If you had to choose one city in Australia to visit,would it be Melbourne or Sydney ?
My wife and I are not clubbers but like sightseeing,gardens,scenery and good restaurants.

The winner is.....Sydeny!

Without a doubt Melbourne!!! Fantastic restaurants of any type you can imagine at every turn, beautiful gardens and scenery. I love the multi-culturism of Melbourne. Awsome shopping. A very sophisticated city. Don't misunderstand Sydney has some great Australian icons for you to see but if you want to look beyond that I would go for Melbourne!!!
J

Having lived in both Sydney and Melbourne (currently Melbourne) I would suggest Sydney if you are planning to stay about town. Melbourne is indeed a lovely city but it has a very European flavour (which Europe does better) where as Sydney is more iconically Australian. A few years ago you may well have put Melbourne ahead of Sydney on the good restaurant front but that isn't true today. The only problem with Sydney that I can see is that the gardens won't be up to scratch because of the severe water shortages, but the gorgeous, gorgeous harbour will more than make up for that. Just one point of note though...if you are planning on getting out of town and doing a bit of scenic driving and staying a night or two here and there then I would absolutely choose the state of Victoria (of which Melbourne is the capital). The Grampians, Wilsons Prom, Ballarat, Bendigo and of course, the Great Ocean Road and really lovely and the winery centres of Yarra Valley, Mt Macedon, or Mornington Pennisula are very close by and very scenic.

Sydney, Sydney, Sydney.....
Take the coastal walk from Coggee to Bondi - and a ferry from the Quay to Manly and you'd know why we are the iconic Australian city.

With huge respect to Melbourne, which does indeed have lovely Botanical Gardens, and lots of good restaurants, and museums, and culture, and advertises itself to domestic travellers as a place to shop, eat and be romantic - the answer is Sydney. Cos it has all of the above - and the glorious harbour too. And for that, there is no substitute.

Having read the previous posts you may be now very confused. BUT, I also have lived in both cities (mostly Sydney) and would suggest Sydney would be the most desirable option. Also, you should realise that there is, and always has been, very friendly rivalry between residents of both cities! So, there will always be differences of opinion as to the better location.
But, if you're coming from afar why not plan to visit both as there are some very competitive airfares between these 2 cities being offered all the time. Look up sites for qantas.com.au, Jetstar (no frills version of Qantas)or Virginblue.com.au
Do come and visit though, the scenery alone is well worth the long flight!

Sydney.

I will choose Sydney because whenever Australia comes to mind, one will automatically think of kangaroos, Sydney opera house or Sydney harbour bridge(icons). I will make an effort to see those places in reality.

Both cities are very different, and I love them both for different reasons.
I suspect you should research what places there are to sightsee in both cities, list gardens and read about them all in each city then read rstaurant reviews for both cities.
If these are your main criteria for making the decision, the answer will come out in the wash...

Good Luck

Muck