Sorry, but I don’t agree with that. As stated, the Gold Coast is differently its own identity and city.
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I’m not saying they’re the same city, just a continuous urban area. I was just pointing out that a 100km radius of the Brisbane GPO takes in an extra million people. Whether a place is an official city in its own right is a different question. Living in SEQ myself the locals increasingly view the area as one. For example it’s the same public transport go card, huge numbers of people commute in both directions, and the centre of the Gold Coast is closer to the CBD than Gosford is to Sydney.
And therefore we should include Geelong in Melbourne’s figures.
There’s definitely a case for that. Whether it’s recognised in the figures or not, I think there are 3 regions in Australia that would qualify as conurbations or sometimes called ‘megalopolises’ in the US. Newcastle - Sydney - Wollongong
Melbourne - Geelong
Sunshine Coast - Brisbane - Gold Coast
The US recognises conurbations including the Boston - NYC - Philadelphia corridor and also a looser one around the Great Lakes from Chicago to Toronto. There are few other examples. Greater metro areas like SoCal and NorCal are also recognised.
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If you’re including Geelong as part of Melbourne, Wollongong should be considered part of Sydney
And then Warragul is part of Melbourne. And so on.
The simple solution is for New South Wales to get over itself and stop pretending Gosford is part of Sydney.
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I think the only relevant boundary is what the commuter zone is, in terms of the infrastructure provision. People don’t care if they are technically in the city or not, but if they depend on it, that’s what is in practice “Melbourne” or “Sydney”.
Sydney leads on that with the genuine second CBD in the west - Melbourne really doesn’t have something similar, so there’s even more pressure about heading towards that inner core.
The Melton and Tarneit areas in Melbourne show the danger of leaving it too late, the massive development overnight throwing people onto roads planned as rural connections, and hourly Vline trains to commute.
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Melbourne is also diversifying itself away from the main CBD. Box Hill and Footscray are becoming small businesses districts in their own right.
Not to mention North Sydney. One could argue it’s just an extension of the CBD on the other side of the harbour but really it’s quite a separate CBD. I read somewhere once that North Sydney was a bigger “CBD” than Adelaide’s.
I agree with the commuter zone definition. Actually that is one of the measures the ABS uses when defining the official metropolitan areas, and it’s one of the reasons they have included Gosford although I personally think that’s a stretch. But they use raw numbers of commuters as a factor. Interestingly Central Coast to Sydney and Gold Coast to Brisbane are the top 2 in terms of numbers of inter-city commuters. Wollongong to Sydney rounded out the top 3. Assume Geelong to Melbourne would be 4th. They also apply some more subjective measures around “identity” although it’s a bit vague.
Yep - there’s some potential, but I think Parramatta has a far more whole of government approach to trying to make Sydney’s metro area polycentric.
Footscray is well placed, but just needs a stronger push on just building more density. Box Hill is okay on the density front, but it’s hard to wait for the suburban rail loop before it is accessible from much of the city without going through the CBD anyway.
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AFTER A NICE ST KILDA RESTAURANT
From Sydney and travelling with friends and family to Melbourne. Organising a surprise dinner at St Kilda but am after a good restaurant that caters for all taste buds that everyone will enjoy! Share away…and remember that the Syd V Melb rivalry will be decided by this choice of restaurant 
.
What’s the budget like?
The Stonehouse is awesome but expensive. DiStasio for Italian, I think it’s still a set menu though not overly cheao food is excellent. Or try one of the restaurants at the Espy.
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In my experience, Melbourne is friendlier than other Australian cities. but in no way friendliest in the world. Whenever I go travelling I can feel an angst and rudeness as soon as the plane touches down.
Well apparently its now official from this morning… Melbourne is now Australia’s largest city in population.
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It follows the district of Melton being added to Melbourne population. According to the change Melbourne has had a higher population than Sydney since 2018.
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A few loughs.
ABC Melbourne and ABC Sydney did a joint broadcast this morning… James Valentine from Sydney formally handed over the crown of Australis largest city to Sammy J.
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A little odd considering how much growth Sydney has had over the past 10-15 years, COVID notwithstanding.
Melbourne has been outpacing Sydney with growth for the past 20 years. It was projected to overtake Sydney in the next few years… but its come early due to the Melton being added into the Melbourne area.
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