surrounded by \u201cyoung, free twenty and thirtysomethings\u201d in the Manly area.<\/a><\/p>\nBut after a year-and-a-half, Katie found herself heading back to London. Her first struggle, she says, was the rental market in Sydney.<\/p>\n
She found the cost of a flat is around the same in Australia as London. She also admits \u201cfriends and family naturally rank highly when I list the reasons for coming back\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Sunset](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_GettyImages-1567051228.jpg\")
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Katie lasted 18 months in Sydney(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Katie however says the reasons for the move were much more than that. She wrote: \u201cThe reasons are rarely sexy: green space, quality of the press, a low risk of shark attacks and being a short train ride from my parents\u2019 home town don\u2019t quite have the same ring as living next to the beach when you shout them across a pub \u2014 but they mattered more than I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
She acknowledges that Australia has \u201cmore sunshine\u201d as well as \u201chappier, healthier, more outdoorsy people,\u201d but found herself missing the cobbled streets, country pubs, and British humour. She concedes it\u2019s \u201chard not to miss those things\u201d when you are \u201ca 24-hour flight away\u201d.<\/p>\n
She says the Middle East conflict has also led to a \u201csense of uncertainty\u201d for Brits flying from Australia. Dubai, once a popular layover, became embroiled in the conflict in March when it was struck by Iran.<\/p>\n
Katie expected some \u201cpushback\u201d from her friends in Australia, but admits she was taken aback by the level of confusion from people back home too. She says many joked she would regret it when her boyfriend is \u201cconscripted\u201d or would be making another U-turn soon enough.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777947156_359_0_GettyImages-1869881584.jpg\")
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Katie moved back to London(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
While she says it can seem difficult to say \u201cexactly what you feel far away from,\u201d she says \u201cyou do\u201d. She accepts she has a \u201csense of day-to-day belonging\u201d from visiting grandparents or meeting a friend\u2019s baby, things that can\u2019t be replicated through FaceTime.<\/p>\n
Having moved back to London, Katie has however found herself wondering if she made a mistake. She recalls one moment she was catcalled by a drunk man at Clapham Junction, and dodging crowds in Soho.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, she says there have been \u201cmoments of pure nostalgia\u201d as she strolled through her favourite London park on a spring evening, or the appreciation she has for the NHS and architecture of the UK. She says her partner will soon land back in the UK, meaning that she gets to experience the \u201crollercoaster of emotions\u201d from her return all over again.<\/p>\n
Katie isn\u2019t the only Brit who has quit the UK for Australia and found themselves moving back. Manchester-born Jessica McMaster recently made the same move after finding \u201cfour problems\u201d with life Down Under.<\/p>\n
Jessica cited the cost of living, distance from loved ones, visa and work restrictions, and weather as reasons for her move. Jessica, who lived in Melbourne, said: \u201cSometimes it would rain for days and be really cold and dark.<\/p>\n
“Summer lasted about six months, which was amazing, long, bright days, great caf\u00e9s, runs by the beach, but people think it’s always 30-degree heat. Melbourne can have four seasons in one day. In winter it was cold and rainy, so at times it felt like being back in Manchester, but without your family and friends.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Katie Strick swapped London for Australia, only to find herself returning to the United Kingdom after just 18…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[583,12526,42,2312,5925,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-28599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-facetime","10":"tag-middle-east","11":"tag-nhs","12":"tag-the-times","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116519550519721321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n