M J

Just wanted to know if Australia is what you expected it to be?
Im only just starting out on our application and have never been to Oz,but my husband has.I've done enough research to know i want to live there and bring up my son there,so the decision is made.However ..i just would be interested to know your thoughts(warts and all) on whether it was how you had imagined life would be, whether it met your exectations and whether you are able to live the life you wanted?
Big thanks in advance

mand8002

I didn't really have that many expectations when we first came as I think if you do it can be a disappointment. But I certainly enjoy the life we have here and am glad we made the move.

Hector

MJ

Read my blog and look at our photos. It's been better than we could have ever imagined.

Hope you enjoy the site

http://spaces.msn.com/dahunt1965/

Dave, Karen and Caleb

Wol

Yes.

And no.

We moved here 18 months ago and have not regretted it (well, since moving out of the Sydney area anyway!).

The weather is way better than the UK: I have just woken up to a hard air frost (about minus 5' overnight) but at 9am the sun is out in a clear blue sky and by 11 it will be 15 or 20'. The downside of course is that the whole continent is running out of H2O in a big way given the increasing population.

The space is also very welcome: you don't feel hemmed in as you do in the UK once you get outside the cities. *Within* the cities it's a very different feeling: Sydney in particular goes on and on for miles and if anything feels more crowded than most UK cities if only because of the unimaginative suburbs. Thousands of homes built down to a price.

People are like people everywhere: most are easy to get on with, one or two are completely objectionable and there is a small minority who are a bit anti-pom. Some of those you can deal with by being proactive and calling yourself a whingeing pom before they do, others you just have to accept and let it all run off you!

Government is frankly dysfunctional, certainly at the State level. The "laid back" attitude is really a cover for lazy, irresponsible - call it what you will - behaviour. Getting anything done can be a trial - rather like the UK 30 years ago. Calls are not returned, things don't arrive, the key worker is taking a "sickie" - ie., on the beach, etc.

Having worked in Oz and visited many times over the past 30 years I have been astounded by the degeneration of the level of behaviour. Gratuitous violence, gang killings, drug use, drunkeness, graffiti, litter and the rest are everywhere: don't for a minute think you will be leaving it behind because it is a huge social problem in Australia.

Part of the problem is that there is a much higher acceptance by the population as a whole of antisocial and criminal behaviour: tolerance of yobs rollerskatng through malls and knocking pedestrians over translates into acceptance of fraud and all sorts of behaviour that makes life intolerable.

So yes, I am glad we moved out here but I am rather glad that in 20 years I will probably have departed the coil because Australia is in many ways a very dysfunctional society, living on the edge of being a first world country and strolling uncaring into real social and financial problems in the next few decades.

Australia_bound?

Is this really what it's like? Seems a bit harsh, have lots of family in Aus and they have pointed out the good and bad but you've painted a very depressing future

Wol

I don't mean to do that, because many countries are going the same way. And a lot of people will disagree vehemently. But IMO there are very real problems in Australia which just are not being addressed by those who should be addressing them. It seems to be politically impossible to criticise any group, for example, who are not Anglo-Saxon in origin so Lebanese gangs, for example, can with impunity run riot over whole areas. Aboriginals can get away with child rape and woman-beatings beacause of "customs". And so on.

Then there is a culture of local and state politicians applying legislation almost on the hoof, with few aware or even worried by it. An example is the Sydney cross-city tunnel which was awarded to a big consortium who were allowed to charge an exorbitant rate for vehicles to travel a few Km under the city centre and - this being the important point - the authorities agreed to make use of the tunnel almost a requirement by altering the road layouts and changing some 80 traffic lights so that the average time more than has doubled unless you *do* use the tunnel. One small example from many.

There will not be many who would disagree that Oz is very very over-regulated to the point of being silly. Yet it always appears to be the law-abiding who are hauled up by the regulations, while those who stick their fingers up at them just get away with it. Once again, to be fair, the same is happening elsewhere - but it's very much "in your face" here.

What is galling is the way that so few of the centralised things seem to get better. Try dialling "000" for the police and you will connect to a country wide call centre in Brisbane - and often they won't have a clue where you are. People are dying because of this - and only last month we were told that our town didn't exist when we tried to get help, and there was nothing they could do for us!


Once again, it should not put anyone off coming here but with their eyes a lot more open than some do. I for one have no intention of going back to the Uk weather!

sunshinesarah

Australia has exeeded our expectations - we are so happy.
We live life here. We have more time for us as we work less. We earn less but have more money in our pockets here. We seem to be out all the time as the weather is so good. We feel fitter and healthier than back in the UK.
There have been stressful times of course, but we expected those. Best of luck.

Sunshin Sarah