blobby1000

Yes Kew is very pricey, I wonder which suburb you are in now, would be interested to know. We had a fortnight in Vermont. It's one of the most sought after locations in Melbourne but I couldnt see why, just house and houses and no train to get anywhere. However, I do wonder why you have to get a taxi to get a newspaper? Surely you are on a bus route? How far away can your nearest shop be in the Eastern Suburbs? I can suggest a few things you may like to do at the weekends, or during the week if you can find a bus...even if it takes you to the train station, then you can get anywhere you like. The Dandenongs are absolutely stunning, you do need a car but maybe could go at weekends. Warrendyte is a lovely little village type place with a river running throught it, loads of lovely coffee shops. St Andrews market on a Saturday morning is fantastic, up in the trees with the Kookaboras (cant spell it) Hurstbridge is a nice little town too There is a really nice big park between Greensborough and Warrendyte....I cant remember what its called....Wester something or other, kangaroos running around, its huge, lovely walks. Get into the city and go up the Eureka tower to get a feel for where you are, or walk along the Yarra, or head to the Botanic Gardens. There is the Yarra trail that you can walk along that goes through the Eastern suburbs into the city Bruswick street is a great place to stroll along, people spotting, coffee drinking Take the kids to Collingwood Farm Park (Its not called that, but thats what it is!) Get down to the Great Ocean Road, we lived in Toruay for a while, get down the Kiosk on Fishermans Beach, and say Hi from us to the friendly owners Josh and Tom, drive on to Lorne, the most beautiful seaside town imagineable The Grampians are stunning (our favourite place of all) I know you may not feel like it, but there are a lot of things you can aim to do.... I reckon (for families/couples) prior to leaving the UK EVERYONE should have a deal with their families: Give it two years but if one of you is unhappy and wants to go home after 2 years then you go home. No questions asked. For me, this was the big problem. I never thought my wife wanted to go home, so I felt I was in Melbourne forever, it made me feel really desperate at times. In the end when I really told her how I felt, I discovered she felt the same way (thats why I say talk to your husband!) But Im so pleased we lasted 26 months and had some amazing experiences which we will never forget.

60 hours a week?! Who let you do that?! No thats a load of old rubbish. Prisoners need health care too and Australian prisons are desperate for staff (well they were in Victoria) I did bank nursing and agency nursing in Australian prisons with no experience of that, it was good fun. And you dont actually need any experience to practice in Australia, but any you have will benefit you in terms of confidence. If you wanted to change things in the UK I cant wait to hear what you think of nursing in Australia! BUT GO FOR IT!!

I know you're being kind. Dont take this personally. But if I had eaten an Australian sausage on the beach every time I had felt miserable I would be 35 stone.

One bit of advice. Talk to your husband. Very important. He may feel the same way as you do. What you have done is very hard. (Where are you living by the way, I think I missed that....altough I could just go back and read it again!) I had a moment, 6 weeks in, when I was climbing up an escalator and I had a very quick moment when I thought "I could just jump off here!"........(I didn't and I wouldn't!!!!) But its an emotional rollercoaster. Talk to your husband (dont jump off any escalators!) My wife was 8 months before she got a job (due to delayed nursing registration). It was easy for me (Im not saying I loved it) but I was out working full time, meeting people at work at least, speaking to people. She was stuck in a suburb, with our 3 and 1 year old boys (lovely boys, but its nice to have an adult to speak to occasionally yes?), no car, didnt know anyone.....it didnt fell like a dream for her! Talk to your husband!!!!

Yes that would have certainly helped but I think it was something more than that.....life really (or life as we had come to know it after 36 years)

That is exactly what we missed.....busyness (is that a word?

Just how we felt...(except we didnt really make any good friends) Beautiful beaches, amazing walks, amazing surfing, fabulous coffee, a house one block from the beach, ate out every day, easy job, new car, pots of cash BUT SOMETHING FUNDAMENTALLY MISSING FROM OUR LIVES!

I agree....but changing how you think is very very very hard.....people have to go through serious counselling to achieve that...honestly, how we THINK is essentially WHO WE ARE.

Well I think he is allowed to try something different and realises he doesnt like it isnt he?

Well done... What were you doing? Sorry to say this, but I was quite pleased to read this (sorry, I dont mean it) but I always wondered if we should have moved to Freemantle, we visited and loved it, a kind of laid back, hippy, chilled out friendly existence we thought....but based on your experience it just sounds like everywhere else in Australia!

Great post, I will reply before I read the other 150 responses. just out of interest, do you think you would have stayed and enjoyed it if you had found suitable work? I am a Mental health nurse. We lived on the Great Ocean Road for a year after a year working in Melbourne in applied for many many jobs. My applications were ignored, as were my phone calls and emails. When I asked people why this was (when I was suitably qualified at least for an interview....or certainly a response!) they told me that even Aussies can't get work there....you have to be born next to the hospital! essentially it's just Aussie racism. i agree with your comments about boredom. We thought it would be perfect living by the sea, but for how long can you walk along the same piece of beach every day with no real friends? Forever seemed like a long time, so we gave up after 2 years as well.

I didn't really think much of Australia. i moaned a lot. Compared the bad of Australia to the good of the UK. now I am back in the UK and on a bad day I compare the bad of the UK with the good of Australia. It's all a bit mad....but we would never come back to Australia as I just think we would feel exactly the same. We would have the same problems, ie it's not England, our family and friends are not there, it's too hot and it's Australia! However, I look back on it with some great memories. Although that is much better than being bitter, it's actually harder that way!

ANZ are excellent. You can go on their uk website and set everything up from the uk. Then when you arrive you just visit a branch with your passport and you're sorted.

Direct line were great. Our tenants, on the other hand, were not.

Yeah. We felt bad for the whole time we were in Australia. And, quite apart from that, we also really missed people. however, some people don't appear to miss anyone and don't appear to feel any guilt at all. after 2 years in Australia I concluded that only 2 types of people can make the move successful 1) people that learn to deal with those emotions, 2) people that don't give a toss about anyone, we never learned to deal with the emotions!

I know what your saying. i feel at home here which is something i really missed when In Australia and it's something you can't really measure.

And comments like that are a big reason we came back home to the UK. Many of the British we met said things like that on a daily basis, almost, it seemed to us, to justify their decision to move to Australia (although, the fact you had no choice makes it a little odd you feel you need to say it!) How can you really call the UK a "hole" if you haven't lived in the UK since you were a child?

I do not understand why "wanted down under" have to portray Australia as brilliant. Whats in for them? Why can they not make a programme based on the realities of moving to Australia? That is to say, some people love it and some people dont. Who is paying them to say Australia is great in such a biased way?

Its purely down to the strong dollar Im afraid. Its not a rip off at all. 10 years ago when the pound bought you 2.7 dollars your quoted price in Aussie dollars now would have been less than you paid in the UK. Its almost pointless converting back to pounds Im afraid, its meaningless, even though when (like me) you are returning home, it is effectively pounds you are spending.