Living in Australia

“Good day mate! How's it going?”. Now that I have lived in Australia for a couple of months it’s time to share some of my experiences.

First of I will say that Australia is a large country and I have only been to parts of the east coast. It is a big difference in weather and nature when you go from Tasmania in the south to Darwin in the north. Townsville where I have spent the majority of my time is a tropical city with lots of palms and warmth. When I came straight after the rain season in February (straight from winter in Norway), it was extremely humid and hot. It has been a blue sky and sun every day since. Even now when it is the coldest season of the year, I generally use shorts and t-shirts, and maybe a jeans when going out at night. 

Townsville has 163000 inhabitants, and feels like a real cowboys place, even in Australian standard. Their rugby team is even called the Cowboys. They also have a military base, which may contribute to the general ruff feel. The night life in Townsville is great, as I suspect it is in most of Australia, one of the discos is called Mad Cow and fits the place well. 

For a city this size, Townsville has a small city center with very little shops and people. My home town in Norway, Molde, has 25000 inhabitants, but it has more shops and more diverse offering. Part of the reason for this might be that Townsville is very spread out, you should definitely have a car in this city as the bus connections are poor. It is a lot of city development going on, in the few months I have been here, many large new buildings have appeared, I am pretty sure this place will change much the next ten years.

The nature here is pretty exotic when you are used to the Norwegian flora and fauna (which also is beautiful). The palms and long sand beaches are fantastic. Townsville is not where you go to surf, because of the Great barrier reef, but the diving is fantastic. Kangaroos, koala bears, wallaby and parrots are all remarkable animals that are impressive to look at up close. 20 minutes with ferry from Townsville you find Magnetic Island, it’s a beautiful place and surly a piece of paradise.

When I traveled down under I thought I needed to take lots of precautions for poisonous spiders and snakes, but I haven’t seen any of them yet. The sea has some larger dangers, like sharks, saltwater crocodiles and stingers. Especially the stingers are a pain, since you can’t just jump into the sea wherever you are, only in certain areas within a net that are controlled by a lifeguard. This is only a problem in the north and in the summer as the water gets to cold for the stinger to survive in the colder part of the year.

The other places I have been to in Australia includes Sydney, Byron bay, Surfers paradise and Brisbane. And they are all fairly different from each other. Sydney is a large beautiful city, with lots of tall buildings and the well known Opera house. It still feels clean and fresh for its size, it feels international with its own China town and it is also a bit colder then in the north.

Byron bay was a very laid back place with a nice beach and lots of hippies. Surfers paradise feel like it’s Las Vegas and Brisbane feels like a typical south european city. Wherever you go in Australia there are backpackers everywhere, this country must earn a tremendously amount of money on tourism. Most people here are outgoing and friendly, "See you mate!".