darwinite

I have just found this great forum and am really enjoying reading the posts. Originally from Germany (please excuse my mistakes)I have gone through most visas and been on and off about 3 years in Australia. Went to school here for a year, stayed here on a working holiday visa, got married to my husband, who is Australian and gone through the spouse visa thing. Presently living in the place that nobody wants to go to and that is Darwin. Seriously considering moving back to Europe at the moment. The reasons for that being:

1) schooling: Quite honestly, I would not want to have children here simply because of the poor education. I went to school here and learned nothing. Absolutely nothing. The whole year was a waste. My subjects at school were sth. like cooking, art, outdoor education, phys. rec., english, computers. In English I scored best in class (in Australia), although english is only my second laguage and although I had really bad marks in my english class in Germany and dont consider it to be good at all. What does that tell me? School runs all day in Australia. I realize that it must be the same in the Uk, but in Germany it is only in the mornings and despite the shorter time frame a lot more efficient. Up here there is a fence around every school with signs on it: watch out for pedophiles etc. Also, the schools are under 24 hr police surveillance. Lovely. Just where you want to send your kid.

Having grown up in a small town in Germany I would love the same for my kids. But I just cannot seem to find a small town in Australia that has any character about it. The small towns in QLD., WA and the NT are horrible. Lots of problems with the Aboriginals, lots of crime, nobody on the street.

2) Skin cancer. While the weather is nice here most of the time, there is usually 6 months of not so nice weather. It is just like in Germany or the Uk really. Back home we have the long winters but at least we get snow. Over here you have long miserable winters in the south and the humid hot rain season in the North. OK, I agree, that the summers are a hell of a lot nicer than in the UK and Germany, BUT one third of the population has skin cancer and can you really enjoy the sun when you realize that you are getting more and more sun and age spots, when you need to go to check ups all the time, when all your relatives in Australia get skin cancer one after another, when you have to dress your kids up in sun proof suits before they can go for a swim.....

3) Jobs: HEAPS better job opportunities in Europe

4) Salaries: HEAPS better in Germany

5) travel opportunities: HEAPS better in Europe. Costs a fortune to get out of here. YOu are basically stuck here, once you have moved down.

6) people: easier to have good conversations in Europe. BBQ mentality is nice and easy going but can be boring at times

7) HEAPS of alcohol, drug problems here.

To be continued...

jayr

Welcome Darwinite, I can see your opinions going down like a lead balloon in some quarters, await the backlash.

janeyray

Hi Darwinite,

You better get your tin hat ready, some people on here don't like to hear that Oz isn't all it's cracked up to be!!

I have a cousin in Hamburg that I kept saying I would visit so when I return to the UK I will go, and appreciate more of what I have on my doorstep!

Jirrupin

[QUOTE]Originally posted by darwinite
I have just found this great forum and am really enjoying reading the posts. [QUOTE]


Welcome to the site, I thought you might find this link of some use.

www.bulletproofme.com/

Badge

get yourself out of Darwin, is all I can say!!

Badge

Goodpubmisser

Hi, Your views of Australia and mine are very similiar except for the salaries but then I live in Sydney and am from England originally so this has a large effect.

You know the funniest point is about the education system being inferior! When I mentioned this I really got shot down primarily by an Australian teacher living in Scotland!

Good luck with the answers and don't worry if you get insulted a few times - most peole in this forum are Brits trying to emigrate to Australia and a few of them see it as the "Land of Milk and Honey"- they will in fact become the whinging Poms of the future once their dreams have been shattered.

booboo1

My friend and her family are from Germany. They had lived in Melbourne for some years. Her hubby is a proffessor.
Now they live in Milton Keynes but are trying to get back to Melbourne. They have much praise for Aus and they say they dont like Germany too much....

Horses for courses I say...

booboo

Pollyana

Exactly, Booboo. it would be an extremely dull world if we all wanted the same things from life, or were all happy living in the same place.

darwinite

Thanks for the warm welcome. I don't mind criticism and different opinions, esp. not from those who are already here.

This forum is great because there are people writing who have been in Australia for long enough to give some good solid advice. Most Ozzie forums only have those writing who still have their rose tinted glasses on and are still waiting for their visa back home. As soon as they realize that it is not all glamour and glory down here, they are too embarrassed to admit that it is not quite what they expected.

I am fully aware that every country has its pros and cons. I am just pointing out some things that people who want to move here should take into consideration:

- there is not only lots of drug and alcohol problems here but also sooo much crime. Darwin is shocking, alright. But the big cities further south all have the same problems the big cities in Europe have (or worse). I have been in all Australian cities more than once and it is just getting to a stage where I have trouble dealing with it. I can only get into my apartment with a security mouse. High fences around it, every day shocking news in the paper, dead bodies being washed up on the beach, pedophiles arrested, children raped. I went swimming in a little waterhole. What a paradise I thought until the busloads of Japanese came and until they suddenly pulled out a dead body. Quite a traumatic experience. Oh yeah, I went for a walk at Adelaide Beach and almost stepped into a needle.

- holidays: I guess we are so lucky in Germany with our 6 weeks paid holidays per year..... Will never ever get that here.

9) child support, first home buyers grant and all the rest: much better in Germany

10) social system: better in Germany

11) Things to do: really, there is HEAPS more to do in Europe.

What scares me most though is the way Australia is heading at the moment. It is turning into the 52nd state of the US! More overweight people than anywhere else in the world, fast food mentality. I like the US a lot, don't get me wrong. But Australia just simply lacks an identity. Young people not knowing what to do with their lives. Aboriginal affairs not being solved. Crime on the rise. I know that Europe (Germany) is by no means perfect, but looking back I realize what a little paradise I have really lived in.

You might suggest we move some place else in Australia. We have been thinking about that soo many times and weighing up the pros and cons. But I look at the real estate prices in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and even Adelaide and I am shocked. A simple brick house, tiny with no insulation and no split system air con and not even a nice garden and not even in the best possible area for 650.000 bucks..... And how do you afford that with what you get paid here? I have friends in Perth and they all they the same. They all wanted to go there so badly and now, three years after arriving, they would give anything to be able to go back. They feel so isolated down there, heaps of problems with flies and ants and all the rest, poor job opportunites etc. There is always Sydney and Melbourne, but why would I want to move to a city with millions of people, then I might as well go back to overpopulated Germany. What is the difference really? Sydney and Melbourne are more modern, at the sea and have better weather and that is about it. Well, I already gave my opinion on the sun here in Downunder. Not really really an advantage when you look at the stats re skin cancer.

I realize that for some people it is the perfecet spot, but do consider that we have everything in Europe: the mountains, the sea, and cheap flights to where ever. PLUS we have our friends and family there, fairly good schooling, etc.

There is a few things I like about Darwin, and that is not the closeness to the sea as you cannot swim in the sea anyway (crocs and jelly fish) or the sun (hubby has skin probs) but I like the tropical living. The palm trees, the fact that I have not felt cold for the last 8 months and have not once worn jeans or a jumper here. I like the asian markets, I like the fact that Darwin is so multi-cultural. I am telling myself that at least it is something completely different to what I would have in Europe. If I lived in a city further south which has similar nature and similar climate to Germany I would be even more regretful, that I am here.

I believe that everybody who has this dream of moving downunder has to try it out and I wish everybody the best of luck.

As for myself: I am just considering myself very very lucky that I still have a choice and can still return to my home country next year.

Houdini

I'm off to Germany! Sounds great!

OzTennis

Yep, and Darwin is as different to Melbourne (or Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide etc) as Darwin is to Europe. With due respect 'My opinions of Australia' should read 'My opinions of Darwin'. To use an analogy it is a little like my opinions of the UK based on Stornoway (where's that some of you say, that's my point).

However, nice to get some posts on Darwin as there aren't many on here and good luck with whatever you and your husband eventually do.

FWIW, I wouldn't live in Darwin either given a choice but if I had to I reckon I could make a go of it, but then again I don't have to.

OzTennis

darwinite

Lucky for me that I have not only lived in Darwin but also other parts of Australia, hey? I am grateful that I have an opinion that is based on real life experiences in not only Darwin but also the rest of Australia and not on some dream....

No offence to anybody but holidaying in Australia is so very different to living here.

Still, good luck to all who try living in Australia. And congratulations to all those who find what they are looking for in Australia.

Barbara 2003

Well as you said, at least you tried it out and you know it isn't for your cup of tea.
The only thing I'm dreading is saying goodbye to Ryanair!
We are addicted to their cheap flights around Europe. (I'm a bargain hunter.)
I stayed in Darwin for a stretch before, met some good friends there. I think it depends where you stay. Not all of the rural places up there are rough. I spent 3months in Nhulunbuy a mining town in Arnhem land. Absolutely loved it, and felt safe.
After arriving on my tod a skint backpacker about to go destitute desperate for work, slightly *hitting myself!
I'm no expert and don't profess to be. The Aborigines seemed okay there, they were really friendly and welcoming, just don't be tempted to play cards with them as they'll wipe you out (ha ha!)
But I guess 4 months, as opposed to spending years there isn't really comparable, so I'll shut up now!
Good luck with the move back to Germany, I would recommend moving back in summer over here. You'll freeze your *its off if you come back from there in the winter!!!!
Another negative you forgot to add is that the telly is absolutely dreadful! LOL!
First thing I'm doing when we get a place is installing SKY!

SeanH

Personally I find Germany to be just about the most boring country ( besides Canada ) and full of the most obnoxious people on earth - and I would not live there again for all the tea in china. And to talk about there being less crime in Germany beggars belief !!!

~Sean

SeanH

That will have to be Foxtel - or Austar - no Sky in Australia.

~Sean