….that’s been there and not really liked it? (For various reasons)
Does EVERYONE else think it’s the best place in the world?

I’ve been here 9 years in may. Can’t be all bad.

I never said it was all bad. I said I didn’t like the place.

Been there a few times, like it as a holiday destination, but couldnt live there.

Ace lifestyle, cant disagree with that but a bit parochial all told.

Nice weather though.

Certainly not the best place in the world, but I have seen worse places too.

It’s not just you, although I wouldn’t say I disliked it, I would just prefer to live in England. My folks live there with my younger sister, brother emigrated about 5 years after my parents and also have lots of cousins etc. there, only one close relation left in the UK. Still can’t bring myself to move there permanently, although I do enjoy a month there every few years.

I couldn’t live anywhere where I couldn’t moan about the weather. What on earth would people talk about?

I spent 10 months there many years ago. I really liked it but I could never live there. I longed for green countryside, decent pubs with decent beer, weather rather than climate and hated the casual racism that went unchallenged

I lived there for a year and thought it was a pretty nice place. Pretty relaxed way of life. Plenty of outdoorsy stuff, which is entirely “normal” to take part in. Generally a good work-life balance all round.

Possibly not “the BEST place in the world”, but pretty good.
We did consider moving there at one point.

I only really had issue with the complete lack of culture, conservative small-townism (in Adelaide) and the niggling slightly racist undercurrent, especially regarding Australian Aboriginals.

What bits didn’t you like?

and hated the casual racism that went unchallenged

Yes. I noticed that too.

Glad I’m not alone, because as soon as anyone asks me what I thought of Australia they seem to treat me like a lepper when I say I wasn’t keen on it. Although it has to be said the Australians have a habit of not making you feel very welcome.

It’s not just you.
Mrs M & I spent a few months there, a long time ago. I wanted to stay; she couldn’t stand it & wanted to come home. She won.

What is this “culture” you speak of?

kiwijohn – Member
What is this “culture” you speak of

Ohhhhhhhhh! Harsh! True!
😉

If it’s so good, why are there so many of them over here? (“,)

Never been, never had the urge to go.

2 friends have migrated there in the past few weeks, so maybe will be dragged over to visit (rather go ‘boarding though)

My wife is Australian and we’ll be emigrating after the birth of our child so she has her family nearby for support. I grew up in NZ so it will not be the biggest cultural shock in the world, but I’m still quite happy living in England. I think TandemJeremy has expressed very well the things that are worrying me the most about our move and whether I’ll be able to be truly happy there:

I longed for green countryside, decent pubs with decent beer, weather rather than climate and hated the casual racism that went unchallenged.

They’re over there to work in your pubs & sleep with your women.

I longed for green countryside, decent pubs with decent beer, weather rather than climate

That’s why I live in Tasmania rather than Australia.

I spent some time there last year. Got married over there in fact. Travelled around a little: WA, Uluru, Sydney, Melbourne, QLD etc. I love it. Such a diverse country. TJ- I don’t think that Aussies are particularly any more racist than people from the UK. I think historically they have been but not so much any more (in the cities anyway).

I hope to move over to Perth in the next couple of years.

I longed for green countryside, decent pubs with decent beer, weather rather than climate and hated the casual racism that went unchallenged.

Not sure I’d agree with that. I’ve had some of the best beer (Coopers, Little Creatures) in Aus, by far the best food (not just in Melbourne and Sydney where the British standard of service and food would never be tolerated but small country towns too) at a fair price and there’s green countryside if you want it (the top half is a rainforest, bits of Tassie are like England, complete with rose gardens). True, there is casual racism (an all sides) but no worse than in many other places (Canada, Scotland…).
After being disappointed on my first visit, I now love the place. I love its scale, its variety, the can-do attitude. It’s very dependent on where you are. I’m not a fan of Sydney or Brisbane, a lot of the Gold Coast is a bit trashy. But what I’ve seen of Victoria, Tasmania and interior Queensland has been fantastic.

I liked it, want to move over there but the SO is not so sure. I think the main reason I’d want to go is the differences, no point moving to do exactly the same as you would over here. I think it’s the chille dout vibe I liked and the wide open spaces with very few people outside the cities

I used to work with a lot of Australians. Even they said that when they went back the racism shocked them, after having lived in London for a couple of years. They hadn’t noticed it growing up. Quite a few Aussies stay over here – they must surely prefer it.

Most people I speak to think me and the Mrs totally insane for choosing to live in the UK rather than the USA, which is along similar lines I suppose.

Beer – they have no live ale. If you like tasteless pasteurised beer then fine – but I cannot live without real ale.

All my mum’s family apart from my mum went out as ten pound poms in 1970. My sister and cousins from both sides of the family have moved over in the past 5 years. I’ve visited Perth, Darwin and Sydney but don’t see the attraction in living in any of those places. I’d go again for a holiday though (my sister’s in melbourne now so free accommodation pretty much anywhere i go)

TJ they do have live ale – who told you otherwise? There are tons of microbreweries making real beer.

Beer – they have no live ale. If you like tasteless pasteurised beer then fine – but I cannot live without real ale.

I’m pretty sure Coopers is live. Very tasty too. There are a few micro-breweries if you look around.
Mind you, we were in Adelaide and we spent every other weekend in the vineyards, so beer wasn’t a high priority 🙂

Little Creatures

Sunday sesh.

It has it’s pros and cons.

It can be very boring.

I just like sun and heat and some western values and speaking English helps.
Some are laid back.

The UK is wicked except for shoddy weather which can make it fun and challenging. Just wear the right gear but I want sun sun sun!

Oz has loads of skin cancer and creatures that crawl up your leg.

If I move then the last thing I want to see is more pommes as I want to move away from your whinging and how you make countries rubbish and ruining Oz.

Thank god for the points system.

My GF is an OZy and finds it boring and misses Englands history and castles etc.

SO many ppl move over there and come back!

I’m considering Sydney, Dubai, LA and possible South of France-but my French needs work!

Ok – the beer must have changed since I was there – it was many years ago

Aww don’t slag it off. I’m trying to get out there and work in the mental health system in Perth! Currently applying for visas and registration to the nursing board.

Coopers is/was on sale at Tesco. Certainly my favourite of the ‘state’ brews available in Oz. Though even 4X tastes good at the end of a 40C day up in the Kimberley.

I spent a very happy year in the Hastings region of NSW (missus did a teacher exchange).

Whats the difference between Australia and a toilet?

If you leave a toilet for a hundred years it will develop a culture…

😉

I’ve only been to Melbourne, and then only for a couple of weeks. The weather was good, things were very cheap, and most of the people I met were very friendly. Deffo more laid back than in the UK. I loved the ‘no worries mate; she’ll be right’ sort of attitude. Stuff still gets done.

We saw some blokes digging up a road. They’d hit a high-pressure water pipe; there was a fountain 10m or more, into the air. We asked one of them, what had happened. He just shrugged, laughed, and said ‘we f*cked up!’. No point in getting worked up over something they coon’t immediately fix, so they din’t.

So, an overall positive experience. But one thing niggled me, and it was only when I’d got back to the UK, that I realised what it was. Can’t really explain it, but it is to do with culture, history, depth of society, etc. There was just that certain ‘je ne sais quois’, missing. Several Aussies have backed me up on this one, too. That’s why they prefer to live here!

S’all right, but there are quite a few places I’d rather live.

He just shrugged, laughed, and said ‘we f*cked up!’. No point in getting worked up over something they coon’t immediately fix, so they din’t.

That cuts both ways tho. Apparently it can be really hard to get anyone to do anything in a hurry, which can be annoying.

2 friends have migrated there in the past few weeks,

Icarus and Daedalus? 😆

been living in perth for a while now and love it. its certainly a cultural wasteland but on balance you get heaps more time to do outdoor activities than you do back home. you get about 3 months of bad weather and even thats not really bad. i wouldnt swap the lifestyle for a couple of weekends away to visit the tate modern or some castle up in scotland for love nor money. certainly not perfect as we have problems(hoons) in cars doing doughnuts and generally driving like idiots and the typical anglo/celtic problem of getting pissed up and getting into fights of a friday night but it pales into comparison to the problems we had in London where we have far more social problems and the media whips everyone up into a frenzy about any old crap.

it feels like we have wound time back by about 25 years. all the shops are closed on a sunday and a saturday really feels like saturday when i was a kid for some reason i cant explain.

You say it’s lacking ‘Culture’ in OZ – in what respect – the culture of pikeys and dole scroungers – the windging about this that and the other, and 3 or 4 nights a week of glum soap opera’s – i understand the lack of ‘history’ argument as in the lack of medieval archetecture etc, but it has it’s own history, the Aboriginals have been there 40,000 years, it’s just a different history – could someone explain the ‘culture’ in the UK that they so enjoy, as i can’t say i ever did!

I prefer to stamp on spiders, not be killed by them, think I’ll stay put!

The very purpose of this thread is to knock a country to prove to our selves how much better we are, how parochial is that!
Australia isn’t some perfect utopia its got lots of problems like all other countries. Its the isolation of the place that can make it attractive to some and the opposite to others.