MARYROSE02

So you are being disingenuous? You imply that Perth shuts down at 9pm but you really mean your own suburb. What's wrong with travelling out of your own suburb? There are plenty of places in England which basically close down in the evenings bar the pubs and if you want real night life is have to head into the nearest city just you have to do in Oz. If you want the cinema or theatre or nightclubs open after midnight In my village in England you have to drive 9 miles into Southampton and other villages south of my village are more like 16 miles, oh and a poor once an hour bus service which stops by 11pm. And weren't you enthusing about the 24 hour Tesco in England and now that you have been reminded that Perth has 24 hour IGA you start dissing the supermarkets?

Do pubs in England now stay open till "whenever they like?" I don't know. I've not been back since 2008 but then most still closed around 1030pm to 11pm although my social club closed at midnight. As I think Paul mentioned there is a 24 hour IGA near him which means at least two in Perth because there is one in Applecross which I used regularly when I was there. And I can't believe you are seriously telling us that pubs, restaurants and cinemas are all closed by 9pm in Perth. Coming from Sydney where I am used to pubs that close at 4am (I left my local at 2am this morning), I thought Perth was restrictive but only in the sense that most pubs closed by midnight. However, if I wanted 24 hour drinking, then the casino at Burswood is easy to get to.

Thanks Marissa. I did not know just how rich I am!

Steveshe is right about "every little detail" when you apply for the Centrelink old age pension. It's what stuffed my application up last year. They don't want to know how much my UK home is rented out for but what are the dimensions and the rateable value and with my garage on Sydney which is on a separate title, how much could you rent it out for if I did. And after I finally submitted my application yet more questions. I may start the application up again though I think Marissa told me my assets are too high anyway. I would like to resubmit it but those forensic questions I can't hack. UK of course everybody gets the pension even if they are billionaire because it's based on your National Insurance payments not means tested like Centrelink? So many irksome irritations! I'm late with my HMRC tax return but they have changed rules for logging into their system and I don't have a UK Passport as part of my ID for getting past the security. I have to ring them I guess.

That's very much a subjective point of view and I know plenty of proud Kiwis who nevertheless prefer living in Australia.

I guess if you want to work in Queensland then this is the site for you? https://jobs.queenslandrail.com.au/ No doubt the other states have similar websites.

My advice, for what it's worth, is to find a place as close to where you are working as possible, and if you don't want to live close to where you work, then find both work and home on a railway line.

Perhaps travel is free once you get to Centrelink pension age AND you pass the means testing for the pension, and in turn, other benefits? Once I turned 60 I got my Senior's Card which entitled me to $2.50 max travel in NSW and QLD.

Free bus, train and ferry? How come? I have my Seniors' card which means $2.50 max in NSW and QLD but not free? Yes, I get my UK state pension, albeit "frozen" and my Royal Mail pension "unfrozen" i.e. I get cost of living increases. So far as I can tell, there is little difference between the NHS and Aussie public hospital and medical systems. If you need an op and you don't want to go private then you have to wait in both countries?

I did a little Googling - not sure if this site has some of the info you need. I assumed that the UK degree would be very similar to the Aussie one. https://www.smartteachers.com.au/node/90

Thanks, I asked my brother yesterday if he'd been up there and he said "no." I know I have been there before, maybe in 1985 when I came up with my Mum to stay in Tweed Heads and we had a hire car for a week. It sounds like somewhere to stay for a few days rather than a day trip. I remember reading about an English style pub up there or near there? My brother is talking about moving on somewhere at the end of March and If I stay for a while I might hire a car. Mostly I've been happy to stick to Surfers itself and occasional rides on the tram. We are going to Northcliff Surf Club tonight so will probably get the tram there - two stops - then walk a few hundred metres and walk back to Surfers later. I imagine there is probably a local rambling, sorry, bush walking group? I've not done that for a long while. I was in the Ramblers in England and bushwalking groups in Sydney. I'm not sure what I'll do if my brother moves on. I think he's planning a trip north with my other brother which I could join them on. Or, I'll stay and see how I get on living on my own here and see if that "pushes" me back to Sydney.

I wouldn't say any of those things are better than in the UK and it's the middle of the northern hemisphere not the middle of the world. Unless things have changed, GPs mostly work Monday to Friday whereas here they work seven days a week at least in the urban centres and $2.50 to travel on buses and trains and trams is hardly onerous. You pay for your state pension via NI whereas you pay for your pension via super and if you don't have any assets or super then you qualify for the Centrelink pension which is paid by the state

When you go on holiday somewhere it can seem like everybody is on holiday, even the people who are working there. Then, if you go to Europe in the spring and summer everything is magical - "Oh to be in England now that April's there." Now, why didn't Robert Browning write it in February? It makes me sentimental and nostalgic listening and watching these videos, especially the second one. But for the sake of balance, and as I'm both English and Australian:

"Equally unhappy" in both countries? That is a good point especially if one's homesickness is not "cured" by going home. I don't discount the severity of homesickness and I've often experienced it myself but I also found that it's having my family around which is more important. I would encourage anybody who is suffering from homesickness to go back and give it a shot living there permanently, but also be aware that going back for a holiday, especially in summer, is not the same as living there for good. Some people go back and love it whilst others realize that Australia is actually home, although they needed to go back to the UK to find that out, I was happy living in the UK when my parents were alive. In fact I was happy after they died but ultimately I decided I preferred to be in Australia because my brothers are here. Had they both been in England then I probably would have stayed there too.

I've experienced that longing in both England and Australia depending on where I living. My friend posting photographs of his walks around our childhood village but then when I'm in that village seeing the odd gum tree, though God knows how they came to be there. Bluebells make me think of Jacaranda and vice versa.

I guess my perspective has changed since my parents died. When they were alive I went back to England every two or three years and they came out to Australia regularly. I often thought about staying in England when I went back for my holidays but I never had the opportunity, or I suppose you could say that I never dared quit my job?! Then I was made redundant and I did have the opportunity although I did not go back intending to stay as I had a one year round-the-world return ticket. Once I got back there the idea of staying gradually took hold. I got a job with Royal Mail, then they gave me some compulsory winter leave and I used my return ticket to go back to Sydney and rent my flat out. I got a single ticket back to the UK. One of my childhood friends has been posting pictures of his walks in and around the village where grew up and I'd love to be doing those walks with him. I used to be out on my bike or walking almost every day when I was back in England and I've not been on a bike since I returned to OZ. If you get the opportunity to go back to the UK and stay, then take it, although I would not recommend it during Covid! My friend's walks around the village are his only means of "escaping" the lock down. I dread the thought of another lock down living on my own. And if I did go back to the UK now I would be on my own. My parents were always there to welcome me, waiting at the airport, with a home from home. I've been to Mount Tambourine but not during my present stint on the Gold Coast. A girl in lift told me she lived on "The Mountain!?" What is it like living there? Do you need a car to get to the shops, restaurants, etc? What I love about Surfers is having almost everything I need within a few hundred metres of my home. I've been back in OZ for 12 years and not been back to England since. I still watch every Tottenham game and read the Daily Mail multiple times a day but I don't miss England any more, plus I have my two brothers here and no close family in England. As I said, if you get the chance to go to the UK then do it! If you like it then stay. If you don't come back to OZ. What was that "blurb" about the NT? "If you never never go, you'll never never know?"

Thanks, I'll look into that. I've never under-declared my UK income in Australia and I'm pretty sure my high provisional tax reflects my UK Income piling on top of my Aussie income. 2016/17 was the bad year when my income went above the threshold for HECS too. I should have allowed for provisional tax too. Now that I'm no longer working my income has dropped back below the HECS threshold and I've paid off my provisional tax.

Marisa was just suggesting I use Alan Collett to sort out my HMRC woes so maybe he might help you too. I've always had an Aussie tax agent. Damn! I need to get my act together.

When I decided to stay in the UK I flew back to Sydney for a holiday and put a heap of stuff from my flat into storage in my garage. Some of it is still in there from 1997. Not enough to stop me parking my car in there but pushed up the back under dusty cover sheets. In England in 2008 I did the same thing, but stored personal effects up in the loft after getting rid of the furniture. Such a job packing and putting there gear into the loft too. In my defence I wasn't sure if I was coming back to OZ for good. Now, my UK house has been rented out for 12 years which has been good income wise but I've got those things in the loft to ship out to OZ I guess. The tenant wanted to use the loft and I said fine if i can put the rent up to cover storage. There are some family heirlooms there so I probably will ship it all out here then hopefully get my brothers to help me sort through it. I'm not a hoarder but I find it very difficult to chuck things out. It feels like I'm throwing my parents out (with the bathwater?)

I haven't got a UK tax agent. I got used to using the online service myself and mostly had no problems with it. (I hope I have not denied myself a heap of tax breaks and refunds.) I keep meaning to ring HMRC but late at night I can never be bothered to do it. I locked myself out of my UK tax account on line too - (@#$$ing passwords but I'd not accessed the account for six months.) I did ring them but could not be bothered to wait on the phone for ages. That was a couple of weeks ago too. ATO is yet another hassle. They keep blocking me from accessing My Gov - it's the "Compromised TFN branch" who have done it. I'm convinced my tax agent accessed my account and they blocked My Gov because of that. They did it once before then unblocked it and now they have blocked it again. I would not mind but it's almost impossible to contact them without endless waiting on the phone. There's no direct phone no either and when they ring me it's an unlisted number so I don't now whether to answer or not. Actually, I got a form from my local MP in Sydney to authorise them to contact the ATO on my behalf. I must reactivate that process which I stopped when my account was unblocked the first time. You are probably right about the UK house (and the Sydney house). I've at least contacted my solicitor in the UK and know they have my deeds and what steps to take if I do sell. I need to move those effects and I have made tentative enquires. Dither, dither, dither. Does Allen Collet do UK HMRC returns then? Thanks for the advice.

Are you still submitting UK tax returns? Is there Capital Gains Tax? You reminded me that my HMRC return is overdue now. Not my fault! I can't sign into the online site now and I did email them to ask for a hard copy form. I can't get past the identity checks - no UK passport. I never used to have a problem. I'm thinking I should sell my home in the UK. It's rented out which is part of the reason I still do a tax form in the UK.

Well, it does not have to be too much of a financial hit. Rent your home out here or maybe even AirBnb it, and the income will part or wholly finance your time in the UK. Get a job in the UK too. I did not know when I left Sydney that I'd be so long away in Surfers but I could probably have rented my Sydney flat out for $500 or so. I went back for 12 years and one of my brothers moved to the USA after 15 years here and spent 15 years there, but my other brother has been in OZ almost continuously since May, 1979. He came back for our Mum's funeral in October, 1997, and for a second holiday to see my Dad in November, 2004. I must ask him if he would REALLY like to go back there? Most of the Brits/Irish i know like it here in OZ and many of the WHV ones are taking Student visas to extend their time here.

I used to go back and forth to England to see my parents and they used to do the same to Australia to see me and my two brothers. (Should that be "My two brothers and me?") I don't know why they never moved to Australia permanently? They bought a house and came out for 18 months. In 1996 I lost my job after 15 years (my only "relationship!" Sad!) but my parents were in England so I went back for a holiday and ended up staying for 12 years. I was there to help them, especially my Dad in his later years, although he probably helped me more. Once they both passed, I could have stayed in England. I liked it there and got used to living on my own, which is my "default" position anyway. But it is also nice to have family around which is why I came back to Sydney. Now I'm in Surfers living with one brother. Perhaps I'd be better living in my own place nearby, or, if he moves on, going back to Sydney to live closer to my other brother, who now has grandkids. I know that for some people "the place is more important than living close to your family". It's just hard to get my head around because humans are naturally social beings i.e. we get lonely!? Plus if you are ill, then hopefully, your family will rally around, as you would too of course.

My only suggestion regarding going back would be not to "burn your bridges", i.e. don't sell your house in OZ (if you have one) until after you have settled into life back in the UK. I went back to England for twelve years and I rented my flat out in Sydney, and then repeated the process when I came back to Sydney - rented my house out in England. The only thing I may have mucked myself up with was to pack my loft in England with personal effects and I'm not sure what to do with them now. I just emailed my solicitor actually wondering what I had done with my house deeds? Not packed into the loft but in their office which is good to know. My experience of going to both England and Australia after long periods away is that it is like emigrating each time or "pulling a tree up by its roots and then replanting it again". Is that a reasonable analogy? I've done it a fourth time, moving from Sydney to Surfers Paradise but this time I've left my home in Sydney as it is with a mate house-sitting. Possible scenarios: You love England and have no desire to return to Australia other than for holidays. You love England but miss your family back here in Australia so for that reason return to Australia. No problem with that scenario. It's the reason I came back to Sydney after my parents died and I had two brothers in Australia. You don't like it in England and realize that life in Australia is better after all. There's another possible scenario and I don't know how important that might be; what happens if one of you is ill. That is when it's good to have family around you. I came to Surfers to live with my brother because I could not face another lockdown on my own. If my brother was to move on then I might return to Sydney to be close to my other brother I loved living in England by the way. Had my brothers been living there I would have stayed there. I love living in Australia too!

I know that everyone's situation is different but when I was 42 I lost my job in Sydney and I went back to England for what was supposed to be a holiday but I stayed for 12 years. I worked for Royal Mail in a very different job to what I was used to and then I decided to come back to Sydney when i was 54 and worked on an off till I was 65. Assuming you can get back into Australia and other factors are favourable - home, job, finances, family, schools, I would not have thought that 44 is too old, depending too on at what age you want to retire. Come to think of it, my parents looked at emigrating to Canada in 1967 when they were 51 and 46. My mum had secured a teaching job but my dad was not sure where he would be able to get a job. I don't know how trades jobs work. I thought that once you had done your apprenticeship, you become a skilled "tradie" and there is no starting at the bottom?