Dougie

Thanks all for the replies - it does help; funny thing is I know I'll miss the weather and what I earn here (the pay cut will be substantial!); if pure logic was involved, I would try to stay and make a better fist of it. But my heart is telling me otherwise. You're right, I am on my own; I came over here with my ex in 2017, though we broke up a year ago and she headed back to the UK. She was actually successful socially - she had a much wider circle of friends than back home - but in the end she wanted to go back (we split up for more mundane reasons - being in Australia wasn't the cause; I would've went back too after she went but had too much to close out here). I never was given to deep feelings of loneliness, but have of late - and I am now truly missing friends and family.

Thanks Marisa. Yes, it is something intangible - and some of it runs against logic, but I just haven't felt settled. I came out as a backpacker in my 20s, and spent the next seven years in the UK retraining to do something which would get me back to Australia. Then I got here and ... yeah, it just hasn't worked out for me.

Hi Everyone I've been a long-time 'lurker' on this site. Moved to Sydney from the UK in 2017, and now I'm looking to head back (though I have citizenship, so I can always 'ping pong' . I've been struggling over here for most of the time - mentally, at least. I'm in a very well-paid job, have a house with a pool, lovely dogs etc. But I have a terrible sense of alienation culturally - I've struggled to make friends (something which never occurred back in the UK - though I completely accept that this is likely down to me, I'm not having a go at Aussies). I don't enjoy my job in the way that I did back in the UK. On top of that, I have come to realise that the nice summers (and they are nice) are - for me - not balanced by the awful winters (amazing what a lack of Xmas can do! - and of course, I know Aussie winters are far less grim than UK winters!). While I own my own house, I live in the outer west - Sydney is now ludicrously unaffordable for anyone starting out; a property like the one I have would set someone back several million dollars if it was within reasonable range of the CBD. The work-life balance over here is surprisingly poor - I work many more hours, with far fewer holidays (I work in construction, so once the enforced two-week shutdown is factored in, I get 12 days annual leave per year where I get to decide when I have them - not exactly ideal when foreign travel often requires two days on a plane for a return trip). I also miss things I didn't think that I would miss as much as I do - the BBC, Marks and Spencers (why does Australia not have anything other than Coles and Woolies? The food variety in supermarkets is poor!) and being able to visit a different city without boarding a plane . It is still with a heavy heart that I will be leaving - it took many years of dedicated effort to get here, so it feels like such a shame in so many ways. But I'm done, and will be looking to head off early next year. Cheers to all who read this - hope this hasn't come across too negative; Australia is still a wonderful place, and I can of course see the appeal for so many. I've just found that, ultimately, it isn't for me. I'm curious to see if this all sounds a bit daft - is it unusual for what seems like a lot of small things to have such a cumulative effect that the pull back is unable to be resisted?