I lived near London which I hated with a passion so understand those who emigrate from big cities like Birmigham, Manchester etc etc.

But what is wrong with Devon and Cornwall and all those pretty places? Never been so enlighten me. Am curious.

Thanks

Lots of old folk go to those places to retire.
Maybe limited work opportunities.

Now that Bix is in Cairns - nothing at all !!!

(kidding bix)

Chocolates nice, but Green & Blacks or Cartre Nohr (cant remember spelling) is even better

Sometimes things are nice, comfortable etc but you may want more. More for your kids and more for yourself.

Devon and Cornwall are nice for a Holiday but I wouldnt want to live there. But I am sure there are plenty of people who would - it is a personal choice, same with people choosing Perth versus Brisbane or Melbourne versus Sydney.
Some people will also be quite content with copious amounts of cadbury - hey its a free world "what ever makes people happy"

Well, I lived 19 years in Dorset, so this is my take on it.

Despite being a really nice place to live, with a relaxed and slower pace of life, Dorset etc are difficult places to live in. Many of the employment prospects there are seasonal, or change with the tourist season. There arn't that many jobs available for skilled people, and wages arn't deperately high for those that are. Couple that with the fact that the cost of living is very high - housing costs are exhorbitant due to the influx of retirees from London and the nome counties, which drive the prices up for the locals. I cant afford to live there!

Also, the attraction of retirees means that many of the local services don't get used enough and eventually close down. Things like local shops, post offices and pubs. Many villages are like ghost towns now, which means that you have a long drive to get your basic supplies. My parents have a 40 mile round trip to the nearest (decent) supermarket.

There is also very little infrastructure in terms of transport (road, rail, busses etc), so getting anywhere can be a pain, particularly in the high season when the roads become clogged up with holidaymakers and caravans!

That said, it's a lovely part of the world, and if I could afford to live there then maybe I would.

S

I live in Manchester and absolutely love it!! Wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the UK to be honest. We're not moving to Oz to get away from city's - quite the opposite as we're heading for central Sydney.

Like Ossigeno said, Devon/Cornwall is quite quiet - I suppose it depends on what you're after. Myself and my OH couldn't cope without being in a big city!!

Graham

My ILs live in Devon and we are in Somerset. I really like this part of the country, it is beautiful but at the moment I would still rather live in Perth.

Reasons-
-It's still cold
-the M5 on a Friday night/Saturday Morning/Sunday Afternoon (can take over 10 hours to get from Cornwall to London)
-The M4 pretty much any day
-The sea is too cold to swim in, even in Summer (I have swum in the sea at Cornwall a number of times but it only lasted a matter of minutes)
-Nice places are still comparatively expensive
- it is still crowded/lack of parking/traffic jams
-No real job opportunities (my husband and I are both professionals and the opportunites for us are limited, even non-existant in most of the far Southwest)
-If you reckon Australians can be parochial - it's nothing compared to some Devon towns/villages! My MIL has lived in her town for 40 years and says she still feels like an outsider! I know people in Devon who don't leave Devon and consider a trip to Bristol to be a once-in-a-blue-moon event. They even holiday in Devon!! (I know there are people like this in Perth but to be fair at least they have the excuse that they have to fly for hours to get anywhere else. Its only a drive to Bristol and there are even ferries to France if you could put up with "foreign, mucked about with food" ).

Michelle

We live in Poole in Dorset ! nothing wrong with it, The beaches etc are great but you cant get near them in the summer because of the tourists !
We are going to Australia because most of my husbands family live there, & it has always been our plan, but will take lots of great memories with us !

Nicky

Nothing wrong with any of those places. Nothing much wrong with UK. Some people just have the opportunity to live and work in another country and so go for it in order not to have the "what if" feeling when they are old and grey.

The West Country is wonderful, but as has been pointed out, jobs are hard to find. I think I'm right in saying that, despite the affluence of the second-homers and retirees, large parts of the region are considered economically depressed. Or to put it into the words of a Devon farmer I used to know - "The landscape's lovely all right, but you can't eat it!"

Also, in common with many other rural parts of the UK, the lack of things to do, especially for young people, means that the West Country has significant problems with alcoholism and drugs. Like everywhere else, it's played down and you won't know about it unless you talk to locals who don't mind telling the sad truth.

If you can find a decent job and afford a house, though, there's no denying it's a fabulous physical environment in which to live.

I think the posts above pretty much cover it.

I was born and bred in Cornwall and lived all my life there.

I have seen the change in the economy where the biggest employers are now government outfits....tax office and local councils.

Job prospects are zilch. Unemployment is high. Wages are way below national averages. It even gets classified by the EEC as one of the poorest states in the community....at least it was until the most recent influx of Eastern Bloc countries.

Cornwall has never fared well in terms of support from central government. As far as they are concerned it is the ass end of the country and can be ignored.

It is a beautiful county but one where Joe public cannot improve his lot.

Too many do gooder PC types running the local councils do not help. They try to recreate the places they come from. (Just like whinging POMS really)

Bloody emmits

I love the UK but hate the cold. It doesn't matter how pretty a place you live in, you still have to get through the winter here.
I live in the Buckinghamshire countryside which is lovely ... but I want sun and a family for my children.

I live in Devon, & along with Cornwall we have arguably some of the most beautiful landscape in Britain. I struggle with the cost of living in this country & I know it's not cheap in Oz. But the the main thing that's telling me to migrate is that the summer seems to last longer in Australia. Don't get me wrong I 'm not totally into boiling weather & sunbathing, but I do love me' light nights & bbq's regards ,Pete.
PS. it's not just Devon & Cornwall ,there are beautiful sights all over Britain, but scenery don't help my backache & sunshine does...Peace

Our plan B was Devon or (more likely) Cornwall. We've got loads of friends down that way and I regularly surf down there - Croyde, Fistral, Crantock (the post about it being too cold to swim in in the sea made me chuckle). I love the place and at one point we came very close to moving to Truro. But it has all the disadvantages mentioned above such as the serious lack of good employment, highly seasonal populations, huge number of retirees and really bad communications (the A30 is so bad we sometimes fly from Bristol to Newquay!) and of course the cost of houses is mad. I'll always have a soft spot for the place, particularly sipping a cool pint at the end of a summer day's surfing from the terrace of the Bowgie Inn at Crantock or The Phoenix at Watergate Bay. So in summary, it's a great place, totally ****ed up by middle-class incomers with second-homes or retirees.

Of these three, I have only been to Devon - which I love, and visit regularly.

Others on this thread have suggested that Devon has limited employment opportunities - with which I agree. It seems to be a place where you would spend your later years, rather than your working years.

I have also noticed that real estate in Devon is not cheap, unless one is satisfied with a (totally impractical) semi-detached doghouse.