Aside from its terrible public transport model, it's a reasonably rational, but not grid-based life. (Melbourne's Hoddle grid is great!) House prices are of course insane, but less so than the Southern states.

It has good food, a mixture of tin-and-timber, modern, suburban, apartment living, it has great weather. It doesn't have Coogee or Bondi or Manly and it has a lot of urban sprawl, but within 2h drive are rainforest, beaches, hills.

It has good schools and universities for that stage of life, the inner city is much less frenetic than Sydney's equivalent. We don't have paddy's markets but we do have good food markets, if smaller. Less of a night-life scene but not none.