# What's it like living in Australia? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 8, 2011, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-in-australia/605492 "2011-12-08T10:30:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-in-australia/605492/22 "2011-12-09T17:06:33Z")
I’m an American, studied abroad in Australia (Murdoch Uni) in Perth/Freemantle for 6 months as an undergrad. I arrived in June, left in November, so I missed most of the hot. The Perth area gets colder in winter than I’d imagined. I’m from Minnesota (upper midwest in The States; our winters get cold. 0C and colder from December to February), so I know from cold, but I didn’t pack the warmer clothes or blankets that I should have. That said, I was living in the student village, so the flats were simply built and didn’t have heating. Another student building was more recently built - looked rather like townhomes or condos - but didn’t have heating either. I found this strange, but probably because it’s unthinkable for a building to not have central heating in MN. I don’t know whether this is common for people’s regular homes. Anyhoo, winter was colder than I anticipated - in the tens or teens C, and could often be rainy or drizzly. (And rain + cold is hundreds of times colder than that same cold + snow. Don’t know why, but it’s a universal.) Spring was gorgeous. And it was just starting to get hot when I left, but hadn’t really gotten steaming yet. In terms of culture, I found Australia to be much like the US, so there wasn’t too much culture shock - it’s rather like heading up to Canada for an American. Very egalatarian, more so than here. Similar mythos and racial experiences: the concept and mythos of “the bush” is roughly analogous to the US’s Old West; and the experience of the native peoples is comparable to American Indians + the civil rights struggle of blacks. (Again, very roughly speaking, and very much from an outsider’s POV. I don’t mean to undercut anyone’s own experiences or history.) I like to joke that Australia is like Arizona: the whole place says “Go Away,” what with the spiders and snakes and various pointy flora and fauna. But it really is just a joke. While there was a 2m venomous snake living in the student village (supposedly), I never saw it. And while I did see spiders, I never saw one that was dangerous, and they all avoided people anyway. (Shared our living spaces, yes. But up in the corners and away from where we all were.) I did get stung by a bee my second day there, that kind of sucked. Hadn’t been stung for years. There are warnings about jellies and sharks and crocs; heed the warnings and follow the advice of the natives and you’ll be fine. Because I was coming from Madison, WI, which has a kind of high standard of living anyway, I didn’t really notice it as being especially expensive or cheap. Things (like a burger from McDonald’s or whatever) were marginally more expensive, perhaps. (This was also in 1999, when the US Dollar was stronger. I might find it different now.) I did find that I’d spend $50 AUD in much the same way that I’d spend $20 USD back home (but keep in mind that the exchange rate was different then, maybe $2 AUD = $1 USD? So not as much of a disparity as you’d think.) Wages seemed excellent - even restaurant servers or retail sales associates would earn a decent, living wage. (Here in the States, these jobs make minimum wage, and it’s not a living wage.) Rents were weird, as they were always quoted in $X/week. I’m used to an $Y/month standard, so I’d have to multiply by 4 (but that’s not that big a deal). Great people, great place. I loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-in-australia/605492/23 "2011-12-10T15:40:45Z")
My office has a substantial number of east Europeans here and they love the place. One (a Lithuanian) decided she missed home so went back. Could only put up with it for a few months before she returned here for good. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-in-australia/605492/24 "2011-12-10T21:02:03Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Huh. I thought you were in Sydney. Did you move or do I just have that wrong? I lived in Sydney for a year, back in 2002, then the place where I worked moved to Melbourne, so I could go back to the town I love best. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-in-australia/605492/25 "2011-12-10T22:15:37Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Bwuh? Where in Western Europe? When I am very very bored and catch a few moments of UK house shopping type TV shows I am always astounded at how low prices are in the UK, outside of London, compared to here. There are definitely more decent low-end properties in Australia- but reviewing the exchange rate since I visited (left 3 years ago), it’s dropped from $2.5 to £1 to around $1.5 :£1 so it’s not so much cheaper now. Unless you consider the wages situation; Adult minimum wage here is £6.08 an hour, Australia’s is _$15.51_. ETA: Oh, and the drop-bears aren’t so much of a problem, so long as you remember your helmet, and always chant the drop-bear rhyme when going under eucalyptus trees- they won’t come near you then. Hang on, I’ll see if I can find the words… ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-in-australia/605492/26 "2011-12-10T22:55:35Z")
Don’t those bobbing corks get on your nerves ? Where do you keep your boomerangs when you’re out and about? Is there some sort of special pocket or something ? What do you do if when you’re hosing down the eaves of your house you find a rogue Kangaroo hanging upside down from them ? Do kids get bullied at school if they can’t master the breathing to play the Digeredoo ? Does it get complicated having all women named Sheila ? Whats the surfing like in Alice Springs? Is it true that you all admire Kiwis and try to be like them as much as possible ? And now I think that I’ll be avoiding Earls Court for just a little while. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-in-australia/605492/27 "2011-12-11T00:02:22Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Where do you keep your boomerangs when you’re out and about? > Is there some sort of special pocket or something ? Culturally, in Australia, you don’t take your boomerang with you. You throw it so that it returns to you at the precise time you arrive back at the location you originally left. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-in-australia/605492/28 "2011-12-11T05:51:12Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > What do you do if when you’re hosing down the eaves of your house you find a rogue Kangaroo hanging upside down from them ? Grab your cricket bat. Kangaroos don’t hang from eaves unless a spider’s got them trussed up in their web. > [@](#): > > Is it true that you all admire Kiwis and try to be like them as much as possible ? Oh look, I’ve already got my cricket bat. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-in-australia/605492/29 "2011-12-11T06:04:11Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Oh look, I’ve already got my cricket bat. You can put it away again; they’ve got the covers out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-in-australia/605492.md?page=1)