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.

I think you need to stop pointing out the capital letter thing. I know about capitals, I think mine used lower case because I was on my phone.

You assume ignorance.

It’s not a matter of disrespect, it’s not deliberate, it’s a phone. And unless a number of the people who might be offended are currently reading a British parenting site, it’s just a wearisome distraction from an otherwise interesting thread.

Hello @onlyreadingneverposting8
My emotional shit about moving to NZ aside, here are the practical things I don't like (may be influenced by a move from London the North Shore, Auckland).

• Expensive - eg. our food bill increased from £100 pw to £250 pw
• Education poor - no consistency of curriculum between schools, more emphasis on sport than academic learning. I think the top university here is ranked 275 ish.
• This obsession with sport spills into every week night and every weekend and this is only with two kids doing two sports plus swimming each. At home we did more but it fitted in because a lot of it was actually at school after school - here it's at clubs and kids have to be taken and no one car pools because they generally have more than one commitment per night.
• No public transport to speak of
• Shopping is poor - as people have said about Aus, poor quality (imagine a mall full of small Primarks), mumsy, or expensive and still not particularly nice. As someone who mainly wears Gap, Hush and scoured TK Maxx at home, I'm not even that fussy. And practical things like school shoes and sports kit sometimes just don't exist in the country in the right sizes and have to be imported. Christmas and birthdays are a nightmare - you have to order weeks ahead.
• Low wage economy
• Most companies make you take holiday when they are closed at Christmas leaving two weeks for the rest of the year - not ideal as an expat wanting to visit home.
• Poor work life balance - people who work really aren't going to the beach at 4pm every afternoon.
• The logistics of living where we do and the sports commitments mean that very few families can have two 'proper' jobs.
• Where we live it's very cliquey compared to London - most people have known their social group since school and, while perfectly friendly, won't include you in their inner circle. I don't blame them for this but it's quite lonely.
• Everyone disappears to their 'bach' in the holidays - again I miss London for the summer buzz.
• If you're not mega outdoorsy it gets very samey. I love a beach, I love a walk but not every day for 3 month. And fishing maybe once a year!
• Our area is not diverse. In DD's year at home, there were 28 nationalities between 60 kids, here there are 4-5 (but 95% are white 'European' or Asian) between 100 kids in her year.

I'm an Australian, lived in the UK for 7 years in my 30s, came back here to Oz in 2014. Still have my subscription to Private Eye. The frequent observation of racism on this thread is interesting - I found as soon as it was known I was Australian in the UK, complete strangers to me would make appallingly racist remarks (usually about British Muslims), and expect me to agree and 'join in'. These were perfectly respectable 'middle class' Brits. It happened so many times, it left a sour taste about (barely) hidden British racism. That said, it's obviously still an open sore here in Oz, with much good being done, and much yet to be done. I miss much about the UK, by the way. I will agree with pps that the conformity here is suffocating.

@astrogirl99 👏👏👏

Witchesandwizards
I agree clothing is dreadful in NZ and even if you are willing to spend alot there is always something weird about the cut or fabric. Everytime I visit and my mother suggests shopping I just talk her into a winery lunch !
There is literally nothing I would buy there for myself.
The shoes are the absolute worst.
My DH loves Rodd and Gunn menswear though and icebreaker merino stuff.
With such poor choice its no wonder New Zealanders are seen as bad dressers. At the last wedding I went to there for example it was hard to distinguish guests from people who had popped to the shops in their gardening clothes and swiped a bit of lipstick on. The Brits attending seemed equally puzzled.

@habibihabibi - and here we go again. What part of the word AUSTRALIA do you people not understand? And you wonder why the British are not popular? Look at what is going on in your precious country at the moment - a few things which are a little more serious than the clothes people wear to weddings and what you can buy in the shops.

Oh dear. Hit a nerve.

@astrogirl99 - got to say I've heard nothing about that in NSW either - bloody shocking!
It's bad enough that Adani is trying to blast the Great Barrier Reef, and the QLD and NSW are allowing mass destruction of koala habitat for "development", and that agricultural land is being drained of water for the mines - but didn't know about the WA blasting at all.

I sometimes think that WA is almost in another country, as we rarely hear much about what's going on over there (unless it's fecking Gina Rinehart )

Oh and for the racist point - just take a look at Pauline Hanson and the One Nation party. As bad as Farage, easily.

And yes, winters are harder over here even though they're not as cold, because at least in the UK the houses are usually/mostly warm, insulated, have central heating etc. - here, especially older ones, are badly insulated, not set up for cold weather and central heating is mostly not a thing (did find it in one boutique hotel in the Blue Mountains though - it was LOVELY!). Airing cupboards are not a thing either, as (certainly in our area) the hot water tanks are outdoors. We don't even have piped gas in our town - our gas oven is run on cylinder gas, which can run out at the most inconvenient times (Christmas day, anyone? luckily the petrol station was open so we could get a barbecue sized canister to carry on)

@justilou - it's depressing that the right wing govts keep being voted back in - but it's the same old, same old - people vote for their own self-interest and the second anyone suggests tax-raising, that party loses. Same in the UK, same in USA. Fucking depressing.

@eaglejulesk - wow, do you want to turn that knife any more, and perhaps dig it in harder?
Wow. FUcking zero empathy there.

That was indeed a horrible post, witches and wizards, you didn’t deserve it.

eaglejulesk I didn't see your deleted post, but if there is one thing ThumbWitchesAbroad deserves, it is sympathy.

Please don't jump on people, on the two other threads most posters have been quite gratious .

Sorry on this and the US thread

@giantangryrooster - wrong witches there, but yes, WitchesandWizards definitely deserves sympathy, not that tirade (which I really hope she didn't see!)

Sorry about that too many witches around .

I remember feeling very pissed off with things that witches mentioned when I lived in Aus. I knew I was there temporarily, it doesn’t help when you’re permanently homesick

@ThumbWitchesAbroad- if only we could start taxing from the top down and helping those that really need it, and invest in our country’s future - our environment, our education, our health, etc... (maybe look to Scandinavia for ideas there. They may pay higher taxes but their quality of life is much better, and their sense of security is much stronger!) You are right about how short-sighted we are! People talk about job production, etc... but really, what do we see for it? We are owned.

I am frustrated that people on here are having problems recognizing that Australia and NZ are two different countries. Rather like England and Ireland. We’re culturally quite different, with similar but different challenges.

Got to agree with you there Justilou.

I think the main reason people talk about NZ when Australia is mentioned may be because it's also so bloody far from the UK - for us expats, that is really a big deal, if we still have family and friends we miss in the UK. But I agree - totally different countries and cultures.

I’ve spent pretty much half my life in London, born in U.K. and grew up in Australia. Remote at first then slowly moving my way up to Melbourne (then U.S, then U.K.).

I’d say
TV
Spiders
Casual racism (as I said on another thread all three countries I’ve lived in have their own version, some more shocking)

But there are so many good things about Aus, UK and US. I feel pretty lucky.

I think the main reason people talk about NZ when Australia is mentioned may be because it's also so bloody far from the UK - for us expats, that is really a big deal, if we still have family and friends we miss in the UK. But I agree - totally different countries and cultures

I disagree.

I think those who conflate NZ and Au are just culpably thick. 🐷💩

Racism
Racism
Misogyny
Racism
Sexism
Racism

Did I mention the racism?

Has anyone mentioned how weird the mayonnaise is?
The Thai and Vietnamese food is amazing though

Heat. The humidity. I remember days and days of 100% humidity and high 30s.
Sports as the be end of everything.
Oh and Mumsnetters would’ve appalled at the “just passing and thought we’d pop in” culture.
No decent cheese.

No decent cheese

True mostly unless you go to furthest south for some. Or do what the Housewives of Melbourne did and fly to shop on King Island ;

Produce is really, very good in some parts and terribly bland in others.