fair enough, was genuinely asking the question. Shame you've had such a bad experience there, there are many great things about the country, but as you've pointed out there are things that aren't so great either. Like every country in the world I guess. I did wonder about your comment to my link re 'what to do with the other 360 days of the year' when I had provided a link to yearly events, sounds like you're so keen to get back to UK that everything swings in that favour.

Their sausages are indeed shit, I couldn't agree more.

The rest of the country is not, though, and there is plenty of culture on offer in Melbourne, never lived anywhere else in Oz so couldn't comment. I was watching Wanted Down Under Revisited this morning (I know, I know) and some shots of Melbourne made me come over all nostalgic, it's a great city. Then they said that the family had moved to Knoxville.

OP, where are you looking to live?

I just wish Sydney and Melbourne had the culture of say Halifax or Luton. I can only imagine what we're missing out on.

Do you live in Oz, you really don't seem to like it. Can I ask what sort of cultural things you did back in the UK? Also what is fighting like over there compared to the UK on a Saturday night. To be fair we live in a small village in Scotland so it is non existent but as soon as you go to big citys anywhere in the UK this is a major problem when pubs and clubs close. How do you spend a weekend? Thanks for everyones input camtom x

My husband has an auntie and cousins in Geelong. So probably there but also quite like the look of the Brisbane area???

I love the long Aussie beef sausages!!

(that absolutely sounds not like it was meant to)

Hi Camtom,

I don't have any figures to hand but no doubt you could find them on the internet. We were in Melbourne and there were definitely incidents at pub/club chucking out time, and other random alcohol-fuelled incidents. There was a fairly widely reported case in the news not long before we left (early December) about a guy being hit in a pub in South Melbourne during the day, if memory serves me correctly, and I think he died. I know Vic police were running a fairly high profile initiative to try and reduce the type of late night alcohol-fuelled crime you're asking about.

My OH said he always felt happier in busy pubs and clubs in Melbourne than he had in the UK, felt there was less of an undercurrent of tension. I can't say I felt differently in the UK vs Melbourne, on the other hand. I'm sure others will have had different experiences, and like I said you could no doubt find crime figures online.

I know, not meant like that at all!!

I blame the wine

I grew up in Geelong and spent the last 12 years in Brisbane, for me at least there is absolutely no contest and Geelong doesnt do well

Yeh if I had to choose between Geelong and Brisbane I would probably choose Brisbane although Geelong has REALLY come up in the world over the last few years - the waterfront is really nice, there are some lovely new suburbs with some stunning houses and of course the proximity to the beaches of the Bellarine and the Great Ocean Road is very handy!

BB

Culture?
Europe beats Oz 'hands down'. Yes you can go to the opera and classical concerts, but there is nothing of much interest before 1788.
Social life outside of the big cities, revolves around the local bowls club, with its restaurant, gambling machines and 'open mic' nights. VERY BORING!!!!!
TV?
Fantastic if you like sport (and you'll soon hate hearing continually about how good Ozies are!!!). 30 year old program's, and adds seemingly every five minutes. Another thing, why do they go on about places being 'inundated', don't they know that the descriptive word is 'flooded'

Forgot about that!

I can live with the sport - what about endless 'shows' - Aussie or American - yuck. Have you ever watched SBS?
And the old movies on Gem, and the second channels are great, I find. It's like a UK Gold type channel.

You may be right about outside the big cities - I am not sure if I could manage it. You just need to get in with an intelligent crowd, I'm guessing.

In my books, many UK people are not that interested in what happened before 1960. You have to remember that even Australia has history that goes back to the 18th century - even if you pick up the paper at the weekend you can get into it bits of it. Also people have a habit of focusing on UK people- for example we had Shackleton and Captain Scott - Australia had Mawson. There's a whole genre there.

Seriously, what on earth are you on about with the 30 year old programmes? Yes, you can find 30 year old programmes if you really want to but there are a lot of fast tracked shows from the US and UK (if those are more your thing) and even some fairly reasonable Australian made shows.

Yeah, the adverts are a pain but we record them and fast forward through the ads (just the same as we did in the UK)

I don't get why people constantly bang on about culture (or the lack of it) - it doesn't really feature much in most people's day to day lives and if European culture DOES feature heavily in your day to day life then you wouldn't really come to live in Australia. Or anywhere that wasn't Europe.

Simple.

Is culture synonymous with having vast swathes of history? Is that what people mean when they talk about culture? What do people mean when they talk about culture? No, I don't want some wikipedia or dictionary definition of the word, just what it means to people.

I often wonder that, too. The people who go on about Australia (or where ever else they emigrate) not having culture. Do they spend their free time in the UK going to museums and historical sites? I'm not sure exactly what it is that people are looking for. Of course Australia has culture...Every country has its own culture. Australian culture is not European, but it's still its own culture.