I was interested to read an article on the BBC News Online website regarding the huge numbers of Brits who are working in Australia illegally. Obviously the country must have its attractions.

I think there would be a fair number of Australians working in Britain illegally too. Mind you Europe has a larger selection of illegal workers to choose from, I cant see too many Australians being drowned searching for cockles.
I think the BRitish-Australian migrations are a classic case of the grass is always greener. I know a number of Australians who yearned for the "bright lights" of London only to return home disillusioned. And likewise I know a number of Brits who fled back to Britain after Australia didnt live up to expectations. And I know one young lady who's been back and forth four times and still isnt sure!
As an Aussie whos lived in England for a year or so I couldnt wait to get home, big city life didnt do it for me. If i had found myself in the (probably mythical) English country village things might have been different.

They are here for one reason. The easy availability of Vegemite.

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If i had found myself in the (probably mythical) English country village things might have been different.

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I found myself in a castle next to a very non mythical Scotish village and desperatly didn't want to come home for the same reasons they say in Sue's article, I was having too much fun. My visa ran out, applied for more time, they only gave me a few months and suggested very nicely that I get out before that extra time expired.

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The easy availability of Vegemite.

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Obviously!

Come on guys!!! It has to be the Tim Tams that is the MAJOR attraction of Oz! How many people do you know that actually admit to missing Tim Tams sooo badly when they are not in Australia??? Cant say I know what all the fuss is about... I hate chocolate!

I'm a foreigner living in Australia and I can think of a lot of advantages.

First off, the weather. I like it hot.

Beaches, baby.

Cities that are clean and safe.

Low cost of living.

Relatively few poms. (Kidding.)

We're a nice friendly, bunch of people.

Most of us are willing to lend a hand when needed.

Our attitudes aren't as 'intense' as say, someone from New York.

We believe in fun.

Nothing phases us.

(A little bit of trivia for you of a few years ago. Formula 1 pit crews comprised a whopping 17% Australians. The reason was very simple. The cars needed to get back on the track as quickly as possible, so while the Italian and French members were studying and looking at things scientifically, our boys got the gaffer tape, bits of wire and whatever was close to hand to get through the situation. A lot of this comes from guys who used to do their car repairs etc. in their own backyards.)

The last time I visited Sark (one of Sue's island's smaller neighbours), I met an Aussie girl who'd been living there for over seven years. As you could just about put the whole island of Sark on top of Uluru, and still have room to walk about, she obviously preferred micro to macro!

I have been living in Australia for two years now and I like it here. My favourite things are: beaches, weather (although it's not always nice here in Melbourne), the mentality and way of life (most people are open, easy to talk to, fun to go out and have a few drinks with...), TimTams(!), and just heaps of small things.
Oh, I forgot the Australian accent. I just love to hear Aussies talk (although sometimes I have no idea what they are saying )

The downside is that I am really far away from my family and friends, and I can only see them once a year. Also Melbourne is a bit too big for me (I grew up in the country side) and the distances in Australia are so unbelievably huge which makes it hard to travel around.

So, although I like the country and the people a lot, the distance is one of the main reasons why I've decided to return to Europe next year. I'm not really sure yet which country I'll go to, but England is definitely a possibility...

That is interesting Chris that you find the distances a downside. I find driving great distances in Australia to be fun myself. The drive from Adelaide, South Australia to Alice Springs, Northern Territory for example is a little over 1500 kilometres, about 930 miles. It took me 13 hours[including lunch] and was an easy drive.
Most of the highways between major cities are free of heavy traffic, though the east coast is slower.
How long would it take to drive a similar distance in England or anywhere in Europe for that matter?

I've just thought of another bonus to living downunder!

Not quite sure what you're getting at, but for the record I've driven thousands of miles in Queensland and Western Australia. Some of it was boring, some fun, some fascinating, some easy and some hard. I think the red roads of Western Australia would be my favourites.

Sorry, maybe I should have made that a bit clearer
My point is just that this country is so huge, that you can drive for days and days, but still be in the same country. I did a couple of road trips here myself (mainly Victoria and Western Australia) and I enjoyed it a lot (except for the few "boring" bits where there is absolutely nothing to see).

If I had driven the same distance in Europe, I would have crossed different countries with a new language, food, customs, mentality of people etc. I believe that in Europe there is more variety within an area of comparable size.

You may have noticed I did not talk about landscape, because I know that Oz has everything from beaches, and tropical rainforest to snowy mountains, and in Europe it also takes a while to get from a beach to a ski resort

Anyway, I hope I was able to clarify my last post at least a little bit. It's not about distance as such but rather the hugeness of that one country (although it is an exceptionally beautiful and lovely country )

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and the distances in Australia are so unbelievably huge which makes it hard to travel around.

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and for this part of my first post you have to keep in mind that I grew up in a country that is roughly the size of Victoria. So when a friend of mine moved up north, it still was only about 5 hours drive to visit her.

One of my best friends here in Oz just moved to Queensland, and although he he did the same thing as my friend in Germany (move to the north of the country) he is a lot further away, it feels to me like he moved to the other end of Europe. That makes it harder to visit him just for a weekend or so.

I hope that makes any sense at all...

I figure you just have to forget about driving places and take a plane. Airfare is pretty reasonable especially when you factor in time.

Hey,Chris..I know what you mean. We're doing a little preliminary planning for a 2007 trip to OZ and the distance between areas we want to visit is a bit daunting. We've whittled down the locales to just a few..Melbourne, Adelaide and SA wine country, and Sydney since haunting museums, quaffing, and finally catching AFL live holds more charm for me than catching sites of natural beauty in a necessarily limited time-frame. Nonetheless, the mileage is huge. Hope those good domestic air fares are still around in OZ when we get there!

They can have it!

Yes it was slightly warm here today. Eraser if you had 47 then we had 45, it`s always 2 degrees cooler here in Sutherland. The temperature has cooled down now though as we have a Southerly Buster coming through and the breeze is very refreshing.

The heat doesn`t bother me as much as the humidity, though we kept all the windows closed today as opening them just let the heat in. Wish I had more icecubes prepared.