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.

@ScotchBonnits it has a reputation for not having much soul. I'd choose Melbourne over Sydney tbh.

I haven't read the whole thread, and it's 17 years since we lived in Oz, but one of the negatives which influenced our decision to come home was lack of annual leave (much less than UK) and minimal rights to maternity leave and flexible working. Pethaps someone who has lived there more recently may be able to confirm whether anything has moved on since then.

Racism, sexism, snobbery
People are very much in their own social groups already and not hugely inviting to newcomers. It's a long way from lived ones in the UK. The chocolate is gross.
I lived in Melbourne for 4 years and while it was fun, I was ready to.come back to the UK.

@cactusmum

This is a thread about the bad thing about oz to cheer up the OP that she can't move there. You wouldn't tell a divorcing spouse how great her husband is, of course he is a lying cheating basterd. Same goes here. If you want to start a thread anout how great oz is then by all means do but don't do it on this tgread, that is not it's purpose.

To add to that of course every country has good and bad bits. I live in the Netherlands. You could call it a liberal country with hard working people and beautiful old places. Equally you could call it a drug infested sodom and gommorra populated by rude/direct people. Neither viewpoint is wrong.

@walkingchuckydoll but both make it sound absolutely fascinating. Booking it for my next holiday....if there ever is one.

@LakieLady yes, I think you are right. Equally the same was once true of those lovely Victorian town houses, many of which destroyed at one point to make way for newer developments. They just were t valued. Lots of damage was done in the 70s and 80s too. Not to derail the thread but been eyeing this beauty up... www.wowhaus.co.uk/2020/05/28/1930s-art-deco-renovation-project-in-clevedon-somerset/

(I’m referring to the Victorian houses in Australia!)

Cars are generally the only way to get around. Even living 10 minutes out of the CBD in Sydney we ended up buying a car.

Online shopping is terrible. It's so behind.

The news is poor. Real, good quality journalism is infrequent.

The reliance on mining and having a high carbon footprint to keep the economy going.

I don't agree with the racism and sexism to be honest, it's no worse there than the UK or America (actually, America is worse I would say). And the food is incredible.

Sigh. If you live in a city, you can get around without a car, just like you can in other cities all over the world.

If you don't live in the city, you probably can't. Just like other places in the world.

The news is only poor if you watch/listen to commercial/Murdoch crap. God only knows how, in this poor, deprived colonial outpost, but I've been able to get decent news my entire life.

Too many rules and regulations. Three arms of government doesn’t help.

I’m an educated person working in an area associated with the law and even I struggle to keep up.

Lots to do with dogs.

• No pets on public transport.
• No pets in cafes or pubs.
• Council can fine you for not having at least one dog poo bag on you when walking the dog.
• In my council I can only have one dog despite living in a detached house with a (small) back garden. Only found this out from a sign at the local dog park. At the time I was looking at possibly getting a second dog!

Bike helmets are compulsory.

You have to be very careful with speed limits as the Police are big on catching speeding drivers and the fines (where I live anyway) are large.

Bike helmets are compulsory.

You have to be very careful with speed limits as the Police are big on catching speeding drivers and the fines (where I live anyway) are large.*

These are good things.

Its really hot at Christmas!! I’m old fashioned I like it to be cold at Christmas, I even like that it dark by 4pm so I can but all the fairy lights on .

Yes they are mostly good things.

Obviously riding your bike on a busy road without a helmet is stupid but I’m not sure it should be compulsory on a bike path.

With the speeding, maybe I’m still bitter from being caught a few weeks ago, just when I was about to be able to pay my credit card off

@Nanalisa60 - again, depends on which bit of Australia you're in - in our 10 Christmases so far, we've had about which were stinking hot, a couple where it pissed with rain and the rest warm to hot.

It actually snowed in Tasmania on Christmas Eve a few years ago (but that was exceptional, it is mid summer for us!)

But what I really miss is town lights and going out in the dark to see them - mostly the towns round us don't bother, although some houses get very excited - but we have to wait until after 8:30pm to go and see them in all their glory at night. The shopping centres decorate inside, but outside - not much.

So we have "Christmas in July" instead, when it's actually cold (mostly, not the more northern parts of QLD) and it gets dark early - but people don't put lights up for it.

Oops - we've had about 3 that were stinking hot, don't know where the number went in the first post!

I wish bike helmets were compulsory in the uk. It makes me so angry when you see people not wearing them. And yes falling of your bike even at slow pace can kill or seriously brain damage you. But no, doesn't look as good. 🙄

Talking of helmets I liked the old public service ads we had - the egg cracked for helmets, mushrooms, meat, apples. They were simply done and effective because I remember all of them

What do you expect them to think? If I was abused over and over again by one ethnic group I would have a poor view of them too

Well by that logic, i should hate all white people, as a white person
It was a white guy who raped me
My father was white, spent years abusing me
The abuse and sleezy cat calls hurled from cars, all white guys
The sleezes in clubs were notoriously white

Its a weak as piss and a lazy excuse to say ive been abused by 1 or 2 people in a whole race so i hate the whole lot.

I think the police are very hot on drink driving but there is little/no stigma attached to it - in the UK if you were done for drink driving it would feel absolutely shameful and you would get judged. In Aus I felt it was like any other driving offence and you just try to evade being caught.
There a couple locally who brag they have a breath tester fitted to their car and they get their kid to blow in it so car starts.

Shocked by the amount of sex shops everywhere - and like next to a pie shop or something in a normal shopping street
Lol this is so true. I can think of one, been there for decades, right next to a kids dance studio...... The dance studio CHOSE to move in next to them

the beautiful stone fronted (wrap around veranda) homes
I love them homes, usually a fireplace in every room too, we lived in one when i was a kid, so cool in summer, warm in winter. Most being destroyed sadly

Not everyone lives in Queensland. So no, it's not my experience, and my experience is true. I live in the Adelaide Hills. Yes I see red backs, no I don't get snakes. We have a shack on the Yorke peninsula. Haven't seen sharks.

Lived in hills for a few years, plenty of snakes and spiders.

I live on yorkes now, we had a snake in kitchen in last couple years.
My dp is friends with local fishermen, they dont swim in our waters, they seen whats within 50m of shore here. They have caught what is in our waters close to shore. Sharks have been sighted from the local jetty and we not even right down the bottom end of yorkes.
Ive seen the sharks dp has caught off the beach in the suburbs of adelaide.
We all have different experiences of the same areas

So regulated. You need an electrician to change a lightbulb kinda place
That may be the wording on rental leases but i dont know anyone who actually followed it lol I even think the electrician would laugh if you rang to book them for that

I forgot to mention the anachronistic June Dally Watkins school in southern Sydney. Young ladies from the Shire were learning that the most important thing in life is to walk like a fashion model, so that you can marry a wealthy man. I worked with some of the products of this school in 2011 - they were always fabulously made up admin staff trying to date the partners.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Dally-Watkins

Is that place still going??? Unbelievable.

@catandthefiddle

Looks like it.

au.linkedin.com/company/june-dally-watkins-business-finishing-college

It's full of Australians. 💤

June Dally Watkins school

Never even knew that existed here lol
Tacky, pathetic and sad
but it dont seem well known here, least outside of NSW so thats a plus

Casual racism @fran 🙄