American moving to Australia?

Question

I'm an American from Portland planning to move to Australia. However, as my moving date is coming closer, I am starting to have doubts. Americans living in OZ please help me out.

Reasons: I find Sydney astronomically expensive. I can buy a decent house for 200K here. In Sydney you can get a studio for 300k in some high rise building. And I have no desire to live in bush and commute 4 hours each day.

Sydney seems to have plenty of jobs in my field. That is good.

Snakes, spiders, roaches are plenty in Sydney. (may be not a big concern in big city like Sydney).

Taxes are high but nice to have Govt provided healthcare there.

Also, I hear Australians friendly but in forums, they seem to have big ego. Always criticizing Americans. I never find Americans criticizing Australians. Funny thing is they even have a big feud between their own two cities - Sydney and Melbourne. To me that is narrow minded. I never hear New Yorkers making fun of Los Angeles.

Not too fond of Australian accents either

Answer 1

Hi, hopefully you're not judging all of us by reading comments by a few fools who may or not be Aussies on Yahoo Answers.

I won't comment on Sydney housing prices because I don't live there I'm in Queensland.

You seem to be quite keen on being in Sydney or maybe you're in a specialist field and that's the only city with positions in your field.

There are cockroaches and spiders in Australia but most people have their homes sprayed to keep them free of insects and bugs.

I've lived in various parts of Australia and the only time I saw a snake in the wild, a King Brown, was when we lived on the edge of a paddock in a very small country town. That was nearly 30 years ago.

Yes, we do have extremely good health care compared to many western countries.

The thing between Sydney and Melbourne is just in good natured fun.

There is also intense rivalry between Queensland and New South Wales during the 3 game State of Origin Rugby League (football) series too. It's not narrow minded, it's a bit of a laugh not to be taken too seriously.

There is no intense dislike between states, here in Australia, like you can experience between some Southern States and Northern States in the USA.

I don't think Victoria and New South Wales or Queensland and New South Wales will ever go to war over their minor differences.

About our accents, I hope you're not referring to our recently departed wildlife warrior Steve Irwin. We don't all speak like him, in fact not many of us do. lol

Good luck with what ever you choose to do.

Answer 2

It sounds like you're trying to talk yourself out of this move!

I'm not American, but I've never met an American here who was kicking and screaming to get home.

Sydney's a wonderful city - but from what I've heard of Portland, it's pretty great too.

Property is expensive - but a lot of other day to day living is cheaper.  Even if you live in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney the commute will be less than 2 hours ... still a long time I know, but will give you some perspective.

You'll have to get used to the roaches - yes you will see spiders.  Snakes?  Extremely unlikely!  Death from spider or snakebite?  There's maybe 1 or 2 deaths a year in the whole country!  

Healthcare - great!

Aussies - big egos?  We just have a "take the p**s out of each other" sense of humour.   You could hardly call it feuding - rivalries are friendly and that sort of bantering is done with a smile of the face!  And you'll find it everywhere in Oz over anything from where we live, to football teams, to the weather, to which car you like....... it's something you'll really need to get used to.  And if we're criticizing Americans, we're really criticizing your leader and his minions - not you personally.  We KNOW there's a lot of nice Americans out there!

Answer 3

well if your not too fond of Australians and think they are narrow minded why move there? maybe you should have a change of heart

with an attitude like yours you wont fit in well

never met an American that didn't have a big ego

if you don't like Sydney try Wollongong about an hour and a half south of Sydney(easy electric train commute to Sydney)

cheaper to live there,many people commute from Wollongong (nice place)

Answer 4

my wife is Australian and i'm moving there in december. We live in Newcastle not too far from the Knights arena. Sydney is a major city and densely populated, so you know it's going to be expensive there. Australians i have met only get to see Americans by what movies and the media show. Loud mouth,  hillbillies, and that america are bullies. That's the ones I have met. When I speak with them, I tell them there history is different from American history. I tell them the truth! Many americans have no idea what goes on in Australia and don't care. That's the major problem. In a way, I want to keep Australia to myself. Settlers from non-english speaking countries have developed closed communities and that AIN'T right. I don't mind if people that don't want to come to Australia. I'm living in paradise. Australians don't mind people coming to stay, but they do mind if new settlers don't care to know all things Aussie.