We're going home!
 

Final decision made and date set. Back to England from Sydney on 1 May next year. Great, can't wait. Job sorted, architect brother has found us a nice barn down a country lane and will be renovating it for us. Living in real countryside again, hooray! Cold weather, bring it on. Traffic jams, let me 'et em. Real beer, drool. Real wages, look at me I'm a millionaire. Holidays in France, oui, c'est ca. Family roasts, oink. Real friends for dinner, pass ze sauce Mavis. Whats this? No sport on this channel, zap, or that channel, zap, or this channel, zap, or this channel, zap... eh? eh? No more news headlines "Its official, Australia is the best country in the world, blah blah", "Today everyone in world agreed that Australia is best, blah blah", "People in America are chopping off their ears, so we better pass an 'earless law', blah blah." and now for the 3 hour sports news "Today we won everything, we are the best in the world, blah blah blah". No more rednecks, look at me I've got a big ute that makes loud noises and I shagged my cousin in the back. No more 6pm requests from the boss "ooh, the pressures on this time, we better work all night to please our client, simper whimper...". No more.

Sorry, not what people want to hear I know. I'm tired and grumpy today after a sticky night in Sydney last night - woke up at 2.30am sweating and no sleep after that. And its only early October. Oh great, summers coming, 5 hours sleep a night for 4 months, if I'm lucky.

In the pub with other whinging poms over the weekend and discovered we are not alone. All present are in the process of trying to find jobs back in England. Can't understand it myself, I thought Australia was the ultimate place to live? Ho hum, we live and learn as they say.

Re: We're going home!
 

Congratulations, once the honeymoon phase of living here wears off it certainly has its downsides. We too hope to get back to the real world next year. For me Qlds climate was hell, I find sweat, sunblock and humidity day and night disgusting. Going over in Dec to look at property and going to lap up every minute of real life, my aussie Husband is already armed with his copy of 4000 things to do in London. And I will happily burn my copy of 3 things to do in Australia, (only joking I am sure somebody will point out at least four). I am sure there are people who will love the quiet isolation of Australia (and sweating) but it certainly was not enough for my old brain cells to keep going. My brain is bursting to get on with all Europe has to offer, rain or not. Just reading your post made me drool. Good Luck and all the best.

Re: We're going home!
 

I am new to this forum and I have read many posts. It looks like negative news gives more weight than positive one.

I hope those who are living in Australia and disagree with this come forward and argue point by point. Otherwise, this may be true that Australia situation can be described as following
1. Low wage
2. Work long hour
3. Expensive housing (this is the fact if you read all the recent news)

The positive thing that I can only see from the post is:
1. Good weather

I have not found any post that says:
Hey I got a job and have a good pay.

Re: We're going home!
 

yep, good weather, that's about it.

Mind you England also has
low wages , long working hours and expensive housing or has something radical happened in the last 2 years ?

Re: We're going home!
 

Hi,

Well, I've only been in Perth for a couple of weeks and haven't had much experience of the bad points although I'm sure there will be some around the corner.

About the first point you made, I don't think comparing wages is fair. People would be better off comparing their standard of living. Coming to Australia I took a 50% wage cut but (in Perth at least) my lifestyle will be much better than where I was (Far East). I moved to Australia knowing that I would be here for the long term so I wasn't interested in how my salary compared here to back in the UK or elsewhere. If I had a "Plan B" of live here for a couple of years and then decide whether to go back to the UK then the salary here might have been more of an issue.

I've only been here a short while so can't compare the working hours (although they will certainly be less than some other industrialised countries).

Expensive housing? From what I have read, in Sydney perhaps yes. In Perth, not really. In my short time here I've seen 4 bedroom house for less than AU$150,000 in less desirable areas (though still much better than many UK towns) away from the sea. For less than AU$250,000 you can have a 4 bedroom house within walking distance of the sea in a good area (e.g., Mindarie) if you don't mind an hour's commute (30 kms) by bus/train to Perth city. If you don't mind living a few kms from the sea then you can have a similar house (e.g., Joondalup or closer) within 20 mins from Perth.

I only have experience with the northern suburbs so can't comment much on the other places. In Secret Harbour (about 45 kms south of Perth) they have 600 square metre blocks of land a few minutes walk from a great surfing beach and next to a golf course for around AU$60,000 the last time I looked and you can build a 4 bedroom house on that land for less than AU$100,000. At the moment it might take 90 minutes to get to Perth on public transport but they are planning to build a railway and freeway near there so in a few years time it would take less than 60 minutes.

I think that moving to another country also depends on the mindset of the people involved. I've had to live abroad in different countries for the past 10 years or so with my job so it was no problem moving here. I knew that I should expect that some things will be better than where I had lived before but other things would be worse. However, if you come here thinking that Australia is just like the UK but with better weather then of course you will be surprised and perhaps disappointed.

For dotty, I can understand why you are unhappy about the weather. I have lived for the past few years in the Far East where the summers were exactly as you describe .. hot, humid, and sweaty. But that's why I chose not to live in places such as Brisbane or Cairns. Perhaps if you could live in somewhere less humid such as Perth then you might be happier with the weather.

Re: We're going home!
 

No UK is much the same as you left it. Terrace house in the north- equiv $350,000 AUS, weekly shopping family of 3- £90, petrol £30 per week, average time spent in traffic jams- eternal!, chance of good weather at weekend at height of 'summer'- 5%, average price of pint £3, childcare for 1 child- AU $1500 per month (4 days per week), average meal out for two with wine- $150 equiv etc etc.

I chose Perth because of family and friends and knowing many familes who have enjoyed real 'prosperity' over there. I say prosperity, as standard of living is not the same as wages. I would rather spend a day at the beach with my family for the price of a picnic and an esky of beer, than a day at the Trafford Centre when it's raining where everything costs a fortune but there's bugga all else to do when its raining (again).
Cheers
Nicky

Re: We're going home!
 

If I recall correctly the first poster (Herman) lives in Sydney.

I agree with you that housing price is not something to be compared with other countries. I was referring to housing afordability. It may be a lot cheaper since we bring UK money where the house is more expensive (maybe not in Sydney). But I have read in the news article (Australian online newspaper) that many-many young people (local Australian) cannot afford a house. They are forced to rent.

If I am not wrong, the average house is 7 times the annual salary. Some other country (I forgot which country, it is only 3 times annual salary).

Re: We're going home!
 

Congratulations Herman,

It is the truth I 100% agree.
Good luck and a better life in Europe.

The what are we so good and happy down under official blabla, who believes it any more…<

2years of disappointment and trapped in a down side industry have to wail for my relieve.

Re: We're going home!
 

Are you in IT? If you are, IT is going down the hill, not just in Australia.

Maybe you'd like to tell us your disappointment.

Re: We're going home!
 

Hi,

Yes, point taken that the housing in Sydney is very expensive. On my salary I would never have considered moving to Sydney for that very reason.

However, off the top of my head the average salary in Perth in AU$45,000 whilst the average house price is AU$180,000 which is 4 times. But if you take out the AU$1,000,000 houses near the ocean and river then (from my limited experience) it's still fairly easy to get a house for less than AU$150,000.

Re: We're going home!
 

It is only fair to say that there are plenty of places in Aus where you could still get cheap housing. Like anywhere you pay for facilities nearby tho. Many cheap housing areas would not even have a basic bus service so add the cost of 2 cars per famly. Also entertainment is usually 'home made' hence the over abundance of BBQ's. Certainly cheap houses if you are prepared to live the quiet life. People pay millions to get into Sydney tho. You gets what you pay for.

Unfortunately, Perth was not an option for us. My Aus Husband spent a year there and got cabin fever, just couldn't live somewhere where you are surrounded by nothing but Desert. He admits the weather was more like Sydney than Brisbane tho. I should have tried Melbourne, cooler and more life to it, but Business contacts in Brisbane so we stuck there.

Re: We're going home!
 

Ah well I'm across the ditch (NZ) - and am never going back; then again we
have less red necks, better climate and better wine and produce than France
will ever have. Admittedly the wages are dire, health service collapsing and
driving standards attrocious, but isn't that similar to the UK? At least you
gave it a go!!
"onlyme" wrote in message
news:436753.1034068280@britishexpats-
.com...
    > yep, good weather, that's about it.
    > Mind you England also has
    > low wages , long working hours and expensive housing or has something
    > radical happened in the last 2 years ?
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Re: We're going home!
 

Re: We're going home!
 

Ony been here 3 weeks so not quite over the honey moon period, but then I dont spose I will get over it as I did not come over here with rose coloured glasses.

I am in a job getting half of what I got in the UK, but I am paying less in shopping, petrol, rent and entertainment (to name a few without getting totally boring)

My son has spent every day outside (when it has not been raining) with his new mates either in a stadium or field playing footie and soccer. He has never been out the house so much in his life.

We are in the suburbs with excellent train and bus facilities to take us to town or neighbouring suburbs as and when we want.

We are not buying as yet, as we want to settle in a bit and save a deposit to buy, which by then the property prices will have come down, if not, we will wait a little longer.

Schools... now lets start there... London.. average 12-1500 pupils per school years 7-12. Melbourne average 7-750 pupils per school years 7-12. More interesting electives (options to us Brits).. where else do you know that they have forensic science.., photography? only to name a few that I found appealing.

I do miss the familiarity of London but then I am new here and will find it to be familiar with time.

I apprecite the weather aspect of Qld, hence the decision to stay here rather than go to Qld as we originally planned. I knew the humidity and heat would kill me, I did live in Hong Kong so.. naaaaa gimme rain and cold any day.

Not alot more I can say on it at the moment but I love rush hour here.. there aint one!!!!! And I am not in the sticks either,,, 20 mins to drive to town or 30 by train :)

Yvonne :D

Re: We're going home!
 

Hi there,

Sorry things did not work out for you down under & I wish you the best of
luck in the UK.

Home is where your heart is & if you can accept & be happy in a place, warts
& all, then maybe that's home for you. The UK is not our first choice & I
hope that we will have a positive experience in Aus. when we move there in
early 2003. We don't have a rose tinted view of life there and we will be
financially better off with a nice lifestyle for us & the children; a house
that we could only dream about living in here & more sunshine than we
currently get. We live in London, but aren't able to take advantage of all
it has to offer because it is so expensive to do anything, especially
including the children. I have lived here for 16yrs & my husband all his
life. My sister was over from Sydney recently & we went to a little
restaurant in Soho & we just had pizza & a bottle of wine - the bill was £60
for the 2 of us. Its not an expensive restaurant either. She was really
shocked at how dirty the UK had become in the 9yrs since she left - the
streets, trains & how much more threatening central London has become at
night. We used to have no problem getting a night bus home, now you take
your life in your hands waiting at the bus stop. I don't want to appear as
if I am putting the UK down as it is a great place - access to Europe,
beautiful countryside etc. but you need money & lots of it, lots of patience
for sitting around in traffic & to plan everything 6 months to a year ahead
for social events as everything gets booked up so quickly - never enough to
go around.

Life is what you make it; choosing to grab your opportunities when they
arrive and experiencing new challenges makes us all grow as people (does
that sound too Oprah?). If we all liked the same things & agreed on
everything, how boring would that be?

Good luck.

Siobhan
"Herman" wrote in message
news:436712.1034065475@britishexpats-
.com...
    > Final decision made and date set. Back to England from Sydney on 1 May
    > next year. Great, can't wait. Job sorted, architect brother has found
    > us a nice barn down a country lane and will be renovating it for us.
    > Living in real countryside again, hooray! Cold weather, bring it on.
    > Traffic jams, let me 'et em. Real beer, drool. Real wages, look at me
    > I'm a millionaire. Holidays in France, oui, c'est ca. Family roasts,
    > oink. Real friends for dinner, pass ze sauce Mavis. Whats this? No
    > sport on this channel, zap, or that channel, zap, or this channel, zap,
    > or this channel, zap... eh? eh? No more news headlines "Its official,
    > Australia is the best country in the world, blah blah", "Today everyone
    > in world agreed that Australia is best, blah blah", "People in America
    > are chopping off their ears, so we better pass an 'earless law', blah
    > blah." and now for the 3 hour sports news "Today we won everything, we
    > are the best in the world, blah blah blah". No more rednecks, look at
    > me I've got a big ute that makes loud noises and I shagged my cousin in
    > the back. No more 6pm requests from the boss "ooh, the pressures on
    > this time, we better work all night to please our client, simper
    > whimper...". No more.
    > Sorry, not what people want to hear I know. I'm tired and grumpy today
    > after a sticky night in Sydney last night - woke up at 2.30am sweating
    > and no sleep after that. And its only early October. Oh great, summers
    > coming, 5 hours sleep a night for 4 months, if I'm lucky.
    > In the pub with other whinging poms over the weekend and discovered we
    > are not alone. All present are in the process of trying to find jobs
    > back in England. Can't understand it myself, I thought Australia was
    > the ultimate place to live? Ho hum, we live and learn as they say.
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com