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 have family in Australia, been to visit twice. Didn't want to leave, so much so I cried on the plane leaving. I would move there tomorrow if I could but sadly only in my dreams

Giant spiders that settle in your shoes

Nothing could make me ever want to go there. Everyone I know who has gone has loved it mind you. I had a boss who went several times and kept saying you must go ‘nope better places to spend money rather than a hot poisonous bitey place’

@IwishIhadaMargarita not very bright are you.

@thecowinthemeadowgoesmooo take it you are probably Aussie...another reason to avoid it, zero sense of humour. I am very bright actually according to everything I’ve done with my life.

Yes insulting a country you've never been to is super funny. Your sense of humour is top notch.

@Miljea

It was bizarre. We had all these overdressed 20 year olds (secretaries because they had been trained to do admin until they could retire on their husband’s income) wandering round the office, trying to nab a partner. I’ve never seen anything like it before and hopefully won’t again.

thecowinthemeadowgoesmooo totally agree

Social Class is Australia's dirty secret. They make this big thing about how they're all 'mates' but they have a greater % of their kids in private schools than the UK.

Plus the ants don't just bite you, they chase you down the street.

I have the opportunity to go and visit any time as I have family out there, but it is not a country I enjoy visiting at all. The casual racism and sexism gets me more than the big spiders. Male family members who moved there a decade ago have morphed into people I no longer recognise. They used to be a lot more open minded and tolerant, but now have a very sexist outlook on women and totally against feminism. It is disheartening. The snobbery over their school system is also rife. A holiday is fine because there is an end point and you can leave the country, but I wouldn't live there if you paid me.

I lived in Sydney for a little while (15 months) and I loved it.
This was BC (before children)

What I really didn't like was

Dark evenings. All year round.
cockroaches. in our unit. on the trains. yuk
Expensive to shop for groceries
Overt racism.
and sexism.
lack of annual leave
unable to visit Europe. I don't think I ever particularly wanted to see Europe that much, until I realised it wasn't an affordable option
Estate agents ( can't remember quite why now, I just know it was on my 'stay or go' list!
It was so cold when I arrived I had to immediately buy a winter coat.
It was so hot on new years day, we couldn't step out of the unit. But we had no air con.
The noisy fucking birds.

What I did like was

It was all a bit like going back 20 years in time. Some aspects of this I liked.
Eating out. I even loved the food courts in the malls. The japanese stalls in particular. And the cake shops
Clothes shopping. But I was younger then and could be arsed with it.
Possums visiting in the evening.

I never encountered a snake.
DH loved it there and it took him years to forgive me for wanting to return to the UK. He particularly liked his job at the brewery where they finished at lunchtime on a Friday and there was a free bar from noon onwards...

Bugs and crawlies
Racism
Skin cancer
Heat
Postage so expensive
Loads of brits
Appaliling aboriginal treatment and history
Booze culture

I moved here 25 years ago (husband Australian) and I wouldn’t live anywhere else. Except maybe New Zealand (swoon Jacinda Ardern) .

Bad things are it’s such a long way (and therefore terribly expensive) to go anywhere like Europe or the USA.
While there is some racism it’s also very multicultural. If you have an Australian accent no one gives a toss what colour your skin is. If you have a foreign accent though they are less accepting.
I live in Sydney and everyone here is in denial that we actually have a winter so no one heats their home properly. So for the two months of the year it’s actually cold, we freeze.
Housing is ridiculously expensive.

On the plus side, while the cost of living is quite expensive, wages are reasonably high.
Medicare is amazing! Medical care is mostly free, excellent quality and freely available (I’m sick, I call any doctors surgery locally and can get in same morning and pay nothing or a very small co-payment.).
Many Australians are now trying to do the right thing with regards to the environment, me too and BLM movements; gay marriage is now legal. Long way to go but I feel we are headed in the right direction.

We’ve by and large done what we have been told with regards to social distancing and self isolation as evidenced by our low covid mortality rates.

It’s a pretty laid back place all in all which suits me fine.

I moved here 25 years ago (husband Australian) and I wouldn’t live anywhere else

My kind of person I don't blame you

Plus I'm very jealous

🐨

Social Class is Australia's dirty secret. They make this big thing about how they're all 'mates' but they have a greater % of their kids in private schools than the UK.

That’s counting the Catholic system though which has very cheap, subsidised fees and distorts the overall figures. A whole years fees at a Catholic primary school is about £1,000, and subsequent children become pretty much free after the third.

Private schools in the UK sense only make up 10% of schools.

There is a bit of an old school tie issue in some industries but it’s just not even remotely on the same scale as my experiences in London.

I lived there for 13 years. I mostly loved it but then I was a kid. It's definitely a monoculture and there's no way of explaining just how obsessed they are with sport. So you have to be into that. It is apparently quite racist but being white I wouldn't have any experience of it. Also Sydney sucks. Coz I'm from Melbourne. That's a big thing. The worst thing by far though is the insane number of rules about everything , and the way that anyone who thinks differently is ostracized. Massive fines for minor traffic violations, they all seem quite happy about that though. Having said all that I'd love to move back, the weather and the light and the beaches...it was the only thing that staved off my dad's depression, it's why he moved there I think.

rather than a hot poisonous bitey place

That made me laugh. It was -7.3 here overnight on Wednesday. Bit warmer this morning though, -4.1.

The photo was last winter.

I suppose this counts as things to hate about living in Australia?

It's very racist. Some parts are still old boys club. Very American.

Racism. Sexism. Bushfires. Carbon footprint.

The fact that, if global warming continues, large parts of it are utterly fucked.

Yes, the school thing was interesting. In Brisbane, everyone had gone to the same schools, segregated almost 100% by religion. Massive numbers of kids going private' as a result, and yes, while your local, 'not that great' Catholic school might be very cheap; or cost £9,000 pa, whereas the Anglican schools might be £15,000.

Where we ended up, on The Sunshine Coast, the choices were: two Lutheran schools, two Christian fundamentalist schools (complete with creationism!); an Anglican school, a Methodist school and a Catholic school. Plus of course the rather rough, tatty local High School. I didn't know a single kid there!

even loved the food courts in the malls

Yes, the food court below Ryan’s Bar in Sydney had a great Indian stall, as well as a roast chicken place. I also liked this.

Interesting to hear so many people commenting about Australia’s apparent lack of culture and richness of history in one breath then complaining about racism the next. Think you may have overlooked something...