I was just about to post on that Australia thread. Drafted a long reply and no thread!
So it's below
@thesugarbumfairy I have a very similar experience! Lived in northern beaches of Sydney for just under 2 years between 2005 and 2007. DH was the one driving it (we weren't married then) and he'd rather we stayed but he knew I wanted to go home. To be honest I'd never been motivated to visit Australia let alone live there. I'd always been drawn to countries with more obviously different cultures to the UK for long haul trips and also love Europe. But DH had always wanted to return after doing the working holiday thing when he was younger plus he has close family there who emigrated from the Uk in the late 80s and they've done really well - I think he sees that success and thinks it's to do with Australia. I'd say it's more a combo of luck with timing and talent and could have happened in the uk.
Anyway, things I liked about it: the weather obviously (though sometimes it was too hot it was so nice to have so many reliably warm days, plus the winter is much milder & sunnier), the beaches, the smell of the plants and flowers, the food (can't speak for outside of the cities really but food in Sydney is great).
But on the downside, it is more racist, homophobic and sexist than the uk. Now I know the Uk is not perfect, the BLM last summer really show we have so far to go when it comes to honesty about empire and our racist past. But I think the convo seems even further back in Australia. There is still so much apology and excuses for the way aboriginal people are treated even today. It's pretty shameful. Attitudes to the environment also seem pretty backward - things like using tumble driers when the sun is shining because it's easier without thinking about the energy consumption. For both environmental and more personal preferences I also hated how car reliant Sydney is and how cannot really get around on public transport (it's awful compared to London).
I also worked longer hrs and had less holiday. And though the winter days are warmer the nights are cold and houses freezing as they have bugger all insulation. Winters are also pretty much as dark as the Uk, dark when you get up and when you leave work.
The other thing which I didn't like which surprised me (and maybe only noticed so much because of the work I did there) was how paternalistic/nanny statey some of the govt policies are, especially at state govt level. Many policies brought in as response to an issue seemed an ineffective knee jerk reaction which limited personal freedom but didn't actually work. Road safety has the most pertinent examples - eg cycle helmets are required by law in Australia and though we know that they prevent some injuries numerous studies have shown that they also put people off cycling and that other interventions like segregated cycle lanes and lowering traffic speed are more effective at keeping cyclists safe; when there was a fatal collision involving a young driver in Queensland the state govt made their graduated licence scheme more stringent instead of thinking about why these young people had to drive to get to places that they wanted to go (answer: because the public transport was/is shit - I get that this is a harder thing to change but I couldn't believe it wasn't even part of the debate)