Puuurrrfff (Thoughts about living in Perth)

The highly annoying Australian Little Crow

Having only lived in Perth for a couple of months, I can't claim to be an absolute expert on the area. Nevertheless here are some factoids and observations about Perth.

Perth:

* It's dry and hot, has population of 1.6 million and is the most isolated and sunniest capital city in the world. Located in Western Australia, Australia's richest state.

*It has heaps of Universities. Auckland, which is is a similar size (1.4 million), has two Universities. Perth has five.

*A very rich place, wealth is evident everywhere. The average house size is enormous.

*Perth has the highest concentration of self-made millionaires in the world.

*Fucking swearing.. I don't think this is particular to Perth but I have encountered a lot of f-bombs here. A manager at one of my jobs said the following, nearly verbatim:"I can't fuckin go selling this fuckin baby food to the fuckin babies cause the fuckin mothers will be going: 'You've fuckin poisoned my fuckin babies!'" This is at the extreme end of the scale but in general I think ozzies curse more than other cultures.

*Many British, South African and Asian Immigrants have chosen Perth as their home.

*Most of the city is near Swan River and it has some beautiful scenery. Also a lot of nice beaches.

*The preferred sport of the state in Aussie Rules (which I still don't get). Rugby and league play second fiddle but cricket is popular too.

*It's safe, peaceful and clean but a tad light on things to do.

*The club and restaurant scene seem good but not a whole lot of stuff to lure tourists here(in my view).

*When it's hot - it's stinking hot. Sometimes it's 20 degrees in the middle of the night. I have to drink a lot more water than I do in my hometown. 

*Flies - They drive me to the verge of insanity sometimes. They land on your face or in your ears forcing you to do an obligatory hand wave to get rid of them, but it's only a momentary reprieve before they land again.. Not many people walk the footpaths, except in the city.

*Crows - In movies, they are used as a foreboding symbol of peril. The "little crow" variety has an evil look about them but they don't make a "cawww" noise. It's more like a frog vomiting, if I had to imagine what it would sound like.

*Most people I've met here have been friendly.

*Freemantle - Gorgeous place, very artsy. Nice beaches and markets and a vibrant music scene. Only takes about 25 minutes to drive to from the central city

*Very few places accept eftpos for transactions under 10 dollars, which means you have to find an ATM for your bank before you can buy stuff.

*A lot of shops and banks close at 4pm on weekdays! Many shops are closed on Sunday.

*All police carry tasers, better than guns but kind of imposing.

*Food is much more expensive than in NZ, so is alcohol. Petrol is cheaper.

*Western Australia has no Warrant of Fitness scheme for cars meaning there are a few scrap heaps on the road that wouldn't be road legal in other countries.

*Perth is sprawling - it takes a while to get from one place to another.

*Has patches of greenery but not particularly lush. Average rainfall per year in Perth is low about 400 mm.

*Mining is the big thing in this state. It's one of the reasons the Australian economy continues to perform strongly while economies around the world crumble.  Many students at Perth Uni's do degrees in engineering or qualifications that are in some way related to the mining and oil/gas industries.

*Perth is the only Australian state to have a Liberal Government. The rest are Labor.

*There are no daylights savings here (they trialled it for three years, took a vote and decided not to have it). As such it gets sunny at about five in the morning and dark in the early evening.

*You can become obscenely wealthy if you get a job in the mining industry but it's difficult to crack into. A lot of people do fly in/fly out missions where they'll work solidly in a remote area for a week of 12 or more hour days, then fly home for a week.

*Wages are generally much higher in Australia than NZ. Minimum wage is about $18 an hour AUD but nearly everyone gets more than that. Tax rate is also lower than NZ.

*The Perth accent isn't as strong as other parts of Australia, especially when compared to Brisbane.

Hope these thoughts were interesting to you. Comments and questions welcome

Premature speculation about why it makes perfect sense to leave New Zealand

The much abused phrase "brain drain" finally makes sense to me.

For so many years New Zealand politicians such as Don Brash have bandied about the term with gusto. "We must stop the loss of our educated young!" they would cry.

While still at High School, I read seriously worded editorials in the Listener about skills shortages and incentives to keep the educated young in NZ and I would think, even with better wages, why are so many people leaving?

I can now tentatively say that I have joined the ranks of young kiwis that have decided to live abroad.

I've traveled a lot of Australia - from the East to West Coast and up to the Northern Territories. I have a good idea of what the country looks and feels like and although there are some crucial cultural and historical differences between NZ and OZ (and our accents of course) on a day-to-day basis, they are very similar.

According to an NZ emigration website I googled, there are close to 500,000 New Zealander's living and working in Australia! In 2001, there were eight times as many kiwis in Australia than vice versa.. Hmmmm, what's going on here?

I was already well aware that wages in OZ are higher but people in NZ would say: "But the living cost is much higher as well." So far, that doesn't correspond with my experience.

Moving here made 100 per cent sense the other day as I found out the wages some of the jobs get here.

The wages in Perth - to stack shelves at a supermarket are $20 Australian an hour. Australians get penal rates on weekends and less tax. Comparatively, retail workers in NZ tend to get paid around the $13 NZ mark. You are taxed more and unless you work in certain sectors you wont get extra on the weekends.

I was already well aware that wages in OZ are higher but people in NZ would say: "But the living cost is much higher as well." So far, that doesn't correspond with my experience. The cost of living in Perth is very similar to living in Auckland or Wellington, perhaps slightly higher. A room in Perth goes for between 130-170 AUD and food is almost identical.

How much do you suppose a junior journalist working for a community Newspaper in Perth earns? - $25 an hour. That's about 10 dollars an hour more than NZ when you factor in the exchange rate. With such an incredible disparity in wages, even when you factor in living costs, it's no wonder NZ can't keep it's young.

In Perth - wealth is very evident. It's a very clean, modern city with a population of about 1.6 million. I haven't spotted many shitty houses so far but then I haven't been to all the suburbs yet.

Western Australia is a mining area and the mines are ridiculous cash-cows. I've heard of guys getting paid well over $100,000 a year to drive trucks and even cleaners and cooks make close to the 100k mark. My conclusion: minerals (Australia) beat agriculture (New Zealand) in the economic stakes with a great big stick.

I'm not a particularly money-centric guy but in a pure economic sense - earning far more money to work in the same job, in a similar country which doesn't require you to have a visa - makes sense.

I wont be here for long. I plan to earn-save and leave, spreading my wings to the Northern Hemisphere.

I, like many NZr's have a nearly $20,0000 loan, which is low for four years of study. If I earn Australian dollars ($1 AUD currently gets 1.30 NZD)I can pay off my loan a hell of a lot quicker.

Getting away from your home country (wherever it is) is a great way to get a new perspective. Just being exposed to people with different goals, values and idea is a wonderful eye opener.

So far the only NZ stories I've heard are about the Commonwealth Games and Paul Henry saying stupid shit (which is typical).

On February 6th this year, at the Waitangi day celebrations at New Zealand embassy in Jakarta I met a 33 year old New Zealand guy called Kevin. Kevin had been away from New Zealand for just over ten years, living and working first in Hong Kong then Jakarta.

He said that Kiwi's had a "boomerang" culture. We go abroad for a couple of years and then are eventually drawn back to settle down.

With all this being said, I do think NZ has a lot to offer and I'm not advocating a permanent move abroad. It's just - for many, when it's so easy to shack up in Australia and get paid a shit-load more for doing the exact same job as in NZ, why wouldn't they?

Money isn't everything and certainly not the only reason NZr's should explore the world. It is persuasive however.

I just checked the Big Mac Index - which is the economists yearly gauge of each countries purchasing price parity - that is, how much bang they get for their buck. In NZ and Australia it takes just 14 minutes of average work to earn yourself a Big Mac, in Jakarta it takes 136. So both NZ and OZ have a lot to be grateful for.

Wealth in this world certainly hasn't been divided out fairly.

I do believe that NZ is a boomerang culture - I'm not going to be gone forever - but I will be abroad with the other roughly 650,000 kiwis for some time yet.