Midlands Girl

Hello everyone, I stumbled across this site by accident a couple of months ago and think it's great and have enjoyed reading the posts. I returned to the uk in July after spending around 18 months in oz...not because I hated it there but purely because of personal reasons. Anyway I was watching a programme on BBC2 today called 'Wanted Down Under' where British families who are thinking of emigrating to either oz or nz are given a taste of life in those countries for a week. In todays programme a family from Oxford were flown to Brisbane and shown the usual ie fab weather, beaches, massive houses with swimming pools (one of the vendors were expats returning to uk after 10 years). Well what really annoyed me was when they went on to say how much CHEAPER food is in oz compared to the uk and how they have so much more variety and choice over there. I was outraged by this comment because in my experience this clearly was not the case, I found it very expensive compared to the uk (even when shopping in Bi lo) and the choice very poor. Programmes like this just brainwash people into thinking that oz really is the best place to live in on the planet and I think it is so wrong to mislead people with such lies when they are about to make one of the most important decisions in their lives. BTW it's great being back home and shopping at Sainsburys and Tesco...the choice is unbelievable compared to oz and soooo much cheaper. Also I'm going to Dublin soon...only 10 pounds return flight and that includes tax

TraceyW

Hello and welcome from a fellow Midlands girl!

Those programmes make me titter with all the tosh they spout.I mean, it wouldn't make very good veiwing would it, showing fly infested suburbs, crap clothing that looks like it's been used to clean the floor, exhorbitant food prices and miles and miles of barren red countryside with tumbleweed floating about the place! And if peeps actually fall for their crap and do no research of their own based on fact, well, they deserve to get a slap really!

Media reporters have a lot to answer for don't they? Just like the tabloids are now saying that Britain is in a chronic recession and the place is doomed. Well, according to most tabloids, the place has been doomed for donkey's years....ever since Enoch Powell's Rivers Of Blood speech....so I tend to make my opinions and not really bother with journalists.

quoll

Yes, another laugh from me too. The folk who are addicted to WDU would never think of themselves as gullible enough to fall for regular ads (Now hands that do dishes can feel soft as your face with mild green whatever it was liquid) but they swallow the WDU line hook line and sinker. Can they really not see that it is advertising pure and simple??? On the one hand I think they deserve all they get but on the other hand it doesnt comply with the truth in advertising standards and so should be stopped.

Bijilo123

But it is not advertising. The program is a documentary - usually featuring idiots. When I have seen it I've never really been impressed by the people nor the content - both of which are superficial.

Just because it is TV does not mean you have to believe it. I think the producers are just trying to show you that the people involved are unserious, shallow and rather brainless. I suggest you don't let it get to you.

But there is no inducement to 'buy' so it is not an advertisement.

quoll

Yeah I know but under the guise of "reality" people actually think it is true whereas perhaps it should be classified as "advertising" then people may treat it with the disdain it deserves. If they even marketed it as "drama" then people would realize that they need to take it with a pinch of salt. I am worried though that people profess to being addicted to it!!!

Hutch

It is a crock of shit, that show. I've mentioned before the episode that tickled me, which was for a family looking to move to Sydney. On the segment of the show in which they offer them a taste of recreational life in Australia, they sent them up on a sight-seeing tour in a light aircraft over the harbour. Oh yea, most evenings and every weekend I (and all other Australians) hop into a light aircraft and take in the harbour views. It's a totally ridiculous timeframe in which to get any meaningful impression of life in this country. That said, there was one show in which an electrician, upon spending a couple of hours in the roof space of a house on a summer's day, decided that it probably wasn't the life for him!

P.S. Tracy - where can I go to see this barren red countryside with tumble-weed floating about, as all we've got here are boring green pasture fields, rivers, escarpments and unspoilt oceans and rainforests.

TraceyW

Come to Perth and drive north towards Dongara. The most boring, desolate, plains of red dirt you will ever see.....with tumbledweed!

TraceyW

Ha ha...you've been up there too!!!!

St.Georges Girl

Oh poo, I deleted it as the phone rang as I was about to edit and couldn't be arsed.

I was going to add, try the drive to Kalgoorlie and anything past Wanneroo.

Mikeyc

This is what I call “The big Aussie Con”

While living in Ireland up until last year I seen adds in the Paper from the Australian government trying to convince people to move out here, it said things like the quality of life is better, jobs are better, wages are better, food is fresher and more choice and that everyone can afford their own home with pool...... what a load of crap!

Food is more expensive here, there is no range at all (sometimes i’m convinced we are in a communist state), quality of life is not better and it’s nearly impossible to own your own home now.

The worse thing is that people fall for this crap and believe those programs and adds only to come out here and be disappointed! I feel sorry for the ones who end up taking their whole families out just to find out it's a big lie!

Oh and I’m so jealous of your 10 pound flight! I really miss the idea of a low cost airline, Australia doesn’t have any – real ones that is! Jetstar and Virgin are low cost service, but high cost tickets.

Mikey

St.Georges Girl

Yeh, sadly. Boring as batshit, but then I thought the drive down to Albany and Esperance was as well. We stopped the car and took a photo of a cow in a field, as it was the first we'd seen since living in WA 8 months. Then we stopped again to take some photos of the Karri Trees before it got dark. After 4 hours into the journey we'd had enough and wish to goodness we hadn't bothered. The caves in Margaret River were nice though, but we've seen better in Majorca.

Fleaflyfloflum

Totally agree about food prices. Since being back, I am amazed at how much cheaper in general food is in UK. Of course some things are not, but I would honestly say overall they are!!
I love the BOGOFs. In fact I am addicted to hunting them down when i go to tesco..lol

Some fruit in Aus is better quality, others not so. Swings and roundabouts in the quality departmentI feel.Depends what products you are comparing.

I know one thing though. If I had to feed a family week after week, I reckon I could do it far cheaper in UK than I could in Australia.

MrsB

They have got to do SOMETHING to tempt'em over!!!!

Merseygirl

More variety and choice in Australia??? Of course they do.........if its cheap, nasty and manufactured in a chinese sweatshop!

Hutch

They don't make the goods in British shops in Sheffield any more either darling.