If offered a good secure Job in Oz with company shipping your stuff and paying all flights, would you do it?

Yes, having done a year there in 92 and been back there for 3 times 1 month holidays since, I would. Love the place and the people, will probably be back there next summer. You would be mad not to.

no

too hot

too many venomous critters

Living away is great but there are things you will miss…depends if your willing to embrace the new and your family can do the same. I did it as a single guy, could not now with kids..

Yes, depending on the area you’ll move to.

What is your family history of criminality? C’mon someone had to say it!

How old are the kids? What about grandparents?

Probably yes although having been to Aus I don’t think I could live there for ever

Mate of mine has recently returned from Oz, having gone out there to ‘settle’. Lasted 2 years.

Said he just felt homesick after the initial novelty wore off, and he and his wife missed the UK and loved ones so much, yet it was such a long way from home.

no.
too hot.
no culture.
property boom yet to crash like those in europe/us.
sporting jingoism/bad losers (and winners).
racism (only just elected an indigenous M.P. we had a black M.P over a 100years ago).
provincial sensibilities.
australians.
not a fan of their wine (euro imports too expensive)

too hot

It’s bloody freezing in Melbourne today. Australia (or some of it) does have seasons – and snow, rain, hail.
I spend half the year here and I love it. IMO, the quality of life is noticeably higher in Oz than the UK – look at how many Oz cities are in the Economist’s / Monocle’s most liveable cities lists. And no British cities. But I think the biggest difference is that Oz, to me, seems far more family friendly. Kids seem to have a more outdoorsy lifestyle so they seem healthier and happier (generally). There’s more space, light, and stuff to do. There’s a generally more upbeat mood to the place.
And I think, long-term, kids in Oz will have better prospects – they won’t be paying off their parent’s generation’s debts and the Oz economy will be rock-solid thanks to ever-growing demand from China for its resources. So, yes, I’d move a family to Oz. I can’t think of a better place to raise children really. The downside for me is that it’s a long way from Europe so you don’t get that dense concentration of different languages, cultures, sights.

Would be near the bottom of my list of places to stay in the developed world!

Im sure it could be a nice lifestyle but i’d rather live elsewhere in Europe, even with having to learn a new language, if i was to leave the UK

australians

I think this is the greatest strength of the place. A more friendly, straight-up, positive people you couldn’t hope to meet, in my experience. Brits in comparison can seem petty, provincial and class-ridden.

I live in Adelaide and Yes.

Went back to see folks etc for first time in 3 years last year, was fun, but tbh, was glad to get back to Adelaide.

Don’t miss the busy, dirty, expensive conditions that London has – something I hadn’t noticed as much before and I used to be half a year in Colorado, half in London, so the return wasn’t an entirely new thing.

Best part of returning home for a month? The week driving around Italy in a Lancia Ypsilon!! Milan, Venice, Lake Como, Pisa, etc…

The culture thing is a bit of a misnomer in my eyes; sure it’s not Europe, but in terms of festivals, exhibitions etc just as much comes to Aus (especially if you are in Sydney or Melbourne). Plenty of Greek, Eastern European, German and Italian heritage out here too, so again, not void of everything, just being closer to Asia, more of a focus on the likes of Japan, China, Korea, etc.

Having said that – I’m sure that at some point, we will return to the UK for an extended period – 6-12 months – because of Europe and so my folks can spend more time with our daughter. But I’ll be back to Aus I’m sure after that.

Not enough Info – it’s a very big place most of which I wouldn’t want to live in (well the desert isn’t too child friendly for a start). I’d love to live in Melbourne though.

Yes…although its the last place I would want to live. But never turn down an opportunity and you can always come back.

I’d say yes. After 10 years away from the UK, I’d say there’s nothing that I miss, or nothing I miss that you can’t find a substitute/improvement for. Even if you only stay for a couple of years you will, at least, have broadened you mind and experiences. Go for it!

If the Mrs gets made redundant in April, as is quite likely, then it looks like this may be what we are gonna do..

So yes, yes I would.

Yes – we’re in the same situation as the OP, job offer in Sydney etc so i think it’s worth a shot just to see what it’s like. If we don’t take it I think we’ll regret not having a go, we can always come back and no one says you have to stay forever for it to be judged a success.

We think the different things we can show our son over there will also be great for his development.

We think the different things we can show our son over there will also be great for his development.

Like playing some type of confused football/rugby in skimpy little shorts. 😯

Sorry, but nope.
I’m not keen on the place or a good deal of the locals. What MrSmith says is largely true: I found that place to be lacking in identity, if you know what I mean? There’s very little that’s purely Australian, even Sydneys most famous landmark has ‘Made in England’ stamped underneath….
Plus I think England is a far nicer place to live, I love it too much here TBH. There’s a few places I would live, but only for a couple of years or so, the top of that list being Italy, which knocks Australia into a cocked hat in every way.

Friend of mine married an Ozzie chick and did 10 years out there, he’s just come back to the uk. They’ve just had kids and wanted them to know their grandparents properly, he also missed lots of silly little things that wouldn’t even cross your mind. Riding is better over here too, (well in some parts of the country 🙂 ) over there, by 11am it was too hot to ride generally

Qualified yes: it’d depend on your relationship (any your wife’s) with the rest of your family: it’s a long way away, and spending all your money and leave on that yearly trip back to the UK could soon become a drag when you’d rather spend some time in NZ / Bali / whereever, but can’t…

by 11am it was too hot to ride generally

Surely that would depend on where you live – I can’t imagine Melbourne or Adelaide getting too hot to ride.

Some days I would move my family over to Oz but then other days I forgive them…

No, there’s way too many things that can hide in shoes/clothes/bedding that can kill you :p

*looks out window* It’s nice out. It’s always nice out.

*looks in paper* Very little crime.

*gets home* left back door open. whoops. stuff still there.

I live in Adelaide, having been here 4 months now.

Things I miss:

Family
Friends
The nearness of everything
People who (believe it or not) know how to drive by comparison

Things I don’t miss:

Crap pay
Crap food
Crap weather
Crap attitude
Muddy trails

And on the ‘everything here is poisonous’ front, we’ve a book detailing all the ‘dangerous’ creatures – it lists the European Wasp and Honey Bee as moderate-high. I guess if things we just take for granted over in the UK worry them, then the scale can’t be so bad

Another point to consider, speaking as a permanent ex-pat, is that the novelty and excitement of the first few months does wear off, and that despite being in a foreign country you’ll still have a mortgage, take the kids to school, etc. Bear this in mind if you plan to go over for a recce!

I don’t want to come over too negative, I spent a couple of months working in Sydney and I loved it, I certainly wouldn’t have minded staying there, and if a good job opportunity came up I’d give it a lot of thought!

It works for some, not for others.
Don’t think I would.
Woman I used to work with, took her family about 6-7 years ago and loves it. (its all over her damn Facebook!)
Other friends took their young family and were back within 2 years.

I would move and me and the wife are considering it. We’d move to Perth though. I’ve been to Melbourne and Sydney too but prefer Perth.

We’re going to take another trip over and consider options carefully. I see it as we have nothing to lose. We’d just rent our house here out and rent over there. My wife is a GP so she’d get a job quite easily over there. We have family over in Perth too.

Weathers’ better
More outdoorsy/healthier lifestyle
lower crime
better place to bring up kids

We’ve been going through the application process for the past couple of years. Got a state sponsorship from Canberra/ACT, although we’re still not entirely sure whether we’ll be going. The exchange rate is horrendous if you’re taking money over there from the UK. I can’t help but feel it would be a better life out there for our two young girls, but I think it’s probably 50:50 on whether we go or not.

I loved Australia, did a bit of work there, particularly Melbourne – much more than New Zealand, which much less foreign feeling. Whilst they speak English (sort of) it is a weird and foreign place, with crazy creatures, weird weather and the general oddness that you get by being a zillion miles away from anywhere else. Sydney was shockingly expensive for anything, even things like chocolate bars (a pound for a chocolate bar the way the exchange rate was!)

I didn’t like:
1)car culture – like US, outside the cities you want to drive everywhere, much more so than the UK. They let people drive at about 12 or something stupid too, and don’t seem very rigorous about testing people.

2)Being a long way away – so no seeing family and friends in the UK, and not much culture. Like people say, cultural stuff does come to Sydney and Melbourne, but we’re mainly talking the big things – like if you want to see Cats, that probably came to one of them, but if you like anything non-mainstream, it might not come to you, or might only go to a different city (I have friends in NZ who spend hundreds of pounds on plane flights / travel to see gigs, as bands only tour to one of either Auckland or Wellington, same applies with Sydney and Melbourne I think). I’ve met indie kids out there who had never seen any of the bands they were in to, as they never toured out that way.

3)Having to drive / take trains to ride bikes. Not having rights of way to walk and cycle on everywhere, having to ride particular known trails, rather than just being able to look at a map.

4)The idea of what ‘near’ means – I worked once with someone who lives ‘near Melbourne’, it is a 5 hour drive or something, near just means that Melbourne is the first place you get to.

I think their wine is underrated over here by the way, as we mainly get a pretty poor selection – had some lovely wine whilst out there, much more subtle than what you’d get in an Aussie wine over here.

Personally, I find that you can get many of the positives about living out that way (Aus/NZ) in the UK with the exception of the weather (although Melbourne/Sydney don’t have the same weather as the hot bits of Australia), like fresh air and a more outdoor friendly lifestyle, you just have to not live in London.

More outdoorsy/healthier lifestyle

Really? Massive car culture out there you know, and pretty much as many fat people as over here.

Joe

Deffo, providing I don’t have to go with them 🙂

… and pretty much as many fat people as over here …

more than here, it’s the fattest nation on earth.

(i think a few of the pacific island nations may be higher, but i’m not missing an opurtunity to mock australia).

i’d go, but i melt at 25degrees – i find the uk uncomfortably warm.

More outdoorsy/healthier lifestyle

I found this to be pretty untrue in Sydney as well. Its a massive sprawl of a city for one thing, so getting out of it to the countryside takes AGES. There was a bit of surfing but i never saw many people doing it considering the size of the city. They seemed to like *watching* sport though.

As others have said the bikings not great either. Very car centric view of cycling on the roads. Makes you realise how enlightened the UK is, despite people complaints about not paying road tax!!

Oh and one very minor point, the TV is bad, really bad. Theres adverts every 10 seconds, even after the opening credits of the Simpsons for instance. All the comedy is awful too, its like watching kids tv. It sounds strange, but other than friends/family its little details like this that make you the most home sick.

The west coast seemed a very different place however. Where is the job?

Best place in the world.

Just avoid the southern cities. Queensland is the place to be.

As for the racism accusation, I’ve seen more overt racism in the last 7 years I have been back over here.

I think those who don’t like it are those expect it to be like a warmer England. It’s a cosmopolitan foreign country that speaks a form of English 🙂

Oh and one very minor point, the TV is bad, really bad. Theres adverts every 10 seconds, even after the opening credits of the Simpsons for instance. All the comedy is awful too, its like watching kids tv. It sounds strange, but other than friends/family its little details like this that make you the most home sick.

TV’s pretty poor here, too, but with torrent or a UK based proxy/iPlayer you can still get your Doctor Who fix when needed.

They really like cyclists in Perth:

Can your wife work ? Sometimes work permits for partners can be tricky. I have seen friends do this and it is LOTS harder on a non-working partner as they don’t have that instant network, and something to do for 9 hours a day.

Combine that with the poor public transport infrastructure (hence all the cars) in the uber uber mega suburbs of Australia and well it’s a bad recipe.

If she can’t work, live in a town near some people you know. Unless she likes sunbathing all day in which case you are sorted.

I would not want Australians for kids.