Australia is the dream country for many. But there are things I hate about living in Australia.
Really? It almost sounds impossible. In some ways, Australia is the postcard country of the world.
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Think amazing beaches, cute furry animals, and the most livable cities in the world. People are friendly, and the weather is good (well, not always).
Life is pretty great here. There are countless things I really love about Australia and living here.
However, there are a few things that really drive me crazy.
Some things I hate about living in Australia are shared with my fellow Australians. And the others, well, they are the unspoken bond between other Europeans who moved here recently. “Only in Australia”, we whisper to each other with a wink.
So here is the list of 10 things I really hate about living in Australia. Although hate is a strong word, I hope my Aussie mates will forgive me for using it.
No worries, right?
1. English is the official language, but you will be lost in translation
If you come to Australia and English is your second language, you will definitely struggle to understand Australians.
You might be fluent in school-taught British or American English, but Australian English is full of slang and, what is even worse, abbreviations.
Abbreviations are one of the key things I hate about living in Australia.
Not even watching the Crocodile Dundee movie a few times will get you up to speed. (But you might get a bigger knife.)
Firstly, there are the abbreviations. Australians, I mean Aussies (see what I did there), shorten everything.
For example, sunglasses are sunnies.
The afternoon is arvo. Good Day becomes G’day. Avocado is Avo, and Barbeques is Barbie.
And breakfast is brekkie. Even Facebook is shortened to facey.
Here is an example of a perfectly normal sentence:
“I went to a barbie in the arvo and lost my sunnies. I might post it to facey when I finish my avo toast for brekkie.”
*Sigh*.
Then there is Aussie slang:
“Tea” means tea, but also dinner.
“Chuck a U-ey” means to turn around when driving.
“No worries” is often used as you’re welcome.
If someone is looking for “a dunny,” you might think he is looking for a person. I made this mistake, too, so I asked if “Dunny” was a girl or boy.
Dunny is slang for a toilet.
2. The Speed of the Internet
The Internet in Australia sucks. The speed of the internet is one of the things Australians, as well as foreigners, hate about living in Australia.
Whenever I need to get something done online on this website, I literally have to wait for pages to load. It’s painful.
To put it in perspective, Australia’s internet ranks 68th globally with an average broadband speed of 58 Mbps.
It’s way behind countries such as China, Slovakia, or the Bahamas. The fastest internet at 226Mbps is in Singapore, which is more than four times faster than the internet.
The biggest irony is that Wi-Fi was invented in Australia. But don’t be fooled—finding free, decent Wi-Fi is very rare.
It’s defo (you guessed it: Aussie for definitely) one of the things I hate about living in Australia but so do all the tourists.
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3. The distances are huge in Australia
Everything in Australia is far. Want to drive up to the next capital city? Well, you better pack a lunch. If you wish to visit one of the main highlights that Australia is famous for, such as Uluru, Great Barrier Reef, or Sydney Opera House you will need to fly around.
Every time I leave Melbourne on an international flight to Europe, it takes 5-6 hours of the flight to just leave the Australian air space.
And if you decide to visit the Northern Territory, Western Australia, or some parts of the outback, be prepared for long, empty roads. I come from a country where, within 2 hours of driving, I can be in three different countries.
Different languages and cultures. So the vast distances here are not surprisingly one of the things I hate about living in Australia.
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4. You can’t get coffee after 5 pm!
This sounds like a real first-world problem, but when it comes to coffee, Australia is different.
Firstly, if you grab a coffee in Melbourne or Sydney, you can find some of the best coffees of your life. But once you leave the capital cities, you might as well get a coffee from a coffee machine at the servo (Australian for service station=fuel station), as most cafes do coffee poorly.
Milk is overheated, coffee is over-roasted, and it almost always costs five dollars. I could add regional coffee to things I hate about living in Australia, but let’s not go there.
Secondly, Australians seem to like their coffee in the morning and many coffee shops and cafes close around 2-3 p.m. If you are in the city. they might close at 4 pm or 5 pm. Bad luck if you want coffee after that. Well, there is always Macca’s (short for McDonald’s)
Coming from Europe, where cafes are a real social affair, I find this takes some time to get used to. Many Europeans tend to go for coffee to meet up with friends after work or to enjoy the afternoon on the weekend.
And in the summer, cafes are busy until late evening.
5. The high cost of living
The high prices and cost of living are some of the things I hate about living in Australia, and so does everyone else. Sydney is officially one of the 15 most expensive cities in the world.
A quick lunch and a drink. That’s $25. Is your dream to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Prices start at $230 per person.
A 15-minute bus ride from Melbourne Airport to the city? Whopping $21 per person (and no, the Wi-Fi onboard the bus won’t be fast).
Now, of course, the high cost of living reflects much higher wages in Australia compared to other countries, even if you compare it to Europe.
But try to buy a house in Sydney where the median home costs 1.3 million.
However, the upside is that if you can earn, save, and travel internationally, most destinations will have prices that are more affordable than those at home.
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6. The time zones are crazy
If you live in one place, you probably don’t have to worry about the time difference in each of the six states and two territories.
But if your work involves calling people from different states, you better learn this before you call someone at 6 a.m.
There are three different time zones in Australia.
Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania follow Eastern Standard Time (AEST) is plus 10 hours (UTC +10)
South Australia and the Northern territory follow Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) is plus 9.5 hours (UTC +9.5)
And Western Australia follows Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) is plus 8 hours (UTC +8).
It seems easy. Well apart from the fact that some states don’t follow daylight savings and some do. Something about following daylight savings will fade the curtains. Facepalm.
So imagine:
It’s 9 pm in Melbourne/Sydney but 8 pm in Brisbane, although they are in the same time zone.
In Darwin, it’s 7.30 pm, while Adelaide is 6.30 pm, but they are also in the same time zone.
And then in Perth in Western Australia, it is 6 pm!
This gets super confusing if you are living somewhere near the state border.
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7. Shoes not worn outside but in the house
Australians have peculiar ways when it comes to shoes. This is one of my pet peeves, and I know other foreigners who hate this about Australia, too.
Let me demonstrate:
Australians don’t take their shoes off when entering a house. They just wear them inside. What? I know.
This is considered crazy in many cultures where you always take your shoes off when entering a house. In some European and Asian countries, you might change to home slippers.
It makes sense to me. I have just cleaned my floor, and then you bring all the dirt from the outside in? Removing shoes keeps your home clean.
On the other hand, Australians tend not to wear shoes outside! Now, don’t get me wrong, you probably won’t see people going into the bank in Sydney without shoes.
But if you go anywhere along the coast and especially in Queensland or Western Australia you will see people just walking around barefoot. On the streets. Down to the beach. Into the bakery, and shockingly I have seen people go barefoot into public toilets.
It’s perfectly normal to see signs: No shoes, No shirt, No service.
I thought they were just those tourist signs like “Life is better on the beach”. But sadly not.
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8. The failure to do anything about the environment
Not to get political here, but Australia is by far the worst-developed country when it comes to action to fight climate change. Did you know that Australia is one of the biggest contributors of CO2 per capita in the world?
The coal and mining industry are the main contributors. Recently, the Washington Post published this article: Australia ranks last on climate action in U.N. report
It seems strange that climate change isn’t a top priority in a country that has been devasted by floods, droughts, and bushfires in just the past years.
And sadly, while this is one of the things many Australians hate about Australia, the politicians don’t seem to focus on it. No real targets have been set.
9. The slow lane is completely irrelevant!
Australians are some of the friendliest people in the world. That’s a fact. And they are also very polite. I am always amazed when someone apologises to me in the supermarket when they have to walk past me in the aisle while browsing.
With “Excuse me”, most seemed sorry that they had crossed my viewpoint for just half of the second.
Just imagine! That would never happen in other countries.
Yet you put an Australian into a car, and things change quickly.
Take the highway for example. There is a slow lane, but nobody cares! It drives me crazy every time someone overtakes me from the slow lane!
Of course, multiple-lane roads have been designed with fast and slow lanes like in Europe. There are simple rules.
The fast lane of the highway is the fastest moving lane, and it is the lane to overtake vehicles in the second or third lane, which are slower. It keeps the traffic flowing. It prevents cars from crashing.
Not in Australia. It feels like they didn’t get the memo.
Maybe it’s the Aussie laidback ness: “She’ll be right, mate.” as they say… It feels like Super Mario Game out there. And don’t even get me started on the indicators—another one of the petty things I hate about living in Australia.
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10. Everything here can kill you
If you want to live out your version of Survivor, move down to Australia.
The picture of a beautiful beach, tropical jungle, or magical outback comes with some dangerous friends.
Beautiful beach? Oh, sorry, you can’t swim. It’s full of stingrays. Oh, and mind the sharks and rips. They can be deadly.
Do you have tropical jungle vibes? Well, look out for the crocodile in the creek. Obviously, and you think kangaroos are cute? Well, they can be vicious. Love wombats? Well, watch out for them, as they can also charge you.
The magical outback is not always so magical. Snakes are hidden in the bush, and nobody warns you about the flies. There are thousands of them, all just wanting to fly into your ears, eyes, and nostrils.
Come to think of it, the same animals Australia is famous for might be part of the things we hate about living in Australia, too.
What do you think about the ten things I hate about living in Australia? Is there anything else I should add? Let us know in the comments below.
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16 Comments. Leave new
Great article
None of those things bother me much. But I hate the drinking culture. Traveling in Australia drove me to stop drinking after I saw what it did to Australians younger than me.
That is a great point Rob. I agree. The drinking culture is also very different from what is the norm back in Europe.
As someone that immigrated to Australia, I can relate to this listing! I specially agree with the high cost of living (which makes things hard to newcomers) and not being able to get easily coffee in the arvo. I am relatively lucky to have a couple of restaurants close by that serve coffee late in the day, since they offer dinners as well. Also, lucky that when going to other Victorian regional town (i.e. Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, etc.) have managed to find good coffee.
One other items I would add to this list are how public holidays are different across the country. States cannot even agree when the Queen’s Birthday should take place!
PS: You might want to finish the following sentence 🙂
“Sydney is officially one the 15 most expen”
So true in regards to the public holiday. Very confusing. And thank you for the heads up on the mistake – all fixed now. 🙂
Oi oi oi ! Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Don’t get your knickers in a knot reading this article which is telling the truth!
Let’s not crap on this beautiful continent now go and tart yourself up with a grouse lippy and come for a piss up and let’s yap about the latest Goss…
Bloody oath Marie! 😉
Having lived in Australia my entire life, I may be a little biased, but I do not agree with a lot this. Such excessively slang as shown in this article isn’t really used a lot except possibly in the outback. If you live in the city or even just the suburbs chances are that you’ll never see a snake, or a spider larger than a couple centimeters.
This article is pretty overdone as it’s impossible to generalise about a continent almost as large as the USA. I can only assume that it is mostly intended s light-hearted. Kind regards from my fly-free, spider Nd snake-free Queensland home.
Yes, Rose, it was intended to be light-hearted and it mostly highlights the things that those who come from overseas or more specifically Europe find so very different here in Australia. 🙂 Regards from sunny and also fly-free& snake-free Melbourne.
What is there to like about Australia? NOTHING!
What is there to hate about it? EVERYTHING!
A country full of second to third rate citizens who have it had good for so long they have turned into ultra conservative versions of Americans.
Australians need BIG GUBBERMENT to basically control their lives.
There is nothing to do if you live here except pickle your liver and char your lungs black.
And now after 2 years of harsh lockdowns and listening to what amounts to the most useless power hungry government we have ever had on both state and federal level, its become unliveable.
Also Australians dont value their freedoms much, everywhere you turn there are harsh signs telling you “MUST DO THIS” “YOU CANNOT NOT DO THIS”
And freedom in Australia is very pricey, like everything else. You want freedom? Pay for it. Nothing is free in Australia and if it is, chances are the next to you want to use that service or visit that free place..someone has decided they are entitled to profit.
Oh and the govt is also VERY MEAN spirited and addicted to taxes from terrible vices like gambling and smoking. Want a packet of cigarettes? Sure that’s $55 plus a lecture and a constant reminder from the Aust govt that smoking is bad..while they then are happy to take the massive tax hike and use for other rubbish things rather than putting it back into “quit smoking” services and programmes. They could and should be saving lives by banning tobacco, but they would mean giving up billions of $ of tax. So the govt is basically telling its citizens “We are a happy to allow you to smoke a cancerous product because we love the revenue from the tax..oh and get addicted to make sure you hand over your hard earned money back to us”
Australians also hate it when you don’t compliment their country. They really need you to tell them “your country is amazing” such is the insecurity of the people.
Pretty spot on, it is not a bad country to live in but certainly not as good as many Australians think it is. It is mainly boring and expensive but some people like this boring lifestyle. The scenery can be beautiful but very repetitive, you have seen one beach or one city and you have seen them all. It is no wonder only 25 million people live in this huge country, unlike what many Australians thing it is not such a great country to live in. Certainly for travelling there are much more diverse, cheap and interesting places.
About the left lane, the problem is many take over on the right one but they keep driving slow or at the speed limit and keep blocking everybody behind them, so there is no option but to take them over from the left lane even driving at speed limits sometimes. In general driving in Australia is a pretty relaxing experience, most people are nice and let you merge easily which is more important in my eyes. The slang and shoes is a non issue, just cultural differences, but all the rest is spot on. It seems like many Australians just have a very high opinion about their country which is not exactly aligned with reality, maybe they just don’t know how things are in other places. At the end of the day it is a matter of taste, some people love this kind of lifestyle and some don’t, like in any other place.
You need to have lived in Australia, then out of it to really see that is simply not the place that is cranked up to be in the brochures.
It is overpriced, overtaxed and over fined…. each time a new Government comes to power new namby pamby rules are introduced, simply so they can demonstrate they are doing something rather than nothing, puerile signs telling you what you can and cannot do are ubiquitous.
Somebody above said it well, Americanised suburban sprawl is the norm of living yet prices of housing are insane driven by “the great Australian dream” of owning your own home, where establishing societal status as a function of the suburb and rank that depends on whether you have a view of water or better still on the beachfront.
I could go on.
Australia used to be much better. Education was free. Accommodation was affordable. I paid $60 pw in a share house $140 pw for my own cute apartment. Now share is $300pw and your own apartment same size would be $600 pw.. You could eat out in a restaurant affordably. Now its ridiculpus especially with cost of living crisis. Lots of homeless and drug addicts in the CBD. Not safe people get knifed or carjacked. Home invasions with machetes. Melbourne.=World’s longest lockdown. Lots of mental health issues in the society. Surveillance cameras everywhere. Majorly bogun culture, unsophisticated badly dressed people everywhere. Australia is a shithole.
The best thingabout this country is the nature. Which most people are out of touch with because they live in cities. So they dont realised how bad our climate change impact is.