Positives about living in Australia

[Thedramasummer]

So after seeing a glut of negativity regarding Australia I though I would try balance with a bit of positivity!

Please no shit throwing or nasty unfounded comments.

A beautiful country with the most interesting animals.
Egg laying mammals? ☑️
The most venomous snakes?☑️
Beautiful and noisy birds?☑️
I even enjoy the spiders here!

What do others love about Australia?

Queen Vic Market in Melbourne, we spent a couple of years in walking distance and loved it. More broadly speaking the food - in season things are so cheap and fresh.

The smell of eucalyptus when you go exploring, just breathing in deeply felt like it was doing me good.

Gold class on tight arse tuesdays (I know gold class equivalents exist at some cinemas here, but none near us).

I didn't like the heat during the day and it is part of what stops me from moving back but in the spirit of this thread, the warm evenings were lovely. To wander out at 9pm and know, without a shred of doubt, that you didn't need a cardie for the walk to get gelato and talk to the possums in the park, I miss that.

Conversely, cool changes. The wind change followed by a drop of 10-15 degrees in such a short space of time, amazing.

I'm sure I can think of more... long service leave, not that I ever worked anywhere for long enough to earn it. Warm NYE.

Yes, we love Long Service Leave . If you are the right person in the right job you can also negotiate additional annual leave as standard as part of employment contract before signing on the dotted line.

Oh and we have great electrical storms too! With amazing, dramatic lightening...love that.

We're moving house on Wednesday to a place with a sea view...just a step from the beach. Cannot bloody wait! I've loved living in the small country town we're in but I don't think it's right to live in Oz without living by the sea!

Next to no cases of COVID.
Sorry had to say it.
Beaches and sunshine.

Lovely thread, hope it can stay positive. I love most of the things mentioned above, especially the big blue skies, sunshine, and the fact that I live five minutes from an absolutely incredibly beautiful beach. But the thing that I probably love the most is that I was able to buy a house with a swimming pool! I always wanted one, but it wouldn't have been possible (or practical) to buy one in the UK or Ireland. It makes me happy every time I look at it.

The other countries I've lived in had their advantages too (and many of them), but Australia has my heart, I feel more at home here than in my birthplace. And of course I feel massively lucky to live a practically normal life with practically zero Covid.

I'm not a very sporty person - I go to
The Australian Open and maybe one AFL game year. There is so much else to do in Melbourne, in normal times. Theatre, ballet, music, film festivals, comedy festival, writers festival. Fabulous fresh food from all countries of the world.
What I like best is the passion I see in my DC and their friends for social justice, equality, inclusion, reconciliation with First Nations and us becoming a Republic.

When we emigrated to Oz, my Dad said " A man could wear shorts every day here ". It's why he wanted to move. And he did ( wear shorts every day ). The climate is heaven.

See on wanted down under the houses all seem really expensive and quite small? This isn't what I imagine and often no garden , surely you live in a sunny place you want a garden unless your on the beach, do they just show the worst houses ?

Starrynight21 The problem is only people from cold climates can wear shorts every day in most places. The rest of us are wimps for cold and are rugged up in tracksuits at 20deg and any less and the beanies come out. Sure, if you live far North or out West it’s permanent shorts and t-shirts but most places we rug up outside of summer and stand side by side with Brits in shorts.

Vibrant arts scene.
Brilliant weather I am for most of the year (I don't love the midsummer heat, but I do love Spring/Autumn and ADORE winter when it's sunny and dry but not too cold, just cold enough to wear snuggly clothes and eat winter food and light a fire.
Amazing food and wine culture with focus on locally grown/made etc.
Brilliant food markets.
Amazing SE Asian food. (I miss British Indian food, but love Thai etc here)
Beautiful beaches which feel totally empty compared to Europe.
Stunning scenery / countryside.
Laidback, friendly people on the whole - nobody getting upset about parking outside people's houses for example. (I don't say this to belittle the UK, but I just can't imagine the kind of conflict between neighbours happening in Aus. No worrying, no passive aggressive notes in the letterbox - I imagine someone would just knock and say 'oh g'day mate, your ute's blocking my drive. Would you mind moving down a bit? By the way, want to have a beer? And here's a bag of lemons from my tree')
Generally friendly, inclusive people - less 'keeping yourself to yourself' - as an expat here, I feel very warmly welcomed by colleagues, neighbours and even strangers who have been very generous.
The common culture of 'everyone chipping in' and bringing things to shared meals, BBQs, etc.
Schools not fining people for taking kids out of holidays to go away - it's seen as a good thing to go travelling or to take a mental health day / have a day off for 'family time' etc.
Lots of opportunities to outdoor sports and social time outdoors.
Generally - friendly and helpful customer service.

Beautiful empty beaches, watching the dolphins play, park bbq's, endless sky, healthcare is brilliant, can book online to see my gp within hours, hospital care is great, job opportunities, friendly communities

Hello poms!

I love .....

• free parking mostly everywhere (Perth)
• amazing cheese and wines
• beautiful beaches
• ability to design and build own home to suit
• GP availability and general healthcare

The poster upthread who commented the houses seem small and expensive as seen on a TV show: houses here are VERY expensive but Australians tend to build the biggest houses in the world (this is well documented). Maybe the houses shown fit the budget of the people on the show?
I don’t think big houses are a good thing, btw, unless people have big families.

I'm in a rural town in NQ so I've seen nothing of these expensive houses. Up here you can buy a 6 bedroom house in the middle of of few acres of rainforest and it's still fairly cheap.

I love how much space there is. My town is geographically fairly large and well equipped, but it's never crowded. I can drive to the beach on a Saturday morning and get a free park right in front of it, and have plenty of place to lounge on the sand. Then I can wander off to a cafe or restaurant near by whenever I feel like it and know I'll get a table. Longest I've ever had to wait for a GP or dental appt is 24 hours. There's only a traffic jam if there's some sort of accident or flash flood.

It just makes day to day life feel really relaxed when you don't have to meticulously plan everything in advance and compete for space all the time.

Sorry PeggyHill I meant more city houses.
Houses in a lot of rural areas are very affordable.

Yes, I've seen the price of some of the houses in the big cities. Definitely out of my price range!

I think this illustrates the very crux of the problem with the "Australia is so *insert negative or positive comment here". This country is bloody massive and very diverse. This fact seems to be totally lost on a lot of British people who haven't lived over here. My experience in my little NQ town is so far removed from what goes on in the big cities. It almost doesn't seem worth comparing.

The birdsong.
The wildlife
It is clean.
Generally speaking Australians are a community minded mob. I have seen and been part of lots of community initiatives. Mateship is a thing.
Long road trips to far away places.
Free BbQS in most city parks
Compulsory voting
No vaccine no play
Aboriginal history, heritage & culture. The dreamtime stories, sustainable practices and connection to country are quite mesmerising.
Brilliant schools & opportunities for children.
For me the warm summers are not a positive but the beautiful mild blue sky winters are sublime.

Oh and great medical system. No wait to see a GP and anything acute or urgent is generally very well handled by the hospital.

Oh and Asian food & seafood (never had a shrimp on the barbie but prawns & icy cold chardonnay on the beach are quite fantastic).

Japanese, Thai, Malaysian, Chinese. Bloody delicious. (Nasi Goreng for dinner).

Last one - covid has been held at bay. For now, at least. We have been able to lead a relatively normal life since last May.

I'm in suburban Perth and the houses are nowhere near as expensive as the east coast. It was one of the reasons I chose to move here, and country towns can be dir.t cheap. Like every other country, some areas are cheap, some crazily expensive.. But I get a LOT more bang for my buck here than London (and Ireland).

I also have fixed feeling about the birdsong. I bloody love the kookaburras in the garden, but there is a bird that lives in my the tree by my bedroom window that sounds exactly like my alarm clock, and if I had a gun.... .

And I know it has already been said but the wild life is stunning. I live near Penguin Island which has adorable Fairy penguins, and of course Quokkas are adorable. We have hundreds of dolphins in the bay, it can be quite idyllic when they are jumping with their babies, or swimming along when you are kayaking.

mixed not fixed ffs

I love how non-racist it is.

You don't get belligerent right-wing angry Brits immigrating here, not seeing the hypocrisy of now being an immigrant themselves. It's ok if you're white don't cha know.

Also enjoy getting to know a bit about Aboriginal culture, where are they btw? Couldn't find any in Sydney, or even the Gold Coast.

No doubt Nigel Farage will join us soon to clear things up.

Schools not fining people for taking kids out of holidays to go away, it's seen as a good thing to go travelling or to take a mental health day or have a day off for 'family time' etc.

This ^

My son in Oz took his kids out of school for 6 months in 2019, to travel around the country and learn about different ways of life. The school and the Dept of Education wished them luck and sent them on their way. Kids did a bit of home schooling on the way but mainly just lived their best life and learned so much.