ozzieeagle

Just a thread to see what kind of things people like and dislike about every day life in Aus.

For my my least favorite aspect of Australia is the RSL clubs type situation. Old fashioned, bland, full of people with very conservative tastes and backward thinking ideas. The type of place where CUB and Tooheys are the only drinks to drink. Where people are totally convinced that Australia is gods own country and can't bear to hear any critique, however minor about their homeland. Plus the icing or lack of icing on the cake, thoughtless overpriced menus with very dull food. I always feel like I've failed if I end up in one of these places, which are a huge part and quite often the only places open in Country Australia.

Do not base your ideas about Australia on these places.

Countered by...

I really love the diverse shopping strips, Cafes, specialist bars, dynamic business small business owners with their individual shops. Ethnic outlets, Plus unique individual pubs and bars, with great menus and nowadays their own specialist beers and ciders. It's like Parallel universes.

jad n rich

We have driven from qld to vic or NSW or Tas.... so many times, and often 7pm at night the one and ONLY place to get food is the RSL.

They are shockers! HIDEOUSLY expensive, boring, the caller of the chook raffle seems to be related or intimate with everyone in town.

Also hate the on my god not another seaside town with the welcome board of pelican and person on jet ski..... There must be a million places all the bloody same.

Love, finding some old outback store with genuine antiques at pennies and cent prices. The real outback cockies, stooped from years of work, eyes, lips noses burnt off in parts by the sun, accent so broad you cant understand them, but so real australia. The backbone, the workers.

And Rainforests. QLD storms, now that is rain, a foot in an hour and you just take your shoes off and carry on.

But reallly hate the smell of a ' sausage sizzle ' on a stinking hot day, vile smell makes me puke everytime, dont take me near bunnings on a saturday

Kim67

I'm 47, Australian born and bred and can count the number of times I've been in an RSL on one hand - it's not an Australian lifestyle, it's a small group of Australian's lifestyle.

renth

No proper pubs and really expensive if you do go to one

The weather

EvannTel

Pro....the drinking culture
Con....the drinking culture

Hic

Beoz

You mean no British pubs Lunch on the balcony of the North Bondi RSL is the best.

I hate working with people without passports who are protecting their position until retirement. You get a lot of that in Oz.

BadgeIsBack

I've been too grateful for a feed and a beer to knock a Rsl in a country town.
Often the pub is better than the rsl...

Worst aspect for me.the life I gather is possible to lead from reading about it on BE...

Interesting point: does anyone else feel that BE is their window to how it can be? Without BE many of the negatives would have passed me by.

Best: just the variety of opportunities. That said..it's just a life...Victoria is the backdrop. I do feel that things clicked..life has been kind.

Buzzy--Bee

Indeed! I meet many many UK immigrants at work or school etc who have never heard of these forums and are not having any of the negative experiences on them.

Pros:
- Flexible work/live balance - this is the biggest for me.
- the fact that even in the inner suburbs, its almost semi-rural, with detached houses with gardens, lots of trees etc
- the weather and
- the personal space

Cons of lifestyle:
- I'm really struggling to think of any. Because some of the negatives here, eg the cost of a pint, or the distance from family are not really about "lifestyle"

BB

papilon

I think you will find the OP is very fond of his life in Australia but unlike you and the poster below you has the self esteem to admit that everything in Australia is not the best in the world. I don't think any Australian i know would struggle to come up with at least a few negatives.

chris955

I do find it amusing when I hear that someone struggles to think of any negatives in a country, there are plenty in this country and plenty in Australia.
I love lots of things about Australia, the rainforests and the wildlife for example but there is also a long list of negatives, red tape and bureaucracy, nationalism and constant flag waving amongst them.

Buzzy--Bee

....not sure how only being able to find negatives that are not directly related to lifestyle relates to my "self esteem", but it's easy to say things from behind a keyboard isn't it.....

*sigh*

BB

Amazulu

Indeed

cresta57

When we get sent away on emergency strike teams with the RFB we usually get billeted in a motel, on rare occasions we get to live in 'tent city' & sleep on army surplus cots. Invariably we're fed in the local RSL & I've eaten in many of them. Always clean, always good food & always very welcoming. Usually cheaper than eating in the motel & way better food.
I don't hear or see any of the things you mention, even in the Kingaroy RSL. In fact while we were eating in the Kingaroy RSL one of the locals walked up & said, with a bit of a tear in his eye, "Well done blokes, it's a bastard of a country sometimes, the girls are bringing you guys some jugs of beer, on me thanks again for your efforts" He noticed I was drinking cider & came back with one for me.
Granted we'd spent 12 hours putting out fires so the town folk were appreciative of our efforts but he didn't have to buy us a beer. He was genuinely moved by what we'd done. Same reception at most places we go.
I think maybe your misconception of them is as dated as you think they are lol

ozzieeagle

Maybe... I will admit to having real issues with Country Aus, the kind that I find difficult to get over. Hence my planned trip around the country on the road. It for me is the most foreign aspect of Aus, and I dont feel even remotely connected with it. So I'm going to jump in boots and all and immerse myself upon retirement with as little predjudice as I can possibly muster. The RSL for me exemplifies this alienation, especially as they "RSL's" seem to be such an important part of the social fabric of rural Aus.

I've actually got strong financial reasons to get along with the country now... thats freeing up 3/4's of the equity in my house to fund a decent retirement lifestyle. So hopefully what for you exists, will happen for me.

It also explains why I'm drawn to Tasmania, as Launceston and Hobart are probably the two of the Largest country towns in Aus, and those issues I have with the country seem lessened there.

I know they're supposed to be cities Launceston and Hobart, but ahem... after London and Melbourne.

BadgeIsBack

Papillon: I said nothing about the OP. OzzieEagle is one of my favourite posters and we have always got on.

There is no negative about Australia that I find unique, and/or directly effects me. Actually I was going to mention the cost of books but we have online shopping!
This site gives me valuable insight and I have come to rely on it.

Infact I have enough trust in the esteem of others to say nothing of my own that 3rd hand, I will quote from this site to family friends and colleagues that life is not all rosy: given that Australians are allegedly sensitive surely I get credit for a bit of botte too....no: the answer is that in the main it is just another conversation and yet again, in my experience, that criticism does not apply.

As for issues that Chris mentions: they do not feature. I flew REX to a small mining facility in the NT this week and it took me 5 mins to induct myself and get 10 questions right.
I have never had to get a permit out of the ordinary to do anything.As Chief Fire Warden I focus on flexible response for the building not regs.
My local fire brigade sends vols out to fires after the sum total of barely 40 hrs trg...and I couldenter a burning house after about 20 more...I think it is slack as hell...

As for flag waving I avoid the tabloid media: it helps of course I can access media some refuse to access.

And so it goes on.....but I will continue to use this site as a valuable source of info to see what plaques people.


I was reminiscing about my NSW RSL experiences and remembered that after dren
2000 sheep on a dry station the pint I had in one 100k down the road was shear luxury!