quote....we had 2 pointers - Great Whites last weekend, 1 @ 3.5m and 1 @ 4m hunting fish just 50m off the beach and just 500m away from where we HAD been swimming eek..from the below link. other ex pat aussies seem to disagree with you.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=641909

I had a hammerhead shark swim by me in Grand Cayman when I was scuba diving - you've never seen a Manc in wet suit move so quick in your life!

My 2 cents.

Australia scores well on almost all international indexes. Whenever I look at the results I always notice our friend Canada a few places above or below us.

The only one on the OP's list where I think Australia has any obvious significant advantage over Canada is annual leave as Australia mandates a minimum of 4 weeks for full time employees whereas in Canada I believe you can often be on a lot less (????).

On all the other measures you could argue the toss either way.

If the OP is British they may prefer Australians as I believe the average Australian understands and relates to British culture a lot better than the average Canadian and is probably more likely to have visited the UK and have friends/family there. On the other hand they may prefer the more US style personality of Canadians and baggage free relationship (specially if they are very nationalistic themselves).

Australians drive on the left hand side of the road, play the same sports, know a lot of the British celebrities, watch a fair bit of British tv, understand a lot of the cultural references etc.

Weather preference is a big deciding factor.

Proximity to Asia/South Pacific versus USA/Europe is another.

Animal life becomes a non deciding factor for almost everyone who moves to an urban environment of either country (except those with major serious phobia's).

http://www.firstpeople.us/pictures/b...-1600x1200.jpg

Take all the dangerous creatures in OZ, snakes spiders, sharks, crocs and stingers they kill around 10 people a year in total compared to 1,600 people killed per year in road accidents in OZ. More people are killed by falling trees in OZ then the wildlife. Alot of those people killed put themselves in danger by doing stupid things picking up snakes or swimming in areas they know are dangerous. The only nasty you are liekly to come across in your home is a spider but no one had died from a spider bite in OZ in 30 years, while bee stings kill a few every year.

i think this has been covered already, these stats could be applied to almost anywhere in the world, that is road deaths trumping most other deaths. the fact is though wherever you live in the world you will probably drive or be driven in a car, its unavoidable. this whole road death comparison holds no relevance.

What about this fact, l've been living in OZ for 30 years, go swimming in the ocean almost every day of summer and go camping and walking in the mountains almost every month and never been bitten or attacked by anything apart from a few bee and ant stings and attacked by dogs a few times.

Theres 12 thousand miles of coast in OZ, l'm sure some part theres sharks, where l go swimming theres never been a shark attack in the entire 150 years of European settlement. Your more likley to be killed by a bee sting in OZ then a shark.

what about the fact that i work with canadians in there 40's and 50's who regularly hunt and fish in the back country and never have encountered a bear. what about the fact that i, all my friends, family and colleagues have not been killed in a road accident and i have been driving for 20yrs. i don't see your point, just cause it hasn't happened to you does not mean it does not happen. rather an ostritch approach don't you think.

where i live there has never been a bear attack, your point again is what??? you are more likely to be killed by a car in alberta. and around and around we go. what you are raising has nothing to do with the thread. may i refer you to page one onwards.

by the way, its easy to say these things when you don't actually post where you live.

http://www.sydney100.com/snakes-spiders-sharks.htm

this is where i presume you get your info from for the last bit. i hope you'll notice this is a fairly selective study, concerning the years noted and the number of years stats compiled. if you look elsewhere on this thread you will see vastly different figures which if you take as an average exceed bee sting deaths. also this site below disputes the figures.

http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/...in/mcgain.html

l think anyone that decides not to immigrate to either OZ or Canada becasue of its dangerous wildlife has rocks in their heads, why do these people even travel in cars when they are 1,000 times more liekly to be killed?

because, and this has been stated on here previously, car use is essential, in most part, to the daily lives of adults in aus, can, uk and the rest of western civilization, which is why this argument has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on this thread.

what is not essential is hiking in the mountains, or swimming in the sea. so the question is raised, are any of these pursuits important to you, if so there are inherent dangers in pursuing both in both countries.

where aus and can differ, is that this wildlife does not live with you in your home in canada. it does not live under your home. it does not live in your back garden. because of this you are more likely to come into contact with it. and its nasty, bitey, stingey and venomous. it also kills people, like it or not, quote whatever figures you like from all the links on here, people die.

the original question relates to choosing aus, or choosing can. some of the ups and downs of both countries, including the wildlife were then explored. some people may be bothered, others not. whatever the choice it does not mean they have rocks in their head.

OK. In Australia you will see spiders around your home. You may get bitten, I only know 1 person in my whole life but yes it happens, but as the stats show no-one has died for decades. A lot of us protect the spiders around the garden as they perform useful insect services, and are interesting to watch go about their daily lives. If you have a spider phobia it may bother you.

Snakes in the house are rare, around the garden you might see 1 every few years or more often if you live on the edge of town/bush/rural. Never heard of anyone dying but stats show it does happen to a very, very, very small percentage of people most of whom would have been in the bush or harassing the snake. If you do get a snake you ring the snake guy to remove it.

Some people are very underwhelmed when they come to Australia expecting all the "deadly animals" propaganda to be true and actually feel deflated when they see hardly anything for years.

So, yes, you should take spiders and snakes around the house into consideration, specially if you have a severe phobia, but it should be considered in the true context of how much it affects people - and I guess that is what people are trying to get across - the effect on daily life is much smaller than others imagine (and for some it can be a positive affect). There is no point ruling out Australia on an exaggerated belief of how much affect this stuff has day to day on people - if it was a nightmare we would tell you, promise But sure, if EVERTHING else is line ball go for the insect free place.

I thought it was pretty straightforward.

Yes, there may be nasty insects in the back garden...and yes, the majority are in Australia (I have a friend who was bitten by a spider this fall in southern AB and it has ulcerated and not healed, weird). If that bothers someone to a degree that they would not be able to live their life on a day to day basis, then yes, they'd better not migrate to Australia.