I regret moving (back) to Australia

[GreenestGrass]

DP and I are both Australian. We did the typical young person thing of living in the UK and had the opportunity to extend our stay through work sponsorships and make it a more permanent move. For various reasons we decided to come back home to Australia, but as time goes by both of us feel increasingly regretful of our decision for a few reasons:

-Lower cost of living. I'm not saying living in the UK is cheap but my goodness, Australia is expensive. It really hit home for us when we moved back and were hit with prices for things.
-Lifestyle - we absolutely loved being able to travel easily and the access to different parts of the world. Australia feels so far away from everywhere and again, travelling internationally from here is super expensive. Cities in Australia also feel quite 'samey' and lacking character in comparison to the UK.
-Professional opportunities - with the much smaller population size, professional opportunities here in Australia just can't compare to what we had over there.

These are just a few of the reasons but overall we just preferred living there to here, and now there's not much we can do about it as it's unlikely we'd be able to start over again and also get the work permissions we'd need to legally work in the UK again.

Has anyone ever felt similar regrets? I'm doing my best to enjoy the things life in Australia has to offer but it does feel like we missed our chance a bit here :(

It really is very interesting how people define ‘culture’. A friend of mine commented the other day she walked right past a Nobel laureate in a foyer in Melbourne.

I also am bemused by some people’s definition of culture because it also seems so passive and one directional. For instance, what are they adding to the culture they are living in.

Having lived in both London and Sydney, I think in terms of culture that families can see and do, London does this extremely well. The sheer number of museums, galleries, activities as well as the architecture, length of habitation of different groups (romans, Saxons etc), activities is amazing.
But for it’s size, Sydney has lots going on too, but it’s a little unfair to compare, given the relative populations.
And yes, there is aboriginal culture to learn about, but it is different to looking at and experiencing all the things London has to offer - and I love Sydney!
It’s funny when people say the only things to do are the outdoor things though, we do have a number of art galleries, museums, theatres, music venues, loads of events on. Plus one thing that Sydney is excellent for is that because of the smaller population, none of these things are ever crazy busy, even in the holidays. Eg for the Australian Open, you just book tickets and go (and they’re about $30) whereas for Wimbledon you have to do all the insane queues or ballots etc. Even the Opera House is easily accessible for most people in terms of cost and they always have loads of different types of shows there. Even my son’s music group is doing their end of year graduation concert there!

Some things are generally true - London has a lot of history and I suppose the word culture has been used to describe all that goes with it

Australia has culture, lots of it but slightly different way of looking at it. We have moved past the cultural cringe phase and Aus has really gone for it in many things - food, sport, tourism

There are fantastic things about both, especially if you’re lucky enough to access lots of stuff but I’ve had a bit of a switch on just how mobile my whole family has been for generations, I’m finding the opposite ends of the world harder as we get older and time feels more finite between us. I really love London but the distance is not small. And climate issues I think will change how much we can jet around (unless electric planes help I suppose)

Anyway it’s a hard one as I’m so up for opportunity, and want my dc to be but then I’d like them to be closer than I am geographically. Any way will see what happens

I’d be really interested in some of you Aussies on this thread giving some info about energy prices over there.

we are planning to emigrate next year, and had always been aware that many things were more expensive, but in the current climate of energy crisis and the amounts the bills are predicted to go up I’m wondering if it might end up cheaper in Australia?

We live in a 5 bedroom, 3 living area house in Sydney and pay around $900 for electricity per quarter. It’s a bit more in the height of summer with the air con on, maybe up to $1200 per quarter. We have a smart meter so only pay for what we use. We don’t have gas.
I think $900 is about £520 so around £190 or so per month. We aren’t particularly careful, my DH works from home so we often have the heating or air con on, depending on the time of year.

Petrol is $195 per litre at the moment (£1.14) and this is high as we live in quite an expensive area. I’ve seen it for around $1.60 as well. Costs me about $85 to fill up my Toyota Rav 4 from empty to full (which covers around 560km).

The idea of culture as being 'stuff to look at' rather than the richness of the oral tradition of a culture that is many thousands of years old sits really oddly to me, but I recognise I didn't have a European upbringing; stories about the Dreaming were as much a part of my childhood as Bible stories or European fairy tales.

As a tourist, I wasn't aware of stories about the Dreaming when I visited Australia. I remember some stunning Aboriginal Art in the Art Museum of NSW, but I appreciate that many Europeans who visit or emigrate to Australia may miss the stories. There is certainly wonderful literature, music, film and TV that comes out of Australia.

I often feel though that comparing Austalia to the UK is like comparing apples and oranges. They are just SO different in every way. They both speak English - that's about where the comparison ends! And having lived in another new world country for many years, it really is best not to compare, and to just accept that there are positives and negatives everywhere. Which one you prefer is down to your own personal tastes.

Sushishop
Did I read it right that you said there was a huge nothingness in York? Did you not leave the crappy hotel you chose or something? That city is drnched in things to do???
Oz is beautful and easy but it depends what stage of life you are at I think.

I'm in Melbourne with a largish house and paid $800 for two months of gas in winter. Heating, hot water, cooking. This with two of us WFH every day.

I’m in melb with a 4 bed house but not huge, and we just paid 710 for 2 months gas, which is the most we’ve ever paid. I haven’t done the analysis to see how much is higher prices (must be some of it) and how much of it is I’m home with a baby and up all night and someone in my house has been sick nearly every day for a couple of months so we have been home with zero interest/energy in turning the heating down.
What I would ideally do is switch to using the rcac during the day at least on sunny days in winter as we have solar panels. Our gas cost in summer is low, 50 a month. Our electricity has been 180 a month in winter, in summer with the solar can get it very low.
Next year I will try harder to put a load of washing on in the daytime when I work from home and it’s sunny over winter, we have a significant evening load when I get a chance to do things after wrangling baby and dc all day.

I'm in a 2 bed apartment (only me) and just paid $60 for 2 months worth of gas and $72 for electricity for a month (winter). Heating & aircon rack up the big bills - I don't use either much and keep an eye on overall usage.

For context, we are also having significant energy market challenges which do mean higher prices and probably more to come, but not to the extent of the uk. Our national electricity market had to be closed and run centrally with set pricing for a couple of weeks this winter due to extremely high prices, which has never happened before, gas supply is running short (there is gas, but it’s contracted to overseas as lng; this is nothing like the situation in Germany) etc. they are working frantically on updating various market mechanisms to ensure smooth running, and prioritising some further interstate electricity connections. Summer is the grids peak usage so that will show how it’s going, previous summers have seen the national market under strain.

In Melbourne, 4 bedroom house ( not gigantic though).
Winter gas bill was $521 for 2 months , this drops to less than $100 over summer.
Electricity is around $90 a month.
Only 2 of us living here since adult children moved out. I'm here all the time.

You must have solar though ? My utility bills were for a 4 bed $400 a month minimum

It looks like we pay a lot less for power n WA. I have a 5 bedroomed house with pool and solar and we pay an average $150 per month for gas and electric.. We pay 26.6 cents per Kw for electricity with Synergy and 11.6 cents for gas with Kleenheat. We have multiple tvs, fridges freezers computers etc. I just checked I'm $500 in credit thank god for solar!

@RunningSME
No solar.
Very energy conscious though.
Close floor vents on rooms we don't use. Central heating is the most expensive item for sure.
Unplug electricals not in use. Have LED downlights, use lamps at night, Run the dishwasher once a day, washing machine maybe 3 loads a week ( cold mostly).
In winter have open fires to heat the living room, close off rooms. Wear warm clothes don't get around in tshirts in winter. Use the microwave to reheat things, not the oven.
Only 2 adults so it's pretty easy to cut down ( in our house anyway everyone is different).

Thanks everyone! I know historically Australias been more expensive for utilities, but it sounds like it’s evening out at the least.
So what happens when the electricity market shuts? I’ve not heard of that.

@Blanketwars not shuts, I haven’t conveyed that well. Our market has generators constantly bidding prices in to provide power to meet the available demand. The electricity supply continued uninterrupted, but the market operator closed down the bidding process and directed generators to supply defined amounts and defined the price. Electricity is a fascinating market.

I'm British, living in Australia and married to an Australian. I love visiting England on the occasional O/S holiday, but absolutely nothing could convince me to live there again. The lifestyle in Australia is amazing, even if you're as poor as can be you can go outside and enjoy the weather...free! Summer is gorgeous with the exception of a handful of really hot days (when you turn your AC on or head to the beach). Flooding and bushfires are really not as frequent as people seem to think they are. Covid has been handled pretty well. The health and education systems here are pretty good. I love travelling overseas but I'm always very happy to get back home.

I've seen two families on tiktok in the past week moving from England to Perth was just wondering if I'm missing something is Australia a good place to go

Reading with interest everyone's utility bills.

What is water costing you?

This is crazy listening to Australians story's of preferring living in the uk.
There so many of us all in the same boat.

I'm English from Nottingham England, moved to Australia travelled all over and ended up living and buying a house in Perth, 14 years we lived there, I met my irish girlfriend in 2016 and had 2 beautiful little boys, we moved back to ireland in November 2022 and I'm to this day really struggling, I get to visit my family lots in england which is a bonus but I can't help missing what we had in Australia our own house ect, we are currently living on my partners parents property in a log cabin. It's lovely but we are quite remote here in ireland and there really is a lack of things to do, I'm so torn I really miss my home country of England there is endless things to do there for the kids ect. There really isnt much to do here in ireland it really is quite boring but my partner isn't massive on moving to the uk so it just makes me miss Australia I think.
This log cabin was built to help with the move back to this part of the world but now I feel trapped and kind of wish I didn't accept the offer. It's all someone else's rules and I'm quite a independent person. The plan was always to move to England but now we are here this isn't the case. 3 countrys to consider ha ha makes me feel like we should never of moved. This group definitely makes me feel a little better reading people's views on there moves.
My names des happy to meet you all

I grew up in Australia and now live in the UK, I far prefer it! I just can't deal with that hot weather.

I think it's hard when you've lived away from your home country for a significant period of time, no matter where it is, because there are always things from the other place that you'll miss, and you're out of sync from where you are as well.

It sounds like you did leave a little early. However, you possibly will have wanted to return to be closer to family if you decided to start a family. You wouldn't be able to travel as much if you had children anyway. And the healthcare system is so much better in Australia.

I lived on and off in Canada in my early twenties. When my visa ran out I had to return to the UK and hated it. Everything looked small and miserable. The reality is that not only has Australia changed a little whilst you were away, but that you have probably changed a lot too. Returning home can sometimes feel odd and have a deja vu feeling..it sometimes feels as though you are going backwards.

I think that your feelings are normal and I think that you will readjust. Perhaps try a few new activities in Australia and find a new social group.