Loopylu

Keep drinking the koolaid. Aussie snobbery is all based on material possessions and wealth but it still constitutes a class system where those with cash buy privilege for their children, nepotism and the old school tie networks are rife and the unemployed and disabled are labelled bludgers and forced to exist on the lowest benefits of any OECD country.

Was. The gap between poor and rich has grown exponentially. Australia has the lowest unemployment benefits of all OECD countries. As you have lived in the UK for a number of years you are hardly on the ground and in a position to comment on current living conditions.

Actually it is the country that imposed travel restrictions (and Australians without relations overseas supported this breach of human rights) so your point is invalid.

Seems you are also playing the same record. If you don’t love it, leave. I am just as entitled to express my legitimate concerns about Australian society as you are to defend the indefensible.

Actually there are. My family. Kids at critical stage of education and husband has recently started dialysis. I am to all extents and purposes trapped in a boring country that disappoints more and more each day.

A lack of human rights protections and a class system that is worse than the Uk would be relevant to any “intelligent” assessment of whether to migrate to Australia. Quality of life is not just about weather, size of house and a swimming pool if you have any social conscience.

The first question I was asked when I started work 13 years ago in Brisbane was what school I would send the kids to.The look of horror when I said the local State school… Only OECD country that props up elitist private education and healthcare and investment property ownership with taxpayer money. Class system, what class system. Also only OECD country not to have a bill of rights or human rights act in domestic legislation. Explains how the government gets away with the treatment of refugees, charging for education of children of temporary visa holders and restricting the travel of its citizens. All breaches of human rights conventions ratified by Australia but unenforceable in Australian courts due to lack of said domestic legislation.

You’ve been here all of 5 minutes. Let’s see how you feel after several years of living isolated from family. My children have not seen their grandparents for 3 years now due to harsh travel restrictions.

We definitely prefer the north side over the south side so you are heading in the right direction.... The Gap is a decent, friendly suburb with good schools but Waterworks Road has a reputation for a slow commute and is only serviced by buses and not trains. Our good friends lived there for many years but have recently relocated to our suburb so that they could live on acreage with a separate granny flat for their 21 year old daughter. Good parks, cafes and supermarkets can be found in all Brisbane suburbs so you won't have any worries on that front! I don't have much experience of Bardon apart from driving through. That area (Bardon, Paddington and Ashgrove) also suffers from traffic snarls due to the hilly, narrow and winding roads. It has a lot of boutique shops and coffee shops. As far as commuting is concerned, it can take my work colleagues who live in the 5-7km radius from the CBD sometimes longer than it takes someone to commute 25km by train during rush hour. Parking in Brisbane is some of the most expensive in the world so, unless the job comes with free or subsidised parking, bus or train is the way to go. These run very much on time and only tend to suffer disruption during weather events (ie massive downpours/storms). For more affordable inner northside suburbs you could look at Nundah, Northgate and Wavell Heights. Hendra and Windsor are also popular with young families. The only other thing you need to take into account in Brisbane is whether the suburb you choose is susceptible to flooding. You can look into which areas flood on Government websites. How long is your husband prepared to spend commuting each way? I would say that the maximum commute anyone does here is 1 hour (although some choose to live on the Gold Coast and spend much longer commuting). I hope this information is useful.

Bardon, Clayfield and Ascot are all very expensive suburbs. We rented in Clayfield for 9 months when we moved over 13 years ago as my Aussie husband had lived there 15 years earlier. It was conveniently close to the office in the CBD and the short commute freed up my time to study for exams to convert from a UK legal qualification to an Australian one. However, we moved 20km out as soon as we could as we found the area quite snobby and unaffordable to buy in. It was inhabited by ladies who lunch while husbands earned megabucks as professionals. We were considered an oddity because I worked as a lawyer and my husband looked after our young children. The last straw for us was when one of our 7 year old sons (we have twins) was handed a note in class signed by most of the boys telling him he should kill himself. This was Eagle Junction State School and the ring leader was son of a GP. Back then we were paying $450 a week to live in a three bedroom dump and the parents of the other children looked down on us because of the state of the rental property. We didn't even have a bath in the one and only bathroom. In our 9 months there, there were 3 break ins in the street as these rich areas are targeted by inner city drug addicts. As Quoll says, I would not panic about schools and also I would not choose your suburb where you plan to settle until you have spent some time renting anywhere that is convenient and affordable and checking out the area. Housing availability (both rental and to buy) and affordability is becoming a big problem in Brisbane. In our suburb, the average house price a couple of years ago was around $650,000 but now houses are going around here for over a million. It's crazy. All the best with your move.

In light of a comment I made earlier about the increasing density of housing in new build areas, this article is relevant. Qld is hot at the best of times but the lack of trees in new build areas only makes matters worse.... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-11/townhouses-development-heat-island-effect-australian-suburbs/100588334

We don't live in Brisbane so your comment about backyard fires is irrelevant. We had to involve the council in respect of the constant fires in a brazier as the Bogans renting over the back were not approachable. We have lived in 3 properties in 13 years in the Brisbane area and generally found that Australians are not very neighbourly. As I try to be friendly and helpful to neighbours, I always introduce myself and make conversation. This is how I found out the neigbours were Qlders. I think the main issue is that they are Gen Y Qlders and therefore do what they want, when they want with no regard to others. We used to have older Qlder neighbours who were lovely and the rest of the cul-de-sac was British, NZ, South African. They were all lovely but now most have moved on and have been replaced by very unfriendly Aussies. We used to have street functions but now the Gen Y only socialise with each other and the two older families (Boomer/Gen X) are excluded but have to put up with the noise and Gen Y's ill-disciplined, high pitched squealing kids.

I thought that was one of the big pulls for most people moving to Australia is to have more land/house for your money and not living cheek by jowl with the neighbours. In my personal experience, it is better living closer to Midlanders than Queenslanders as people from the Midlands are more community minded and considerate of neighbours in terms of noise levels etc. I am married to an Aussie and have found that the local Qld born neighbours are not friendly and often can't be bothered to say G'day in passing. They also don't care about noise levels and think nothing of lighting a bonfire when you have washing out. If you say anything about this anti-social behaviour you risk verbal abuse at best or violence at worst.... and we live in a good area on 888m2.

Can you please stop the bullies who are attacking Mmmbop?

I see you are being hounded by the Know-it-all Gang who all take it in turns to home in on one (usually left leaning) poster to constantly attack. I was their victim earlier this year when I had to travel to the UK to be with my terminally ill father, leaving my husband who has kidney failure and was about to start dialysis behind. Apparently, I should not have complained about the travel restrictions and should just be grateful that the powers that be let me travel.... Apparently fundamental human rights to a family life and to travel across borders are rightly at the discretion of the Australian Government..... I chose to hide all comments from and block the members of the KIA Gang and life on this forum has been much more pleasant since.

I arrived in Australia on a 457 temporary work visa in 2008 but my husband was Australian. When we bought our house in 2009 we had no issues with FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board) because so long as one of the purchasers was Australian the extra costs didn't apply. Also, as my husband had never purchased a property in Australia before (only in the UK), he qualified for the first home buyer's allowance of $15,000 (not sure if this is still available). I haven't heard that the FIRB rules have changed but who knows? Australian Governments seem to like imposing extra taxes and removing benefits from those who are not Australian citizens.

North Lakes is a relatively new area in the Moreton Bay Region and therefore not in Brisbane. It has a large shopping centre and business district, IKEA and a Costco. The landscape is flat. As with all newer areas, the housing is close together to maximise profits for property developers. As housing has all been built around the same time, it is a confusing place to drive around as everywhere looks the same. There are no real landmarks. It reminds me of new towns in the UK like Milton Keynes, Redditch and Telford. It has recently benefitted from a new rail line making commuting into the Brisbane CBD easier. I have heard that driving to and from North Lakes to the CBD at peak hour is not fun. The main road from Brisbane (Bruce Highway) is always busy these days and when we head north we often use other roads heading north some of the way to avoid the congestion around North Lakes. A lot of new arrivals from the UK set up home in North Lakes and so it is often referred to as Little Britain. As far as jobs are concerned, you have as much chance of finding the work you have mentioned as anywhere in South East Queensland. Personally, I would not choose to live in North Lakes due to the style of housing, lack of mature trees and the demographic who live there because they generally can't afford to live closer in to Brisbane. We live in an older suburb in Moreton Bay, Eatons Hill, which has a mixture of acreage and housing on larger blocks (typically 800 to 1000m2).It has more of a sense of community as people have lived here for a few generations. In North Lakes your average block is 400m2. I would recommend that you find a short term rental on the northside of Brisbane (I'm not a fan of south of the river but there are a number on here who are so expect fireworks) and then explore to see which suburbs take your fancy. Who knows, North Lakes may be right for you in terms of your budget, career and lifestyle.

No they didn't but I was in rural Wales and also coming from Australia so less likely to be risk to others....

A friend of mine in Worcester has Romanian lodgers and when, they returned from Romania, the police did visit to check that they were self-isolating correctly. I imagine they audit a certain number of arrivals. When I arrived in March, you could not get into the UK without providing on line and printed out details of where you are going to be staying for the 10 days and printed out evidence that you had purchased the two mandatory Covid tests.

Sure - it is flights.assist@dfat.gov.au.

I just received another DFAT email today advising as follows: You are receiving this email as you have registered with DFAT as currently located in the United Kingdom or Ireland and may wish to access the below flights. A number of seats remain available on the facilitated commercial flights departing London to Darwin on: 2 May 3 May 12 May 15 May 16 May 24 May There should be no expectation of frequently run facilitated flights from the UK in the coming months. The location and schedule of future facilitated commercial flights is yet to be announced, and will target those locations with the largest cohorts of vulnerable Australians trying to return home, especially where there is a lack of commercial alternatives. Please carefully consider whether these flights would meet your requirements if you wish to return to Australia, as we cannot guarantee extended notice or ongoing high frequency of flights from the United Kingdom. Please note we also cannot guarantee extended notice periods on facilitated flights, which are subject to operational approvals. If you wish to return to Australia and do not wish to take this flight, or require an extended notice period before a flight, you will need to seek commercial options via scheduled flights with other airlines. If you have already made alternative arrangements with another airline in the coming weeks, you may wish to seek to confirm your booking is secured and if your flight has been delayed or cancelled, consider taking this flight as a guaranteed opportunity to return to Australia.

As per my previous posts I think these are genuine. The offering of these flights has coincided with the UN requesting that Australia pull its finger out in repatriating citizens....

The one the original poster cited had dfat.gov.au at the end.....

I have received details of 6 flights in May since registering recently with DFAT as a fallback return option. I cited my need to return to Australia sooner rather than later as my husband is about to start dialysis. I had to travel to the UK in March on compassionate grounds. I already have a return flight booked with Singapore Airlines on 16 May but apparently the airlines liaise with DFAT to see who to bump off already purchased flights.... Anyway, the emails I have received look official and have come from this email address: Consular.LhLh@dfat.gov.au. Suggest you check whether the ones you have received come from the same email address. Hope this helps.

Thanks Toots. I’ll stop posting on here as obviously a lot of people don’t want to hear uncomfortable truths or have their worldview challenged.