I'm Australian. AMA

[TwistTwoo]

I live in Australia and would be happy to answer any questions you have about it. Things like:

• The weather
• Housing
• Schooling
• Healthcare
• Politics
• Dangerous animals - are they that dangerous and do you come across them often?
• Jobs
• etc.

Spiders… really how big are the spiders? I’d love to see Australia but the spiders… they worry me.

I’ll happily send you books :) PM me and I’ll send you books :)

tell me about the spiders.

Fair point! I guess I was just surprised.

I would be surprised if you saw more than a couple when visiting - if that. And they wouldn't be huge ones 😊 So, don't worry. Remember, the huge ones aren't dangerous to you.

@Lesina

I’ll happily send you books :) PM me and I’ll send you books :)

I actually sometimes use an online bookseller called Booktopia - they're UK-based and their delivery is free. It is more cost-effective for me to do that on occasion rather than buy from a retailer here. (That is likely one of the reasons why bookshops have died off, I suppose.)

tell me about the spiders.
I can sum up the spiders by saying don't stick your bare toes or fingers into dark places (ie. under an outdoor table) and you'll be fine. I've never been bitten. Wasps, now ...

I rarely see spiders but when I do it’s more the Redbacks than the larger Huntsman. You would have to be in a bush setting to see them often. Many venues also choose have annual pest sprays, so you wouldn’t see one in a hotel say. I have a pest spray at home every few years more to keep the cockroaches at bay. Sometimes I see them on the floor as they crawl in from outside but they are already dead by then usually.

Snakes can be a problem too, depending on where you are. In fact, my children’s school has done emergency lockdowns when a brown snake has been seen slithering across the playground during recess. They call in a snakecatcher to relocate it to another bush place, as they are a protected species.

@WalkingaroundJardine

Snakes can be a problem too, depending on where you are. In fact, my children’s school has done emergency lockdowns when a brown snake has been seen slithering across the playground during recess. They call in a snakecatcher to relocate it to another bush place, as they are a protected species.

When we had chickens, brown snakes made a nest under their coop. I think they found the ideal environment: darkness, warmth, and ready food in eggs and mice. We had to be careful entering the coop in case we surprised a snake sunbaking. Eventually the hens were taken by a quoll.

I'd second the friend thing. A lot of the Australian women I know are still super close with their school friends and they don't want to make new friends. Most of my close friends are not Australian, with the exception of my church friends. A lot of Aussies don't go away to university so their teenage friendships last.

@LadyCassandra @WalkingaroundJardine

I'd second the friend thing. A lot of the Australian women I know are still super close with their school friends and they don't want to make new friends. Most of my close friends are not Australian, with the exception of my church friends. A lot of Aussies don't go away to university so their teenage friendships last.

I guess I could be an anomaly. I moved away in year 11 to another state and never really had the opportunity to make school friends my own age in my final year of school. I did keep up with my best friend from school for a time, but we eventually grew apart. I made my own friends at uni but didn't keep up with them afterwards.

As an adult, I do have a close circle of friends that I've known since our children were small. My now-adult son made the conscious decision to move away to another city for uni as he wanted to make new friends entirely and create a fresh network. He still keeps in touch with his old friends, though.

Maybe that's just a Sydney thing.

After my marriage break up last year, I met a whole group of women around my age (50's) through a face book page for women (of all ages) wanting to make new friends. It has tens of thousands of members and lots of organised events. I live in Melbourne.

People can be fairly mobile here, a lot of the people I socialise with didn't actually grow up or go to school in Melbourne, so they are open to meeting new people.

Yeah, I think it could be. Sydney women are notoriously cliquey!

While I'm still in touch with my high school friends, we're scattered all over the country and I've had no trouble establishing new friends over the years. Through the kids' activities, work and hobbies. So yes, maybe the cliques are a Sydney thing!

WARNING: DON'T CLICK ON THE VIDEO BELOW IF YOU'RE SENSITIVE TO SPIDERS.

I was gardening this afternoon and it appears I pierced a spider's egg sac. Immediately, thousands of tiny, yellowish spiderlings poured out of the collapsed sac and started crawling around. Of course, I felt I had to record it before I dosed them thoroughly with pest spray. If you zoom in, note the shape of the body (I think they are little redbacks) and the fact they are cannibalising each other. Apologies for the wobbling.

https://youtube.com/shorts/8DA0e-FUmd4?feature=share

As someone who divides their time between Australia and the UK I find people are generally friendlier in the UK. When I’m there I miss the little asides and laughs you share with strangers here. I also find car drivers a lot more aggressive to pedestrians in Sydney and Melbourne than Britain.

I find the Melbourne winters cold and definitely need a coat!

My Aussie friend (who did go to uni) is still close friends with her high school and uni friends despite moving to Switzerland in her 20s and having family. Her dad still
lives in Kuranda though so she sees him and then sees the friends. Plus a few of them did the Aussie backpacker thing and lived in London for a while like she did so they stayed connected through that.

Interesting you say this. The few Aussie women I met when younger (through friends and an Aussie crowd), a few had to be friendly with us because our mutual Aussie male friend (a millionaire) was friends with us first. There was a definite frostiness though.

My DM though has a few Aussie friends she met in the 60s when working in advertising (they were all in London) and she had the total opposite experience to me, they were/are lovely and friendly.

Ooh another one. How much of life is like “Five Bedrooms” and “600 Bottles of Wine”? Both of which are hilarious by the way.

I can't say I've seen those, either!

They're hilarious. But they seem to be Aussie imports into BBC tv. We watched them lot over lockdown. One is basically about a house share - with 5 people but romantic interests. The other is based on Grace Rouvray's real life dating scenarios but is very funny and very relatable.

This might be a strange question but here goes. I find the sunshine in Europe comforting, inviting and pleasant. I find the sunshine in the US (particularly Florida) harsh and unpleasant. Might just be me??? How would you describe the Australian sunshine?

Huge country with different climates. I find the dry heat in Adelaide and Perth summers very harsh .Over 40 degrees I feel like I am being hit over the head. In Melbourne it is currently autumn and we have been having lovely sunny days in mid 20s. It is gorgeous.

Yes Melbourne weather can be gorgeous. Sadly it doesn’t often last long - I don’t think I’ve lived anywhere with such changeable weather!

I suspect OP is talking about some areas that you probably wouldn't want to live in in Sydney (Redfern for example).

OP seems to live in a remote-ish area so isn't probably au fait with house prices in desirable areas. He or she isn't aware of the problems that men are causing women in Australia either Tickle v Giggle being one.

https://juliebindel.substack.com/p/tickle-v-giggle-or-is-it-giggle-v

OP I've spent probably 6 years in Australia from when I was a backpacker to later on working there in several States. When I was a backpacker and living in Manly I used to work in a takeaway shop at the far end of George Street, Sydney; just round the corner from the theatre.

At that time all these well educated people from the theatre would come in and order a takeaway ...."and a hot chip". What they meant were a portion of chips.

Do people still speak like that?

@Theblacktulip It is actually unbelievable to me how unaware so many Australians are of the minefield they are walking into as regards the trans issue. It really shocks me that States have passed gender self ID with barely a ripple. It seems to me that Tickle vs Giggle has a higher profile in the UK than Australia.

It’s going to bite them on the bum in a very significant way at some point. I listened to Joe Szeps being interviewed on Triggernometry last week and he made the point that Australia has developed very much into a “Don’t rock the boat / cause any trouble” sort of society. Personally I find this very worrying.