[Ruffneck]

wayneL, on Jan 19 2009, 01:45 PM, said:

That said. Oz "used" to be a very good country. Still monoculture, but it used to be far more laid back and friendly... and cheap. It made up for being isolated. All that is now gone however. I find it even more uptight, up itself and cliquey than anywhere I've been.

thats more a worldwide problem , caused by rampant consumerism and the 'keeping up with the jones' ' mentality

[steve99]

Ruffneck, on Jan 19 2009, 09:43 AM, said:

nah , the biggest ponzi scheme of all time is superannuation
the housing bubble is just his sidekick

true , we have a limited manufacturing base these days but we did record a 3 billion trade surplus for either august or september
when was the last time the UK recorded a trade surplus in a month? i believe it was some time in 1997?

the best thing we have here is plenty of land , you could camp out whilst the shit hit the fan in a big way and not see another soul for months

I wonder how many Super/Pension funds are up to their necks in MacQarrie bank infrastructure funds? Seems they found the magic formula a couple of years ago, bit like private equity whereby they buy out something like for eg
Thames Water (they did) and then load it up with debt, pay them selves special dividends then securitise whats left to sell on to pension funds, mostly in Australia. They have all sorts of sh*t, like airports, toll roads etc, all of them loaded up with maximum debt, all of them pushed to the limit to make a buck. May look interesting in a couple of years.

MrPeregrination, on Jan 19 2009, 11:11 AM, said:

Excellent. I'm looking at heading out to Melbourne within the next 4 years. It's going to take me at least a year to get out there and then I'll want to rent for a couple of years while I work out where the nice areas are (any suggestions welcome). So if they start to crash in a few months I'll be looking to buy somewhere around the bottom

What's the story in Melbourne at the moment? Has the market just stalled, or is it still rising?

Think it has stalled, the inner, more expensive areas of Melbourne tend to sell by Auction (which is a scamy buisness iteself) have gone a bit quiet lately but this happens from time to time. To live in these leafy suburbs, you will be paying Londonish prices around $800k for something decent of a reasonable size, you can get cheaper but can be quite small in some areas. The further out you go, the cheaper it gets, unless near the sea in some areas. Rock bottom is around $250K in a soulless outburb where cars are worshiped like the gods of necessaty they are and hill billys wouldnt go astray. We are 'waiting and seeing' at the moment and depends on work. Melbourne can be a nice city to live in but what drives everyone mad is the weather, can change by the day or even within the day and forcasts 3 days ahead are nonsense. However the winter/spring climate is better to live in than it was in the old days before the never ending drought, then it used to rain every weekend like clockwork, dont know if we will get that back or not.

gleeful_expat, on Jan 19 2009, 11:37 AM, said:

Doesn't matter, as long as someone wants the resources. Which is not currently the case, but that may change.
The biggest mystery of all is why Oz isn't the world centre for development and implementation of domestic and industrial solar energy. Instead, sunless Germany has that role.

"She'll be right mate" - not always the wisest approach. However the UK is surely in a much deeper hole that Oz, though I doubt they'll be unaffected. Brits might even stop buying so much of their gloupy cheaper wines that taste like blackcurrant soup.

Australia should indeed be the world centre for solar power and innovation, however the recent politics of the Howard government tended to pander to various vested interests and suspect solar didnt fill the right pockets, in fact nuclear was frequently mooted. The old CSIRO (goverment scientific research thingy) was privatised years ago and now tends to be the paid lacky of big buisness needing a bit of science. Lots of the best scientists buggered off and pure or useful research was put on the back burner, a bit like the USA. Too early to know what the Rudd govt is going to do.

[doctorbone]

Lander, on Jan 19 2009, 11:44 AM, said:

Whats your opinion on Sydney?

For me, it would have to be Balmoral, Sydney. Obviously if money was 'no worries'

St Kilda, Melbourne is also on my list - Fantastic food in Australia too.

When tshtf I know what country I'd rather be in.

This post has been edited by doctorbone: 19 January 2009 - 01:15 PM

[Te Mata]

Ruffneck, on Jan 19 2009, 12:50 PM, said:

thats more a worldwide problem , caused by rampant consumerism and the 'keeping up with the jones' ' mentality

That's true, but in Australia try starting a conversation about Netrebko's performance at the Last Night of the Proms and suddenly you're considered effeminate or a poof. The only permitted topics of conversation is footy, cars, sheilas and money. Try having a vocabulary of more than 250 words and you're considered a subversive or a snob. Try doing something a little different to the Establishment in any field and be prepared to have your character assassinated. Eccentricity in any form is not tolerated... (unless you're gay).

Mrs and I trained gallopers for a living. She was ridiculed for wearing gloves when she was working FFS. (Hey, I don't want sandpaper hands on my ****).

It's basically a country of (temporarilly) rich chavs.

[VeryMeanReversion]

wayneL, on Jan 19 2009, 02:17 PM, said:

The only permitted topics of conversation is footy, cars, sheilas and money.

That's at least 2 more than HPC and I love it here

VMR.

[guitarman001]

I'm keen on leaving Britain at some point; Germany or Oz are my two key destinations. People still believe you can get cheap houses with pools over there when it's nothing like that at all.

[bagsos]

thomasross20, on Jan 19 2009, 01:46 PM, said:

I'm keen on leaving Britain at some point; Germany or Oz are my two key destinations. People still believe you can get cheap houses with pools over there when it's nothing like that at all.

Depends what you want and where you are. Adelaide is cheap (but facing a big recession as the Aussie car industry is in meltdown) and many of the houses built in the 50's and 60's, which Aussies don't seem to like very much, seem to have a pool.

[dances with sheeple]

Ruffneck, on Jan 19 2009, 12:50 PM, said:

thats more a worldwide problem , caused by rampant consumerism and the 'keeping up with the jones' ' mentality

Agreed, don`t the native Australians have something to teach us all about living though? Not the ones lying shitfaced in the dirt of course.

[Ruffneck]

dunno if you guys heard today but BHP announced 3400 job losses here
they also closed the Ravensthorpe nickel mine this morning , had 15 jets to fly all the staff out
i was listening on the radio and it told the story of one of the guys who was sacked
he had a house & investment property , and his wife works at bunnings (on about 1/8th salary as what he would of been getting in the mines) he "doesn't know what he is going to do"

[UncleKev]

Australia is going to do it hard. No doubt about it. I am currently working as an IT contractor in Canberra and all our contracts are being terminated or not renewed thanks to a pommie git called Gershon who came over here at great expense (before the downturn even started) told the government they could save money by replacing contractors with permanent staff and then ******ed off back to pommie land. Thanks mate!

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/...5-15306,00.html

BTW. I have lived and worked in New Zealand, Scotland, England (Norwich, Miltnon Keynes, London, Reading) and Amsterdam as well as in most states of Australia. Enjoyed aspects of all those places. What is the problem with small brained people who live in a country, dont like aspects of it and then run back home and spend the rest of their lives slagging the country off?

Some of the posters on this thread make ridiculous, almost racist generalisations about Australians. I would struggel to even define an Australian. Over 50% of my work Australian colleagues and neighbours were born overseas. How can they all be the same? I can eat food from over 100 countries within a radius of 5 miles from my house in Canberra. I can cycle to work on purpose built cycle paths that pass blue lakes, with the sun shining 9 days out of 10. My house (owned 100%) has nearly an acre of grounds that I can easily grow vegetables in and run chickens.

No one wants a depression, but if you are broke and have loads of free time to kill, this is the place to be. No worries mate!

[UncleKev]

PS. Any poms living in south eastern Melbourne area should check out the following pub:

http://www.oaktreetavern.com.au/

Its a great little place, 90% English clientelle, (most seem to be married to Aussies and are happily settled in Oz, so they are not from the tiny minority of negative whingers that give the rest of the poms a bad name over here). The venue stocks a good range of English beers and pours first class Guinness. After a few pints of Speckled Hen last and with all the English accents in the background, I forgot that I was in Melbourne. Its a must visit for me each time I visit Melbourne.

[doctorbone]

UncleKev, on Jan 21 2009, 08:31 AM, said:

Australia is going to do it hard. No doubt about it. I am currently working as an IT contractor in Canberra and all our contracts are being terminated or not renewed thanks to a pommie git called Gershon who came over here at great expense (before the downturn even started) told the government they could save money by replacing contractors with permanent staff and then ******ed off back to pommie land. Thanks mate!

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/...5-15306,00.html

BTW. I have lived and worked in New Zealand, Scotland, England (Norwich, Milton Keynes, London, Reading) and Amsterdam as well as in most states of Australia. Enjoyed aspects of all those places. What is the problem with small brained people who live in a country, dont like aspects of it and then run back home and spend the rest of their lives slagging the country off?

Some of the posters on this thread make ridiculous, almost racist generalisations about Australians. I would struggel to even define an Australian. Over 50% of my work Australian colleagues and neighbours were born overseas. How can they all be the same? I can eat food from over 100 countries within a radius of 5 miles from my house in Canberra. I can cycle to work on purpose built cycle paths that pass blue lakes, with the sun shining 9 days out of 10. My house (owned 100%) has nearly an acre of grounds that I can easily grow vegetables in and run chickens.

No one wants a depression, but if you are broke and have loads of free time to kill, this is the place to be. No worries mate!

+1

Although Canberra is the Milton Keynes of Oz...But with Batemans Bay being only an hour away

[workingnomad]

Quote

Some of the posters on this thread make ridiculous, almost racist generalisations about Australians.

How long have you been in Australia because you already sound brainwashed.

[Lander]

interestrateripoff, on Jan 19 2009, 08:21 AM, said:

So Oz banks about to be hit for big losses.

This was clearly the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time.

Liar Loans in Oz?

[moonriver]

Amongst other countries, I have lived with my family in Australia, in various states there, for a number of years.

I too often heard and am still hearing all this "best country in the world" hype. However, many of the Aussies I met, admitted that in truth, they were envious of people with a European passport, because of all that culture and places of interest, on our doorstep.

Australia is not a place I could live long term. Along with many other things, I found the feeling of isolation, and the hot summers extremely stifling there.