10 Reasons why the British Move To Australia

Currently, we find ourselves working through the list of paperwork to compile to form our visa application for our migration agent.

I say we, it’s more Mrs HTWA doing the hard work with me doing what I’m told to be honest. The days are passing by, and we keep reminding ourselves that each day is a step closer to leaving the UK for Australia. It doesn’t always feel that way though so it’s important to keep your motivations for moving in the front of your mind.

Therefore, with this post, I’ll be looking into 10 of the most important reasons why we the British move to Australia in such great numbers.

At the time of writing this post, it’s early September 2024 here in Coventry, UK. The weather is OK. We’re getting 15-20 degrees C and a reasonable amount of sunshine and light. We know we only have approximately 1 month of this left though if we’re lucky.

When the clocks go back on 27th October, we’ll be fast heading into 5 months or so of cold and darkness.

Yes, Australia does have its own Winter. Let’s compare and contrast our potential new City with our current City.

City	Average Temp in Winter	Average hours of Sunshine per day in Winter
Coventry	4.5°C	1.8 hours
Adelaide	11°C	5 hours

I’ve chosen the coldest months of winter for comparison. July for Adelaide and January for Coventry.

As you can see, it is 6.5°C warmer in favour of Adelaide over Coventry, with an additional 3 hours and then some sunshine.

Winter in the UK seems, to be getting wetter too. It’s hard to enjoy an outdoor lifestyle, even if that just means going out for a walk for an hour in the UK Winter.

Whereas in Australia the weather, even in Winter supports being able to go outside and be active. This lowers the chances of being affected by SAD which can be a problem for me in the UK.

If you are wondering what SAD is, the NHS definition is:

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern.

SAD is sometimes known as “winter depression” because the symptoms are usually more apparent and more severe during the winter.

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder-sad/overview/

Ah, the beach. As a person who works with hard facts and things that quite often are black and white. It can be difficult to explain why I feel this is so important and therefore a reason to ditch Britain in favour of Australia.

The beach and being by sea just feels good for the soul. Always has done for me. This is probably because being by the sea for me means being on holiday. Coventry is about as far away as you can get from the beach in the UK which is not ideal when you enjoy visiting them so much.

UK beaches are also quite hit-and-miss. I have family in Blackpool and remember visiting in the early 90s and you just would not want to go in the water. The sewage issue was really bad back then, a £500 million investment in 1994 improved things but it’s still not great there. Australian Sea has things that will eat you. Blackpool Sea has things that you’ve eaten 💩.

Australian Sea has things that will eat you. Blackpool Sea has things that you’ve eaten.

The UK of course has better beaches, the 2 I’d single out are:

• Bournemouth Beach – Beautiful white sand.
• Fistral Beach – Sand, Surf and surroundings. We love bodyboarding here.

Let’s be honest though. The beaches in Australia just look 100 times better. I’ve not visited them personally but I know someone who moved from the UK to Jervis Bay. His photos are incredible.

Check out this video of Hyams Bay Beach. It just looks like paradise.

Dipping your toes in that sea must make you feel good.

Many British citizens move to Australia for job opportunities. We would be moving on a 190 permanent residency visa with Mrs HTWA being the primary visa applicant. It’s likely that we will both continue in our current careers, Primary School Teacher and Web Developer.

Firstly I’d like to point out that the primary motivation to move from Britain to Australia for us is not financial. It is about the lifestyle upgrade. Let’s not be unrealistic though. The money matters. We don’t have a bottomless pit of cash by any stretch of the imagination. We’ll sell out house in the UK, and look for work in Australia as soon as possible.

For a quick Salary Comparison, I’m going to lift some figures on the average salary for our jobs in the UK vs Australia.

For research purposes, I’ll throw in some additional jobs based on popularity.

I’ll use indeed for this.

Job	UK Salary	Australian Salary	+/- Australia vs UK
Primary School Teacher	£29,842	$95,065	+ 18,728
Web Developer	£31,988	$79,332	+ 8,544
Nurse	£36,767	$66,394	– 2,846
Civil Engineer	£40,225	$107,317	+ 14,605
Builder	£34,202	$99,656	+ 16,713

As you can see from the table above, all jobs except nurses, are paid better in Australia. This is to be taken with a pinch of salt as nurses are often paid based on experience in the same way that teachers are.

If we use the data as a general guideline, we can see that pay is generally better in Australia.

There are 11 full public holidays in South Australia, with an additional two-part days for Xmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. It makes the UK’s 8 public holidays look a little pathetic.

In addition to the public holidays. Australians enjoy 4 weeks of paid holiday per year, plus 10 paid sick days.

In the UK you have to earn your sick pay and often are not entitled to anything outside of statutory sick pay (£116 per week) when you start a new job. This approach in the UK leads people to attend work when ill and in my experience can quickly lead to burnout.

What is the outdoor lifestyle? I can go outside in Britain of course. I’d go as far as to say that Britain has some of the most beautiful outside space in the world (Cornwall, the Lakes etc). I live miles from them though.

“Why don’t you just move nearer to Cornwall and not half the world away then?” I hear you say.

Well, because I still wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy them for the majority of the year.

We’re going back to reason number one a little here with the weather.

However, Australia is just built better when it comes to supporting an outdoor lifestyle.

In Australia, they have public BBQs! They wouldn’t last long in the UK. Obviously, we rarely get the weather to even use them, and also they would either get trashed or stripped for metal.

In Australia however, a family can go out in lovely warm weather to the beach. Take a coolbox full of BBQ goodies, and cook lunch or dinner for free, all as part of the day out.

I’m sold and I believe many other Brits are too.

Another reason why the British move to Australia – safer streets. I think life in the UK feels more dangerous than ever.

The August 2024 riots crystallised this underlying feeling of fear and aggression that seems to be about the place. I don’t want my children growing up in a country with a growing knife crime problem.

Homicide and murder rates in the 2 countries are comparable. I’ve looked into a number of statistics and couldn’t find much evidence to show a clear winner between the UK and Australia to be honest.

I have heard lots of opinions that Australia feels a lot safer to bring up a family though.

From Ross of That Johnston Life through to various Reddit threads. The vast majority supports the fact that Australian streets are generally safer than those here in the UK.

It’s easier to move to a country that speaks the same language that you do.

I’m in awe of my friends here in the UK who have learned the language. It’s such an impressive thing to do.

However, it makes life much easier when you do not have to do that.

Emigrating to Australia from the UK might have some linguistic challenges.

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I’m not sure what a drongo is *quickly googles* (turns out that makes me one).

On a serious note, the upheaval of moving a family to the other side of the world is big enough already. I wouldn’t want to put a language barrier in front of my children too. I hope they can integrate and find new friends asap. Sharing the same language can only help that.

When moving to Australia is mentioned to a fellow Brit. Often you are just reminded of the vast army of Aussie critters that will have your arm off with a single bite, or kill you with a swift nip on the arse.

However, then the fluffy cute ones get mentioned.

Australia has wildlife like no other place on earth. That in itself is enough of a reason for me to want to go and experience it in person.

I’m sure the site of a kangaroo wears thin the thousandth time around, the same way it would with a, er… deer.

Is that the UK equivalent? Doesn’t matter.

OK, so maybe this one is a little tongue-in-cheek. However, I do love a coffee.

I’ve watched plenty of content from people who have moved from the UK to Australia, all who drink coffee have expressed nothing but positivity for Australian coffee.

James Smith is one of the biggest Australian coffee fanboys. I trust his opinion on the subject and I cannot wait to sample my first Australian black coffee.

Sport is going to be a big change. Aussies love their sport. Aussie Rules, Rugby, Cricket, Soccer. It all goes on over there.

As a Brit with a desire to move to Australia. I 100% can say that I am looking forward to a new kind of sporting life. I have no idea why they need so many posts (and players for that matter) on an Aussie Rules pitch. Is it even called a pitch? I am so keen to learn why though.

I know that I can continue with my personal love of parkrun out there. It is the new stuff that has me really excited though. Big Bash, A-League Soccer and AFL are all intriguing to me at the moment.

Along with that, I have seen a few UK YouTubers like The Great Emigrate mention that they have used sports clubs to make friends etc. The climate obviously supports outdoor activities, so I’m looking forward to getting the kids involved in new sports teams in Australia.

Another reason similar to the shared language I suppose.

However, I believe the British move to Australia also because of the similarities in culture in general.

A few similarities I have spotted during my studies have been –

• A love for sport
• A love for guitar/punk rock
• Multicultural society
• Similar democratic setup
• Capitalism baby – we love our shopping centres

It seems we British can move to Australia and integrate with relative ease when it comes to the culture.

It makes perfect sense when we helped shape the culture having arrived on the shores there in the 18th Century.

So, you’ve read the list above and maybe you’ve made the move and totally disagree with me.

If you have made the move from Britain to Australia and would like to share your migration story on the blog to help others, please get in touch!

We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

PS We hope to lodge our application next week!