Is this the right decision?

[swampey]

So my family and I moved from Milton Keynes UK to Sydney in January 2015; we have already decided we are returning to the UK in August 2017, for a number of reasons:

 

 

1. We still own a property in the UK; it is currently rented out and profitable.
   
2. Unable to buy a house; We currently rent on the North Shore in Warrawee. We had no idea about the area and how expensive it was, it was recommended by my boss. However, refuse to pay silly money for houses that are cold, drafty and are expensive to heat / cool.
   
3. School education; the North Shore schools are constantly held up as 'good schools'. However, with no inspection regime (as in the UK), there is no means of measuring performance except through NAPLAN tests. Without any proof, I am convinced that this is due to parental pressure, rather than any school effort on its own.
   
4. Further Education prospects; I struggle to see what opportunities an Australian education offers compared to that in the UK. There are barely any Universities and an extremely small number of 'good' ones when compared to the UK and Europe.
   
5. Work opportunities; if we stay in Australia I struggle to see how they could make a living in such a small (And without mining, shrinking) jobs market. My family have access to the EU jobs market, which is huge.
   
6. My wife is a fully qualified but unemployed teacher; having jumped through multiple hoops to teach in Primary education, there are no jobs near where we live. She gets the odd supply job, works for MultiLit, but other than that we are struggling.
   
7. Although I have a permanent visa, I only have a temporary contract with the company I work for (I am still employed in the UK and seconded to Australia). Although I am seconded for 3 years, I plan to use a clause in the contract to go back 6 months early. The company will pay for me to return
   

 

 

A lot of the above sounds very negative. However, having been hear a year I can see that the experience has been great! However, it has only every felt like an 'experience', not a life. Hence the plan to return to our life in the UK. The question I try and ask myself is, if I was Australian and had the chance to live and work in Europe permanently, would I take it?

 

I work in the railway sector as a consultant;

[Guest]

I don't get why you would ask that. Well I do but it doesn't make much sense to be as this is about you, what you and your family want and prefer.

 

Bottom line is you feel you are better off in the UK for a long list of reasons. And while there may be some positives to living in Aus, they don't outweigh the positives of living in the UK for you. And that to me is fine.

 

You make no mention of if you actually like living in the UK or why you chose to leave nor how you feel about Aus in other areas so the rest is impossible to gauge.

 

I think the not finding work or having only short term contracts is unsettling and probably never really gave you a chance to know and experience a bit of stability and security in terms of enjoying life more because of having a better work situation. Its amazing the difference that sort of thing can make to how you feel about a place. It also sounds as you came over on a 3 year work contract that you were probably always viewing this as a short term thing not a permanent move which makes sense to me.

 

Same with schools. We started off in a lovely area when we arrived here, pricey to boot but the schools were not as good as we might have hoped given the area. We bought elsewhere, moved schools and our son has not looked back, neither have we. We didn't stay in the first area because it didn't suit us overall, but also because we knew we could find better school options so focused on areas with good schools that we visited and liked, researched and so on and narrowed it down that way. NAPLAN was the least of my concerns when looking and it wasn't hard to find out info on schools that interested us.

 

FWIW I'm married to an Aussie who spent 8 very happy years in the UK living. It was his home. He never hankered to be back in Aus or thought the UK system was better or worse, just different. He honestly didn't really sit around comparing it all tbh. He did rave about the NHS (and it appals us both how its being broken bit by bit). For the rest it just was and he got on and lived it and I think in many ways this enabled him to fit into living in the UK so well. There was never him wanting our child to grow up in the UK because the education system seemed better (IMHO its area dependant and luck of the draw if you can't afford to live in a zoned school area or get your 3rd choice out of 4 or some such. Nor did he think the Aus system was magically better, its not. Its different. I do tend to think kids are allowed to be kids here a bit longer, tend to be taught to be more independent thinkers and speakers (I love the public speaking and so on that our school has) and aspects of school life here I much prefer of the UK regimented ways.

 

I'd hope that whichever country we lived in, our son would go live his life out in the world as he wishes. Be that moving overseas, travelling, working in Europe, north America or elsewhere, its his call. I don't think it matters where your kids spend their formative years, more how they are brought up in the world and if the interest, thirst and knowledge is there to want to go see more of it. I know people who never left the town they were born in and their kids are growing up there also and chances are, their kids will to. Others left, never went back and are living elsewhere in the UK, Europe or somewhere else in the world. It will come down to the person. You could move back to the UK to find your kids move to Aus when older. You cannot know the future. Your kids would have access to the European job market regardless of if they grow up in Aus or the UK. If they are UK passport holders they can live and work in the EU.

 

Our reasons to move to Aus when we did were not for work or for education. We wanted our son to know life in this part of the world as its part of us, to know his family and to experience it here as he has the UK. I tend to think a child who wants to do well will regardless of where they go to school. I've seen plenty of kids go to great schools and not do well at all for whatever reason. Others go to not so good schools and flourish.

 

If you want to be back in the UK then make it happen. If you all feel its the right thing for your family, I don't see a problem with it.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Guest
typo

[JockinTas]

I agree with everything Snifter says.

 

If you want to go back to the UK ...................... go for it!!

 

I'm also married to an Australian who lived in the UK for nearly 14 years. He never compared the two countries either and he thoroughly enjoyed his years in the UK ....... plus he met me :wink:

[Quoll]

If it works for you then go for it!

 

Who knows what you would be thinking if you were an Aussie born and bred, I only know that one of my Aussie sons is relishing living and working in UK/Europe and won't be going back and on my travels around here have had chats with many Aussies (who pick my accent, mainly) and we have a little discussion which usually ends with them saying they have no intention of returning. Whether they are living a life or just relishing the experience I have no idea.

 

On my part, after 32 years in Aus it only ever felt like an "experience" not a life - no rational reason why that was really.

[Phoenix16]

You have to do what feels right for you. You will get many differing responses but no one can give you the definitive answer/reassurance you seek. Everyone's experience of emigration is different, everyone's reaction to the move is different, we can all argue that 'this is better in oz' 'that is better in uk' but it is very much a personal and unique experience to each family. I could 'argue' with many points you've made but what is the point, life is too short, if life for you is better in the UK go back and live it, you gave it a go and now you know where you really want to be so well done to you and I send you the best of wishes in your future xxx

[Jacaranda]

Follow your gut feeling."What ifs"are a waste of time.No one knows whats going to happen in the future,all you can do is be happy in the present time because that's all we ever have in reality.Be confident in your decision making,and trust your instincts.Best wishes and good luck for now and the future.

[Lambethlad]

Good luck. Sounds like you have made a very pragmatic decision. Sydney is the worst place for new settlers unless you have very deep pockets.

[Marisawright]

So my family and I moved from Milton Keynes UK to Sydney in January 2015; we have already decided we are returning to the UK in August 2017, for a number of reasons:

 

 

1. Unable to buy a house

2. Further Education prospects; I struggle to see what opportunities an Australian education offers compared to that in the UK. There are barely any Universities and an extremely small number of 'good' ones when compared to the UK and Europe.

3. Work opportunities; if we stay in Australia I struggle to see how they could make a living in such a small (And without mining, shrinking) jobs market. My family have access to the EU jobs market, which is huge.

 

 

You are discovering the reality of the Australian dream!

 

Sydney is very, very expensive and even the pundits agree houses are over-priced, so your assessment won't be a surprise to anyone. I loved living in Sydney myself, but when I see people on these forums asking about a move to Sydney, I always advise them to choose another city instead these days -unless they are young and don't have a family to support. If you're loving the Aussie lifestyle and want to stay, then 'd be suggesting a move to another, cheaper, city.

 

I often see people wanting to move to Australia because of "better opportunities for their children" and I think that's rubbish. I think Australian universities are on a par with British ones, but there are so few of them they have little scope to offer less popular subjects. And with a small job market, rising unemployment and the reluctance of employers to hire from interstate, I think job prospects are poorer in Australia now than in the UK, where it's so easy to move around the UK itself for work, and not that hard to hop over to Europe either.

 

If those considerations are important to you, then I think you are making the right decision to move back. Just bear in mind that if you wait until your children are ready to go to university, they'll be treated as foreign students and have to pay full fees.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Marisawright

[Gough Whitlam]

I think that Australia is perfect for tradespeople and UK/Europe offers far superior possibilities for anyone else. A generalisation I know.

[Johnny Kash]

I think that Australia is perfect for tradespeople and UK/Europe offers far superior possibilities for anyone else. A generalisation I know.

 

I concur. Generalisation it may be but in my experience this is very true

[Chortlepuss]

I concur. Generalisation it may be but in my experience this is very true

 

I also think that Australia is better for the public sector workers currently under the cosh by the UK Govt - Nurses, teachers, police... My daughter is a young nurse on her probationary year and loving her job - I think she would like to come back to the UK at some point but British nurses keep joining her hospital, having escaped working conditions in the NHS and putting her off!. We are in Brisbane though which is much cheaper than Sydney. For me, I am not sure if IT opportunities are better in Europe or Australia - very much hoping they are good in SE UK as I am returning in March!

[VERYSTORMY]

I also think that Australia is better for the public sector workers currently under the cosh by the UK Govt - Nurses, teachers, police... My daughter is a young nurse on her probationary year and loving her job - I think she would like to come back to the UK at some point but British nurses keep joining her hospital, having escaped working conditions in the NHS and putting her off!. We are in Brisbane though which is much cheaper than Sydney. For me, I am not sure if IT opportunities are better in Europe or Australia - very much hoping they are good in SE UK as I am returning in March!

 

I doubt the 1000 (which is likely to turn out to be more) nurses and other hospital staff about to lose their jobs in WA would agree.

[bristolman]

I doubt the 1000 (which is likely to turn out to be more) nurses and other hospital staff about to lose their jobs in WA would agree.

 

I also recall nurses in Brisbane demonstrating about the conditions they had to work under in recent times as well.

As to the OP and their original question yes it is the right decision if it is what you want to do. Many people discover the real Australia doesn't really live up to the dream idea of the country. Good luck.

[starlight7]

In this life there is no point in living a life where you are unhappy if you have the means and gumption to do something about it. No need for apologies or justification- just do what is right for you.

[kiwiathome]

Absolutely go home if that is what you want. I don't think you would come on here and post if this was not what you want.

 

Australia is not an easy country to live in.

 

Please put your instinct and logical first and go for it. Go home, UK is sooooo georgus.

 

And yes I have been here for 8 long years, has never got better, and maybe I take the crown for this forums "most emotional poster". :cute:

[Marisawright]

Absolutely go home if that is what you want.

 

Australia is not an easy country to live in.

 

 

We are all different. Some people will be very happy in the UK and miserable in Australia. Some people will enjoy Australia and hate the UK. Even within Australia, you will find people who hate living in Perth but love living in Sydney, and people who hate Adelaide but love Brisbane, and vice versa.

 

I know you find it difficult to live in Australia and are much happier in the UK. By contrast, I find Australia a very easy country to live in and I'm finding it a struggle to live in the UK. We are both right! - because we each have different needs and wants, and that is as it should be.

Edited December 18, 2015 by Marisawright

[goingbacksoon]

Your wife should find it very easy to get work with such a shortage of teachers in the UK. I moved back from Australia to the UK in early May and found a great job in education. Things fell really easily into place for us and we are so glad to have made the move. My children love it here and feel more at home here than in Australia, despite being born there. Good luck with your decision. As Marisa says there is no wrong or right answer, it is very much a case of what suits each person's circumstances.

[bristolman]

Your wife should find it very easy to get work with such a shortage of teachers in the UK. I moved back from Australia to the UK in early May and found a great job in education. Things fell really easily into place for us and we are so glad to have made the move. My children love it here and feel more at home here than in Australia, despite being born there. Good luck with your decision. As Marisa says there is no wrong or right answer, it is very much a case of what suits each person's circumstances.

 

This could easily describe us, everything just fell into place and feels right and like you our kids feel more at home here, they hated the heat for a start.