Why Australia?
 

I'm trying to persuade my mum that moving to Australia is a better option than staying in England. What points could I make that shows that Australia is a better option than England?

She's worried about employment for teachers there, education for us children and the cost of living. Alsoo what places are nice to live in around Australia.

Thankyou :) xx

Re: Why Australia?
 

Hi, Read this update (from today) from someone living in Melbourne.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=673936

Re: Why Australia?
 

Are you secondary or primary. Cost of livin is huge especially when you look back at uk. Education i am afraid awful. I absolutly love this country for a holiday or workin break, but to educate kids or live wow. Think hard.

Re: Why Australia?
 

Really? I thought it would be cheaper to live in Australia cause Englands EXPENSIVE. I'm 17, my brother and sister are 15 and 12. I thought the education would be regular?

Re: Why Australia?
 

Sorry your seventeen! Talk to your mum i really dont want to know!

Re: Why Australia?
 

what? I am talking to my mum about this

Re: Why Australia?
 

Teaching jobs are hard to find in the nice places that everyone wants to live in - there are vacancies out in the mulga where no Aus teachers want to live (and probably neither would you).

Education for you guys is not as good as the UK would be - and if you want to go to university here you will have to pay up front, no accruing debts to pay back later, you will be up for anything between $5k and $10k a yr depending on what you study with no grants or scholarships until you have citizenship. Also, dont come until you have A levels under your belt. Moving here at 16+ is a very risky situation.

Expensive????? There are loads of threads on here but when I visited my folks in February, I found UK to be much cheaper for the staples. Petrol was more expensive for sure but the rest was surprisingly cheap in comparison. Getting on the housing ladder here is increasingly difficult and our mortgage interest rates are rising.

I'd say that if your mum has a secure job in UK she would be nuts to leave it in hopes of getting a teaching job here.

Re: Why Australia?
 

Some people on this site are not enjoying it here and a balanced view is hard to find. Equally hard to find from those who are loving it here. You can rest assured that most of the same problems exist here as in the UK, expense of life being one. I wouldn't change it for the world and love it here. For me, the quality of life is superior.:thumbup:

Re: Why Australia?
 

Quality of life probably edges it here than in the UK for many/most. I think it's a bit easier here to find a decent place to live than it is in the UK. If you are already living happily in the UK though then it's an awful lot to throw away on the off chance it might be better here in Australia.

Cost of living, especially for new migrants is a bit of an eye opener. If you compare like for like between the UK and Oz then Oz is currently staggeringly expensive... but it's a bit deceptive. Exchange rate movements between the two countries have distorted things and people will probably get paid more here than the UK. As an example, if somebody currently earns 30,000 pounds in the UK and thinks that the equivalent $52,000pa would give them the same buying power here in Oz then they are in for a very nasty shock.

Re: Why Australia?
 

For sure. I reckon that 52,000 would have to be nearer 70......

Re: Why Australia?
 

yeah, I would go with that figure as well.

Re: Why Australia?
 

I agree with some of the others, finding a teaching job is one thing but finding a good one is another.

I believe the standard of education here is good, but I would only go private - there are too many feral children with a disruptive influence in government schools.

Re: Why Australia?
 

Agreed. Don't simply rely on the current exchange rate when comparing wages.

It does vary slightly though depending on if you are coming from northern England or the south.

Re: Why Australia?
 

Why indeed!

Re: Why Australia?
 

You're 17, you have the energy and mindset to experience all the world has to offer. If your mother wants you to develop as a person then I would think she would encourage you to branch out, even though she would miss you.

My advice is to get some kind of working holiday visa and try it out for a bit, if you like it then investigate more permanent options.

I'll leave the last word to Ferris (showing MY age):
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it"

Good luck, enjoy, savour.

(edit) And for Christ's sake, don't try and work out the relative cost of living ... people do that at 37, not 17 ;)

Re: Why Australia?
 

Generalise much?

http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/im...ileyiagree.gif

Re: Why Australia?
 

It can be cheaper, or it can be more expensive, depending where you live, and where you shop. No one person is right in what they say, when they state something as definite for an entire country.

Education is also variable, depending on various factors.

My 14 year old daughter is very happy here, well, as happy as any kid can be going to school :lol:

Her and a friend have just nipped into Brisbane for the day, hopefully just window shopping :eek:

She has a 14 year cousin in the UK, and when comparing, we feel we are in the better situation in many respects.

My best guess is that
55.09% feel that moving to Australia was the best thing for them
21.76% feel that moving to Australia was NOT the best thing for them
23.15% haven't really decided yet

And if you haven't guessed, no, that wasn't a guess, it was a representation of 216 recent migrants. :D

The number disappointed with Australia is higher these days than it used to be, possibly because in previous times, expectations may not have been as high as they seem to be now.

Re: Why Australia?
 

..or possibly that arriving in the past, with a big wedge of cash, made on a stupidly over priced UK home, made starting out here that bit easier than the exchange rate and Oz house prices allows for now?

Re: Why Australia?
 

I assume you're talking about the fairly recent past. When I came wages/salaries and house prices were much higher. Food was cheaper.

Re: Why Australia?
 

Yes. The last couple of years, for people coming out of the UK at least, must have been much tougher, financially, than say the five years or so prior.

Re: Why Australia?
 

Maybe in some years, but other years where the rate was about 1.8, 1996 ? or 1.9 in 1986, and UK house prices were not stupidly high.

We just didn't have so much info to create dreams of gold, that turned out not to be true. But even starting from scratch in 1986, I think I was down to about $5k before I began working. And I was renting a small 2 bed unit. Within 5 years I had bought a house.

It all depends on what people are wanting. Instant perfection or normal life with more sun :lol:

Re: Why Australia?
 

I think some of you think I'm planning to come to australia by myself. But im asking this question for the whole family cause my mums crappy with computers and genereally technology. Well I think we've decided that as ive only got one more year till I finish my A levels I can finish that then maybe go on a gapyear to see what it's like to live in australia.

Ive been there a few times before and I recon id like it more there than here, the weathers nicer, people are more laidback and i dunno it just seems more relaxing and not as much pressure put on 17 year olds aha.

Cheers for all your comments btw :) xx

Re: Why Australia?
 

Couldn't have said it better (whole post).

(Specifically - 53k is a literal pittance. It's sort of what you get in your second job after school and maybe your first grad job. Only salaries I have seen lower are for 16-17 year olds or for unskilled jobs. Literally unskilled.)

Some people seem to move because they are bored. That could be dangerous.

I'll also say that a lot of people have nothing but apparent institutionalised dislikes of Australia, often the result of poor conditions and a succession of poor experiences. I think this is different from finding fault, having balanced views or just not being massively impressed with the place - and it takes all sorts. You have to take these into account along with the people who are doing well. Many people fall somewhere in the middle. I'd say - look closely at why people are doing well, and why some people are not doing so well..

Re: Why Australia?
 

I hate to tell you this Badge but there is a huge number of people who live on less than 53k! Many of us aren't unskilled, nor are we teenagers, nor do we consider that we are living on a "literal pittance". Don't be so dismisive of those of us who don't meet your high standards :p

Re: Why Australia?
 

Wish I was 17 and hat innocent all over again!! :)

Re: Why Australia?
 

There is no better option than England.The U.K is the light that the world follows.We made much of the world what it is today.We brought parliamentary democracy and the rights of the individual to the fore.Moving to Australia would be a move backwards unless the idea is to try and teach Australians how to improve their lives by emulating what we here in the U.K. take for granted.Even then it could only be for a short time as a Britisher could not possibly settle in such a country.

Re: Why Australia?
 

Gosh, and here I was thinking democracy was a Greek thing?:confused:

What's a Britisher???:confused:

Are you being ironic?

Re: Why Australia?
 

I read your thread earlier and didn't think you were planning to come to Australia by yourself, but I must admit it crossed my mind that is probably what you should be considering ... at some point in the next few years that is.

It seems like Australia might be your dream not your mothers. I wonder if perhaps she is quite happy where she is and perhaps she does not want to go to Australia and perhaps she does not think that it is the best option for your younger brother and sister. If your mother is worried about jobs, education and cost of living, then based on everything I have read so far I am inclined to think her concerns could be well founded.

For every good point that somebody comes up with about Australia, there is bound to be somebody else who comes up with a bad point. There is no rigth or wrong answer to the question "which is the better option". They both have pros and cons. Australia works for some, not for others. I am sure some people are laid back and others are not. Same as in UK really.

You are young but in the next few years there will be options for your to explore the Australia idea by yourself, a gap year either after A levels or after university sounds like a very good plan.

Re: Why Australia?
 

:thumbup:


Sounds like colonialism to me - AKA arrogance. :thumbdown:

Where did you 'learn' to read and write?

(The troll lives for another day)

Re: Why Australia?
 

The troll doesn't any longer, he has been banned for stirring trouble elsewhere ;)

Re: Why Australia?
 

May I ask what qualifications you have to make that determination?

Ian

Re: Why Australia?
 

Absoutely none, which is why he has left the building....AGAIN!!!

Re: Why Australia?
 

Referring to your 'office chicks' again I suppose.

As Polly says, huge numbers of people earn less than 53k.

My OH is 36 years old, and has a dept manager position in a large retail store - earns less than 50k. They are currently going for an assistant store manager position and if they get it...will be earning close to your 16 year old base salary!

I'm told there are store managers in retail who earn less than 40k. How many people work in retail, plenty, and not all of them 16 - 17!

Maybe your Australia is different though. :confused:

Re: Why Australia?
 

We had an Environmental Officer (a pretty vital role on a road construction site) who earned $50k pa. I was only a casual document controller covering for maternity leave but I was on the same rates as the rest of the administrators on site - and we were on $19.33 ph - comes to way under $50k pa! I'm half heartedly looking for admin jobs at the moment - even office managers are lucky to get anything over $25 ph. Just as well Himself has a stonking salary.

Badge sometimes lives in a world of his own when it comes to salaries :D

Re: Why Australia?
 

A lot of people here are making the case that Australia is more expensive but this is really rather disingenuous. Those who argue that Australia suddenly got more expensive than Britain should probably know that this is because the Labour Government in Britain drastically devalued the pound, thereby making Britain much cheaper to anyone earning and spending dollars. This is not a good thing for Britain by the way.

A few weeks ago I methodically went through my shopping bill at Woolworths and went online at Sainsbury's and bought eaxctly the same things. The Australian bill was $8 cheaper, and do bear in mind that this is at a time when the pound has effectively been cut by a third. At a normal exchange rate the goods I bought in Australia would have been considerably cheaper than in the UK.

Add to this the cheaper council tax and cheaper fuel and I think Australia comes out as cheaper in most things.

The original poster wanted to know about what was good about Australia, so I would suggest what I have written above is a good start, plus Britain has a lot of pretty serious problems coming up that Australia will almost certainly avoid.

Re: Why Australia?
 

A lot of people are saying australia is more expensive because of the constant prices rises, nowt to do with exchange rates. I just did a thread on water rates - up 66%, just one example of the ridiculous type of increase you get here.

To the OP - you are 17, yes its VERY expensive to live in australia, education in my experience ( 3 kids ) is not good, however you are 17, soon you can get a working holiday visa and see what its like for yourself. On that visa you probably wont give a hoot what the education is like, and will be living in some backpacers or flat share and wont really give a toss:lol:, what it costs to raise a family here.

Go for it:thumbup:

Re: Why Australia?
 

I never understood why water is cheaper is Australia anyway. It really should cost more in my view. Also, you are not helping the OP by making unfounded assertions which sound like they are more about reassuring your own life choices than the OP's. Australia is demonstrably not more expensive. Food is about the same if a little cheaper, council tax is usually cheaper, fuel is cheaper, housing is cheaper, etc. As for education, well the UK government are about to turn over the cap on uni fees and some places will now be charging up to £20,000 per year fees, this is not including accommodation costs, course materials or food.

Re: Why Australia?
 

Clearly many people disagree with that, and other people have done a similar analysis to yours and demonstrated an opposite result.

Housing cheaper? Not around here it aint. Went to another auction yesterday...2 bed / 1 bath apartment / no garden...sold for $601k, par for the course.

Re: Why Australia?
 

Property is cheaper is Australia, but horribly overpriced, of course. I would argue it needs to fall by about 50% to get to a level where sensible borrowing would buy something decent.

However, things are worse in the UK. Your example is not helpful, because St Kilda is a very popular area and only 6 km from central Melbourne. The direct equivalent of this would be somewhere very close to the CBD in London, like Kensington.

I know someone selling a one bedroom former stable, with one reception room which doubles as the kitchen, and it is all on one floor. It has no parking and a garden four metres long. It is 30 miles from the nearest city (England) and it's on the market for $300,000 AUD. I wonder what one could buy in Australia if one were looking 50 km outside a major city?

Re: Why Australia?
 

There's nothing unhelpful about is as long as you compare like for like...which you then spectacularly fail to do in the second sentence! Kensington!! :rofl: