dracupg

Good luck Kath. I hope you get that degree. Its never a bad thing to keep the grey matter occupied, and presumably a nice distraction from the kids!

DianeOZ

Ok this is my view

Not been here long so no regrets yet but little things are starting to pop into my mind now and then.

Things are okay for us just now and we are enjoying the new adventure but I do worry about the kids future here in the long term. As people say, so many Aussies go off in search of adventure and opportunities elsewhere, not like being at college or Uni 60 miles away so they can have their independance.

But that's a long way off so we'll enjoy things here for now, who knows what'll happen. Pre-kid days I never expected to be in Australia in the first place.

Diane

april

My Nephew in Chester wants to come to Canada, they wanted $20,000.00 for his nursing upgrades, he said thanks but no thanks..... so he applied in Liverpool took a math test and he starts in September fifteen hundred pounds.

My Uncle is going blind in Wallasey, They have given him all sorts of stuff, new this new that, A new reading machine that scans the paper for him, they even put in a new security alarm, it all must cost thousands of pounds he did'nt pay anything.
And no..... he has no friends in high places just an 80 year old working stiff (his words lol).........

Believe me you will not get anthing like that anywere else I might be wrong !!!!!

Mandy Bale

We haven't been here long (18 months) so can't really comment. But I think it all depends on what your expectations are. If you are looking for a big career move and higher things then don't bother moving here permanently. If you are looking for nice countryside, lovely sunny days and good lifestyle then do it. We came here to enjoy life more and be less stressed, so far its working. For the first time in my life I have got a career path I am starting, nothing huge but suited to this country, (at a cost of $300 for a year part time TAFE course), the kids are doing well in school and hubby is doing ok with his career. When the kids have grown up and are starting their careers it really wouldn't worry me if they wanted to go back to the UK or anywhere else for that matter, to 'better' their careers, at least they will have the oppotunity to and people to stay with when they get there. I love it here and have always had a 'thing' for Australia so I am happy, hubby has done the big career path thing back in the UK and now wants to just tick along and enjoy the kids and family life. This is my experience so far, you never know though in a few years time I might even change my mind, but that's life!

Mandy

Herman

I am very much a career person, working at a senior management level in mergers and acquisitions for one of the global accountancy firms. We returned to London from almost 3 years in Sydney a few months ago, after a secondment. I have to say that I was astonished by what I saw over those three years. When I started we had 26 managers in my team, some outstanding, most OK, some duffers. Over the three year period 18 of them left to work overseas and currently their locations are: 15 in London, 1 in South Africa, 2 in New York. Just 5 replacements were found for the 18 who left and they were all pretty averagely telented and 4 were actually sourced from our Auckland office. I was asked to try to replace at least 12 of those who left but I could not find talented people with the required skills who would take the salary offered. I tried to lure people over from our London office but people were not prepared to travel halfway round the world for a 65% paycut - despite my attempts at selling the ad mans fantasy of a life of relaxing on sun drenched beaches! My hands were tied on the salary I could offer and I felt I was wasting my time - I'm afraid that for the majority of people money talks. One day Australia may start to rate the professions, pay them properly and offer genuine career opportunities, but at present there is a big gap to close. The brain drain being suffered in Australia is a national crisis and if my few years experience are anything to go by, its not about to end. Many shrug and say "who cares" - my view is that you should, especially if you have talented kids and plan to settle there.

paulspell

Try multiplying that figure by about ten and then times it by three for the Oz equivalent and you will be nearer the mark.

I think the average debt is now around £12,000 - but this obviously depends on how much your parents can stump up.

etlniwd

Absolutely no regrets whatsoever.

I've just got back from my first return trip to Europe since moving to Oz 7 months ago. I could have kissed the tarmac at Brisbane airport when I landed. It was so good to be home again.

I've been stuck at Heathrow for two days after being well and trully rogered by British Airways. Heathrow has to be the shabbiest third world airport in the world and BA should be shut down after the mess they have caused.

I've had a week driving around congested roads in Britain and France. Give me Brisbane's wide, relatively traffic-free streets anyday.

paulspell

Your responses are really helpful. They have certainly made me realise that I really do need to do a LOT more investigating before making any big decisions on this.

My main reason for wanting to emmigrate is to secure a better future for my kids. Over the past few years my wife and I have become totally disillusioned and utterly sick and tired of the UK. Life here is just such a drag.

I want to spend less time working and stuck in traffic jams and more time with my family. I want to spend more time outside doing stuff rather than being stuck indoors watching the rain.

I am not a career person and don't really care what I do for a living. I'm currently in IT but can turn my hand to most things.

I don't want to get rich, I don't want a glittering career, I want a better quality of life plain and simple (preferably somewhere hot).

etlniwd

On the information given in this post then I would think that Australia could be what you are looking for. For sheer quality of life it is hard to beat. You are not going to get rich here as an employee but there are plenty of opportunities to better yourself in other ways. I can't think of anywhere with much better opportunities for kids. Whatever you decide don't be overly influenced by the whingers on this site.

GOGGLE

My wifeÕs relatives are currently visiting us here in London. They live on the Gold Coast and have not left Australia since they emigrated 36 years ago. I thought you might be interested in their comparisons. They are horrified by the litter, grafitti, congestion, crowds. They also canÕt get over how neglected some areas are. Also they are shocked at how expensive everything is. The Aussie dollar doesnÕt go far in the UK.
However what they have noticed is that there are better career, job opportunites here in the UK than the area they live in, which is what some previous posters are pointing out. They also like the ease of travel (Eurostar to Paris) and the variety of things to do & see. Despite this they are looking forward to going home. They are settled there & prefer the more laid back less frenetic pace of Aussie life. They have a lovely house with a pool & say that they would never be able to afford a similar property in the UK.
It seems to depend what you want out of life. If you are not career orientated Australia couldnÕt be a better place to settle.

Jolyn

Some completely biased comments from an Aussie who preferred London when yuppie and dinky, now moving to Oz for family lifestyle:

Australia offers a better lifestyle than the UK but career opportunities for the high flying are better in London.

There is a brain drain from Oz to the UK but some of it is the natural tendency of most young Australians to want to travel the world. The Aussie dollar is worth little in Europe so a working holiday is the only option. If work is going well, the holiday extends for a few years. The money is just too tempting - not for what it buys at the time in the UK but for it's conversion value into Aussie dollars later. The spare cash being put in the bank converts to a lot and most of my friends were saving for a house when they went home. Almost all return to Oz eventually, especially to have a family - more space, cleaner, etc.

Fewer of the Aussies who go to the US to work return. Says something about the relative standards of living I expect.

There's a huge brain drain from Britain to the USA as well.

The IT/Consultancy market has collapsed after the Millennium Bug boom everywhere due to outsourcing to India and China and client budget cuts. The person on the Gold Coast who has seen their business collapse would find it's just the same in the UK. We haven't had any clients for a year either!

You need to compare like with like to figure it out. Similar opportunities to London will not exist in somewhere with a small population like Brisbane. You wouldn't expect to find them in Newcastle either.

Perth is a long way from anywhere - Australians I know who live there tell me they get bored so I wouldn't take Perth-dwellers complaints of boredom as a deciding factor - unless you plan to go to Perth that is! Plenty of other people love Perth but it wouldn't be for me.

Best wishes to anyone making the big decision...

paulspell

Looks like it very much depends on whether you are a career person or a lifestyle person then, I am very much the latter!

Everyone I have met talks up the Aussie lifestyle which is why I am a bit sceptical when people on these forums have potsed about high crime levels. It doesn't stack up. If crime is high(ish) in Oz people would not talk it up so much. What are your views on this?

etlniwd

If you want the truth about relative crime levels then get the respective government statistics and compare for yourself. A lot of information is available on the internet but it takes a long time to track down. There is a hell of a lot of info on www.oecd.org for example.

When listening to some of the extreme views on this forum then take them all with a pinch of salt. There are particular individuals posting here who are hell bent on portaying Australia in a bad light. One of the easiest ways of doing this is to copy and paste a news item about a horrendous crime. Their intention is that potential immigrants will think that these crimes are an everyday occurence and will be put off coming to Australia.

It appears that the main motive for doing this is spite. Most of these people have tried to make a life for themselves in Australia and have failed for one reason or another (many appear to be bitter, unstable people who would fail anywhwere). They cannot bear the thought that others may succeed where they failed.

Jolyn

Like the UK, the crime rate depends on where you are. There are suburbs of Sydney or Melbourne that I wouldn't live in. Suburbs of London too. The difference is that bad areas in Oz can look quite pretty - beaches, sunshine, wide streets etc. So you might think 'nice area' and then be appalled at the crime rate. In the UK it's obvious - big concrete tower blocks or Victorian slums means bad.

That said, the centre of the cities in Oz is gentrifying like in the UK so old no-go areas are mostly OK now. The bad areas tend to be further out of town - basically ghettos, usually with a particular social/racial group and their gangs fighting each other. Same as bad bits in LA.

Burglary rate is pretty similar but the (armed) police investigate it more in Oz. They seem to have given up in London. When I phoned for contents insurance rates for a similar suburb in Melbourne the rates were much lower and the operator laughed when I told her what we pay here. She made the point that more people densely packed means more of everything happens which is true.

Near where we live we have the only armed police in the UK (Green Lanes, Haringey) because of drug gang warfare. We have shootouts in front of the Civic Centre here. In Oz we can afford to live somewhere nicer...not that our house was cheap here!

Jolyn

etlniwd - you're so right.

The reality is you won't find the many brits who've been happily settled in Oz for years on an ex-pats website. Unsurprisingly they are busy getting with enjoying their lives and don't necessarily think of themselves as 'ex-pats' after the first year or two.

Those who still see themselves as ex-pats after years are showing classic signs of not settling in so are not going to give a positive view of Oz. Sometimes they start becoming more English than they were at home and defending all the things in the UK that made them leave in the first place!