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?

I couldn't wait to leave Australia. I enjoyed Sydney & Melbourne, but they are what they are: big cities; you find them, and what they offer, pretty much everywhere. I experienced the casual racism thing much more out in the sticks (which is exactly how it would be in the UK...or USA...) but for all those caveats, I really couldn't take to it.
New Zealand/South America much more my sort of place.

I do think some people view a possible life in Australia through rose tinted glasses. On that Wanted Down Under show, they feature all the fabulous leisure activities, the beaches etc, but I think it can only be like life here in the UK, just with more sunshine. They will still have to go out to work to pay the bills, same as the rest of us and we have plenty of different leisure things to do here, more culture and history etc. I'm not sure I'd move to Australia, even if I was offered the chance.

I lived there for a year and I did like their way of life. It was in the 90s so things may have changed but people didn't work their buns off like we do. Offices were empty at 5.05pm, shutters came down on the shops on the dot of 5pm and we all toddled off for some beers or went to the beach for a couple of hours. Weekends were very sociable and lots of BBQs and eating out with friendly and welcoming people. Maybe I was living the dream and didn't realise it at the time! I'd live there again in a heartbeat but my OH wouldn't go as he has kids.

I’m Australian currently living in the UK due to DH but we are going back this year.

Racism - yes, of course there is racism in Australia. And there is racism in every country in the world! Just because the English won’t say things outloud doesn’t mean they don’t think it.

Spiders and snakes - the number 1 reason, time after time again, why someone won’t vist Australia. We do have major cities, it’s not all outback and bush. You arent going to get attacked by a snake or spider walking around the concrete central business district of Sydney/ Melbourne etc. If you plan on moving to OZ, you can quickly find out if an area has a lot of red backs, snakes etc. If you live in a bushy area, lots of long grass and rubbish in your garden, you have given them an ideal place to hide. Personally, I grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, never saw a snake and only encountered harmless house spiders.

Weather - depends what state you go too. Some are hotter than others such as Perth and Darwin. They say Melbourne is like the UK - four seasons in one day, it’s also called the “ rainy city.” I love Sydney weather, we get rain and sometimes the weather can be 30-40 degrees.

Outdoors lifestyle - Having a bbq is easy and no fuss in humid hot weather, beats cooking. If you aren’t living close to a beach, most of the time you are going to be inside or out in your garden. However, it’s awesome to know that on a weekend you can drive to the beach, due to the weather. Kids grow up playing outside in the sunshine most of the year!

People - aussies aren’t as PC as the UK. Thank god for that! A lot of Aussies casually swear more than the Brits. Aussies are blunt and say what they mean unlike Brits who say one thing and mean other.
Like everywhere in the world there is good and bad. Some Aussies are utter morons and rude etc. A lot are really friendly and willing to lend a helping hand. As there isn’t as many people in Australia. Trains are cheaper and easier to get a seat on ( off peak). The streets aren’t so jam packed!

Food - not as many supermarket chains as in the UK. And nowhere as cheap. We have a lot of fruit and veg locally grown rather than flown in.
Our selection of frozen meals is way less.

Work - most Aussies are hard workers and do regular work hours. We aren’t fond of slackers. The government is very tough on people being on benefits.

Houses - a lot of detached houses that are bigger. They are not link houses. Council houses are known as Housing Commision and they are looked down on. They are for the disadvantaged, not for those with two incomes that can privately rent. Aussies pride themselves on working hard and getting ahead. And owning their own home. They also like having nice things which some people on MN means they are materialistic. They have worked hard, earned their own money, why not have nice things?

I’m an Australian living in Aus but it doesn’t really suit me in many ways.

I hate the heat and end up staying indoors for most of summer. Would love to have a ‘proper’ winter.

Hate swimming in the sea so have never been a big beach person. Now I have a dog the beach is more fun but prefer it on a bracing winter day UK style

Not that into BBQs for socialising. Not only that, I get on better with British people than Australian people.

Love to travel and it’s so expensive to go anywhere here. Maybe okay if you’re into camping but I’m not.

No doubt I’m looking at life in the UK through rose tinted glasses but I really feel I was born in the wrong country. I can see that Australia is great in so many ways but for me I can imagine living somewhere else.

This is hilarious. From an Aussie, who has lived both in major cities and the "outback", the recounts of those who have blown in and out on holidays or have lived here temporarily are most certainly entertaining.

Just to address a few

• drink driving is absolutely not acceptable and not tolerated.
• not once have I been refused service for a shot after midnight (in recent years)
• in all of my years I have seen a handful of poisonous spiders (funnel webs, red backs) in the house/garden
• it's not all beaches and BBQs, but when you live 10 min from the beach in summer it can sometimes seem that way
• I don't have racist or sexist friends (I'm aware there are people out there like that but #notallaustralians)

I would be grateful if an Australian could explain why there are so many sex shops everywhere? No judgment.

I know of 2 sex shops approx 20km apart in my local area, but I've not seen an over abundance of them which makes me wonder where the bloody hell you've been PP

I'm British and have lived in Australia for 8 years and I suppose life here could be all BBQs and beaches if you wanted it to be. Just as in the UK it could all be historic buildings and culture if you make the effort.

I must admit I hated the weather when I first got here - I'm in a tropical region - the summer is punishingly hot and humid, plus it rains a ridiculous amount but when I started to thinking of it as the equivalent of a British winter and how utterly miserable they can be it kind of helped put things in perspective.

In the cities the more exotic spiders are hard to come by. Rascists are everywhere regardless of whether you are in Australia or the UK. Generally the British and Australian people are pretty decent and similar. I love the UK wit and the Ozzie straight forward humour. I pine for the UK sometimes and eat three packets of pickled onion monster munch ASAP when I go home but I would miss the warbling magpies, scent of eucalyptus and general beauty (I wouldn't miss cockatoos, curlews or the incessant leaf blowing that Australians love - they can get farked)

Im aussie. Ive lived in the uk. I spend much more time outdoors here as the weathers better...but theres all sorts of people everywhere isnt there.

I have family on the central coast. One of them lives in a bungalow with a verandah and views across a giant lagoon with palm trees and azure skies. She goes to the beach, fishing with her partner, etc.

I’ve watched loads of those emigrate to Australia programmes. The housing doesn’t seem cheap to me at all, nor the everyday cost of things.

Personally, I’d rather emigrate to New Zealand if I was heading across the planet. Better kakaying there.

I used to live in Oz (Sydney) and think there is a part of truth to the clichés.

I didn't live very close to the beach but lots of my friends who do (one living on an island in rural QLD) spend everyday at the beach and yes BBQ are extremely common in Australia, especially in Summer (but aren't they everywhere anyway?), the salary in Australia are incredibly high (one of my nurse friend earn 60$ an hour when working on a Sunday!) but the cost of life is extortionate at least in Sydney so you don't necessarily get much more for your money.

I enjoyed the sun and overall great weather as well as the landscape but Australia does feel very isolated and far away from everything. Aussie dollars are also worth very little once out of Australia so that doesn't necessarily make people who enjoy traveling better off.

I had a very close aussie friend who was very casual abot drunk-driving and I was the only one really standing up to her and refusing to get in her car, I once refused to give her back her keys and forced her into a cab with me and the next day (even though I paid for the cab back to her place) she complained that I should have let her take her car anyway and her family also told me I had been foolish to have paid for an expensive cab when I could have let her drive.

I think a lot of Aussies (especially out of the city) do drunk-drive but it's partly because cabs are absolutely prohibitive, public transportation can be shit and equally expensive and so people just take their car. I personally think public transportation should be free at night to reduce drunk-driving but that's another debate.

Racism was very blatant as was homophobia especially when outside of Sydney, it really shocked me how casual people were about it like it's no "big deal" because "everyone" feels the same. It really put me off.

I have now been out of Australia for 3 years and kind of miss it (though not the worrying about the creepy crawlies). I do think it's a country where it can be very nice to raise children as it has a quality of life that most countries of Europe can't keep up with and Aussies can be hilarious and amazing to be around, but I personally struggled with how isolated and expensive Oz is and how not very open-minded the country can be.

I've backpacked round Australia, worked in Sydney (office work temping) for 2-3 months and been back for a holiday once. I thought the lifestyle was not so had as it was in UK (this was quite a number of years ago so possibly out of date experience) and work certainly less arduous- perhaps that has changed. My recollection is being sent on various temp jobs and nearly always being offered the job permanently as I was such a fast, accurate worker - I am just average so I got a bad impression of what Aussie secretaries must have been like at that time. One place (a brewery) showed me my cubbyhole office and some work to be done and, 2 hours later, when I'd done it, they were flabbergasted and said they thought it would take me 2 days and they hadn't anything else for me to do so would I mind leaving for the day! Lifestyle was lovely - yes we did go to the beach a lot and food was fantastic. I also stayed with friends in rural NSW and there were barbecues, parties, bush walks and visits to the coast. One of them helped out with a local dairy farm doing milking shifts - no-one else worked but they were a bit hippy. Everyone seemed more friendly (but could be the good climate as we are more outgoing and relaxed in the summer) but I knew I never wanted to live there - I would definitely miss the throb of London life (though I prefer to live in an outer suburb with lots of greenery), theatres, conversations with fellow book readers (never found many Australians that were book readers), discussions about current political/news events - didn't find that in Australia except with other West European visitors (not for me Australia but a lovely place to visit and nice people). Interesting to read above that the racism is still apparent - it was pretty awful when I was there.

not so bad (clearly not so efficient these days at the keyboard as I was then)

Well my experience is wonderful free pools, free factor 50 suncream and fabulous friendly people. We had a brilliant time, in Adelaide, Alice, Darwin, Townsville, Sydney . . . well you get the picture.

There are a hell of a lot of Australians who are passionate readers. You should have gone to a writers' festival or a library or a bookshop or joined a book club- you would see the place humming with readers. It is not all beaches and scenery.

I wonder too as I really don't fancy it. Far too hot. Too many hideous creepy crawlies. Sharks. Racist / misogynistic attitudes. Backward government. No thanks!

mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork: never found many Australians that were book readers

Perhaps you should have looked just a tiny bit harder - if you tried at all. Tried places like public libraries. Joined a book group. Looked around at people in coffee shops who were reading and struck up a conversation. Same on public transport. Gone to author's nights at bookshops. Attended writers' festivals.

I'm Australian. Live in Australia. Read several books a week, as do a lot of my friends.

I recently had a visit to A&E and had to have several tests and X-Rays. I was in a wheelchair and clutching my ereader. Several complete strangers people from doctors to various technicians asked me what I was reading and we had interesting, albeit brief, conversations about various authors.

I think one of the problems of perception is that when people come to Australia from the UK, they are comparing the random service providers and various people they meet in the early days, with their carefully curated lifelong friends who share interests and values.

Last time I went to the UK I encountered a racist taxi driver, a surly hotel receptionist who couldn't spell and on the first night saw drunken young women lying in vomit in the town centre. I know that if I lived in the UK these people would not be my long term friends. I wouldn't say all Brits are racist, badly educated and have an alcohol problem, despite this first impression.

I will say that the current Australian government is indefensible.

@Butchmanda perhaps rtft or do some actual research before making sweeping, incorrect generalisations.

allthedogs: perhaps rtft or do some actual research before making sweeping, incorrect generalisations.

Why bother trying to find out any accurate facts when you can quote stereotypical generalisations that you have gotten third hand from someone who may or may not have met an Australian/visited the country for a couple of week/read a Wikipedia entry about spiders?

Interesting about the sex shops. It's the same in NZ and in my opinion it's because there's not much to do of an evening iyswim.

I would be grateful if an Australian could explain why there are so many sex shops everywhere? No judgment

They're hardly everywhere! I mean sure if you are in Kings Cross or wherever there are more sex shops than anything else, but not down town.

Personally i think it'd be much the same as the UK but just hotter, which wouldn't agree with me as i like the cold! Anywhere really is similar once you take work, housework, errands, parenting into account.

I do like Wanted Down Under but i find it annoying that they base their judgement on what is usually a great holiday. Saying things like wanting to spend more time as family and take up hobbies etc. I never understand why they don't just throw their efforts into changing their job or retraining and looking into fun things todo nearer home.