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?

Oh, and the concept of equality for women doesn't seem to have reached Aus yet. Aussie men are very macho and a woman's place is generally in the kitchen

never ever been my experience and lived there 37 years

In my personal experience of both countries , more Aussie men cook than do British men.

...but we do have old Victorian houses as well. Not only that we have gorgeous colonial style homes...

Victorian? Colonial? I live in a house which was built in the 17th Century and is in fact 353 years old.

And?

And?

Just responding to you post abou terraces. Lol

GreenSeededGrape

Rose suppose you like terrace after terrace of houses looking the same apart from different door colour. Nope, that's not bland (and boring) hmm

...about...

...your post...

Argh

Just because your house is old doesn't make it fabulous.

Nor does it make it the norm. I live in London with rows and rows of same looking houses. It's boring as fuck.

My house IS fabulous, though, and what is more it is unique. We are vair bait lucky as they say on Mumsnet.

🙂

... vair vair

Well maybe the Brits should've colonised Australia a century or so earlier, then we'd also have 350+ year old houses.

How daft.

I've stayed in Aus for a longish period.

Can't be that long, because...

People don't go out in the lovely weather. It's too hot and to dangerous because of the risk of skin cancer.

Load of tosh. It was 40 degrees yesterday and loads of people were out. The general "rule" is you don't go to the beach in the middle of the day, but people aren't holed up indoors.

It has horrible insects and animals that can kill you.

Load of tosh. I live in the country. 100 acres. Have never been so much as stung by a bee, let along bitten by a spider or snake or smacked down by a kangaroo.

It's too far away from anywhere. I can drive for 6 hours in Europe and change culture, architecture, money (ok not so much these days), food, language, scenery.... several times. In Aus I wouldn't even have reached the next city. So not only is it isolated as a country, people in the country are isolated from each other.

What's "too far away from anywhere"? Australia is the size of the mainland United States. You could spend months traveling around it. You couldn't do that in the UK. The culture, dialect, food, scenery changes everywhere in Australia.

The TV is crap - loads of v old BBC programmes.

Free to air is a relic now that Netflix etc. is here, so hardly relevant.

There is nothing historical to see older than 200 years. The Aboriginal people leave little trace of themselves.

Might be because the Indigenous people were nomadic, and because Australia wasn't colonised until 1788. But it is one of the oldest land masses on Earth, with the oldest rocks etc. being found here. It has plenty of history.

It's becoming very Asian - which is not a racist remark, just an observation for people who think Aus is "Britain in the Sun".

Yet Australians are the racist ones?

There is no Amazon next day delivery - the country is too big with too few people to make it viable

Oh wow, what a reason to write off a whole country.

The centre is becoming a dumping ground for toxic waste.

In the words of Pauline Hanson: please explain.

You can only safely swim in designated spots because of sharks.

Load of tosh. This only applies in far north Queensland and the northern parts of the country in general. Plot twist, the vast majority of people do not live in those areas.

After a by/election on Saturday the federal opposition (labour) now has 48% women MPs.

I lived in oz for a while and it was kinda just like the stereotype! For me at least! Breaks at work were spent outside :) weekends and evenings were spent outside :) sun was gorgeous! Bbq's often (spell check tried to change bbq's for babes! - I'm straight and female so I wouldn't really know! but I think my male friends enjoyed the babes too!) Christmas was indeed spent mostly outside! Life was very laid back!

I was only there a year or so, and was young at the time, no ties.

However - what's it really like then OP? Please shatter the illusion (and memories!!) for me!!

(Oh - agree with op about the racism - that was the only by I didn't like. Actually, I hated. A seemingly nice man I knew while out there, said some racist things I can't even repeat here as it was so so so so bad )

Sorry - pp not op

In the words of Pauline Hanson: please explain.

Hahahahahahaha reminds me of the Pauline pantsdown song..my shopping trolley murdered. My groceries, just gone! Oh there is a lot to miss about Australia :)

I live in Australia and I love older houses....I can't have a Georgian house here (though they do exist they're rare) but I can have a stunning 1920s house with a garden the size of a paddock.

I have a big dog, chickens and a cat...things I couldn't have in England.

I have lost weight since arriving because there's far less cheap junk food on offer....of course there is some crap food on offer but it's not in your face as much and the food I do eat is seasonal and organic, bought locally from the farmer's market.

I am much happier in general. DD has seen dolphins and whales...she is a water baby and swims daily in summer.

In the UK we could only hope for a trip to the pool now and then. I am very happy here.

I loved my time in Australia & wish I’d stayed out there.

What if you are an ordinary jo/josephine who just likes to walk, hates heat and sandy beaches, and dislikes BBQs too.

I am sorry but there doesn't seem to be much else to do besides the beach, sand, swimming, beer, and BBQs.I'd be sick to the teeth of BBQs after a week!

Oz is very insular too despite its size. Seems it can make decisions on migrants and piss everyone off but no one in OZ seems to bat an eyelid. But then again no where else would get away with that. Papua New Guinea for you matey. And so on.

So we now have a list.....

Beach
Swim
BBQ
Beer
Spiders snakes crocs and wallabies and koalas of course.
Aboriginals are called by the first three letters and women are called Sheila.
Migrants sent offshore
We are all poms.

Now how many have I got right or wrong? Add to the list if you like.

It is tongue in cheek of course, but if I want sun and outdoors there are many spots in Europe that fit the bill, without a BBQ every day too.

And it is far too far away from Europe too. So there.

RoseWhiteTips: “bland”, “featureless”, “no historical provenance”

I suppose it's horses for courses. I remember not being overly impressed by post 1950 houses when I stayed in the UK. Additionally, I was appalled by the sameness and anonymity of new estates. And, yes, I did visit people's houses when I was working there. I realised that the idyllic Cotswold cottage or half timbered house in the Marches is the exception, certainly not the rule.

This was reinforced when I recently, for nostalgia purposes, looked at British houses on Rightmoves. Out of idle curiosity, I decided to price houses in places I had liked, like Ludlow, Colchester, Wells, various Yorkshire towns,etc.

What I found were cluttered, garishly decorated and over furnished houses, with horribly poky ill-planned layouts, and often with a cupboard posing as a third bedroom.Okay, the first few are obviously personal tastes, but some looked like a fairy had swallowed a bottle of glitter and then vomited it all over the room. These are often what seems to referred to as "New Builds" - where often the houses are identical and crammed cheek by jowl.

They certainly do not indicate the reverse of " The words “bland”, “featureless”, “no historical provenance”. Quite the opposite in fact. They epitomised it.

*Boxthefox
*
I don't know anyone who calls Aboriginals by the first three letters.

Here is The Great Dividing Range, the Barossa Valley wine region of SA, and Tasmania.

Plenty to see and do that aren't part of your incorrect stereotypes.

RWT that accent

As a matter of interest, just what is your accent? i hope it is something nice and neutral, like a not too cut-glass form of Received Pronunciation, because you are leaving yourself wide open to ridicule.

I live in a house which was built in the 17th Century and is in fact 353 years old.

I see - you are, in fact, Everyman.

boxthefox

What about the myth - I’m sure - that all men are called Bruce and they all drink Castlemaine 4x?

The migrants offshore leaves a bad taste.

And what about that export Rolf Harris?

IClavdivs

I live in a house which was built in the 17th Century and is in fact 353 years old.

I see - you are, in fact, Everyman.

Riiiight.