MichaelP

Most Aussies are friendly. There is a significant minority, however, who are racist. Some are overtly racist, such as the old git on the bus who yelled at my wife (from China, been in Aussie 20 yrs) to 'go back home'. There are the dumb racists, like the kids who kept running up to my wife and her friend & shouting konnichi-wa! in their face and laughing (because Japanese and Chinese are all the same, right?). There are the middle class racists, like the ones at a dinner party recently who quite openly joked about the meal being dogmeat made by Ching Chong Chinamen (to much laughter). And there's the unconscious racists, like the ones who keep asking my son where he is from and not taking Sydney as an answer. (No where are you REALLY from, with your un-Australian slanty eyes). So it doesn't matter if you tick all Pauline Hanson's boxes and integrate, assimiltate, speak English and be a true blue Aussie. You still get crap like this every week. Straya.

There's a Facebook group called GP Down Under https://www.facebook.com/groups/gpsdownunder/ who could probably help you with that. All RACGP fellows of course, many ex-UK.

I think you'll find Aus is light years behind UK in terms of nurse prescribing. The legislation is there but not will nor the career structure. Some drugs are listed on PBS as eligible for nurse practitioner prescribing but actual numbers are very low. If you want to prescribe it would probably be quicker to re-train as a GP (or pharmacist).

Agree with what northshorepom said. It would be crazy and cruel to move a 16yr old from a settled existence in UK to Sydney. We took our kids back to UK for a year when they were 13/14 and it was a nightmare re-settling back into Sydney schools even though we knew the ropes and they had friends here. And the notion that you can land a house with water views and get your kids into a good school with a rental budget of $800 a week is fantasy. Sorry, but Sydney can be a really tough place to make a new start if you have kids.

Two reasons why this is nonsense. 1. Correlation is not causality. Just because low levels of vitamin D are associated with autism does not mean they CAUSE it. Vitamin D levels may just be a marker of some other problem. As the neurologists said today, there are many and varied mechanisms to explain autism, among which vitamin D deficiency does not figure. 2. Using sunscreen does not inhibit your body's production of vitamin D. You only need a few minutes of daily exposure to UV to be replete with vitamin D. Slip slop slap will not stop this in any meaningful way. But if you want to boost the bank balance of Blackmores shareholders, please keep taking the vitamin D pills

Richmond always struck me as a nice historic town. Has the air force base and West Sydney university so hardly a ghetto. Only thing that would put me off is the inland heat.

Even if you are a UK citizen you are NOT entitled to NHS treatment if you have lived abroad for more than 2 years. I found this out when I sought treatment for a broken finger in Leeds when back in the UK for a year in 2013. Despite having lived back in the UK for 8 months I was told by NHS England (Leeds General Infirmary) that I was not entitled to an operation to fix the broken bone unless I paid for it. They only provide emergency treatment (a splint). I was coming back to Australia anyway and got my finger fixed when I came back. For something as serious as a child cancer I would check your NHS eligibility before returning to UK.

I like Lane Cove. It's got a great library, swimming pool (not that easy to find on north shore), Longueville pub and a posh Woolworths. And that Italian place that does one metre long pizzas.

Well we have a 16 yr old and we're in Roseville - he goes to Turramurra High and has a mixed circle of M/F friends in the area (one of the reasons sent him to a co-ed school, I think it's more balanced). His friends are a mix of Aussie and UK migrant kids. If your daughter wants to meet some people of a similar age in the Roseville-Chatswood area, get in touch (they're a bit teen geeky though).

Doesn't surprise me - Australia has been in denial about its reliance on China consumption of resources for a decade. Now that China is switching away from coal and diversifying its food suppliers, Australia won't have it easy any longer. Government has spent two years crying wolf about a Budget emergency. Now they face a very real one. Australia should be investing in the products and services that countries like China want. I've just been in Guangxi province, China, and every new apartment is installing solar.

I am a UK citizen but was told I would have to pay for treatment (broken finger) at a Leeds hospital when I couldn't prove my residence in UK. It really annoyed me because I was born at that hospital and even worked there as a casual porter when I was a student! They put a splint on for free and I waited a week until I returned to Aus and got it fixed properly here.

Climate change is real. Overwhelming scientific evidence that is already being factored in by insurance company risk estimators. Go ask your local SES group about their long range strategy. Many parts of Australia will be subject to bushfires and floods, even seemingly inocuous outer suburbs of cities - viz Canberra 2003, Victoria 2009, Queensland floods. If you take part in any Natural Disaster Planning events as I have you will learn from very practical experts about the kinds of scenarios Australia faces in coming years. It's going to be a major burden and Australia needs to be prepared.

Australia can expect to have more extreme weather events - bad news for those who have recently lost everything in bushfires and floods. We can also expect to see spread of diseases usually only seen in tropical areas - this is already happening with mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, whihc is becoming endemic around Cairns.

If you're looking to emigrate to Australia as a tradie better get in quick. The Australia-China FT allows Australian companies to hire Chinese labour at favourable rates and without the same level of skills as local workers. The list of the first 457 visa exemptions for Chinese workers have been posted on Twitter. Here's what the sparkies union have to say about it: 457 visa workers set to flood into power and energy industries The Chinese Government has been on a buying spree of Australia electricity networks and gas infrastructure. Our regulator, the Australian Energy Regulator has guaranteed them a profit on these networks. But China wants to gouge more profit to send back to the Chinese Government, by slashing our jobs and wages. Some of these Chinese Government-owned companies are already advertising for migration agencies to act as employment agencies – and are stating a preference for 457 visa workers. Good luck.

The multiple occupation units in Sydney are not illegal immigrants. Most of them are legal visitors from places like Korea, Japan and India on WHVs or student visas. I saw one of these places when i was trying to find student accomodation for my son. There are loads of them advertised in Gumtree. Most of them are not as bad as the ones portrayed in the media - they're unofficial longer-stay backpacker hostels, similar to the ones occupied by Brits in Bondi. Wouldn't want to live in one myself, but it's just the free market operating in a city where a single room costs $200 a week.

The big dilemma for us (and many Sydneysiders) is that the suburbs that are interesting and lively such as the inner west don't have many good public (ie govt) schools. That's why we moved up north for better schools, even though we knew it would be a bit dull compared to Stanmore where we used to live. A lot of Brits seem happy to live in the Hills suburbs in the north west, but we missed the independent cafes and shops of the inner west. Chatswood is a compromise for us - when the kids go to college we'll be moving back to Stanmore! The school don't have a problem with us being here as we used to live in the catchment area and the boys are only 1-2 years away from leaving. I'd say the other north shore suburbs are similar to Turramurra - Sydney's answer to the Chipping Norton set!

I must have been here too long. I just can't eat fish and chips anymore - it just seems like a massive load of greasy fish and stodgy potatoes to me. Maybe it's the climate, but fish and chips just don't seem suited to Sydney's warm weather. I sometime have the barramundi at Doyles, but grilled, not in batter.

We lived in Turramurra. It's OK, leafy, conservative, a bit dull. Not much in the way of shops or cafes. We moved closer to Chatswood because we prefer a more multicultural area - great Asian restaurants. Kids still go to Turramurra High, which is a great school with good academic record. All those places you mentioned are OK for train transport (if you're near the station - we lived about a mile down the hill in Turramurra). Trains are OK but I would never commute on Pacific Highway.

We tried to relocate back to UK about 3 years ago - didn't work out. Spouse visas are very difficult to obtain, even for my wife who had previously been a UK resident. The UK partner needs to have a well paying job and/or you both need to have a substantial amount of money parked in a UK bank account for about a year to qualify. Even if you tick all the boxes the application process and waiting times are horrendous - we were told could be 18 months. Didn't want to disrupt family life for that long so returned to Oz.

Australia rode out the last big global recession thanks to Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan's anti-austerity policies, cushioned by the resource revenues from China. This time we have a Finance minister hell-bent on fixing the deficit rather than keeping the economy ticking over, and the China resources boom is well and truly bust. Australia faces an economic recession, and yet property prices are likely to stay unaffordable for the average punter because the real estate market heavily favour investors. Negative gearing is giving $5bn in tax breaks to the landlords who can afford to buy second properties. Australia is a very backward looking country at the moment, still believing it can survive on resources and real estate. The country has had a very lucky couple of decades. The next 20 years may be much tougher.

I work in Chatswood. Nothing much there for a couple interested in walking/running/cycling. Little green space or cycling tracks. Lots of Asian restaurants and a Westfield. You might want to consider nearby Lane Cove (more green, including the river park with lots of running cycling options). North Shore is a bit dull for some. St Ives is full of Saffies and MAMIL cyclists (Middle Aged Men In Lycra). Most of the young people in my office live over the other side (inner west etc).

I first came to Australia in 1987 and settled down under shortly afterwards. I haven't lived in Britain for any length of time since then or paid any tax there, but according to this I can (or soon will be able to) vote in their elections. That's very generous of them! But why does the UK government allows foreign residents with no stake in the country to elect their lawmakers? It seems especially odd given that I am treated as a foreigner when it comes to access to education and healthcare in the UK. On my last stint in the UK I couldn't even open a bank account because I was not habitually resident in the UK! I'm sure this is just a gerrymander to get more conservative-voting expats to tip the balance in marginal seats. Not very democratic. People should be able to vote for their leaders, but not other people's leaders. Voting is a privilege that should be earned by residence, not by a birth certificate. It must be especially galling for people in Scotland to know that English expats living thousands of miles away and with no intention of returning will decide who shall rule over them for the next five years.

Fraser was a unifier. Abbott a divider.

Nearest pool to Artarmon would be Lane Cove, which is a good one and only 5 mins away.

I don't think Abbott will be PM at the next election. He's a liability and the Liberals know it. The only reason they haven't ditched him already is because Shorten is an equally hopeless joke. Will be interesting to see what Abbott does with the next Budget. If he persists with university fee hikes and Medicare copayments/gap fees (call them what you will) he will be booted out by Middle Australia. Middle class Australians don't want to see their kids racking up $100,000 in debt for a degree. Or their parents/grandparents eking out their pension because they can't afford multiple visits to the GP. Abbott also doesn't seem to have twigged that the resources boom is over. China is serious about cutting back on coal and steel, so anyone who thinks coal is the future is flying in the face of reality.