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 live in Perth. Born and bred in UK - emigrated as a teenager and have done stints back and forth. I’m in Perth. I hated it here growing up, but as a single mum, I now don’t think I’d change. We have free and quality healthcare (except dentistry - gah). I earn 90k AU + perks in senior admin. I get 15 days personal/ carers leave & 25 holiday days (all paid) per year. Our welfare is amazing - I fled domestic violence and if it hadn’t been for Centrelink, I’d have been homeless. I agree about racism, sexism - yes, it’s abominable. But many many of us are actively trying to change that, and I believe we’re gradually getting there. No where near done, but the conversation is happening. It’s a start. My son is special needs - under NDiS, he receives fully covered OT, psych and speech path weekly and has significant EA time. Childcare fees cripple me - although I believe it’s same most places including UK. I have no car and manage- not ideal but budgeting made it essential initially and we’ve just kept on due to savings. True - travel is hard. It’s far and super $, and I miss my family, but I love WA. Karijini and the Giants forest made me breathless. My kids play outdoors most of the year - though 40+ summer is tough - I hate that level of heat. We seek out opportunities for culture and whatnot - not brilliant but we scrape by. Me - I’d go home in a heartbeat, but I raise my kids here gratefully. I went to all girls school (fancy one - gloves and panamas, nix) - and yes, it’s elitist and snobby, but I also had great fun and took it with a grain of salt as scholarship kid wearing charity shop clothes. I am grateful to be safe, healthy, employed and somewhere that gives me opportunities to raise my children and have a career. My country is no better than yours, but it’s right for me.

Spiders & enormous cockroaches!
We were in Perth and loved it there.

The usual complaint seems to be 'no culture'. What do you mean when you say 'culture' though?

Last I remembered Australia has art galleries, theatres and museums. No 'stately homes' granted but lack of them hardly leaves a gap in my life.

It's just different culture, and different history.
Australia has loads of both, but it's something that a lot of people don't realise before going there.

1. Kids you never knew you had turn up to live with you - usually immediately after one of your own flies the nest.
2. Some people die - but come back 5 years later.
3. The works outing is by plane - which crashes.
4. Half the people on your street turn out to be Hollywood actors or pop stars.
5. Memory loss is prevalent.
6. Everybody on the street lives with everybody else at some point in time.
7. Everybody has to take a turn owning or working in the local businesses, and you hope it doesn't catch fire whilst it's your turn.

Quite quite true! We’ve one of each in Perth 😉

No 'stately homes' granted but lack of them hardly leaves a gap in my life

I would imagine that most stately homes in the UK only exist as profits of the slave trade back in the day so are nothing to brag about.:o

No 'stately homes' granted but lack of them hardly leaves a gap in my life.

I suppose it depends on how stately you want them. Como House, Werribee Mansion, in Victoria, Belvoir in Perth, Mount Morrison in Tasmania are some very grand buildings dating back to the early 19th century. People forget that in the 19th century the gold rush made Melbourne one of the richest cities in the world and the architecture reflects that.

But I forgot. Actually all of the 1850s homesteads are infested with snakes, spiders and drop bears. Tropical homestead also have pythons and crocodiles which creep through the windows at night. Don’t visit, it’s not safe. The reason Australia has so much interior is to bury the people who have fallen foul of our dangerous wildlife.

The reason Australia has so much interior is to bury the people who have fallen foul of our dangerous wildlife
dont forget our serial killers use it well too

We have culture here on a few levels
Aboriginal culture, you gotta leave the city for this though, go proper bush, with the snakes and shit lol. The dreamtime stories and rock paintings are mesmerizing. They way things were done, how they lived, made use of the land but didn't destroy it. Amazing culture

We have museums, art galleries, historic buildings, before corona a thriving art/festival/music scene, our food scene.

There also the bogan culture, the racist, sexist, Commodore driving twats who think Bathurst is the be all and end all of life, think a clean flannie shirt is dressed up.
This sadly gets more airtime.

Sport isn't culture, it's a religion here.

Frank rattlesnake..
Good point.
When you meet a feral Australian it is a different kind of feral to my NZ culture.
Some of the accents sound so cheap
Shitty quality food, Kmart quality
They are so racist towards aboriginals it's disgusting
Onlyreadingneverposting8
Which city are you going too?
Good is the lovely outdoors we have, plenty of beaches, parks, lovely to travel 15mons and be at your destination providing it's not Auckland.
Bad...Shitty climates, lack of jobs and high cost food, electricity and internet.
Many British people seem to be over here and like it.

I traveled around Australia 17 years ago and couldn't believe the sexism and racism back then, it's still happening then?!

Absolutely loved it though.

I am from Australia but now live in the U.K. I don't think I would ever go back to live even though all of my family are there. The people are racist and bigoted. Something I never truly realized until I moved away. If you are any shade other than white you are labeled black. Sexism is rife and people can be very vulgar.
Though the country itself it lovely and good to see, the bigotry and sense of superiority a lot of them possess is nauseating.

Yes us little women are all in pinafores, baking bread and polishing our husband's shoes. We can't get jobs because what's the point of working for 50c an hour?

And all non white Australians hide out in fear (that's me) lest we be pushed into the gutter.

Melbourne and Sydney rank at no 3 and 4 of cities with largest foreign born populations.

I'd rather be a black person in Australia than a traveller in the UK. People in glass houses.

As someone who has lived in both countries (London and Sydney)

• Sydney public transport is highly shit
• road infrastructure also highly shit
• the heat can be a bit unbearable

• I disagree with the racism and sexism comment, especially in Sydney, didn't find that to be the case in my crowd or at work.
• also the rain comment, yes it's technically the same amount of water, but in Sydney it comes down in one bug storm then its sunny again.

For balance - here are some shit things about UK

• total nanny state, for example the government not trusting you guys to know what 1m is when social distancing, so they double it.
• no power points in bathrooms - again because no one trusts you guys not to use basic common sense so thanks for this.
• the fucking weather
• actively trying to make friends in shunned
• all those awful betting shops on the high street
• having to take vitamin D and give your baby vitamin D
• all the sun deprived weirdos who come outside with no shirts on as soon as the sun comes out

Also a HR manager at my work didn't hire an Aussie girl because she was "too happy" and people wouldn't like her accent. So racism is a thing in UK as well. Its just hidden under ten layers of virtual signalling which is a mandatory as soon as you get your UK visa.

@onlyreadingneverposting8

Our best friends emigrated there about 10 years ago. They absolutely love it. The lifestyle, the space etc. They feel their children, now adults, have had a much more varied childhood with lots of outside activities. They’ve been back here twice but are always anxious to get back there. They have a much nicer house there too! They’ve said they’d never come back here.

I don’t feel particularly oppressed as a woman in Australia. Plenty of successful women with children at my workplace (they put childfree me to shame ).

Racism is definitely still a thing though. Some of the comments from my own family are shocking.

I also feel that being a bit ‘different’ or eccentric is more acceptable in the UK. Although I’ve never been formally diagnosed I feel I’m probably on the autism spectrum. Most likely my mum is as well (although she’s never admit). It’s not an easy place for someone like me to live with the harsh light and extreme summer. My depression and anxiety is terrible in summer. It’s also extremely difficult to break into existing social circles.

Australia does have a retain rawness to it. It’s something I’ve never really felt comfortable with despite being born here and I’ve nearly ver really felt as though I really belonged. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been here.

Due to various reasons my dream of moving to the UK is probably never going to happen (I live there vicariously through Mumsnet) so I really need to find my place here.

The ‘outside lifestyle’ bit always makes me laugh seeing as the UV levels in most of the country are high for at least half he year and you risk sun stroke doing most exercise on the hotter summer days.

Yes, the beaches are lovely (even I will admit that) but you wouldn’t want to be there in the middle of a 49 degree day. That lovely white sand gets hot enough to burn your feet!

Yes, the 'beach' thing is interesting. If you live anywhere on the southern half of the east coast, you have to find north facing coves, otherwise, it's full on surf-central. By waist high in the water, you're watching out for undertow and shark warnings!

The northern half of the east coast, you get 'stingers' in season (box jellyfish). You have to swim in panty-hose... . Further north, you share your beach with salties....

I spent all last summer indoors with my air purifier running.
It's nice to be outdoors in winter though.

Yes us little women are all in pinafores, baking bread and polishing our husband's shoes

Don't forget the way we're all sending our daughters' to some lame ass finishing school in the Shire.

Just realised I typed 49 degree day It gets hot here but not that hot! It should be 40 degree day (Still way too hot for me).

@Melia100

Don't forget the way we're all sending our daughters' to some lame ass finishing school in the Shire.

😂😂😂😂😂

Lol - reading this makes me want to go back to Oz. I miss my sunshine, decent coffee (sorry but how UK people think Costa or Starbucks is nice boggles my mind), and nice friendly people.

Hate it here. Only here for husband who is English.