boneym

Hey ozzer76, the maps don't really show the fences. If you like the outdoors then you need to be aware that, as northshorepom put it, you really don't have the land access here (at least not in Melbourne) that you are used to in the UK. You are right, the state of Victoria has parks a plenty but they are not going to be on your doorstep as you are accustomed too. There are some reasonable parks in / around Melbourne but they are quite restricted in size and you'll never be too far away from a fence. This has become a real issue for me having enjoyed the freedom to roam as a rambler in the UK. Victoria is known as "the garden state" but I'm sorry to say it would be more honest to re-cast it as "the fence state". There are some large open areas but as mentioned you will need to be prepared for a car journey of 3 hours if you are on the peninsula (once you have worn out the walks on the peninsula that is which will take a couple of months if you're a regular weekend walker). They haven't had a "mass trespass" like we've had in the UK and the consequence is restricted access. I actually just got back from a business trip to rural victoria and land access seems to get worse the more rural it gets with long stretches of fenced off land. I went for a jog having spied a nice looking ridge in Lancefield not far from hanging rock, ran about 3K then hit a fence. I jumped over it and there was another, and another. I gave up and ran back. That's the other trouble with moving, we don't appreciate the kind of freedom we have in the UK, it's really quite special. Having spoken with (an Australian) colleague about this issue she mentioned she'd experienced wide open access walking in Switzerland and found it very strange. The Australians love their fences...

Just wanted to say thanks to all the comments / feedback re: the post. It's a real help to have the pros / cons scrutinized by others to provide a wider perspective. Will consider all the input carefully before leaping! Thanks everyone.

Thanks for the reply. Yes my wife would rather stay and I can understand why as it IS a beautiful place in parts. The cost of living is high but it's not really that that is causing the tug back home but the freedom, friends and family I guess (with the cost of living being a mild annoyance as we are lucky to be able to put a bit away). Re: your situation, if your partner only has 18 months to go then it sounds like it's worth it for you if you can hack it. Kind of a similar situation for us re: citizenship could be gained if we stay for 6 more months but not sure I can hack many more weekends here (I find that's when I feel the pull the most as we'd be walking / seeing friends). Cheers for the reply anyway, feeling a bit better knowing I'm not the only one.

Thanks Petals. Regretting the post now, bad day I think. I think right now I'm trying to generate some emotional momentum to get back where I want to be (today at least ;-)) hence the rant. Of course nowhere is perfect just a matter of what we can learn to live with (and without). I don't regret coming but I guess, like your friend's son am now thinking about the benefits of raising a child back home.

Hi All, I moved out to Melbourne in September 2009 with my wife with the view, like most, of trying it out for a couple of years. Our motives for moving out were to try life in another country whilst we could still qualify for the points for the PR visa. Also I owed it to my wife to give it a go as she'd put up with English weather just to be with me for a long time (she's Japanese). We had a little place in Derbyshire that we sold, along with all the furniture etc and at the time it was truly a liberating experience with us both excited about the move. Before I left the UK, being a keen walker (a rambler), knew I was going to miss the freedom of the English countryside, and it goes without saying our friends and family. On arrival in Australia, whilst it was a bit of a physiological struggle to start with, going from being a home owner to a renter and a couple with many friends to simply a couple, we stuck it out. My wife has handled it better than I have, she's a rock. I on the other hand have basically been thinking about the go / stay thing for pretty much all our time here. We both have good jobs and now a beautiful little daughter (8 weeks old) hence wanting to make a decision and get some roots down. Forgive me but this is a list of the pros and cons as I see them right now, partly as self-, they're so evenly matched it makes it so difficult to choose: Pros (i.e. reasons for staying in Australia) - Good job - The country is resource rich and so has a future (although the resource wealth is not distributed so this is not guaranteed) - Our daughter, being half Asian might feel more at home as the Australians have a good Asian awareness - Could (eventually) afford a place - Wineries, not something I would have ever tried but the food is good and wine is great - Beaches, twilight walks in 30 degrees heat barefoot on a beach is great, for a while at least - The weather - also see cons Cons (i.e. reasons for going back) - Friends - Family - Freedom - Australia, strangely enough feels tiny. Whilst it's geographically large it's culturally miniscule. Also, for a rambler, the walking opportunities are extremely limited as an awful lot of land is simply fenced off. If you want to walk, you need to be prepared to drive for 3+ hours as you'll exhaust the walking (on the Mornington peninsula and within reasonable proximity around Melbourne within a couple of months). They have countless ridiculous rules - Housing - both expensive and the quality is very poor (wooden frames with a thin veneer of brick), no central heating (yes you need it in Melbourne in the winter time), drafty homes with no double glazing. No insulation so expensive to heat. - Cost of living - we live in a 2 bed place. We never leave any appliances on and light using energy efficient bulbs yet our quarterly electricity bill is $450 (300 GBP). Gas is cheap ($130 per quarter). Water is expensive - if you like a shower a day ($75 per month) and food is also pretty crazy - just go to http://www.coles.com.au for an insight. - The weather - yes, they have more sunshine but Melbourne is a very volatile climate. It's not unusual to have (in the summer) weather in the high 30s one day followed by the teens the next. Also, the sun over here is incredibly intense. The idea that Australia is an outdoor society is not to be entirely trusted (in Melbourne at least). The sun will flay the skin off your back and in the shade you'll need to wear a jumper. It's a strange place. The winter is warmer yes but feels a lot colder. Why? Because there is no central heating. Whilst a cosy 6 degrees sounds good for winter, with no indoor heating you just can't get warm unless you go for a run or take a bath or something (in that expensive water!). - The flies - if you do find somewhere to walk be ready to spend a lot of time trying to stop flies going up your nose and in your eyes. What should be a relaxing pursuit turns into a frustrating hand waving affair - Rednecks - I don't like the term but I don't know how else to describe it. They're everywhere, teachers, police, restaurant owners, workmates. Not everyone, but there are a lot of rednecks here. Sorry I'm ranting. Australia is also a beautiful country and it would be a safe place for our daughter to grow up in but there is a real bleakness to the place that I just can't get used to. If you scratch below the surface of the place there really isn't much there. Anyway, rant over. After dumping all that in a post I think I'm getting all the paperwork in order so we can go back to the UK, friends, family, freedom of the countryside, culture, a (relatively) free press (the main paper here being "theage" which is utter nonsense peddled out by the fairfax group to control the masses), education (australia came 27th in a recent international survey of year 4 school students), proximity to europe etc etc