Tell me the bad things about living in Australia.

[ilovepixie]

Following on from the USA thread what's the worst thing about living in Australia.

Some Aboriginal people are not comfortable with the term Indigenous as it is also used for flora and fauna.

[quote Wheninrometoday]@Poppyfields12 should it be indigenous people of Australia though?[/quote]
No, in an academic setting it is taught as Indigenous peoples or Aboriginal peoples. Maybe you will find someone or an article that prefers to use your terminology but Aboriginies and Aboriginals is widely refuted. Although, I am sure a musket expert will try to disprove me.

Things I dislike:
The heat in summer.
House prices.
Institutional racism toward Indigenous peoples.
The overt nationalism (I cringe when people describe decent human action as ”Australian” and bad behaviour as ”un-Australian”).
The general lack of interest in pursuing higher education.
People who think they are a big shot because they have negatively geared their money to own a property portfolio (which is actually owned by the bank).
The worshiping of some football or cricket meathead and their WAG.

There we go. Take me to the coals.

🙄🙄

I’m in South Australia, have family in NSW, and Melbourne.

In 9 years, 1 snake, some harmless (huge) spiders in our yard, a few redbacks, and some close sharks spottings (not in our yard ).

Yes, it’s behind the UK re internet but getting better. The adverts are so cringe they’re almost parody. Sexism is about 20 years behind the UK.

I love the wide open spaces, the huge sky, the Milky Way and a million stars that are visible on clear nights.
The road trains, and vineyards (SA has more than 70 cellar doors in the Barossa, McLaren Vale, Fleurieu Peninsula, Clare Valley, Coonawarra, Adelaide Hills). The quirky towns, and art, and food.
The coffee is amazing. Even food in a truck stop cafe is bloody good.

The drive on the great ocean road, Melbourne to Adelaide - just wow.

Kangaroo Island.

Etc. but I’ll stop cos that’s not what the OP asked for

Random zooming cockroaches that land on your pillow? I'm OUT!

😆

Blue shoes, they will crawl into your bloody mouth when you are asleep. They are the size of your thumb.

I did not know this prior to relocating to Sydney.

No random zooming cockroaches in Melbourne.

@Poppyfields12 yep.

Aussie here.

Yes agree sexism is twenty years behind UK. Not so much in cities, but definitely so in some rural areas.

We are way behind you guys on LGBTQI stuff.

Our wilderness is extraordinarily beautiful.

Bushfires are bad. Insects can suck, usually just at hot times of year.

Our police forces have major issues with racism, usually targeted at our First Nations people. Definitely not on the scale of the US but still needs addressing.

Disagree with description of working rights being worse here; no such thing as a zero hours contract here and unions are still influential. Less nepotism and caste/class system here; opportunities for career advancement are much easier than in the UK.

Yes there's racism in Australia and it's fucking bad. But to suggest the UK is some sort of multicultural paradise is laughable. Your entire economy, cultural institutions and social world are based on 400 years of brutal colonialism and large swathes of your population are still benefitting from this history. You've got some of the best universities in the world, for example, because they were funded by the slave trade. Your passport gets you anywhere because of the legacies of colonialism.

Unless you are a migrant from Britain's former colonies, you are as complicit as we settler Australians are in this.

Meanwhile, outside of the UK, there are still British migrants everywhere taking advantage of local cheap housing and setting up their own little boozy, insular Little England colonies, much to the annoyance of local people.

I've met a shit ton of openly racist Australians. I've also met a shit ton of openly racist British people whilst living in the UK, and British travellers throughout Asia. One Australian friend was so horrified by the language she heard at an FA cup match in Manchester that she vowed to never go to one again.

The poster upthread's comments about disliking indigenous people because she was abused on a train, is a pretty standard attitude among British expats here. I've worked in social justice/education fields for 15 years and am yet to meet a British expat who gives a genuine flying fuck about indigenous affairs in Australia. Plenty of good willed settler Australians and POC in the field though.

While we're at it, I hope you're all out campaigning alongside my fellow Australians regarding the wanton destruction of 40 000 year old West Australian indigenous heritage sites by Rio Tinto.

www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-26/rio-tinto-blast-destroys-area-with-ancient-aboriginal-heritage/12286652

I believe your beloved royal family is the company's largest shareholder.

That site destruction was unbelievable astrogirl99 felt like the Taliban destroying buddhas . Different ideological purpose same absolute disregard.

Drink driving in small outback towns was completely normal and accepted when I lived there, but that was 20 years ago so my experience is outdated.

Its still normal and accepted in my town, rural SA

I love the wide open spaces, the huge sky, the Milky Way and a million stars that are visible on clear nights.
The road trains, and vineyards (SA has more than 70 cellar doors in the Barossa, McLaren Vale, Fleurieu Peninsula, Clare Valley, Coonawarra, Adelaide Hills). The quirky towns, and art, and food.
The coffee is amazing. Even food in a truck stop cafe is bloody good.

Dont forget limestone coast and yorkes lol

Some of the best wine i ever tasted was from a cellar door on limestone coast. If only i had the 600 to buy the bottle
Yorkes is getting a few gin distilleries now, with cellar door too

While we're at it, I hope you're all out campaigning alongside my fellow Australians regarding the wanton destruction of 40 000 year old West Australian indigenous heritage sites by Rio Tinto.

www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-26/rio-tinto-blast-destroys-area-with-ancient-aboriginal-heritage/12286652

What the actual, this hasnt even been on tv in Aus
disgusting

Why are these Australia bashing threads allowed? Uk mn's go on about racism and then write a whole load of nasty, untrue and narrow minded things about an entire country. The irony.

@therearenosnakeshere absolutely true!

The NZ threads are the same! I'm surprised Mumsnet allow them.

I am Aussie and I say that we are ignorant, arrogant and racist. We have been fed the mythology that we are the “Lucky Country” for such a long time, and we don’t want the believe otherwise. Our government is right-wing and corrupt. (Millions raised for wildlife and welfare charities, including big names like Red Cross and Salvation Army for Bush Fire relief has been used by the “companies” instead of going to the victims. 🤬 Govt not interested, as it is five minutes to America here.) Our free medical system being eroded and becoming more Americanized. Private Health Insurance becoming more and more expensive and covering less and less. Becoming increasingly difficult for women to return to work after having kids due to cost of childcare and lack of childcare incentives. Further education becoming extremely expensive and much pressure on native English speakers to “carry” others through the courses. (ie do their course-work under the guise of group work) especially in post-grad courses. Total reliance on fossil fuels and other minerals means that environment has come second to international mining companies with history of environmental destruction. No manufacturing or sense of future here in Australia. We are completely reliant on imports from overseas. Don’t get me started on the damage we have inflicted on our First Nations People... We export our brightest minds, have sold our cleanest water, our most fertile land, poisoned our most vulnerable people. I don’t think we should be touting ourselves as the “Lucky Country” - perhaps they “Deliberately Ignorant Country” fits better.

I’m Australian. I found some of these comments painting an untrue picture but to clarify.

Yes there is racism here, I don’t find it worse then other countries.. I’m in Sydney and it’s very multicultural, we do have snakes and spiders but generally unless you go bush a tourist won’t see them.

Negatives to me - Our winters are shit. Our houses are not made for the cold, we are far from so many countries and we don’t have a long history.

Positives - It’s a beautiful country, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, I love our weather the rest of the year.

To all the posters going on about racism towards aboriginals... please show respect by capitalising the word. It is a proper noun and it refers to actual people - Aboriginal Australians. In lower case, you're talking about indigenous people in general (of any country).

Never seen a snake. Only seen a few spiders in 15 yrs that scared the shit out of me, live in Melbourne, so metropolitan and never (thankfully) personally been impacted by bushfires. I don't believe it's any more racist than the UK. Public school fees- $250 a year, so reasonable. More relaxed, laid back. Higher quality of living, better healthcare and more ability for outside time. Negatives- it's not as warm as I'd hoped, and it's very far away from family- especially becomes more obvious with the current world situation.

@Poppyfields12 I agree with your summary - spot on.

@squeekums it was heavily reported in WA media and there is a lot of community anger about it. WA has a diverse (including independent) media mix which I am thankful for. (I understand Queensland in the last few years has been overrun by right wing media, sadly, which might explain a lot about the last election).

It is disgusting, and in the same week so-called ‘philanthropist’ Andre Forrest’s FMG announced a high court appeal against granting native title to a Pilbara community. He is a nasty man with a very effective PR machine.

I just wish to hell we’d own up to the shit we’ve done and keep doing to these people in the pursuit of a dollar, so we can move forward and heal.

*Andrew Forrest!!

Why are these Australia bashing threads allowed? Uk mn's go on about racism and then write a whole load of nasty, untrue and narrow minded things about an entire country. The irony

Does my fucking head in.

Meanwhile about the mining:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/27/a-sacred-site-showing-46000-years-of-continual-occupation-and-its-completely-legal-to-blow-it-up

Disgusting.

There currently one where you can bash the U.K. and another on the US just to even it out if you’d like to join in

@astrogirl99 Exactly. The hypocrisy of an 11 page thread where Brits are calling the people of another country racist and xenophobic whilst using offensive terminology is case in point really.

There are a number of stains on this country, like most countries. The past and present treatment of Indigenous peoples is one, the economic Ponzi scheme is another, and the mismanagement of environment and natural resources is a significant short and long term threat too. No one is denying this. But watching a documentary on Australia and having a friend that emigrated once does not make Mumsnet a melting pot of cultural experts. People in glass houses.

Dont forget limestone coast and yorkes lol
Some of the best wine i ever tasted was from a cellar door on limestone coast. If only i had the 600 to buy the bottle
Yorkes is getting a few gin distilleries now, with cellar door too

Oooo yes, Limestone coast and Yorkes
And I’ll go google for gin distilleries - I’ve been getting quite a lot of gin from KI mmmm

The irony of the British people commenting here about Australian “racism” towards indigenous culture - the one their own country systematically destroyed 200 years ago. Most of the observations are fairly tone-deaf, too, and have zero appreciation of not only the history of Australia, but current socio-economic issues affecting Aboriginal culture.