Australia · Oceania
Moving to Melbourne
Melbourne quick facts
Australia at a glance
East Asia & Pacific
Economy
World Bank · 2025Religion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in Melbourne
Can you move to Australia?
Pick your passport to see whether you can enter Australia — and what it takes to stay.
Entry rules come from github.com/imorte/passport-index-data, updated 17 February 2026. They change without notice — confirm with the official immigration service before booking.
Getting set up in Australia
Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482)
The Skills in Demand visa replaced the old Temporary Skill Shortage visa in December 2024 and is the standard route into a Melbourne job. An approved employer nominates you against an occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List and sponsors you for up to four years. There is no residence card and no local registration on arrival: the visa is recorded against your passport and checked electronically through VEVO. Melbourne matters here mainly because it is excluded from the designated regional areas — living in Melbourne forfeits the regional points and concessions that Adelaide, Perth and Hobart attract.
Read the full step-by-step guideConverting your overseas licence to a Victorian licence
If you hold a permanent visa or become an Australian citizen, you must convert to a Victorian licence within six months of arriving. Temporary visa holders may keep driving on a valid overseas licence for the length of their stay. Whether conversion is a counter transaction or a full test program depends entirely on which country issued your licence — VicRoads maintains a recognised-country list, and everyone else sits the road law knowledge test, the hazard perception test and a practical drive test.
Read the full step-by-step guideOpening an Australian bank account
Australian banks verify identity against a '100-point' scale built from primary and secondary documents. New arrivals get a concession most countries do not offer: for a short window after you land, a foreign passport alone satisfies the full requirement. Two of the four majors — ANZ and NAB — are headquartered in Melbourne's Docklands, and all four let you open the account online from overseas before you fly, then finish verification in a branch.
Read the full step-by-step guideMedicare, ambulance cover and seeing a doctor in Victoria
Medicare is federal and works the same in Melbourne as anywhere else: enrol through myGov or a Services Australia centre, then use any GP practice you like. What is genuinely Victorian is ambulance. Victoria charges for emergency road and air ambulance, and the state-run answer is an Ambulance Victoria membership at roughly AUD 56 a year for a single — trivially cheap against a call-out bill in the high hundreds or thousands. Melbourne's public hospitals are excellent and free at the point of care for Medicare holders; the Parkville precinct alone holds the Royal Melbourne, the Royal Children's, the Royal Women's and Peter MacCallum.
Read the full step-by-step guideGetting an Australian mobile number
Every Australian SIM must be identity-verified before activation — a legal requirement under telecommunications rules, not a carrier preference. A foreign passport plus an Australian address is enough for prepaid. Three networks carry everything: Telstra, Optus and TPG Telecom (Vodafone). Dozens of resellers ride those same towers for a fraction of the price, and in a city as densely covered as Melbourne the difference is invisible.
Read the full step-by-step guideTax file number, superannuation and Victorian state taxes
Get a Tax File Number in your first week: it is free, takes twenty minutes online, and without it your employer must withhold at the top marginal rate. Superannuation — compulsory employer retirement contributions, now 12% of ordinary earnings — is money you own, and temporary residents can claim it back when they leave. The Victorian layer only bites once you own property here, but it bites hard enough that it should inform whether you rent or buy.
Read the full step-by-step guideEach guide has verified costs, timelines, required documents, and the non-obvious gotchas — sourced from official government pages. Last verified August 2026.
Essential English phrases
Reading a list isn’t learning it. Globe Quest turns these into a trainer — hear each phrase spoken, drill them with spaced repetition, and get scored as you say them out loud.
What to know before you go
Join Ambulance Victoria before you need to
CriticalMedicare does not pay for ambulance transport anywhere in Australia, and in Victoria an emergency call-out is billed to you at well over a thousand dollars. Membership costs about AUD 56 a year for a single and AUD 113 for a family — the fees reset annually, so check the current figure with Ambulance Victoria. Queenslanders get ambulance free from their state; Victorians do not.
Learn the hook turn before you drive in the CBD
CriticalAt around thirty central intersections you must turn right from the leftmost lane, waiting in front of the traffic until the cross-street light goes green. It is signposted overhead and it is not optional. Drivers who instinctively pull into the right lane end up stranded on tram tracks in front of a moving tram.
Melbourne's contactless rollout is only half done
ImportantSince 16 March 2026 you can tap on with a bank card or phone on the Craigieburn, Upfield, Ballarat and Seymour lines and at City Loop stations, full fare only and simple journeys only. Trams and buses still require a physical myki, and the full network upgrade is not due until late 2028. Buy a myki at any 7-Eleven or station on day one rather than assuming your card will work.
The Free Tram Zone has a hard edge
ImportantTrams inside the CBD and Docklands are free and you do not touch on at all. Cross the boundary — most obviously heading to Carlton, Fitzroy, St Kilda or South Yarra — and you need a valid myki from the start of the trip. Inspectors board at the boundary stops for exactly this reason.
Dress for wind, not for the forecast temperature
Good to knowMelbourne sits where the Southern Ocean fronts arrive, so a 32°C morning can become 17°C and raining by 3pm. Locals carry a layer and a compact umbrella year-round. UV still reaches extreme levels on cool cloudy days, so sunscreen is not a summer-only item.
Tipping is optional; the weekend surcharge is not
Good to knowHospitality staff earn a legislated minimum wage, so tipping is a genuine extra rather than an expectation. What you will see instead is a 10–15% surcharge on Sundays and public holidays, printed at the bottom of the menu. It is legal and standard, and arguing about it marks you out immediately.
Top industries & employers
Health, biotech & medical research
CSL, WEHI, Peter MacCallum, Telix Pharmaceuticals, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences
The Parkville precinct packs hospitals, universities and research institutes into a few blocks and is the largest biomedical cluster in the southern hemisphere. CSL's global HQ is here.
Banking, superannuation & funds
ANZ, NAB, AustralianSuper, Cbus, IFM Investors
Sydney owns investment banking, but Melbourne owns superannuation — the country's largest industry funds are headquartered here and manage enormous pools of capital.
Technology & marketplaces
REA Group, SEEK, Culture Amp, MYOB, Zendesk (APAC)
Melbourne's tech scene is built on marketplaces and enterprise SaaS rather than consumer apps, concentrated around Cremorne and Richmond.
Higher education & international students
University of Melbourne, Monash, RMIT, Deakin, La Trobe
Education is Victoria's biggest services export. Monash and Melbourne are both large employers and dominate the research funding landscape.
Advanced manufacturing & defence
Boeing Aerostructures, Thales Australia, Hanwha Defence Australia, Bombardier
Car assembly ended in 2017 and the supply chain pivoted into aerospace, rail and armoured vehicles, largely in the south-east around Dandenong and Fishermans Bend.
Events, arts & sport
Australian Open, Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, AFL, Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne Fringe
Victoria buys and hosts major events deliberately as economic policy, which sustains a large professional layer in production, hospitality and venue management.
Where to go in Melbourne
The CBD laneways
Culture · City centre
Hosier, Degraves, Centre Place and AC/DC Lane — a network of service alleys turned into bars, street art and coffee.
Local tip: Degraves Street is the postcard and is priced accordingly. Walk one block north to Hardware Lane or east to Meyers Place for the same thing at local prices.
Queen Victoria Market
Food · North CBD
Seven hectares of produce, deli and meat halls trading since 1878, plus a Wednesday night market in summer.
Local tip: Go in the last hour before close on a Saturday. Traders discount hard rather than carry stock over, and the deli hall is where locals actually shop rather than the souvenir sheds.
Fitzroy & Brunswick Street
Neighborhood · Inner north
Terraces, record shops, vintage stores and the bar strip that set the template for every other Australian inner suburb.
Local tip: Brunswick Street is the tourist axis now. Gertrude Street, one block south, is where the good small restaurants and galleries moved.
St Kilda & the foreshore
Nature · Bayside
Bay beach, Luna Park, the Esplanade and a breakwater colony of little penguins that come ashore at dusk.
Local tip: The penguins are free and unticketed at the St Kilda breakwater around sunset — bring no torch and no flash, and go on a weeknight.
Footscray
Hidden gemFood · Inner west
Vietnamese, Ethiopian and East African food around the market, ten minutes by train from Southern Cross.
Local tip: Nicholson Street Mall and the Footscray Market are the point. Come for the Ethiopian along Irving Street, and buy your produce here rather than in the inner north for half the price.
Melbourne Cricket Ground & Yarra Park
Landmark · East Melbourne
A 100,000-seat stadium that is the emotional centre of the city from March to September, walkable from the CBD across the river.
Local tip: General admission to a home-and-away AFL match is cheap and unreserved, and you can buy on the day. Walk in along the Yarra from Federation Square instead of taking the tram, which is packed.
Emergency numbers in Melbourne
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