Aibu to wonder about the perception of life in Australia?

[TheVoiceWithin]

im British living in Australia.
Everybody seems to think the Australian way of life is constant BBQ's/swimming with dolphins/working 10hrs a week and bringing home $300k a year. Everybody spends everyday at the beach. Nobody can't surf. Etc.
It's ridiculous. So, Aibu to wonder what gives people this idea?

Is it the TV shows? I've seen wanted down under (once) and I have to admit I was a bit at the whole thing, because the particular family hadn't seemed to have done a bit of research, figured out they'd be financially worse off AND she'd have to go back to work too. but they wanted to go anyway. But couldn't because neither would qualify for a visa anyway. if not that, then what?

It’s funny how different peoples experiences can be. I’m in Sydney and have never come across anyone who would be okay about drink driving, all I have noticed is a huge negative stigma against anyone who’d consider doing it.

Also, the beach/weather thing really depends on where you are. Australia is a HUGE country with many different weather systems, being in Sydney is very different to Melbourne, which again is different to Perth or Cairns.

I’m not saying it makes it okay but I genuinely believe there’s never anything vindictive about the casual racism.

There are a few things I deeply miss about the UK. Public transport in London, country lanes, country footpaths, M&S etc. However I have to say I think Aussies have life well worked out and are generally way more positive, straightforward and logical about life. The health system is also absolutely amazing. I state this is GENERALLY speaking, of course not everyone is going to fit into this description!

i have cousins same age as me who emigrated to South Australia as kids. i see:
greater value in trades/vocational education.
land is cheaper where they live so larger one storey homes
better weather in theory but unbearably hot alot of the time plus lots of sun cream and covering up due to skin cancer risk
huge distances to travel between towns
endemic racism.

Roussette: However, I stand corrected on pizzas

Fine, you have seen the error of your ways! (Joke). Perhaps your daughter had trouble converting currencies.

However, any time there is a thread about Australia, people come on quoting the same sort of ridiculously inflated prices - usually second or third hand - as if they were economists discussing the quarterly CPI .

Weird that I am in the minority about drink driving but I can assure you I've seen it regularly and no one says anything. It's a bit risk, there's lots of random breath testing etc.

I think it’s hilarious when people say there’s no racism there. My kids are mixed race and it’s far and away the most racist place we’ve taken them. Every day, there was someone muttering racial slurs about them. Happens everywhere we go but never to the extent it did there. Would never go back as a family.

I think it’s hilarious when people say there’s no racism there.

No one said there's no racism here. There's racism in every country. It's the assertion that it's exceptionally racist that people are taking issue with.

super OK

"I think it's hilarious when people say Australia isn't particularly racist."

@ThisIsTheFirstStep every day racial slurs?? What are they saying?
I've never, not once had this in my life. I'm mixed race. I've lived in Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and South Australia.

My perception of Australia is horrendous snakes, massive spiders and crocodiles.

And Christmas in the heat. Just NO.

With racism it depends where you are in Australia. Some states are far worse than others for it. Some cities worse and some towns are worse.

Where we live my kids are amongst a few other ‘white’ kids at school, only a handful in the school. Same at all schools around the area. My workplace and my husbands workplaces are very multicultural with ‘white Australians in the minority. Racism isn’t obvious and isn’t accepted.

However we notice when we go to certain other states there is a big difference. Don’t go outback or country AT ALL in this regard and assume it will be an issue in any smaller cities or non metro towns.

I think anyone who has not visited within the last 5-7 years probably doesn’t have a current view either. The evolution of demographics and attitudes has been really noticeable even over the last 5 years. For anyone who has been here 10 years ago it would now seem like a different country in certain major cities. I was talking to someone the other day who immigrated from India 8 years ago and they were saying they can’t believe the difference between then and now. Oddly, they were lamenting it saying it was no longer the ‘Aussie’ city they had wanted to come to.

I want to live where accendo lives. It sounds amazing 😊[

allthedogs the usual muttered comments about chinks, gooks etc, plus various people asking me why I married a chink or whether he has a small dick. Plus the slanty eyed gesture everywhere we went.

If the UK had the same amount of immigration as Australia's in proportion to its population it would be in flames and Britain First would form the government.

It's not comparable in any way though. Australia is literally a country of immigrants.

I lived in Australia for 12 months in my 20s (I'm from the UK) I spent 6 months travelling and 6 months working.

I have to say the 6 months I spent working it just felt like same old shit different scenery. We had the beach within walking distance and it was sunny, but I still spent 9 hours at work mon-fri stuck in an office. My family back home couldn't get their heads around that I wasn't on holiday constantly!! I did still toy with the idea of going to live over there permanently but it was too far away from family, too isolated and I felt there was a lack of culture. I think if you take out the sunshine and the beaches it isn't all that (sorry if you're Australian!).

My 6 months travelling over there were fab though, it was all beaches and sunshine. I had an amazing time holidaying over there but the reality of actually living there wasn't what I imagined.

I came back to the UK and settled down over here, now I've had kids I realised it was completely the right decision to come home.

Isnt neighbours filmed somewhere with cold winters and they are often freezing while trying to pretend it year round summer?

Racism? I love to moan about Australia and how aggressive and tightfisted the Aussies are, but I have to say I have never encountered racism.

takemedown, I did it, the money was great!

It seems odd to blame Australia for the fact that people coming here to live and work haven't done research on prices and cost of living, let alone the differences between climate and attitudes in different parts and didn't realise that a 40 hour working week can feel the same anywhere.

I lived in Australia for 32 years and I never heard anyone shout "Niggers!" at other people in the street. In Farnborough a couple years ago I heard a mother in the street tell her small child to say hello to two white men who were looking at them, and that's how one of the men responded. Then he said something abut feeling like an outsider in your own country.
In the UK, the middle-aged English and South African men I know tell me how great they think it is that Australia locks asylum seekers up and sends them offshore. In Australia, the people I know protest against it with marches and petitions to parliament.
I would say Australia is very racist, and so is everywhere else I've ever been.

So many cliches! I have loved here for 8 years. I’ve seen worse casual racism in the small Midlands town I grew up in, particularly from my parents’ friends when I went home two years ago.
Most of my friends are involved in asylum seekers welfare or in Aboriginal rights work.
Yes, it’s expensive but we’re paid more. I work a low paid admin job for a NFP and I earn the equivalent of £30k. We’re a low-ish earning family but we live in an apartment in one of the most expensive suburbs in Sydney. It’s small but 5 mind from the beach and half an hour from the city. The difference is that due to the weather, and lots of free activities, we are always out doing stuff.
Maybe seen 3-4 creepy crawlies in 8 years and they have been when we’ve been camping.
So sick of the Aussie bashing threads on here!

This place with its never ending shitty weather and bullshit Brexit can do one

I understand the annoyance with Brexit but it always surprises me how Aussies and Kiwis blame us for the weather! I know Yorkshire is God's own country and all that, but the Brits really can't control the weather!

And at least we don't have horrible poisonous creatures everywhere. The temperate weather has some advantages.

Everybody seems to think the Australian way of life is...

No they don't. 'Everybody' will have different opinions based on their experiences. You seem to be suggesting you are the only British person with any experience of Australia (since everyone else thinks it's exactly like Home and Away).

I have Australian friends (still in Australia) and British friends living there and I've visited them in their homes.

It looks amazing to me and I would love to visit. But I don't think I could live there as I am not great in the heat. I also would be too self conscious wearing swimwear or summer clothes regularly. I like wrapping up in winter and sitting by the fire etc

Also would miss the UK countryside, although those photos someone put up earlier show there is just as stunning scenery.