Gordon Barlow

You're right, of course. Moving house and home all the way to Australia from Britain is pretty much a permanent thing, and people who give it up and go back must really hate the place! They're lucky to have the option. I am filled with wonder and admiration for the early emigrants/immigrants. One of my ancestors was actually born on the ship she and her family sailed in, in the mid-to-late 1800s. And I don't think the family was desperate, even. Cornish small-farmers never had much of a future, outside their community, but those who left for the other side of the world were amazingly adventurous souls.

Pollyana

These days its increasingly a temporary thing. When I look back over the years I've been on here and the many many posters I've known either online or in reality (often both), I reckon at least 50% have gone back, a lot in the last 6 years. And they aren't by any means people who hate the place. You can see that in so many threads on here. There have been people who lost their jobs - and therefore their visas, people who lost jobs and just couldn't afford to stay so moved back with job opportunities at home, people who split from their partners because one couldn't settle - one of my earliest friends here went back because her husband left her and she couldn't cope with working full time with a small child without family support. And the largest group is probably those who end up missing parents, children, wider circle of family and friends, and although they may like it here they are lonely. Some come and go many times, the so-called ping-pong poms. Even I don't "really hate the place" - I hate many aspects of it, the heat the humidity, the separation from everyone I love
Its not like the old days when a move here took months and because of the lack of communication from home people had to build there own lives. Now we see the daily happenings in the lives of our loved ones at home and realise what we are missing, and its just a case of tie up the loose ends and you're home in 24 hours.

Rainydaze

Agree Pollyanna.

I do get nostalgic about home, especially with digital media bearing witness to events in real time. You feel the pang of parting when weddings, births and funerals go on without you.

That said, I adjusted relatively well and would say I am settled here now, blooming where I am planted, as I said the other day.

I fricking hate mozzies though. Never thought anything would top sharks, but flying biters are a more regular occurrence than swimming ones.

Beoz

I have pinged pinged a few times. Never becausr of hate. Always because an opportunity comes up in either place. I don't need to be surrounded by extended family. Immediate family is enough. I have friends in both places. When you move you should never have regrets nor long for where you were.

Retirednow

So why are you living in a state/territory that’s to hot and humid?

Pollyana

Because I married a Queenslander who flatly refused to live anywhere else cos of his family. Then I got an amazing job which only exists here. Could never afford to leave until now.

Gordon Barlow

Much depends on how welcome an immigrant is made to feel, I guess. I remember hitching a ride home (from Brisbane to Toowoomba) in the early 1960s, with a middle-aged Englishman who asked me why Australians hated (yes, he used the word hated) English people so much, while liking Americans. I was taken aback, but we talked the whole thing out during the hour and a half we were together. In the end, we tentatively agreed that those feelings were actually fake: Aussies pretended to admire the Yanks and despise the Brits, but our deeper feelings were the opposite. Did I really persuade him to that belief? I'll never know. But I truly did believe it, and still do. Good people are good people, regardless of where they come from.

What does the Team think?

Rainydaze

Are you leaving Aus Pollyanna? Sorry, I am years behind on BE. All the best.

Rainydaze

I agree. I do also think most people treat others as they would like to be treated, and take as they find.

Pollyana

Hopefully early next year if all the plans fall into place

the troubadour

Thought you were doing a life term? Seems the tide may have changed. Found a buried treasure at the bottom of the garden? I'd love to leave but financially would be worse off .Still live in hope though.

Pollyana

Always intended to go back on retirement, when I could no longer earn the same. Buried treasure would be lovely, but the decision was forced on me a little earlier than expected by serious illness issues back home, which mean I cannot risk the covid border closure issues hitting me again. I know, everyone says "ït won't happen again" but the fact is it happened once therefore cannot be ruled out. I shall be much worse off financially and will be looking for some kind of work, but sometimes there are more important things in life than money.

the troubadour

You can certainly never count on the border remaining open. Some things are certainly more important than money, though an ever number of Australians would disagree these days. I'm in the early process of attempting to acquire an EU passport which would be more ideal in my circumstance. Brexit along with Covid really knocked my planning and set back departure by a number of years.

the troubadour

The saying went back in the day Aussies were not discriminating. They simply hated everybody.

Rainydaze

Well I’m sending you every good wish for a smooth landing back in the UK 🤞🏻💜

Last white hot Christmas too 😀