is that all over Australia that shops and restaurants close early? no 24hour stores?

24hr supermarkets which also sell alcohol, restaurants open late etc. Think of Australia as a loose conglomeration of countries much like the U.S. It changes hugely from state to state and city to city.

No it's not. We are 34kms out of Melbourne and we have 24-hour supermarkets 10 mins away from us. Many restaurants are open late here also - though our chippy in the village closes around 9pm.

i too have been dining with friends in a rerstaurant and have had them shaking tablecloths and stacking chairs while we are still eating.Whenever that happens we never go back there.

They do not shut early around me. We go early because we are ancient now but they are open late. Pizza places do not open till about 5 pm in the afternoon. A lot of places open later and are open into the night in Melbourne.

My daughter goes out about 10 - 10. 30

I guess it's something you have to put up with if you choose to move to one of the redneck, backwards states like WA or Queensland.

Australia simply does NOT HAVE the same standard of shops and services as in the UK. I know a hundred defensive 'I love my new Aussie life' expats will jump on that and accuse me of a gross generalisation but I am allowed to make an assessment based on my experience of living in both the UK and Australia.

My wife's grandmother is from London originally. Her retired and reasonably financially well-off sister still lives in London and travels and shops all over the world, despite being in her seventies now. When she was last here in Melbourne (2006) she commented to me on how, compared to similar cities in the world Melbourne's shops are relatively disappointing. There's a lot less 'range' on offer here (less variety), less interesting specialist shops, and much less convenient opening hours.

My wife's parents always eat early. It seems to be a bit of a thing here. But it was VERY annoying that when me and my wife had the offspring looked after by her parents last year and we went into the city for a short break, we found that by half eight/nine pm we could not find any restaurants that weren't closing or at least shutting the kitchen.

I remember seeing West End shows in London and then going to get a meal at like ten or eleven pm!

Sometimes Australia seems really 'behind' and I really do marvel at the expats from the UK who don't find anything frustrating or annoying about that.

ok play nice. yeah so looking like I will have to do a complete tour of OZ. been to Adelaide already so I guess: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Townsville, Cairns, Darwin and Perth.

Hmmm..and I'm used to shopping in Florida. I might be spoilt already.

In some States - Queensland for one - you can't buy alcohol in the supermarkets, and the majority of bottle shops close at 8-9pm.

I have to totally disagree with that, as a younger person I think Melbournes shops are on par with London and the opening hours much better, with perhaps the exception of Oxford St which has longer opening hours during the week and on Saturday.

Between the CBD, Chadstone, Southland, Doncaster (all three bigger than Bluewater or the Trafford centre) etc and then the 'village' strips like Prahran, Chapel St, Armadale, Glenferrie Rd etc there is not much you cannot get. Maybe if you are set in your ways and need to buy Next or M&S you may be disappointed but otherwise I find Melbourne much easier to shop in.

What is the variety in the UK these days? Every town centre has the same range of chain shops, anything specialist can't afford to stay on the High St anymore and are being driven out of business. Melbourne does have loads of specialist shops, it's just you may have to search them out or drive to them.

Where the UK does totally make Australia look pathetic is in the area of online shopping.

btw : If you think it's bad in Aus try living in European countries, they are enough to drive you insane (particularly Belgium and France)

I love all those things about living here, it is why I left Britian, everywhere on the go all the time. Who on earth wants to eat at 11pm. I marvel at all the expats who want to do that . 11pm is bedtime!

Every state has very different laws. To many generalisations and I can eat out at 10:00pm or 11:00pm

Be warned - if you want to live in Queensland you're going to have to get used to living like an eighty year old.

It's nowhere near so bad elsewhere - which is why the average Australian wouldn't dream of living in Queensland until after they've retired.

After several holidays there (free company provided) I wouldn't live there period. It's very very backward.