Originally Posted by ColdAsIce

My experience of Australia to date

The bad!-EXPENSIVE! EXPENSIVE! EXPENSIVE!
-Lots of people very rude!
-Australian $ is worth nothing, always will be
-The country is too isolated, your days of travelling, experiencing other cultures and cuisines are literally over!
-Café’s / Good restaurants seem to be always over crowded, lack of choice and lack of variety.
-Lots of houses are made of wood – very cheap, I have seen 3rd world developments better then that of Australia
-It can get very cold here too! Lots of houses are made out of wood and have no central heating. I am talking about Brisbane and Sydney in were I have been living.
-When it rains then it really rains here
-Australian infrastructure is probably the worst, the trains are easily older then I am.
-Sydney – All people are interested in is living by the sea, beach on door step etc…people forget that the average person cannot afford such property and instead you have based yourself 30-45 minutes outside Sydney city, in a ugly suburb.
-A nation of immigrants, Lots of Australians complain about immigrants but what is an Australian? Who is an Australian? They all came from everywhere but Australia
-SUN! you burn too quickly and easily nothing like what any European is used to, and I am used to going to hot places but the sun here is like being put in a microwave.
-Police seem too bored and set up speed traps everywhere! Police blocks etc.
-Some of the cities here only have 1-2 roads going in and out of them like Sydney
-Technology! Way behind in terms of everything eg TV, internet/broadband,wifi etc just basic essentials.
-Lack of opportuntys in terms of work. You only got 4-5 main cities and that is it!
-They dont sell FOSTERS beer, not that i like this beer anyway


The good!-Weather is very nice most of the time but there are plenty of days when it is too hot! And you cant sleep, but lots of times it is nice
-Beaches!
-Very clean here, in particular the cities if you compare it to London, Dublin etc.
-Ute’s I like the them and don’t seem to be sold anywhere else but Australia.
-Some good beers out this way

Weather and beaches is the best part of Australia, apart from that.

SO YES VERY OVER RATED! But still good.

Originally Posted by WillBlack

THE MAN FROM IRONBARK by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson

It was the man from Ironbark who struck the Sydney town,
He wandered over street and park, he wandered up and down.
He loitered here, he loitered there, till he was like to drop,
Until at last in sheer despair he sought a barber's shop.
"'Ere! shave my beard and whiskers off, I'll be a man of mark,
I'll go and do the Sydney toff up home in Ironbark."

The barber man was small and flash, as barbers mostly are,
He wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar;
He was a humorist of note and keen at repartee,
He laid the odds and kept a "tote", whatever that may be,
And when he saw our friend arrive, he whispered, "Here's a lark!
Just watch me catch him all alive, this man from Ironbark."

There were some gilded youths that sat along the barber's wall.
Their eyes were dull, their heads were flat, they had no brains at all;
To them the barber passed the wink, his dexter eyelid shut,
"I'll make this bloomin' yokel think his bloomin' throat is cut."
And as he soaped and rubbed it in he made a rude remark:
"I s'pose the flats is pretty green up there in Ironbark."

A grunt was all reply he got; he shaved the bushman's chin,
Then made the water boiling hot and dipped the razor in.
He raised his hand, his brow grew black, he paused awhile to gloat,
Then slashed the red-hot razor-back across his victim's throat:
Upon the newly-shaven skin it made a livid mark -
No doubt it fairly took him in - the man from Ironbark.

He fetched a wild up-country yell might wake the dead to hear,
And though his throat, he knew full well, was cut from ear to ear,
He struggled gamely to his feet, and faced the murd'rous foe:
"You've done for me! you dog, I'm beat! one hit before I go!
I only wish I had a knife, you blessed murdering shark!
But you'll remember all your life the man from Ironbark."

He lifted up his hairy paw, with one tremendous clout
He landed on the barber's jaw, and knocked the barber out.
He set to work with nail and tooth, he made the place a wreck;
He grabbed the nearest gilded youth, and tried to break his neck.
And all the while his throat he held to save his vital spark,
And "Murder! Bloody murder!" yelled the man from Ironbark.

A peeler man who heard the din came in to see the show;
He tried to run the bushman in, but he refused to go.
And when at last the barber spoke, and said "'Twas all in fun—
'Twas just a little harmless joke, a trifle overdone."
"A joke!" he cried, "By George, that's fine; a lively sort of lark;
I'd like to catch that murdering swine some night in Ironbark."

And now while round the shearing floor the list'ning shearers gape,
He tells the story o'er and o'er, and brags of his escape.
"Them barber chaps what keeps a tote, By George, I've had enough,
One tried to cut my bloomin' throat, but thank the Lord it's tough."
And whether he's believed or no, there's one thing to remark,
That flowing beards are all the go way up in Ironbark.

The Bulletin, 17 December 1892.

Originally Posted by Potato_potato

No, but there have been Irish backpackers kidnapped and murdered here.

Originally Posted by AnotherWorld

OP: 2 words, go home.

I like this thread.

Originally Posted by WillBlack

My impression of Brisbane CBD is that it is tiny and thronged almost exclusively by Asian students who shlip-shlop about the gloomy alleys with all the gorm of life sentence prisoners in a Turkish exercise yard.

I find for the OP's initial impressions.

Originally Posted by ozhappy981

I find it varies tremendously. Where we live at the moment, the neighbours do no more than wave at each other across the street.

But where we are building we've already talked to all the neighbours. They also wave. Then when we wave back, they see this as an invite to come across the street, introduce themselves and strike up a conversation. Two houses across the street and two houses next to us, we know their names and a bit about them - and we've only been to the house for about ten minutes each weekend to take photos.

Originally Posted by lovetv

u mean they are copying some bloody indians . i think this is the only thing aussies copying some bloddy indians.

Originally Posted by Potato_potato

x 2.

The people here are **** wits

Originally Posted by Walkabout

...I meant to say Andy, you mirror my experience and I live in Melbourne. There couldn't have been a bigger Aussie patriot than me, (formative years here), but I have had it kicked out of me in only 9 months. After planning this return to Aussie for the past 37 years, I am SO tempted to book the next flight back to civilization but I have two kids and my move was for them and I believe it will be a better life for them. It is easy to get this out of balance in the beginning and it seems that the far greater percentage does. I anticipated this and said that we would give it two years, come what may.

Hang in there mate and "she'll be right" one way or another.

Originally Posted by Officer Dibble

'Gormless' is a fantastically accurate way to describe the average Aussie on the street. The only people that have ever made coversation with me in the street have either been bumming change or ciggies or theyve been British.

Originally Posted by sigourner

I don't know if I would paint a picture as bleak as that, when I was in the UK I lived in Scotland for a long time, moved between cities up there and enjoyed all of them and then moved down to London for my career. I noticed the difference straight away, some of the same things such as people not responding to you at checkouts when you said hello or putting the change on the counter rather than handing it to you and even though I tried to give it a proper go all I could take was nine months. I then moved up to Edinburgh and thoroughly enjoyed living there (and sure things could have been the same for many other cities), what I am trying to get at is that not all cities are the same and that is the same for Australia as it is for any country. Just try and dust yourself down, go out with a fresh look at things (maybe try and block out some of your pre-Australia expectations a little) and if you still don't like Brisbane just try somewhere else

Either way, good luck and remember just go and enjoy yourself to begin with, you said you have a year of travel ahead of you, enjoy that and then worry about whether you think you would ever be able to live somewhere in Australia.

Originally Posted by the troubadour

Not sure Aussies are so different from Brisbane as say in Perth unlike the change from London to Edinburgh where many differences come into play.

Originally Posted by the troubadour

Actually quite true along with the odd backpacker from Europe or foreign student from Japan or South Korea seeking directions...

Originally Posted by Potato_potato

The women in Perth are hot.

Originally Posted by Officer Dibble

LOL! Im always being asked for directions, even in UK lost people just seem to gravitate towards me.

My first day in Brisbane got the old "Can you give me some money for a bus ticket back to (random town), as my brother was stabbed at the valley last night?". Like a fool, I gave him twenty bucks. That wisened me up. Happened a few times on my Aussie travels.