Australia’s Bad Things.

Serious question this Bob, flies, what is the REAL story on the fly situation? Australian documentaries on TV often refer to the fly population (yeah and the hat with the corks thing for defence). Is this maybe another part of Australia?
Cheers Mate, keep em coming.
Phil

Problems with Australia:
1. Entertainment : TV is the most entertaining thing in Australia. Statistically Australians spend the most time watching TV. That says something about the place.

2. Food: Food quality is not as good as Europe or US and the variety is not that good either. A lot of foods don’t make it through their customs. Food also is very expensive. You get more bang for your buck on food in the US to Europe.
Beef products are about the only reasonably priced items.

3. Transport: The large city traffic is not that good. Bangkok has better traffic flow in peak hour than Sydney or Melbourne. Public transport is poor overcrowded and dangerous.

4. People: Friendly people-Not in the cities that is. Rural Australia has some of the friendliest down to earth people you would come accross. However, the large cities are cold emotionless places. A rural Australian person sumed up the Aussie cities for me: “People in the cities suck lemons and would not piss on a stranger if they were on fire.”

6. Work: Work is easy to find in Australia but with very limited fields. Services seems to be the biggest employer, manufacturung is dead and also any RD that goes with it. Agriculture is dying, and mining seems to be the biggest gig in town after cutting hair, clearing blocked “dunnies” and painting a fense. The good news is you can make money even though the work may not be very fulfilling.

7. Houses: The houses are bunkers for the local population. The population that attract there seem to prefer low density living, very paranoid about neighbours viewing them in a nuddy in the backyard. The good part of the houses is the space, the bad part is that if you want to go somewhere you rarely walk. the southern areas are cold and the houses are not built for it. Water is also a big problem. the whole place seems to be short of water.

8.Health care: They have a good health care system for the general population, although a bit too perastroker, definatly not a good place to be with a non- life threating problem without private health insurance but that is the same for emost places.

Security: Not that good, I feel safer in Asia than Australia. The place has a lot of agro. I suspect they have more punch-ups in Melbourne or Sydney than London. Maybe it is a function of the competitive nature they have about sport. But Australias love a bit of “Biffo”. They been also doing a bit of racial bashing lately. A number of bashings ended in deaths and a lot of racial tension, so it is now becoming a public social issue.

When I lived in Melbourne I go my house broken into and my car broken into, but the locals say that is normal for the cities to happen every now and then. Just make sure you are insured.

Overall, my accessment of places to live will depend on how much money you have:
With No Money the best place to live is Australia or Canada (if you don’t mind freezing you hinnie off).

With a moderate amount of money the best to live is Brazil or Thailand

With an extreme amount of Money the Best Place to Live is the US or France

That fellow is incorrect about pretty much all things except for the Australian aggression traceable to the AFL sport in many cases which i can agree with 100%.
as for the rest of it total bull%$#@.
The country is well known for how active it is hence the talent at many sports and the TV is crap. Most Australians would rather go do something productive.
Australians can get any food they can possibly imagine and i think he would find with a bit more looking round that due to their incredibly multicultural identity Australians get more food variety then many countries. The country due to isolation produces ingredients fresh in Australia with no shortage of variety. Nothing to do with customs which only restricts fruit and veg which of course is grown in the country because that makes plain sense.
Besides Londoners can hardly be picky with their fish and chips background.
Maybe he has just read Wikipeadia on Australia and seeing that mining is the biggest industry in the country he has decided that that is all that there is to work in in Australia.
I assure you that the country is modern with modern jobs in abundance and he shouldn’t take a view on job opportunities or perhaps even living in the country after living in only cold cities.
Try Perth next time bud or perhaps Darwin.
There is hardly a person who finds any trouble with water restriction. Im very sorry you had to cut your shower down 2 minutes a day i know your hair doesn’t look right unless u give it that extra piece of special hair care. The farmers however need to feed the country and provide some of that cheap meat you were talking about so perhaps you could make this oh so terrible sacrifice. A minor inconvenience indeed that no one even notices.
modern housing as well. beautiful buildings like ahhhh a little known opera house landmark.
Im not sure where this fellow was living but Australian houses are known for providing a fantastic lifestyle rivalled by few other places in the world. in no way do Australians live in bunkers except for some cold city suburbs where my uninformed friend seemed to dwell.
I can agree with the safety point however but again it depends where you live. live in a city withe little money for a place to live then u will end up in a place where crime will occur. But yes a recent atmosphere of crime and violence has descended on the country within the last decade. This is not an exceptional case in the scheme of things however when looking at the rest of the world including the UK.
public transport is great especialy in Melbourne if a little crowded and i rarely witness any congestion. Sydney however is prone to a fair bit of traffic.
All and all a very uninformed opinion.

Haha Anthony is truly misinformed isnt he? With a attitude like that towards Australia im not suprised you were broken into. Living here in Oz (Sydney) really isnt that hard, Iv moved all over the country, iv had many different jobs, yes you get the odd idiot on transport but can you tell me a populated place in the world where you wouldnt? Seems to me you obvisouly cant handle Aussie life which is fine, you made the right choice to move

Bob i see your no.2 and raise you 1. Entertainment : TV is the most entertaining thing in Australia.
Haha made me laugh, just shows he wasnt very smart on his statistics. Id write a bad list about the U.S but hey..no one lives forever? lol

Hi Bob,
I have been living in Oz (Northern Beaches, Sydney) for 10 years after emigrating from the UK and have found a mix of good and bad things. I wont mention the good as you have covered a lot in your blog, but to give some balance, here is the bad:
1. I have three kids. They often get ticks by playing in the back garden. We once owned a cat that almost died twice from ticks ( they affect the respiratory system)
2. Mozzies- They are a way of life here. You can get used to them and you can get sprays
3. Houses. Not built as well as in the UK. Newer houses are not double brick (post 1970 onwards) The govt only made it mandatory 7 years ago to insulate between the brick veneer walls. Double glazing is not affordable for normal housing ( in Sydney). Many houses are made of weatherboard – you can hear the outside traffic very clearly from your bedroom.
4. Energy costs- After you have been in Oz for a while your blood begins to thinnen and you start feeling cold at 13 degrees C- the same as if you were in the uk when it is 5 degrees C, so you tend to use same amount on electricity/ gas as you were in the uk. But hold up, if you have air-conditioning, then you will use it on those hot summer days and nights- so your energy costs are in fact higher in OZ than in the UK.
5.Choice- because of the remoteness of Australia to the rest of the world and the population, there is not a lot of retail competition. This leaves you with little choice for consumer goods. Food shopping is a good example with just two major supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles creating an Oligopoly.
6. Social Services- There is non. There is no infrastructure
7. Medical system- I think the NHS in theUK have more skilled and experience medical experts. I also feel that the discipline of UK systems gives it the edge.
8. Australians usually end up with products at the end of their life cycle. eg automotive industry- new model cars here in OZ are already being replaced in the UK for even newer models.
9. The government- eg the home insulation debacle
I am keen to get your insight into my observations above.
Keep up the good work on the blog – Eddy

Hi Bob,
Just to put things into a little bit more of a perspective. All my kids are more Australian than I am because they were born here have Aussie accents and say “pants” rather than “trousers”. I have been here for ten years and before I had kids, I travelled all around OZ, going as far north as Weipa and Cape York and far south as Kangeroo Island. I have a permanent job a house in Sydney and my kids are settled in school/preschool. When I first came to OZ, I really enjoyed it until I started weighing up against the pros and cons of living in the UK. And this is where the problem lies, once you get dual nationality, you have another option or choice, and then you start comparing. So Bob, In answer to your question, I prefer living in Oz but will be returning to England before Xmas to live.