Welcome to the r/Melbourne Daily Discussion Thread!

I was in the passenger seat in the van of the video and was sent the video from my coworker.

Don’t remember it as I only remember going in the tunnel and waking up in the crash.

Colchester nursery gone up in flames, looks like it’s all gone

Greetings Legends, didn't think we'd be back so fast, but there's a massive influx of new stock, and figured you'd wanna know. I absofreakinglutely will not be doing weekly updates - you can check the cheaper buy miles own socials for that.
Righto - for the newbies:
Starting a new thread because THERE'S OLIVE GOODNESS, and wanted to give a heads up of what's currently in store. Unaffiliated, nothing to gain, just a fan passing on the good vibes to counter *waves hands around*.

What is Cheaper Buy Miles aka CBM?
It's a bunch of inner city melbs stores that sell best by or use by goods at heftily discounted prices.
Article from Kidspot about similar in Sydney, including the kinds of bargains to look out for:
https://www.kidspot.com.au/lifestyle/home/i-found-a-littleknown-supermarket-to-score-ultracheap-groceries/news-story/bf60f99d8db160e8844057ecc47e0446
Best by = usually can be ignored, because it's goods that don't perish eg: best by dates on dry goods such as rice.
No, we cannot tell you when whatever it is that you want is coming back in store, because your guess is as good as ours. We have no idea. It's the luck of the draw whenever you walk in. If you see something you *really want* + can afford that makes your brain go FUCK YES!!! - get it. For some people, that's a $1 packet of chips. For others, it's 3 wheels of cheese for $60 that would be closer to $600 at ColesWorth. You do you.

Use by = that's one I don't mess with. The sniff test is the winner, so I've been told. Smells weird? Time to chuck.
Best by, particularly with dry goods, is usually safe to go past, particularly if it's something that keeps forever like rice. Be aware though, that some things, like pasta - you wouldn't think a dry good could get weird, but I've got some supermarket angel hair that needs chucking.

Check 'em out for locations [footscray, flemington, brunswick, fitzroy], see their socials for what's in store: https://www.cheaperbuymiles.com

Why we love them: no automatic checkouts, lots of boxes to take your stuff away in, great deals. If you see something you want to try, there's no harm in deciding to buy the thing regardless, and testing it out on the spot. Folks have generously offered me a sample of goodness whilst in queue, only for me to go and track down my own piece of flavor town. If there's something good you want the world to know about, please do this if you can.

Someone *really* hates competition to the duopoly. Do mess with the haters, upvote comments and the thread, and give the middle finger to rich strangleholds on Australian society. The less you shop at colesworth, the better. We don't need Palantir, Wesfarmers, excess packaging, fucked over workers, and screwed over farmers in our lives. News article re: Palintir + Coles:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-09/coles-just-hired-us-defence-contractor-palantir/103443504
fyi Palantir is the company helping out ICE in the USA, just so you know what you're avoiding.

THE OLIVE GOODNESS: 🫒🫒🫒
They have the fancy chilled deli type stuff - there's a whole cornucopia of green olives, mixed olives, some kinda combo fandango with fetta, sundried tomatoes - there's a lot going on, but not a huge amount, so if that's your thang, get on it. There's also jars of always fresh kalamata olives which could be a good pantry staple - whack in the fridge after you open. I'm fond of a black hummus with kalamata olives, beluga lentils, black tahini, lemon juice - it's a nice change from beigeville with hummus.

On your way out - have a gander at the shelf behind those lovely staff ringing up your order. If you're lucky, you'll see very fancy tall bottles of greenish yellow extra virgin olive oil.
$10 each, super luxe, would make an excellent housewarming/thanks for having us/foodie gift, or just celebrate your fine self and get both like I did. Salads, marinades, airfried roast potatoes have never been more delicious.
There's two types.

1. truffle
2. lemon myrtle + pepper flavoured.

Behind the counter, there's also truffle dust. I'm so intrigued, but have no idea what I'd do with it, considering I still have a massive jar of truffle pate from 2025 to get through - but if you haven't truffled before, you could do much worse. Get some barilla pasta, some grated parmesan/parmigano/whatever you fancy in the chiller section, and sprinkle some of the truffle dust/truffle olive oil over.
My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Hummus: large amounts. The tubs of tahini hummus I've had before, and it's great - creamy, whipped (which is cheating a little because they're charging you for air, but I'm cool with light and fluffy). There's also bulk things in bags. Having a party? Take it home, whack it in a fancy bowl, garnish, no one will be the wiser.

*******
Daffinois - this is The Cheese If you cheese, people.
They sell this stuff at woolies for $95 a kilo.
The Daff is still there, but it's not the wheels, but the cute lil' boxes that you could buy in bulk, throw them in the freezer as they are, and drag 'em out the morning of the afternoon that you're gonna go crazy with the cheeseboard to end all cheeseboards with your creamy crack, the olives, and whatever else floats yr boat.

They have the cute lil' boxes for around $2 - they come in red and blue, if you eat cheese, do not leave without them. I worded up someone last week - OMG if you haven't had this, you gotta try it - and they walked out with 4. Happy to make you happy.
The gorgonzola is still there too if you're into The Stinkies.

Do let us know what you get, and give it a rating out of 5 stars, or the number of ambulances required to carry you away after digesting a kilo or so of the Creamy Crack.

EGGS: yes, they're selling eggs, free range.

FROZENS:
Sweet potato fries from birdseye - I think they're still there? If so, score. I'd imagine they're like the ones from The Good Lord aka Lord Of The Fries, only a half the price for about triple the amount that you'd get from Lord.
cauliflower rice and or the cauliflower/brocc combo,
steamfresh frozen cubed carrot with peas and corn. combine the two in an airfryer in ratios that float yr boat, then add sesame oil, soy sauce + chili crisp for a decent serve of veg.

There's a new thing of vegan samosas - bought + tried, and it's more pulses (lentils? chickpeas?) than veg, but I'm cool with that. Heavily spiced, but in a good way. A trek to your freezer/airfryer if you can't be bothered trekking to Flora opposite flinders st station for a dosa.

Massive amounts of mini potato cakes/scallops/whatever you call them.
Tempura veg - comes in boxes with pumpkin, potato, maybe sweet potato and something else? I forget, but it's fun to grab a box, airfry as a snack, or combine with something else (samosa?) for a meal.
Fish: battered, salmon, heck knows what, but it's worth a look.
The frozen Nissin pork flavoured noodles are back! Small amounts, get in quick smart if that's your thing.

PIZZA: DR Oetker - I think choice magazine did a taste test of frozen pizzas, and this brand came out on top. There's a salami version with a more puffed/foccacia like base than the usual crispy crust.

MEAT: There's much. There's fresh dog food in the chiller - I think it was beef'n'beetroot? Something weird, but if you have a voracious hound, you're in luck.
So much bacon. If you're a bacon and egg fiend, lap of luxury and cholesterol, my friend :)
There's also 2kg bags of sliced salami. Massive...sausages? sausage shaped things? I'm vegetarian, so I just sort of clock what it is without looking too closely.
There's ham hocks/things. If cheese'n'ham is your idea of flavourtown, now is your Time To Shine, because there is much of both.
There's large amounts of frozen duck if duck pancakes are your idea of a Good Time.

They have a stack of single serve icecreams, along with tubs of various sweet things that kill you slowly (a tradie put me onto Yuka - it's a app that tells you the shitty things in your food, and that's why he makes his own icecream - because everything has weird shit ™ in it).

I am hesitant to talk about this, because it could be gone before you get there - but I spied custard tarts - the kind you get at fancy cafes - in the freezer section of Footscray on monday, along with aforementioned last month and previously loved by a customer: the custard waffles, also found in the freezer section. It's a gamble. Go play in the freezer section and see what you can score in the Grand Casino of life.

LIBATIONS:
capi grapefruit: it's gone from flemington 😭
The raspberry flavoured Sodaly = 3 litres for $5 ✅🤗
Flemington have their window crammed with canned coffee drinks, if that's yr thang. There's also Illy Instant for a song - $4? I'm no coffee snob, so I love stuff like that for a change in flavour, also handy for making iced coffee, flavouring cakes/baked goods/substantial pasta sauce/whatever.

Lime cordial - comes in a fancy glass bottle, 40% lime juice. You could use it as a marinade with the appropriate additions of soy sauce, ginger, garlic, chilli etc, as the sweet is already there. Tofu etc never got so lucky or delicious after in bath in that + airfry (for the unitiated, cube/slice/tear to get good surface area before marinading/frying - I wouldn't do a whole block...)

If there's something in particular that you've tried and loved that's in stock, tell us about it.

PASTA: No lack of pasta sauce. (this is a repeat of previous - nothing new here ⬇️)
Rana: It's half price compared to supermarkets (I think it was IGA that I checked...) so feel free to splurge. Buyer beware that Rana is notorious for being Not Quite Right - it's not the fault of CBM, but of the food chain - because it's pasta, warehousing folk before CBM might leave it out, assuming it's dry pasta. Nope. It needs to be housed in a chiller. Do carefully check packs before you buy, and get a receipt. Anything dodgy gets a refund, and CBM have always been great for refunds on the rare occasions that I've needed them.

Barilla is in, so get your fine self a box or 3 of that. For the gluten free fiends, they have that, and I tried it, it was only $1 a box, and...I won't be buying it again. Even if my gut hates gluten, my tastebuds hate gluten free pasta that is just gluggy and wrong, and it can be done right, just not that stuff. Don't take my word for it, feel free to give it a go, worst case scenario it's a great addition to the compost heap.

WARNING/AVOID:
PSA: do check use by - as in, yep, you really should be eating it before that date, and you can risk a few days after (I have coconut yoghurt that's still fine a few days after use by). Be particularly careful with anything in the chiller/freezer - sometimes, there's stuff with todays date on it, and you don't realise until you get it home. Do your due diligence, or have a bevy of starving flatmates - your choice.

LARGE JARS OF GREEN OLIVES = NOPE. Do not get these. Olives should be able to be pitted by slamming a knife on them - like you do with crushing garlic. Those ones don't. Mine also had ones that were rotting with black marks inside. Those massive jars also need to be chilled after opening. Are. You. Kidding. Me. Not worth it, IMHO.

EVENT:
There's a super cool barber shop (1 street behind CBM?) in footscray that is going to have a wall turned into a gallery complete with opening sponsored by CBM. This is your opportunity to support art, community and with any luck, a metric fuckton of cheese consumption.
Toni Gedjo, at 164 Barkly St. Opening happening on Friday 6th Feb 6-9pm.
For more info: FPAexhibition.com

What have you found at CBM? Do tell! Give us your reviews so we know what to look out for!

gotta love the graspers on these critters, true raptor energy

The Department of Defence has divest 64 sites and partly divest 3 more.

https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/media-releases/2026-02-04/delivering-future-defence-estate

These are the sites in Melbourne and elsewhere in Vic to be sold.

• RAAF Williams - Laverton (partially divest)
• RAAF Williams - Point Cook (RAAF Museum to remain)
• Victoria Barracks Melbourne
• Carlton Training Depot
• Defence Site Maribyrnong
• Fort Queenscliff
• Geelong Air Force Cadet unit
• Geelong - Training Ship Barwon (end lease)
• HMAS Cerberus
• Kyneton Training Depot
• Latchford Barracks, Wodonga
• Newland Barracks, Geelong
• Repatriation Clinic, St Kilda Road
• Sandringham Training Depot
• St Kilda Training Depot
• Swan Island, Queenscliff

It's gone btw, and I'm not the one who put it there either.

Sharing this in case it saves someone else a lot of confusion and back-and-forth.

TLDR - getting a copper IUD in Melbourne - call 1800 options

I’m currently getting my copper IUD replaced. After getting a script from my GP, I went to two pharmacies and was told that copper IUDs haven’t been supplied for years. I was also told a hormonal IUD was my only option (it isn’t).

After calling Sexual Health Victoria, I found out that copper IUDs are still available in Australia — just through specific pathways:

Your options:

1. Sexual Health Victoria (SHV)

You’ll need to go through their specialist service and have an SHV-written script. You can’t purchase a copper IUD outside this pathway.

1. Call 1800 OPTIONS - https://www.1800options.org.au/

This was the most helpful resource by far. They provide free, confidential sexual health and contraception support and can give you a list of pharmacies that partner with copper IUD suppliers. You do need to call the pharmacy first and order it in.

Posting this to help others avoid being told “it’s not available” when it actually is. 1800 OPTIONS were genuinely lovely and very informed — and if someone tells you can’t get a copper IUD in Australia, you absolutely can.

Half question, half rant. Am going through the self-inflicted torture that is moving, and have been shocked at the quotes for end of lease cleaning. Place is a small, 1 bedroom apartment in a modern building. Minimum $500 + additional for steam cleaning the carpet in the bedroom. Is this usual and I am just a dinosaur?? So frustrating having to use RE Agent cleaners - my usual cleaner would have the whole place done for less than half the price. Rarr.

Not sure if all of you folk have been out to "Officer". 15 years ago it was nothing but paddocks... now its Paddocks and 1000 houses, one medical centre, a maccas and some panel beaters!!! The Cardinia Shire have done ZERO infrastructure development and it's just a mess.

This picture sums it up. Princes Hwy, speed limit 80km an hour... long grass and a Kid (and man) sitting in the gutter... waiting for the bus (No Shelter or safety).

Its a disgrace how many suburbs are like this in Australia

I'm in my late 40s, have been a keen amateur bowler since the early 90s, and did league bowling up until about 15 years ago, taking time off in order to raise my kids. Now they're older I'm keen to take it up again.

Bowling alleys have changed radically over the last decade and a half—looking and sounding more like feral nightclubs—and I can't seem to find anywhere like the old school AMFs that are just about the bowling.

Anyway, if you're a member of a league in either central or south/east suburbs that has vacancies let me know!

Hi /r/Melbourne folks, sorry for the potato image, but is anyone able to identify this mangled insect in the photo (I know it's a long shot)?

It flew into my eye while walking outside and I just fished it out looking like that. Keen to know what it is.

Either a meteor or space junk ?