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I live in southern NSW 4 degrees north of you. It reaches 14 degrees at transit from here so it would reach 10 degrees from Melbourne and 11 degrees if you drive 100km north of Melbourne into darker skies. I can photograph and observe it pretty easily.
I do have dark northern skies and I spotted the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, a few weeks ago. M51 reaches a maximum 8.5 degree altitude, lower than Andromeda from Melbourne and fainter. Andromeda is mag 3.5 the Whirlpool is Mag 8.5 but much smaller so the difference in surface brightness is not as great as the integrated magnitude difference might suggest. I used a large reflector but the seeing was awful so you can imagine what it was like near the horizon.
From the city, you might see the core but not the outer arms. It's pretty good even in binoculars. However, if you want to see much more than the core, I'd suggest you need to get out of the city, 100km north should be plenty, put you into much darker skies and push Andromeda almost an extra degree higher.
Joe
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