Cycling UK Forum

I half-watched this earlier today, doing something else, one eye on the tele, I've half-watched it before too but for those who haven't seen it it's about a British couple choosing whether to emigrate to Australia or not.

It struck me that the programme's definitions about a 'better life' revolves around money, size or type of house, a faint nod towards more outdoor activities and the downside being distance from family.

What never seems to be mentioned is; climate change, heat, ozone depletion, water availability, lack of cultural and/or historical sights, distance to everywhere else whether in Australia or globally. Plus others but that's enough.

I've never been to Oz, but have spent 11 weeks in NZ over two holidays, which has some of the issues as listed above. But my question is how a better life can be determined by wage and house size? And for those who have lived in Oz and returned to the UK, or moved here from Oz, or even are in Oz now what is better (or worse?). No cricket allusions please

I think the key to Australia is language and culture. I would have thought you can get anything you want in terms of a materially and climatically better life by moving to France. The Anglosphere (as it is now called, I believe) is a powerful draw for many people. I get the impression that with the language (an important cultural door in its own right) comes a raft of values embedded in material wealth, enterprise and self-sufficiency and the bungalow-car in the driveway-barbecue in the garden culture. I reckon that most of this is superficial and that life in Australia is much as it is anywhere: challenging, unfair, friendly, difficult at times. But they do speak English.

horizon wrote:I think the key to Australia is language and culture. I would have thought you can get anything you want in terms of a materially and climatically better life by moving to France. The Anglosphere (as it is now called, I believe) is a powerful draw for many people. I get the impression that with the language (an important cultural door in its own right) comes a raft of values embedded in material wealth, enterprise and self-sufficiency and the bungalow-car in the driveway-barbecue in the garden culture. I reckon that most of this is superficial and that life in Australia is much as it is anywhere: challenging, unfair, friendly, difficult at times. But they do speak English.

My impression is that they don't like cyclists.
The death rate per mile for cyclists is, I believe, about twice ours, in spite of mandatory helmets.

I have watched one or two of these programmes and the OP is right, culture in all its manifestations is what seems to be totally absent. Beach, sport, somewhat bigger houses, and higher earnings seem to be the attraction although this is dragged down by noticeably higher grocery bills.

I loved the desert and bush, Melbourne and Sydney too on my 3 week 2016 visit.

Two of my cockney uncles and an aunt were 10 pound Poms, they returned to tiny East End flats after a few years because they missed the East End bustle and hated the insects and heat. Oz is not for everyone.

Al

I read about the ten-pound poms recently, they were recruited to work on farms and the like
Quite a few didnae like it and went back Home, the ticket back cost much much more than ten pounds, probably many wanted to go back but couldnae afford to

Australia has changed a lot, great numbers of Greek, Italian, Asian people

Were I a white Australian I should be very ashamed of the history of my country

Europe is enough I think, even if many people speak queer languages

Cyril Haearn wrote:I read about the ten-pound poms recently, they were recruited to work on farms and the like
Quite a few didnae like it and went back Home, the ticket back cost much much more than ten pounds, probably many wanted to go back but couldnae afford to

Australia has changed a lot, great numbers of Greek, Italian, Asian people

Were I a white Australian I should be very ashamed of the history of my country

Europe is enough I think, even if many people speak queer languages

My family were £10 POMs in 1953. (I had no choice!)
Dad was a teacher.
We came "home" for a holiday and to see the grandparents but never made it back.
Travel by sea in those days.

How long were you down there, do you regret not staying?

Plus One for sea travel (six weeks voyage?), there was a radio article a while ago about the last time English cricketers went there by boat

Oh sorry, mentioned cricket

Cyril Haearn wrote:How long were you down there, do you regret not staying?

Plus One for sea travel (six weeks voyage?), there was a radio article a while ago about the last time English cricketers went there by boat

Oh sorry, mentioned cricket

Stayed in Oz about eight years.
My Mother asked me not long before she died, whether I wished we had stayed.
I find it impossible to say. I cannot imagine who I would be as an Aussie. Someone different I would think. Can one regret a hypothetical you in preference to the you that you are?

The Road Not Taken


By Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Cyril Haearn wrote:Were I a white Australian I should be very ashamed of the history of my country

One of my mother's sisters and her family emigrated out there in 1973. The family moved from Oz to NZ and back again, then there was a divorce. My aunt came back to the UK for a long, working holiday in the mid 80s but with no intention of staying here.

My parents visted Oz in 2001 and tracked her down, she was living in little more than a shack and had had a very itinerant life. But she considered herself an Aussie through and through (and proud of it).

We came to Australia from Sarf Efrica in 1978
I cannot refute most of the accusations in this thread but I will assert that our public hospitals ssem to be vastly superior to what I have read about your NHS hospitals.
(Roll on Brexit)

Old joke :
What is the difference between Australia and jar of yoghurt?
The yoghurt has a culture!

Mike

Mike_Ayling wrote:We came to Australia from Sarf Efrica in 1978
I cannot refute most of the accusations in this thread but I will assert that our public hospitals ssem to be vastly superior to what I have read about your NHS hospitals.

I have heard the same thing about the superiority of health care in Oz compared to the UK from a recent emigrant whose wife is a nurse. Also that that the general standard of living is higher, for example it is easier to afford stuff in Oz than UK if you have a decent job; he was bragging that he could eat meat every day of the week

Mike_Ayling wrote:We came to Australia from Sarf Efrica in 1978
I cannot refute most of the accusations in this thread but I will assert that our public hospitals ssem to be vastly superior to what I have read about your NHS hospitals.
(Roll on Brexit)

Old joke :
What is the difference between Australia and jar of yoghurt?
The yoghurt has a culture!

Mike

Loved Melbourne, full of character and no doubt culture too but we didnt stay long enough to sample it. The NHS stutters, a lot of the buildings are past there sell by date. Its overwhelmed by too rapid population growth like most of the UKs public services. The staff do their level best.

Al

rotavator wrote:I have heard the same thing about the superiority of health care in Oz compared to the UK from a recent emigrant whose wife is a nurse.

I don't know if that's true in all disciplines, my wife has worked with UK mental health nurses who have worked in Oz and NZ and who have said that our system is better. That's in no way saying our system is perfect or necessarily very good, but better than over there.

rotavator wrote:, for example it is easier to afford stuff in Oz than UK if you have a decent job; he was bragging that he could eat meat every day of the week

It’s easier to afford stuff in Britain if you have a decent job.

al_yrpal wrote: Oz is not for everyone.

Hmm, have to admit I was very surprised to see some neighbours had returned for Christmas the other year, having emigrated to Australia six months earlier following two years planning (Nb. Turns out it was horrible, they couldn't stand the place and the difficulties they'd had settling in)