Australia is a great place to live and work. Australia offers a great
standard of living and is so vast there is a climate to suit everyone. As with
everywhere however, some bits are less great. Here are the things I love about
Australia and the things I don’t.
Fair go thinking
Australia is a
country of immigrants. Aside from the native aboriginals everyone else has come
here from somewhere else and this makes Australians a diverse bunch. Australian
society, as a result, is multicultural and lives by the principle of giving
everyone a fair go. If you say you are capable of something you will usually be
given the opportunity to prove yourself.
Waterproof money
We have all done
it, pulled our clothes out of the washing machine and found a chewed-up and
virtually destroyed bank note. In Australia however the money is waterproof,
meaning you can take it for a swim at the beach or send it for a spin in the
washing machine and still spend it later. How cool is that?
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| Paper money is waterproof in Australia |
Immigration
system
Australia is one
of the few countries that, from an immigration perspective, recognises de facto
relationships. It is possible to live and work in Australia if you have an
Australian partner, even if you are not married. This is not the case in the UK
where you have to be married to allow a partner who is not a European citizen
to remain in the country.
Multilingual
Television
Australia has a
TV channel dedicated to foreign news coverage and occasional foreign language
films. This channel presents a perspective other than Australian on world
events (as long as you understand it). It must be a great comfort to
non-English speaking visitors and migrants too.
The size of the
place
Australia is
enormous. It is so big that flying across it takes over four hours. While this
means that getting about can take a while, it also means that whatever sort of
climate you prefer is available somewhere, you just have to discover it.
Unique native
wildlife
Where else in the
world are you going to find such a weird and wonderful array of wildlife?
Kangaroos and koalas are popular. Snakes, spiders and sharks have a less
friendly reputation. My favourites personally, are wombats because they use
their backsides to crush predators, which I think is hilarious. Australia is
obsessively protective of its native wildlife and flora and fauna and has
imposed strict quarantine rules, even between Australian states.
The stuff that isn't so great...
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| Australian beaches pose some hazards |
Beaches
Australia has
great beaches but sadly the water is also home to creatures such as sharks,
crocodiles, blue-ringed octopus and irikanji jellyfish, all of which can kill
you. Combined with some serious rip currents, these significant dangers mean
exercising extreme caution at the beach, which is not hugely relaxing.
Land of rules
Australia is the
land of rules and everything seems to involve some form of control varying from
the legal requirement that cyclists wear helmets to the number of pets you are
allowed to keep, compulsory voting and a ban on consuming alcohol outside
permitted areas. Personally I don’t understand why cyclists would choose not to
wear a helmet, and make themselves more vulnerable than they already are in the
company of other road users, but I think criminalising it is going a bit far.
Equally, if you are not drunk and misbehaving why should having a drink while minding
your own business attract a fine? I see these as heavy-handed limitations on personal
freedoms that I took for granted in Europe.
Expense
Australia’s
economy remains strong despite the global economic crisis. How has it affected
us? We earn roughly the same as we earned in Europe but rent, groceries,
utilities and other expenses cost significantly more. Our groceries cost four
times what they cost in the UK for example. Domestic travel is also prohibitively
expensive, especially in regional Australia, which is one of the reasons so
many Aussies holiday in Asia.
Customer Service
I have
experienced some surprisingly bad customer service in Australia, which I think is
attributable to the fact that the minimum wage is fairly high and tipping is
not customary in Australia. This means people in customer service roles are not
working for tips in the way they do elsewhere. They can do a seriously
unimpressive job and still take home a decent wage. Perhaps it is just the ‘laid-back Aussie’ culture.
Timezone
It comes as no
surprise to people who have done a bit of research before moving to Australia
but the timezone is significant. It is really awkward and only offers a very narrow window in
which to communicate with Europe or America. If you miss the person you are
trying to reach one day, in most cases, you will have to wait another full day
before trying again. If you don't need to contact anyone outside Australia it won't be too much of a problem, but if you do it is annoying!
A note about
Whinging Poms
I’m British and
living in Australia, and while I’m aware that I have just detailed some of the
things I don’t like about my adopted home, I like more than I don’t like or I would
have left. Brits in Australia have a reputation as whingers. I don’t mean to
whinge in this post, but rather I seek to honestly highlight some of the good
and some of the bad about living in Australia.
