicals, overseas travel and multicultural cuisines. While in some ways this was my dream life, it still felt out of reach because I was a class migrant. Loading In an article for The Conversation, UK researchers Dr Madeline Wyatt and Samantha Evans found that people who experience social mobility through education often 'felt under pressure to change mannerisms, adjust their accents and conceal behavioural habits to fit into a workplace'. As one participant in their 2022 study said: 'The [work] culture is very middle class, where it might be that you can quote Latin, that you drink wine rather than beer, that you socialise in a certain way.' This kind of social mobility also tends to affect family dynamics. In Australia, we like to pretend that class doesn't exist or, at the very least, matter all that much. But as Dr Alexandra Coleman from the University of Western Sydney points out, education has become a dominant hope for a good life. Take, for example, riot police recently being called to manage unruly crowds at Sydney's Canterbury Racecourse, where selective school exams were being held, and unruly parents jostled for their children to enter the test and, by extension, a better life. While I have learnt to 'pass', the natural trappings of wealth and comfort are easy for us outsiders to recognise if you know the signs. I once dated a guy whose dinner table guests included famous playwrights and political figures, and who asked me, 'Three prime ministers came out of my school. How many came out of yours?'
