killamarsh

want to live there? I keep getting asked this question and detail what it is but try very hard not to sound like England/Uk is a devils haven. What is it that has made you decide to move? Ok mine is family, but most people on this forum grew up over this side of the equator - what is it that you feel will make a better life or why are you taking the ride?

CynOpt

We holidayed there in Feb, and what made us decide to move was
1) Clean air & space
2) We have family in melbourne the same age and mindset as us
3) My career is at a standstill here cos we're in the South West, and I'm in a niche technology that is heavily used in Melbourne
4) My OH wants to move from making furniture as a hobby to doing it as a career and we simply can't afford a place with the space to do it here.
5) Lack of supermarket culture over there is a positive for me, lots of small shops instead which I will be frequenting and defending.
6) Outdoor lifestyle, the places we saw were all set up for bikes and walking
7) (just for me) being Irish - I dont do the whole "must be perfect before leaving the house" thing, and that is a lot easier there than here.
8) Sparkling red wine. YuuuummO.

But the all time over-riding thing was the people we met. We know not all people have this experience, but for us in OUR perception they were:
Friendly friendly friendly.
Mixed culture.
Not class conscious - this is a huge thing for my OH, an ex-union rep, who gets very offended when stupid posh people try to condescend to him, and they very soon get put in their place. I find it highly amusing, I've been with him for 4 years, and I know better than to get in an argument with him
Being a manager myself, but coming from a Irish small farming background, I tend to be outside the whole class thing that goes on, but I can see it here, and it's not over there.
People there seem to rate you for being hard-working, not for who your parents are, how big your car/house is, or what postcode you live in, or what job you do.
They are interested in hearing about YOU, and random people stop and talk to you at the checkout, in the street, at the RSA.
Yes they are very proud of their country, but who isn't?
They socialise without needing to go to the pub.

My OH NEVER in a million years considered leaving Somerset UNTIL we got to Melbourne.

And we don't want to be sat here at 65 thinking we didnt at least try.
Coming back in a couple of years would not be failure, at least we will be able to say that we tried.

We try to keep focussed on positive reasons for going, and my main negative reason ( to get the ***** away from my boss ) got wiped out two weeks ago when he "resigned" - handed the sword I reckon - useless tw*t.
So strangely I feel more strongly about going now, cos now I know I'm running towards Aus, not running away from here.

I know a lot of this is very specific to our situation, but I hope it gives a general picture.

NedKelly

What stuff are you smoking?

esperanza

I think people judge people the world over, anyone who expects an egalitarian society will be disappointed.

bcworld

To be honest I think this whole notion of there being no class system in Australia is utter nonsense. Sure, there may not be an 'upper class' layer of titled gentry.....but those people probably comprise a fraction of 1% in the UK.

There is a working class.....they are just not named that, the term 'Aussie Battlers' is preferred. In a sort of 'aw look at those people don't they try hard kind of way'.

The rest of society aka the middle class are the ones who can afford to play the tax system, access pesudo private education etc - afore mentioned 'Aussie Battlers' are excluded from such activities.

Sounds like more of the same to me.

Baby75

I can see totally were your coming from, my husband has been over in Brisbane and has said the same thing as you about there not being any class distinction more family orientated. he loved it and says its a better life for us as a family.

we want a better life we know we wont be rich by any means but at the moment Ireland would still be a lot more expensive for food, houses etc we want to experience a new country and better weather loads of things for the children to do out side and if we decided its not for us then it will be an adventure we will never forget and i wont have any feelings towards what ifs!

Good luck with your move and don't worry about the negative on here

themerlin

What ever it is I would like some.

rate you for being hard-working, thats almost as good as the one I read the other week "Oz has less red tape" lol

Fat Bloke

This is the type of thread that makes me LOL.

Another one with a steep learning curve ahead.

bcworld

yup, i have to agree.......that was the best one yet!

....can I just add that I don't consider my comments above about the class system negative, just my $0.02. I live here, I choose to & no-one forces me to....I think Aus is a great place to live....as I do the UK....i'm very much in the old 'same sh!t sunnier bucket' camp.

Baby75

read over her post she is just saying how she found the people, culture compared to Ireland she knows thats not how other people perceive things, that was their experience while over here and her family living in Melbourne already.

its all about attitude they way i see it im traveling over to the other side of the world some things will be the same ie bills rent or mortgage but better weather better life for the kids and i get to see a new country i dont want to go to a mini Ireland in the sun iykwim

what have you experienced in Australia if you don't mind me asking just encase im missing something!

bcworld

As for this first bit......sounds like we are almost in complete agreement. I totally agree that living and working in a new country is a great and exciting thing........however time and time again on BE.com you'll see that that aspiration is not enough....the justification has to degenerate into a here vs there argument.

What have I experienced? Thats a bit of a general question....life I suppose. Lived here for 3+ years, been pretty much all over with the exception of Perth - if what you're getting at is am I missing something because I've been sitting home watching telly or surfing BE.com 24/7 then the answer is no (i prefer to do that during work time ).

BadgeIsBack

I do think Australians act egalitarian in a way Brits don't- their interests etc.

It's not so entrenched.

Money is something else.

BadgeIsBack

I had a bootmaker from country NSW and a PHD physicist Victorian over the other day. The bottle of wine went down in a trace and another was called for.

Both got on really well.

Joking aside, one of the things I don't miss from the UK is all the Little Englander/Little Middle Englander types who are neither battlers nor seriously titled or connected or doing well or making things go around. The sort of net-curtained mob.

In England I seemed to know either council blokes or seriously privileged people : there was no middle ground(!) I have no issue with the nobility. Often good bunch of people worth a laugh. You won't hear me banging on about people who work for a living; most do in some way.

cheers

Baby75

however time and time again on BE.com you'll see that that aspiration is not enough....the justification has to degenerate into a here vs there argument.

What have I experienced? Thats a bit of a general question....life I suppose. Lived here for 3+ years, been pretty much all over with the exception of Perth - if what you're getting at is am I missing something because I've been sitting home watching telly or surfing BE.com 24/7 then the answer is no (i prefer to do that during work time ).[/QUOTE]

i see were your coming from now, and no i didn't mean you sit in and watch TV (heard it was not very good any way ) that true! plus i thinks its great that people still come back to BE after they have moved and help us still in the process of moving. what i meant was tell us the good and the bad about life in Oz forewarned is forearmed

RedT

To add my 2c, although I have a limited experience of Oz, from what I saw when I was there recently there is definitely less of a class thing as there is in the UK (and many other places, I'm not UK bashing here). No matter where we went people were just interested in us, not what we worked at, how much we earned, how big our flat was. Just us. And we were very much taken on face value which we really appreciated. Noone cared too what we were wearing (much to the amusement of the rest of the family who are clothes snobs and so horrified by Aussie 'fashion'!!). persoanlly found the attitudes we encountered very refreshing and it certainly helped us to make up our minds to go live there ASAP!

T