Beoz

Move from Western Sydney. Thats your answer.

Talking of Hastings. I was down there yesterday. Such a pretty coastal town. Pity about the residents. Its like broken Britain was picked up and dumped in Hastings.

Brian Clough down under

Got to agree with you on Hastings, sadly.

Happy to move to the eastern suburbs if you can chuck me $2 million so I can live in my preferred area?

black swan

Sorry to hear of the problem with your knee. Hopefully it will repair itself with lots of rest. I well remember our first car ride along the palm tree avenue at Seppletsfield winery back in 1973 the year we arrived in Adelaide. And lots of Galahs sitting in the roadway. Being a Sunday the winery was closed as was everything in those days, even petrol stations.
We have to rely on the train when we visit Gawler. A dreary journey but a nice country town when you get there.
Mount Barker on the bus was pleasant & so was Blackwood on the train. Will do it again in March on our next visit.

Beoz

No. Take a mortgage like all other buyers

Plastic Scouse

The distant shore, and the tyranny of distance both describe the human condition in Australia
It's founding as a penal colony did not require "walls" the distance back ....back home was so far
If one dwells upon these thoughts it can and will cage you in
I was taken to Australia as a 12 year old in 1965 the son of ten pound poms dumped into a migrant hostel in Cabramatta
Suffering pomee bashing latent prejudice and downright hostility so by the age of seventeen I escaped alone back to Liverpool the pool of life in Europe. Left my parents living in a caravan with my youngest sister in Wollongong This is the "lucky country" Not!
My mother said that right to the end of her life that the escarpment rising above Wollongong caged her in and life passed her by in Britain
Now at the age of 23 I needed money to buy a house as I had a wife and child so I turned the negative into a positive. Returned to Wollongong and started in BHP ( Broken Hearted Pom) as a labourer and train shunter in the steelworks Also worked with Loveley Italian people as a waiter in a Italian restaurant
After three years returned "home" and bought a house cash.
I persevered in Wollongong for three years because I bought air tickets from Sydney to London and placed them smack bang in the middle of the fridge door and every time I was cheesed off with Oz I looked at the tickets
Now I am in the autumn of my life and to get away from our winter I exchange my house here in North Wales usually with British expats from Australia for up to three months But I always have the return tickets stuck right smack bang in the middle of fridge.
So the distance is terrible but you must not cage yourselves in !
Have your tickets for your next trip stuck in the middle of the fridge door
Get up in the middle of your night and watch Liverpool FC
Read the UK papers on line
Invite expats for a pint ( not a schooner)

Never forget that they speak our language, they use our political system our sports our cultural references ,they may not like this but every time you encounter latent or overt prejudice , be brave and remind them of the debts they owe.

Amazulu

They owe nothing

Nice story but it's your story - nobody else's

ozzieeagle

As a Londoner with a slight Aus accent, I felt more of a foreigner in North Wales than I ever did in Australia, Encountered more predjudice as well. Thats my Story. No one has ever "offered me out" just for ordering a beer in a pub in Australia, just on my supposed cockney accent. Happened more than once around Rhyl and Prestatyn... over age of 40 at the time, as well and with 15 years of OZ accent under my belt. Moral is some people are more of a foreigner in their own land than they are in a perceived foreign land. Octogearian Parents still cop it occasionally in their retirement destination.... They wouldn't have to the same degree here In Melbourne's North..I'm certain of that.

I get very confused when I see this anti pom stuff as I've rarely encountered it in my 35 years here..... I think it must be a mainly provincial thing.


Final Edit.... In fact, my accent, watered down as it is after all these years, still earns me compliments from strangers, mostly females in shops, which makes my day on the odd occasion when it happens, which is a few times a year... not bad after all this time here. Maybe it's because relatively speaking your English migrant is by far in the minority in these parts. I'd go as far to say if anyone wants to benefit and be complimented and welcomed for being a English/UK Migrant, move to Melbournes North.

Beoz

As someone who as lived as many years in Oz as I have in the UK I'm a firm believer that migrant successes and failures in both countries are down to the individual. We more often than not hear the failures on BE but where are the boasting success stories? They are there. I know them personally. Perhaps the successful are too busy being successful rather than boasting here on BE.

Bix

Silence is consent.

BadgeIsBack

Ozzie, I've been on this forum 10 years - and have observed the worst complaints.

It's my honest to God view that most of the complaints end up being 'environmental'.

Yes, Australia is not an hour or 2 from Europe. We get that.

There have been some stories of pommy-bashing- well, we live in a nice little village in Melbourne SE - full of Anglophiles - and they will tell you! And - I don't think I have ever met a Pommy basher who actually meant it - but perhaps if I hunted in the burbs (or went to the N burbs of Perth) or elsewhere I might find one eventually.

A general point on complaints and peoples' stories:
I can honestly say for example that if you live in Australian suburbia ie. have an average existence AND (AND!) you don't like it -well that's your answer! I notice that a lot of complaints come from people who would be considered insular in the UK - yet they will consider Australians to be insular. I sometimes see the whole thing as like a factory floor where noone really likes each other, but in reality, everyone is as bad as each other.

For example, Western Sydney is known to be the pits.

I have found as the years have gone past that I have not so much assimilated but have found the inner and established Australia that in many cases is not so different from the UK. It is really hard to convey this on BE, as there are so many negative experiences that put some of my experiences in doubt (I get that!). If it wasn't for anonymity I could go into more detail but I can't.

I find many of my experiences differ to the complaints of many (which are still valid): eg lots of people like to rub Australian's noses on the negative aspects of their country. There is a school of thought, by a minority, on BE that nothing Australian can be surely any good - or if it is, it is just hot air.

I have met some very interesting people who are 100pc different to the people that expats complain about. I have met Australians whose culture is very real to them - and that they do live a life that is quite unique and to them, there are very real ancestral values - based on the distance - the isolation - people scoff at this on BE - but it is real - if you go there - if you meet the more interesting people.

My contribution is - avoid the banal and commonplace and Australia can get very interesting indeed. (Turn off the effing TV!) And of course, do a big trip once every few years - don't just go on hols - go and speak another language in another place- educate the kids (etc).

Alfresco

+1

Great post Badge.

Beoz

+ 2 Badge

fuchs01

late reply, but I dont think in the long run economy is the factor, I have met over many
years many returnees, including family/relations either NZ or OZ.I believe the main reason, may involve indirectly the economic factor( visiting countries in Europe on hols , simply too expensive, for the avg person), but many expats when down, or just wanting to seem to be adventutous still miss family and familiarity. This site alone has shown over many years how even after trying hard for their partner, they have tried to hold on ,but desparetly miss their roots.

It shows by the people, who find it hard to take on and intigrate and accept their would be new lifes and to become native.
Many Brits in the UK expect that from immigrants, then build their own enclaves, when
going overseas themselves.
After working in both NZ +OZ, I always knew in my situation travelling and being continually able to see new lands would be stress and financially taxing if I had chose
either has permanent homes, though I love both.

Just has a contrast I nearly chose both Mexico and Nepal has home, I would have had a good life, but my earnings would not allowed us to travel away from either of the 2 countries.
I was lucky I never suffered from homesickness,more from wanderlust, I believe though many expats who do return is just down to being homesick.
ok ok, I miss pork pies and the odd portion of fish n chips.

Plastic Scouse

To get into a deep debt situation one must deny the existence of the debt
It is called being in "denial"
I believe from the first fleet right up to today the British have changed Australia from a wilderness to one suitable for maybe 20 million people to live in.
Settlers merinos craftsmen artisans and even a few artists musicians
I am amazed that in places like Canada and the USA British people are liked and welcomed with open arms like cousins but in Australia not always the case
When you are on the receiving end of a racist outburst it is hurtful

I must say the Australians on this website have so far .......failed to link the term "whinging" to my points of view and my British nationality

Plastic Scouse

You state
"I don't think I have met a pommee brasher who meant it"
Oh right so someone who offers physical or verbal abuse to a British person .....does not mean to be offensive !!!