JustBecause

Two of my mates that went to Oz just for travelling also made this comment about "lack of culture". I think it must be associated with the lack of old buildings, etc

But why are you reading the moving back forum? I have read some & it just makes me shit-scared so I try to avoid it! Do you think it somehow helps to be aware of what has made other people move back?

DrWho

Forewarned, forearmed and all that...

esperanza

Amen to that!

Everyone is different but I think it's good to have an idea of problems that might come up. That way you can try your best to make sure that the move works for you the way you want it to. I think a lot of problems stem from unrealistic expectations. If you expect the worst then at least you won't be disappointed!

wardy2

I read the MBTUK forum as I occassionally like a walk into the dark side :scared:

As esperanza says though I like to be aware of what the potential if any the pitfalls are. I want to go armed with all kinds of knowledge and info and learn from other peoples experiences and hopefully not experience some of the problems others have had to face. I know we cant be fully prepared but I can try and have fun trying.

Kaye

BadgeIsBack

People who say Australia has no culture are completely wrong in my book - but to be frank, I know why they have been misled and arrived at this conclusion. It is because they are living in a housing estate - albeit in a smart new build. The outer suburbs of every Australian city are known for their lack of culture just like their English cousins. There are market towns in the UK surrounded by the same estates with women and men who married at 18 and started to reproduce, only they haven't got a boat, home theatre room or pool table.

We've discovered a lot of culture and certainly history in our village - partly the community creates it. Everywhere you go there are conections with locals and what happened in the past, and in the CFA you tend to hear it first or know where to look as half the village is named, or has been operated, or organised, or owned, by CFA members.

My own personal choice and taste is I'd rather have some sort of history applicable to me on my doorstep than read about 600 year history which does not significantly apply to me now.

If I really want thousand-year Southern American or European history then I will go on the internet or buy a book. I annoy my wife by preferring an academic textbook to seeing the museum - I find museums too lightweight often and want to read up on the subject matter before I go to the museum so I can place it all in context. A load of ornaments and trinkets bore me stiff - I'd rather read about the society and how it came to be and how it worked. If I haven't had time to do this pre-reading, then I don't want to go and look at trinkets and ornaments so I am not by default a museum-goer.

Go to the local library. Has anyone noticed how many books there are on 'Australiana'? Hundreds. Thousands. It's actually quite illuminating.There is stacks of history on this continent if you know where to look and avoid backpacker tours.

Cheers

BadgeIsBack

My wife has a friend in London whose husband refuses to visit Australia as he loves his 'culture'. The big joke is that he is a Health and Safety Officer for his local govt authority and lives in a manky house in a downtrodden area near Dartford Bridge. He's also a bit rough around the edges but loves his coffee shops and restaurants. I'll tell him he is really missing out by not visiting Melbourne. It's actually quite funny.

khoardiroy

Culture?

A vibrant, different music scene

Outstanding theatre culture (Ruby Moon etc.0

Excellent Australian literature - Waiting for Alibrandi for the teens to The Secret River or Maestro for readable award winning literature.

Beautiful buildings modern and older.

Ok fashion is still to develop alhough hopefully someone can show me I'm wrong.

Great art scene both in modern and landscape.

Food to die for.

Buildings are not old but then neither is Coventry.

Culture - at least there is also a traditional culture which is slightly more interesting than morris dancers/pearly queens/sticks with bottle tops.

There is more culture here than you can deal with. And its better and more honest than the UK. Tartan? Only 150 years old (current ones as the Butcher of Cumberland banned all the originals after Culloden). Aboriginal only 3000!

IMHO

arkon

When we first got here and for the 1st year or so I too used to complain that the country had no culture. I now accept it does have a culture based on what you just said, their clothing style and sense, manners, food, housing style, work ethic, service standards all add up to a culture just not the kind of culture those of us that say there isn't any think of as culture.

For me I now think when I said it had a lack of culture I meant it didn't have any history worth anything, as a result there are not all the festivals, marches, shows, diversity of things to do, go and see, places to visit that are distinctly different from any other place. Melbourne is very different to Sydney, and both to Brisbane etc, but the vast distance of travel between the cities means to all intents and purposes where ever you settle you will quickly run out of diverse things to see and do.

Compare it to Europe where each country has very different styles and culture, marches, festivals, music, food etc. and it's easy to see why you initially think Australia has none.

I think Australia has a culture but mostly in the negative, not worth anything category. When people say Australia has no culture they most likely mean after a few months or a year at most there is insufficient to see and do and the place rapidly becomes one big retirement home with sod all different to do. (That’s what it means to me.)

spalen

Oh badge come on... only the cultured live in the inner cities? You are devoid of any intelligence if you live 30km out of the cbd?. Thats just silly. You wouldnt live in an estate 15miles out of say Bath, and say that you lived in an area without culture just because it took you 20minutes to drive to the roman ruins...

BadgeIsBack

I'll clarify:

I'm taking the piss mostly out of the Australian situation, but I suppose I was then saying that the UK is not immune to accusations of lack of culture as well. Forget the distance thing here (especially as applied to the UK) - I was just saying that there are bad areas in even the most steeped-in-culture English shires(!)

When I first moved to Melbourne I was vertually instructed by people we met to live not further than 'x' kilometers out (as a rule of thumb). They were deathly serious, and we didn't heed their advice as it turned out- of course there are pockets as we have found. But the outer suburban areas do come in all for all the flack that make up the attackers of the Australian dream - it's a fact, and plenty of people Australian and British agree with me.

Of course, in some ways all this only applies to people who point the finger; the rest of us are only too happy not to care.

To make it even clearer, and possibly accurate, I'll say the advantage of the UK is that the land sizes mean that the towns and villages can 'offer more'. There is a bit of a mix. In Australia it is much more polarised. Unless you own land in the country, (or am a primary producer) then there is a division between the 'country' and the 'city'. I see it every day from the outer suburbs and the inner suburbs when I get my train in.

This is why I think some British people get caught out.

gruffbrown

I wouldn't hold your breath.

Dirk1971

Move to a new town in England, Milton Keynes if you like, and you'll soon appreciate what the "lack of culture" means.

northernbird

I agree Badge. I come from a small village where everyone knew your business. My grandmother would know I was walking down to visit before I got there when I was a kid, nightmare. I like living in suburbia, nobody knows me and thats how I like it. However I have seen a few people on here that lived in large cities back in England (Leeds/Manchester) and then move to a quiet suburb that's 15 mins drive to civilisation, no pub, no shops, no decent public transport and winge like buggary that they are bored.

Rushman

What a crock of shit. A dodgy looking opera house, a big rock in the middle of nowhere, shite beer, some old pervy geezer that dresses up as an old tart and crocodile ****ing Dundee.....thats culture is it? I've seen more culture in a 3 week old Yoghurt FFS.

DrWho

And that sums up a lot of things really doesn't it... It seems some people really give themselves a challenge by not only moving to another country but also putting themselves into a completely different situation when they get there...