I am 31, and considering moving to Australia…

[WhereamIgoing25]

So, as the title says: I am 31 years old, currently living in London, single (actually just been dumped by someone I was dating for a few months!), no dependents and a bit fed up with life here / in the UK… and thinking of moving to Aus for a year or so.

Don’t get me wrong - I have a pretty active social life, and I am close to my family and friends - but apart from that I don’t feel like anything is keeping me here. Especially not my job / career! It wouldn’t be a permanent move (I don’t think) but I am ready for a change.

Thought I would turn to MN for some advice! I’ve never been to Aus / NZ but I’ve always had it in the back of my mind to visit / move there.

Pros? Cons? Did you do it? Would you do it if you could? Best cities to move to? Are there really spiders and snakes everywhere?

What about all the other people in those countries - have you decided that none of them have a rich enough culture for you?

I am conflicted about Kiri te Kanawa. On one hand she was a world-renowned soprano who appeared at the ROH in The Marriage of Figaro...

On the other hand her birth mum was a New Zealander of Irish descent...

And her dad was only a Māori, and they didn't build aqueducts.

Utterly devoid of culture, Kiri, really.

This post is almost laughable. Maybe the Aussie in turkey thought you were a two bob snob .

I'm surprised you think it is straightforward - I've seen plenty of posts around cultural identity and nationality on Mumsnet from immigrants living in Britain.

One of my closest friends moved to Australia in his twenties from Iran, now an Australian citizen married to a woman born in Australian to parents born in Denmark and now have children born here. According to you he isn't Australian because he didn't move here as a child but his wife is because she was born here. But I prefer to consider how people identify themselves and I don't ask that in every 30 second conversation because that would be strange.

No, what you “love” is white European culture and history. The 60,000 years of Indigenous history is not in structures and monuments but in the land and stories.

Also, the topics of conversation were “lacklustre” maybe you just don’t talk to the right people. But it’s seems a little shallow and snobbish of you.
fwiw when ever I have met English people overseas I have always got the impression that they think they are somehow better, superior and the “natives” around them need educating and they should be grateful to have someone like them around to show them the “right” way.

Weren’t they … English? So, conversely, you’re attacking your own people?

Invade the 'New World', do their very best to extinguish every last trace of the existing history and culture, complain there's no history or culture.

The UK has museums! Galleries! (With gift shops.) They certainly do, and they're full of all the cultural stuff stolen from the New World...

💯

We even have a podcast here called Stuff the British Stole. Because culture starts with acknowledging how awful the colonialism of the British really is. But you know….gift shops!