To think the families on Wanted Down Under are a bit spoilt/delusional?

[Hatchinganegg]

Almost every episode involves a family with pretty average jobs living in your average 3 bedroom semi detached. They go to Australia and turn their noses up at massive houses because they don't have pools and walk in wardrobes. Or they're 10 minutes from the beach rather than right across the road

They never seem to want to start off a few rungs down from their eventual goal, it all has to happen right away.

They all want identikit houses too- those shiny kitchens and acres of cream carpet. I'd like to see one where the family was after something a little different personally!

I also wonder about the visa issue for people looking at Florida in A Place in the Sun. I imagine them buying a house there then getting the shock of their life.

Not if you're a corporate lawyer. Worked with loads of Aussies when in London and they all said they had a real long hours culture back home.

And I didn't say ALL Aussie's are macho sexists . Just I personally would not want to emigrate. If I lived in Australia and had my friends and family and life there pretty sure I wouldn't want to move to England either.

I often think the partner is a controlling arse

This. I watched one where the man made me feel very uneasy. He had a child with his partner, but she had another child from a previous relationship and was unsure about uprooting him.

The man did the whole 'this is my dream' bollocks. Really laid it on thick. I think she said she wouldn't go in the end. I got the feeling he'd leave and go on his own.

Perth is lovely, loads of wonderful places roundabout it to visit and I liked the weather. My mum moved there 17 years ago and we followed for extended periods, she didn’t feel isolated, and they had a great life whilst there. Then the moved to Singapore, Vietnam and then Korea before returning to the uk.
Visiting is lovely, I wouldn’t move there. I’m a nurse but can imagine it’s same shit different place. My family are here and I wouldn’t want to move so far away. Family don’t live very near me either just wouldn’t be want to leave my home, kids friends etc.

I guess going over on wdu gives a chance to see Australia but a week or 2 week holiday could never replicate living there, it’s a big expensive gamble. People that really want it will make it work, you have to be realistic and I think people on that show are somewhat silly if they think they’ll be living the dream.

I would absolutely go back to Perth, on holiday though if one day I can afford it

I hate these they never have enough money to make it work and think just cos they live somewhere with scorching decent weather they will spend all day dossing about on the beach. I watched a revisited one years ago where the teenage (15/16 ish) daughter wouldn't go so they left her in the UK "with friends" 😣

I can't help feel Perth must be very very isolating.

Really? If I lived in Australia I would pick Perth. I once spent 6 weeks in a camper van from Perth to Albany and then up to Monkey Mia. There is loads to do. If you live in Perth you are an hour and a half north from the best beaches in the world. The Margaret River is stunning. There is loads to do and it is beautiful on that coast.

As an expat, I’m always amazed at the “rose tinted glasses” that people can have about moving to another country but I think you need to do your research about not just incomes but general lifestyle. What opportunities would be opened to you and are there any limitations?

I had 2 friends emigrate to Oz and one loves it but the other came back after a year as they just couldn’t get on with the “culture shift”.

I know Horton. I've lived in some pretty flashy places and had more spare cash than I do here but I wouldn't swap my UK life for it again.

You're talking about the lack of wall space and tiny gardens in Aussie houses - have you seen the new houses they are putting up in the UK? In my village, houses costing £350,000 (rural Yorkshire so that's pricey) without enough outdoor space for a rotary line!

I live in Australia and think of Perth as being isolated. To be fair I’ve never actually been there.

It seems mad to me that people are so intent on moving to Oz for 40 degree plus days. As for anyone who wants to go to the beach on one of those scorching days. Madness. The sand is so hot it burns your feet!

Then again I fantasise about moving to the UK so I guess the grass is really always greener somewhere else.

That's pretty bad, Zaphod. I mean, they've been building rabbit hutches in the UK for ages, lots of new estates since at least the 80s have been small plots and all heaped on top of each other (not all but quite a lot), especially ones with "interesting" road layouts. But at least there's the very minor excuse that the UK has a huge population on a relatively small landspace - that excuse does NOT work here!

I'm sure there are lots of beautiful houses in Australia but the exteriors on WDU always resemble industrial units. MNetters mostly hate open plan living but the people on WDU gasp in delight at them.

Weird programme.

Perth has over 2 million people living there, and that's just in the capital. It has all the amenities of modern life, and is close to beaches and wineries. And if you can't find enough there to amuse you, they have these things called 'planes' which take you from one city to another where you can experience a whole different place.

We've also watched this programme with amusement and a fair bit of consternation at the sheer ignorance of many of the participants... in the NZ shows they all seem to be sent to Auckland as well, which is in the middle of a housing crisis and frankly, is not the place to go 'for the lifestyle' unless you're actually quite wealthy.

As an aside, (from the perspective of two kiwis who've lived in the UK) some of the attitudes on the show can come across as a bit, well....colonialist TBH. Like they're expecting a Little England, with warm weather at Christmas. Its just a slightly uncomfortable feeling I get when some of the participants are talking about emigrating with clearly very little knowledge of our culture and heritage. The culture shock can be intense...

Billswife - this might entertain you. Lots of the new builds are nicknamed "McMansions" over here, especially the single properties that are built on older blocks, where the previous older house has been pulled down. mcmansionhell.com/post/157157014086/mcmansion-hell-australia-edition

That McMansions is hilarious!

DH is from Australia so we go there plenty. We always laugh at the deluded people on Wanted Down Under. Poor people!

I guess sensible and informed people who wanted to relocate would never agree to do this programme though.

I do get a bit annoyed when they say they want to spend more time with the kids then, when they see the cost of living is higher, say they'll work a overtime etc so they can 'make it work.' Kind of defeating the object a bit.

I actually left Australia to move to Britain. We sometimes talk about moving back but we're just not that kind of person. For average families it's a great place to live. If we were uneducated etc. I would pick Australia over Britain but that place has nothing for us. It's a cultural black hole, the customer service is appalling and it's infested with spiders! Bloody massive, venomous, fast crawling/fucking jumping (!) spiders!

I can't help feel Perth must be very very isolating.

Isn't it known as the most remote city on earth? If you were having a great time living there that wouldn't bother you a jot but if you were having difficulty settling the distance between you and the rest of the world might feel a bit suffocating.

I love when they watch the video from Nana Barbara and Grandad Bert in Halifax weeping about how much they’ll miss them. And then they start bawling too.

I just want to slap them.

I had a UK friend who moved to Australia with her Aussie fiancé, to Perth. She was expecting that they would be visiting Perth and then settling in Sydney or Melbourne. She'd previously been out in Australia travelling for a year, so had been around a bit.
Anyway, her fiancé got right back into the groove of life in Perth, with his family and friends and showed no inclination to move to Sydney or Melbourne or anywhere else. She stuck it for a year and then threw in the towel - Perth was not for her. He didn't want to leave again, so they split.

At least she didn't have a kid with him. Makes things a bit easier.

In my mid twenties I turned down a second date with a Aussie from Perth who announced no wife of his would ever have to work and could just sit on the beach all day. Naaah. Though occasionally wonder how that would have turned out

They only seem to pick families where their is conflict over going

We applied & didn't get picked - presumably as we'd both been before & both wanted to move. Majority of family are also overseas so wouldn't have the crying rellies saying don't go 🙄

The thing that bugs me about this programme is that is so formulaic. You know what the presenter is going to say almost every step of the way especially the bit about the link to the relatives and friends back in the UK. And that silly bit with the cards at the end, turing them round and round. I know i don't have to watch it but I always seem to catch it after Homes under the Hammer. And how can people decide after one week? Probably still got jet lag.