Current Date & Time 30 June 2011 4:18:39 AM
Sell Amount GBP 100,000.00
Buy Amount AUD 149,310.00
Our Rate GBP/AUD 1.4931 (0.6697)



Down she goes; will we see parity? Anyone think its going to get alot worse before Sterling maybe recovers against the AUS$.

When I did my backpacking working holiday around Australia, I found the cost of living extremely high coming from London. A couple of weeks ago I tried to find the historical exchange rates, but couldn't easily find them. Today I've just found this online article, reflecting similar rates http://www.watoday.com.au/business/m...630-1gro1.html.

xe.com will give you historical rates. It was 2.4 when I was here last.

Double edged sword for me. I will be saving here (getting a much better rate than in UK) and will eventually have to send some money home to top up mortgages/insurances etc plus trips back so it's great sending it that way. But then it'll cost our parents and anyone else visiting an absolute fortune to come.

Surely the tourism industry will suffer very badly.

Unfortunately we have funds in the UK that will have to stay there. If there's parity, my DH is threatening to move back, where we will have doubled our money since moving here! Please no!

On the up side, books are ridiculously cheap now!

I don't think we will get parity. I personally reckon we are close to the bottom of GBP/AUD. If it did hit parity, it would be a double edged sword - we could move there, buy without a mortgage and retire. Then again, it would mean that the UK economy would be in a total mess, with fuel through the roof, inflation high, imports costing a lot more etc.

Thanks for that website, but it looks like the rates only go back to 1995. I have vague memories of 1A$ being about 75p.

I'm looking at this situation with great interest. It's an academic situaiton for me though. If I didnt have kids in the early years of Secondary school it would be very tempting to look at retiring now. I reckon I'd regret it though. I cannot stand miserable news all the time.

BTW Thorntons is closing dozens of shops now. See what I mean

October 1976 : 78p
Would have bought you $1.28

1.50 don't look so bad compared to that, eh ;-)

Thanks for that DownUnderPaddy - do you know what it was in Oct or Nov 1984?

End of '84 (it was at a reasonably similar level.
http://mbt.tradesecuring.com/Misc/pr...=mbt:thumbsup:

Post-float figures since December 1983 give the only meaningful comparison of the exchange rates since that very signifigant event.
And you really should discount the 2 years of 'settling-in' after that.
"In 1983, Canberra abandoned its managed peg for the Aussie dollar, which was tied to a basket of foreign currencies, and opted to float the currency in the open market.
Within 2-years however, the Aussie dollar suffered a massive 30% devaluation before finding some stability near 70 US-cents in 1985"

One thing is for certain. There is no denying the moving average trend since the end of 2002. It has simply been one continuous slide downhill.....
10 years ago was the absolute perfect time to come out here, if you were looking for wik'd exchange rates and cheap housing.

I think we just scraped it in by moving in '02 and buying in '05 !

p.s. If you want a real detailed read of the Aussies history, check out the following cracker:
http://www.safehaven.com/article/460...down-and-under

Been listening to a fair bit of British radio on my iphone lately, makes my 1 hour commute a bit more interesting and as i listen to Melbourne radio during the course of the day it's nice to listen to something else. Mainly BBC radio 5. My point is that the news hasn't been overly pessimistic.
I was even thinking just yesterday how just in the 3.5 years i have been in Australia how the mood has changed, now listening to the news here is full of angst and scaremongering.
Today there is a massive strike in the UK so not such a good day

Funny I was going to say the exact opposite about Cristo on LBC.... lots of pessimism on there. Especially when the Hot Weather stopped all the trains.

Not surprised people are not buying overpriced chocolate mind. TJ Hughes announced they were going under yesterday too. Still loads of public sector jobs still to go. There's still a long long way to go there yet.

Just read above very quickly--one point I would like to make concerning the closing of stores--the recession is undoubtedly a factor;but the elephant in the room is the growth of internet buying which is growing by multiples of percent annually.This is hitting high street stores very badly.Also I seen the large stores[Tesco's etc] are now taking internet orders which again is increasing by large percentages.But local produce markets appear to be immuned

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13971159

Lloyds to lose 15,000 jobs...