DN1

Born and raised in the south eastern suburbs my partner and I started looking into purchasing our own property in the SE suburbs, we soon discovered that anything within decent proximity to the city in the south east was well and truly out of budget. We saw the west as the undesirable part of Melbourne - so begrudgingly we ventured out to the west and decided to have a look at Altona, so that we could justify how much nicer the SE suburbs were - expecting derelict houses, factories on every corner and questionable locals we planned a 5 minute drive through before heading back to the city for breakfast.

We reached the end of Millers Road, turned right onto the Esplanade and we both immediately fell in love. The bias, prejudice and lack of knowledge we had towards this suburb and Melbourne's west was blindingly obvious and scary. We ended up spending the day in Altona, enjoying the picturesque RJ Logan reserve, the beach, the wetlands and Pier St. We loved the place so much that we ended up buying a place a few weeks later. There are many things to love about this suburb, it feels very much like a village with a very relaxed feel, every day starts and ends for us with a walk along the beach which is lined with stunning Norfolk pines and a beautiful pier. Every day to day amenity that we require is here and we are very happy. I ride along the coast to work in the city, looking forward to getting into kayaking and kite surfing and our pup LOVES the dog park. It's a suburb that you will see a very interesting demographic in, some very old locals who have been there for years, young families, young couples, mature couples, people exercising, cycling, walking their dog...etc. Walking down Pier St, you can see it is a suburb with lots of development and potential - there are many coffee joints, foodie type places opening up! People talk about factories and wharehouses, but honestly I think that is ill informed; yes there is a refinery, wharehouses and factories but that is all outside of "Altona", Altona has a very village and community feel to it. The only time I see the industrial buildings is when I am leaving Altona.

Our friends, in their infinite wisdom told us what a mistake we were making moving to the west. Every single one of them, has said something along the lines of, "you guys live in an awesome location" and often we find them popping by because they were "just in the area" - wanting to get a coffee and food by the beach.

As great as the internet is - not everything on it is fact, I question a lot of the negative reviews that have been posted on Altona as they do not seem to marry up with what my partner and I have seen. My recommendation would be to visit the suburb, spend some time there and I think you will like it. The snobbery towards this suburb really does not do it any justice!

The above is nothing but praise - but obviously need to have some draw backs about the suburb.

(1) The 3 train stations on the "Altona Loop" are conveniently placed however train services are not the best outside of peak hour times.
(2) As the weather warms up, there are a lot of people that visit Altona Beach and they are not the best characters - but I have never felt unsafe
(3) There have been snakes around at some of the coastal parks \
(4) You get the occasional hoon/loud bikes down the Esplanade and Queen St (but not late at night)
(5) The telephone exchange is currently classed as regional, so that locks out a lot of phone companies - but NBN is due in 2016 which would fix that!