isgraham

Notting Hill isn't really representative of the UK in general or London for that matter.

7immyboy

Interesting comments, We have been here 8 months and it is not easy by any means. The weather is great sure but then that is not why I am here. I think the only inexpensive parts of the world are Malaysia and 3rd world countries.

The wages here p*ss all over UK salaries. I am a Project Engineer but I am currently working as a Buyer because sillyv me decided to try and settle on the sunshine coast instead of Brisbane (fatal error number 1) So I have an entry level job which pays 43k a year, pretty crap right, but that is £27,000 in English money. I would get nowhere near that in England for the same job, probably just over half of that.

It is expensive here and we do not earn a lot, but we have never been better off but there is sod all work up here, so when people say head for the cities, they really do mean head for the cities.

I think it is amazing here but its not home and it never will be, that said I have a little baby girl to consider and if we are talking bringing up children, then this place wins hands down. My Fiancee`s little sister is nearly 15 and she is still like a 10 year old, she is into horses and does not even know what booze, fags and boys are. In England when I was 15, girls were doing the lot.

Point is, it depends who you are and what your expectations are, Australia is no utopia, nirvana or paradise, they do not exist.

For me it is a very tough decision, one I have pondered for many months.

Its great here, but not that great, and I had no expectations at all.

If we go back it will be for my sanity, things do not fall for me as they do in the UK.

And as for the weather, I know its been a mad 12 months or whatever but it has pissed down ever since we got here 8 months ago. I love this time of year though, fresher and cooler.

Keith Moon

A nice neat post mate, i can relate, but the $43k a year has the buying power of i would hazard a guess of around £19k in the UK. Using the current exchange rate is not a fair indicator. If i was comparing like for like my £27k would equate to around $65k in Oz.

Keith.

simo71

Hi guys,we arrived in Sydney 4 weeks ago from London and to be honest I already want to go back!
I was expecting expensive but not on this scale!
We decided to give it a go until june /july and if we still unsure we will go back to London for our son to be starting school in september.

bcworld

As Keith said, converting salaries based on the exchange rate doesn't tell you much. The exchange rate is close to multi decade lows. Rewind 10 years for the opposite situation and that $43k was equal to about £14-15k.

Bermudashorts

Are you working or living on UK funds at the moment. If you are living off UK funds then it is bound to seem very expensive at the moment. Also setting up on UK funds is expensive too, we found there are a lot of initial costs that salary can't cover at the start. I remember getting down to my last $58 in my Aus bank account in the early days.

Otherwise I am a bit surprised that anyone would find it so bad that they want to leave after four weeks.

Amazulu

London is not, overall, much cheaper than Sydney IMO

Steve2009

I was just about to say, if you're living off non-AUD savings then it's a killer. As long as you are earning in AUD it's fine*.

*depends on your personal circumstances, of which I have been lucky so far.

simo71

No,my husband is working ($60.000 ).I don't know about being as expensive as London,not in my experience.My weekly food shopping in London was £55 for a family of three with treats,here is $160 with less meat,fruit and vegetables and a couple of treats just for the kid!I find it demoralising that I have to keep saying to my son"I can't get this or that" when is asking just what was normal for him to have in the fridge back in London.

Bermudashorts

I never really do weekly shops so I don't know what is normal, but £55 seems like a tight budget in UK. I think your problem could be that $60k is a below average salary and I can see why it would be tight for a family of three in Sydney.

paulry

£55 a week does sound cheap but your son is small. Just wait til he's a teenager with the appetite of a hungry horse.

I'd say Sydney is definately more expensive than London. But IMO it's worth grinning and bearing the higher costs to be better off in the longer term. You're amongst the luckier ones - at least you have a (just) live-able salary coming in. I can see that on $60K there won't be much left over for enjoyment of life though. It looks like the two of you are going to have to work. Did you eventually settle in the Janalli area?

DeadVim

I would suggest if that is the feeling after 4 weeks then getting on a plane back 'home' should be the next port of call.

Or do something radical and innovative like, I dunno, try somewhere else in Oz ...

Fook me, I've had rashes that have lasted longer.

verystormy

Australia has its fair share of kids that behave just like the UK. I used to commute from the office home by bus and if i was unlucky enough to hit the school run the girls on the bus - from "good" areas would be talking about things that made me blush. And heck i am a ex squadie and now an underground miner!

Also see the same amount of kids on p@ss and commiting the same amount of crap. Did you know that Oz is one of the highest drug use countries in the world.

DeadVim

Also, there is a vast difference between growing up in a semi-rural area (such as here) and somewhere more urban just 20 minutes drive away.

I like the space (and value for money) here and I think it's a great place to bring up kids (we have assorted horses and wildlife roaming the place right now) but it's a very different story 20 minutes away.

Weebie

Hahhahh this really is quite funny and ignorant.