My order of best cities:
1. Perth- The view from Kings Park takes some beating and the beaches......(sigh)
2. Hobart- Nothing beats the heritage that you feel down there I reckon
3. Adelaide- The city and Adelaide hills are nice (although there are some ugly areas)
4. Brisbane- don't reckon it's tops (after all it is inland
)
5. Darwin/ Canberra: 'Bout the same I reckon. Darwin's probably the most multicultural city I can think of (in terms of all culture's mixing together rather than different cultures occupying different cuburbs as is the case in the cities)
I think it's touch and go for the last two. Both are big cities with all the negatives that comes with being that (pollution, sprawl, crowds, noise, suburbia)...
For mine, Melbourne is better than Sydney simply because the footy's there, the people are friendlier (in general) and it seems the actual city is more laid-back than the city of Sydney.
Sydney's sprawl is really becoming a worry imo. Those ever expanding western/ south-western/ north-western/ southern suburbs are u-g-l-y.