View across the tracks at North Melbourne station (which is in West Melbourne). The Melbourne Star is quite pretty when it’s lit up at night.
We live in West Melbourne. Many born and bred Melburnians have no idea where it is, despite there also being a North, South and East Melbourne. More than once people have assumed I mean Footscray when I tell them where I live. This is OK by me, because I love my suburb.
Except for the 2.5 years we lived on the Gold Coast, we’ve lived in this neighbourhood since 2006. We have no plans to move until we are ready to buy our own place, which thanks to ridiculous real estate prices won’t in the area *cries*.
It is industrial. Within a block of our apartment there is a working flour mill, concrete depot and stockfeed manufacturer (if the wind is blowing the right way our street smells a bit like dog food. Fortunately this doesn’t happen all that often). Directly across from our building is a painters and a staging systems warehouse. During the day in the working week it is hella noisy round here.
There was an “incident” at the flour mill just before Christmas last year. Flour ALL over the road, cars, buildings, the lot. SNOW!!
At night and on the weekends, it is super quiet. My dad likes to point out how “noisy” it is at our place, but it’s quieter than my parents place in deep, deep suburbia. During the Christmas/New Year period, it is COMPLETELY quiet all day and it freaks us out a bit.
I love the mixture of old and new buildings in the streets around our place. Our building is an old warehouse, across the street is the old Mulcahy Hotel and a biscuit factory (both now apartments), and there are the odd original houses spotted around in amongst the other warehouses and commercial buildings. I love that when I come home from a plane trip away, I can see the Don sausages ad on the flour silos from the Skybus and know that my place is nestled underneath.
Silos!
I love living close to the station. We’re on the wrong side of the building to have views of the lines, but I quite like hearing the different trains going through (there is even a steam train that gets a run on the weekends sometimes, I am yet to see it though). I love living close to Queen Vic Market. I love that North Melbourne shops (West Melbourne is a bit too small for our own) is still very much a village and not too trendy (though I can see this change already happening). I love that I live 100m from the Capital City Trail. I love that I can see any city fireworks from my lounge room in my pjs and not have to contend with NYE crowds.
Jackie of No Trade 
