Sunday was Australia Day. Just about every pub in London (at least the bit I live in) had a special promotion based on this.
I visited a few local pubs for “research purposes”. All were crammed to the gunwales with Aussies. These aren’t even pubs that are aimed at Aussies, of which there is no shortage.
It seemed as if the entire youth of Australia had decided to come and live in South West London.
However, almost everywhere I have ever been around the globe has had the same level of Australians in it.
So given that there are only about 20,000,000 Australians in the whole wide world, what proportion of the Australian population is abroad at any given time? Are there any other nations that have such a large percentage of their population out of the country at any one time?
This question got me thinking: does the 20 million figure even include Aussies abroad? I think the figures came from the most recent census, and if an Aussie weren’t here to fill it out, would he even be counted? It might just be that 20 million is the number living here currently, not Aussie citizens living elsewhere.
Not really an answer, but more of an additional question…
Must be time to drag out that old chestnut about London having the second largest Australian population after Sydney, or some such….in fact, I don’t think there are many countries for which London doesn’t apparently have the equivalent of a major city’s worth of inhabitants….
I can’t think there’s a way to measure the number of Aussie residents at any given time in London, save to say it’s at it’s maximum at this time of year as they traditionally work now so as to spend the summer pissed around Europe.
Interesting how they’ve moved out of their traditional patch (Earls Court-ish) in the past decade as the pub chains have got their acts together with the ‘live-in’ culture – prison dodgers can, and do, crop up anywhere these days.
I like ‘em, and the girls can be wonderfully uncomplicated.
I read this article in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this month. Citing the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the writer writes there are “around one million” (!) Australians currently living outside the country – over 5% of the population. (He goes on to argue that expatriates shouldn’t lose the right to vote in Australian elections.)
Of this one million, 200,000 are of “the Earl’s Court category”.
The interesting thing is what it’s going to do to blood stocks with such a high proportion of young Australians living in Britain for up to two years, thereby disqualifying themselves from donation. Fast forward to when their parental generation is too old to donate, will there be enough blood to go round?
Reason to stay at home, Aussies?!!
There are masses of Australians here. Like most western expats, they are probably primarily lured by the no income tax thing. Unlike many European expats, they’re probably not here for the weather. However they presumably have the additional spur of earning a stronger currency, as the Aussie dollar is so weak (many people here are paid in US dollars, and the local dirham is pegged to the dollar anyway, so it doesn’t make much difference. Likewise in the UK, sterling is strong). Ditto for South Africans, their rand is useless, it makes better sense to earn money abroad.
Just thought I would jump in here and say that I know Australians make what is almost a seasonal migration around the whitewater rafting business out here on the West Coast, traveling down into South America, and then back up for our summer.
Also, there are quite a few Aussies living in the midwest, working/learning on farms. Montana ranches almost always have a handful of aussie hands, if memory serves.
