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?

(before you ask, I have no idea what a good reason is!).

There are several medical reasons such as being immunocompromised, known or predicted allergy to components (as in predicted by medical professionals not a parent on the net). You can be signed off as exempt. It’s a good system. Obviously the anti-vaxers hate it.

And it’s a potato scallop not a potato cake ha ha.

Potato cake in Victoria!

Potato cake in Victoria

Yes, and the rest of the country knows it’s wrong. Although from memory SA may also join you there, together with ‘togs’.

That's a hash brown.

People keep mentioning how expensive melb and syd is which is true. If you're interested in housing look at Hobart, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin. There are many other cities. We live in a 5 bed 5km from the city, you don't have to live in Sydney!

I don't like Oz for living, my mum lived there the last 16 years of her life so have experience of the living angle, but the animals, excluding h insects snd snakes, are very different and a positive, plus I did like the scenery, differences in landscapes across the country. My brother briefly (2 years) lived in Cairns and Sydney) but came home as also didn't enjoy living there either.
I have cousins there who all but 1 love it, the but 1 cousin lives and loves NZ tho
Each to their own and all that

Positives only @custardbear. I’m looking for biased views of how awesome Australia is!

It;s not a hash brown.

On the topic of supermarkets. i bloody love food courts. All mannner of really good thai, chinese, Italian, Vietnamese food available along with fast food such as McDonalds.

When we lived in Melbourne we used to go to the basement of a hotel where there were a dozen Vietnamese and Thai outlets. Noodle soups.....

the was to say it is definitely not a hash brown. Nor is it a potato farl or a potato croquette. This is what it looks like inside. Bigger than a man's palm. The potato is not mashed or minced or riced, it is a slice of potato that maintains it's potato integrity, battered and served up alongside a plate of chips (with chicken salt if that is your thing).

Chips and potato cakes scallops are just potato on potato overload. But SO SO So good.

I lived in Australia for a year and loved it. It was super friendly and loved the outdoor life. My main problem was it felt really isolated and I missed proper pubs and the history of the U.K. No buildings older than 1800s and architecturally all a bit boring in that respect.

Oh, and dim sims were mentioned ... this is a steamed dim sim. (Better that it looks!) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sim I miss dim sims but I was told there is a place in Shepherds bush where they sell imported packs of frozen ones.

You absolutely can get dim sims in the U.K.!

Please tell me where!!

I was going to try my hand at making them but need wonton wrappers (cue Amazon)

Being pregnant and giv

Whoops-clumsy fingers tonight.
That should have said being pregnant and giving birth in the public system.
Amazing midwives, fantastic labour and birth care, post birth care was also fantastic.
I was even fully supported at work and no hint at being pushed out being made redundant.

The thunder storms- actually amazes me.

Walking over the harbour bridge to work and seeing the opera house each morning (not so much at the moment though-wfh)

Trail runs a 5 minute drive from home.

So many parks with fantastic playgrounds.

The beaches

The tunnels that take you right across the city underground avoiding lots of stop/start.

The vineyards

2020 was supposed to be our year travelling within Oz but obviously hasn't happened. There's still so much to see!

If you're interested in housing look at Hobart, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin. There are many other cities. We live in a 5 bed 5km from the city, you don't have to live in Sydney!

That's only possible for a small number of people though. It's fine if you are a teacher, tradesperson or nurse but if you are a professional or in admin the pool of jobs in those areas is excruciatingly small. Everyone I know has jobs that literally only exist in Sydney or Melbourne. We all plan to leave when we retire and move somewhere like the examples you have mentioned as your retirement buck stretches so much further but not possible during working life.

@HoppingPavlova

If you're interested in housing look at Hobart, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin. There are many other cities. We live in a 5 bed 5km from the city, you don't have to live in Sydney!

That's only possible for a small number of people though. It's fine if you are a teacher, tradesperson or nurse but if you are a professional or in admin the pool of jobs in those areas is excruciatingly small. Everyone I know has jobs that literally only exist in Sydney or Melbourne. We all plan to leave when we retire and move somewhere like the examples you have mentioned as your retirement buck stretches so much further but not possible during working life.

There are professionals and admin workers in other cities. Plenty of them. My husband and I are both in professional roles. We're not cities full of teachers and nurses There are jobs to be had. Most of my friends that moved interstate are now moving back since they've had families and into the same industries. Probably not paid as highly but then cost of living is lower.

Yes, I'm in Perth. Lots of jobs of all sorts here. Bit of a strange comment!

No, definitely a lot of work in certain areas of finance for instance that is only possible in Syd and Melb. I have a few close friends in these roles and they would love to be able to do those jobs elsewhere but they just don’t exist.

Job I currently do (not finance), is only possible in Syd and Melb, literally no other companies with that job description/type of work in any other Stare or cities within our States. My previous job was in Health and that is an odd one as ‘theoretically’ the same job was available in other States and locations within the State but the only comparable position to mine in Sydney was in Melbourne. So people on equivalent titles in other States/cities could apply for our job in Syd or Melb as a step up as running larger departments, more responsibilities etc as opposed to a sideways move if that makes sense. So sure, we could go to that same job title in another State (or even other institutions within our States), and take a huge cut to pay over and above change in cost of living, but it would be a big step down the ladder every which way and a unique form of career suicide.

Hopping both my husband and I work in finance. And have done for 20 odd years. My dh is in quite a niche roll and we both have travelled for our jobs and know the industry very well. I know plenty of people in finance in Sydney who could do their jobs from my city, and working from home and out of various cities is much more common now. Things might once have been more high flying in Sydney or Melbourne but they aren't now. Between us we earn 400-500 a year. Could earn more in Sydney sure, but we'd also have a massive commute unless we live right in the city and housing would be extortionate.

Some of the best food in the world.
Fantastic wine.
Natural beauty
Weather
High living standards
Clean air
Great public health care
Beaches
Egalitarian culture (arguable sometimes but infinitely more so than the Uk)

megapack I challenge you to find my current job role anywhere other than Syd or Melbourne. It simply doesn’t exist anywhere else. Not a case of it existing somewhere else but money is less so I don’t want it. I simply have no choice other than 2 locations. It genuinely doesn’t exist anywhere other than that. This role can be done remotely - 100%, as pandemic lockdowns have shown as we have been remote for 12 months now. We have been ordered back in as of next month. I know for a fact the few companies that have this role will not allow remote to continue. I need to hire staff due to retirements. There are none. Usually we import for the role, generally UK. It’s a faff, takes forever, I can have an empty seat and everyone else working 24/7 until the person gets here after accepting the role, 12 mths not uncommon as lots insist on working it in with school years, then this, then that and my hands are tied as not exactly spoilt for choice. I proposed we just employ from that location if person was flexible and would do meetings out of hours over there. The horror. Nope. Got to stuff around and bring them out here to do same thing we have all been doing from home for 12mths. So not exactly a progressive line of work in that regard.

Also, not to be blunt but not sure what specialty area of finance you and your DH are in given each friend I know in finance telling me they can’t get jobs in other locations are on more each than the combined figure you have given for yourself and husband? Your jobs surely can’t be that niche and if they are you have not exactly done a great job negotiating. One of my kids is in a finance related industry (skill set transferable to super/insurance/banking), I would not say a niche job, certainly not a large pool of people with that skill set though and they would earn nearly half of what you claim as a combined income and that’s 3 years out of uni and now with full quals. Out of interest I have asked them if they could get a job elsewhere and they said they could. They could go to QLD, or WA and get work, they would never be unemployed but they would automatically drop to 50% of their current salary and it would be a lower level job with a wider applicant pool as the jobs they would be competing for wouldn’t need the skills or quals they are using now. Although they did admit they thought scoring an interview would be challenging as a prospective employer would just assume they may want remuneration in line with current work which would work against them so unless you address this up front you may well be unemployed. 50% is a pretty big drop well above the difference in cost of living in Syd/Melb as opposed to other places. But at least they are lucky, as I said my job literally does not exist elsewhere no matter how much of a drop in package I would be willing to accept. Still, next step is retirement and then I’m certainly free to go to SA, WA, QLD, heck even NT or Tassie.