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Hey guys, hope everyone is well and to anyone affected by Covid our thoughts are with you all. I used to be a member of this site back in 2010 ish, we moved to Oz in 2014 and not needed to log in until now. I have since completely forgot my login details so I created a new account. This was BY FAR the best resource tool for us when we was going through the stages back in 2009 when we began our search down the rabbit hole. We now have a podcast here in Perth, WA called Expats 'n' Cork Hats. We are on iTunes, Spotify, Google podcasts and all the others too. If you want to be a guest on our show we would REALLY LOVE to have you on to discuss everything about your journey. You may be here in Oz wanting to go home, or you may be still in the UK thinking about coming here... Whatever your circumstances we would love to talk to you. We have done a few recordings now via Skype, it keeps it personal and intimate. We don't show the video, we just use it for the audio so don't worry, no one will see you. So, if you want to share your story to help or inspire others, please get in touch. Mark Rogers (One half of Expats 'n' Cork Hats).

I moved here with my husband and 2 girls aged 10 and 12 in October last year after 3 years of stress and heartache. Now my worst fears have happenend, they love it quite understandably as they are in fantastic schools and my husband has a job he enjoys on a lot less hours than in the uk - but I am feeling so badly homesick I cannot even think about the future here. My most overwhelming feeling is guilt, the kids were in good schools in England and we had family around us especially my mum who devoted herself to us all. I have a terrible fear that if I decided I couln't cope anymore and dragged us all back, I would end up without a decent school for the girls as the competition for places is so fierce. It took my youngest daughter a long time to settle here as she is very anxious and shy and due to her age, she would have be thrown into a scary high school after being nurtured in a small caring primary school which she now loves. I spend every day in tears feeling lonely and worrying about what I have done and wondering if I should just learn to live with the pain I have created rather than run the risk of ruining their lives. We have skype and free calls to Uk, I do have some good friends here too but the ache in my heart wont go away. Australia is an amazing place I want to be happy here but my heart won't let me.

(First time poster) Hi, just putting this out there to see if anyone is in the same boat as me.. i moved here nearly two years ago to be with my husband who is Australian, I left a fantastic network of friends, great job which I loved and my parents who I’m so very close to being an only child.. I moved here in good faith that this would be a better life for us to bring up children (no kids yet) etc but I really can’t help feeling it isn’t, yes the weather is lovely and all that but I am personally struggling so much to fit in I live in a suburb outside of Sydney and it is very hard to explain this feeling of being a fish out of water and feeling on a completely different wave length to everyone, I work with all girls, a real mix, only one Australian all others have foreign backgrounds.. I haven’t been able to make friends and as a result feel completely lonely and lost.. I’m so disconnected. I just seem to work all the time and sit at home (cook/clean) and repeat. My husband works away quite a bit at the moment and has distanced himself from friends as they weren’t for him anymore (let’s just say they like to party hard- another Eyeopener here is the drug scene!) so we both are struggling to make friends, which he feels guilty about, we’re 27. I am out here completely alone and it’s changing me from a bubbly person into someone who is confused, sad and at times bitter. I don’t have anyone I can talk to or lean on other than him and he is sad his family aren’t there for me too, He of course loves his country and is very patient when I say it’s not for me so far, I do seem to get down an awful lot about even the small things- I miss English food so much, it just isn’t the same here (I’m a real foodie!) and I’m a real girly girl who loves to shop and I have tried so hard but cannot stand the cheap crappy shops here, I even miss how the birds would tweet and chirp on a fresh british morning. ANYWAY we’re desperate to get our own place and a mortgage as our living situation at the moment is really spiralling me into depression on top of everything else.. am I making the wrong decision getting something as serious/ permanent as a mortgage? Do I move out have our own place and see if this is when my true aussie life begins, or am I someone who is a true home bird and will forever feel England is home? I just feel I’m missing this aussie dream people talk about.. So sorry for the long first post I feel I’m just letting it all out in hope for Someone to relate or give advise or something! Thankyou in advance xxxx

Hi all Its very reassuring reading all these posts as we are leaving 5th September this year and are just moving out of our house to sell it and holiday let it (hopefully at the same time) to get the funds ready to move. The reality is hitting us especially our twin 8 year olds who have been so excited since we started this whole process but who now say they don’t want to go!!!! My family live so close by and even though I want my independence from the ‘family circle’ I know I’ll feel so homesick. Did anyone else feel the same but now super settled or at least really confident with their emigration decision? It it was five years in the making for us but these last minute jitters are killing me!!! thanks x

Okay, last time I posted on here was 11 months ago and I was feeling unsettled ....unfortunately I still am. We have faced a few problems over the past twelve months (our house severely damaged by tenant in England, cancer diagnosis with close relative in UK) I have never felt settled here but I am the only one who doesn't want to stay. It has led to a rather strained relationship with hubby and is now at breaking point. I've struggled to find work and the two jobs I've had since arriving in September 2013, I've been on contract and they've both come to an end. I was in my last job in the Uk for 17 years and felt valued in my role at work. I had lots of friends in the Uk and was happy but we left because husband couldn't find employment during the recession. Now everything has reversed. Here in Oz my husband has been thriving at work and although he is incredibly busy, seems to enjoy it. He also plays hard and goes to lots of men only corporate events with his work, so has a very busy social life and we don't seem to be doing much as a family or couple any more. All our four children love it here and don't want to go back to the Uk and the oldest is now 14. But I just feel so unhappy, I haven't made many friends, find everything expensive, struggle with not being able to pick up permanent work and because of this I feel we're always on a tight budget, need to watch our pennies and can't afford much in the way of leisure activities. Anyway things between me and husband have been so strained that we have discussed separating. Problem is I couldn't afford to stay here and the kids won't go back to England, and I couldn't bear to be apart from the children. We keep going around in circles and we're not getting anywhere. But yesterday husband and I made a breakthrough in that he agreed to see a Relationship Counsellor to try to work through our problems, I had been badgering him to go but he was adamant he wouldn't go, so feel pleased that he has now agreed for us to go as a couple. I rang up Relationships WA and discovered a 50 minute session would be $170.....which wasn't the price I was expecting. Has anyone else felt like this and that the move to Oz created cracks with their relationship and have sought counselling. If so where did you go (apart from Realtionships WA) and was it beneficial? Would really appreciate some help as we are just not moving forward. Feel stuck... Thank you in advance Ribbon

Hello, Well I have been in Sydney for 3-4 months and I am struggling! Is there anybody else around who feels similar? I was here on a WHV eight years ago, never wanted to leave but did, always wanted to come back, finally got my visa to do it, and now I regret it! I have a job related to my industry but badly paid... miss my old job, miss the UK as well as Dubai where I lived briefly before too. I am single so nobody around going through the same thing, though I have met a few people via "Meet Up". I have rented my own apartment as I thought it would help me settle but all I do is worry about the cost! Anybody else going through the same, has similar tales or even wants to meet up?? swainey:arghh:

Hi I decided to post on here for some advice as I am fed up of trying to "go it alone". I have been in Australia for 16 months and just cannot settle. I was dead keen to come to Oz and thought I would take to it like a duck to water. Main reservation I had about coming was leaving a job I absolutely loved when I have always struggled liking jobs. Also family and friends at home. My partner cannot understand how I feel-he hated his job in the UK and had very little family there and he is loving it here. In fact he has some family in Oz and an old colleague in Perth. He loves the weather and can earn a lot more here as an engineer. Think some of the issue may be we planned to move to Adelaide but after 5 months there, my partner couldn't get work so we had to come to Perth. We are about to move into our 4th house since living here (due to partner's job relocation) and I am about to start my 4th job!! Am I expecting too much, too soon? When will it all start to get better for me? I do not want to go home as I don't like giving up but I cannot go on like this. Plus my partner would refuse to go back anyway so I feel a bit trapped. I am trying to meet new people-join social groups etc but I do not make friends easily, am shy and am desperately lonely. I know there are many threads like this but if anyone can help or has been in a similar situation, please message me. Thanks

When I was about nine years old, my family moved from Hertfordshire to New South Wales. At first, it was the biggest adventure in my life and I loved it. Then I sort of settled in for a bit and got on with life. But now I'm fifteen years old and I've been insanely homesick for the past twelve months or so. It's ridiculous - I have everything I need here and it really is a nice place to live - but every time I visit England I have to hold back tears when I leave, and I've cried myself to sleep a good number of times. It's starting to take over my mind; I can't go a day without thinking about how much I want to go home and it's making me all depressed. It seems like everywhere I look there's a reminder of where I am, whether it's an Australian made product, an Australian flag flying on the street somewhere or even someone just talking to me in an Australian accent, and it completely ruins my mood. My friends never miss a chance to make fun of my accent or the fact that I say 'YOG-urt' or 'Ketchup' without thinking, and it's always the first thing people comment on when they meet me. It's really stupid, but that really gets to me. I'm the only one of my family that feels this way, from what I can tell - my parents have gone almost completely native and my brother was so young at the time he can barely even remember England. I say 'from what I can tell' because I've never actually discussed the matter with them; I know how much courage it must've taken for them to uproot and move to Australia because they believed it would give us a better childhood, and it would be extremely ungrateful to start whingeing at them now for it. None of my friends would understand, seeing as they're all born Australians, and I'm not about to go dumping my problems on them. I think my friends and family partly know, since it's not difficult to tell I'm not an Australian patriot, but the only emotion it's ever got from them is exasperation. I know it's such an utterly teenage sentiment, but I'm completely alone in this. The worst part is, there's absolutely nothing I can do. Usually when I have problems I can just do some thinking and work them out, but not here. The only thing I can do is just put on a brave face, keep my mouth shut and endure the next three years until I can move out and go back home. That's an extremely terrifying prospect to me and I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it without breaking down and doing something terrible like telling my parents I miss England. It's been hard enough getting through just one year without exploding. People say that if you don't like Australia then leave, but I don't have a choice in the matter. I'm stuck here whether I like it or not, and that bothers me far more than it probably should. So... yeah. Sorry for the long post, I just have a lot to get off my chest. Have you ever felt homesick for England? If so, how have you coped with it? Do you have any advice? I'd really, really appreciate it if you replied, even if just to let me know that I'm not the only person on the planet who feels like this. Thank you very much in advance.

We emigrated to Australia in 2009 with so much excitement about our new future, now two and a half years down the line I really wish we hadn't come. Don't get me wrong, there are many things I love about this place but you just can't forsee how your heart can be torn in two wanting to be in two places at once. 8 months ago my husband collapsed at home and at the hospital they found a brain tumour. He has since had extensive brain surgery and we have been told the brain cancer will come back at some stage. He had never really settled here but now that this has happened he wants to consider moving back to the UK. Me and the kids love our life here but we are prepared to look at moving back, expecially since my oldest daughter and grandson are living in the UK. The reason I wish we had never come is that I know I will miss this place terribly, but then again I also miss the UK and my daughter and grandson. While I live here I miss so much from back home, but if we live in the UK I would miss so much about our lifestyle in Perth. It would have been so much easier if we had just been a bit more satisfied wth our old life in the UK and not followed this yellow brick road to OZ.

Hello. Well have made it through the first 6 months and the festivities but am starting to feel a little homesick. However I am determined to stay positive. I need ideas of how my son and I aged 12 can get out together and meet new people. Can anyone make suggestions? :err: Thanks Jane

Hi there, My name is Shawn and I'm 14 and I live in London, but I was born in Sydney. However, I moved back when I was 6, and we never returned. And now, I'm obsessed with everything Australia. Books, flags, pictures, the whole thing. My one lifetime want is to return and live there full time. My parents don't care - been there, done that as they always say. I have photographs of me as a child at all the Sydney sights, its just reignited my desire to go. And now, my life has a small hole in it. I'm happy in London, but whenever I see something on TV about Sydney, it makes me feel sad and kinda homesick. And I dont know why I get homesick, I literally don't remember Sydney at all, apart from one or two memories, but I feel I should be there. But thats me babbling on. I suppose I don't have the same circumstances as most users here, so I'll be more of an observer rather than a poster! Shawn

The love of field and coppice, Of green and shaded lanes. Of ordered woods and gardens Is running in your veins, Strong love of grey-blue distance Brown streams and soft dim skies I know but cannot share it, My love is otherwise. I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror – The wide brown land for me! A stark white ring-barked forest All tragic to the moon, The sapphire-misted mountains, The hot gold hush of noon. Green tangle of the brushes, Where lithe lianas coil, And orchids deck the tree-tops And ferns the warm dark soil. Core of my heart, my country! Her pitiless blue sky, When sick at heart, around us, We see the cattle die - But then the grey clouds gather, And we can bless again The drumming of an army, The steady, soaking rain. Core of my heart, my country! Land of the Rainbow Gold, For flood and fire and famine, She pays us back threefold - Over the thirsty paddocks, Watch, after many days, The filmy veil of greenness That thickens as we gaze. An opal-hearted country, A wilful, lavish land - All you who have not loved her, You will not understand - Though earth holds many splendours, Wherever I may die, I know to what brown country My homing thoughts will fly.

Hi, been here for 6 years and getting homesick, is the work situation as bad in the uk as everyone makes out, im a teacher and my hubby is an electrician. We both have good jobs here and good money but would love to give uk another go.

Hey, Been here about 2 months now. Enjoying life and everythings going well but am starting to feel a bit homesick in the run up to Xmas! Think its all because of Xmas and family and stuff! Anyone else feeling like that? We are not even here permanantly! xx:mask:

Hi. We've been in Melbourne (Balwyn) for almost a month now and I really need help for my wife who is struggling to settle. We are here on a 457 for 4 years and did all of our homework before coming out. We travelled out here twice and spent ages checking out where to live. We have 4 kids - eldest daughters are 17 and 15, son of 11 and youngest daughter is 7. They are in good schools and have all settled really well making friends quickly. I have started work which is going ok but my wife - who was really positive about the move - is getting upset every day worrying if we have done the right thing. We are renting a lovely house with a pool in a nice leafy suburb so it's not that. It doesn't help that it has been so cold and wet here since we arrived (I know it's winter!) or that we all went down with flu last week. Also our furniture and most of our belongings don't arrive for a few more weeks which makes living harder. We were prepared for the kids getting upset and being miserable but that really hasn't happened, but my wife's reaction has really thrown me and I'm quite worried it's going to turn into something more serious. She is taking the kids to school and talking to some other mums but just hasn't clicked with anyone. Is this normal for new arrivals? Any advice gratefully received and if anybody is close by we'd love to meet up. We are both in our late 30s - not that that matters! Help! J

I have only just joined as a member but have been looking at this site on and off for a while. I have been in oz for a decade now , married to an ozzy man and have a half ozzy child and another on the way. I have had many and still have ozzy friends . Im at home in oz , I love it , but at the same time Im homesick every time I watch the bloody antiques roadshow or dream of beautiful Devon or cringe at those bantering top gear blokes on tv or hear the stone roses!! People seem to jump on anyone who wants to still have a bit of the uk in there lives or mix with a few poms!! Why is it NOT ok to love it here and also hate it because we can never feel totally HOME? On another thread a lady was requesting some uk buddies and another member basically told her to move back to the uk ...... come on people . Love this site but i just had to put my point out there. WE ARE ENGLISH and we do LOVE OZ but we also can be homesick and that should be ok.

Hello My parents moved us to Perth 4 years ago (when I was 12), and they have never looked back. Trouble is, I miss home all the time! The education system is rubbish, culture is completely different, I don't fit in with anyone, except for other expats, I miss family, lifestyle and to be honest, I miss the weather!! Need some advice on what I should do... should I tell them, or just wait out the storm until I am 18 - 20 ish (I'm 16 now) and think about moving back?? Thanks in Advance

This has hit me like a ten tonne truck completely out of the blue. We have been here for 15 months and, until today, I haven't been homesick at all and thought that I had got away with it. I am finding it very difficult to meet new people. In fact I don't know anyone here, except the neighbours to say "Hello" and exchange pleasantries with. I have two small children (2 and 4) who are not at school yet, but I thought that it would be fairly easy to meet other mums with children. I take them to different playgrounds and to a couple of soft play areas, but to be honest there is never anyone around. I have so far been to four playgroups. The first was okay, but I stopped going because it was on my hubbys day off and as he was only having one day off every two weeks, I didn't want it to eat in to family time. Now we have moved from that area. I have been to three others nearer to our new home. One of them closed down two weeks after I started going and none of the mums wanted to meet me separately for coffee or anything, one of them I got a phonecall from after I had been once and was told that they were full and not taking new people. The fourth I went to last week and thought that I had got on well with a couple of the mums, but when I took the children back this week, no one was there. I hung around for half an hour hoping that I had just got the time wrong or that they were running late but they didn't come. Every time I get a knock back I feel my self confidence being taken away, and I never was a particularly confident person in the first place. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I feel bad for the girls, because they look forward to going and then get let down. It has made me feel really down today (I've even had a cry, and I'm usually the one who puts on a brave face), and I am really missing home. It isn't that I am homesick for friends and family as such (although of course I miss them), but more that I miss things being easy, if that makes sense. I know that things will probably improve when our eldest goes to school in January, but that seems like such a long time away. I will go to playgroup again next week and hope that maybe they forgot to phone me to tell me it wasn't on for some reason. I just feel so lonely today. Any advice?

hey i thought maybe someone out there may understand and be able to offer some advice. I am 24 and live with my austrlian bf on a partner visa in Melbourne. I love my life I have recently got a permanant job working with physically disabled children, we have a rented unit and everything is going well I have been here just under a year but for some reason only yesterday I feel so homesick. I have no idea why. I hated where I was brought up as a kid, the area wasnt the best, i moved out at 18 so I havent been dependent on my parents but do have a great relationship with them. i am really close to my brother but he has his own life and moving over here hasnt changed that so I dont know whats wrong really. I just feel lonely and i dont know why. I have my bf;s family and his friends but I guess I just wanted to make my own friends but havent got anywhere with that one. I work with older people , I just dont seem to meet anyone my age apart from my bf;s friends. God i sound desperate lol but does anyone have any tips on where to meet people . I did join a soccer club but this way to competitive. It seems people that I have met anyway either love u for bein a pom or hate u - !! finding it so hard recently!!!! i would love a quick holiday back home ..my mum was heartbroken when i left and i think the guilt is playing on me!!

Revisiting a documentary, made 30 years ago, which focused on one family's decision to leave Northern Ireland and emigrate to Australia. In the first of two parts, we find out how the Fox family have fared down under. This programme is on BBC2, it even has original video of their interview with immigration official, their new life and expectations. Well worth viewing on iplayer Some very true and emotional statements made in the programme BBC iPlayer - Homesick: Episode 1

I moved to Australia (Sydney) in January this year and have had a great time and settled in well, although have found it difficult to make friends; I had the expected bumps when i first arrived (have i done the right thing etc) but that is normal I know and I just got through it. Anyway my best friends flew out to see me a few weeks ago and i had the most amazing time, but ever since they have gone i feel so empty. I can't seem to shake it. I have even had thoughts of going back to the UK. I have a trip planned for next June and am counting down till then. I am sure this feeling is only temporary i just cant get over how miserable i feel. I just wondered if this is natural when visitors leave? and how long will this last?! Thank you in advance for your replies Nat xxxx

Hi, Is anyone else feeling homesick or is it just me? I've been here for 25years and still call the UK home!

Hi - I'm a features writer in Newcastle (UK) and am writing a feature about the upsides and downsides of emigrating. I would love to hear from anyone from the North East of England (Tyne & Wear, Northumberland, Co Durham) who is either living abroad and wants to come back home or who has already moved back because they missed the UK and found the reality didn't quite live up to the dream. Please get in touch with me if you can help karen.wilson.ncj@ncjmedia.co.uk.

My little girl has just said ' mammy I want to go home' It has blown me away, been here 10 months now and I thought she was fine. Thanks just needed to type that! Lynda x

Recently as I had a trip planned I loaded up my MP3 player with loads of my favourite British albums only to find that I couldn't actually listen to them as they made me want to cry... What triggers your tears???