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Hey dude,
Just saw this thread but thought I'd make a comment having read the responses. For those who don't know me, I moved to Australia nearly four years ago, and am originally from Canada. I've lived in a fair few different cities, including six months in a developing country. I came here to study and teach political science, public policy and sociology. (How I'm working at a record shop full time I'm not sure - ask my records though I've been told they can tell the story  )
Here's my rant on moving to Australia.
First of all, if you have the curiosity, but are not really in a situation to move here permanently because of financial, social, business or personal commitments, do not come to visit - the Australian lifestyle is a temptation that may very well prove too great to resist, and hey no point farking your life up or falling in love with something that's really not going to be good for you, right? Just go to the beach instead or something, because then when you come home you'll be able to live with yourself for having left the beach because you can't freaking spend every day at the beach - know what I'm saying?
If you do decide to come/stay here, here's what you should know.
Yes, John Howard really is that bad. Yes, they buy it. Yes, I know. Australians have very short political memories and as a society are by and large startlingly disconnected from politics at any level. They're quite good with geography, mind you.
The nightlife scene is superb. More than fine, really. Nowhere near the queues of New York or London, and even if there is, who cares, its 27 degrees, slightly humid, and you're standing in a queue with a bunch of freaking Australians who are in to the same stuff you are, and when they find out where you're from, half of them will have a funny story or something nice to say anyways. Aussies will happily queue up (not line up, its a queue) in all sorts of places (roads particularly) for freaking hours, and kill the time talking crap to one another. (Assuming you're white - if not, seriously give these people another 20 years until they catch up with the rest of civilisation. They're trying, and they've made a lot of progress, but come on, this is a country that used to pay a freaking bounty to people for shooting aboriginals. No, I'm serious. In Tasmania. Freaking type it in to google, man, it seriously happened, maybe 100 years or so ago. Otherwise Tasmanians are perfectly normal.)
Anyways, back to the nightlife. At least in Melbourne, things are remarkably safe and laid back. As in the drinks are cheap, assuming you're tall enough to see over the bar there's never a wait for a drink of the sort that wrecks the flow of your night, like how many other places. On the dance floor your personal space is quite well respected - Aussies are actually pretty good at that, and most of the people who bump in to you will apologise (and if they don't, just go tell the guy at the door they were annoying you and half the time the door staff will just throw them out no questions asked - great fun to do to those wankers that think its ok to spill someone's drink and keep on walking.  )
Clubbing is safe - so safe that most Melburnians can't imagine the concept of door staff searching you top to bottom before they even consider letting you in to the club. It's also very tolerant in terms of fashion - you'll be surprised what people get let in wearing. No, I mean the guys. The girls are actually reasonably well behaved in that regard. Sound systems are pretty good too, for the most part - Family in Brisbane (of all places) in particular is actually world class, which is weird because so many Australian DJs haven't heard it or even heard much of it in that regard!) If you have an option where to see an international in this country and they're playing at Family, yeah, go there. One of those made-to-order JBL tweeters hung in the centre of the ceiling means minimal phase-related stereo imaging issues, which means the whole dance floor sounds massive and clear, but you can still talk over it.
Learning Aussie slang is a full time study that never stops - and that's not to sound normal. You never will - Aussies are brutal this way, they'll hang shit on your accent if you're from four suburbs away, never mind four time zones. No, the full time study is just to understand what the fark they're on about and know when to nod and when to laugh.
Voltage-wise, they're 220/50 here, and the TVs are PAL (but pretty much everyone's TV does NTSC playback so any NTSC things are fine). Any appliance that you really, truly, absolutely need here, bring it, lots of people have 240/120 stepdown converters, heck I brought my laser printer down and its only 120v.
You *will* sunburn here no matter what colour you are. The ozone hole is real, and its burning through some tourists skin somewhere as you read this. Sunscreen mandatory. They even have a song about it, and a cartoon turtle or bunny or something that says 'slip slap slop'. No I'm not making this up.
Yeah, and that Soups guy actually isn't a bad guy at all. A couple of the more spent-too-much-time-in-warcraft-and-not-enough-in-real-life guys on here seem to spend a lot of time on Soups' case, but if you spend a few minutes watching from a distance you'll probably figure out that its the guys that have been trying to make a go of things for a little while but don't seem to have been able to make anyone remember their name that are annoyed by Soups' (admittedly sometimes-misplaced) enthusiasm and not-insignificant successes. (google tall poppy australia and learn - its weird but its pandemic though many are in denial.) So yeah. Soups OK. 
But if you're not white-ish, or are a steadfast adherent to a culture, language or community that differs from the Eurotypical Australian, you might check in with some of your community members in Australia and hear their views, as I think the experience varies widely depending on one's nationality.
So yer, that's about it I guess. Run for your life, it's wicked here.
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Last edited by Nyquist_Theorem on Oct-10-2005 at 19:07
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