Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

Ours were 19 and 16!!!!!!!! both have done very well, had excellent help from their Teachers and Colleges/Uni's, it really depends on your situation and how unhappy etc you are. We tried to make a home in Australia for 12 years it just was not for us so it was time to come home. Good luck

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

wow well done folks for making the move. I've been in oz 15 yrs and wanting to move back.. Feeling like my husband's work is keeping us here but its so expensive I feel like we are chasing our tails. Our kids are 3 and 7 and I want their family around and to make roots. I still feel like its transit like I'm on a holiday here.. any tips would be great ! :)

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

It's so strange that we can all see just how expensive Australia has become but we still see some doing everything they can to convince themselves and others that it is all down to the exchange rate and its OK because everyone earns 4 times as much in Australia. :D
Great age to make the move, all the best.

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

Please ignore false information, the cost of living in each country depends on many factors, your jobs, your incomes, where you live, millions of people are doing it tough here in the UK, it's no different to Australia, If you can get good jobs you can have a great life here in the UK like we have, but getting a good well paid job here is getting harder and harder these days, best of luck.

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

No seriously it is expensive, having lived and worked in Aus and the UK we found Aus to be much more expensive and WE were one of the lucky ones who earnt a higher salary and we knew more people who earnt a normal salary and really were struggling and I mean big time.

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

Concur. Have just had friends from Singapore to visit us here in Melbourne who reckon its unbelievably expensive here relative to the rest of the world now (they are well off, semi retired and travel a lot).

Couple of key examples for us:

- I have friends here (in IT) who are now looking at going to a low tax country with their two non-school age kids to save a bit of money as they’re struggling to get anywhere here.

- When we came here in 2004 a full cooked breakfast at a reasonable cafe cost around $12, now they’re pushing $20 or well over that by the time you add your side of avocado or spinach (gotta pretend its healthy...). If my wife and I go out for breakfast and coffee on a Saturday morning I don't really expect much change from a $50. By comparison, I can confirm wages here haven’t gone up by 80% in the past 8 years. Had my first pay rise in about 5 years earlier this year but only really because I changed role.

- There are now 5 shops on my high street (Fairfield) closing now or closed within the past 1-2 months - 5 years ago when we bought our house there people were queuing up to start businesses on station street.

Interpret the stats as you choose but, based on the evidence we see around us, we believe its not the best place to be right now financially. Still, like everything, it depends on your personal circumstances.

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

When we first arrived in Perth over 12 years ago the nearest place that served a Breakfast was at a local garden centre (now closed down) which was not far from the not so great tiny shopping centre (which has been modernmodernizednd made larger) we ordered a breakfast which did not include drinks or toast etc and it was $7.50....we nearly fell off our seats lol....my DH neary nearly in his beans lol which he said tasted like bullets.....we use to go to a place over in Canning Vale (well before it was developed) and had a lovely breakfast there but it just became soooooooo expensive $22 and not so nice AND these are suburb not City prices

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

How it can be considered false information to tell people the facts I am at a loss to understand. When we have lived and worked in both countries surely we are the ones to be able comment factually, makes perfect sense to me ?

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

I fully agree, you can state facts etc on your experience and hope people can see that your only trying to help and your not being biased but some people will only believe what the want to believe because sometimes it justifies/helps their decisions

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

Yes, the justification angle I think is spot on. As you say you can only state the true facts gleaned from years of living in the country concerned.

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

I think they get brainwashed, they get to awesome aus and soooo want to be aussies that they lose all ability of critical thinking. Aussies don't whinge (apparently) so to say anything negative about awesome aus would be blasphemy.
Poll after poll, report after report, thread after thread confirm that AA is an expensive place to live, even more so than the UK:eek: yet some blankly refuse to accept this:banghead:

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

lol Most of the Brits we knew did not want to be Australian in fact just the opposite yet most called the UK....we found that a really strange way to live in lots of ways.....a lot of our UK friends had Aussie born children and were brought up very British and wore UK 'home' country shirts we even knew Grandchildren who wore "home" country shirts etc....

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

haahah you sound like my dad. He's mouth hurt after smiling so much when he came over to OZ to visit us. !
I'm working on my husband. He said ' show me a good school in UK and a place to live and he will look for work .' .. He is an acoustic engineer and has he's own business here. Well paid but we are living in the most affluent area of Sydney and its a joke how expensive it is. 3 times more than 15 years ago. Anyone in UK knows good schools, good place to live and a job for an acoustic engineer and we will be back in a heart beat :-)

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

I could easily help with schools..... Job, sorry!

Re: moving from OZ to the UK
 

Lots of good schools...LOADS compared to here in sydney the depth is immense. I'm thinking you may be in the eastern suburbs like me (though not for long for me, as off to the UK), incredibly expensive here!!!! mind-blowing!!! anyway my sons were at a private boys school in the eastern suburbs and are now boarding in surrey (while they wait for me to join them) and the cost for boarding is (with the exchange rate) similar to day fees for their sydney school. Don't know anything much about acoustic engineering, actually don't really know what it is???? But we are self employed and work in the arts, and it's a much, much bigger market being in the northern hemisphere, so much more opportunity.