jad n rich

Looking for an opinion from those who have lived in OZ and now returned to UK or have lived in Uk and now have the full OZ experience (living it not imaganing it) the question: Just how much truth is there in the 'Hate UK' posts that you get on the moving to OZ fourm.

Is it that bad? Especially stuff with kids, the schools sound like since we left they have turned into Zoos, the streets are filled with gangs of youth, I mean doesnt anyone in the UK have a normal family with kids who want to study do well and are polite.

It really does read that bad, I did dismiss it as people trying to justify a move to a country that (often) they have never even visited. But, there was a spate of posts of people who returned to UK wanting to go back to OZ again, that was in winter, are those people still coming back? Again is it that bad.

Like many here thinking of returning to UK it really does make you wonder if the place has changed that much since we left its unrecognisable, it didnt seem that way to me last year but we were on holiday as one lady whos been here only 15 months put it, I dont know the place they are talking about!

If its so bad and crowded why dont people move to a rural area?, property is cheaper, a citys always going to be close to you in the UK anyway, traffics bad they have trains.

And one last question, so many we know in the UK have decent houses, car, numerous yearly overseas holidays if its so expensive how do they seem to live so well compared to their equivalents here

MrsB

It all depends WHERE you are.

We came here for a 2 year adventure - not to escape anything bad. We lived in a very nice historic town close to London, and the countryside, that had exceptionally good state schools both primary and secondary. Crime was low. Yes there were things happening, but they happen here too.

I would have no hestitation in returning there in 2 years time.

It just depends where people are talking about - don't believe every bad thing you hear - take it with a pinch of salt. I'll tell you good things about the UK !!!!

wombat42

OZ is'nt the third world most people have decent houses, cars and holidays here also. In fact most Australians live in larger more comfortable houses with larger gardens many with swimming pools and a nice climate to enjoy it. As for overseas holidays, yes it is more expenisve from OZ but there are many fantastic cheap places in OZ to visit. Where do most Brits go on their O/S holidays, somehere warm with nice beaches, well most of OZ has that. Most Brit immigrants beleive OZ has a better quality of life which is why most
decide to stay on in OZ. But l agree that OZ is'nt for everyone which is why people should
try visiting or living in OZ for a while before committing to immigration.

mand8002

my husband spends a lot of time in the UK on business and he says it is still miserable...........he loves it in Australia...........and he was the one not keen to move

Merlot

After 14 months I have to say we are just starting to live as we are more settled with house (renting), income, etc. We have had a fair few knocks but survived. We have managed to get moeny together for 2 trips to Europe this year for hols. More than we were able to do in Australia. We haven't had a "proper" holiday since 2002.

About on par with Oz money wise though I found the last two years in Oz I could afford to work 3 days per week rather than full time as is here.

Winter - my first was a killer here more the darkness than the weather, in fact the weather is not a major issue. Easier to go for long walks without dying of heat. Australia -high summer I found a killer too but you just get on.

I am happy in the UK as I am close to family, take that away and I would probably live in Oz as I find the people are brighter and more positive. If I was mega rich, I would live between both places.

Crime, etc - I have never been a victim of crime in the UK (touch wood), though a few times in Oz.

Gangs/Drugs - seen them in both places (go to NSW Central Coast).

Whatever life you have in whatever country is down to you and what you make it.

M

dugongs

i have been back in uk almost 2 years now after 5 in oz. have to agree with the swings and roundabout comments.

both countries are exciting places to live and yet both countries have huge social problems. grafiti, anti-social behaviour, crime are huge issues in both countries and a fear of crime was about the same in both countries in my opinion.

i guess it all comes down to individual circumstances and getting value for money out of the move. i know a lot of brits which cashed up in uk and purchased materially better lives in oz with huge houses and new cars and private schools for their kids. but end up working even longer hours, for less money and with less holidays. they scratch their heads and wonder where it went wrong. to borrow a turn of phrase from the uk if it is this good how come it is so bad.

25 years ago people moved to oz etc. to better themselves. my wifes family moved during the winter of discontent and still think we have power cuts in the uk every week. but in reality life in uk is pretty good these days with plenty of jobs etc. there is probably more opportunity in the uk then there ever will be in oz just because of the size of the economy.

i guess that sums up my opinion of moving to oz, these days materially a lot of property owning brits who have riden the uk market for years will be better off initially as the pound still goes a long way (if less than it used to) but quality of life is more than material goods and if you end up working more and having less time with the wife and kids then it is not really worth it in my opinion. if on the other hand you get your plans together and manage a better life and you can handle the scurge of distance then good luck you deserve to do well for having the balls to take the risk.

Kath

We lived in rural England before moving to Perth and were very happy with our lifestyle, we were one of those families moving for the adventure (looking back I think we could have got the adventure by renting our house out, taking the children out of school and travelling the world for a year!) but anyway we decided on Australia because we'd been on holiday a few times and my husband's company had strong links with Perth and the gas industry, so work was good. We spent over 2 years in Perth, we got our citizenship (for our children and we may retire there) and got back to England 7 months ago. Things haven't really changed much, only small things, I love being back in my own country completely feeling I belong.

I think the most important point I'd like to make and part of the reason why people here can become so negative is the UK press / media, it's just a bad as ever, SO negative, doom and gloom, we get news from ALL OVER the UK which covers our LARGE population 60 million!!! so it can appear like crime is everywhere but often it's miles from where we live.

In Perth we mostly got local news covering WA, (1.5 million pop.) occasionally we'd get news from the East Coast and never really in any detail (sport is always more important!), over here they go on and on about crime, particularly about anti-social behaviour - but doesn't that happen all over the world? I've always felt safe back here, I've been up to London a few times and into our local cities and feel quite safe. My children are in local schools, we have good strong head teachers, bullying is actively addressed, I help regularly in both schools and the children there are all smartly dressed and polite.

I have a breast cancer family history and have been so impressed with the NHS, I've already had my first mammogram, very professional nurses and consultants, I've been told to come in at any time if I'm worried and no medical bills.

The media here love to run this country down, of course we could do things better but it's far from the "sinking ship" most people seem to portray on the Oz forum.

callé

I think you need to look beyond BE if you want the truth. Not to say you cant get it here but you must remember that this is an expat site so you are getting opinions of people either happy to be back, love it..or hate it ,cant wait to leave. The info I get from here and the invaluable cyber friendships of those making the 'big' move really help with all thats involved and its so nice to feel you are not alone. But to get balance for instance I talk to my family members in the UK who have never left except for holidays and they give me reasurance thats its not so bad. In fact they love it and would never leave permanently. you have to read between the lines really and keeping in mind those leaving are looking more at the bad to help boost their own reasons, justifying in their minds that they are doing the right thing. Reality is in most countries today you really do have the same problems. You can only decide what is more important to you. Weather, open space, family, job opportunities, travel and so on. then wherever you decide to settle do research into the better, safer areas. Believe me I used to get scared reading some of the stuff about crime and so on but I just had to learn what to really take from the threads seriously and what to take with a grain of salt. I would say the UK and Oz even the US are amasing countries but they all have their downsides. No one place is paradise or even the hell it can be portrayed. its what you want from life.

Hutch

Yea I'm inclined to agree with callé. You do, without doubt, get a very polarised view of things on this site, some from people with quite extreme and often nasty viewpoints. I often ask myself if the stuff I read from people on this site is referring to some other UK, because it doens't bear much resemblance to the one I live in. I think people get it in their minds that the country's gone to the dogs and nothing will disaude them - I strongly suspect these sorts of people are the first to get that 'grass-isn't-greener' lesson taught to them and are amongst the first to return to the UK.

The UK is far from a sinking ship - quite the opposite in fact - sure there's a load of stuck-up middle class nonces with 'bollocks to blair' stickers in the back of their Audis who'd have you believe the country was only years from total meltdown, but it's pretty much business as usual. Houses still cost a lot, kids still get bored and vandalise things, bad things occasionally happen to people in nice places, Eastenders and Coronation Street still slug it out for viewers, the newspapers are still full of non-news about non-people and bad news about successful people, the roads still clog up to breaking point on sunny bank holidays, people still consider a trip to the garden centre as a day out, the check-out girls still question your choice of deodorant, we still obsess over the weather, we're still shite at sport, we still don't really care that we're shite at sport and we still pay through the nose for petrol. Go away for 20 years and come back and I seriously doubt much will have changed... it's the UK - not cuba.

janeyray

I'm not sure why people don't move to a more rural part of the UK to be honest? Maybe they feel so fed up with the UK and think that another country has much more to offer?

I also think that when you come back after living in OZ you do see things differently. Perth was very different to here. We hardly saw anyone walking around in the evenings (in the suburbs) so to come back and see lots of people is a strange thing - especially when they are gangs of hooded boys/youths ( ) BUT... the gangs haven't suddenly appeared, they have always been there but maybe the hoods attract more attention?

It is busier than Australia and there is more hussle and bussle on the streets but after a time we got use to it again. There is crime but again it depends on where you choose to live as to whether is effects your life or not to a certain degree.

I know someone who has just gone back to Perth after being back in the UK a short time. They hated Perth at the time but now love it (only been there a few weeks though) so it can happen.

We have a nice house here in the UK, it suits us. It is slightly bigger than the one we had before we left for OZ but we pay a higher mortgage.

We were in Perth 16 months and in that time could hardly save any money at all. Hubbys wages were crap and I was earning $100 a week cash in hand. We had one holiday to Margaret River and no savings. Two cars, and a house/mortgage.
We have been back 11 months, have two holidays booked for this year (in the UK) one car, a mortgage and two well paid jobs. Also money in four savings accounts. We don't worry about our money and how much we are spending (well not all the time anyway!) and live as good a life as before we left, if not better.

louise4

I think sometimes you look at the past to see the future. i know that sounds odd but if you have lived in a certain area all your life (as we have or there abouts) you sooooo notice when/if a decline is happening. whereas, when you move elsewhere, say australia, you just except the overall change and have no history to blinker you.

We personnaly do not like the way in which our area is going. it seems that over the last 2-3 years the whole place has had a change of heart and not in the right direction if you ask us. when we think of where we lived when we were in sydney it was truley great, we didn't notice if the local park was looking run down because we had no idea what it was like 10 years ago. we didn't notice if undesireables were living down the road because, for all we knew they could have been there for the last decade.

It has been said a lot on this forum, it depends where you are moving from. if you live in built up cityville then any (not all) surrounding suburb of any (not all) australian city is going to be a pleasent change.

Louise

ramac

It was refreshing to read these posts, as I like many other people on this site get so tired of the hammering the UK takes from some ex-pats.
We like many other moved from the Uk, not becasue it was crime ridden, and full of gangs at the street corners, but because the opportunity presented itself and we took it.
We left a lovely home, nice cars, decent schools, lots of really decent friends.
To read the posts on this website, I sometimes think I must have been dillusional, as it seems that the Uk is a s#*#hole in some people's opinion.
I find it sad that people who grew up in a country that has shaped them to be the person they are today, find it so easy to trash a part of their own history.

Anyway, my point really is I go home as often as I can, and all of my friends and family live in good areas, have not been the victims of crime (fingers crossed) and are doing pretty well for themselves. The Uk is what you make it, just like Canada, Australia and any country you choose to live in.

julius smith

very interesting views.......i have been back in the uk now for around 3 mths and just felt so sick a being here for the first few days; you know, the filthy streets, graffiti, yobs gathering around street corners at the weekends, bad language, lack of courtesy in some places, free-n-easy asylum culture etc etc. but now, having been here a wee bit longer, i dont think its that bad. sure there are problems now and then, muggings, racial attacks, bus stop shelters being destroyed, etc but on the whole, its not bad. jobs are easy to get (ok, you may not get the exact one you want, but at least you CAN get a job, for reasonable money--unlike the $6 hr i was offered once in ontario!!), and there is always the safety net of the NHS, welfare etc. and i find life is at a gentler pace, at least where i am, and i can take it easy if i want to, whereas in canada, it was always rush, rush, rush. the crucial thing for me is my kids education--they are settled in the uk now and want to continue here. that will also save thousands of dollars spent in educating them in canada, which would have broken our backs, i am sure. once they are finished with education, they are free to go wherever they want. no, the uk is not bad; just get your head down and carry on regardless--it'll be alright in the end!! now thats radical, coming from me!!

Mercedes

I don't think there is much difference between UK and Oz on social problems etc. Living rural also has its problems. Years ago a good friend of mines' mother warned me not to go back to the Uk because of the crime she didn't feel safe. Now she lives in an 8 bed roomed house with swimming pool in Ullenhall near Solihull. Very nice area, not City but a Village. Her fears became her nightmare when she was held up in her own home with a masked gun man, and she had the state of the art security. But they were also very ostantgious with their money. My uncle also lives in a village outside Stratford on Avon, a nice area again recently had a gang with guns come down from Birmingham. A middle class woman who was a friends neigbour got murdered in a car park in Redditch. I also know numerous people who live in nice areas who have been robbed. People can often be under the illusion you have to live on a council estate to have problems. Often those who live in nice areas will be a target because they have money or are thought of to have. You don't have to go into Yob or Gang Land to find trouble, it can come to you. But saying that I also know many who have not been the victim of a crime and are totally unaware of what is happening outside their own little world. I know people who have children who are interested in their future and are very polite, I have met others who are not. Boils down to upbringing mostly and how their parents are often.

I also remember reading about a woman who emigrated to Sydney because she felt no longer safe in London who ended up getting raped in Sydney in front of her husband and children by someone she knew and had been kind to. The guy in my local bottle shop got shot in the leg in Melbourne. To me both Australia and UK are on par I think with many of the problems. But I did like Australia's positive outlook on life in comparision to what I see in the UK. Interesting when I was going to buy a house in the UK in Cheltenham, I was told by many passengers on the airlines I flew in on that I was a fool and many of the houses I viewed the people were all selling to go to either France or Spain and one was going back to Perth.

As the saying goes Home is where the heart is and thats where you have to be, wherever it is. One persons experience may be different to someone elses whatever it is. I personally choose to live in Spain, because I like the family attitude of the Spanish and the lifestyle and I do feel safer. I also find the kids much politer. I also have a detached house that overlooks the sea with a big garden and pool (well a big bath tub actually LOL) and I wouldn't have got the equavalent in the UK nor for that matter in Australia, for the same money and my council taxes are lower than I would have paid in the UK, and I'm 30 minutes to an airport to commute wherever, and 10 minutes from the Town. I'm also 3.5 hours away from my family if I want to see them.

I've tried to capture the lifestyle of what I missed from Australia as well as trying to grab the positive side of the UK when I am there. Although I did look at living there, I found that I didn't like it enough to do so, but at least instead of seeing my family every 4 years I now see them at least once a month or every few.

If people like the lifestyle of Australia but are homesick but don't like the Uk there are other options which may make them happier instead of either Australia or UK if thats where their family and friends are. Commuting from other countries is much cheaper and easier than it used to be. Interesting though that Australia, UK and USA are voted as the most violent in the Western Industrialised countries in comparison to others.

NJJ

if you saw today tonight in melbourne last night anyone would think that the youth have control of the suburban streeets in melbourn & sydney though... it's all media hype. (shock, horror.. surely not gangs of youth roaming the streets anywhere in oz utopia :scared: )