Thinking of moving...thoughts on Melbourne locations.

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Hi all :). Anyone have some thoughts on Astro friendly real estate around Melbourne? I was thinking of the Heathcote area, but was also considering Ballarat or Bendigo I guess.

My current location is pretty bad, (Outer northern suburban Melbourne) but allows me to image some of the brighter objects and planets. Is it even worth considering the outer areas like Wallan and Whittlesea?

[Nikolas]

Heathcote has some of the best night time skies.
one light near eppaloch It was like WOW!

[Atmos]

I'd personally head north if Wallan to get over the northern side of the great divide; more clearer skies. Bendigo is on the norther side of the divide but Ballarat isn't. Ballarat does have altitude however, something that Heathcote and Bendigo don't so much.

Heathcote is a nice area, I have a vacant property there and considering building later this year.

[casstony]

Being on the outskirts of a larger regional town like Bendigo allows access to a lot of services without the city traffic jams - might be less of a culture shock than moving to one of the smaller towns.

[toc]

For the record I grew up in Mildura (little place called Irymple) which is in Northern Victoria, so I am used to smaller towns :)

[bojan]

Ballarat.. Bigger town is a bonus for life... actually necessity if you are older (like me - 66, almost pensioner). 2 hospitals, graveyard nearby ;)... all those are going to be needed and used, not in particular order of listing...
And, SWMBO has to have enough opportunities for non astro-related activities which only bigger town could offer.
So, Ballarat (or Bendigo) are the only options to move from Melbourne (in our view).
We tried Seymour in the past, LP is low there, but we had to abandon the idea due to unforeseeable circumstances... and switched to Ballarat.

We spent couple of weekends in Ballarat recently (we will be moving there when I stop working for current company, which may happen any moment from now), and the skies there are not bad at all... I could see Magellanic clouds with unaided eyes from Mt Pleasant (BTW, we are only 500 metres away from Municipal Observatory - amazing place!).
North side is a bit polluted (because the city centre is in that direction from our place), but Snake Valley is only 30km away, so... all in all, not as good Seymour (from LP point of view) nut WAY better than Melbourne. I think it is even better than Johns Hill in Kallista, where we went couple of times alone and once with larger group organised from this forum couple of years ago.

[AussieTrooper]

Not much point in moving from one suburb to another from an LP pov. You need to hit about 100km from the CBD.
There have already been a few suggestions. Perhaps also consider Kyneton. It's a nice town.

[leon]

South West of Ballarat , and you are heading into pretty dark skies, which is on the way toward Snake Valley, now that place is black as ink on a good night.

Leon

[toc]

Thanks for the suggestions guys :)

[pgc hunter]

How far do are you willing to venture from Melbourne? Do you need to be within a certain distance? If it's between Ballarat and Bendigo, I would go for Bendigo any day of the week. It's north of the divide so the climate is better than either Ballarat or Melbourne, warmer too. Often south of the range is socked in with Melbourne Cloud™ while the north is completely clear. Plus in Bendigo you can head further north for your dark sky sites and have an even greater likelyhood of clear weather. Bendigo is close in size to Ballarat so in terms of facilities I don't think there is a compelling reason to choose one over the other for that particular reason. What ever Ballarat has, you'll probably find in Bendigo aswell. Both have easy road and rail access to Melbourne.

The BOM's climate data is telling:

Bendigo:
No. of clear days: 109.9
No. of cloudy days: 105.5
Days with rain >0.2mm: 109.3
Days with rain >1mm: 69.7
Average rainfall: 514.4mm

Ballarat:
No. of clear days: 56.5
No. of cloudy days: 146.2
Days with rain >0.2mm: 158.0
Days with rain >1mm: 104.8
Average rainfall: 635.4mm

http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/cvg/av?p_stn_num=089002&p_prim_element_index=0&p_comp_element_index=0&redraw=null&p_display_type=full_statistics_tabl e&normals_years=1981-2010&tablesizebutt=normal

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_081123_All.shtml

[Andy01]

I regularly image from the Bluesters' property at Kilmore.only 75 mins from Burwood & it's dark enough. Nice little town too :)
Btw- This map may be useful.

[pgc hunter]

Mildura ofcourse is by far the best place in Victoria for astronomy. Absolutely mops the floor with both Ballarat and Bendigo, and Melbourne, well that's like comparing brocolli to KFC, or Ice Cream to Snake Bile. Clear skies are abundant, and light pollution is easily taken care of. Drive an hour up the road to Broken Hill and you are at some of the darkest and most pollution-free skies in the world. Drive half an hour in any direction on the compass and you are in skies and climate that most of the folk on Cloudynights would KILL for. Seeing should also be generally good as the place is flat as a pancake for hundreds of km in any direction. The only thing is the wind, there can be strong winds, sometimes unforecasted, flat terrain mean unimpeded windflow. This is usually only a problem during southerly changes though, but can catch you unannounced.

The town itself these days has just about everything anyone could need, including a big modern Dan Murphys and the major supermarkets are open till midnight. There are regular airline services to Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.

[AussieTrooper]

Flying into Mildura can be a somewhat hairy experience. Not a very long runway...
But yeah, LP is just non-existant in any direction outside of Mildura.

[AstralTraveller]

I was in Mildura a few years ago and, yes, it is a pretty nice place. It does have all the amenities and some nice parkland along the river (but they should give up on trying to grow roses in the botanic garden). And although it's a reasonable size there is still that relaxed, friendly country ambience. I was also impressed that when I went to the local medical centre with an eye infection they were able to get me an appointment with an eye specialist that day. [However he is a visiting specialist and I just got lucky that he was in town.]

My ideal situation would be to have a backyard observatory and so central Mildura is not a good choice but on the fringes of town or down at Redcliffs would probably be fine. I'm not a fan of that 'flat as a pancake' look but that's just me - I've always had hills for a backdrop. The only thing is that it has a climate that would KILL most of the folk on Cloudynights. There are hotter places in the world but it does get its share of heatwaves.

[SkyWatch]

I'm a South Aussie, so probably not qualified to make a suggestion (although I was born in Victoria!). I would be thinking somewhere a little bit further west, say out of Ararat, and towards the Grampians. Ararat has most necessities, and the Grampians are magic...

Good luck on the search!

- Dean

[SimmoW]

Ah, so nice to dream of early retirement to an amazing country sky place. If things go well I'll be 56 by the time we get a little property up northern vic or south central NSW, YAY!

If things were different I'd be getting a place near Wallan, close enough to Heathcote and still close to city relatively, with the train not far. Or go north above Bendigo. Brother inlaw just bought a massive property, medium-small house off the grid in Kingower, $170k. Lots of snakes and mozzies and flies. But few humanoids.he's happy

[multiweb]

I think retiring close enough to the sea or in a coastal area is becoming a must given the repeated heat waves we've been getting. I don't mind driving out west or inland for the hobby but I definitely wouldn't live there.

[toc]

Thinking of going back to Mildura is a bit strange to me - I grew up there, and in about 1998 my parents moved to Bendigo to be closer to my brothers because we had all moved to Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo and Rochester:). I do have fond memories of the lifestyle and dark skies, (not to mention the abundance of quality golf courses) but the summers are an ordeal to say the least. my youngest still has a few years of high school to go, but after that who knows? I wouldn't be the first to move back to their home town :)

[speach]

I was 160 kms from Melbourne but still got a light loom from the SE suburbs

[Atmos]

From my place up in Heathcote I can see the light dome of Melb in the distance being only 130km from the CBD, it's not bad though, just a distant faint flow.

Mildura does get more clear nights than Heathcote and during summer is probably better suited for visual than photography due to the excessive overnight temperatures; difficult cooling the camera.