Aussies in the U.K. have you or would you go back?

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As per the title, any Aussies in the U.K. who have moved back to Australia or are considering doing so? It was always our plan but with the cost of living increases it seems a scarier prospect now. Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

I moved back in Dec 2020. Plenty of others have too.

Have a look for a group on FB called Aussie Expats Coming Home for more people in the same boat.

Thanks I will check it out.

Not in relation to Australia specifically, but just a word of caution on these types of FB groups - on the one hand they're an invaluable source of practical advice. On the other, everyone "talks their own book" to justify their decisions (this is human nature- I do it too). From my own experience, HK is currently experiencing an exodus of expats. When you hear the leavers and the stayers talking, it's like they're talking about two different places. The "Expats leaving HK" group is vitriolic on HK. I get it. They are angry and frustrated. Some of them have been financially ruined by HK's covid restrictions. But I have other expat friends whose circumstances mean that they are better off sticking it out and hoping for the restrictions to be lifted - things like critical school years for DC, location of family, job prospects, housing options, childcare options etc.

When I was recently making the decision to move home I found it probably more helpful to speak to people who were in my home country and not returning expats about day to day life/ pros and cons. Then I used the returning expat groups for practical stuff like "how do I get my pension contributions back" and " can I renew my uk driving license from overseas".

HTH

I'm not an Aussie returner, but my husband is. Although he left Australia as a child so not sure if that counts. We moved to Perth from Ireland in 2013 (having previously lived in London). It was the best thing we ever did, we have no regrets whatsoever, especially since Brexit happened.

I returned to Australia after almost 2 decades in the UK.

I'm glad I did. Yes, cost of living is high, but the safety net is better and modest incomes seem higher in Australia than in the UK. Certainly my income is much higher.

Also my DC won't rack up the huge loans for university as it is quite normal for students to live at home so no additional costs there, and if they are entitled to Auststudy that is a benefit not another loan. And their catchment school has to take them, regardless of numbers which made planning the move so much easier.

But I was able to do that because I have family support here which I didn't in the UK, and I got a job with a company that let me choose which city I wanted to live in.

We moved back to Australia end of 2018 after 10 years in London.

Absolutely the best thing for us. My dh is Irish so the pandemic and not being able to return home for him was tough, but we're both still glad to be in Australia and not in the UK.

We were very lucky to have sold our house in London and to be able to move in with my DP here in Australia for 3 months until we sorted ourselves with jobs, house etc.

It's been amazing for DH career, mine was a bit slow to take off back here, but now it's good.

The job market here is very good at the moment, especially if you're in tech.

@illiterato yes you can get differing views on returning expat boards but they do understand what it's like to face the culture shock of returning. Locals don't and I personally would not underestimate it.

My view ultimately is that the grass is not greener anywhere. There are pros and cons and you have to give it a go. For myself, I'm not ruling out returning to the UK at some point. For now, life is as good here as anywhere as long as you embrace what is good here and don't bemoan what it isn't.

@silentpool yes, absolutely. They are definitely useful and possibly HK is an extreme example at the moment and I'm a bit battle weary from all the PA projecting- it's sometimes hard to have a conversation without feeling you're critiquing someone else's choices. I just think sometimes you can sucked into an echo chamber that supports your "heart" decision without necessarily considering the "head" factors.

But you're right- also useful to get the ex-expat view on reverse culture shock and things that they might have a different view on to long term residents - like everyone told me not to move to x because the traffic is bad. The traffic probably its bad vs. x 20 years ago and possibly worse than uk average but compared to HK it's like "where's the traffic??" Conversely, I maybe should have thought a bit more about childcare as in UK kids don't have as much freedom at such a young age so juggling the kids has been harder than I thought. Sometimes it comes down to "you dont know what you dont know". I am from UK but I've never been a parent in the UK so loads I don't know.

Yes I moved back. I’m happy but of course there are pros and cons. I do feel however that the outlook for my kids is better here than in the UK. Yes costs of living are increasing but we don’t have the impacts of Brexit and we have better security here (Medicare isn’t perfect but the public health system is in far better shape than the nhs etc.) I read with amazement the threads on here about police never turning up and ambulances taking six hours. I’m grateful we have it better here.

I don’t miss the short winter days one iota :-)

I agree with all this - I think the experience of "moving back" is wider than the country you return to. If you have other friends who didn't grow up in the UK I would suggest useful to get their views on your potential return rather than framing it as an Australia v UK decision

One thing to keep in mind is the social changes brought about by covid. A lot of workplaces are encouraging working from home if possible. This makes living away from a capital city a viable option, which helps with cost of housing, etc.

Covid and WFH have also had really positive impacts on traffic and public transport crowding in a lot of places.

Thanks so much for your responses, I really appreciate it. I’ve been speaking with friends who have never lived outside of Australia and it feels scary but I think that’s because I’ve not navigated a lot of adult stuff in Australia that I have done in the U.K.

My own parents think it’s a bad move financially, and I tend to feel my daughter may have better prospects in the U.K. but I don’t know where to begin in comparing things as it’s just so different.

Medicare and no brexit are certainly pros. And I wouldn’t miss the winters that feel like they last half the year!