The eternal question asked of Australians by Britons.
I get this constantly here in the UK. I’d say almost once a week. Whether it’s at the pub or from a new client. “You’re from Orrr-straaaayl-yaaa, why would you come here to this miserable focking cont-treee?” they say. Well chaps, there’s a fair few reasons, let me wax lyrical for you on that one.
Hell, even when I was messing with Manchester airport parking, or airport parking in general on any of my worst days back in the U.K., I still loved it there.
But you see, I come from a country, as amazing as it is in all its natural splendour and cultural wonder, is in the middle of nowhere, when you think about it on a global scale. If I get on a plane, and fly six hours, I still haven’t left the continent. There’s no significant diversity apart from the wide variety of beers, and everyone speaks the same language. I know I can get the same food everywhere. The traffic lights look the same. The cars go down the same side wherever you go.
Now if you lean on the side of adventure, exploration, or just good old plain inquisitiveness, there’s only so far you can do your dash in Oz.
Mind you, the level of pompous bastardness does vary. You’ve got your stuck up Sydneysiders, who think they are better than the rest of Australia. The Queenslanders who think you can drive herds of sheep through the main CBD of Brisbane and call it a “heritage awareness” exercise. Don’t get me started on Canberra or Adelaide, where you’d be better off buying a box of Lego and playing with that for the 3 days you have off than going to one of those two cities.
Us from Melbourne? Well, we’re considered to be the cultured, arty hipster types of Australia. We frequently enjoy reading the tech or cinema sections of the paper on a Sunday in Degraves St with a latte in hand. We scoff at the brash, tacky lights of Sydney and the lack of refinement the rest of Australia harbours.
So you can see how I wanted to escape from all of this for a few years and see what was going on around the rest of Planet Earth.
Australia is great for when you want to settle down and live out the rest of your life. Maybe buy a caravan and tow the bloody thing the entire circumference of my great brown land. But for me, while I’m in my 20s and plying my body with great amounts of alcohol and attempting to talk broken French to someone in Switzerland, anywhere but Australia is where you’ll find me.
The man himself!
Congratulations! You’ve just read the first guest post on Camping in Heels. This one came to you from the legendary Justin Morris, fellow Aussie expat, London-dweller, and all-around nice guy (but shh, don’t tell him I said that).
Justin is an Australian living in London. With only weekends available to travel, he explores European cities on a regular basis between working as an IT consultant during the week.
It’s almost a given for an aussie to have the “what are you doing here, your country is beautiful” conversation while abroad. I ask the exact same question of people I meet from Italy, Germany, Sweden and more. What are you doing leaving your beautiful country for OZ?
Maybe it’s curiosity that drives us to pack up everything and move to the other side of the world, or maybe we just want to see if the beer is any better :)
As Justin says we will all return home at some stage and it’s not like it’s going anywhere so why not I say.
It’s so true – it’s the question I get without fail, every single time someone finds out I’m from Australia. I really can’t be bothered giving the long spiel about how I heard Edinburgh is beautiful, how it has the festival and all that – so now I just put on a puzzled face and say “I don’t know, something different?”. Heh.
As a fellow Aussie in England, all I can saw is…..well put! pretty much encompasses a lot of my thoughts. I have to say, the ‘why did you come here’ is pretty much everyone’s favourite question, once we’ve covered the ‘where are you from?’
PS came here via ‘The Aussie Nomad’
Yep – couldn’t agree more! Whereabouts are you based?
Thankyou for letting me know how you found me, btw – always handy to know how people find there way here :)
near London……sorry can’t be more specific than that
A great read. And finally, an answer to one of the world’s great mysteries…(to a Brit anyway ;) )
One of many answers to this question, I’m sure – everyone has their reasons, but I think Justin covered one of the most popular. Australia…it’s beautiful, but we’re essentially prisoners. No wonder we all got shipped out there. Hehe. Thanks Abi :)
Haha I like your response to the question Chloe. That inspires me to come up with some new and mental ones myself “so why are you here?” “came to spread my seed, ya know *wink wink* OH YEAAAH”.
Yeyepyepyep, everyone gets a little dreamy-eyed when I mention the magical word ‘Australia’ here :)
After almost five years in this country, I always get “so what are you doing HERE then?”. Being from the Sunshine Coast (which asthetically is very pleasing but that’s all really), I always ask them “so how would you feel, if on a weekend evening, the only thing you could do is go to some really lame nightclub, bowling, the movies or to a friend’s place for some TV? And that was as good as it would ever get?”. Then I get silence and a nod. Nothing beats the life of London and the fact that pretty much any country in Europe is a 1-2 hour flight away. Love it.
Have you overheard me in a conversation: “If I get on a plane, and fly six hours, I still haven’t left the continent” …. I say that all the time. I tell people that 6 hours will get them to Perth, and 6ish hours will get me to Moscow AND BACK by plane.