Why would you move to Australia for £20 extra a month?

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Why would you move to Australia for £20 extra a month?

Where do i sign? id leave UK for OZ tomorrow,, totally agree!

I love Sydney, it's phenomenal, have family in N.S.W, it's amazing!

People saying they wouldn't go cos of spiders are being ridiculous, I'm TERRIFIED of spiders yet I'd live there in a heartbeat, I've been twice, hardly even saw any spiders.

And to say you can go to the beach in the UK, well yeah, but come on! Beaches in Oz are the best in the world, nowhere compares, UK beaches are nothing compared to Australia.
I can only assume you've never even been to Australia so you have no idea. And if you have and you still say UK is better, I'm sorry, but to me (and my mum), that's just weird

Not wanting to piss anyone off btw, we all have our likes and dislikes, just that I adore Australia.

You couldn't pay me 2k extra a month to live in Aus.

We lived in Oz for a couple of years, travelled around it extensively, had great holidays, ate some fantastic food, met some great people but we ran out of places to explore. We missed the cultural diversity of Europe, the UK included, is so varied and interesting, we just wanted more! And in terms of dh's career, Australia is a bit of a back water and he wasn't ready to move into the slow lane.

I don't think it's a bad place to live - a couple of my siblings live there and are perfectly happy - it just wasn't for us, we'd holiday there again to visit family but living there holds little attraction.

Well summarised @warriorsall

Many Australians live very suburban lives, often in enormous housing estates with cookie-cutter houses and you have to drive everywhere. Far from living a 'laid-back' beach like they have a long-hours culture, fewer holidays than we do and less generous maternity leave. There is often a lot of very little interest to pass through if you decide to go somewhere else, huge monotonous drives. They have less consumer choice, espsicially with clothes etc, and are a pretty conventional and conservative culture.
Why not go and try it for the experience but a lot of you seem to have fantasies about the reality of it.

Oh my. As bad as the forced jollity of street parties. Another reason not to move there..

Err, not sure how it’s ‘forced jollity’ when it’s entirely volantary! I think it’s great that the local government is happy to pay for us to have a barbie down the beach to promote neighbourliness, ymmv!

Midsomer What do people in the UK live if not suburban lives? The UK is full of vast housing estates. It's only the fortunate few that get to live in beautiful homes in the UK.
Anyway...Oz is so enormous you have far more choice than anonymous suburbs. We live in an older town...a quaint and pretty place.

It has far more in common with an English village than the set of Neibours.

We don't have long hours either. There are far more public holidays and wages are much higher.

The "huge monotonous drives" you mention are scenic and epic...with vast ocean views or stunning bush landscapes...kagaroos, emus and other wildlife to be seen. The beaches teem with wildlife and I watch Rosella parrots whilst I drink my morning coffee in my 2 acre garden.

Not showing off...just balancing your views. As for clothes...yes there's less choice here but once you're here...you really don't care. There's a lot less "show" in terms of style. People dress for comfort...lots of linens and cottons. Sandals for months...it's heaven.

As for conventional...erm...not really. You'd have to travel a little more and meet more people than you seem to have done.

And then there's the snakes.........

Not seen on in 4 years AND I live semi rural near a creek.

I'd encourage my grown kids to go with their partners for a better life.
We lived abroad for most of my life. You get over having Europe on your doorstep and find the lanscape fascinating everywhere. We lived in high plains desert and it was so different and gorgeous and had tarantulas and snakes, scorpions and black widows. We only saw them occasionally.
Back in UK it now feels cramped and cold even though we are enjoying beautiful views and walks all over, and we've had a few sunny beach holidays that was fun.

No. Not for 100 times that amount. For a seriously major upheaval like that I'd be looking at more than just a few quid a month more.

It's horses for courses - loads of people want to live in Oz - if you are one of them you don't need to receive loads of ££'s as an incentive! We've lived there - it wasn't for us, we didn't get over not having Europe on our doorstep, we love living in Europe...the lovely thing is getting the choice and we feel very lucky to have travelled and lived in many different countries - but the more we travel the more we know that we love living in the UK - I heard someone say the same thing to me about their home in Bruges at the weekend. Travel is a wonderful thing - finding somewhere to settle that feels like home is great too - thankfully we all like somewhere different and we don't usually need Mumsnet to rubberstamp our choices.

I wouldn’t do it personally but my DH lived there for a while before we met and he loved it, his best friend is still out there. It’s not my cup of tea, too hot for starters.

Well, we're facing returning to Oz!

I believe I have a reasonably balanced view; I lived in Oz for 15 adult years, circumstances brought me back to the UK, DH emigrated with me, plus 2 pre-schoolers 15 years ago.

I had had a great time in Oz; I agree with so many of the positives people have stated; and yes, it's not paradise- where is?

However for us, if The Pull to return to Oz wasn't quite strong enough before, The Push to get the hell out of Brexit Britain is becoming irresistible.

We have now two young adult sons, both looking to work in industries that will be decimated by Brexit. They will be far better off in Oz.

I might not have felt that 5 years ago, but we are increasingly, as a family, remembering the abundant upsides of Australian life.

Unfortunately, like the vast majority of Brits who never in a thousand years imagined that we might ever be on an unstoppable course to a crash-out Brexit, one that no one seems to want, but which our PM Cummings has engineered - we wish we'd sold up before Sterling becomes worthless.

Miljah are you all coming back here? You, DH and your two sons?

Miljah We have . family member who moved to Oz and then 10 years later moved her whole family back home to the UK, only to find that the life she thought she would have at home didn't exist, so 2 years later she moved her family back to Oz where you guessed it life wasn't as lovely or the same as she remembered it and she packed her family up again to return back to the UK where she has finally settled and accepted life in the UK warts and all.
I see this happen a lot - although rarely as bad as my family member - where families who have moved back and forth to OZ and always see life elsewhere with rose tinted glasses - somewhere is always better than where you are...it must be difficult to live life feeling so unsettled and unhappy with your lot.

Cookie cutter houses! 🤣

I would greatly miss the easy access to Europe and the diversity to be found in the UK. Not every nation so physically small can punch above its weight in the way the UK does.

I wish people wouldn’t say “Oz”.

I’ve been to Australia a few times, my DP is Australian (with a British passport) and all his family are still there. I love it for a holiday: the pace of life, the weather, the lifestyle, the beaches etc but I wouldn’t live there. The institutional and normalised sexism and racism is shocking. My DP’s family are about 20 mins from Sydney’s CBD so not exactly in the sticks either. My DP was brought up with the idea that he (and his twin so “extra special”) was a “bicentennial baby” born in the 200th anniversary of Australia- he was born in 1988! I tell him him every time- you were born in the 200th year of white Australia- there were people there before the English!

Or the British, even.