Originally Posted by sjz (Post 9013704)

My two pounds worth…

If your idea of paradise is fine blue skies every day, barbeques in the evening and going out on your boat fishing on the weekends and you’re prepared to give up your family connections, future career prospects, history, museums, art galleries, your sense of style etc. etc. then go and live in Brisbane or Perth. That lifestyle really does suit some people.

If your main reason for coming to aussie is weather and lifestyle then don’t imagine you’ll find it in Melbourne – you’ll get more culture here and its more cosmopolitan but this place gets seriously hot in summer and seriously grey and cold in winter (not as cold as northern Europe of course but relative to what you’ve just acclimatised to the previous summer). Lucky for the OP, Sydney probably has better weather than Melbourne (described as the Glasgow of the south by a local friend of mine) and definitely better coastline but don’t worry you won’t get to enjoy any of it, you’ll be too busy stuck in the office working to pay the bills and save for those expensive holidays back to Europe. :rofl:

If you’re coming here planning to get on the property ladder, make sure you bring a large bag of money with you. Our house in Melbourne has doubled in value in the past 5 years and it isn’t a great house - I certainly wouldn't buy it again that's for sure… People in my street now can’t afford to move to the next tier up and are spending money on extensions and swimming pools rather than moving.

Australia has been fairly good to us over the 6 years we've been here and we now have a family, house, business etc but personally I find Australia pretty mediocre in a lot of respects. Everything I can get here I can get better somewhere else. If I want sunshine I could get that in places like Spain or the Caribbean, if I want good food I can’t go past places like Hong Kong, Italy or France, (hard to get good Indian here too surprisingly, but it is improving…), if I want to go diving I’d go to the red sea, if I want beaches I’d go to the Maldives, if I want outdoor scenery I’d go back to NZ. Its true that you can get all of those things to some extent in any of the main Australian cities but the cities here have to be pretty self contained on the basis you need to get on a plane for 4 hours to get anywhere worth going (that’s personal preference of course and I mean places like Port Douglas, Margaret river, NZ (family), various pacific islands etc. and note also that its twice the flying distance to somewhere more interesting like Hong Kong or Thailand).

Coming from NZ originally (greener), I find the aussie bush just dry, empty and boring and likely to catch fire every chance it gets but I know the aussies like it. Boating, camping, fishing is what they’re into here – if you like that sort of lifestyle then this is the place for you. We tried it, even bought the obligatory 4-wheel drive but it wasn’t our thing. Personally I miss family and friends, career opportunities, travel to Europe, properly designed clothes at sensible prices, old-world wines and sensible prices, reasonably priced books and magazines, houses made out of more than just wood with tin roofs (especially in winter…), proper cars, I could go on.

I would echo other posters here and say that its not a cheap lifestyle here. I wouldn’t use Australia’s past performance in surviving the global recession as an indicator of future performance. Big changes affecting the country will come up over the next few years – house prices are already stabilising and could go down (I’m not a doomsayer mind you, just cautious), Australia is pushing ahead (albeit ineffectively) with implementing carbon trading which will be expensive for people and businesses, there will be a big tax on mining company profits introduced soon apparently (again, ineffective progress just like the solar panels initiative, home insulation disaster, privatising the power companies, solving the drought problems - just as well its started raining again huh?). China will also start shopping elsewhere - they’re already making stronger ties with resources rich countries like Africa and just yesterday they imposed a blanket ban on importing Australian lobster – the aussies don’t know why yet… maybe its ‘just because they can’….

To stop rambling for a minute and answer OP’s original question, I’m from NZ, moved to UK to make some money, married an English woman who didn’t want to live in the UK any more and as I didn’t want to go back to NZ we came to Melbourne. We will probably be back in the UK in a few years, or maybe Singapore, or the middle east or…

My advice, do your own research and just be very clear and honest with yourself as to your reasons for moving – and then stop listening to people’s advice. If your reason for moving is transferring within the company then it is clearly the right choice so just go with it and be prepared to be flexible. Even if your reason is only as good as ‘to give it a go somewhere else’ then be honest with yourself, go with it, enjoy the experience, be prepared to be flexible with whatever you find and don’t be surprised if one day you want to go back.

Once you’ve been living here for a few months you’ll know if its your place and if it was the right decision. Spending time looking backwards is probably the only thing you can do wrong at this stage…

To summarise my ramblings, weather seems to be the major driver for leaving the UK for aussie these days (and aussie weather is not everyone’s cup of tea) – but I prefer Billy Connolly’s advice “there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes”. Good luck and enjoy your time in Sydney.

Originally Posted by spartacus (Post 9013843)

Jesus you get a lot for two quid nowadays . . .

Originally Posted by James516 (Post 9013537)

I had been to cities that seem open 24/7 - in the North-Eastern US, Brazil and the UK. But despite all my wanderings, Oz just seemed where I belonged.

Karma for the first one to get it :D

Originally Posted by DeadVim (Post 9013834)

Contrary to Mr Sinatra I wanted to sleep in a city that didn't wake up.

I like it here :D

Originally Posted by fish.01 (Post 9013895)

You came back to Australia because of Peter Allen ? :D