We recently moved to Adelaide in August, and so far absolutely love it. We lived and worked here for a year before kids and never really got over it. We now have 2 young kids (1 and 3) and figures if we wanted to make the move that now was the best time. I was in Sydney for 3 weekends for work in November and whilst it was a lot of fun it was crazy busy, hot and humid ( Adelaide has low humidity which makes the heat so much easier to handle) and felt very impersonal and unfriendly, which isn't what I'm used to here. It's definitely somewhere that is brilliant to visit, but I'm so glad we didn't move there. Melbourne is lovely but the winter weather can be pretty ropey! Haven't been to Perth and Queensland is lovely but waaaaay to humid for me. Perfect holiday destination though!
So far:
Pros:
The weather is awesome. I really really love it.
The lifestyle is great, I really feel you work to live not live to work. We're pretty outdoorsy and take full advantage of it, we go camping, fishing, hiking, travelling etc. There are some absolutely incredible places to visit that are usually so quiet and so beautiful. You really feel in touch with nature, and I love that so much.
National parks can be fantastic and you can camp in many of them cheaply.
Beaches are fantastic and even yesterday (New year's day) we found a pretty quiet beach down the coast.
Wages are great (possibly depends on your job but great for us, especially compared to U.K.)
Petrol is REALLY cheap. Yesterday I paid 104.9 for unleaded which works out at about 58p/l. Prices vary dramatically though!
Produce is amazing. Depending where you shop it can be expensive but if you use markets, Aldi etc it's not bad at all. Adelaide and south Australia have amazing produce and great markets, and growing veg is amazingly easy compared to Scotland where we came from.
I find the people absolutely lovely, so kind, genuine an friendly, and would do anything to help you.
It is much greener and prettier than you'd expect specifically here (not all over!). We are in the hills which is a bit cooler and wetter than Adelaide itself.
Cons:
The visa experience is very very long and tortuous. We used an agent who I couldn't recommend enough. I was the primary visa applicant so basically everything was down to me, and the amount hoops I had to jump through and bits of paperwork I had to produce was incredible, but the agents kept me right the whole way and made sure we didn't mess up and have to start all over again. It took just over 18 months in total.
Be very careful what visa subclass you go for. Some are MUCH better than others in terms of benefits. We are on 189 subclass which includes healthcare and schools, we can buy a house, run a business, live and work anywhere in australia. Renewing is also cheap and easy, and we can apply for citizenship after 5 years. Some visas are very restrictive as to where you can live, you can't buy houses, don't get medical or schools which could make life very expensive.
Moving is VERY expensive, especially if you ship a container which we did, although this is almost certainly cheaper than buying it all new.
Rent is VERY expensive. We are still waiting for our U.K. house to sell so we can buy, then our monthly costs will be more than halved.
I agree the internet sucks, we have NBN which is supposed to be the fastest and it's not great. On the other hand there is great 3G/4G coverage, even in quite remote places.
Whilst the heat is lovely, the heatwaves are VERY hot. We nearly ended up with a house without air con, and I am SO glad ours does have air con and its really good and efficient. the nights would be really unbearable without it.
Haven't had much experience with snakes, and don't get many cockroaches but a LOT of spiders, and in the house if we're not really good at keeping doors shut. They're mostly huntsmen which are massive and scary looking but not dangerous, but you do get red backs which are very terrifying. Lots of lizards and insects of all sorts in the garden too which slowly getting used to.
Missing people really sucks. A lot. Eapecially around Christmas time (although we had an amazing Christmas Day in the sun!) My mum is going to be our first visitor in February and I can't wait! We're going back to the U.K. for a couple of weeks in August too (family wedding) and are hoping to make a trip home every 18 months or so.
Sorry that's very long, but I hope it helps. If you have an specific questions feel free to ask. Obviously this is only our experience and we haven't been here long, but we love it!