Hello everyone, my wife has recently become more and more interested with the idea of relocating to Australia. She asked me to look into some aspects of the country with you, I was hoping you would be able to give input on some things that would help make decisions.
Here are some of the bigger questions:
How well are Christians and Christianity received?
How good in the middle class job market?
Are most people content with the government or do they believe that it is not helping the citizens?
What is the perception crime and criminal activity, ie how close and severe do crimes seem to be?
Is there any kind of entitlement attitude especially from younger people?
Ok this one is mine, how often do scary wild animals (crocs/snakes) come to populated areas?
These are probably first of series of questions, any and all advice would be welcome.
Good questions. I'll answer best as I can. I live in an outer suburb of Melbourne, so I can only speak of that.
1. More or less indifferently. I've done street witnessing and some are a little hostile, but not to the point of violence.
2. The job market is OK. unemployment is officially low, but that ignores underemployment
3. No Australian is ever satisfied with the government.
4. Crime is worse in some areas than others. It's not a big problem where I live. Guns are quite strictly controlled, so we do not have the problems of mass shootings that some countries suffer. Knife crime is rising though. Youth crime is a major problem in some towns. I won't say why because I'll be accused of racism.
5. Young people vary a lot. Some are ignorant and arrogant. Others are fine. Most the young people I deal with are in customer service roles. It's pretty obvious which category they fall into.
6. I've seen snakes twice. Once I was walking the dog, the other time driving through a wetlands. Again, it depends on where you live. Australia is not much different from any other urban/suburban based community. If you walk or ride a bike along tracks, you may see some wildlife. We don't have crocodiles where I live. You are more at risk from dogs, horses and most of all, people.
The biggest problem for most people is finding somewhere to live. Sydney and Melbourne are the most populated and it's hard to find accommodation. Australia is big. Like, huge. So generalising is impossible. Queensland has a lot more bugs and snakes than Melbourne, for example. Darwin is hot and humid much of the year. You will need to watch out for crocodiles. Even so, fatalities are fairly rare. Australia is over regulated, so depending on where you are from, you may take issue with that. We have universal health care. It's not "free" but it is paid for by our taxes.
I've lived here since 1967. I've traveled a bit. There is no other place that I would live.
