A letter to everyone.

[tracy123]

Hi All

This may sound strange coming from me, but is Australia really worth the effort? Is it worth ripping your family apart, starting again so you can have the sun on your back? What can Australia offer you that the UK can’t? Lets face it, look at how it started out life, full of convicts so there is bound to crime, it has to be full of migrants, lets face it that’s what it’s made up of, look at it’s closest neighbours and in some areas you would struggle to recognise where you are! So what is it that makes you want to spend your time, money and effort to get somewhere that’s ........ Well not so different!

Disclaimer

Australia is a world apart from the UK in many areas, something a lot of people don’t realise. But what I mean by the same is, you will end up working, eating, sleeping and life will carry on taking you along with it, so is it really worth the effort? Will the reward be worth all of that hard work?

[Guest proud2beaussie]

Who are you and what have you done with Geoffrey?.:biggrin::wink:.

[claireg]

Well if you ask my brother that who emigrated in 2003, i'm sure he would say YES definitely worth it. He loves it and would never move back to the UK. Supposed he moved out at the right time, made a nice profit on house in UK, has bought a house with no mortgage in Oz, bought another house with a mortgage, sold that for a profit, bought a plot of land, built a house on that, renting it out. Bought another plot of land to build dream house.

 

Not so sure now though that these opportunities are there, land is more expensive, etc. However, my bro is not one for sitting around moping. He makes the most out of life and that is why he has settled so well.

 

Claire

[Guest proud2beaussie]

Seriously Geoffrey I really am not qualified to answer your question as I'm obviously not investing a heap of money and time chasing a new life here in Australia,but if I was asked by someone was it worth

all the worry,money,time,etc to move here I would obviously say yes because it's my home.

But it isn't my place to get involved in this thread really,I wish you lots of sensible replies Geoff,unlike my first one ! lol. (Sorry)

[Guest guest33730]

Geoff,

 

You could say the same about any major decision in life such as a bigger car, a nicer house, getting married or even having kids. Surely that's what makes like so great - The trick is to learn 'contentment' whatever our circumstances but still to want to try out different things etc. I'm not going to Aus in the hope of a better life but to expand my understanding and experience different things. I don't for one minute think that Aus will make me happier but it doesn't stop me looking forward to going and the new opportunities and experiences I'm going to have.

 

Daniel

[Jackboots]

you know thats a really hard question to answer , we have been here a year and boy has it been hard and fantastic both at the same time , yes we pay the bills go to work , same s*** shinier bucket some would say , for me its been a total change of lifestyle to the uk , on the whole we love it but some days i get the demon on my shoulder that says what if? what but ? and nobody can get me out of the slumps , they are getting less and were hoping to get more settled when we move next time after a year we know where we want to live , but hey on those days when your on the beach or the parks and seeing your childeren doing things they prob won't do in your other lifestyle its priceless .. a lot of people have told us it takes a couple of years to settle , will i ever get over missing family/ friends boy it can be lonely as well , im not sure .. whats the saying ? your lifes not my life ! no truer word said.

[ali]

I think it's only truly an answer you can give when you've done it. For us, it's been everything we'd hoped for and at the moment we have no intentions of returning to the UK now or in the future .... but I don't think you can never say never ... who know's what's around the corner. For the here and now, our life is good, it's settled and it's content, we have a comparable lifestyle (materialistically) to what we had achieved in the UK, our bonus is that we're more relaxed, (family have mentioned how chilled we are after visiting us), we leave work behind when we clock off and spend so much more time together as a family.

 

I do still have periods of people sickness, especially special events or celebrations but it is really for that one day .... I don't know that we'll ever not miss them ... we love them dearly and they were part of our lives for a long time, so we've accepted that at times that's how we're going to feel.

 

We put a lot of thought into moving to Aus, particularly as we were both 40 - a lot to consider a major life change and starting to re-establish yourself in a place where you don't know a soul. But it's worked for us

[tracy123]

Seriously Geoffrey I really am not qualified to answer your question as I'm obviously not investing a heap of money and time chasing a new life here in Australia,but if I was asked by someone was it worth

all the worry,money,time,etc to move here I would obviously say yes because it's my home.

But it isn't my place to get involved in this thread really,I wish you lots of sensible replies Geoff,unlike my first one ! lol. (Sorry)

 

You have every right Nigel you're doing what everyone else is doing in reverse.

 

As you know it's my home as well and I do think it's worth it but Australia is not everybodies cup of tea

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

Hi Geoff,

 

three things are in our way to get to the great place that you have turned your back on.only joking

 

1. leaving family.

2. Employment.

3. The kids education.

 

1. Leaving family must be the single most difficult hurdle to face for most people including us, when thinking about emigrating.

2. Employment. The Aussies don't make it easy, i am jumping through hoops trying to secure a job. Why can't they just be happy with your cv and skills and after an interview and offer you a job and Why is it that they think you can interview and be there in 3 weeks. I know the answer to this but its frustrating.

3. My kids education. Being only human, we have these thoughts that, what if we want to come back, where will it leave our kids and having Australian exam results, we don't want to ruin their employment chances.

 

Anyway the answer to your thread starter is YES, i think it will be worth it, it bloody better be.

 

jim

[Guest guest17301]

I never really asked myself that question before we moved Geoffrey. It was sort of a foregone conclusion that we were doing the right thing....I think we both were of the attitude that if it didn't work or wasn't 'worth it' then we'd cross that bridge when we came to it and move on...after all life is not a dress rehearsal!

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

I never really asked myself that question before we moved Geoffrey. It was sort of a foregone conclusion that we were doing the right thing....I think we both were of the attitude that if it didn't work or wasn't 'worth it' then we'd cross that bridge when we came to it and move on...after all life is not a dress rehearsal!

 

Hi fiona,

 

i wish we were like you, especially my wife. We are agonising over things and as you say we know it will be better, but we ARE questioning everything and its getting on top of us at the moment. I am the driving force behind emigrating and i am normally a very positive person, but my wife is really down with her job as a nurse and she seems down on everything. We fly to Brisbane in three weeks and i interview for a job, but they say they want me to start three weeks later and i have to give a months notice in my current job, its just another thing to stress us out over, but i am certain if we make the move it will be worth it.

 

jim i think i am in love with the nurse in your picture, is it you fiona, because if it is, i might just be in love with you.:wink:

[LYNMACMD]

You'd love Fiona too she's a lovely girl xxx Hi Fiona longtime no speak we are due over mid to end of April Barry got a sponsored visa

[onecrankypom]

Well i can say i couldnt have everything if i was back in the UK as my partner decided to move home to Brisbane and after my holiday in 2008 couldnt see me being apart from her.

 

Employment yea jumping through the hoops and agencies not knowing if you can and cant work on a spousal visa frustating and having to tell the wife we having to move 2 years after being here in Brisbane to another state not the easiest thing you tell some one having a baby

 

I must say i wonder about the public education here but can say the teachers at my son school have been great at communicating stuff back to us. Dont know what the next one will be like when we move interstate.

 

Far as family and friends go really miss my Nan even through she calls every weekend with out fail and some of my friends who are still in contact but saying being only 30 this year leaving the UK was the hardest thing i had to do as i left a career i loved and now hitting brick walls to get back into. But as far as going back it would be alone as the wife hated the time she spent there expect me of course will i hope lol

[Happy Lass]

Yes I think it is absolutely worth it. My DH and I maintained a long distance relationship for years before we married and I was asked whether it was worth by family and friends alike. I never once thought about whether it was worth it because I knew that it was just as I know you need air to breathe therefore my answer was always to give them that look one reserves for the slightly mad and say "Yes, of course." :wubclub:

 

I remember one of my Mum's friends trying to twist my arm - in a well-meaning way, into staying put so that Mum wouldn't be alone. Mum, however, was very happy for me to go as she had done the same when she married my Dad and they had a lovely marriage. If Dad was still alive, he would have been pleased to have another reason to travel and see yet more golf courses so all-in-all I have always felt emotionally supported by my family and my friends.

 

I appreciate that it isn't true for everyone but you do get used to missing your family and friends just as they get used to missing you. Leaving my cat with Mum was the hardest thing and just as OneCrankyPom has found, trying to find employment in my line of work seems to be the next hardest thing. But, then again, as I've heard said out here by the locals in Tas, you have to be committed to living in Tasmania to make a good life here and for me that is likely to mean changing careers.

 

One positive thing about moving that I didn't expect was that making the move meant hearing more from those friends of mine with whom I had lost touch because they had moved!

[Guest guest30038]

Definately worth it.

 

I left 3 older boys behind (from first marriage) and came out here with the two littlies (2 and 6 months). Like me, the older boys had joined up as boy soldiers, having no prospects at all of finding work (at that time) so I hardly saw them anyway.

 

We had two incomes but decided that we didn't want the kids in kindie when they were younger and didn't want latch-key kids as they grew older so I became a stay at home dad and it was a bloody hard struggle.

 

When we arrived, we found that one income went a lot further here than it did in the UK and I wasn't stuck in the house all the time as I was in the UK. I walked everywhere with the kids as we didn't have a car then and I can't explain it any other way, other than to say that I became alive. Whether it was the sun, doing different things with the kids, watching them grow, or simply having more space in our home and not always feeling claustraphobic, I don't know, but it really was a whole new life for me.

 

My wife's career flourished and she loves the nursing environment here. Subtle hints akin to head-hunting meant nothing to her.........she loves the ward environment and says that she'll never move up into a management psoition simply because she loves her job, her team members, the doctors, the patients and their rellies......simply everything about "hands on nursing" that she was beginning to hate in the UK.

 

what we have now, we could never have envisaged in the UK. we wanted out yes, but never with a thought to material gain, merely to a better living and working environment.........the material gain is simply a bonus. I love Australian folk, for all their faults............it is not a myth in my experience...........the Anzac spirit is alive in most of whom I've met.

 

Do I have any regrets? Yes, just one..........I should have done it bloody sooner so that I could enjoy it longer.

 

That said, I dearly miss the UK landscape and if I could move to (comparable) Tassie, I'd do it at the drop of a hat.

 

kev

[theonetruechris]

Its getting that way (worth the cost), I never thought I'd be the one paying an emtional cost though.

[rockola57]

To be Honest, i left the UK with glad heart because i was disgusted with what it was turning in to.A veritable cesspit with way too many scroungers,criminals and so called Asylum seekers,coming in by the thousands and breeding like rabbits.Law and order has gone down the pan completely,and it's getting like right is now wrong,and wrong is now right,largely due to political correctness and do gooder tosspots too busy tree hugging to see the reality and enormity of what they have helped create,along with the craven excuses that call themselves British Politicians.Most of these should be stood up against a wall and shot as traitors to a once fine Country.I feel like a Lemming,forced out of an overcrowded Island that is my home,but has been sold down the river.Yeah,it's better for my family here in OZ,more good old fashioned values,and honesty.Not Utopia,just better now.:nah:

[Guest P00hBear]

Some really interesting comments here.... it has made me think - that the lifestyle that we are hoping for has got to be better than what we are experiencing here in the UK. Geoffrey I suppose you are saying that you still have the daily hum drum experiences we do - as everyone does everywhere but lifes what you make it - and the UK doesn't allow you to make much of it at the moment. I wonder if you would question whether it was worth it if you had experienced the morale of the country for a while. While the Australian weather is always a bonus, the sheer size of your plots of land/houses compared to ours alone is worth the heartache, not forgetting the feeling of wide open spaces that we certainly don't have living in a london suburb. For us to get either of those by relocating in this country would mean that we would have to live many miles from our friends and family anyway and we still wouldn't be able to afford a detached house! I am not saying that these materialistic things are more important than family but i think as important. So I am hoping to find opportunity for my family and yes I hope it is worth all the heartache that we will go through to get there. Like others have said though - nothing is ever for ever, so if it didn't work out for us and we ended up missing family too much and returning at least we will go to our graves knowing we gave it our best shot

[mrcatania]

NO!.... If somone has a time machine, I would pay handsomly to use it, go back 8 months and never to have come here. Things are tough here now, it ain't the garden of Eden it may have once been. I have nothing compared to what I had in the UK. People too easily critisise the negatives back home. It is true what they say, you don't realise what you have till it's gone.

[Skani]

Hi Geoff,

3. My kids education. Being only human, we have these thoughts that, what if we want to come back, where will it leave our kids and having Australian exam results, we don't want to ruin their employment chances.

jim

 

There are schools in Australia which offer the International Baccalaureate curriculum. This would make it easier if your kids were to transfer back to UK schooling in the future or wished to enter UK universities.

 

If you go to

International Baccalaureate (IB)

there is a link on the first page to schools in the Asia-Pacific region

[simon and deb]

To be Honest, i left the UK with glad heart because i was disgusted with what it was turning in to.A veritable cesspit with way too many scroungers,criminals and so called Asylum seekers,coming in by the thousands and breeding like rabbits.Law and order has gone down the pan completely,and it's getting like right is now wrong,and wrong is now right,largely due to political correctness and do gooder tosspots too busy tree hugging to see the reality and enormity of what they have helped create,along with the craven excuses that call themselves British Politicians.Most of these should be stood up against a wall and shot as traitors to a once fine Country.I feel like a Lemming,forced out of an overcrowded Island that is my home,but has been sold down the river.Yeah,it's better for my family here in OZ,more good old fashioned values,and honesty.Not Utopia,just better now.:nah:

mate you hit the nail squarely on the head ,were not leaving because we think aus is utopia were leaving so we can have a better standard of life and not be treated like second class citizens anymore

[Guest Perth Princess]

For me no, it has not been worth it. If I could turn the clock back I would not have come. After 16 months we have realised that we do not want to settle here so now we have to go through the whole process in reverse. It's been incredibly traumatic for all of us and I just hope that eventually we will recover and find contentment.

[Guest P00hBear]

For me no, it has not been worth it. If I could turn the clock back I would not have come. After 16 months we have realised that we do not want to settle here so now we have to go through the whole process in reverse. It's been incredibly traumatic for all of us and I just hope that eventually we will recover and find contentment.

 

That's such a shame....... hopefully, you will have some good memories to bring back with you and don't regret the experience totally. Won't you have always thought what if, if you hadn't tried it? Do you mind me asking why you have found it difficult to settle? Good luck with your plans but beware, you might not be coming back to the country you left!

[Quinkla]

To be Honest, i left the UK with glad heart because i was disgusted with what it was turning in to.A veritable cesspit with way too many scroungers,criminals and so called Asylum seekers,coming in by the thousands and breeding like rabbits... Yeah,it's better for my family here in OZ,more good old fashioned values,and honesty.Not Utopia,just better now.:nah:

You know that there are immigrants in Australia too, right?

 

You're one of them.

[DannyCoyles]

The word "contentment" has been used a lot lately on here and I think thats what it comes down to. I wast content in Ireland, I needed to make this move. I have said before that once you cross the line of moving here no matter where you end up you will always have "what if" thoughts. I would never have what I have here in the UK/Ireland so for me it was worth it. I do think what if I never seen Australia and just got on with life in Ireland, I would be OK now im sure. But I am content now with what what we have and the path we are on. It really depends on how you deal with being away from family and friends and how close you can come to realising your dreams.