The true cost of expat living in Australia

bendix

jungle_jane wrote: »

:eek: that's an ENORMOUS salary! no wonder you found it cheap! i had an extremely good job in for over 10 years and was earning significantly more than anyone else i knew...and my pay was less than half of that!

You have to remember that at the time the exchange rate was $A2.4 to the £, not the 1.6 it is now.

But, yeah, it was a good salary nevertheless.

But that is the point of my post. I have sought those kind of roles globally, rather than sticking around waiting for my salary to increase incrementally locally.

It's been very disruptive in one regard - swapping countries every few years - but both financially and in terms of life experiences it is something I would not have missed for the world.

bendix

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Last time I was in Aus there was torrential rain every day for five weeks and then everything flooded. When it wasn't raining it was overcast. The three times before that it was 40 degrees and about 98% humidity interspersed with massive storms and car destroying hail. The moral of the story is don't go to Brisbane.

You don't need such reasons to not go to Brisbane. Noone in their right might would want to go to Brisbane. Ever.

Totally disagree with your comments on Melbourne though. I loved the city, and much preferred it to Sydney.

Generali

bendix wrote: »

You don't need such reasons to not go to Brisbane. Noone in their right might would want to go to Brisbane. Ever.

Totally disagree with your comments on Melbourne though. I loved the city, and much preferred it to Sydney.

Brisbane is a funny place and should be in NSW according to Queenslanders.

Melbourne is a nice place but I reckon Canberra is the best city in Aus.

bendix

Adelaide for me - the closest think the Aussies have to NZ's Christchurch.

Generali

bendix wrote: »

Adelaide for me - the closest think the Aussies have to NZ's Christchurch.

Never been. I've heard good things about it though.

PasturesNew

Back in the 70s my dad toyed with the idea of us being £10 Poms. It was a 6 week boat trip back then ... and if you wanted to phone Aus you had to speak to the Operator and book a time/date for the call, then at that time/date you picked up your phone and got through to the Operator, who then connected you.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Back in the 70s my dad toyed with the idea of us being £10 Poms. It was a 6 week boat trip back then ... and if you wanted to phone Aus you had to speak to the Operator and book a time/date for the call, then at that time/date you picked up your phone and got through to the Operator, who then connected you.

My mother such a boat trip...setting up life briefly somewhere else mid way though. When I was a kid for a lot of the time I spoke to my parents or dad once a week, on sundays for about five mins, because it took ages to get phones set up...even after plan travel was common and easy. The world has changed so much.

PasturesNew

Obviously, we never went to Aus .... we never ever even had a furren holiday, so where the idea came from to go half way round the world, god only knows. I bet mum put her foot down on that one. Dad'd have done it if encouraged. Mum'd NEVER have gone on a boat anywhere or for anything. Not a rowing boat on a 2' deep lake, nor the biggest liner in the world.... so getting her on a dodgy boat for 6 weeks to go round theh world to a foreign place wouldn't happen.

ruggedtoast

Anyway, it is well known that Australia is packed to the rafters with Australians. And in my experience in the arenas of art and culture they are not gentlemanly.

Generali

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Anyway, it is well known that Australia is packed to the rafters with Australians. And in my experience in the arenas of art and culture they are not gentlemanly.

That's a bit harsh. There's plenty of culture in Aus although admittedly mostly in the yoghurt aisle of the supermarket.