or a bogan from queensland

Well of course you could be, but judging from the fact you have stated you are a retired police officer with a fetish for landrovers I'll take your online persona as red. Clearly my detection abilities are superior to yours!

If however you are a 14 year old schoolgirl, could i suggest its well past your bedtime and perhaps you should spend more time interfacing with your feloow 14 year olds via facebook rather than this website!

That is certainly not true for us. Eating out is proportionally far cheaper here than it was in the U.K. :
I lived in the seaside town of Cleethorpes [the last resort] population 57k There were three top places to eat in the town. The Lost Shepherd, The Pink Butterfly & The Victorian House. All had fantastic reputations and were regarded as top spots for a meal out. Prices were about 60 quid per person for a starter a main & dessert or coffee.
Here in my closest town [Gympie, population 50k] there are a couple of decent places The Decks, Kingston House & at a push Cepelli's. A similar meal there will cost in the region of $50-$70.
As I said proportionally. I've always been self employed to it's easier to work out the cost of what an hours labour will buy. U.K a metre of tiling in Cleethorpes paid about 8 quid. Here in Gympie a metre of tiling pays $35.
A meal in the U.K cost over a day's pay, here it's a couple of hours pay.
Wages in Cleethorpes N.E Lincs were among the lowest in the country ditto Gympie in the Wide Bay region of QLD.
No point comparing Cleethorpes with Circular Quay or Gympie with London

Bloody hell what were you eating. I live in London and myself and my wife go out all of the time and rarely pay over £40. there plenty of ethnic restaurants where you can pay half that. Around here, you rarely have to pay fullprice as you can always download deals on vouchercloud or a tastecard. Clearly I could go to a restaurant where I could pay 10 times that.

I was at my mother in laws on the isle of wight earlier today. We went out for lunch to a little beach cafe we often frequent. We both had fresh crabsoup to start. I had mussels and chips for mains, my wife had some delicicous thai fischakes and salad. Couple of drinks thrown in, came to £24 (I had a morreti, my wife had a J20) and we were both stuffed...

I earn considerably more than £24 a day...

The wife and I used to budget for about £40 - £50 for a meal out in London. Mind you, went out with some friends in London back in August and it came to £55 per head. .... how things change.

Anyhow .... went out last week to a upper end restaurant in Sydney. $60 per head and that included a wine each. Not bad and an excellent meal.

There's so many variables on this one. Overall the same except many places in Oz allow BYO booze which is a big saver.

Average prices in Gympie @ The Decks on Mary $25 for a dozen oysters [shared] or $14 for an Entree $30 for a main & $12 for desert comes in at about < $60 pp = < 2 hrs tiling

Average prices in Grimsby/Cleethorpes I just looked at the Othello Menu in Grimsby. [prices appear less than when we left 10 years ago, obviously times are tough for restaurants]
7 quid for a starter 15-20 for a main 8 quid for a dessert. = 5 hrs tiling
Comparing like for like, both similar sized towns similar socio economic areas. 50% cheaper for me here in Aus.

(So it depends where you eat - I think.)

Based on another point you make - for me there are a lot of things that would surely be naturally more expensive in Australia based on the shear cost of moving by truck.

At least you show your working mate...and am trying to compare like with like. I think it's possible to compare like by like and find neither country is so expensive.

My contribution: for a day's commute, in rush hour, public transport in Melbourne is cheaper than it was in London.

No point in stating if you can't back up with a price list eh?. Kind of negates any argument, a bit like the "My power bill doubled bollocks" Easy enough to scan your bills & post them, unless it's a crock of sh1t. Mine dropped dramatically btw
I suppose it could be argued that we simply earn more here. Kind of a mute point though as, were I to return, I'd still be paying a much larger % of my daily wage for a meal out.
Financially I'd be better off in the U.K as I could buy two homes, that's simply taking into account the boom we enjoyed here though. If I'd stayed in the U.K I'd have probable bought a couple of rentals as well. Easy to renovate when you have all the skills at your finger tips.

Does that mean you are financially better off? Some would argue there are better ways off being financially better off - like having cash or like investing in other things

We're getting into the realm of the whole portfolio now.

It's my belief that you would need to play the accountant to know the answer - and even then you could not cost certain things - and the total cost found in any case might prove meaningless.

I've done a bit of this - and I've been left with big question marks over key areas which interest me - like, where I would work, how I would work, and exactly what I would get for my money. My position is different to others who have far more work mobility - and different tastes, of course. After living in Australia, I am now really fussy about the lifestyle and choices a house on a plot of land in a pretty special location gives me - and how that plays with professional work in a city.

Which post was that then?
Fetish, another assumption!

Something cheaper in Oz than in the UK:
I imagine the list has been exhausted by now.

or an old retired transport plod who spends his life on forums and message boards because he has nothing more interesting to do.

I think that even a "Dodgy Cockney Bogan" like your good self must realise that you are going to have to retake the "Searching through people's Dustbin's for personal information" Module before you pass Internet Stalker School.

Maybe you should check in case it's cheaper to re do the whole course in OZ !

you b!tch!!

Fair doo's "Amigo"