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’s always strange when emigrating to Australia threads come up, the focus on culture. It’s nice to have a bit of culture, but it’s not like British people spend all their waking hours in museums and art galleries. I imagine most British people have never even been to the British Museum, for example. Most people just watch the telly and go to the pub and might do something “cultural” a few times a year.

I don’t know why all expats are expected to be culture fiends and have the lack of Rome just a Ryanair flight away something that will make or break the deal. Most people in Australia are exactly the same as British people!

I loathe Welsh Weather ..rain, rain, rain. Totally understand the cultural abyss the Oz seems to have so never fancied it as a kid. Also that mice infestation a couple of years ago made me wonder if humans really should be inhabiting certain parts of Oz...leave it to the Wildlife! I fancy California but Californian mates shakevtheir heads, they love the culture and opportunity here...dont care about the weather

Well said @NotBadConsidering. Anyone would think from reading threads like this that everyone in the UK spends all their spare time in cultural activities. I have several friends in the UK and they rarely seem to do anything cultural, and they don't travel around their own country anything like as much as people do here (NZ).

@NotBadConsidering I think the same!! We don't take in 'culture' every weekend. Especially with young kids. They just want to be outdoors!

No, I think going to a museum or gallery is way more important to more British people and they are different like that.

@Fairyliz

Blimey pick me up off the floor; you do know you are posting on MN don’t you op. One of the rules of MN is that you can’t say the U.K. is better to live than anywhere else in the world. Apparently the U.K. is a dirty racist corrupt country the worst in the world. Yet people will risk their lives to get here funny that.

People risk their lives to get to Australia. The Australian government has been dealing with boats full of asylum seekers for a long time. People from war torn developing countries look to all western countries for options and decisions are made based on a number of factors. It’s logical that asylum seekers and refugees from Sri Lanka and Vietnam are going to look at Australia and other countries will look to the UK based on geography. It’s usually that which determines the goal. It’s not like the UK is being swamped with people from Central America is it?

Clearly the UK is a great place (or should be) for many people to live. The question is whether the differences between the two are real, temporary, fleeting or permanent and what people like the OP is prepared to deal with.

Tbf we did go to Tate Modern yesterday and it struck me how incredible it was to have that for free. We also have a local museum we go to every week.

Having said that I loved a new gallery in Melbourne last time I visited which had an incredible children’s area - would love that here, can’t remember the name possibly near Fitzroy

NZ is nice I’m sure but not a good solution - far from family but still not U.K.

I understand completely OP. I lived in Australia for some years and did stints in several States. First thing I noticed when I returned (one shivery October day) was the amount of people outside walking about and children on bikes. Something that is so restrictive in Australia because of the extreme weather. I felt so free returning to the UK.

We had realised how expensive it was when we were there as it was cheaper (and better quality) to get stuff sent to us from Europe (especially electricals) rather than buy locally.

We also felt very remote. Latterly we were in WA and you couldn't just go for a drive to the country and stop at a country pub...because there were none. I remember spending far too much money going to York which had been recommended, staying in a dump of a hotel, eating atrocious food and knowing it was all so wrong. There was just a huge nothingness there.

We have friends in Byron Bay who keep wanting to house swap in the summer (obviously not the past two years) but although I enjoyed weekends there, there is absolutely no desire to do the swap thing at all. Too many places in the UK and Europe to visit.

I think going to a museum or a gallery might seem more important to British people because 1) we have so much shit we stole over the years to fill them and 2) the weather is so variable we're used to the idea of having something inside to do. It's the same reason parks and beaches are mobbed when the sun actually does show itself in the summer - there's fuck all else to do because so much of our recreational stuff is indoors.

I'm lucky enough to have lived all over the world as an expat and have loved all but one posting...however we're back in UK now. I have never wanted to live anywhere else for the long-term...and I'm not British.
if you can...just come back.

@ChipsAreLife we live in Aus and run a business in the U.K. The tax side of things is pretty easy and straightforward. If you find an accountant out here who knows about dual systems it’s fine to set it all up, they’ll do it all for you.

@jerometheturnipking

I think going to a museum or a gallery might seem more important to British people because 1) we have so much shit we stole over the years to fill them and 2) the weather is so variable we're used to the idea of having something inside to do. It's the same reason parks and beaches are mobbed when the sun actually does show itself in the summer - there's fuck all else to do because so much of our recreational stuff is indoors.

I'd rather be outdoors in an English summer. Not blisteringly hot and not under the ozone hole. You don't know how lucky you are.

Just read about Darwin as recommended by a MNetter up thread...sounds lovely! Dunno what the job prospects would be like there.

Places like St Fagans Museum, and masses of other heritage sites on the doorstep are great. But the weather here is absolutely shite!

I went to Australia a few years ago to see if I wanted to live there but decided against it as it seemed so isolated to the rest of the world. Also re a poster saying her friend loves the big open spaces of Australia, it was one of the things I hated, even the suburbs were too big and too wide and too quiet. I’ve never regretted my decision to not live there. I haven’t read all the posts but OP, depending on your age or profession is it not possible to return to UK permanently or for work?

I'd rather be outdoors in an English summer. Not blisteringly hot and not under the ozone hole. You don't know how lucky you are.

I know exactly how lucky I am - my complaint about living in the UK is the lack of availability of varied outdoor pursuits because so many wimps people think the outdoors is only worth using when it's 25C and sunny. Which in turn creates the issue of the more desirable options being completely mobbed when that does happen because everyone has the same idea. I'm not saying I'd prefer an Australian summer (I'm Scottish, I'd die), just that we could do with taking an attitude adjustment towards what constitutes "good weather for doing stuff outside" as a country here.

@Fairyliz

Blimey pick me up off the floor; you do know you are posting on MN don’t you op. One of the rules of MN is that you can’t say the U.K. is better to live than anywhere else in the world. Apparently the U.K. is a dirty racist corrupt country the worst in the world. Yet people will risk their lives to get here funny that.

I'm Australian and I appreciate and love Australia and its sometimes terrifying vastness and weather, but the UK is hands down my favourite country on earth, always will be. Never lived there, only visited, but I always feel like I 100% belong there. I truly wish my ancestors hadn't been deported/left (so do the original Australians I imagine).

@jerometheturnipking

I'd rather be outdoors in an English summer. Not blisteringly hot and not under the ozone hole. You don't know how lucky you are.

I know exactly how lucky I am - my complaint about living in the UK is the lack of availability of varied outdoor pursuits because so many wimps people think the outdoors is only worth using when it's 25C and sunny. Which in turn creates the issue of the more desirable options being completely mobbed when that does happen because everyone has the same idea. I'm not saying I'd prefer an Australian summer (I'm Scottish, I'd die), just that we could do with taking an attitude adjustment towards what constitutes "good weather for doing stuff outside" as a country here.

I’m not sure this is a big problem? Whereabouts are you?

I’m always outside as have young dc and yes it’s quieter but always other people doing the same and if we waited for 25 degrees that would be crazy

I live in Brisbane and god, I miss seasons! We’re supposedly six weeks into Autumn and it’s over 30’C and humid AF!!!

I love Australia the county is amazing, the wild life wonderful and there certainly was plenty of "museum" culture . But there was an odd vibe, I ended up calling it Guildford on Sea. I couldn't live there full time.

I loved living in Australia on a working holiday visa. The jobs were better than in the area of Ireland I live in, I loved the city lifestyle that I don’t get in Ireland, and the variety of food is far better and it’s a huge country so there’s lots to explore.
My now husband and I don’t qualify for longer visas, but I don’t know if we’d enjoy living there permanently as much if we did. We’d always be outsiders and seen as foreigners. We flatshared over there and I think we would really struggle to afford our own place. We don’t know the system as well, and whether we’d qualify for any government assistance if we lost our jobs or anything. My husband is really close to his family and I think he would be miserable being away from them for year after year. My daughter would also miss out on building relationships with our families too, and we might not have even had her if we stayed.
If either or both of us were Australian, it wouldn’t even be a contest though.

People always say if you like it so much there, move, but that isn’t always possible for financial, health or family reasons, and it always misses the fact that it’s actually impossible to get a visa if you aren’t in the right job.

I think lockdown helped the U.K. embrace outdoors in less than perfect weather. There is definitely more much of the year round outdoor swimming, paddle boarding, more ebikes.

I do love a museum on a rainy day though

I cannot imagine my kids living in the UK. They have a great life. They go to a good school, swim all year round, enjoy the beach

I agree with this. I’m not a native Australian either, but my children are. It’s the school holidays here and still 28 degrees, they’ve spent hours in the sea over the last few days. My 8 and 10 year old have done nippers (junior surf life saving) for years and now look like experienced swimmers in the sea, they can pick the sweep, dive into big waves, use the boards etc. I feel like they’re having a good childhood.

Which isn’t to say that parents who live in London and visit art galleries and museums each week aren’t giving their children a good childhood either.

@jerometheturnipking I’m in the UK and we’re outside year round? There’s 100’s of outdoor pursuits. Where are you that people wait for it to be 25 degrees??

Interesting thread. I'm married to an Australian (he's been here 22 years, we've been together 18) and I've visited a few times (his home city is Adelaide, parents still there, sister in Brisbane). It's not obvious, at this point, whether we will move there later. But as for culture: Adelaide has the biggest arts festival in the world, no? And I think taking 'Europe' as the reference point is increasingly irrelevant for a society which seems (at this distance anyway) to be pivoting to Asia.

But it may be that a move will just prove too expensive anyway, from what people are saying about house prices. I don't plan to make myself poorer in retirement!