Who's been to Australia?

[Andy J]

I'm thinking of moving there after I graduate, get a work visa, and if I like it as much as I hope I do set up private practice and live out there.

Who's been? What did you think, where did you go too?

[Joenitro]

It's full of spiders

[Spudly]

Practice doing what?

Australia can't be quantified as simply as that.

Queensland is my favourite place in the world, for example, but the difference between Far North Queensland and South East Queensland is more than just mileage. Attitudes, people, geography, it all changes.

NSW is a similar story, as is the rest of the country. It's a pretty big place with a population which is just over a third of the population of the UK. It is entirely possible to leave a city and within an hour, be able to drive for days without seeing another person.

Where were you thinking about going?
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The Old Apprentice

[pinkyfloyd]

I was going to go there once. The immigration people asked if I had a criminal record. I told them I wasnt aware you still needed one.
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[cimbian]

Several times but it is very diverse place so can't be lumped into a general "what's it like".

For me, I liked Melbourne most.
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22PlusY
Current: Moto Guzzi 1100 Breva. Previous: Honda XL650V TransAlp
Bearded, Balding, Born again Buddhist Biker

[D O G]

I lived there for a year, moved with the family to Brisbane with the intention of staying for good.

Nice weather, lots of space, fantastic geography, good asian food, nice roads, awful traffic police, very conservative attitudes, incredible feeling of remoteness from the outside world, closed minded people, awful supermarkets (but good markets), crap beer, and absolutely no cultural depth.

The shit exchange rate now means that houses aren't even that cheap.

Whosthedaddy on here and his family did the same thing as we did at about the same time, they came back too.

[G]

A few times as a kid.

Pretty cold, even in summer.
Ok, we were living in Papua New Guinea at the time, so it seemed cold to the 30 degrees all year round .

A lot of good reasons for me to head over that way at some point and see if I still like a lot of the things I think I might looking back on it.

[Benno]

I've spent a lot of time there.

tl;dr if you can emigrate there, do it.

People are friendly, they will call you a "pom" a lot but it's not (usually) meant to be offensive.

It's expensive - but min. wage is about $15/hour to compensate. Everything is very far apart, not like in an American sense, but in a miniscule-population-in-country-bigger-than-Europe sense. The cities are literally dozens of hours drive apart (the major ones, the capitals) so you really need to choose where you want to live.

Adelaide people say is dull, but I really like it. This may be because my family live in the Adelaide hills, which is slightly similar to the Westcountry except bigger and with lots more kangaroos, but the city itself is actually very nice. Decent nightlife, lots of shops, beaches, great parks, nice buildings, clean streets, nice people.

Australia is very different to the UK in that you can't go out for a day to do something in another city. The cities are too far apart. When you pick a city, you stay with that city. Your life will revolve around this city. Day trips to other cities - you can forget that unless you live in Victoria, and even then it's still not quite the same.

Melbourne - if you like London, Melbourne is probably the place to go. Very contemporary, very trendy, and like Adelaide is generally quite clean. Melbourne has lots to do and is regarded as one of the nicer cities. Everyone not from Melbourne hates it because it is "hipster central".

Sydney. Generic big city IMO.

Canberra. Nobody ever goes there. Avoid.

Darwin - full of bogans (redneck/chav mix). Lovely place but small and not much to do. Enjoy driving 4 hours plus to get anywhere (if there was anything around anyway).

Brisbane - not spent enough time here to get a good feel for it, but it seems like a fantastic city. The centre has that big city feel while still being highly accessible with a great pedestrian central shopping area. Outer districts have their own 'hubs' with shops and entertainment, and public transport is excellent (place names are pretty weird though). The suburbs are idyllic and you are a short drive from Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Surfer's Paradise (yes, they really called cities these names, and for good reason).

Australians are generally nice people. They're like Brits, except slightly less reserves, and slightly more prone to swearing. But very friendly.

As for seasons...when I was working in SW Queensland, it got really cold on winter mornings, but as the day progressed I would quickly de-layer until I was in t-shirt and shorts. Sometimes it rained all day - real monsoon type rain. Down in Adelaide it gets cold and it stays cold, we used to light fires every day it was so cold (didn't help that there was a gap between the ceiling and the wall that grew or shrunk every time there was a small earthquake). The weather is just like it is in the UK, except better. Winters are wet (in SA), occasionally sunny, and summers are sunny with added sun and extra sunshine
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I'm autistic. That means I'm smarter than you.

[Spudly]

[Benno]

I'll add my review of Cairns actually.

Nobody there is Australian, nobody there is over the age of 19. Except the abos, who punch said 19 year olds and each other on occasion, and said 19 year olds then go to one of the many hostel internet cafes and skype their friends back home (somewhere in Europe) about the funny aboriginal that just punched them, maybe (probably) post a facebook status about it. This happens many times a day. Thongs/flip flops are mandatory even when it is raining - and when it rains, jesus does it rain. The 'beach' is a green slimy swamp. Do not enter.

Also if you can't get laid in Cairns by an 18-19 year old pommie girl on her gap year in a hostel bed while the lads chuckle in the corner of the room watching you and whispering encouragement then you can't get laid anywhere.

Cairns in a nutshell.
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[Lord Percy]

No mention of Perth yet! People say it's the most boring of the cities, but I have no idea because Perth is the only place I went! I was like the Irish... only went to look for work. Hah. So I spent 8 months there and worked the whole time. If you want to earn money, WA (West Australia) is where it's at. Or the the mines, or Darwin, but it's pretty tough to get work up there now, or so I've hard. Anyway, in Perth, even the lowliest most bottom-paid building assistant will get $20 an hour. I found myself in a factory on $28 an hour and getting double time for 6 hours on Saturday. In all, for a 100% unqualified simple clock-in, clock-out, banter with the guys (mostly immigrants) job, I was earning the equivalent of about £40'000+ salary. Maybe even 50'000.

But anyway that's all by-the-by, because OP wants to set up his own company and practice something. Probs dentistry or something I guess?

My opinion of the 'life' in Oz was that it was sort of a bit hollow. Mostly focussed around wages, ownership, and having one of everything (house, car, boat, 4x4, motorbike, etc). No culture apart from the admittedly brilliant laid-back attitude. Also very racist towards non-white immigrants, even though the country is as much built by them as anybody else who's stepped foot onto their shores!

Hard to define it really. When I was there, I felt nothing. Really it is all just commerce. But the diversity is great in terms of how everybody from the world seems to be there. That's what I think anyway. However, aside from that, I can see the country going in the way that the US seems to have apparently gone - lots of stupid people with too much money....

It was only when I arrived back in the UK that I realised how great this country is. There's something to be said for out countryside, that's for sure. And the architecture. And the history, and sense of deep pride that goes with it.

Still miss Australia greatly, but honestly I think it was only because of the hefty wage I was getting. My purpose was to earn money, and that's what I did, so my memory of the place is good. To live there permanently would change things quite vastly.

Wages there are definitely great though, as long as you actually save your money, and don't waste it on stuff like $10 pints (normal price)...

[Kradmelder]

[The Artist]

Fuck Australia unless it is for a short period of time.

I know people earn more over there but it doesn't compensate for living prices. House prices even remotely near cities are insane.

[Benno]

[D O G]

[Wave2k]

Everything kills you over there.

Other than that its great
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[Bomberman]

[Kradmelder]

[Al]

I went backpacking and ended up staying in Brisbane for about 6 months working. So its probably not the same experience as somebody living there on a permanent basis.

One of the things for me is that I always thought wow it would be great to live in such a vast country where I could just go off exploring for days, but the thing is you can do that here as well, apart from you need to get a 30 minute train through the tunnel. Then you can enjoy many different countries, climates and cultures rather then one long hot, dusty never ending road to nowhere.

The only Australians I had a proper friendship with were the ones I worked with and they were nice guys but seemed to lack much depth. The whole friendship seemed very Americanized "hey buddy you coming over to watch the game at the weekend" then you didn't really have a proper conversation, it was just kind of about making each laugh with short comments/jokes.

It wasn't all bad I quite enjoyed my time there but apart from the weather being hotter I can't really see a big reason why I'd want to live there.

I'm glad I went as I think a lot of people have this dream of places being some kind of paradise and their whole life revolves around one day escaping their currant shit life and moving abroad.
Its a shame because if they realised the dream doesn't really exist they could probably get on and enjoy their currant life.
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[mistergixer]

I've never been, and can't especially say I ever want to. It's pretty far down my list of 'Oh, I'd really love to go there' places.

My sister-in-law has dual UK/OZ nationality, and she and my brother decided to emigrate over there a few years ago. They only lasted a few months before returning, the key reason being my brother's description of the Australians as 'intellectually limited'.


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[Benno]

[Kradmelder]

[Matt B]

My vote is for Melbourne Lived there for a year, moved to Sydney where I met my wife, then moved back. It's a lovely city, not as touristy as Sydney & Brisbane.

Australia is not for everyone. Something like 7000 ex-pats moved back to the UK last year. I think (don't quote me) about half of the English who emigrate there return in 5 years.

I lasted 5 years...
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stinkwheel: He had an animated .gif of a cat performing fellatio. It's not socially acceptable. It can have real life adverse effects on other people.

[MaybeGuy]

I'm in sydney right now, and fuck if i want to come home. I'll be coming back, selling my shit, and coming right back again.

I'd be interested in starting a business out there, pm me details.
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[D O G]

Wait till the law fucks you, Matt, and it will happen.