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.

@eaglejulesk again maybe depends where you are. I mean the high street fashion options seemed to me to be quite high end and expensive, or aimed at teenagers. The in betweens were probably places like Jeanswest/ cotton on which were ok. It seemed like loads of my friends bought from places like target and the clothes were just really boring and poor quality. I often found that my Aussie friends wore things I just thought were a bit odd or everyone lived in workout gear. Maybe the type of friends I kept!

The other thing I found quite strange and unexpected was I received a lot more stick for having red hair than I did in the UK. I used to get teased as a child but there I was openly teased as an adult, called a ranga etc. I had 2 friends who I discovered secretly had red hair after having known them for some time because they died their hair and spray tanned.

When my daughter was born she was blonde and a friend commented how great it was she had blonde hair and asked if I was relieved. I had a friend who had a baby and when the hair came through she was genuinely concerned it looked red, was always asking if others could see the red etc and other mums would say 'nah don't worry it will come through darker'. Really upset me.

I spoke to my hairdresser about it once and she told me she loved my hair but said loads of her clients with red hair asked her to cover it up but that it's "really hard to hide the skin". Odd! I actually really worried about my son as he was born with red hair but 'thankfully' he turned blonde too!

I wonder how many of the opinions on this thread are based on fact and actual experience of living here in Australia.

For all the negatives, I can honestly say that this nation of incredibly resilient people is, on the whole, warm, friendly, inclusive. Yes there are exceptions, yes we are still dealing with the fallout of the horror that was the stolen generation. The Aboriginal Cultural heritage is more than just buildings and places, it's about stories, dreams, family - a history so deep that it is difficult to capture. Almost all Australians that I know value this and never forget it's value (even if there is a long way to go).

For every spider, storm, flood, fire, there is mateship, acceptance, looking after one another. More than I EVER experienced in the UK.

There was a call in Qld in 2011 after the floods - the Mud Army responded, literally 10s of thousands of Queenslanders came out with their shovels and mops and got stuck into fixing, cleaning, clearing and supporting the victims of flooding.

This year, there was a call for volunteers to support our aged community during COVID. There are 2 million people in Queensland, 180000 people signed up.

Clothes shopping is hideous. Travelling in Europe is tedious and incredibly expensive. I'd not exchange it for the world.

Yes, it is not England. Yes it has its faults but nowhere is perfect.

@SerenDippitty

According to friends living there, you can’t get a decent curry like here.

The thread title is Tell me the bad things about living in Australia - and not please repeat second hand rumours you've heard from friends but not actually experienced yourself

Many good curries to be had, and I'm just sad I haven't tasted more so far!

I agree with everything you say GADday. I lived there 8 years and hold citizenship. But the thread asked for the negative things. There have been similar threads about living in other places.

@walkingchuckydoll - no, it is NOT true for every other country that signed the Hague Convention.

Most places have a period of time before the child is considered to be "habitually resident" in the new country - NZ does not.

But the thread asked for the negative things. There have been similar threads about living in other places.

You are quite right, the thread did ask for negatives. However, what is making people angry is that the Brits are more than happy to whinge about the negatives of other countries, and yet on the thread asking for negatives about living in the UK should anyone DARE to criticize their country they come out with the - "why don't you go back home" comments etc. They can give it, but they certainly can't take it!

Surely this should only be answered by people living in Australia? Otherwise what value is it?

@eaglejulesk - lot of rental properties in Australia that aren't fitted with either air con or heating. Not so simple to just buy it and install it then.

And no, CovidicusRex, I do not accept that suggesting women are incapable of absorbing mathematics is just "humour" and not remotely belittling of women's understanding and intelligence. But you've proved my point for me.

Plenty of racism to other nationalities here. You no doubt all know about Britain First? Australia First is just as bad. Where I live is a very white dominant area - we've had a few Burmese, Somalian and Indian families move in and there has been some unpleasantness. The Asian population (mostly Eastern Asian, i.e. Sino-Asians) are less troubled in our area. The disgusting language I've heard people use about Indian and Lebanese immigrants is really horrible.

The Aboriginals come in for plenty of non-affectionate slurs too - similar to those aimed at travellers in the UK.
And it's generally accepted that Aboriginal deserves a capital letter in this country, same as Australian, English etc. does. I've sat on a few school staff selection panels, and anyone failing to use capitals for Aboriginal or Indigenous falls at the first hurdle.

I actually agree with lots of the downsides mention in this thread and I’m Australian and lived here all my life. To be fair though I feel more at home in England so I don’t think I’m representative of the ‘average’ Australian. My dog lives inside most of the time (although he does have a dog door for outside access), I’m not sport made (AFL is pretty good though), I HATE summer here and beaches and barbecues are not my idea of fun day out apart from walking my dog on the beach when it’s cool outside,

Don’t worry too much about sliders or snakes though. Most of the spiders are harmless and your chances of being bitten by a deadly snake are tiny (not uncommon for pets to be bitten though).

On the plus side we have done pretty well with the pandemic but I guess it helps to be on an isolated island.

I get that the thread is about the bad things. I did say what I thought was bad (shopping & travelling to Europe).

I just wanted to refute some of the general comments, which are frankly just rubbish, and often look they are made by people who have never been to Australia.

I live in Australia and agree mostly with the negative points already responded. For me though I would never date an Australian man, there is nothing about them remotely attractive to me and most women I know here who are from other countries agree with me.

@eaglejulesk they can give it but they can't take it

Are all the posters on this thread giving their experiences of Aus, the same as the ones refuting the claims about Britain on the other thread?I have plenty of criticisms about the UK and haven't been on the other thread. 'The British' aren't some homogeneous group on MN moving from one thread to another together

(@giantangryrooster I know. I was a bit ashamed really. Seems we can give criticism very easiy but not take it.)

I have lived in Australia and I loved it. It was clean and warm and amazingly welcoming after having spent three years in London. I remember travelling on a tram in Melbourne and someone commented on my bag. I immediately presumed they wanted to snatch it when they were just being complimentary.I thought the food was awesome, especially street food and all the restaurants up in Fitzroy serving loads of varied and reasonably-priced cuisine (this was a while ago so prices have changed)...However racism was rife and sexism even more so and I missed a bloody good pub.

One of my mates lives down under. One of the awesome things he recently had was 'long service leave.' if you have been in the same job for 10 years (I think) you get several months off. He went traveling, how cool is that!

My bestie is Australian and she tells me that the spiders aren't a problem. they only move inside when it hot.

She tells me that the worse thing about Australia in her experience is the macho culture. As a mum to boys she can't bear the prevailing boys don't cry ideology.

Admittedly I don't live in Oz, but SIL has been there 20 years plus, and absolutely despises the drink drive culture.
She says that because everything is so spread out people will go to a bbq at a friends house, drink quite a lot, and drive home.
Suburbs are often built without amenities where she is, do mencanbe seen driving to a meet up point, swigging all night, then driving home.
She hates driving after late afternoon as a result as she's really quite worried about all the drunk drivers.

One of my mates lives down under. One of the awesome things he recently had was 'long service leave.' if you have been in the same job for 10 years (I think) you get several months off. He went traveling, how cool is that!

I think that's a great thing. Unfortunately in the UK it's not seen as a good thing to be in the same job for 10 years!

@Puddlejuice - I can't speak for the other states but in NSW they have a lot of random roadside breath testing. I know they do it in the UK too, but not anything like as much as they do it here - not just around holiday times, but any time. I've never been pulled into one so far, but DH frequently is. He doesn't drink and drive so it's never a problem. I think more people are becoming more sensible - there have been some really hard-hitting ads about drink driving while I've been here - but it could just be my perception, not fact.

I find drivers in England to be more aggressive than in Australia tbh, and I've driven a fair bit around different parts of England for work. Certainly in Sydney and Melbourne there is a lot of random breath testing and speed cameras in operation and many friends there have had licenses suspended, especially at a younger age due to Australia's tiered licensing scheme.

The huge flying cockroaches some of you mentioned here put me off forever from visiting Australia. I wouldn’t mind the sharks, the box jellyfish, the spiders, the snakes...but flying cockroaches? No thanks!

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.

Snakes spiders, fires. If not in a major city the terrain.

They don't just fly, they kind of zoom.
They are walking slowly on the floor and then suddenly zoom across the room.
Awful things, South East Asia has them too, I was horrified when I first saw one do the zooming flying thing.