The Flintstones

and celebrate One year in Oz exactly today, yipeeeee!

OK. First I'd like to say, you need at least six months here to have a fair opinion on the place. A lot of things we didn't like at first were just down to unfamiliarity and a different culture, a few things we didn't like, we now love. Saying that, we thought the place was pretty cool since day one.


[[[ Part 1: We became slightly fed up of UK life, but could have happy lived there forever ]]]

Our British life's were blessed. Many great friends and family, a nice house in a nice area in a nice city (Swansea, South Wales), some family near central London. We knew the UK was a great country and thus produced us great people. But man do I like my Vegemite! , jokes aside, we were fed up the oppressive UK weather and didn't want to moan just like everyone else when we had the power to change this. We realized the weather isn't all about getting a tan, it can lead to greater health, lifestyle and possibly attitudes. The weather in the UK is great when your growing up, but when your missing that sparse bit of Sunshine because your stuck inside 9 till 5, or its just too cold and wet outside to even bother, this is just not healthy. We plan on having a family and I felt the UK just doesn't invest enough in its youth either, so I looked up the statistics and boy was I right We still drink as much in Oz, but it feels less religious, more optional, than Booze Britain. Its.. "are you going to the <insert random event, place> this weekend?" instead of "are you going to the pub or club this weekend?". Despite these points, the UK has many major positives but I digress.


[[[ Part 2; Selecting Australia ]]]

So once upon a time after Part 1(see above)..
I inquisite Sara; "Would you ever move country?"
Sara; "Yes, I think so"
Me; "What about Australia?"
Sara; "If its as good as you said it was, it sounds like an improvement.".
Me; "OK, don't get your hopes up, I'll look into it."

I guess a few recent holidays to Vegas, Barbados and Cyprus, (which were the first holidays where it was just the two of us), turned out to be secretly training our moods towards living in a warmer climate while building our confidence for adventure. I had been to Canberra and different parts of Sydney before(even stayed with an Australian family), so I knew Australia had a good chance to be turn up a winner. This was long ago though, not till seven years later, after we had decided we were slightly fed up of the UK, did we think about moving anywhere. Leaving the UK wasn't going to be taken lightly though, so we decided if we left it would only be for the best and most suitable home we could find in "ze entire solar system".

The Internet, SO important in our decision, without it we could well be still in the UK thinking is the bee knees and sharks over there It also made life so much easier for us, especially staying connected with friends and family via email, Facebook, Skype phone and video chat. With Google Earth I could import price house data, a cosmic amount of weather data(solar radiation, storm history, cyclone paths, cloud cover, average rainfall, temps, cloud cover, etc), crime and corruption stats, disease maps, economic and social grades and even shark attack data to dispel centuries of myths. Could even walk down the streets using street view in some places. Wikipedia! another fantastic resource, but can't beat Google.com for straight up research, but of course.. BritishExpats.com, thank you

The world is massive and thus mysterious, but when your coming from an OCED country and are looking to improve, it becomes sharply smaller and less mysterious. It can take six months to learn a language with 95% correctness, it takes 10-20 years for 98%. We would like to learn a new language but at this point of our life's we didn't fancy it unless the location was clearly better. We searched for a developed country, another time a non developed county would have been suffice for us, but for now we needed specific standards for our future family and business. Preferably a country where Engrish is spoken regular. An improved climate, not necessarily warmer, but certainly less cloud blocking the sun, a regular hit of sunshine was the minimal requirement, as recommended by many medical reviews. It was surprising to find out just how poor the British weather is, I found even Canada had improved climate and New York with its colder winter temperatures and heavy snow, had an even hotter and more prolonged summer than the UK, very sneaky. So finally we looked at reports such as the Human Development index, lifestyle surveys, but taking all this as a pinch of salt. Material benefits(larger house, good exchange rate), economic variation(recession) and odd ball political issues, were not factors we wanted to base our decision on. So we factored everything in, most importantly our personal preferences and common sense. The winner was... hands down, by a mile, left the others in the dust, the land down under, not New Zealand.


[[[ Part 3; Selecting the Sunshine Coast ]]]

Coming to Oz, we had a list of the top eight places, a specific area in each capital city, plus Cairns, Gold Coast. All of which appeared very attractive to us and we were prepared to try them all if necessary, in order. We figured at worst it would have taken so long that we would have gained a bag full of experience and citizenship We knew Oz was so diverse compared to the UK, each city so different, so this was our backup plan. The backup plan was not needed though as our first choice exceeded our expectations. To be honest, Sydney would have been our first choice if we had been extremely rich. Not surprising though, since Sydney is so popular and familiar to me, everywhere else seemed a slight gamble. I hadn't even heard of the Sunshine Coast before and the place sounded so cheesy that I overlooked it for a long time while researching other places.

Some thoughts we had on the Sunshine Coast were;
- Superior weather than further south.
- Sweet beaches! you cannot come to Oz and not live near the beach. OK you can, but its like living in Eden and not touching an Apple, you have to at least try it.
- Decent crime rate.
- Family friendly.
- Decent house prices in comparison to proximity to coast and city center.
- Infrastructure inferior than south (but at acceptable level for us)
- Inferior shopping and culture than most of the south. (but very satisfactory)
- Employment and economy inferior than south (not particulary important to us as we had at least one job in demand)
- Local nightlife inferior, (but we were past and bored of constant party, Booze Britain, so this was a good incentive for us to knuckle down a little, lead a healthier life, plus we could always travel a couple of hours if the urge required)
- Close proximity to a capital city and a large population.
- Awesome region (Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast = Brisbane)


[[[ Part 4; Conclusion, one year in Oz ]]]

Fantastic and the rest of Australia looks pretty good too. but out of time for now, so will finish tomorrow, no apology for long post, we'd just want to sum up our experience in one all encompassing thread

Sally Simpson

Congrats on your 1st year

Good post but looking forward to part deux!

NomandNat

Great post........really enjoyed reading it and very upbeat. I'm having second thoughts from time to time but posts like these helps to give me a kick up the behind!
Where in Sunshine Coast are u?
Cheers
Nom

viviennef

and I am SOOOOO glad you chose here. and that you are happy.

Damson

Thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed opinion - no-one could accuse you of not doing your research! Research of course isn't everything, but in a where-do-we-start kind of a way, it's all you've got (along with BE of course). The post seems very balanced which is always good. Long may the good life continue for you.

The Flintstones

Agreed, we knew research was only going to give us a small part of the story, but luckily for us the reality was was too the upside.

The Flintstones

Well who knows how things could have panned out without your help, you've definitely improved our experience that's for sure, thank you Vivienne for having faith in us

The Flintstones

Maroochydore for first six months, now Kawana Waters, have worked in Caloundra(least fav so far), Coolum and Sippy Downs. Have been all over, exploring. Love most of the coast, plenty of options and have yet to find an area to avoid(close to airport) which seems quite unusual, o, except Buderim, Welsh mafia are taking over there and you can tell who they are because of the luxurious swimming pools they're installing in their gardens.

Si T

Finally I have found a fellow Jack who has made the move and is enjoying it.

i am unable to apply for my Visa until September due to constraints surrounding my professional qualification but am dead set on doing so. it was quite strange to see a number of the reasons for your move resemble our own as a family. That wind and rain howling in from Swansea Bay and The Bristol Channel in winter really restricts family life.

Hope it keeps going well for you and maybe see you there in a year or two.

Si

tomar

Great post, welcome to the sunny coast. Just one point, try to keep it quiet please!!!! do we want the rest of the world to know about our great life style??

The Flintstones

Don't worry, the momentum is too powerful to stop, the materialistic go to Brisbane, yobs to the Gold Coast, Sunshine recieve the filtered goodness. (i joke, i joke)

Hi to fellow Jack, Swan and Sunny have similar population, so perhaps this may fast track adjustment for you. Good Luck

Sally Simpson

What happened to part 2?

BarcaFan

Flintsones, great post ! But whats wrong with Caloundra ? We are about to buy our house here.. so far we are loving the Beautiful beaches, friendly people..great schools.

The Flintstones

Nothing wrong, nice place. I guess its the Kings beach area which puts me off, just seems to be more groups of youth about which is not a necessarily a negative, but I also see a needle on beach and fighting on Oz day, could be a drawback of denser population in that area or just bad luck because I rarely visit. Negative employment stories from around that area(Bulcock St), probably due to seasonality. Plus a couple of shops got robbed in the short time Sara worked there. Caloundra has its nice places though and even Kings is decent.

The Flintstones

I'll do it today, the weekend included more alcohol than was necessary.