Lifestyle and Leisure
Reasons to move: Beaches
You don’t have to be a beach lover to live in Australia, but if you are then you certainly won’t be disappointed.
It is estimated that Australia's 25,700 kilometres of coastline boasts somewhere in the region of 11,000 beaches – more than any other country in the world.
What's more, official figures show that 80 per cent of Australians live within 80 miles of the sea, while 50 per cent of the country's houses sit less than eight miles from a beach. Such statistics are made even more impressive when you take into account the fact that Australia boasts a total land mass of 7,741,220 square kilometres – so there clearly is plenty of space in which to spread out.
By way of comparison, it is estimated that roughly just three million people (out of nearly 61 million) live on the coast of the UK, in spite of the fact that nowhere in Britain is more than 72 miles from the coast.
It's no real surprise then, that the results of last year's readers' survey reveal that proximity to a beach was the sixth most popular reason why respondents had decided to settle in a particular area of Australia.
It also goes a fair way to explaining why almost all of the families whose stories feature in Emigrate Australia either choose to mention a beach or send us a picture of themselves on a beach – thanks!
As British expat Dave Montoya, now a resident of the Gold Coast, Queensland, said in one of his blogs for our website www.emigrate2.co.uk: "In the UK it used to take us up to one and a half hours to get to a beach and when we got there we'd have to try to find somewhere to park and somewhere to sit on the beach! Beaches over here are so much cleaner, nicer, available, unspoilt and vast – they are a way of life."
And Dave is not alone in such an assessment. Take Terry Collier, who now lives in Mandurah, Western Australia. "We can enjoy the beach for about eight months of the year and the best part is there's plenty of fish to catch," enthused Terry, before adding how his family had embraced the beach culture by body surfing with a pod of dolphins, scuba diving and sailing.
Then there's Milton Westcarr in Adelaide, South Australia – "Adelaide has a variety of natural attractions such as beautiful, clean beaches" – or Philip Spratt in Tasmania: "We can ride horses on the nearby beach and have become members of the surf life-saving club."
It seems it doesn't matter who you talk to, the unanimous message is that life is a beach Down Under.
Register for your FREE emigration starter pack
Related articles:
Reasons to move: Holidays
Andrew's top ten Aussie attractions