Brisbane enjoys a wonderful subtropical climate with warm summers and cool, sunny winters. The rainy season is from January to April. This temperate climate allows people to take advantage of an outdoor, leisurely lifestyle. It rarely drops below 10oC in the winter and doesn't get far above 30oC very often in the Summer, though as the locals love to tell visiting Poms "it's the humidity that gets you". Having ridden motorbikes since I was a teenager, warm and predominantly dry weather is definitely my preference
2. Lower cost of living
Housing, transport and energy costs all compare favourably with most parts
of the UK.
3. Low population density
Despite living only 9km (5 miles) from Brisbane's City Centre (a large city
by UK stanards with a population of close to 2 million), we can still
easily afford to live in a fairly large detached 4 bedroom house, with a
fair size garden and a swimming pool.
4. Wheelie bins
Brisbane has a cool Wheelie bin system, each house has two bins, one for
general waste and one for recyclables (newspaper, cans, cartons etc.)
5. Untimed local calls
In Australia local calls are untimed.
6. Low energy costs
Our Electricity bills are very low, despite having an 24hr hot water
provided by an electric immersion heater, and an electric oven. Of
course we don't need central heating here.
7. Lower crime rate
we feel very safe living here in Brisbane, unlike when living in a
comparably sized British city.
8. Less Flies
Again this is just a gut feeling, but whenever I visit the UK (or Perth!)
there always seems to be a lot of flies around. Of course we do have
mosquitoes to deal with! The Brisbane City Council has a great system of
transfer stations with free vouchers for rate payers which transport waste
out to distant landfill sites. (had lots of unseasonable rain during the
winter of 1999, and with it more flies, not too many though :)
9. Off street parking
Almost all accommodation in Brisbane has at least 1 or 2 off street
parking facilities.
10. Cleaner
Don't know why but Brisbane is an amazingly clean city, we do have a bit
of Graffiti but don't seem plagued by rubbish, perhaps its because the
tropical rain washes it all way? We've always had white cars here
and yet still rarely have to wash them.
11. 15 minutes from an International Airport
No more sitting in traffic on the M25 trying to get to Heathrow and
Gatwick.
12. An hour from great surf beaches, North, South and East
Some of the best surf beaches in the World, ranging from glitzy
commercialised on the Gold Coast to sleepy on the Sunshine Coast to your
own private mile of beach on North Stradbroke Island.
13. 150+ cinema screens in Brisbane
Brisbane has gone Cinema crazy over the past few years, we pay only AU$8.00
for a ticket at our local (2km from home) 10 screen multiplex. Another 16
screens have opened 5km away in Chermside a few years ago.
14. 5+ Universities
Brisbane has more universities than you can shake a stick at, and I work at one of them!
15. Brisbane City Council!
Our local council just rocks, with a 24hours telephone helpline and a great
webpage.
16. 50+ Libraries
Brisbane City and the surrounding shires have an amazing array of
libraries, more than 50
Council
libraries plus the State
Library of Queensland and the University Libraries make finding a
book locally very easy!
Things we miss about the UK
1. Family & Friends
Naturally.
2. Cheap Mediterranean package holidays
We do miss decent teletext with 7 day B&B holidays to Greece for 150 quid.
3. McDonalds pork breakfast sausage
In Australia for some
reason they use rather dry, tasteless beef. Chocolate milkshakes aren't very
chocolatey here either.
4. Pukka Pies
Chicken and mushroom pukka pies, yum.