There’s a moment, usually somewhere around your third consecutive grey Tuesday in February, when Australia stops being a fantasy and starts feeling like a plan. Maybe you’ve already looked up the flights. Maybe you’ve already googled “how to get a skilled worker visa.” If that’s you, you’re not alone — and the numbers back it up.
The UK is now one of the top five source countries for overseas migration to Australia Australian Bureau of Statistics, and here’s what makes that stat interesting: while overall net migration to Australia fell in 2024-25, net migration from the UK actually increased. Australian Bureau of Statistics Against a backdrop of tightening global migration, Brits are still choosing Australia at a growing rate. In 2024-25 alone, 40,000 UK-born migrants arrived in Australia — 26% higher than the pre-pandemic yearly average.
This isn’t a trend. It’s a pattern that has held for decades, and there are very real reasons for it. But here’s what the glossy relocation guides skip over: moving to Australia is brilliant and brutal in equal measure. Here’s the honest version.
The Visa Question Everyone Gets Wrong
Most people assume the hardest part of moving to Australia is finding a job or affording a house. It’s not. It’s the visa.
Australia overhauled its immigration system significantly in December 2024, replacing the Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa with the new Skills in Demand (SID) visa. The SID visa is built around three salary-based streams — Specialist Skills, Core Skills, and a Labour Agreement stream — and for the right candidate it offers a clearer route to permanent residence than its predecessor. If you’re a skilled professional in healthcare, engineering, tech, or the trades, you’ll likely find a pathway. If you’re not in a listed shortage occupation, the route becomes considerably more complicated.
In 2024-25, there were 185,001 places delivered under Australia’s permanent Migration Program. Department of Home Affairs The UK ranked among the top three countries for growth in permanent places granted, with British nationals receiving 2.9% more places than the previous year. Department of Home Affairs That sounds encouraging, but those places represent a fraction of total applicants. Competition is stiff, processing times vary, and visa mistakes are expensive and slow to fix.
Do your research early. Engage a registered migration agent if your situation is anything other than straightforward. This is one area where cutting corners costs more than the agent ever will.
The Cost of Living Reality Check
Australia is not cheap. Anyone who moved there 15 years ago and tells you it’s affordable is remembering a different country.
Sydney and Melbourne regularly rank among the most expensive cities in the world for property. Renting a two-bedroom flat in inner Sydney will set you back somewhere between $700 and $1,000 AUD per week. Hiring a Sydney based removalist on Find a Mover costs $130 per hour on average. Brisbane and Adelaide are more forgiving, and that’s exactly why they’re seeing the strongest population growth outside the major cities. Perth has also surged in popularity, particularly among UK migrants drawn by its warmer climate and relatively lower entry costs compared to the east coast.
That said, wages across many sectors are meaningfully higher than in the UK. Healthcare workers, tradespeople, and tech professionals consistently earn more in Australia than their UK equivalents, and the minimum wage is substantially higher. The maths works out differently depending on your profession, so run the actual numbers for your field before assuming you’ll be better or worse off. Housing costs can absorb wage gains quickly if you’re not careful about where you choose to live.
Weather, Lifestyle, and the Thing People Don’t Expect to Miss
Yes, the weather is as good as advertised. The outdoor lifestyle is real. The beaches are extraordinary. But the thing most British migrants don’t anticipate is how much they’ll miss the mundane stuff — a proper pub on a rainy Friday, sarcasm that lands without explanation, proximity to Europe for a cheap long weekend away.
Australia is far from everything. A flight to London is 22+ hours and costs a fortune. This matters more than people expect when parents get older, when friends have babies, when life keeps moving back home without you in it. The tyranny of distance is a real psychological weight, and it’s worth being honest with yourself about how you’ll handle it before you commit.
On the flip side, the pace of life in most Australian cities genuinely is different. There’s more space, more light, and a cultural expectation that you actually use it. Work culture still has its pressures, but the idea that you clock off and go outside isn’t treated as eccentric. That shift alone changes how people feel day-to-day in ways that are hard to quantify but very easy to notice.
The Job Market: Where Brits Actually Thrive
The UK and Australian job markets share enough similarities — language, professional qualifications, business culture — that Brits often settle into work faster than migrants from other countries. Many UK qualifications are recognised in Australia, though you’ll want to verify this for regulated professions like medicine, law, and teaching, where specific registration processes apply.
In the decade to June 2024, the net increase of migrants in the Australian workforce was 33% greater than for the Australian-born population. Department of Home Affairs The government has built its immigration policy explicitly around filling genuine skills gaps, and that creates real opportunity for the right candidates. Healthcare, construction, engineering, and tech are all sectors with sustained demand. Regional areas also offer specific visa incentives for those willing to move outside the major cities — something worth considering if Melbourne and Sydney price you out or if you want faster residency pathways.
The new Skills in Demand visa introduced in late 2024 also makes it easier for sponsored workers to change employers, which previously was a significant constraint. That change matters — it means you’re not locked to a single employer if the role doesn’t work out.
The Practical Stuff That Eats Your Time
A few things that catch people off guard consistently:
Tax file numbers and banking — set these up the moment you arrive. Without a tax file number, you’ll be taxed at the highest possible rate on any income. It takes a few days to process but needs to be a day-one priority.
Medicare — UK citizens can access Australia’s Medicare system under a reciprocal healthcare agreement, but you’ll need to register, and there are limitations on what’s covered. Private health insurance becomes more relevant the longer you stay, particularly for dental and specialist care.
Driving — most states will let you drive on a UK licence for the first three to six months, but you’ll need to convert it. The road rules are broadly similar; the driving conditions outside cities are not. Long distances, wildlife on roads, and unfamiliar terrain catch people out more than they expect. Some Brits often find themselves settling in one city such as Cairns and purchase a car and get all set up only to find out a few months later that the weather in unrelenting and they move down south by driving their car down. It’s more dangerous than you think so best to spend the money and hire a vehicle transporter to move your car for you just for the peace of mind.
Superannuation — Australia’s pension system is employer-contributed, currently at 11.5% of your salary, and it’s yours. If you leave Australia permanently, you can claim it back under the Departing Australia Superannuation Payment scheme, though a tax charge applies. Don’t ignore it while you’re there — it adds up.
Is It Worth It?
For the right person, yes. Australia rewards people who go in with realistic expectations, a solid financial plan, and a genuine willingness to build something new. It’s not an escape hatch from a life that isn’t working — it’s a relocation, not a reset.
Even as Australia’s overall net overseas migration fell in 2024-25, the UK bucked the trend — with more British migrants arriving and net UK migration to Australia increasing year on year. Australian Bureau of Statistics Those aren’t people chasing a fantasy. They’re people who did the research, navigated the visa system, and committed to the move. Most of them will tell you it was harder than expected and that they don’t regret it.
That’s about as honest an endorsement as you’ll get.
Thinking about making the move? Start with a registered migration agent and a realistic look at your finances. Everything else follows from there.