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Living overseas

Whether you're considering emigrating or an expat abroad, you'll find likeminds on this forum.

What should I know about Australia that I might not

190 replies

overthesea · 19/04/2011 18:32

Hi

I was just wondering if any Aussie based MN could give me tips on what has surprised you about living in Oz.

We are coming over in a few weeks to visit with a view to moving over in six months. I keep thinking it'll be just like the UK (well except wildlife/accents) but are there things that weren't as you expected? Do I need to investigate anything that I might not obviously think about? Confused

Thanks

OP posts:
differentnameforthis · 21/04/2011 00:36

That they have sausage sizzles at the polling stations on election day (that might just be round here!)

SS are pretty common here too!

When you leave certain shops a security person at the door will ask to look into your handbag! (you don't have to let them do this but Aussies just seem to accept it)

I don't get it...they are happy to be accused of stealing until someone has seen what is in their bags!

But my biggest bugbear is that there is NO affordable dentistry here!

HowsTheSerenity · 21/04/2011 00:43

And dont forget the sausage sizzles at the hardware stores and supermarkets on weekend.

You get used to the bag searching. But if it annoys you just walk out on the other side of the exit looking vague. They usally can't be arsed walking the 2m to search you.

differentnameforthis · 21/04/2011 00:48

Katesbush There sure are! I discovered them in time for Christmas! Was very happy!

SkinittingFluffyBunnyBonnets · 21/04/2011 00:52

The crisps a chocolate are crap....some places in the country are sexist as hell.

They don't have big chemists like Boots and Superdug...books are HIDEOUSLY priced.

I sound negative too...but it was weird for me there..like going back in time.

SkinittingFluffyBunnyBonnets · 21/04/2011 00:54

Oh yes....good shampoo and conditioner is $$$$$$$ and people don't seem to care so much about interior decorating.

differentnameforthis · 21/04/2011 01:08

Ppiders only live under toilet seats that are filthy....they aren't common, even in camping toilets!

Magazines are crap too. I don't know anyone in them!

In SA we have child youth health, which is similar to HVs. They also run an immunisation clinic. Our drs also have nurses who do the same as a UK nurse would. They don't have GP based baby clinics. But CYH do all that, and it is normally with in a drop in type setting.

I find it frustrating when I signal to let a driver out of a side road etc, that they sit there & stare at you....then you have to pull away as they have NO idea what you are doing & could be sat there for aeons!

They can't use roundabouts! The amount of times when I have waited for my right hand side to move & they sit there, motionless! At some points there has been 4 cars, all at different junctions sat doing nothing! It's like they don't know what to do!

At traffic lights, if two lanes go into one once you have crossed, they will race you to get ahead, even the pensioners! Especially if they have a Holden & you have a Ford! (Weird arse squabbling about which is the best) And if you dare to over take a Holden, they will do anything they can to get back in front of you! It's pathetic!

It is normal to see a car that is falling apart on the road. There is no MOT here, and boy, it shows!

They LOVE driving to close to you!

saffronwblue · 21/04/2011 01:20

I'm Australian and am reading this with much amusement and recognition. Yes, books cost a fortune and public transport is crap and supermarkets are old fashioned. We are unfortunately a very car obsessed culture - it is assumed everyone has a car. The capital cities have great fresh markets - The Adelaide market in Adelaide, Paddy's in Sydney , the Vic market in Melbourne, where you can get decent cheeses, meats, fresh fruit and veg etc.
Victoria has a Mother Baby health nurse system where you get a certain number of visits for each new baby.
Don't assume it is just like the UK with the same language - it is culturally quite different in lots of ways. There is still much racism around but the big cities pride themselves on their diversity. When we say Asian we mean South East Asian, not Indian or Pakistani. Our Prime Minister has no kids and lives with her boyfriend which is quite refreshing no matter what you think of her politics or performance. The States are different from each other and have different systems. Each state started out as a separate colony - Australia was only unified into one country in 1901. In Melbourne even women talk about sport. There is a strong drift to private schooling as the state system struggles.
I don't want to sound judgey but there is an unfortunate perception of Brits getting off the plane and immediately asking what they are entitled to based on the system in the UK. Don't assume that things will be the same and you will be pleasantly surprised. Be really really vigilant about kids and the sun.

SkinittingFluffyBunnyBonnets · 21/04/2011 01:20

And a small car crash is called a BINGLE! Yes...a Bingle. Even newsreader say it...and they don't say "A man was assaulted and beaten" when reporting crime on the news..they say "A man was bashed today in the city centre..."

Bashed!

thumbbunny · 21/04/2011 01:31

I'm pretty sure everything has been mentioned so far but I'll just reiterate a few:
parking - you can only park on the side of the road you are driving on - do NOT attempt to park on the other side.

magpies - yep, territorial buggers, hate being divebombed by them!

Kookaburras will, in winter, come and take bacon from your hand, as will butcher birds (but only the grey ones, the big black and white ones that look lke magpies are too scary)

internet shopping here is next to non-existent but is starting to pick up
websites here are generally shite, some won't even have prices on things, you get to look at stuff but then have to ring for a pricelist (waste of time, they never get my business)
HOWEVER - cityrail for Sydney and surrounds is a fab website. :)

Public transport may be worse (and is) but it's cheaper EXCEPT when trying to get to and from the airport, where they rip you off enormously. let's put it like this - a 2h trip from my town to Sydney costs me $13 return. A 5 min trip from Central station in Sydney to the airport (domestic terminal in this case) cost $15 one way.

Domestic fuel prices (elec, gas) appear to be utterly arbitrary and a recent current affairs show who looked at them showed that up to 50% of bills have an error, sometimes a massive one.

Banks charge you for anything they can. Building Societies are better but still charge for some stuff. Bank charges can be enormous.

Restaurants - several of the ones near us are unlicensed. This means that they don't serve alcohol, but you can BYO. They usually have it mentioned somewhere but it's a good idea to check. Pretty sure this isn't going to be a problem in the big cities though.

In NSW (but not Queensland) many Woolworths' stores (supermarket, not like UK Woollies) have a liquor store adjacent or even within the supermarket - you have to go to separate tills but don't have to go too far to find the alcohol. In Queensland, this is not the case. don't know about other states.

Cicadas are bloody loud and yes, individually they might have a 7y lifecycle but they still seem to turn up every year. And they wee on you when you're walking under trees that they're in.

Older houses can have shit insulation - which makes them bloody hot in summer and bloody cold in winter (in NSW). Around this time of year, I have to go outside in the morning to find out what the actual temperature is before getting dressed, or we'll dress too warm because it's cold in the house.

Outside of the big cities, there can be an awful long way between towns - driving is a must if you live outside central city.

That some Aussies seem remarkably unknowledgeable about their own weather - surprised that it gets so hot, or so cold, or so wet. They don't talk about teh weather quite as much as in the UK but they love to whinge about it!
Don't go shopping in the rain - EVERY Aussie around will be there.

Gluten free food is easier to find and with more variety than in the UK.

As has been said, food is expensive. So are clothes - and worse still, the quality is even poorer. Take DS's baby vests (popper style) - bought in bulk packs of 5-7 in Tesco, for about £7. Here - 2 vests for AU$8 (£4.80) and the quality is much lower.
I thought the overseas delivery charge from M&S was £10, not £7?
Iwantoneofthose.com also delivers here for £10, which I was very pleased about.

Books - you can find cheapy books if you look in the right places, but not current books. Libraries are all right though - free to join and they can get books from most places; although they charge a small fee for doing so (90c in my local)

Linens are called Manchester ware. Presumably because that's where most of it originally came from.

If I think of any more, I'll let you know. :)

thumbbunny · 21/04/2011 01:38

Ah, just read the bit about children and the sun - don't be TOO vigilant, like I was - DS has just been tested (for other things, they just did this at the same time) and is low in Vitamin D. A bit of an issue here, as it is in the UK.

OTOH, in the summer you do mostly have to stay out of the sun in the middle of the day, even with suncream on you can feel the sun frying your skin, it's so hot.

And trying to do anything in muggy weather will just bring you out in a muck sweat (well, me anyway, but I sweat easily) so I tend not to do too much strenuous stuff in the heat/muggy weather.

differentnameforthis · 21/04/2011 02:23

Oh yes, the banks! We were being charged 50c for each transaction. We got the first 6 free, then they fined us! We were paying more in fees for that anything else!

You need to find a bank that charges a flat account fee (we pay $6 with ANZ a month) and don't get charged for anything else (unless overdrawn etc)

Clothes are my bugbare too. dd2 is wearing Tesco/Asda stuff that we bought her sister (dd1 is 7 & dd2, 2) before we moved here.. It has lasted well & is well worn! But stuff that I have gotten dd1 here, is fit for nothing after a season of wear! It is very annoying!

HowsTheSerenity · 21/04/2011 06:12

And another thing. We have no 1 cent or 2 cent coins but items are still priced at $4.96 etc. When you go to pay, if you are paying by card then you pay the exact amount but if you pay cash it is rounded up or down. Why they still do this I do not know.

Bubbaluv · 21/04/2011 06:28

Differentname not too sure where you are, but I thought every state had registration checks on cars (same as MOT).Certainly all the East Coast states have "rego checks". If there are lots of dodgy cars round where you live there must be a dodgy mechanic who is willing to pass cars that should be failed.

I think a lot of the examples on here must be pretty specific to particular locations as I can't relate to LOTS of them. I guess that's just a factor of the size of the place? Also, I think lots of our perspectives must also be coloured by where we came from before. I mean, someone who moved from London to Far North Qld is going to have a very different perspective compared to someone who moved from The Lake District to Sydney.

Another one I thought of is that there is no mail on a Saturday (in Sydney anyway).

A big proportion of children go to private schools, especially in high school - like 30% or something.

perfectstorm · 21/04/2011 06:34

Mozzies in Brisbane are killer. Not an issue in Sydney for me, but they eat me to death in Brisbane. I once had my big toe pressed up against the (DDT impregnated) net, and it was bitten solid on every exposed scrap of toe. That part swelled up.

The heat is unbelievable. I like the sun, but QLD humidity and heat is just horrible in high summer. It's dryer in NSW which makes it easier to manage.

The coffee is superb. It ruins you for Brit coffee for ever more. The fruit's amazing as well, as is the Thai. The cheese is weird and the milk - you can't get normal, they add dried to it and all sorts. It's odd. The fish is wonderful as well, as is pizza if you get it from a proper Italian place, and icecream (for obvious reasons).

It can be eyewateringly racist, though usually I think the older generations.

perfectstorm · 21/04/2011 06:36

Oh - and my Aussie little bros are amazed by how unregulated we are over here. They were stunned that we can drink booze on picnics in public parks, I seem to remember. QLD at least is a lot more accepting of rules than I think the average Brit would be.

Healthcare is expensive even if you're covered by Medicare. Get good insurance on top.

Bubbaluv · 21/04/2011 06:37

Perfectstorm - I've never had milk with dried added! Where are you? We can get everything from unpasturised organic jersey milk to 0% fat round here, but it's all totally fresh unless you buy UHT.

I'm also curious about what cheese people are buying?

ninedragons · 21/04/2011 07:22

You should go into the interior, just to boggle your mind.

We were on a farm last week (not even a particularly remote one, outside Dubbo) which was the size of West Sussex. The silence was mind-blowing. It was like God had used the mute button on the world.

If you want to boggle your mind some more, look in the window of any inner-city estate agency. Our property bubble has not popped yet. In my suburb a small 2BR house can easily run to a million dollars.

Everything is expensive (especially childcare) but salaries are quite a bit higher than in the UK. I often read the threads on here about what people regard as decent household incomes with this face -> Shock. I wouldn't get out of bed for any of the figures quoted on those threads, let alone expect my DH to get out of bed too.

sprinkles77 · 21/04/2011 08:04

there is an MOT called pink slip.

gregssausageroll · 21/04/2011 08:12

drive through bottle shops!

GapsAGoodUn · 21/04/2011 08:26

The shops close at 5pm on a Saturday. Even the supermarkets. I keep finding myself at 4.30 thinking 'oh shit!' because of this...

GapsAGoodUn · 21/04/2011 08:33

Thanks gregssausageroll for the info about tv. Have told dh he has to get one!

I suppose the thing for me is that when we moved over and my dh negotiated his salary we were told (by the Australian sub of his company) that the cost of living was much lower and therefore that we wouldn't need equivalent pay.

I put the kibosh on that pointed out that equivalent was fair and so his salary is 1.5x what he earned in the uk. Now coming out and finding that the cost of living is substantially greater than the Uk we are feeling poorer!

differentnameforthis · 21/04/2011 10:02

Bubbaluv, there are no compulsory car checks here (SA). As I said previously, each state has their own road rules & here, you can drive a bomb if you like!

hillee · 21/04/2011 11:07

(precursor: I am an Aussie now back in Australia, but I lived in the UK for a very, very long time.)

The coffee - living in the UK nearly killed me as there were so few places to get a decent coffee.

Yes food is more expensive, but I think it's generally better quality. And I have no idea what people are talking about with regard to cheese? If you know where to look, you can get whatever you want.

You can shop online with Coles and Woolworths (the tesco/sainsb equivalents. although let's face it, nothing will be as massive as tesco).

No alcohol in supermarkets - in NSW/VIC you can get it in adjacent areas. BUT, the quality of Australian wine is excellent once you get to know what you're looking at.

Thai and vietnamese food is excellent. We do get Indian, but nowhere near as plentiful or good as in the UK. But you can get sushi everywhere.

The beaches, the sun, the sky. Unparalleled.

Realistically, yes it is different. But so is everywhere.

And to tell the honest truth, DH and I had long and involved discussions about where we would raise children (he is Irish). And I would never raise kids anywhere else but in Australia. And after three years back, he agrees. Although he still hates mozzies and magpies, but don't we all?

Bubbaluv · 21/04/2011 12:08

That's terrible! I knew that was the case in the US, but I thought good old nanny-state Australia would have that one more sewn up!

Bubbaluv · 21/04/2011 12:09

That was to Differentname btw.