Hi Everyone,

I love this site and find the posts really interesting. I went to school in Australia, Pinjarra WA. I am looking to emigrating again next year (waiting for sol list), at present I live in somerset, here are some piccies of my day out with daughter and dogs today, which was a lovely spring day. I guess what I am after is your views on Australia, good and bad.

Cheers

Not sure why you are posting this in MBTUK...... unless it is to get the "don't do it" viewpoint?

I have never been to Oz, so cannot really comment, but have heard that it is difficult to let dogs off the leash. Seeing that you have dogs - I assume they would be coming along? - this is one thing you might want to consider.

I posted it here to get a varied view I suppose, I post all over this site, I must reading the stories here it does make me question my decision all the more. Yes the dogs would have to come as well, however they are walked daily on a lead and have a hoolie two to three times a week off lead, of course I would respect the laws in Australia, I guess animals adjust much as humans do.

All my memories of Australia are from my childhood, so maybe this is clouding my judgement. When I read posts by people who love it there, I want to come so much, then I come here and it makes think a bit deeper.

Its a big step, so just doing as much research as I can.

I like your pictures - I'm trying to go the other way - from Texas so that's great for me

Well your photos are only making me more determined to get back to the UK

Can't give you many views of Australia as I don't live there - but was there last month on holiday.
Love Sydney - but wouldn't want to live there - great for a visit.
Boring countryside. Gum trees, depressing, boring looking houses, wide roads that just go on and on and the scenery doesn't change. But that was just my impression from going to Sydney to Newcastle. and back.
Sea was nice and blue though.

The photos are just one of the many,many reasons we are heading back to the U.K and we live in Perth....no Pinjarra very well and you must know that you do not have countryside like that here in WA....but then again countryside is not for everyone. If your posting on here you must have doubts....and if so why?

Have to agree with the others, after years of the bland Australian bush those pics make me crave the English countryside more.

I am also going the other way, Perth to UK. I would never tell anyone not to come here though, everyone leads different lives and has different expectations and ideas. Living here as an adult will be totally different to living here as a child though and although you can research till the cows come home only by coming will you find out whether you would like it. Only you can decide if that is a chance you are prepared to take.

Have you visited Australia since you were a child?

Theres plenty of places where in live in Victoria OZ that is just like those photos .
Maybe WA and many other parts of OZ the countrysdie is bland but its not over here in Victoria.
Such as the Castlemaine gardens north of Melbourne, in the photos on the link below.
http://www.pbase.com/mike_liquorish/...n_autum&page=1

Yes, you might well find the odd small piece of Australia similar to your pics, but consider this. If you live there permanently and you fancy a change of scenery or holiday, where are you going to go? I hope you will have plenty of money to spend on overseas holidays, because it costs a fortune to go anywhere from there. Yes, you might go to Queensland a couple of times, but then what?

I wish you well and hope you make the right choice. Far be it from me to say whether you should go or not. All i know is, for me, in hindsight, not in a million years!!!

We have had a great time exploring Aus and yes there is some nice countryside but I have never fully enjoyed it to the extent I do European and U.K countryside, mainly because it just seems so hard work..spider,snakes etc...but that is us and does not seem to bother others....each to their own...

I have been here nearly 20 years, lived in 3 states and done lots of different things. I loved the first 10 years, but then I started to find things very much the same, bland, too far from everywhere......

If I had to do it all over again, I would, but I would have gone home after 10 years when I was over it. Happily I am going home in April

I think the experiences I have had have been wonderful and I am sure if I have never come I would still want to do it, so for me it has been good, except the nearly 10 years of not really enjoying it...

I would say its horses for courses and noone else can advise you, but I would also suggest that you dont burn your bridges until you know you want to stay long term.

In the 'Rovers' I have a thread with some pics of a race I used to do every year in Bright, Victoria. I have to admit, the area is beautiful, very green with tree covered mountains (squint your eyes a bit from the top of Falls Ck and it almost reminded me of the outskirts of Bogota, Colombia). It is the nicest non coastal, country place I've been in Oz (and I've worked and traveled extensively there). But this area is ski country and is not like that all year round, plus it's 4hrs from Melb. 4hrs on a plane gets you most popular places of interest in Europe. This is one area in a country so large it should be teeming with this kind of thing but it isn't.

I'll take the UK, with it's plethora of cities and easy access from them to the countryside any day of the week. Oz isn't without its jewels, but they are so few and far between that enjoying them is a rare occurrence.

I live in the neighbouring county(Wiltshire).Ok this is my experience.I emigrated with my family as a small child,spent 30 years in South Oz,and returned to the UK just over 10 years ago.I had quite a good life in Australia,especially when I had my kids.I only worked around 10 hrs per week but that was a long time ago.I don't think I could manage on that now in Australia even if my OH was working fulltime.Like any country,Australia has changed alot.We moved there in 1970 and that really was the golden time to emigrate.Houses were dirt cheap,jobs were plentiful,low crime,and life was great back then.I return to Australia every couple of years to catch up with family and friends.I like Australia but always get that strange feeling that its not home.It does'nt do alot for me like the UK does.I only said to my OH on the weekend,we've seen alot of places in the UK and alot of places do have that wow factor,whether its looking at an old abbey,or open countryside with dry stone walls surrounding the fields!We were in South Oz last year and I drove my OH to a beach that I had recalled as being very nice.When we got there I just remember thinking "I've seen better in South India" I think the only reason we would return to Australia now would be if my two kids moved back there(they're aussies)not because I thought it was a better country or whatever.Each to their own I suppose!In reality both countries have their fair share of problems.So OP,I too grew up in Australia,but decided to move on and I don't regret it one bit.

Sound advice,

There really is no way of telling, apart from an out break of the black plague there is nothing stoping you from going. If youre young then its worth the risk as you will have plenty of mileage to make a change later. I have been away for 10 years now and would chew my right arm off to go back to Bristol. I am another returning brit

What is interesting is the amount of people going home to the UK. Those statisics would make for a good read. I think the majority of people after being away from the UK prefer to be back. The UK has many good points.

But yea, if youre below 30 then just have fun go and have some adventure. The UK will always be there for you.

This may be true, but the problem is that life often gets infinitely more complicated if one emigrates. A typical scenario is someone moving abroad, liking the new life, meeting the love of his/her life, getting married and having a family........... and years down the line they realise that they are in the wrong place and get desperate to go home.

Which is fine if the spouse is agreeable and the children are young enough to be moved without compromising their education etc. But, unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way and the expat ends up stuck "in the wrong place" - sometimes forever.