by Grant

It’s not like I don’t know Australia. I have visited a few times and I have many Australian friends. But this trip was different. We were coming to see whether we could make this our new home after our sailing odyssey is complete. Which BTW looks very much like December next year when we arrive in South Africa.

Broadly our plan was to find a farm near Sydney and then a home in Sydney. We started looking at schools and started trying to understand the nuances of the Country and its people. Many jokes could be made about this sentence but i will refrain.

Our 6 weeks in Australia showed us how different each of the areas were. From states to suburbs. It safe to say that those living on the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney are completely different to those in the Northern suburbs. I can safely say that New South Wales and Queensland are completely differently in culture and lifestyle. Far more than i realised before is that Australia is not just a little Island far far away from the world but rather a rather diverse collection of folks. At the time we were there they we all preparing to vote in the referendum about the local indigenous people. The irony is not lost on me as a South African but what surprised was how meaningless it all felt.

Australia is a place of contradictions. On the one hand it is a nanny state, full of rules and subservience towards these rules. A place which feels all very woke on the one side and then terribly un-woke on the other. A place i think where immigrants are welcome but certainly don’t necessarily feel at home. It’s really hard to quite describe it but best i could say is it is a country searching for its new identity and trying to leave that Crocodile Dundee identity behind. I might be reading more into it than i should but it is probably one of the only places i have been in the past almost 3 years where the majority are the colonising group. This makes for a very different feeling. One with less tension and more freedoms.

Sport is a national identity for Australia and this was certainly very evident but what surprised was how little coverage was given to any other sports other than ARL (Australian Rugby League) and AFL (Australian Rules Football). It didn’t help that Australia had such a terrible showing in the Rugby World Cup in France. But it was really surprising to see how dominant these two very Australian sports were. I don’t know what this all means but it somehow makes the country even more isolated.

I can safely say that waking up early and running down to Bondi beach or Byron Bay beach were highlights of my time in Aus. The energy i felt with folks doing yoga, surfing, boxing, running and and and. It was alive from just before sunrise everyday. It was really my kind of place. You don’t finds this everywhere but where this was the case i loved. Adding to this are that people look healthy, mostly eat healthy and seen to wake up each day to actually live life. You would be very surprised to hear that I don’t think this is something found everywhere in the world. I think this is rare and a real treasure in Aus.

But there is another side to Australia. A side i experienced more and more when i needed to get things done. A frustratingly rigid behaviour in overcoming obstacles. Nothing in life is easy but you find a way. I have always prided myself on finding a way. But hell it started becoming painful in Australia. No just seemed like NO. Sometime the most mundane things became a nightmare. Trying to get an appointment with an ENT, trying to get a Seabob serviced. And dealing with the contractors fixing my boat. And heaven forbid trying to talk with anyone about work after 3pm and never ever on the weekend. I found this side of Australia sad and depressing. I found people at work to be emotionless and uncaring towards your plight. I felt like a pariah for not having a Australian phone number. I wondered often aloud if i could ever live in this environment?

Maybe I’ve been spoilt coming from South Africa where even though things are hard and troublesome, people love to smile and laugh and talk and unite. Maybe I’ve been spoilt living in Asia where people love to get things done at any cost and where getting the job done comes first and foremost. Or maybe I just stumbled across a few of the bad apples. I really don’t know but I can safely say I was and have been underwhelmed to say the least.