Britons who’ve lived in Australia reveal which nation is best
Thousands of Britons choose to exchange our rainy island in Europe to soak up the sun, surf the waves and live a seemingly slower pace of life every year in Australia.
A new study in The Times found that life expectancy in Australia is two years longer than in the UK. Experts partly put down to people being happier and healthier there, as well as the reduced smoking and drug abuse rates.
To find out whether life really is better down under, FEMAIL spoke to Brits who traded the rat race in the UK for sun, surfing and sea in Australia – and for many, they’ve never looked back.
Some Brits said they feel as though they’re ‘on holiday every weekend’, can see the doctor when they need and enjoy spending their lunch break on the beach rather than ‘eating a Greggs‘.
However, others admitted that the British pub culture is unmatched and that travel to different countries is easier when you’re based in Europe.
Sarah Gigg is pictured with her 10-year-old daughter and her husband swimming in the sea
Sarah Gigg, initially moved from Oldham to ‘laid back’ Queensland in 2001 on a holiday visa and knew she always wanted to return to the country, adding that she ‘loved every minute’ of her time there.
She visited again in 2013 with her boyfriend for a friend’s wedding and continued to wonder why they hadn’t moved there, so had a ‘serious talk’ about relocating to the sunny country.
Sarah said: ‘We got granted permanent residency in January 2017 and moved here in September 2017. We were fed up with the UK and our daughter was only two when we left, we knew her life would be much better here than in the UK because of the sun, less crime, less traffic and an outdoor lifestyle.
‘My best way to describe it is as a better version of the UK. It’s cleaner, public transport works, parking is free outside of cities, traffic isn’t anything like the UK, people care about where they live and look after their neighbourhood.
‘Food is so much fresher here, mostly all grown in Australia and it’s just a healthier lifestyle.
‘Also people have a positive outlook, I really notice when I go back to the UK how miserable everyone is.’
The 50-year-old, who lives in North Lakes, said the culture of working is different there too and that people ‘work to live,’ rather than vice versa.
Now she spends her weekends soaking up the sun on the picturesque beaches, on boats or at the pool with her husband and their ten-year-old daughter.
Sarah now spends her weekends swimming in the sea or going on boat trips (pictured in Caloundra)
Sarah and her daughter are pictured on Whitsunday Island on the Great Barrier Reef
Sarah, who works as a school administrator, shared some of her favourite snaps of Australia
Sarah and her daughter are pictured swimming in the Noosa River on a sunny day in Australia
Sarah said she feels as though she is ‘on holiday every weekend’ because she lives in Australia (pictured right, Sarah’s ‘work’ beach where she sometimes has lunch on her break)
‘Friday afternoon is the start of the weekend – nothing gets done after lunch. I work in a school so have six weeks off over Christmas and literally everyone packs up work from mid-December to mid-January,’ she added.
The school administrator said when she was living in the UK she spent two to three hours commuting to work and paying around £10-a-day to leave her car in a ‘grim multi-story car park’.
‘Now I drive 20 minutes to work and park for free. I always wear jeans or shorts – I haven’t worn heels in years,’ she added.
‘I pop out to lunch some days and head to my local beach which is five minutes from work and enjoy the sun whereas in the UK lunch was a Gregg’s sausage roll.
‘Weekends are spent camping or you can just grab a picnic and head to the beach for a day – it feels like a holiday every weekend.’
Sarah also commented on how well the public services run there in comparison to the UK, adding that it is ‘easy’ to get a doctor’s appointment.
‘We pay less council tax than in the UK. Our bins are emptied every week – even on Christmas Day.
‘Our park opposite our house is immaculate and really looked after by the local council. In Brisbane we have 50 cent public transport [25p] on all trains, ferries and buses and they all run on time.’
Sarah commented on how well the public services run there in comparison to the UK
Sarah, her husband and their ten-year-old daughter are pictured in Brisbane posing by a neon light
Sarah is pictured with her daughter at the Aussie World theme park (left) and at the park with her husband (right)
Sarah was snapped with her husband on the Gold Coast dressed in flip flops and shorts
Australia has a government agency called Medicare which is its publicly funded universal health care insurance scheme.
It guarantees all Australians, and some overseas visitors, access to a wide range of health and hospital services at little to no cost.
Sarah said: ‘Medicare covers healthcare and it is easy to get a doctor’s appointment. We have a local centre open 7am – 10pm every day – no appointment needed and it’s free to see a doctor with your Medicare card.’
However, there has been an increase in demand for housing in Brisbane according to Sarah, who added: ‘House prices have nearly doubled in five years and it’s hard to get a rental. Houses near me sell in days and demand is crazy.’
Christopher Amos, 49, was born in Australia but got a visa and moved to London as his grandfather is British.
He lived in the capital city for 20 years, from 1999 to 2019.
He left following Brexit and said he left because of the ‘unhappy faces on the street, random aggression and homelessness’.
During his time in London, he was diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which is a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern.
‘When I first got to London, I was depressed in the winter, and I couldn’t believe I wasn’t seeing any sun for so long.
‘And I had that SAD syndrome and they said light therapy [would help].
‘So the cure for it was bike riding and having a dog.’
He now lives on the Gold Coast and admits he ‘definitely’ prefers living there, rather than in the UK.
The filmmaker said he’s travelled back to London a couple of times post-Covid and had bad experiences in the city.
‘A lot of people were asking me for money because I had a suitcase at Paddington Station, I was asked three or four times.
‘Then, on a bus, someone had a broken leg and had his foot up on a seat and someone came on and said “Just because you’ve got a broken foot doesn’t mean you get to put your foot up on the chair.”
‘I just thought, Oh my God, who cares? That was all within five days.’
Christopher also mentioned an incident when he was followed onto a tube and harassed by a ‘gang’.
During his time in London, Christopher was diagnosed with Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern
Christopher, a filmmaker who now lives on the Gold Coast, is pictured with a giant Koala in Australia
‘I’ve been in LA for three months earlier in the year and I was nervous [at first] but it actually felt safer than London,’ he said.
He said that these experiences would ‘never ever’ happen where on the Gold Coast . He added: ‘It’s like laid-back here, people are very friendly and they say hello. They have manners.’
Christopher said that there is more of an outdoor culture in Australia which he believes is more cost-effective than what is on offer in the UK, as most activities are based indoors.
‘In the UK, every time you want to do something it’s like there’s £50 to meet a friend for dinner and drinks,’ he said.
However, he does admit that he misses going to watch theatre shows on the West End and going for pub lunches on a Sunday.
Amelia Schumacher moved from the UK to Australia in December 2022 and said she never planned to move down under.
She said: ‘I was going to spend seven or so months there travelling and working but it turned out to be much longer.
‘I decided to move to Australia mainly because I really wanted to travel the East Coast. I had seen so much about it online and it looked incredible, especially Fraser Island and the Whitsundays.’
Christopher admits that he misses going to watch theatre shows on the West End and going for pub lunches on a Sunday
Before moving out to Australia, Amelia managed to secure a job working at the Australian Open in Melbourne, which she described as ‘very exciting’.
Amelia added: ‘The lifestyle in Australia is great, being near the beach and having great weather has definitely helped the decision to remain there for more of the long-term.’
Gary Parker, 59, moved from Kent to Sydney in 1996 and moved back to the UK in 2015. He said while he does prefer life in England, the Australian lifestyle does have some benefits.
The former semi-professional footballer moved out there when he got a contract for a new league, so he moved over and quit his job in the hotel industry.
‘One of the good things about Australia is that if you want to go to a doctor, you can go to any doctor you like.
‘There’s a thing called bulk billing which is where you don’t have to pay to see the doctor. If I wanted to see a doctor today, for example, which in England, as you know, is a real problem, you just ring up all the doctors in local facility.’
Gary said if you needed a blood test, X-ray, MRI and CT scan, you can get them done ‘same day’ with their medical system.
He attempted to get a GP appointment the other day but had some ‘trouble’ getting through the receptionist.
Amelia Schumacher moved from the UK to Australia in December 2022 and said she never planned to move down under
‘Over here you have to call at eight o’clock and you end up in a queue of people, the other day it was 26 people.
The doctor’s surgery sent me a text message and said I had to have another blood test in four weeks and I called them to see if they could send me the link to book the appointment.
‘They said they’d send it and I’m still waiting for it two days later, so those kinds of things are bad.’
Gary said he also misses how everywhere had air conditioning in Australia and said he has been ‘struggling’ with the heatwave in the UK.
He said: ‘When I was over there, even though I had air conditioning, I had a fan right in front of me when I was at home, or I would sleep on the tiles because it was so hot.
‘Here, I’ve managed to get a fan and when we had that really hot day, I was actually in my car with the air conditioning on because my house was too hot.’
The Brit also got a shock when he purchased a train ticket when back in this country and it cost far more than the public transport in Australia.
‘If you went for an hour’s train ride from where I lived it was about $40 a week for a ticket, so that’s around £19. Now, where I am in Canterbury, I’m paying £182 a week,’ he said.
However, Gary said you cannot beat British pub culture, adding that it was one of the things he missed most about living abroad.
Before moving out to Australia, Amelia managed to secure a job working at the Australian Open in Melbourne, which she described as ‘very exciting’
‘The British pub is an icon. Whereas in Australia, they have pubs but they aren’t great. There are loads of trendy bars in Sydney, similar to London, except London has pubs as well.
‘Sydney has a couple of pubs but they are nowhere near as lovely as English pubs.’
Gary also mentioned that because Australia is so far away geographically, it can be expensive to travel to different places.
He claimed that Bali in Indonesia is the British equivalent of Ibiza in Spain, along with nearby islands such as Fiji.
The self-employed project manager said: ‘That’s the thing I missed the most when in Australia, because when in England you can fly anywhere. You can go to Europe in a couple of hours and fly to the US in eight hours. You need like 21 hours to fly anywhere from Australia.’
He has three children, including two sons with dual citizenship who prefer living their lives down under.
Gary describes them as ‘surfer boys’ who ‘absolutely love’ the lifestyle that Australia offers and would not want to move back.
