Kitten24

I need your opinions please as we have currently started the process of applying for a visa to move to Australia.


* Which is the best area in Australia to live in?
* What are your opinions on Perth?
* Is it possible to arrange rented accommodation in Aus, before leaving the UK? (I really don't want to be homeless when we arrive there)
* Do Aussies really have a similar lifestyle to South Africans?

Please, any info you can give me would be highly appreciated. We've never been to Australia before, so would be going there blindly.

Mizz Teapot

Try www.saaustralia.org

Kitten24

Thanks, I asked on this forum as I value their opinions. (Well a few of them at least)

melpieters

Good for you, I reckon Oz is the way to go if you want the SA lifestyle without SA problems! I've been watching you make up your mind over the last few days with interest . Feel free to join some very friendly folk on the Aus/immigration forum if you have any worries with the visa process.

Can't help with the first three Qs, but I think the lifestyle here is pretty close to what we had in SA back in the mid 70s when I was a kid... My Aussie bloke and I braai all the time, even in mid winter, and I don't worry about leaving the back door unlocked when I go for a run. We have unlocked gates and no bars on the windows, very sweet.

I live in Sydney, which is gorgeous but very very expensive.

It can be very hard to meet people and make friends - I haven't managed to make an Aussie girl friend here yet, they're all ex-pats so far! That's probably just because I don't work with any...

Kitten24

Oooh, my own personal stalker.

Only teasing. I'm a bit nervous about the whole decision and getting the visa, but I can't help being excited about the idea of being in the Southern Hemisphere again and I've been watching 'A Place down under' religiously. Australia looks beautiful!

sa2oz

Hope some of what I say helps
Firstly, Australia is big. We live in Queensland, which is a bit bigger than South Africa.
It is dry. Very dry. Water restrictions in Melbourne, Brisbane Adelaide.
Where we are the rain is above average at this point in time.
Melbourne is a bit like Capetown, but colder.
Although the population is 20 Mil or so, 90% live on 6% of the continent.
Personally I find Australians are very friendly and helpful. But it it more like the USA than South Africa. Big cars, bad accents. The government seems to be considered responsible for everything by most, so people expect more than an average South African would ever expect.
Adelaide has the high culture (had to put that in ) as does Sydney
Sydney is big
We were keen on big cities, Adelaide or Brisbane. I should be in Melbourne for my trade. But we came to Mackay to see my brother and stayed. I now have got used to the small town and lack of crowds.
Each state is like a little country, with its own licence, tax, road water deptments.
If you like the freezing cold Tasmania could be for you, snow in November last year I believe.
Perth is great i have heard but is secluded from the rest of the country by distance. I prefer the East for this reason.South Africans seem to like it because it is nearer time wise to South Africa. (lots of Afrikaans spoken there)

What I like about Australia.
There is generally work for anybody willing to.
Things all work, much like Europe
Schooling, freedom, open spaces

What I am not used to (no negatives)
Absolute nonsense on the news.
gas barbeques (we recently got gas) but still have charcoal
The poor spoken english (apart from Sydney)
So many South African (more every week). We do not try to find South Africans or Zimbabweans, but know 30 or more and see many more families.
Not many VW Mercedes BMW, Holdens Toyota Mitsubishi ( I had too)

We have been here 2.5 years and are citizens now, so we have to vote. We will stay, and have persuaded a few to apply for visa's.
We just got the visa and came without ever doing the LSD thing.(many do)

melpieters

Hey Kitten, I reckon you have plenty of folk "stalking" you - your posts are by far the nicest in the SA forum . Bring that attitude to Oz and you'll be right as rain!

Nice details there from sa2oz, and I agree with all of them (except we don't have many saffas in Sydney that I know of). Although what's "LSD"? Look, See, Decide - or just shorthand for "trip" ?

Things I had to get used to (as a saffa and a pom):

- Gas barbies... I sneered but oh my how easy and quick! I was a dab hand at a charcoal braai myself (for a girl), but now we rustle up steak and roast veggies in under half an hour after work!

- The free TV is truely awful (no TV licence = bad shows and tons of adverts). We use online dvd rental thru the post for something to watch now.

- The driving. No one speeds (really), but they do tailgate, hog the fast lane, undertake, and change lanes very agressively. They don't understand roundabouts. And at the risk of sounding very racist the Asians don't have a clue.

- Lots of Asians in Sydney. I don't know what it's like elsewhere, but I have surreal moments standing in central Sydney and everyone is 5 feet high and sallow. Where am I? No really? Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese food rocks here!

- Water shortage. I thought I'd been in a dry land before, but here it's all anyone talks about. On a recent holiday in SA we were shocked at the amount of water being around thrown willy nilly! On grass! Every day! And those spray things misting the patrons at open air bars in Pretoria - you'd be lynched for that here!

- Public transport. Really good - buses and trains and trams very efficient in Sydney. Clean, safe, and the people here have never been crammed into a tube train so they leave lots of space when standing. And lots and lots of taxis.

- Getting used to being called a "Japie". To the locals it is not a word for country bumpkin, it's because we say "Ja" a lot.

- Getting used to the locals calling ANYONE by a term they'll probably find offensive... pom, japie, lebbo, zipper. There have been a number of threads on this topic, and really they mean no harm. They're the most nicely naive bunch of racists around - used to drive me crazy and my bloke has learned to tone it down around me .

- They really are down on the Aboriginals. They talk about them the way we used to talk about the blacks in the bad old days. It makes my rainbow nation toes curl...

hmm, getting on my high horse now, never mind!

Do you have any specific questions about here vs there Kitten? Your saffa stalkers will be happy to answer!

Kitten24

Thanks for your reply, you have answered quite a few of my questions now. Well done on getting your visa. It's a bit reassuring to hear that we're not the only people going their blind. Although I must admit my foolishness in not knowing what LSD stands for. (The only one I know is the drug)

Kitten24

Aww, thanks Mel, I feel quite flattered.

You have answered a few of my questions already. One of the things that my husband is worried about is the standard/level of Education. How does it compare with South Africa and the UK education systems?

He is also worried about the fact that he has read about so many Australian coming to the UK and he is worried about why they are choosing to do so, if Oz is such a lovely place? With regards to SA I can put it down to the violence there and lack of jobs, what is the attraction for Australians?

Can't think of anything else at the moment, but I'm sure it will dawn on me again.

Many thanks again
Tracy

Pablo

Kitten,

You've probably already done this, but if you haven't, then I suggest you look through the endless posts elsewhere on this site by Brits who have gone to Australia and don't like it.

I don't urge you to to this because I have anything against going to Oz. I don't. But the posts do seem to highlight the things that Brits (typically) don't like about Oz.

After all, you don't want to make the same mistake again, do you?

(Personally I think a lot of the posts there are rather wet and weak minded, but that's neither here nor there. In the days of five pounds passage and putting duty before pleasure, people stuck it out and made a go of things, instead of whining on about spiders and snakes and missing their moms and their mates down the pub).

Pablo

Campbells

To get away from the invasion of all the South Africans

Campbells

Yeah,

Some of these posts like

I hate it here; I can't get Bisto gravy or moaning about the heat.

Whinging poms!!

Just remember that Kitten is from Warmbaths – not a pommie although she has converted her tekkies to running shoes.

Haven’t spent a whole heap of time in Oz but loved the time we did. Only seen Sydney & Melbourne but have heaps of ex SA friends over there.

Our move to NZ was certainly an adjustment and the first year was an acclimatising process and I guess dealing with the trade we had just made.

MAIDLESS IN NEW ZEALAND

Pablo

I have friends in Perth/Freemantle (An American married to a SA) and Sydney (a Brit) and friends in NZ. They seem happy enough. They have the usual complaints that any aware person might have. Nothing that's a show-stopper.

Pablo

sa2oz

Again I got this from UN HDR report for 2006 on their website
Australia is rated at 3 in the world. LSD Look see decide. Travel agents in South Africa use the term when people phone looking at ticket prices. When was asked holiday or LSD, I said a one way trip, but ot on drugs.
Sydney, not really Sydney but NSW. On the immi website there is a page that had South Africans by percentage in Australia. A pdf called South Africa Immi Stats.pdf
Highest was NSW 36.1% Victoria 19.8%WA 19.5% QLD 18.1% SA 3.9% ACT 1.1% Tas 1.1% NT 0.4%
I also find they drive at the speedlimit but tailgate.
depending on what you want to do as a job, and the suroundings and weather teh choice is very large. QLD is greatt. Been to Sydney Melbourne Brisbane. I also looked on the bom website at teh weather before we decided QLD.

According to TV here Aussies go to UK for experience, and the money, but most return after a few years.

Kitten24

ROFL!!