What’s expat life in Australia really like?

For decades, Australia has been a favourite destination for disenchanted Brits yearning for a new life overseas.

Nowadays, many British nationals wanting to leave the UK for a better life overseas still choose Australia, with the main reason being its British heritage and English language. Perhaps they may not even realise this stand-alone continent with its attendant island archipelagos is now a melting pot of all races scattered around its coastlines, with a massive interior given over to wide open spaces, historic Aboriginal monuments and tiny communities only accessible by air.

Those who carefully research the chosen country’s pluses and minuses a well as its attractions may well recognise the above as a positive comment on the country, but may also discover that Brits and Aussies don’t share a common culture. Australia is famed for its ‘great outdoors’ and rightly so, but expats may get a shock when they realise this safe haven has its very own problems including the world’s most poisonous spiders, snakes and crocodiles! In addition, once you’ve finally arrived after an unbelievably long flight, you realise just how distant you now are from all you’ve previously held dear.

Australia is seen as a tropical paradise, but the reality is you’ll still be called on to work nine to five, just as you did in the home country. Here, it’s different as the sun shines from an incredibly blue sky for most of the year and it’s natural for those from miserably wet lands to want to be out in it. If you’re looking to live close to the beach you’ll need a deep purse, as beachfront property is almost unaffordable for the average expat. However, if you enjoy vast vistas of undisturbed spaces, Oz is for you, the minute you get outside the city limits. Another issue is Australian culture – yes, this massive island does have a culture – but it’s now embracing the cultures of immigrants from China, Europe and many other countries worldwide and is constantly changing and developing.

The one downside reputed to trouble those who’re not prepared is that making friends in this vast land can be difficult at best. For many expats, it’s the reason why they give up and go back to the home country, but those who stick it out may realise it’s all about national insecurity in that money and its trappings are all-important. This is also true about North America, another land with a 200-to 300-year history rather than the glorious two-millennia plus history and heritage of Europe. In Oz as in many other expat destinations, the further away from the huge cities you go, the friendlier the locals become.