Yes I could come up with hundreds too. It makes me sick some of the stuff people get away with these days. Most of them only getting a slap on the wrist or at best community service.

The big difference between the two countries is that you know these things are happening in the UK due to the press wanting to push bad news on you day after day. Here by contrast all the same crimes happen some catagories like assault on women and rape are higher but you just don't hear about it. The press here if they do run the story only run it once or twice at best then it's on to the sport. Yes I will be first to admit that crime here in Oz *feels* better than back home but look up any of the official figures and its just as high if not higher, the press just mostly ignore it. Like the kid that was kidnapped in Sydney from her bed where she was sleeping between 2 of her siblings, the story ran for part of the week then it was all over, I still don't know if they recovered the kid or not.

Bad stuff happens all over the world, just don't come here thinking it's all a bed of roses and this stuff don't happen, it does.

i wish i had of known this last summer, i let my 18yr old daughter and two friends go to Torquay last yr for a week end, in fact i recommended it to them :scared:

Yeah, I wonder when they would be likely to issue that though.

My Visa was granted in June 2004
I first entered in June 2005 (with only 2 days left on it!!)
Its a co-existing spouse temporary visa

The way I understand it is they give you around 2 years to settle before revoking the temporary visa or making it permanent, but is that from visa issue or first arrival ?


umm...anybody know ?

Do you think I'm stupid??

I know crime happens everywhere. I'm not leaving the UK because of the crime rates, sunshine or even the price of bloody lettuce.

I'm going because I feel lucky to have the choice, because I feel that it may just be good for me and my family. I have nothing in the UK to stay for, so why not go and experience different things.

this is the karma message i just sent to you but i have to spread first, sadly!

"im glad youve still got the energy to fight mate!! i think they're all tossers and cant be arsed any more!! you go girl xx"

Sorry I replied to you and it was supposed to have been rooksie. But I stand by the point I made.

see above

Do you know, i am a really calm, placid person. But today I fell like I want to scream.

I know this forum is for people to post their good and bad experiences, but since yesterday all we seem to be getting is a load of people with really stupid moans about stuff like "the TV's crap".

If all they have gone to australia for is to try to find a sunny UK then they are going to be very disappointed, I've never even set foot in the country but I know that it's going to be very different and for that I am truly grateful.

You might not be. Zimbabwe is probably a very different place but I doubt you would be truely grateful if you were to go there. How do you know you are going to like it?

Like I'm going to drag my kids off somewhere where AIDS is a way of life Not even a valid point I'm afraid. You'll have to try harder.

Now if it was just me I would go. Maybe do a bit of aid work or something similar. In fact my 18 year old is doing just that in June of this year after he has taken his exams

I have lived in south Africa,in fact in a suburb of Jo-burgh.There you pull up at traffic lights for to long there is a gun at your window,they rape in packs whilst you are in your bed,they raid day light Sunday Barbie's,at gun point with guest up to 12 people and more.
my hubbie had to travel in to Soweto 4 times a month, and was robbed by gun point 3 times. my Afrikaner neighbour had to throw small bom like missal's in to the nearby river side to save one family from being robbed,i have seen children being sold to business men on the side of the rd by there own mothers for an hour, on my way in to santon city. (a modern corporate business centre of Jo-burgh), we had a friend that was shot dead at the gate of his house, for his £600 car and watch.yes there is trouble all over the world, but i now trouble and fear real fear that makes you uncontrollably shake, and i can say that the u.k in some parts is catching up in a small way.ie car jacking in manchester.murders in hotel bedrooms in blackpool. ok they may be more isolated, but how long will it be before they are not. When i visited south Australia yes i saw young teenagers causing a little trouble fighting. that will go on any were, but they were not viciously,10 of them jumping on another' lads head, with anger and wont to kill ,in the u.k this has now become a pass time,and very much on the increase, and you will notice it more and more, when your children become teenagers,as then its when it could affect you.and it was only about 6 weeks ago a little girl was taken from her own bath, and a little boy has just been killed and found in a park. Its every were but the u.k has its own nutters,plus everyone Else's look at crime watch, and count the different skin colours bet they are not all white.

Exactly

First time I have reviewed this thread since March - quite surprised it carried as far as it has!

To this poster, and all the other's having a go at me as some sort of whinger you missed the point! I actually like Australia and Australians a hell of a lot - and by the end of this month I am going to be one!

That post was not all about me and my family...it was commenting on experiences drawn on many ex - pats I met after moving to Perth (the plumber, the gas fitter, the painter...all REAL people!).

With regards to the mortgage thing - well everyone's situation is different, my comment was meant for peeps to consider the implication of moving back if you don't settle and the housing markets move against you, most commentators seem to think Oz is even more heavily overvalued than the UK right now. As it turned out we were among the fortunate ones buying in Perth 2 yrs ago (and even then I thought the bubble was about to burst)!

Would you want to be trapped in a place you were unhappy in just because you are "mortgage free"? I would point out that most of your story describes how we saw our situation before we left too.

We are still in Oz as the company I work for offered me a rescue package move to Sydney! Back to civilisation (That's right, I don't work in mining or the trades!)

Trouble now is that Mrs Monkeyc prefers Perth - sometimes you just can't win eh?

Is it worth it........



Most definitely