I remember the night well. DH and me sat on the sofa in oz and watching the main news story of the night, which was.....all about a frozen flying chicken.

They even spent time animating the frozen chicken to depict how it must have been catapulted from point a in order to reach point b. point b unfortunately being someones roof.

Myself and DH looked at each other and said; 'Is this the best news story in this godforsaken backwater??' Its time we headed back to the uk.'

Oh how we eat our words now! Two years back in the uk and I can no longer bare to read the news for want of another haunting story of some young youth stabbing, shooting, horrible act of aggression.

I know only too well Australia has its issues too. Lived in a couple of well known warzones whilst there. However I just cant escape the feeling that it 'is' in fact worse here. And steadily getting worse still.

Anyone else feel like this too? What are your reasons for leaving the uk?

Why am I leaving?

I dont want my kids growing up here. Simple.

Well this is also a conclusion Im coming to myself.

We do not live in a bad area, in fact it is relatively affluent and yesterday we had rocks thrown at our house. They have chipped our window and thank god we have double glazing because we have two very small children who were both in that room. :curse:Thank goodness Dh was in.

But I also read a lot of threads that say that oz is just as bad but stuff doesnt get reported like it does here.

Btw the flying chicken story wasnt 'THE' reason we came back....just to clarify Otherwise you might think Im a complete twit!

And now Ill stop writing on my own thread

no it doesnt get reported as much over there but then they wouldnt come back with 20 of their mates and fire bomb your house because you swore at them through the window, and YOU getting in trouble with the police for "verbal assault" or something stupid like that.

I know - I reckon you were just fustrated with a lot of things and the fliying frozen chicken was the last straw.

It's usually the stupid thing that you remember most and what concludes everything.

And this morning I woke up to the sound of a gang of bokes yelling at each other using every swear word they could think of, before laying into each other on our front lawn. 5,30am, quiet Brisbane suburb.....
Happens just as much here but people don't like hearing about it. They prefer news about whether some pop star has bought a new dress.

2 blokes having a blue on the lawn? Just like a Friday night in the pub.

In the UK it would be 30 teenagers stabbing one defenceless teenager to death.

Evidently not a quiet Brisbane suburb.

So, just like the UK then.

Amy Winehouse has got emphysema.

Oooh Sounds like the tiff our neigbours had last week at some ungodly hour in the morning.

she is (quote) 'a ****** slut' and they ''ave no secrets'.......


They dont have to be a pop star here though do they. If Jade goody poked herself in the eye it'd make front page news.

Who says there are no good news stories in the UK?

Um, you did!

Sorry to sound like a stuck record, but I'm good at it!

We have had so many acts of horrific violence and murder reported here in the last few weeks you wouldn't believe it....many involving young children. Many of these are just from the last week.

-2 babies starved to death by their parents in Qld
-2 children & their grandmother murdered in NSW
-2 children murdered by their father in NSW
-an old woman murdered in a home invasion in Melbourne
-a young woman murdered in her home in Brisbane
-a man shot dead in his garden on the Sunshine Coast this week
-countless acts of child abuse

...it just goes on and on. The line up of stories on the evening news the other night was just unbelievable.

I agree, it seems less common here, I do think the media dwells on this stuff less, but the problems are very real.

Thanks bcworld. It is good to get things into perspective. How long have you been in brissy? Are you happy there?

I do feel though that there is a 'level of aggression' that exists here that I didnt feel in australia.

I guess there is no point in giving examples as Ive encountered them, as I know for every one there will be another example that can be given in Australia also.

I guess thats why Im asking the question as to 'why' people are heading off.

For me I know it isnt 'black and white' good and bad. There are in fact many things I 'do' like (oh dare I say love) about the UK.

But I still feel ambivelent about staying here for some reason. Thought it might help to hear what others reasons are for leaving I guess.

Hi mandoz, I've lived in Brissy nearly 4 years. It has a lot going for it, but I'm planning on heading off to Melbourne soon, which I love.

I don't worry about crime or my personal safety any more or less here than I did in the UK. I'm often out it in the city late at night on the weekend and there are plenty of people roaming the streets you dont want to cross paths with as there was in Glasgow & London where I spent long periods.

I would agree with you that there are less people roaming the streets looking for trouble in general, but as far as being a victim of crime I think you have just as much chance.

The media is definitely different in its reporting of crime & I think people are not neccesarily aware of all the things that go on.

Actually it was half a dozen and something to do with some football match.....I don't care if they want to kick the kr*p out of each other but the language was a bit ripe for that time of the morning and the landlord doesn't like blood stained grass . And yes, I used to get the same in some of the places I lived in the UK, never said otherwise.