I'm not sure I ever want to go back to Melbourne

[Accy cyclist]

So you can't swim in the sea due to sharks and water fleas,you can't sit on the bog due to funnel web spiders and you can't go for a walk in the outback, because a kangaroo might want to twat you one! I thought Australia was supposed to be fun?

 

[jefmcg]

I was thinking just yesterday how nice Christmas in summer is, but there are downsides

 

[Chromatic]

There was a barmaid at my old local who went our to Oz with her husband a 2 kids. Husband having been offered promotion. They were given 6 month trial period. They were back after 3 months.
Thankfully the sale if their house hadn't gone through and she got her old jobs back. She said that she was terrified for her kids.

A few years ago my aunt decided to emigrate to Australia, can't remember where in Australia she went but she was back here within 2 weeks.

 

[Dirk]

Some friends of ours emigrated to Townsville QL about 10 years ago.
Usual stuff ensued - how lovely the weather was, how fantastic the beaches, how cheap the housing, how crap Britain was etc ....blahdiblah....
Saw them last month when they came over for a visit. Now its - too far to go anywhere, too hot, gets dark too early, can't use beach or sea, frightened to do any gardening, can't sell their rental house because of negative equity, too many immigrants, no job security etc, etc.
They were both going home, pretty certain they will both be out of a job when they got back. They are both in their 50s and didn't realise that they would lose approximately 30% of their pensions due to the Oz govt taxing them when they emigrated.
So they are now in a position of having 2 houses in negative equity and possibly no jobs when they are approaching retirement age. Also a lot less in pensions than they had originally bargained for. Not a nice place to be.
'The other mans grass is always greener'- never a truer word said.

 

[Accy cyclist]

My uncle and his family went to Australia twice and New Zealand once,before they got the message that emigration wasn't for them. The last time they went my grandma(uncle's mother)paid to put their Jack Russell in quarantine,when they got there. They'd no sooner got there when they decided to come back. That meant another stint in quarantine for the poor Jack Russell. After it'd been released from quarantine it only went a died soon after. That was one expensive Jack Russell!!

 

[jefmcg]

A few years ago my aunt decided to emigrate to Australia, can't remember where in Australia she went but she was back here within 2 weeks.

Are you sure this is true? The flight takes at least a day each way. She must have still be suffering from jetlag when she booked the return flight. I think deciding there is no place for her in a country 30 times the size of the UK in less time than most people take to buy a car says more about your aunt than Australia.

For the record, Australia is chockers with pommies who like it there. 2 of the recent PM's were 10 pound poms.

 

[numbnuts]

I went out there in 1977 only saw two snake and one shark and had a great time for three years, I still have the bruises on my legs for kicking myself for coming home.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I just want to leave Melbourne (and the rest of Australia) for good.
Spending 2.5 weeks in Italy and France recently has just reminded me of how much better cyclists are treated in Western Europe. In Australia, it's almost a crime to be a cyclist, such is the anti-cyclist sentiment over here.

 

[jefmcg]

Argh! Now it's rampaging deer!

 

[Pale Rider]

Two of my cousins - who are sisters - emigrated to Australia a few years apart in the early 1980s.

They are both still there, but I have the impression from the family grapevine it has not worked out particularly well for either of them.

Neither could afford to return to the UK for their parents' funerals, and it seems they are both permanently short of money.

Returning isn't an option, they have nothing to come back to, and while money isn't everything, landing in the UK as a skint 60-something with nowhere to live is not an enticing prospect.

Of course, they may both have been just as miserable if they'd stayed in the UK.

 

[Venod]

It is my intention to visit one day, my uncle (dads brother) went out with his family as ten pound poms, they lived in Doncaster Melbourne, all my cousins have been over here several times, one of them lives in Mildura and one of there sons is deputy Mayor of Melbourne, the other cousins have retired up to the Gold Coast, I also have a friend living in Grafton, he flew to Perth with his girlfriend and bought a camper van and drove up to Darwin where he lived for a few year before splitting with girlfriend.

 

[Adam4868]

Been a few times,once in my late teens for the usual 16 months of drink and a little work.Then later whilst working on a boat/ship visited.Loved every minute of it,some great memories and a great place to travel.Hitchiked a lot of it.
P.s I'm shoot scared of spiders !!!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

A few years ago my aunt decided to emigrate to Australia, can't remember where in Australia she went but she was back here within 2 weeks.

Two weeks, isn't that just a holiday?!

 

[jefmcg]

Two weeks, isn't that just a holiday?!

Not even that, to Australia. At least a day to get there, and a few days with pretty bad jetlag, so two weeks from leaving the UK is like no time at all.

It's not enough time to see if the city that you landed in has a place for you, and nowhere near enough time to tell if you could make a home somewhere in a continent 30x the size of the UK.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I rode by Melbourne today, Melbourne in Derbyshire though.