I chanced on this forum and have spent a surprising amount of time reading it considering I'm an Australian who's family emigrated to South Australia in 1836 and who has never considered emigrating from Australia.

I spent my youth wandering the Australian bush exploring for minerals and I did wander the world for a few years some time ago so perhaps I empathise with movers.

But why emigrate? Why not just take a long holiday? Or is that exactly it - a long working holiday?

Perhaps I can be helpfully informative and I look forward to your response.

If you lived here... you would understand.

1. The Crap weather and spending most of your time indoors cos in either cold or raining.

2. The government are so crap. The only thing they are good at is affairs and sex scandals.

3. You spend the majority of your life paying the interest off your house. (in twenty five years you might even get to own it!)

4. Nobody can let their kids even play outside (when it is sunny) these days without the fear of either being abducted or worse!

5. The public transport is so bad that if it doesnt crash, its either cancelled or two hours late.

Im not saying Australia doesn't have these problems and live is going to be so wonderful, but if we have a chance of improving it then which fool is going to turn that down?

mich

here here wolfens_wife couldn't agree more....

Hi,

I do agree with Wolfens wife but having been to Australia over Christmas and wanting to live there I did find my home and history absolutley beautiful the holiday made me appreciate how lovley the place is where I live. Australia is stunning but has less character than (and my Aussy freinds admit that) than here just due to the history.

We would like to move for the following reasons

Weather brings opportunity for sport - although it doens't have twilight in Queensland and goes dark about six at night the weather is warm and you can play any sport you choose and boy do you.

More relaxed attitude and wanting out of the Rat Race - I know it does exist, I have seen it over there but class is non exsistant you are either rich or comfortable, there is less keeping up with the Jones which I hate.

Over here for a shop assistant to smile at you when serving you is a miracle let alone say goodbye (my pet hate) In Oz everyone was curtious and polite and happy genuinelly to see us. they almost make you feel miserable and that was right across Australia

The house I could buy with land is twice the size of one here for the relative price you have the land to use.

Our minds where made up as we thought that nearly everyone was possibly the freindliest people who are willing to talk and chat that we had ever met.

I won't dog the UK too much it's where I am from, we have alot of good things that maybe we don't appreciate why we are here. I have now learned to apprecaite my family more, the place I live the quality of life you can have.

Carrianne

im emmergrating coz i`m bored with life in the north east. when they say its grim up north their not kidding. the beaches are a joke, crappy yellow builders sand with the lovely polluted freezing north sea and just down the coast you have I.C.I chemical works. mmmmm nice (cough splutter cough).
i hate the dark winter months aswel so if its not raining its bloody freezing. i just want to do something with my life.
it will be a fresh start and a good adventure, or i could be like my dad who has never been abroad and just sits in every night and watch t.v and if the weathers ok at the weekend cut the grass. BORING!!!!!!zzzzzzzz

For us, it's an OPPORTUNITY for change. Not everyone has the luxury of choice in their lives.

I find, that in the UK, people are generally stuck up, they define you by your job and by how much you earn. People in the UK are currently feeling 'rich' due to the house price explosion and therefore can't be bothered to look at the bigger picture and realise that they are not in fact 'rich' at all. Remortgaging their houses and buying a new Mercedes is their idea of a fulfilling and complete life. (When it all goes economically downhill - in about 6 months time with the current stock market performance, house price collapse and Gordon Brown's inevitable tax rises - people will realise what a complete crap hole the UK really is!)

The UK is a great place if you're loaded. You can afford to send your kids to the best schools rather than a local school (like ours!) that teaches the children that really useful language like Urdu, Swahili and God knows what else. If your rich, you can live in a nice secluded, secure estate, no crack dens setting up across the street, nor 'care in the community' people, paedophiles, convicts (let out early due to our overstretched prison system) housed next door.

Private medical insurance is a bonus too, if you have none then be prepared to wait for hours and hours to be seen by a doctor then risk the chance of catching a virus from the dirty wards.

Going to work is an ongoing battle, traffic jams, expensive petrol and road taxes, congestion charges - in London. Delayed, dirty and expensive trains, people coughing in your face because it's so over crowded. Never mind the explosion of TB & HIV in the UK. I no longer use the tube due to potential terrorist attacks - heavy police presence is all around, so something must be up? Just look around the UK, people look grey and miserable that's because we live in a grey and miserable country.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oz has the same problems - but hey! the sun shines most days and that's good enough for me!!

Well said.... Australia gives people the opportunity to do with your life, what only the rich and greedy in the UK can do at present..


Wolfen

Well said, it does make a hell of a lot of difference when the sun shines and you can actually leave the 4 walls of the house, we saw the sun today - first time in months, what a treat (-11 degrees windchill to look forward to on Wednesday though!)

Good for you!! EEE by Gum, Oz here you come..........

OOOH, don't forget 'Footballer's Wives', on Wednesday - God, my life is dull!!

Can't wait to scrape the ice from my windscreen - inside and out, AGAIN. Also, I bet the my train's 'points are frozen over' so I can't make it to work. Ho hum........., will spend my day on Expats instead and dream of Oz, with like minded people..........

I think I understand - partially. I spent a few months living in a pub in Somerset in the summer of 1981 - a dryish year.

I remember it with fondness. For me, especially after travelling through parts of the world where English is a second or third language, it was nice to meet interesting people with whom I could talk easily. The people made me feel like I had returned to my village after a long, long absence - and given my family history perhaps that was so. I loved the soft evening light - one could read the newspaper outdoors until 10:30 pm.

But by late Autumn the chill winds stirred in me the need to migrate south - so I have not experienced the fullness of winter in the UK. I did experience a year, including winter, in the USA. I remember for a year or so afterwards feeling as though the chill would not leave my bones.

Of course, some people in Australia also spend many years paying off their homes. The world belongs to owners (is that an oxymoron?) and home ownership is a cornerstone of family wealth. A poorly located home will not appreciate in value and not contribute to the family balance sheet. The mortgage on a well located home can suck cash from the family. I think it is an difficult balancing act and one which requires careful consideration. It may pay to rent, especially if you are uncertain of your future, until you can find the right home to buy or build.

Simply by moving you might place your self in the path of opportunity - but that is, of course, a financial gamble. I would hope that a change of scenery would have you feeling more energized and ready to grasp or make new opportunities. There are plenty of working poor here just as in the UK.

I don't really understand why people wanna emigrate from England, but if you consider where I am from, the real question is "Who wouldn't wanna emigrate?". The violence here is horrible, we work tons to have a very low standard of living and for that we are considered rich and are constantly the targets of violence. So for us, if we can move to Australia and mop floors for a living but still be able to pay the bills for our modest lifestyle in the end of the month, and be able to drive to work without being kidnapped at gunpoint, it is wonderful. You might think the kidnap thing is an exageration, but it is so common that it has happened to one of my cousins TWICE as she drove to university, at 8 am.

Went out for a walk yesterday (Sunday) first day we'd been able to together as a family since way before Christmas. We went to local castle and gardens....weather was nice, a hint of spring in the air.

We togged up in wellies, boys bike in the back of the car, and went off.

Paid to park the car, with several hundred others who had the same idea and went to the only place they could think of, had a walk, which was nice, but ended up covered in mud and dog dirt.....

The thing is it's always like that, you're never on your own in the UK (ok so there are parts you can be, but they aren't near me)..

That's what I'm looking forward to in Oz, going for a walk when ever, where it's quiet and where you won't get muddy.
Mash...

My mother, an Australian farmers wife, starting around the age of 60, had a wonderful 10 years of spending summer in both England and Australia alternately. She managed it all on a very modest widows pension by house and farm sitting in England. She grew up in an arid area in Australia so loved the lush English countryside and its fascinating history which was, to a greater degree then than now, part of the Australian heritage.

I suggest you might be able to have the best of both worlds by establishing yourself in Australia then arranging house swaps with house owners in the UK. Routine life anywhere can become dreary - you were on holiday in Australia and things were probably new and interesting to you so people found you interesting and enjoyable to be with. Having a good change each year or so, which does not empty the bank account too much, might keep you invigorated and prosperous.