Is the American Dream Alive in Australia?
This was the question I set out to answer as I stared at my boarding pass on a warm summer night in September of 2022: LAX to SYD, one way ticket. I was no stranger to travel, having boarded my first trans-continental flight from Russia to the US before knowing my multiplication tables. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of experiencing life in some of the most vibrant cities the US has to offer (Boston, New York, and San Francisco to name a few). I’ve continued to travel abroad extensively through my studies and early career, to over 30 countries and counting now.
I’ve always taken to the concept of the “American Dream” with a healthy dose of skepticism, likely due to my mixed upbringing and growing up in a post 9–11 world. You know, the one where “once-in-a-generation” events became semi-annual affairs. After two decades of watching the American Dream fade and the slow motion train-wreck that is modern American politics, I could no longer ignore my growing sense of unease. Being a keen student of history and witnessing the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, I became convinced that we were living through another Fall of Rome.
So what is a young millennial to do in the face of a pending geopolitical and ecological catastrophe? Was there a way I could mitigate some of these risks and set myself up to weather the storm?
I’d heard plenty by now that America was no longer #1 by hardly any of the important metrics: social mobility, healthcare outcomes, happiness, work-life balance; the list goes on and on. Is this just another example of grass-is-greener thinking, or is it true that life could be better in another country? Could one of them even be a haven? I had to find out for myself.
Australia was first on my list.
Setting Up The Australian Experiment
Seeking a fresh start and a sense of security and armed with a freshly minted visa and a remote job, I embarked on my own Homeric Odyssey. My quest was clear: I had 52 short weeks to determine if Australia not only lived up to its international reputation of livability, but also if the country could seduce this wanderer into putting down some serious roots — a high bar for any country to meet. I’ve learned to trust my intuition deeply over the years, and I knew at the end of my time here I would have an answer to these questions, whether I could put it into words or not. I needed to strategize; how would I make the most of this time?
Having lived in hamlets of 2,000 all the way up to megalopolises of 9 million, I knew I was a “city guy” at heart. Especially given my recent experiences in California — safety, culture, nightlife, dining, a vibrant social scene, public transit, and parks were key decision drivers for me. Sydney and Melbourne immediately stood out as the top contenders in this regard. Each Australian city wasn’t without its charm, but like pots of Goldilocks’ porridge simmering on a table, some felt a tad too sleepy, while others were a tad too isolated. I couldn’t afford to simply sample from each bowl either.
I wasn’t here simply for tourism, but to enmesh myself into the fabric of these cities.
I needed to truly get a feel for daily living in them and to test the social waters, gauging the warmth and depth in an aquifer where I may someday plant my roots.
I ultimately decided to split my time relatively evenly; 5 months in Sydney followed by 6 months in Melbourne, with the final month reserved for travel to further reaches like Tasmania and the Outback. My initial thesis that I would want to spend more time in fewer cities was thankfully proven true through conversations with multiple expats on temporary work assignments. All uniformly wishing they had more than the standard three months to truly integrate.
The choice to come to Sydney first was also strategic, and not just in the sense of aligning myself with a picturesque southern hemisphere summer on Bondi Beach. Any good Odyssey needs a hardy challenge, demons to be slain, and for our hero to come back a changed man. The other half of this endeavor was personal growth.
I knew not a soul in Sydney and wanted to prove to myself that I could start from being totally on my own to growing a high quality social group of passionate, interesting, and diverse individuals in a short period of time.
The prospect of being “alone” for a full year or more was terrifying at the start, but I knew it was something I had to overcome in order to truly live the life I wanted. Throughout this series you’ll see Australia through my eyes, from my first airborne glimpse of the sun soaked cliffs of New South Wales, to my final waterlogged walk past the State Library of Victoria. Read on if you’re curious.
From Blackouts to Barefoot Winters: How Aussie Seasons Beat Out California Dreams
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first.
Weather in South East Australia is fantastic, don’t let any Aussie tell you otherwise.
One of the greatest human pastimes throughout the ages has been to commiserate by complaining about the local weather. Aussies are no exception, of course. The fact of the matter is, most native Aussies (and most of the dominant immigrant groups as well) don’t have an accurate gauge of how cold it regularly gets in places like New England or Northern Europe. Their barometer of “normal” is skewed at the cellular level due to the warm temperatures they inhabit, it only takes a few months in a warm climate to lose your cold-resistant brown fat cells. There is one counterintuitive exception — Aussie homes are colder indoors during the winter than their Northern Hemisphere counterparts. Lax Australian building codes allow insulation levels to be closer to that of a tent than a building.
While summers in Sydney are hotter than in Melbourne, I would consider both places to be ideal during this time of year (that being December in the southern hemisphere). For the most part sunny, warm, with occasional cool breeze or rain to break up the more oppressive heat waves. Especially when compared to similar climates in California, Melbourne is quite similar to NorCal while Sydney feels more like SoCal. Anticipate slightly more volatile weather and daytime temperatures in the high 60’s — 70’s F for Melbourne, while Sydney will be in the 80’s — 90’s F for most of the summer. The key difference is that foggy seasons are replaced with rainy seasons (a positive in my book) and the threat of wildfires are significantly reduced by comparison.
During my five years in California, I experienced unhealthy air quality as a result of wildfires for at least one week out of every year. This did not occur while I was in Australia. I took the time to ask locals about their worst experience with wildfire smoke in the cities and even the worst pictures I saw seemed clearer than my near apocalyptic wildfire experiences in San Francisco. This is especially important in the wake of a worsening climate crisis, as more of the US is starting to face declining air quality as a result of wildfires, even in regions not usually known for them.
This is in particularly stark contrast to my week in LA prior to flying out to Sydney. The infamous LA haze had mostly reverted from the breath of fresh air we got during COVID. At the same time, heat waves were causing blackouts in parts of the metro, with the government taking to public service announcements asking citizens to turn off air conditioning during mid-day. It was 90 degrees in the cooler parts of LA county at the time, as instances of blackouts across California were rising. This level of air pollution and rolling blackouts in the heat of summer seemed to be outlier concepts to most Aussies I spoke with. I’m told they do occur a few times a year, but I never personally experienced power outages or poor air quality during my time in Australia.
What I did have to think about was skin cancer. One dangerous side effect of clean air and the lower levels of pollution in the southern hemisphere: the sun is harsh, deadly harsh. You can feel it starting to burn you in less than a half hour outside. The statistics bear this out, with Australia and New Zealand leading the world in skin cancer rates per capita. I recall seeing a public service billboard that claimed one in three Australians are expected to receive a skin cancer diagnosis by the time they reach age 60. While the wandering of the Antarctic ozone hole is blamed for this in popular culture, the reality is that this is just the price you pay for cleaner air in the southern hemisphere. As a result, I finally adopted a daily sunscreen habit, potentially saving myself from a painful surgery in the future.
One major climate stabilizer that Australia benefits from is the La Nina cycle in the South Pacific, a weather pattern that breaks up arid years with cool air and rain every two to seven years. The regularity of these cycles bodes well for Australia in a warming environment. This was the cycle during which I visited. In Sydney, that meant a literally perfect winter — as in “walking-around-in-a-tank-top-in-the-middle-of-june” perfect.
Melbourne was a different story. Since my arrival in Australia, I was regularly warned by the locals about the boogeyman that was the harsh Melbourne winter. Their warnings rang particularly dire as the current La Nina was poised to make this one of the coldest winters on record. This turned out to have the same impact as an equally dire warning from an Aussie about avoiding drop bears in the woods. That would be an Aussie “having a go” at you with a popular urban legend.
Not only did I never experience a flake of snow or so much as a slippery ice patch, but I never even wore a hat and often felt my warm coat was overkill.
Even visiting Tasmania during the dead of winter made me feel like bringing gloves was unnecessary. Granted, I am a cold shower / ice bath kinda guy. Having spent the majority of my life in places where the air literally hurt my face for 3 months of the year, I was nothing short of grateful for my Melbourne winter experience.
At worst, it was a nice excuse to wear my winter fashion.
Hay Fever & Birds vs. the Aussie Dream (Can My Face Survive?)
What is serious is the wildlife, though probably not the ones you’re thinking of. I had no experiences with huntsman spiders, poisonous snakes, or great white sharks while in Australia. Granted, I did see a Sydney beach briefly evacuated due to a shark sighting off the coast. This experience, along with the diligence and dedication I witnessed from the surf rescue squads, actually made me feel more comfortable swimming in Australia.
No, the real animals to watch out for are the birds and the Kangaroos.
Never in my life have I witnessed a more territorial bird species than I did in Sydney; mercilessly swooping millimeters from your hair to show you who really runs these streets. Kangaroos not so much from malice, but from their sheer stupidity and numbers. For whatever reason, these animals will jump directly in front of your vehicle as you’re passing by them. I narrowly missed a head-on collision with one driving between Sydney and Melbourne. Not a moment after the words “Check out that kangaroo hopping by the side of the road” left my lips that my friend was slamming on the brakes to save that creature’s poor life.
One last thing to mention regarding Australian weather: Hay Fever is no joke. I’ve rarely been prone to pollen allergies to any extent before; boy was I in for a reckoning arriving in Australia during the spring. I’ve never had such an aggressive reaction — turning a corner and within 30 seconds being teary eyed, urgently seeking a bathroom to blow my nose. A consequence of a mass planting of non-native tree species on sidewalks for aesthetic reasons, and also the cause of my first serious doubts to my long term Australian prospects. Fortunately, I discovered that eating local honey was an effective remedy and noticeably reduced my reaction over time. Crisis averted.
Parks & Recreation
No, not THAT Parks and Rec, you’re welcome for the ear-worm though. Having most recently lived in San Francisco, a city globally renowned for its nature access and park culture, I felt my expectations for Australia were particularly high in this regard. I was pleasantly surprised.
Let me lay it out plainly: Sydney is the most jaw droppingly gorgeous city I have ever visited, full stop.
From the multitude of hills with sweeping views of the harbor, to the banyan trees intertwining the CBD (Central Business District, don’t get too excited), and the meticulously landscaped public spaces — I didn’t once feel like it was in a crowded city. I’ll also mention that this seamless integration of nature within the city had a notably positive impact on my mental health; my day-to-day was more calm, centered, and relaxed than I had experienced in quite some time. This greatly mitigated the stresses and challenges of uprooting my life to the other side of the globe. Somehow Sydney managed to retain some of the carefree attitude of island life in its transition to a metropolis. An utterly unique and impressive balance to strike, considering the Sydney metro is comparable to Philadelphia or DC by population.
Melbourne, on the other hand, had a very different approach to urban planning. The stark differences between these two cities are worthy of an article all on their own (which I may write this someday), but worth touching on briefly here. Melbourne felt like a city — more concrete, more high rises, higher density, and few natural views to speak of. I’ll confess the zen I described feeling in Sydney did not exist here. However, the city more than made up for this through it’s stellar parks. Unlike New York or Boston, there was not one single “central park” where all the city’s money and attention were spent. Melbourne took after San Francisco in this regard, by having medium to large size parks strewn across the city. I never felt too far from a natural retreat. All of the parks were unique and beautiful in their own way, and often situated near stunning heritage buildings that offered a lovely contrast to the greenery. To my delight, I did not have to miss my tall California palms here either.
Accessible nature access was something else that San Francisco excelled at, with its redwood forests and miles of scenic coast line. My Pacific Coast road trip photos were apparently so Aussie-chic, a friend mistook them for the real deal. This friendly faux pas ignited a travel itch — could the comparison hold water? I was intrigued.
Enough has been written elsewhere about Sydney beaches to fill an entire library; I’ll simply confirm they are stunning, plentiful, and easily accessible via bus, ferry, and in some instances train. For a complete nature escape, Sydneysiders go to the Blue Mountains. An above-average state park by American standards (American national parks still have no equal), with one completely unheard of amenity in the western hemisphere: the peaks of the mountains are accessible by train from the city center every hour. The possibility for a totally car free escape can only be described with a chef kiss. When was the last time you remember spending a grand total of $16 to visit a National Park?
The Melbourne metro isn’t particularly known for their beaches. However, they do exist, and are no less impressive than Coney Island or Ocean Beach, and similarly well connected to transit. Melburnians need to go a little bit further outside of their city for the nature escapes, and unlike Sydney, these do require a car (discussed further in the upcoming transit section). The two most popular destinations are the Mornington Peninsula and The Great Ocean Road; both of these locales are deeply reminiscent to me of NorCal beach towns and the scenic views from Highway 1. This is especially true of taking the longer coastal drive between the two metropolises. It’s incredible how many stops along the way like Merimbula and Wallaga Lake have a long lost sister city in places like Carmel-by-the-Sea or my favorite, Morro Bay.
All in all, I found parks and nature access in SE Australia to match and exceed that of even the best offerings of any large American cities.
The TL;DR
- It really does take at least 5 months to get to know a city
- Weather in SE Australia is fantastic year round, despite the locals’ complaints
- Building insulation in Australia truly leaves something to be desired
- SE Australia has more stable power infrastructure than California
- Australia has excellent air quality, but you pay for it higher skin cancer risk
- Birds and Kangaroos are the more dangerous wildlife
- Bring allergy meds with you if traveling in the spring, local honey if staying for a while
- Sydney is one of the most naturally beautiful large cities on the planet
- Stunning nature escapes are accessible at a moment’s notice from Australia’s cities
This article is the first part of my ongoing series comparing life in the US and Australia. Next up we discover if Australia’s fabled quality of life truly lives up to its lofty reputation. Stay tuned.
