swozzle

Sunshine in 2018 is at the centre of the fast-growing western suburbs of Melbourne.

Public transport: Since the Regional Rail Link became operational in 2015, all regional V/Line train lines to the west of Melbourne now converge at Sunshine station – this has only consolidated Sunshine’s geographic importance within the Melbourne Metropolitan area. The public transport infrastructure improvements will continue as the Sunbury line is going to feed into the Melbourne Metro Tunnel and any future rail link to Melbourne Airport will pass through Sunshine station. The centre of Sunshine is only 12km from the city and the train trip to Melbourne Central station takes 20 minutes.

Sunshine town centre: The State government & local council have vastly improved Sunshine’s town centre in the last decade. The council has worked hard in recent years to make Sunshine town centre more attractive as well as walkable and cycleable, and the new Sunshine Train Station and the Brimbank city council offices completed in 2016 with a new multi-level library are fantastic showpieces. The town centre is very multicultural with many Vietnamese businesses and you will see many other migrant communities such as Indian, African & Burmese who have come to Australia very recently. As for cafés and eateries, there is Little Rays and the Granary café, some nice Vietnamese and Indian restaurants, but not Italian. There are some lovely old buildings that will make good future restaurants but are currently occupied by other types of businesses - that will hopefully change. As for shopping, there are two indoor shopping centres (the Marketplace and the Plaza), an ALDI and a Woolworths, a Big W and a Dimmey’s, a JB Hi-fi and a Village Cinemas multiplex.

Living here: As for the residential aspect, only a few blocks away from Sunshine town centre you can find yourself in a pleasant, largely green and quiet streets. There are many lovely old homes (pre-WWI and 1920s and 30s) that have been renovated and more that are currently being renovated. It is not very busy traffic-wise. Walking around the suburban streets of Sunshine is pleasant: I have never experienced any crime personally, but you do read about it.

As it is, Sunshine is a great place to move into if you want a nice, decent-sized old home that you can fix up, raise your kids and spend time at home. It is still affordable to buy and it – as well as its surrounding suburbs like Albion – is among the last of the old suburbs of Melbourne that are still relatively cheap. And it’s moving quickly ahead.

Albion is a square mile patch of post-WWI period-era suburbia in the middle of the western suburbs. Basically part of Sunshine, Albion is comprised mainly of Federation-style weatherboard houses and California bungalows, as well as a mix of houses from the 1950s, also mainly of weatherboard. It is a short bike ride or good walk to the supermarkets & shops in Sunshine town centre. Albion train station – on the Sunbury line – is 23 minutes from Melbourne Central.

It is quiet and very suitable for young families and has two primary schools and a kindergarten. Albion's Selwyn Park, has a sports ground which is used for soccer in the winter and cricket in the summer. Defining the western border of Albion is Kororoit Creek which is very peaceful and is in a fairly natural state, lined with eucalypts.

There is not much anywhere around Albion in terms of nightlife, though there is large new dance and music school, Montanasa Studios. On Perth Avenue there is a cafe and a Polish delicatessen (Mitko Deli) where you can also get a very decent coffee on a Saturday morning.

What can I say? Albion is a gem, an attractive little old suburb in Melbourne‘s west!