Melbourne has 321 suburbs. They sprawl across 9,900 square kilometres from the tight laneway grid of the CBD to bayside beach towns, multicultural growth corridors, and foothills villages an hour from the city centre. Whether you’re relocating, house-hunting, or just trying to work out which side of the city to base yourself for a week, this guide breaks down every part of Greater Melbourne by compass direction (the way most people actually think about the city).
Melbourne sits on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Country (Kulin Nation), and that layered history is woven into the neighbourhoods themselves: in place names, in community culture, and in the way each area has developed its own identity. Distances below are measured from the Melbourne CBD, which is still how this city measures itself.
LGA Quick-Reference Table
| Direction | Local Government Areas | Distance from CBD |
|---|---|---|
| Inner | City of Melbourne, City of Port Phillip, City of Yarra | 0–6 km |
| Inner South East | City of Stonnington, City of Boroondara, City of Glen Eira, City of Bayside | 4–15 km |
| North | City of Merri-bek, City of Darebin, City of Banyule, Nillumbik Shire, City of Whittlesea, City of Hume | 5–50 km |
| East | City of Manningham, City of Whitehorse, City of Monash, City of Maroondah, City of Knox, Yarra Ranges Shire | 15–80 km |
| West | City of Maribyrnong, City of Moonee Valley, City of Hobsons Bay, City of Brimbank, City of Wyndham, City of Melton | 4–40 km |
| South (Bayside) | City of Kingston, City of Frankston, Mornington Peninsula Shire | 15–100 km |
| South East | City of Greater Dandenong, City of Casey, Cardinia Shire, City of Knox (eastern fringe) | 25–70 km |
Inner Melbourne Suburbs
Small in area, enormous in personality. The inner suburbs cluster within 6 km of Flinders Street and account for the Melbourne most people picture: laneways, tram bells, rooftop bars, and the sense that culture is just a short walk away in every direction.
Three local government areas form the inner core. The City of Melbourne covers the CBD, Docklands, Carlton, Parkville, and student-thick North Melbourne. The City of Yarra holds Fitzroy (vintage shops, art galleries, Melbourne’s densest concentration of coffee obsessives), Collingwood (creative, edge, Smith Street), Richmond (Vietnamese food on Victoria Street, AFL on match day), and Abbotsford. The City of Port Phillip delivers the bayside belt: South Melbourne, Albert Park, Port Melbourne, and St Kilda, where the tram terminates at the beach.
Key inner Melbourne suburbs: Melbourne CBD, Southbank, Docklands, Carlton, North Melbourne, Parkville, East Melbourne, West Melbourne, Fitzroy, Fitzroy North, Collingwood, Abbotsford, Richmond, South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor, Port Melbourne, South Melbourne, Albert Park, St Kilda, Elwood, Middle Park, Kensington.
Getting around is easy: the Free Tram Zone covers the CBD, every major rail line passes through Flinders Street or Melbourne Central, and the tram network fans out from here across most of the inner suburbs. A Myki card covers everything outside the Free Zone. The inner suburbs suit travellers, young professionals, students, foodies, and anyone on a short stay who wants the city right outside the door.
For deeper coverage of the inner core, visit the Inner Metro Region guide.
Melbourne Northern Suburbs
Two cities in one postcode range. The inner-north runs from Brunswick and Coburg through Northcote and Preston: Melbourne’s creative backbone, with live music venues, vegan bakeries, independent book shops, and coffee roasters that treat espresso like a civic responsibility. Then, past Reservoir and Epping, the city exhales into the growth corridors of Craigieburn, Mernda, and Sunbury, where new schools and roundabouts appear faster than the map can update.
Merri-bek (formerly Moreland, renamed November 2022) and Darebin are the inner-north heartland. Sydney Road in Brunswick is Melbourne’s longest continuous shopping strip. High Street Northcote, named by Time Out as one of the world’s coolest streets in 2024, rewards a weekday stroll when the weekend crowds thin out. Banyule and Nillumbik go green and arty (Eltham has quietly been an artists’ enclave for nearly a century). Hume and Whittlesea are doing the heavy lifting on volume: new estates, new infrastructure, new communities arriving every year.
Key northern suburbs: Brunswick, Brunswick East, Coburg, Coburg North, Northcote, Preston, Thornbury, Reservoir, Pascoe Vale, Moonee Ponds, Ascot Vale, Essendon, Flemington, Heidelberg, Ivanhoe, Eaglemont, Bundoora, Greensborough, Eltham, Diamond Creek, Epping, South Morang, Mernda, Craigieburn, Broadmeadows, Sunbury, Tullamarine.
Transport: the Craigieburn line serves Brunswick, Coburg, and Broadmeadows; the Mernda line covers Darebin and Whittlesea; the Hurstbridge line runs through Banyule to Eltham and Diamond Creek. Tram route 19 is the Sydney Road workhorse. Outer Hume and Whittlesea are patchier (a car helps). The northern suburbs suit creatives, young professionals, multicultural families, first-home buyers watching the outer corridors, and anyone drawn to the inner-north’s lived-in, non-curated energy.
More detail in the Northern Region guide.
Melbourne Eastern Suburbs
Leafy, layered, and quietly cosmopolitan. The eastern suburbs are where Melbourne settled into itself: established family neighbourhoods, quality schools, walkable village centres, and a slow gradient from inner-east Hawthorn and Camberwell to the foothills edge of Healesville and Yarra Glen. Six local government areas cover the arc from Box Hill at 15 km out to Healesville at 80 km.
Box Hill in Whitehorse is sometimes called Melbourne’s New Shanghai, and fairly so: Asian supermarkets, yum cha that turns over by the minute, Korean BBQ, Vietnamese pho, and Taiwanese bubble tea all stacked into one walkable grid. Glen Waverley in Monash is a second major multicultural hub, consistently ranking as one of the most desirable family suburbs in Victoria. At the far end of the east, Yarra Ranges Shire delivers the Dandenong Ranges National Park, Puffing Billy steaming through mountain ash forest, Healesville Sanctuary, and enough cellar doors to fill a very good long weekend.
Key eastern suburbs: Hawthorn, Camberwell, Canterbury, Balwyn, Surrey Hills, Box Hill, Blackburn, Nunawading, Mitcham, Vermont, Doncaster, Templestowe, Warrandyte, Glen Waverley, Mount Waverley, Clayton, Oakleigh, Ringwood, Croydon, Mooroolbark, Lilydale, Wantirna, Boronia, Ferntree Gully, Healesville, Belgrave, Emerald, Olinda, Yarra Glen.
Transport: the Belgrave and Lilydale lines run through Ringwood, Boronia, and Lilydale; the Glen Waverley line covers the Monash corridor; the Alamein line serves Camberwell, Hartwell, and Surrey Hills. The Eastern Freeway and Monash Freeway handle the driving. Beyond Ringwood, a car becomes increasingly useful. The eastern suburbs suit families after quality schools and parkland, food and wine enthusiasts, nature-lovers heading for the Dandenong Ranges, and students at Monash University Clayton.
Full coverage: Eastern Region guide.
Melbourne Western Suburbs
The west gets a reputation it doesn’t deserve. Once dismissed as flat and industrial, the inner west has become one of the most interesting parts of Melbourne to eat, live, and watch evolve. The outer west is growing faster than any other direction in the city.
Six local government areas stretch from Footscray at 4 km out to Melton at 40 km. Footscray and Yarraville have gentrified without losing the Vietnamese, Ethiopian, and Horn of Africa food cultures that made them interesting in the first place. Williamstown, on a peninsula jutting into the bay, has tall ships, a maritime museum, and fish and chips by the water in a setting that feels genuinely removed from the city (the summer ferry to Southbank is the best commute in Melbourne). Sunshine and St Albans are multicultural in a way few postcodes match. Further out, Point Cook, Tarneit, Werribee, and Caroline Springs are building new suburbs at a pace that changes the map every year, and first-home buyers have noticed.
Key western suburbs: Footscray, Yarraville, Seddon, Spotswood, Newport, Williamstown, Altona, Altona Beach, Laverton, Sunshine, St Albans, Deer Park, Caroline Springs, Werribee, Point Cook, Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit, Wyndham Vale, Melton, Melton South, Maribyrnong, Braybrook, Cairnlea.
Transport: the Werribee, Williamstown, Laverton, and Sunbury train lines serve the inner and middle west. Outer Wyndham and Melton are largely car-dependent. The western suburbs suit first-home buyers, multicultural communities, maritime enthusiasts, new migrants, and investors watching Melbourne’s fastest-growing property corridors.
See also: Western Region guide.
Melbourne Southern and Bayside Suburbs
Brighton and beyond. The southern suburbs run down the eastern shore of Port Phillip Bay through a sequence of coastal neighbourhoods, each a little more relaxed than the last, before the peninsula takes over completely. This is Melbourne’s bayside lifestyle belt.
Brighton sits at the prestige end of the spectrum (the bathing boxes cost more than some houses elsewhere in Victoria). Hampton, Sandringham, and Beaumaris follow with the same bay access at marginally less jaw-dropping prices. Mentone and Mordialloc are where locals tip off each other about bayside without the Brighton price tag. The Frankston corridor picks up the outer end, and from there the Mornington Peninsula takes the baton entirely: more than 50 cellar doors, hot springs at Rye, surf beaches on the ocean side, and a long-standing tradition of Melburnians disappearing there every long weekend.
Key southern and bayside suburbs: Brighton, Brighton East, Hampton, Sandringham, Beaumaris, Mentone, Mordialloc, Moorabbin, Cheltenham, Chelsea, Frankston, Mornington, Mount Martha, Rosebud, Sorrento, Portsea, Rye, Red Hill.
Transport: the Frankston train line covers Chelsea, Mentone, Mordialloc, Cheltenham, and Frankston. Beyond Frankston, a car is close to essential. The Sorrento-Queenscliff ferry provides a scenic summer shortcut across the bay. The southern suburbs suit families in established neighbourhoods, bayside lifestyle seekers, retirees and sea-changers, and anyone with a long weekend and a cellar door wishlist.
More in the Southern Region guide.
Melbourne South-East Suburbs
The south-east is the part of Melbourne that visitors often overlook and residents quietly love. Stretching from the Monash corridor down through Dandenong, Casey, and Cardinia to Pakenham, it covers some of the city’s most culturally diverse communities and fastest-growing residential areas.
Greater Dandenong is Melbourne’s most culturally diverse local government area. Dandenong and Springvale hold large communities from Afghanistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, and the Pacific Islands, and the food reflects it. Walking the main streets here for lunch (Afghan bread, Cambodian noodle soup, Sri Lankan kottu, all within a kilometre) is one of Melbourne’s genuinely under-documented pleasures. Further out, Berwick, Narre Warren, Cranbourne, and Pakenham are large, well-serviced family suburbs with strong community infrastructure and competitive prices for the size of homes available.
Key south-east suburbs: Dandenong, Springvale, Noble Park, Keysborough, Rowville, Berwick, Narre Warren, Cranbourne, Pakenham, Officer, Frankston North, Scoresby, Knoxfield, Clayton, Notting Hill.
Transport: the Pakenham and Cranbourne train lines run through Dandenong and into Casey. V/Line trains continue to Pakenham and beyond. Outer areas are car-heavy. The south-east suits multicultural families, first-home buyers looking for value, and growing families after large homes and good school catchments.
Full coverage in the Inner South East Region guide.
Best Suburbs in Melbourne
The best suburb depends entirely on what you’re optimising for. Here’s how Melbourne’s 321 suburbs break down by lifestyle need.
Best Melbourne Suburbs for Families
The eastern suburbs dominate here: Glen Waverley (top state school catchment, excellent transport, Box Hill 10 minutes away), Camberwell and Surrey Hills (Boroondara LGA, strong private and state schools, walkable village strips), and Hawthorn (Glenferrie Road, Swinburne University campus, tram access to the CBD in 20 minutes). In the north, Northcote and Ivanhoe combine park space with inner-city access and good primary school options. For families who need more space and a lower entry price, the eastern middle ring (Ringwood, Croydon, Wantirna) and northern middle ring (Preston, Reservoir) deliver strong liveability per dollar.
Best Melbourne Suburbs for Young Professionals
Fitzroy and Collingwood sit at the top for inner-north energy: walkable, well-connected by tram, and dense with the kind of food and nightlife that makes Melbourne worth the rent. Brunswick and Northcote are the slightly-more-affordable next tier, with Brunswick East a consistent favourite for first renters who want a full social calendar within walking distance. In the inner south-east, Prahran and Windsor sit on the Chapel Street strip with fast tram access to the CBD. For professionals prioritising short commutes and waterfront weekends, Southbank and Docklands are genuinely liveable once you get past the corporate-residential vibe.
Best Melbourne Suburbs for First-Home Buyers
Affordability and liveability intersect differently in each direction. In the north: Pascoe Vale, Coburg, and Reservoir offer inner-north access at prices that have not yet caught up with Brunswick. In the west: Yarraville and Seddon have already moved, but Newport, Altona, and Laverton still have relative value for bayside access. In the south-east: Dandenong, Noble Park, and Springvale deliver the most square metres per dollar in inner-to-middle Melbourne. Point Cook and Tarneit in the outer west are the go-to for families who need a large new-build home on a serviceable block.
Best Melbourne Suburbs for Visitors and Short Stays
Stay inner and save the outer suburbs for day trips. St Kilda is the classic visitor base: beach, esplanade, Acland Street cake shops, and tram access to everything. Fitzroy and Collingwood suit visitors who want laneway culture and restaurant density. South Yarra and Prahran are good for visitors who want Chapel Street fashion and Fawkner Park walks. Carlton sits next to the CBD with easy Lygon Street access and tram connections to all major attractions. For a quieter base with genuine neighbourhood character, Northcote rewards visitors willing to be 25 minutes from the city by tram.
Map of Melbourne Suburbs
Understanding where Melbourne’s suburbs sit relative to each other makes the directional sections above click into place. The city fans outward from the CBD in all directions, with the inner suburbs clustered within 5–10 km, the middle ring at 10–25 km, and the outer suburbs pushing 25–50+ km from the centre.
For an interactive map of all 321 Melbourne suburb boundaries, the ArcGIS Melbourne Locality Map is the most practical free option: click any suburb boundary to see its name and postcode. For a familiar interface, Google Maps centred on Melbourne at city zoom shows all suburb labels and lets you explore the layout at your own pace.
The Victorian Government’s authoritative suburb boundary data (Vicmap Admin) is available via the Land Victoria spatial catalogue for anyone who needs downloadable GIS layers. Key spatial facts to orient yourself: the CBD sits at approximately -37.81S, 144.96E. Port Phillip Bay lies to the south and south-west. The Yarra River runs east to west through the inner suburbs. The west is flat; the east rises progressively toward the foothills.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many suburbs does Melbourne have?
Greater Melbourne has 321 official suburbs, each with its own postcode and distinct character. They range from dense inner-city suburbs like Fitzroy and Carlton (just 3–5 km from the CBD) to sprawling outer-growth suburbs like Cranbourne, Craigieburn, and Tarneit more than 40 km out. The City of Melbourne LGA (the inner core) contains 10 suburbs: Carlton, Parkville, East Melbourne, West Melbourne, North Melbourne, Kensington, Docklands, South Yarra, Southbank, and the CBD itself.
What are the best suburbs in Melbourne to live in?
The best Melbourne suburb depends on what you’re after. In 2026, consistently top-ranked choices include Fitzroy North and Northcote (inner north: walkable, vibrant, great cafes and parks), Glen Waverley (east: top schools, multicultural, good transport), Brighton (south: bayside lifestyle, elite schools), Brunswick and Coburg (north: affordable, creative, inner-city access), and Yarraville or Williamstown (west: village character, relative affordability). For families, the eastern suburbs around Camberwell and Hawthorn and the northern middle ring (Banyule LGA) rank consistently high for school quality and liveability.
What is the difference between Melbourne’s north, east, south, and west suburbs?
Melbourne’s directional suburb groups each have a distinct personality. The northern suburbs (inner-city Brunswick and Northcote through to Craigieburn) are known for multicultural energy, a strong creative arts scene, and fast growth. The eastern suburbs (Box Hill, Glen Waverley, Camberwell, Hawthorn) offer leafy streets, prestigious schools, and a polished family lifestyle. The southern and bayside suburbs (Brighton, St Kilda, Frankston, Mornington Peninsula) deliver coastal living and high-end amenity. The western suburbs (Footscray, Yarraville, Point Cook, Werribee) are Melbourne’s most multicultural and most affordable, with strong community character and rapid development in the outer corridors.
What is considered the inner suburbs of Melbourne?
Melbourne’s inner suburbs are generally those within 5–10 km of the CBD. They include the Port Phillip Bay-facing belt of Port Melbourne, South Melbourne, St Kilda, and Albert Park to the south; the inner-north strip of Fitzroy, Collingwood, Brunswick, and Northcote; the inner-east suburbs of Richmond, Hawthorn, and South Yarra; and the CBD surrounds of Carlton, North Melbourne, and Docklands. These areas are the most walkable and best-served by trams, and tend to carry the highest property prices in Melbourne.
Is there a map of Melbourne suburbs I can look at?
Yes: a clear interactive map of all 321 Melbourne suburbs is available via the ArcGIS Melbourne Locality Map or through Google Maps. The Victorian Government’s Vicmap Admin dataset provides the official suburb boundary layers used by councils and planners. Key groupings to understand: inner suburbs hug the CBD; middle-ring suburbs sit 10–25 km out; outer suburbs extend 25–50+ km from the centre.
What are Melbourne’s south-east suburbs?
Melbourne’s south-east suburbs are centred on the Dandenong corridor and extend through the Casey-Cardinia growth area. Key suburbs include Dandenong, Springvale, Noble Park, Keysborough, Berwick, Narre Warren, Cranbourne, and Pakenham. Greater Dandenong is one of Melbourne’s most culturally diverse municipalities, with large communities from Afghanistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and the Pacific Islands. The south-east also covers the eastern Monash fringe (Clayton, Notting Hill) and the Frankston corridor leading toward the Mornington Peninsula.