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Best 15 - Here are the shires, suburbs or regions in Australia with the best quality of life based on their housing affordability, education, community, jobs, wealth, accessibility, work-life balance, safety and health.

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Yass Valley, NSW: 7.9 - Yass Valley got high marks for its education, employment, wealth and safety but low marks for its work-life balance.

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Stonnington, VIC: 7.9 - Employment, wealth and health are the major attractions of Melbourne's Stonnington, but its housing affordability is atrociously expensive.

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Northern Beaches, NSW: 7.9 - North Sydney has wealth, employment and accessibility in spades, but its housing affordability is even worse than Melbourne's. 

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Hobart, TAS: 7.9 - Community and wealth are Hobart's main selling points, though even urban TAS housing isn't all that affordable. 

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Woollahra, NSW: 7.9 - Safety, health and education are abundant in south Sydney, but its got among the least affordable homes in the country. 

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Peppermint Grove, WA: 8.0 - Top marks for education in Peppermint Grove, along with enviable wealth and accessibility in the Perth suburb, but a very poor safety rating tugs the area down. 

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Burnside, SA: 8.0 -

A perfect health and wealth score and a near-perfect accessibility one gives this Adelaide suburb a boost, though homes are expensive and safety is mediocre. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC by 2.0)

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Cambridge, WA: 8.1 - Cambridge has the best quality of life in WA, with health, education and accessibility scoring very high, but safety is rated poorly and housing affordability mediocre. 

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Adelaide Hills, SA: 8.1 - Adelaide Hills has the best quality of life in SA, according to the study because of stellar accessibility, education, wealth and health. But work-life balance here was poor. 

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Mosman, NSW: 8.3 - Sydneysiders with yacht docks got the highest wealth score and high marks for safety, health, education and employment. But its incredibly bad housing affordability dragged down its rating.

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Bayside, VIC: 8.3 - While incredibly wealthy, healthy and accessible, Melbourne's Bayside got mediocre marks for work-life balance and housing affordability. 

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Boroondara, VIC: 8.3 - Just on the north side of Melbourne, Boroondara is quite wealthy, has a good community score, is safe and accessible. Housing isn't particularly cheap there though.

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Surf Coast, VIC: 8.3 - Southwest of Melbourne, just past Port Philip Bay, Surf Coast has stellar safety, health, wealth, accessibility, education and community. But housing affordability and a work-life balance are mediocre here.

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Ku-ring-gai, NSW: 8.4 - Ku-ring-gai has the best quality of life in NSW, according to the study, which gave the area perfect marks for safety, accessibility and wealth.

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Highest quality of life: Nillumbik, VIC: 8.6 - Nillumbik, VIC has the highest quality of life in Australia according to the study, boasting perfect accessibility and wealth scores along with affordable housing and a decent work-life balance. Finding the balance of all things was Nillumbik's key to success. 

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Worst 15 - Here are the areas in Australia with the worst quality of life, according to the study.

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Kempsey, NSW: 3.3 - In between Sydney and Gold Coast, Kemsey suffers from a low employment and a low wealth score, though it has a positive work-life balance. 

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Dundas, WA: 3.3 -

On WA's Great Australian Bight coast line is Dundas, with a low accessibility and safety score but affordable housing. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC by 2.0)

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Brewarrina, NSW: 3.2 - This central NSW area suffers from poverty, poor accessibility, health and employment. But housing is affordable and there's a decent work-life balance there. 

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Wiluna, WA: 3.2 - With a low health, accessibility and community score, this central WA town has decent employment and housing affordability. 

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Central Darling, NSW: 3.1 -

As the name suggests, Central Darling is in central NSW and its low employment, wealth, accessibility and health scores bring down its overall rating, despite decent housing affordability and work-life balance. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC by 2.0)

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Menzies, WA: 3.1 - Poor health, accessibility, safety and education give this outback WA area a low score. 

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Anangu Pitjantjatjara, SA: 2.9 -

Otherwise called APY Lands, Anangu Pitjantjatjara was given poor health, wealth, employment and community scores. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC by 2.0)

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Doomadgee, QLD: 2.8 -

The northern QLD outback region near the Gulf of Carpentaria has a low community, employment, safety and health score despite a perfect score for a work-life balance. 

(Photo: Wikimedia/CC by 2.0)

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MacDonnell, NT: 2.8 - The area encompassing Alice Springs, MacDonnell suffers from poor health, accessibility and community score despite having positive housing affordability and a good work-life balance.

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Ngaanyatjarraku, WA: 2.7 -

In the middle of the outback, Ngaanyatjarraku has low scores for health, safety, employment and community but positive ones for housing affordability and work-life balance. 

(Photo: Wikimedia/CC by 2.0)

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Napranum, QLD: 2.6 -

In the northern tip of QLD, poor health, wealth, employment, accessibility scores hampered the quality of life. 

(Photo: Wikimedia/CC by 2.0)

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Lockhart River, QLD 2.5 - On the eastern side of QLD's northernmost region, Lockhart River, suffers from bad health, employment, accessibility and community.

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Derby-West Kimberley, WA: 2.5 - Along the Indian Ocean, Derby-West Kimberley performed decently in most areas other than health, safety, employment and accessibility.

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Victoria Daly, NT: 2.5 - This central western area of NT has low health, employment and community scores.

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Worst quality of life: Mornington, QLD, 2.3 -

Despite its obvious physical beauty, Mornington, QLD was rated as having the worst quality of life because of its poor health, safety, community, employment and accessibility as the island in the Gulf of Carpentaria is incredibly remote.

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