Yarrares

Having lived in Yarraville for over 10 years, I found it as an up and coming area, it has improved vastly during my time here and I see plenty more to come.

It remains a suburb full of history and character, with a genuine village feel. It is close to the CBD with good train links. Shops are decent, cafes and restaurants great and you'll struggle to find a suburb with a better art-deco cinema on your doorstep. However, people seeking leafy solitude should head for the eastern suburbs.

There are some fair comments in the previous review, but it can be easy sometimes to overstate the negative. Yarraville has all of the advantages and disadvantages of other Melbourne inner-city suburbs, crime included. The difference is that entry prices in Yarraville can be significantly lower.

There are well publicised medium term plans to take truck traffic off the trunk roads via a new off ramp from the Westgate bridge straight into the docks, and there is some good quality medium density development cropping up in places, which generally complement the predominant weatherboard feel.

A lack of a local high school and high demand for childcare/kinder are other well publicised issues for the area. Gentrification over the last 10-15 years has been followed by a baby boom, and the infrastructure for this is yet to catch up. In recent years, a grassroots campaign has been established to re-establish a high school in the area and this is a work in progress.