Living in Australia

Living > Living in Australia

From the weather conditions to the law, education, food and drink, your four-legged friends and more, this is your complete at-a-glance guide to life in Australia

Land area

The eight states and territories cover eight million square kilometres. Put another way, most of Britain would fit inside the state of Victoria.

Population

Australia has a primarily coastal-based population of 20 million. The population comprises Caucasians (92 per cent), Asians (seven per cent), Aboriginals and others (one per cent).

Capital

Canberra, ACT.

Government

The federal government oversees all the states and is currently headed by Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party. Each state and territory also has its own semi-autonomous regional government.

Health

We recommend taking out travel insurance before visiting Australia. UK citizens are covered by a reciprocal agreement between the NHS and Medicare, but Medicare cover isn't as extensive. Standards of healthcare are excellent, though. Tap water is safe to drink unless otherwise specified.

Safety

Australia is a relatively safe country to visit and is generally considered to be safer than the UK. However, exercise the same caution that you would at home: avoid hitchhiking, look after your possessions and obey notices.

Law

The minimum drinking age is 18, and the permitted blood alcohol limits are lower than in the UK, with drink driving taken extremely seriously. Marijuana is illegal in Australia. Police officers carry firearms.

Driving

Driving is on the left. An international driver's licence will suffice for the first year; a UK licence for three months. Full UK licence holders can get an Australian licence by passing a theory test.

Electricity

UK appliances can be used in Australia as the mains voltage is the same. However, you'll need a socket adaptor to use with UK plugs.

Transport and travel

Australia is extremely well set up for visitors, with excellent and affordable bus, train and plane networks, and plenty of car-hire options. Many guided tour companies offer jump-on, jump-off services around the country. Tourist information is widely available, as is accommodation, with options from £8-a-night hostel bunks and budget family rooms to island resorts and international hotels.

Costs

Budget independent travellers should allow about £25 a day for food, transport and accommodation. A beer costs around £1.50, a takeaway meal about £2.50, while a decent dinner for two with wine in a local restaurant can be had for about £20. Petrol prices are slightly lower than the UK.

Money

The Australian dollar (A$) is currently worth about 41p. ATMs (cashpoints) are widely available in pubs, shops, malls, food courts, casinos and petrol stations, as well as banks and street corners. The majority of them will accept most UK cards.

Medical system

Australia is substantially cheaper for private health cover for a family than the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Australian residents have access to a world-class universal public health system called Medicare. However, not all people who come to Australia have access to Medicare and many Australians choose to take out some form of private health insurance cover.

The Australian Government introduced a new initiative in 2000 called Lifetime Health Cover. This is designed to encourage people to take out private health insurance earlier in life, and to maintain their cover. This public health scheme gives you access to:

• Free treatment as a public patient in a public hospital.
• Free or subsidised treatment by practitioners such as doctors, including some specialists and participating optometrists or dentists.

Australian Medicare is funded through taxation and you'll make financial contributions to the scheme through your taxes, as well as a Medicare levy that's based on your taxable income. If you've been granted permanent residency in Australia, you'll need to enrol with Medicare after you arrive. To do this, you have to take your passport and travel documents to a local Medicare office and, if all the enrolment requirements are met, you'll be given a Medicare number and your Medicare card will be posted to you about three weeks later.

Cost of living

Most manufactured goods tend to be expensive in Australia, particularly imported goods, including cars, clothes and other manufactured items, which are generally more expensive than in Europe or North America. If you do a lot of travelling, transport costs are high owing to the large distances involved, although petrol is much cheaper than in Europe.

The price of food is around 25 per cent less than the UK – a loaf of bread for instance costs around $4.

Education

Australia has one of the highest standards of education in the world, with about 80 per cent of school students going on to higher education. Around 42 per cent of the working-age population has a university degree, diploma or trade qualification. Generally, children start school at about five years old and, by law, have to remain in education until 15 years old. Primary education usually lasts six or seven years, and secondary education begins in Year 7 and ends in Year 12, with a Senior Certificate of Secondary Education (the precise name varies between states). Roughly equivalent to A-Levels, this covers a broad base of subjects and is awarded after a mix of classroom studies, written assessments and exams.

Lifestyle

The relaxed 'beach and barbie' lifestyle is what attracts many people to Australia, and once immigrants have settled in, it's easy for them to while away the weekends relaxing with friends. Thanks to the warm climate, Australia is a very active country, offering numerous outdoor pursuits. Hiking through the wilderness, or 'going bush', is popular, as are watersports, such as sailing, fishing, snorkelling, swimming and scuba diving. The archetypal Aussie sport is surfing, and for many people, it's a way of life. Australians are fanatical about all their sports, though, particularly cricket, rugby league and Aussie Rules football.

Climate

The climate varies significantly, from tropical in the north to temperate in the south. Most places are agreeably sunny for much of the year. Sydney, Melbourne and Perth all have hot and, sometimes, humid summers. Adelaide has a milder climate and is popular with British immigrants for this reason. In Darwin and the Top End, the seasons are restricted to hot and wet, or hot and dry.

Food and drink

Although Australia doesn't have much of a cuisine it can call its own, the multicultural influx means that there are restaurants catering for every taste in even the smallest towns. Eating out is cheap and relaxed. Most restaurants allow you to bring your own alcohol known as BYO and the corkage charge, when levied, is normally less than a dollar.

Australian wine has really made its mark internationally in the last decade or so. There are many wine-growing areas in southern and eastern Australia, which provide ideal growing climates, and tours of the wine-producing districts are growing in popularity. Prices for wine start at just a few dollars a bottle from the local 'bottle shops', and rising for the more select vintages.

Expat communities

A big draw for British and Irish migrants is the fact that English is the native tongue, thanks to Australia's British colonial history. However, modern Australia is a multicultural place, with more than a quarter of the population fluent in a second language. It's an easy society into which to integrate (the majority of Australians are a mere generation or two removed from their European roots), and although 'pommie-bashing' is popular, it's usually good-natured.

Pets

There are stringent quarantine procedures for pets going into Australia. Dogs and cats from the UK must go into quarantine for 30 days. You'll be liable for all quarantine costs, (the cost does go down for additional animals), although you'll be liable for any additional veterinary care that may be required. Certain breeds of 'dangerous' dogs, such as pit-bull terriers, cannot be taken into the country.

Your pets have to be microchipped and you have to provide vaccination certificates for a range of diseases. Animals may only arrive in Australia via Sydney, Melbourne or Perth airports. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (www.affa.gov.au) is responsible for pet issues.