Our Ninth Full Year Living in Australia: 2016

Well Bob, long time no see. It’s been a while.

As you may remember, my family were making the jump to Oz from the UK in the summer of 2016. And now I finally feel comfortable to write about my experiences.

First off, I came over here on a skilled independent visa. I got excellent IELTS scores, and managed to land a job before I came over. Thankfully I am done with that job now, as it was absolutely atrocious. But that’s probably getting ahead of myself.

The weather was definitely not welcoming when we arrived, but that’s Victoria for you – it can be a mixed bag and we were arriving in the worst possible time to lots of rain and 15 degree weather. Which was about the same as what we left in the UK (seriously, I’ve got a picture of the weather for the coming few days just before we left – 15 degrees and rain in the UK).

My family made us feel welcome and we eventually managed to rent a place of our own with a pool. However, the previous tenant was problematic and stayed past their kicking out date, eventually leaving late and leaving such a mess that the rental company had to organise a deep clean. They also tampered with the pool’s circuitry. We didn’t actually use the pool much, not enough to justify the maintenance costs anyway, so if anyone wants a house with a pool – make sure you think carefully.

Work was… awful. I write this now because I’ve got a new, much better job and have just passed the probationary period. But immediately I was thrown in at the deep end, lied to (I was expected to perform a senior position role and was told that was what was said on my contract, but then requested to see my contract immediately thereafter and it didn’t), was expected to perform lots of overtime and weekend work for no extra pay, given little to no guidance and blamed when things inevitably went wrong. I looked for another job and quickly got an interview – which my employer somehow found out about, and was nearly sacked on the spot because of this. I finally left three months ago and have been a lot happier since, having found a new job at a much more relaxed company. I now have a walk on my lunch around a few nearby streets and to the beach, endless blue warm sky overhead. Well, until it rains.

My in-laws came over for a couple of months in early 2017 and stayed with us, really liking the country. They’re trying to come back later this year, mainly because we’re about to have another child! Kind of daunting, but exciting at the same time. My wife did actually return to the UK for a holiday last year – she definitely misses family, but not much about the country.

Whilst they were over we were kicked out of our house. The landlord had split with their wife and wanted to move back in, so gave us a month or so to vacate. We found a new place pretty quickly, better on all fronts except that it doesn’t have a pool – but it is cheaper and bigger, and we hardly used the pool anyway. We’ve been there since and really like the place. We do hope to be able to buy in the next year or so, as soon as our finances settle (been buying a lot of baby stuff, and new job and all). I am the sole earner at the moment and as such, we have enough to get buy and a few treats but not much more.

Life is definitely different here, and better. Thankfully it’s not just me thinking this – my wife agrees. The weather is better, it is a lot less crowded – we don’t live in Melbourne – which makes going places easier. There is far more for our son to do – parks everywhere. We have one just two minutes walk down the street, and there are another four great ones within ten minutes drive, and then ones everywhere we visit. His daycare is great, as is kinder. And we go places most weekends – as I’ve said before, driving is easy here, with one small caveat – Australians are worse drivers than Brits. Just today we couldn’t think of anything to do, so we went to a small town an hour’s drive away, had lunch, let our son have a play on one of the three parks we know there, had a drive elsewhere, then came back and had dinner at a small chinese restaurant we noticed on the way through. On other days out we visited Mount Macedon, Hanging Rock and some of the local gardens on the same day.

We like our holidays and would like more – to this end, we went to the Gold Coast for a theme park binge with nearly all the family late 2016, which was great (except I was stressing out over the job), and a few months back went on a road trip to Adelaide over new year. This was a great trip as it showed us some brilliant little things about Australia we just didn’t expect. For instance, on the way there we stopped off in Mount Gambier, which is a great little town and has the Umpherston Sinkhole – a sight that must be seen. Basically, someone built a public garden in a sinkhole, but it is spectacular. Possums come out at dusk and you can feed them by hand. As it was new year they had fireworks, which we watched from a good vantage point on a hill – and as we watched, people drove past and threw out glowsticks that our son liked. Adelaide is a really nice city and we visited the zoo and a few parks, but on one day went to nearby Goolwa and caught the Cockle Train to Victor Harbour, then got the tram to Granite Island. If you’re going to Adelaide and have kids who are into trains, do that. And if you don’t have kids who are into trains – just go to Victor Harbour and over to Granite Island. We also visited the Narracoorte caves on the way there, and on the way back decided to go into the Grampians and climb the Pinnacle – the highest point in Victoria. Not bad for me, a four year old child, and a heavily pregnant woman.

Australia is a great country. I can leave the house in the morning and, though we are a mile or two from the coast, smell the salty tang on the air. See skies with no clouds. Endless greenery – and different shades! Not just the “sad, wet” green from the UK. Rolling hills. The Great Ocean Road! Just mind those pesky tourists. Relaxing little towns along the coast. 40 degree Christmases at the beach! I burn too quickly. BBQs everywhere, despite the fact we’re vegetarian now (never mind, just put a veggie burger and some corn cobs on). Managing to get used to saying capsicum rather than pepper. Gotten used to the money, just about. 5c and 10c coins confuse me on occasion. School fairs with loads of stalls and rides for the kids! The trees – I love the trees! Sounds weird, but the variety of trees and how they look – some of them like thin stalks with leaves on top – makes me strangely happy. The colours! Maybe it’s just the sky and how it brings them out… and how everyone just seems happier, saying g’day in the street as you pass even if you’ve never laid eyes on them before.

There are some things we miss. Family is obviously the main one, and as much as people may claim otherwise Skype isn’t much of a replacement. We do miss some of the convenience, but then we no longer live 10 minutes walk from a major city centre. And we no longer go to as many music gigs as we used to. It also feels a bit bad having left a house that we were paying a mortgage on and going back to renting.

Did we make the right decision coming over? If you had asked me six months ago, I wouldn’t be 100% sure – because of how work was. But now I am. I’m in a much better place, my head is right, and I can say that we did. There are drawbacks – always will be. But we’re enjoying ourself, after nearly two years, and still finding new things to do. The weather is (mainly) good and people friendly, and we find that we can relax and do more than we could in the UK.

Am I missing something or is this like a collectors edition the 2016 maybe the 2017 video will be releaed sometime in 2019 lol… Seriously Bob and family Have a good un and here’s to a better year in 2018 for all 2017 wasnt the best, maybe best it was cancelled.