A Complete Guide to Moving to Melbourne for Professionals

If you are relocating to Melbourne for work, the decisions that matter are where to live relative to your office, what the move and the first few months will cost, how you will get around, and who will move your furniture. This guide covers each of those in turn, with the practical detail you need to plan the move rather than a tour of the city.

Why work in Melbourne

Melbourne is a major centre for banking, superannuation, professional services, health and education. NAB and ANZ have their head offices in Docklands and the CBD, Telstra is based in the city, and the large accounting and law firms all keep Melbourne offices around Collins Street. The Parkville precinct groups the University of Melbourne with the Royal Melbourne, Royal Children’s and Peter MacCallum hospitals, which concentrates medical and research jobs in one place. Construction, logistics and manufacturing are strong in the west and the south-east, and technology companies cluster in Cremorne and Richmond. Whatever your field, the range of employers means a change of job rarely forces a change of city.

Where professionals live

Melbourne’s inner suburbs each have a distinct character, and the choice usually comes down to commute and budget.

• CBD, Southbank and Docklands: Apartment living within walking distance of the office. Expect lifts, loading docks and booked move-in times, all of which affect how a removalist plans the job.
• Inner north (Carlton, Fitzroy, Brunswick, Northcote): Terrace houses and converted warehouses, tram lines down every main road, and the densest run of cafes and bars in the city.
• Inner east (Richmond, Hawthorn, Camberwell): Period homes, well-regarded schools and train lines into Flinders Street. Kew, next door, is trams only. Popular with families who still want a short commute.
• Bayside (St Kilda, Port Melbourne, Brighton): Beach suburbs on Port Phillip Bay, with light rail from Port Melbourne, trams from St Kilda and the Sandringham train line through Brighton.
• Inner west (Footscray, Yarraville, Williamstown): A short train ride from the CBD and cheaper than the equivalent distance east, with a mix of workers’ cottages and new apartments.

Further out, Point Cook, Werribee and Tarneit in the west and Berwick, Cranbourne and Pakenham in the south-east are where most new housing estates are being built. They suit families who want a detached house and are prepared for a longer commute.

Cost of living

Rent or a mortgage will be your largest expense, and it falls sharply as you move away from the CBD and the inner east. Apartments in the city and Southbank rent at a premium for the location and the building facilities, while a house in the west or the outer south-east costs less per bedroom. Beyond housing, budget for public transport on a myki card, or for car costs and parking if you drive into the city, along with utilities that swing with Melbourne’s cold winters and hot summers. Eating out is easy to do often and easy to overspend on, so treat it as a line in the budget from day one. Prices change year to year, so check current rental listings for the suburbs on your shortlist rather than relying on averages.

Schools and universities

Public primary and secondary schools in Victoria enrol by zone, so the school you want will narrow the streets you can live on. Check the school zone map before you commit to a lease. Independent and Catholic schools are spread across the inner east and the south-east in particular. For further study, the University of Melbourne and RMIT sit in and beside the CBD, and Monash and La Trobe run their main campuses at Clayton and Bundoora with smaller city sites, and many professionals complete postgraduate qualifications part time while working.

Getting around

Trains, trams and buses all run on the myki system, and the tram network is the most useful part of it for inner-city living because it runs along most of the main shopping strips. Travel within the CBD’s Free Tram Zone costs nothing. Driving works in the suburbs, but the city grid has hook turns, tram lanes and limited parking, and the tolled CityLink and EastLink roads connect the airport and the outer ring. Melbourne Airport at Tullamarine is served by SkyBus and by CityLink, not by train.

Choosing a removalist for the move

An interstate or cross-city move is easier to organise once you know what to ask a moving company.

Send the same furniture list to two or three companies so the quotes compare like with like, ask each what insurance covers your goods in transit and the building, and confirm which of packing, dismantling, storage and boxes are included rather than extra.

Check their experience with your type of home

Apartment moves need a crew that knows how to book lifts and loading docks and how to protect common areas. A house move on a narrow inner-north street needs a truck that fits and a plan for parking.

How Careful Hands Movers moves professionals to Melbourne

We are based in Melbourne’s west and move customers into the city from Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and regional Victoria and New South Wales, then around Melbourne once they are settled. On interstate runs you can book a whole truck or a backload priced on the space you use. Our crews pack, dismantle and reassemble furniture, wrap it in blankets and plastic and strap it in the truck, and a supervisor leads every job. We carry public liability and transit insurance, quotes are free and obligation-free, and local moves are charged by time so you pay for the hours worked. Start with our interstate removals page, or our Melbourne removalists page for a local move.