how long did you last in oz before moving back

[VERYSTORMY]

Some people can deal with living away from their comfort zone, some can't. Anyone who has to ask about haircuts and damaged bins is doomed to failure IMO. Book your flight mate and go home, it will never work for you here. You sweat the small stuff. Word of warning, anyone who sweats the small stuff will NEVER settle here IMO. Nighty night, stayed up to watch a crappy 2-2 draw in the Premier League.

 

It is nothing to do with "comfort zone". People return for a huge range of reasons. I have lived in several countries and given the nature of my job, can certainly live outside of my comfort zone - i work in the middle of the african bush and live in a tent. Not exactly "comfort zone".

[Bobj]

It is nothing to do with "comfort zone". People return for a huge range of reasons. I have lived in several countries and given the nature of my job, can certainly live outside of my comfort zone - i work in the middle of the african bush and live in a tent. Not exactly "comfort zone".

 

2 years in a tent in the Kimberlies of WA and loved every minute of it...except the night I got lost...

 

Cheers, Bobj.

[carlhall]

Been here for 4 years and our plan is to consider returning to UK in about 5 years, I do not miss the UK but my wife does and she is the Australian I am the poor Pom!!:biggrin:

[Sammy1]

Some people can deal with living away from their comfort zone, some can't. Anyone who has to ask about haircuts and damaged bins is doomed to failure IMO. Book your flight mate and go home, it will never work for you here. You sweat the small stuff. Word of warning, anyone who sweats the small stuff will NEVER settle here IMO. Nighty night, stayed up to watch a crappy 2-2 draw in the Premier League.

 

Have to disagree. I have lived in other countries. I loved living in the US for a number of years and found it very easy to settle and would have happily stayed there. I have never really settled in Australia, but it is better than it used to be.

[coolcat1966]

I've been in Oz 7 years now and am flying back to the UK this Tuesday. Apart from the weather I really don't see me missing too much from Aus. Financially I am far better in the UK and can afford to buy a house, here in Aus I have no chance as property prices are beyond my financial reach. I must admit I have struggled with the culture here, I think Australia has many wonderful things eg the cleanliness, the weather, the shorter working hours etc but I miss British humour soooo much. Australia just seems to me to be a mini USA, quite 'sheep' minded in many ways IMO. Really looking forward to going back to the UK , at least I feel I will be able to 'be myself' much more than I have over here. I don't regret coming but I think 7 years is long enough to 'give it a go' and it just wasn't for me.

[northernbird]

Have to disagree. I have lived in other countries. I loved living in the US for a number of years and found it very easy to settle and would have happily stayed there. I have never really settled in Australia, but it is better than it used to be.

 

Horses for courses. I hated the US and our stay was short, I loved Canada and obviously love Australia.

[legoman]

I can happily live in Australia and UK, If I had the resources I would 6 months of the year in each, I can love and dislike both countries

imagine having a hot xmas one year and deciding on a traditional dark cool UK xmas the next. The long days in summer in the UK and the guaranteed summers here

 

I,m just greedy and want it all. lived by the sea all my life in bot countries, have to say nightime at hillarys is pretty bland compared to looking out over the solent with all the various shipping etc, but love those blue seas during the day.

[Guest Guest66881]

Xmas is still the only thing i really miss, just ingrained that it as to be cold/wet for xmas day.

[Sustain]

Horses for courses. I hated the US and our stay was short, I loved Canada and obviously love Australia.

 

Interested in why you did not enjoy the US?

 

You appear a very positive and grounded person - not that this has any bearing on me asking, more I would respect your views

[northernbird]

Interested in why you did not enjoy the US?

 

You appear a very positive and grounded person - not that this has any bearing on me asking, more I would respect your views

 

I should reiterate and say I hated Wilmington, DE rather than the US as a whole. I couldn't put my finger on it, perhaps it was because I wasn't working and wasn't able to work so being stuck in your own all day was tough. Not an area where there were a huge amount of expats either. It was before children so I couldn't even make friends through that route. It was the longest 10 months of my life.

[Perthbum]

Been here for 4 years and our plan is to consider returning to UK in about 5 years, I do not miss the UK but my wife does and she is the Australian I am the poor Pom!!:biggrin:

Your wife is a wise women....:wink:

[VERYSTORMY]

2 years in a tent in the Kimberlies of WA and loved every minute of it...except the night I got lost...

 

Cheers, Bobj.

 

Yep, i have spent a couple of years in a tent in WA. But, bit differnt here. Highest concentration of venomous snakes in the world - had about 12 puff adders, two black mamba, half a dozen cobra this week in a small 20 man camp. Had two of the locals eaten by a lion earlier in the year and we are are well beyond the max time range for getting medical help - mamba has 100% fatality rate after 1 hour. We are, at best 4 hours from medical aid. Also recorded 25 cases of malaria this year and one outbreak of typhoid. Our year only starts late April!

 

Dont get me wrong, still like working here. But, it is definatly outside of comfort zone.

[ramot]

Yep, i have spent a couple of years in a tent in WA. But, bit differnt here. Highest concentration of venomous snakes in the world - had about 12 puff adders, two black mamba, half a dozen cobra this week in a small 20 man camp. Had two of the locals eaten by a lion earlier in the year and we are are well beyond the max time range for getting medical help - mamba has 100% fatality rate after 1 hour. We are, at best 4 hours from medical aid. Also recorded 25 cases of malaria this year and one outbreak of typhoid. Our year only starts late April!

 

Dont get me wrong, still like working here. But, it is definatly outside of comfort zone.

 

I might be wrong, but did you once complain about the mozzies in Perth??? Sounds a lot safer than Africa. This is said tongue in cheek. Whereabouts in Africa are you? I had a bad accident in Zambia a few years ago, and had to fly to Nairobi for an operation, so do sympathise about the distance to travel for treatment, the strange thing is that I never thought about the need for medical help whenI was flying around Zambia in the 1960's as a stewardess landing on bush strips, had plenty of good times and some pretty hairy ones!!

Still miss Africa it does get under your skin. Keep safe.

Edited August 18, 2013 by ramot
Sorry I went off topic of thread

[Arbrodin]

Hi, great thread. I just wondered how most people coped with the decision making to emigrate. So far I have read, you should not emigrate because you are unhappy and think it will be the be all and end all, suddenly make your life better, also that you should not,if you are happy and have a good life in the uk. I am in the process of applying.

 

i think in the uk we are happy, we have good jobs, friends etc, we are not well off but live to our means and do most things we want to that are in our means, eg through the school holidays they have done loads, mostly local free or quite reasonable activities which they have loved. The kids are happy at school, they do lots of activities out of school to the point they only have one day without an activity. We stretch ourselves to make sure they have the opportunities to experience as many activities, sports etc as possible.

 

we live in quite a poor socio-economic area in the midlands and we do worry about their eduction and prospects and also socially growing up, I know there are no certainties with regards to peer groups etc. I have family in Aus, my sister has been out there for about 15 yrs, had a short period of a couple of years back in the uk two or three years back and returned to Aus vowing not to come back, we visited this year, she thinks the lifestyle is better, it is better for families and ESP for children. We loved our holiday, and that is what it was, but it gave me a real yearning to move out. The outdoor lifestyle, the weather, maybe more family orientated and maybe a safer place for the kids - maybe?

 

The kids are too young to really understand the full consequences of moving, the wife seems to fluctuate depending on the process, timescales are long at each stage, I am very positive but have lots of worries, in terms of what if it goes wrong, the effect on the family and kids, starting from scratch etc. I would love to live by the sea with better weather all round, we have the benefit of being able to move in with my sister who live near Sydney. I would not move without a job and only on a pr.

 

Such a scary decision, but one we are keen to make despite the concerns. As this thread has been interesting does anyone have any thoughts on my situation? Thanks. Paul

[starlight7]

It depends what you want in life. Personally I think Aus is far better for young children but when they get to be in their late teens the isolation can become a problem if they want to travel. I would never go back to the UK but there are still certain things I miss- one of them being the sense of history. Lets face it, Australia really hasn't got much of interest historically except a few nondescript cave paintings. In other ways , though, Australia is better- still pristine in many regions, still a bit of mystery about the place and I think the general living is easier and less complicated.

[VERYSTORMY]

I might be wrong, but did you once complain about the mozzies in Perth??? Sounds a lot safer than Africa. This is said tongue in cheek. Whereabouts in Africa are you? I had a bad accident in Zambia a few years ago, and had to fly to Nairobi for an operation, so do sympathise about the distance to travel for treatment, the strange thing is that I never thought about the need for medical help whenI was flying around Zambia in the 1960's as a stewardess landing on bush strips, had plenty of good times and some pretty hairy ones!!

Still miss Africa it does get under your skin. Keep safe.

 

I am in south east Tanzania about 350km inland from Mtwara, about 100km north of the border with Mozambique. Pretty much nowehere. Well, we have a village about 2km away called Nditi which houses about 100 people in mud huts with grass roofs.

[Petals]

It depends what you want in life. Personally I think Aus is far better for young children but when they get to be in their late teens the isolation can become a problem if they want to travel. I would never go back to the UK but there are still certain things I miss- one of them being the sense of history. Lets face it, Australia really hasn't got much of interest historically except a few nondescript cave paintings. In other ways , though, Australia is better- still pristine in many regions, still a bit of mystery about the place and I think the general living is easier and less complicated.

 

I think you are mistaking history for old buildings and such like. Australia has so much history because the land is so old. Fossil heaven and bones of animals that are now extinct. How can that not be history and very very old history. As for they are just nondescript cave paintings, to think how long ago they were painted is phenomenal. There are some absolutely wonderful ancient things in Australia and you do not have to pay to go have a look at most of them. They are finding new sites all the time here.

[MrsLZB]

We did almost 6 years in Perth, and we have been back in the UK for 6 weeks now. Absolutely no regrets about going or coming back. We did what was right for our family.

[Fiooooona]

We might be moving back next year and as much as I would love to be home at some points, I know it will be hard to leave. I love Australia but miss the UK and don't quite understand how these contradictions will work when we are back home. How do you settle back down to the quiet life in a struggling economy when you've lived in the city with an alright job for 3 years? Does the feeling of finally being home end after a few weeks of catching up with everyone like you would on a holiday? DId many perople feel like they had never left or that they just fitted straight back into everyday life? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as right now I don't really want to go home but I understand that it is quite beyond my control.

[Guest]

We stayed almost 5 years and I am very very happy being home. Up to the 3 year point I could never have imagined we'd want to come back so after just 6 weeks at home I can't possibly know whether the time will ever come that I fancy going back but I have dual citizenship so both doors are always open.

 

It must be quite different if you 'have' to return, in our case we were just bored of our life in Perth, and with a 10 year old didn't want to risk moving elsewhere in case that didn't work out, he had never taken Australia to his heart and was ecstatic about moving back to Scotland - i don't think a move to Melbourne, New Zealand or indeed anywhere else in the world would have gone down too well.)

 

Coming back I appreciate the UK so much more - I enjoyed life here before but took so much for granted, having lost so much of what we enjoyed in Perth I am now appreciating every minute - of course a few years from now I'm sure that'll fade. So far I have missed nothing bar the cheap train fares in Perth but come the winter that might change

 

No-one place is perfect, if you have a choice then it is just about matching which place best provides for the things you enjoy, for us as a family that is definitely Scotland. If you don't have a choice then it is about adopting a positive attitude to the good things in the place you are and trying to find ways of meeting the things that are missing.

[fizzybangs]

I lived in Brisbane and Gold Coast area for 31 years and returned to UK in April this year. I loved Australia for 30 years and then suddenly changed my mind after a trip back to UK (had many trips back over the years). I've 'done' Oz - travelled all around over period of 4 years and had a wonderful time. My biggest regret is bringing my children up in Australia for education reasons, lack of extended family ( all three regret not growing up with aunties, uncles and cousins) and particularly during the teenage years. I think in Australia, probably due to the outdoor lifestyle, the children of immigrants look to friends to replace family members and they assume a significant role in their lives, rather than realising the value of family unity. I'm not explaining this very well! My children have grown up to be different to what I expected, two of them are very 'Australian' and I'm not sure I like it a lot of the time! I am very close to them but I just wish we had never have gone in the first place. What I would say is NEVER persuade a partner to emigrate. It has to be 100% joint decision and if one partner has concerns or appears not to be so keen you need to have some very sincere and deep discussions. I think it can be worse for women with young children at home alone too than for a man who is out at work during the day. There is not so much on offer for children during the holidays as there is in the UK and in fact, I am awed by the playgrounds and free activities laid on in the UK, especially in tourist spots such as where I am living (Paignton, Devon) - it is a kids paradise! Out of all the states, Perth has the least to offer and it is so far away from the other major cities and tourist attractions that it can become very tedious there. It doesn't take long to see everything and then there is literally nothing left to do unless you enjoy constant BBQ's, drinking, cycling or have a boat. You do not sit out on the beach in the sun during the day so you tend to spend more time indoors than in the UK. Most outdoor activities are done early in the morning and late afternoon but there is no daylight saving in WA so you do not have long, light evenings. Each State is very different so it depends where you go to live.

[jen85]

I lived in Brisbane and Gold Coast area for 31 years and returned to UK in April this year. I loved Australia for 30 years and then suddenly changed my mind after a trip back to UK (had many trips back over the years). I've 'done' Oz - travelled all around over period of 4 years and had a wonderful time. My biggest regret is bringing my children up in Australia for education reasons, lack of extended family ( all three regret not growing up with aunties, uncles and cousins) and particularly during the teenage years. I think in Australia, probably due to the outdoor lifestyle, the children of immigrants look to friends to replace family members and they assume a significant role in their lives, rather than realising the value of family unity. I'm not explaining this very well! My children have grown up to be different to what I expected, two of them are very 'Australian' and I'm not sure I like it a lot of the time! I am very close to them but I just wish we had never have gone in the first place. What I would say is NEVER persuade a partner to emigrate. It has to be 100% joint decision and if one partner has concerns or appears not to be so keen you need to have some very sincere and deep discussions. I think it can be worse for women with young children at home alone too than for a man who is out at work during the day. There is not so much on offer for children during the holidays as there is in the UK and in fact, I am awed by the playgrounds and free activities laid on in the UK, especially in tourist spots such as where I am living (Paignton, Devon) - it is a kids paradise! Out of all the states, Perth has the least to offer and it is so far away from the other major cities and tourist attractions that it can become very tedious there. It doesn't take long to see everything and then there is literally nothing left to do unless you enjoy constant BBQ's, drinking, cycling or have a boat. You do not sit out on the beach in the sun during the day so you tend to spend more time indoors than in the UK. Most outdoor activities are done early in the morning and late afternoon but there is no daylight saving in WA so you do not have long, light evenings. Each State is very different so it depends where you go to live.

 

Absolutely agree! I was born in Aus and all my extended family is in the UK and me and mum are moving back next year so we are all together, can't wait!!

[Johndoe]

Have to disagree. I have lived in other countries. I loved living in the US for a number of years and found it very easy to settle and would have happily stayed there. I have never really settled in Australia, but it is better than it used to be.

 

Now ain't that strange?????? Other folk have said that in the past and look at the post below yours......................it's also been said many times that the downside of Oz is that it's too much like the USA?

[Thistle13]

OMG Fizzybangs..I read and re-read your post and you've just written what I've been thinking. My sons were born in Scotland, we migrated when they were 5 and 7. My parents (tho they never mentioned it til years later) were convinced that my marriage only lasted as long as it did BECAUSE we left and were on our own in Australia. Sadly, here I am, 60 next year, on my own (the ex has a new and younger wife and her family) my eldest son (now 32) returned to Scotland in 2010 on a years travelling trip, had a serious almost fatal accident in 2011, and was in hospital for 5 months, they have looked after him and modified a house for him to suit his permanent disabilities, tho they don't stop him getting around now. He will never return to Australia, doesn't like it here, is very very independent, and would take off if he thought I would return to Scotland because of him.

Those months I spent at his bedside, living and spending my time there, not as a tourist, but day to day living, opened my eyes, that even given the circumstances, I felt at home, I was a different person, I actually liked me for a change. As soon as I got back to Australia I became this bitter, guilty, unhappy, person that I hadn't realized I had become over the years. No wonder I'm on my own.

 

So that left my youngest son to deal with.....he considers himself an Aussie, would never live anywhere else but Sydney, he's in a band and has travelled Australia and NZ but his life is here. We are best friends, so for 2 yrs I've struggled with the decision, do I continue to live my life around my son (who incidentally moved back in with me 3yrs ago for reasons that benefited both of us) but he now has a girlfriend and the only reason he hasn't moved out is because he worries about me. Soooooooo I told him I'm going back to Scotland, gave him 12 months for both of us to come to terms and make arrangements. It will break my heart to leave him, I feel so guilty,that I brought him here as a child, raised him without extended family to fall upon, and now I'm leaving him, but in my mind, I feel this decision will actually be better for both of us, he hasn't moved on with his life because of me (and the events we've had to deal with) he has been more resilient than me, and I dont want to die alone in a country I don't feel 'connected' to.

 

Sorry for driveline on.....it's cheaper than therapy. Lol

[legoman]

OMG Fizzybangs..I read and re-read your post and you've just written what I've been thinking. My sons were born in Scotland, we migrated when they were 5 and 7. My parents (tho they never mentioned it til years later) were convinced that my marriage only lasted as long as it did BECAUSE we left and were on our own in Australia. Sadly, here I am, 60 next year, on my own (the ex has a new and younger wife and her family) my eldest son (now 32) returned to Scotland in 2010 on a years travelling trip, had a serious almost fatal accident in 2011, and was in hospital for 5 months, they have looked after him and modified a house for him to suit his permanent disabilities, tho they don't stop him getting around now. He will never return to Australia, doesn't like it here, is very very independent, and would take off if he thought I would return to Scotland because of him.

Those months I spent at his bedside, living and spending my time there, not as a tourist, but day to day living, opened my eyes, that even given the circumstances, I felt at home, I was a different person, I actually liked me for a change. As soon as I got back to Australia I became this bitter, guilty, unhappy, person that I hadn't realized I had become over the years. No wonder I'm on my own.

 

So that left my youngest son to deal with.....he considers himself an Aussie, would never live anywhere else but Sydney, he's in a band and has travelled Australia and NZ but his life is here. We are best friends, so for 2 yrs I've struggled with the decision, do I continue to live my life around my son (who incidentally moved back in with me 3yrs ago for reasons that benefited both of us) but he now has a girlfriend and the only reason he hasn't moved out is because he worries about me. Soooooooo I told him I'm going back to Scotland, gave him 12 months for both of us to come to terms and make arrangements. It will break my heart to leave him, I feel so guilty,that I brought him here as a child, raised him without extended family to fall upon, and now I'm leaving him, but in my mind, I feel this decision will actually be better for both of us, he hasn't moved on with his life because of me (and the events we've had to deal with) he has been more resilient than me, and I dont want to die alone in a country I don't feel 'connected' to.

 

Sorry for driveline on.....it's cheaper than therapy. Lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its not drivel Thistle, its what an excellent site like this is for, many people on here Uk, or Oz have the same feelings as you and wonder if they are the only ones who have those feelings, comforting in a way to know that others feel exactly the same way. I bet you feel much better having posted now, and you have plan, home will always be home wherever you are living.

 

my o/h just had the dreaded call from the uk to say her bro 55 has died. she feels so helpless at the moment, and I feel a little guilty as I was the one who wanted to come here, she moved here in the 60s as ten pound pom child, moved back 20 years later and considered uk as home. My younger son is moving back soon as he can and my eldest married here with kids. its at times like this I too wish I had never heard of Oz but ...both countries have been good to me.

 

I have put it off but will start to look at booking a visit the UK after xmas mainly for their sake.