Re: Australias size.
 

Imagine we live on a continent with one boring culture and language - one country town much like another and endless roads identical. Don't think about it too much.... really.. DON'T. I did and then I insisted I had to leave Australia every year or I would descend into cabin fever but it is so expensive we could only manage once every two years. I was so bored and finding somewhere for a holiday in Australia was so half-hearted when I really wanted to be taking my kids to Orlando or Turkey or the Alps.

I remember in my first year here, being excited to go to Sorrento - expecting dramatic cliffs and being soooo disappointed. I was equally disappointed with every beach resort I have been too here. There are some nice towns around (Maldon, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Katoomba etc), but nowhere I would go twice. I have always been slightly underwhelmed wherever I have travelled. The only place that wowed me was Tasmania - but only because it reminded me of Scotland. Gold coast was a BIG disappointment - once you have been to Orlando it makes any other theme park place lame. Great Ocean Road was okay, but I had already done California and that was more impressive.

I am glad I am finally going back home to UK after 8 years and I can't wait to do day trips and travels. I have promised my wife we will eat in Italy at least once a year!

Re: Australias size.
 

Lol brain only starting to function slowly:lol:

Re: Australias size.
 

Definitely one of the worst things about Aus is its size and lack of variety within. I really miss long weekend breaks to Europe.

I can't see myself ever going to WA as when you realise how long it takes to fly there, you may as well go to Asia instead.

We've just adapted and accepted we'll have to do 1 or 2 big trips abroad a year instead of several short ones.

Re: Australias size.
 

A wise Pom, Samuel Johnson, once said 'when a man is tired of Melbourne, he's tired of life'. I think. :rofl: I await the 'what a refreshing post' comment!

Re: Australias size.
 

I think it was :"when a man is not tired of Melbourne he has never lived".

Re: Australias size.
 

I just got back form a few days in Broome it was beautiful, low 30 degrees, lovely. I like the fact that Australia is massive and I like the outback.

Re: Australias size.
 

I agree, I feel the same when driving/walking through the English country, passing mountains, lakes and the Yorkshire Dales, I feel just the same, peaceful and like I belong to that place.

I think it's because it's home and apparently there's no place like it.





@Ozzie. I'm interested to know how you feel now you have been in Australia for so long. Do you still feel English and pine for England at all or do you feel at home here in Australia?

Re: Australias size.
 

Our posts have re activated long suppressed feelings and is frantically stuffing his belongings in to a suitcase as I type :lol:

We finished applying to renew my sons British passport today, a small thing but another thing ticked off the 'lets get the **** out of here before we die a slow and painful death by Australia' list as we call it.

Re: Australias size.
 

Difficult question to answer, especially on how I feel. I definitely feel "More" at home here here in Australia than the UK, only because I feel so foreign when I visit the UK now. Twas one of the most disconcerting feelings of my life going back to where I was born and having all my dreams of the place smashed to bits. What I remembered as a pleasant welcoming warm place, seemed Grimy, cold and grey... I'm talking Catford/Forest Hill border of London. I also tune into the negativity in the UK very quickly, not sure why or how that happens but I barely notice it here.

Re how I feel, I think I started to feel really Australian around the time of Australias emergence as a football interested nation when Terry Veneables put the Australian team on the front page of the dailys here. I really identify with football as it's been a mainstay of my life from the age of circa 13 when I started going on my own in the UK. I love the Australian team, and have seen them live far more than England. Along the years I've also taken on many Aussie mannerisms and probably ways of thinking, It helps that I've got 4 aussie kids and a Aussie wife I suppose. A part of me is still strongly English, but it does seem to diminish slowly over the decades.

I feel that If I were to choose now to have to live in one or other of the countries I would miss Australia more than I would England. There's an intangible sense of freedom and optimism here that I just couldnt live without now.

Re: Australias size.
 

I like Melbourne but after a week of work its a great place to get out of.

Ozzie. One time a got a train to Aberdeen to pick up a car, Friday night departure, arrived Saturday morning, had lunch with the fella, spent Saturday night in the lakes district, Sunday morning driving around the Lakes District then arrived back to London on Sunday night. That's one country in a weekend. Now that's the length of a country in a weekend without the bore

Re: Australias size.
 

Probably unsurprisingly, I love the wide-open spaces of Australia. I've had some terrific trips from Perth, ranging from camping in the sand dunes north of Lancelin, to a 2 week camping trip up through the northern goldfields as far as Sandstone, to twice driving right around Oz.

Making sure that you take absolutely everything you might need with you as you head off into the outback is one of this kind of travelling's pleasures for me. Starting from the 4WD in tip-top condition, to the CB radio, enough food to last you, comprehensive first aid kit - you have to be really organised and know how to pack it all. And water - you never miss an opportunity to fill up your water containers at a road station. There is never a spare drop so wet wipes become your new best friend :lol:

I have such great memories of my travels - emus running by the campsite with their babies trying to keep up, Japanese tourists who were hopelessly lost and had no survival gear at all with them, spooky experiences on the Nullabor Plains, a particularly aggressive tiger snake in the food tent, finding a bit of real gold with a metal detector, sing-a-longs around the campfire, whole days spent on beautiful beaches with not another soul in sight: I wouldn't have missed a moment of it. The worst moment of all of my trips was my first sighting of traffic lights - back to civilisation :(

However. I do feel as though I've 'been there done that', and the old bones no longer take so well to camping. I now get the same pleasure from exploring the world, UK, Europe, the US, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia - with lots more to see yet! Scouse and I aren't really hotel people, we prefer to rent apartments in areas where the locals live. For us, this makes the trip so much better and we invariably strike up conversations with people who are keen to talk about and show us the way of life in their country, rather than sticking to the tourist places.

No one could ever experience all there is to see and do in the world. Appreciating the uniqueness of wherever you happen to be is the first step in enjoying and understanding it. Our motto - don't waste a single day of your life, because you're a long time dead.

Re: Australias size.
 

I'm sorry it hasn't worked out for you Jon, but at least you won't have the 'what if' I'd' given Australia a go, hanging over you for the rest of your life. Personally I think trying and not liking is better than not knowing. You tried it, it didn't work out for you, just don't let it become a big deal, or eat away at you, just move on to something new. You'll be fine. ;) Plus the positive of it all Jon is that you are still young, your child's young, and you and your family have your life ahead of you. It's all good.

Think positive.





I can understand how you must have felt on your return visit when it wasn't like you remembered. That would hurt me too.That's got to be a killer.
I hadn't realised you were married to an Aussie, that changes things a lot....As I know in most cases the woman rules....:sneaky: And I think the fact that you married into Aussium ( new word from me ) must've helped you to settle a bit more than your average migrant


Speaking of football, I've watched a bit of AFL tonight, I'm still no bloody wiser....Lol! Hubby seemed to enjoy it though

Re: Australias size.
 

That's very similar to the nominal vastness of Canada, where 90% of the population live within 90 miles of the US border, and even then mostly in just the three provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec.

Re: Australias size.
 

Did you go to the camel races? It's on my list of things to do next year. :)

Re: Australias size.
 

I was brought up in a small district on the Darling Downs, 250 miles west of Brisbane, and attended the Hannaford State (Primary) School for several years. Enrollment varied between 20 and 12, depending partly on how many itinerant shearers and their families were in the district.

An old chum from my school days (we shared a desk) went into politics later, and for ten years represented our local electorate in the Australian Federal Parliament. It was a safe Country Party seat, and it was no big deal for him to win 60% of the 100,000 votes cast each time. The electorate’s area was unusually large, even for Australia – slightly larger than the State of Texas, more than twice the area of the entire British Isles (Great Britain & Ireland), and three times as big as the State of Victoria. He visited every settlement at least once every two or three years. Wikipedia’s entry for “Division of Maranoa” shows its size in relation to the State of Queensland.

No wonder immigrants marvel at the size of the place. It's a huge country, all right.