Geelong Gent

I heard this too but find they are shocked when the bluntness is directed at them. The wakeup call for them when you show there so called brilliant 12% EBIT is pitiful when it should of been 18%.

Devlin

LOL. So true. This is just a cultural thing though and once you get used to it you won't notice it so much. I never did notice it until I left Australia, but is really obvious to me now when I return.

Buzzy--Bee

I suspect that this is bollocks.

I would suggest that England "has more people of working age living overseas than any developed country on Earth".

If you are however talking % of total population, you may be "righter", although you would be hard pressed to beat New Zealand.

Buzzy

jad n rich

I love the way dog poop has been such a major issue on this forum in so many threads.

I shall answer it in some detail

You pay the council to register your dog, for that they provide crap sacs. You pick up the crap, well your supposed to, I would say from the doggy beach etc most people only do it if anyone is looking, where there are dogs there is crap, same in melb, sydney, bongaroo etc

Now human crap is my current pet hate, in melbourne in a park early morning we saw a very large nappy, with a very large crap in it, I dont think it was from a 2 yr old it looked more adult to me, worrying.

3 days later walking in the city there worst pong you have ever come across, a guy was taking a crap in a doorway of a resturant. Choice.

I see others have commented on the human poop problem too, Maybe the new lifestyle factor question should be how much human poop is there in OZ.

Puts a new meaning to the much used BE phrase same shite different bucket

bigAPE

I guess I just enjoy living here and the area that I'm in

Must suck to be in a place you don't like.

Buzzy--Bee

Ditto

Buzzy

camponotus

Do you know that, in my view, some people are SO DETERMINED TO LOVE AUSTRALIA that I actually think this colours their perception.

People say that Aussies are friendlier. WHAT????!???! They're more confident, which might make them seem friendlier but it also makes them more aggressive and blunt. They have a lot less respect for manners in Australia.

People say there's less dog poo in Australia. WHAT?????!???! It's the same as UK. No better. Dog owners are dog owners and I see just as much poo where I live here as I did in my hometown in England.

People say there's less graffiti!!!!!! HILARIOUS!!!!! Statistics demonstrate that Melbourne, for example, has one of the highest rates of graffiti of any world city! So if you think there's less here I'm sorry but you're imagining things.

In regards of crime etc, I know about 3 people here who've been victims of crime in the last year or so, and in the UK I knew (personally I'm talking here) about the same number. I SERIOUSLY DOUBT that there's a massive difference between crime rates in the Aussie cities and in many UK cities. I admit that in parts of London it would likely be higher, cos that's London for you. But LONDON DOES NOT REPRESENT THE WHOLE OF THE UK!

tictac

+1

It's a shame people have to big-up a place to convince themselves though

bigAPE

Well personally I always hated the idea of Australia. It was only until I came here on holiday that I found it appealing. I was actually expecting not to like it.

Well in my view, the ones I have met are friendlier than Joe Public in the UK.

I guess it depends on who you have met, where you live and how you have approached these people. I have just completed a five day driving tour of Northern Victoria, Southern NSW and the ACT taking in the Snowy Mountains, every single Australian I spoke too with the exception of this dog of a waitress in Canberra was a total delight to talk too. Interested in your view on Australia, open to discussing their lives and their interests. Eager to share they utilities at camp sites when we failed to bring a burner with us.

Our neighbours and the guys I play Aussie Rules with are just flat out fantastic people. We don't really know any Expats in our suburb so I guess it has forced us to integrate into the community and it was pretty painless as we knew it was us that had to change and not the other way around.

We also have some fantastic Expat mates around Melbourne who we see quite a lot of and these are people I would be proud to call them my friends if we were back in the UK, so it's not all doom and gloom back there.

However I do find that the people you meet for the first time (shops, on the street, in parks, etc) are more open to chatting.

Aussies do tend to be more upfront about things and tend to sugar coats things less than in the UK. This can be seen as arrogance and in some cases this may well be the case, but it's bit leap to paint them all with that brush.

I would suggest that apart from the kiddie crap on the train lines most of the major works you see in Melbourne are there with permission. Especially the ones in the CBD which are part of a permanent, living, art installation.

I don't know the statistics but I can tell you that I have never felt threatened in Melbourne, even once. In the two years I have lived here I have never seen a punch thrown in anger unless it was on the oval during a game and even then it was handshakes and beer all round afterwards.

I'm not saying that Melbourne has not crime or street violence, only that I have never seen it. Again, I guess it's down to where you go and what you do.

bigAPE

You're serious aren't you. Honestly I have no need to convince myself of anything. I made a conscious decision to move my family and my business here from the UK and went the full PR route.

We had a great little house in Cornwall overlook a fishing village, the beach and the sea. I couldn't have been happier, but I found the outlook in the UK to be bleak and it wasn't what I wanted for my boys. After visiting Australia I found their entire approach to be more palatable. Are there things I dislike about Australia? Of course there are, but I am happy here and I really enjoy living in Melbourne as do the rest of my family. Why do you believe that I'm trying to convince myself of anything?

tictac

First and foremost, my dig wasn't at *you* and I'm delighted that you and everybody else who has had the foresight and guts to 'give it a go' feels they've made the right decision.

For the record, my story is very similar to yours.

We came from a small, quiet and safe village tucked-away in Cheshire where I had the privilege (?) of working for one of the world's largest IT companies, was able to work from home when I wanted and basically earned good money for apparently doing very little.

As a family we were able to take regular holidays & weekend breaks in Europe and around the world, the kids were happy, the missus was happy and all in all life was pretty grand.

That said, like you, we felt the future, especially for the kids, was not as bright as it had been when we were kids. We also wanted to 'do something different' and as the opportunity to emigrate presented itself, we decided that would take that opportunity. Life's all about different experiences right?

Over the next couple of years we spent hundreds of hours planning our move, combined with a couple of 'reccies' in the hope of identifying a place to live which would suit the whole family's needs. We opted for PR as opposed to a 457 as we wanted to treat the experience as a permanent not temporary one.

We arrived in Brisbane in June 2007 and began to settle into some sort of routine.

No, it's not been an entirely smooth transition. And yes, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride from time to time. But on the whole, life is great and after initial teething problems (mainly due to work issues & a bout of depression) we're now up and flying.

I start a new job in a few weeks and we're 'in love' with the area we live to the extent that we'll shortly be commencing the building of our new home.

Sure, Brisbane/Australia isn't perfect. Where is? But would I swap my old life for our new exciting adventure over here? - not a chance. Do I miss the UK? -other than family and some friends (not to mention my beloved but hopeless football team), no.

My advice to anybody making the move would be to try and see the good in everything, everywhere and everyone. There will be good and bad wherever you live. Ignore the bad, focus on the good and try 'new' things. Don't live your old life in a new place. That's what gets you through

Cheers & all the best BigApe

hevs

VERY good answer and living in Melbourne too, I think you're spot on.

RE point 15...I can't remember where but I'm sure I read that Aussies personal debt is among the highest in the world (as are the obesity figures- pardon the pun!) but would be greatful for clarification...
I owe no one nuffink though...untill next friday

OOps edit to say..there ARE heaps of positves, but they wern't what the OP was asking. He was simply asking if Aus is Utopia...It isn't. Hopefully they will have a better understanding of the fact that no where is perfect...that said I love it here

hevs

OOoooo Poll,, I hope you have a FANTASTIC time my love

hevs

That deserves karma, but I need to spread

Wol

1) The weather Depends where you are: freezing cold for months here, severe gales Aug - Nov, overcast for weeks at a time with drizzle. Now it's baking hot...
2) Litter Far worse than where we were in the UK. The Hume Highway is filthy. There is almost no culture of picking up your own litter, which can be ankle deep after a bank holiday - but it's cleared up at ratepayers' expense by the time most people are about.
3) Dog mess Worse than the UK
4) Chewing gum on pavements Can be bad - Mrs Wol spent a long time last week peeling it off her shoes and the car carpet.
5) Yob / Chav /Knife culture Far worse than it was twenty years ago - not a day goes by without stabbings and shootings in most cities.
6) Lack of respect for others Same.
7) Lack of respect for property Considerable amount of vandalism round here.
8) Compensation culture - always someone else's fault for life's problems Australia's the world leader here!
9) Adoration of so called 'celebrities' Nauseating!
10) Reality TV Never watch it so don't know...
11) Obsession with money "Melbourne has a heart - Sydney has a wallet". The reason why most of the people round here have decamped from the latter!
12) Buy now, pay never culture Oh, yes!!
13) The doom and gloom press reporting Yes, when reporting the UK or USA. Otherwise, evrything Australian is, by definition, just great.
14) Too many managers in businesses From the inefficient way many are run, you wouldn't think there was *any* management!
15) Unwillingness to live within one's means There are many many folk who are really hard up - I never used to see shoppers having to leave items at the checkout in the UK but I do here.

There *are* many plus points as well - but you did ask those questions!