Top 9 reasons to live in Australia

Have you ever dreamed of living in Australia, the Great Southern Land? Or maybe you seriously considered visiting or moving to Australia recently. You may wonder why our family, after having lived and visited many places around the globe decided to live in Australia.

In this article we would like to share with you our top reasons why Australia is a great place to live and what you can experience here while on visit here. We moved from London, UK to Australia a year ago and settled in a beautiful village called Lennox Head, south of Byron Bay. Although we initially lived on Avoca Beach on Central Coast just north of Sydney, after having explored a bit the east coast we relocated to Lenox Head. Now, having experienced all four seasons we are ready to share the main reasons why we love and are currently living in Australia.

Here are our top 9 reasons to live in Australia:

Australian beaches

1. Beaches – do you dream of beach holidays every summer or even of life on the beach or at least near a gorgeous beach? Dream no further, the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen are in Australia. Mostly white sand, miles long, not spoiled by overdevelopment with protected natural reserves and headlands. No wonder that overwhelming majority of Australians live on the coast. We couldn’t resist either. Wonderful beaches you simply find all around the coast of Australia. As an example, the Lennox Head beach, actually called 7 miles beach is really 7 miles long, white sand, you can fish, horse ride, walk, swim, surf, play with the kids, even go for a 4 wheel drive with your car. Great natural playground for the whole family. We go there almost every day. And not to forget, most of the beaches are patrolled so if you get in trouble for whatever reason, there is someone to save you.

2. Marvellous nature – the wilderness in Australia is simply stunning. Miles long beaches, cliffs, rainforests, mountains and dessert. You have to get used to the fact that you are part of nature here. Birds, fish, snakes, lizards, frogs, spiders, insects, kangaroos, dolphins, sharks, whales, and the list go on and on. You can spot them virtually everywhere, including in a big city. You cannot escape the nature here and have to find a way to coexist with all the creatures.

3. Climate– given its diversity you can choose a climate which suits your needs. If you are not a person enjoying hot weather during the winter, then go and visit Melbourne. If you love tropical climate then you should probably stay on the Northern part of Australia. We don’t like winter that much and therefore we live in upper north New South Wales with milder winter. Most of the houses are not insulated and don’t have proper heaters (except air condition) so if there is 10 degrees in the morning then you might feel really cold. However, during the day, the temperature goes up and the sun shines most of the times. We escaped this winter to visit and learn about other countries and we plan to do the same next year.

Kangaroos

4. Sunshine – anywhere you live in Australia you can expect sunny days all around the year including winter. The sun shines strongly down under but we love sun and its effect on our mood and energy. 5. Great place to raise children – it really is! The outdoor style of living suits us very well. You can spend hours and hours on the most beautiful beaches in the world, practice camping, swimming, surfing, horse riding…all sorts of outdoor sports and activities. The weather is your friend most of the times. Most parts of Australia are extremely safe for small kids, the playgrounds are everywhere and it seems this country is really ‘created’ for young families.

5. Very friendly and open minded people – anywhere you go outside of big cities people are so kind and friendly. Everyone smiles at you, like to chat with you and is genuinely interested in your life story. It is also very easy to mingle with locals if you come from abroad as all the Australians came from somewhere relatively recently.

6. Australia is very clean – despite it being a developed country with all the industries and consumer goods it still remains very clean. We do not remember any instance when we would have to stand the rubbish dumped in nature or in public space. Australians deeply respect the nature and have great waste management in place. As a result, you can easily enjoy any beach and any place in Australia. And even if rubbish becomes a problem in some places people organize themselves and collect rubbish as volunteers. Well done, Aussies!

Pelicans

7. Community feel – probably due to vastness of nature and only about 23 million people living here you can strongly sense the community feeling of the locals and you can very quickly and simply get involved yourself. Aussies love their ‘mates’ and these include virtually everybody. People know that they depend on each other and respect each other especially in regional Australia.

8. Nights full of stars – due to the clear sky and lack of light pollution from big cities most of the evenings and nights you can enjoy fascinating nights full of stars. When it was the last time you saw all the star constellations with a naked eye? In Australia, it is your daily experience.

9. Blend of nature and civilization – for us Australia constitutes a perfect blend of preserved and magnificent nature and services you would expect from a developed country. In other words, you can go camping at an unspoiled lake, river or beach camp and at the same time you get high speed internet, post office, good quality roads, nurseries, hospitals, schools, clean playgrounds. So everything you need as a young family and wonderful nature is at your doorstep.

This combination makes Australia a great place to live. On the flip side, we can only think of one downside to living in Australia. If you come to visit or move over here you notice that everything is more expensive than abroad using the current exchange rate. The way to overcome this is to ensure local source of income, for example, a job. Then, you can expect a wonderful life in Australia. Given what we said above it is no wonder that Australians protect their borders and arguably it is very difficult to move to Australia permanently as the immigration rules are quite strict. In one of our next articles, for those interested, we will look in detail at the immigration options to Australia.

Camping

In the meantime, you may want to read about our feels for other countries we visited including: Fiji, Thailand, Bali-Indonesia, Canary Islands, Gambia, Ecuador and much more we will be writing about.

Michael & Eva 🙂