Revealed: The best place to live in Australia - and it may surprise you
With world-famous beaches and an unrivalled cafe culture, its no surprise that Sydney and Melbourne regularly feature near the top of the world’s most liveable city index.
But there’s a small city on Victoria’s southwest coast that has taken out the number one spot when it comes to a place to live that ticks all the boxes.
Ipsos’ annual Life in Australia study, which ranked rural and urban areas to live through 17 attributes, has crowned Warrnambool and its surroundings as the best region for Australians to live.
The city ranked highly in the top five attributes of feeling safe, high quality of health services, affordable housing, reliable public transport and good job prospects, giving it a liveability rating of 68.7 out of 100.
The area ranked highest for its proximity to the natural environment.
Lauren Baxter, 39, has lived in Warrnambool for 12 years and praised its suitability for raising a family.
“There’s a lovely local community, beautiful, family-friendly beaches, and it’s very affordable to live here,” she told The Australian.
A close second in the study, which surveys 10,000 citizens each year, was inner Perth, which scored an impressive 68.6 per cent.
In third was the Adelaide Hills with 67.
Ranking top for Sydney was the Eastern Suburbs with 65.8, while Melbourne’s highest was the Inner South with a 65 ranking.
Unsurprisingly the Eastern Suburbs scored poorly on housing affordability and traffic flow.
Sydney also scored the two lowest ranked regions, with the city’s South West ranked lowest with 49.1 and Blacktown at 51.9.
When it came to regional areas, Queensland fared the worst, with Central Queensland was ranked lowest with 53.3 and Townsville next with just 53.6
They both ranked poorly on job prospects.
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