life in Australia?

I live in Australia and have recently come back from a short visit to the US (New York for 10 days).

Compared to America, Australia is a wonderful place to live.

- Health care is free (although if you want you can pay for private healthcare, and the government is increasingly encouraging people to do so. But you don't have to.)

- Crime is much lower in Australia (you're not allowed to carry guns for a start!)

- Social welfare is good - there are disability allowances, low-income allowances, and old age pensions. However, we pay more tax!

- People are more relaxed. It's not so hard paced and hard hitting as in what I saw in New York for example.

You're best to move to one of the larger cities like Sydney. Other cities may seem a bit like country towns to you!

Working conditions are generally 8:30am/9am- 5pm. Your admin assistant role would most likely be these hours. You should note that there has been talk in the papers of a slow down in the job market. You can check out job vacancies and salaries here: http://www.mycareer.com.au./

While house prices over the last few years have gone up quite drastically, there has been a slow down because of increasing interest rates. Due to lack of supply in some cities, renting can be expensive. Here's where you can find out house/rental prices:

http://www.domain.com.au/ (I think this site is a bit better for Sydney searches) or

http://www.realestate.com.au/ (for every where else)

You'll find Australia is generally a lot cleaner, there are more parks, and all states of Australia have great clean beaches to hang out at. Restaurants in Australia are among the best in the world.. Not to mention we have real coffee (forget Starbucks, it's not real coffee like the Italians make it).

Of course we're a lot smaller than America. So you might find things a little quaint. But when you weigh up the standard of living (esp. with the US economy going as it is), Australia is a really good option.

For a snapshot of what is currently of interest to Australians and what's happening here, check out two of our daily papers!

http://www.smh.com.au/ (Sydney Morning Herald)

http://www.theage.com.au/ (The Age is a Melbourne Paper)

Good luck!

Moving from the US or Europe to Australia, you'll find integrating into society over here fairly easily.

We have the same luxuries, infrastructure, accommodations and privileges of any other first world country but the difference of course is that while we are geographically large, population wise we're tiny.

For this reason you should look at moving to one of a Australia's larger cities: Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide

For an American, one of our smaller, maybe rural towns or suburbs would seem almost like a country village rather than an actual town.

Life is very different in the rural areas, people are far more old-fashioned, hard-working and rugged and unless you can adapt to it well, then rural areas are not for you.

You'll find yourself right at home in the cities, provided your qualified and have a good reputable education, work ain't that hard to come by, right now there is currently a very high demand for skilled labourers (carpenters, tradespeople) and high demand in the IT/Computer Industry.

If your job involves either of these two professions, you'll find work easily.

Weather will most definitely be hotter than what you have the in the states, we have a "Mediterranean climate" for most of the coastal regions in Australia which means, hot, dry summers and rainy winters. (40-42C in summer is not uncommon, that's about 105 Fahrenheit!)

No snow though, the only place it snows in Australia is the Eastern Mountain Ranges and their quite a distance from civilisation.

I've lived here for around 16 years now (I originally immigrated as well, from Europe in 1995) and I absolutely love it, since I was so young when I came here and went to school here I adapted very easily to life in Australia and now am pretty much like any other Australian (right down to the accent lol).

For an adult it may take longer of course, when your younger you are far more "impressionable" and pick up things real quick, adults obviously can't shake their childhood and background when they migrate elsewhere so granted things will be different for you for the first few years but after that I think you'll be hunky dory (all good).

You should have no trouble finding places to suit you, and there are plenty of vegetarians here too. In the not too outrageously expensive category you'd want to stay away from Melbourne and Sydney, and probably Perth too, especially since it's so expensive to get to anywhere else from there. Adelaide is cheap, has great food and wine, and is about 1 million people. Hobart is cheap, has a cool climate and is a good place to live if you like outdoor activities but not beach culture. Brisbane is more expensive. There are plenty of country cities that offer a more relaxed lifestyle and most are pretty keen to get professionals to live there. I'd suggest giving yourself about a month to travel around the place before you make up your mind to stay. Bear in mind that the 'good' seasons are opposite in the north and south: it's best to see the north and centre in the middle of the year ('winter' in the south and 'dry season' in the north) and everywhere else in spring or autumn (Sept-Nov/ March-May). You'll find almost every climate here from tropical, subtropical, mediterranean, alpine and almost arctic. And, yes, you'll find most things here that you'll find in the US.

OFFICIAL and missauss... have answered your questions ;-)

You just need to decide which city you'd be most comfortable living in:

Easier to find a job, maybe Sydney / Melbourne.

Affordable house price, definitely Adelaide, but not so easy to find a job.

Perth is the most isolated city in the world but currently booming in economy due to the mining.

Brisbane is good for someone who don't really like cold weather and loves happening life, it's close to Gold Coast (home of the many attractions, theme parks, beautiful beach), Sunshine Coast, & Whitsundays.

I don't know what the heck Eagle is talking about...

The Eastern States are not the coldest, especially Queensland.... The sunniest State is Queensland....

Victoria, South Australia and Southern New South Wales can become very cold, these states are closer to the South Pole....

On a whole, Australia is a great place to live, I can't wait to go home. The first answer is spot on....

I have been in the USA for a while, so I understand much, and Australia is one of the best countries to live.

The USA has become a very dark place to live, the social and economic climate is in a very bad way.....

Good Luck... pack your bags and move!!!!!

I have just begun to apply for Australian citizenship with aims of immigrating there next year! I know lots of friends who have immigrated there over the last 5 years, and have been given a lot of info. To answer your questions:

- Life out there varys, Obviously there are major cities like Sydney, Brisbane, Perth that hold the typically city life. Then theres more rural town on city suberbs and of course, theres really really rural towns. So a selection of lifestyles.

- Weather is notorious for being good in Aus!

- Jobs are easy to find as long as you have a proffesional background. Australian goverenment are welcoming people to immigrat to the country as long as they have a proffesional skill to offer. People without will most certainly be denied citizenship.

Perth, Western Australia and Adelaide, South Australia hold the joint record for being the sunniest capital city in the world let alone Australia. fabulous weather. The Eastern states are the coldest and rainfall is higher. Aussie though out the country are the same, all round nice and friendly and often very proud of their country. jobs depend what your looking for, economy is high. come for a visit before you decide :) but I'm sure you will love it. where are you coming from??

EDIT:

PERTH AND ADELAIDE HOLD THE JOINT RECORD FOR THE SUNNIEST CITY IN THE WORLD!! it was made when perth had 10 days over 35 degees celcuis and adelaide had 11 days! its true google it!!

it is the sunniest city in australia - even world.

http://www.virtualoceania.net/australia/states/wes...

http://goaustralia.about.com/cs/wasightseeing/a/pe...

http://www.worldste2007.asn.au/icase2007_2ndlayer/...

http://www.australianexplorer.com/perth_informatio...

http://www.emi-great.com/

im 18 and live in aus its has good weather everywhere! well almost everywhere! but believe me its hard to get a job! even tho the unemployment rate is low, it took me 6 months to get a job! and its only casual too! and if u earn over $180 a week u dont get any money to help from the government thank god i live with my parents or i wouldnt be able to rent or pay off a house even if i wanted to! but thru centrelink i hav to look for 7 jobs a fortnight for the payment of $2.92 and that doesnt even pay for my train ticket to go to centrelink to lodge my forms! all well it could be worse i guess!

My opinion is biased, of course, but it really is a great place to live.

While it's as big as the US or Europe, it only has a population of 20 million. This is because much of the centre and west of the country is rugged bushland or quite arid (the "outback").

Work at the moment is not hard to find at all, for both skilled and unskilled workers. There is a general labour shortage in Australia right now, and the Government is very keen to import skilled workers in particular.

The weather is very good with many days of sunshine most of the year round in many parts of the country. This of course can also make it a very dry place to live, prone to droughts, and water conservation is extremely important in many parts of the country (there have been strict regulations on water usage in most States in recent years).

The attitude of most Australians is very relaxed. We don't tend to take ourselves, or anyone else, or life in general too seriously and we laugh at people who do. If you have a broad sense of humour you'll make friends here really easily.

Is that so WCEagles? Didn't know that...

Living conditions here are top notch, weather is usually great and even in "country town" Adelaide (thanks top answerer lol) with a million people there's plenty to do.

If you are skilled in a trade, you will have no problem at all finding a job!