moving to australia

[ladyaprille]

hello! i would appreciate some help.
my name is aprille, im 18 and im hoping to become an international student from england to australia. i am choosing australia as i perceive it to be a beautiful country and full of life and culture worth experiencing and sharing :) i suffer from s.a.d and this means that in the winter, the lack of sunshine and warmth makes me feel very depressed and fatigued and so this is why, i feel i have to escape oh so sunny england!!
i understand australia has very hot summers and warm winters, region depending. could you please help me out and tell me where these optimal places may be and also a little about each place -- please be truthful- every website i have been on has praised each state and they have all won me over, however the most important issue is nearly 100% all year round sun- if at all?
sorry if i sound confusing. so far southern queensland seems very tempting being called sunshine state.. is this true of its name?

well i would appreciate your help, as i am urgent to send off my applications to unis in the regions

aprille xxxxx:)

[Mystic]

I know you PMed me before, but for the benefit of others I will reply here:

- AVOID Melbourne (Victoria) and Tasmania like the plague. Sydney is more humid then Melbourne, but I wouldn't call it an area of constant sunshine.

Opt for Tropical North Queensland, The Northern Territory (Darwin, Alice Springs etc...) and Northern Western Australia (Broome).

[adam antichrist]

queensland being called the sunshine state

Yes it is true but if you go a bit further south there is a vegan friendly town called Byron Bay which is nice and there you can attend Southern Cross University at Lismore (half hour bus ride from Byron).

Queensldan is very nice there are a couple of queenslanders on the forum who may be able to let you know more about vegan friendly areas. I don't know what S.A.D. is but I would recommend you do not consider Sydney as I lived there for 5 years and was very depressed the whole time. Melboune is lovely but c-o-l-d and Canberra although having the best Uni is utter crap town designed for the middle classes ie if you don't have a car your fkd.

There is also Perth on the west coast, sunny year round and less humid than southern Queensland (I believe)

What do you wish to study? I researched a lot of unis for science degrees before transferring to Melbourne this year, I may be able to offer some advice :)

[ladyaprille]

i would like to become a nutritionist/dietician so a course in that would be ideal- or medicine quite appeals too. i am quite surprised everyones recommending the northern places.. i always assumed east was best for sunny weather - its great to know so thanks :)

please keep posting-i love to hear it all!

Why did u find sydney depressing adam?
So is northern territory better for weather than queensland or are they roughly the same so long as i opt for northern places rather than southern?

aprille x

[LittleNellColumbia]

Hello ladyaprille, i love your name by the way!

Well i live in humble ole Adelaide, and to be honest i wish i lived in London! If you ask my, Australia is turning into a 'MiniAmerica' and i HATE IT!:eek:
LOL but even after that you still want to make oz you home then I'd live in Melbourne, Adelaide or Brissy!
Just one word of warning though, vegan products and manufacturers are REALLY hard to find in SA, because most companies and Vegan friendly shops etc are found in NSW or vic..... Although we do have this lovely little bakery place in Goodwood called 'the tea room' which make lovely vegan biscuit and pies etc.
The reason i sed Brissy is becoz of the weather!!! Ive actually never been there, but id love to be somewhere where it is warm and gorgeous all the time!

And Banana! Shame on you!:D lol, i LOVE Melbourne! hehe My mum takes us over there all the time becoz we just adore it, ppl are so friendly and the atmosphere is just awesome!!! I love St Kilda!:p
Any way, i hope i helped somewhere amoung my ramblings........

Much love,
Happycow

[adam antichrist]

Australia is roughly the same size as mainland US and the top 1/3 is tropical. The east coast stretches all the way to just a few thousand miles from the south pole, and halfway up is Byron Bay and the Quennsland border.

Avoid the Northern territory, they only have a wet and dry season and it's always hot (no winter, spring etc). The north is beautiful (so I'm told) but extremely isolated. It would be hard being vegan anywhere in N.T.

Check out the University of Queensland (http://www.som.uq.edu.au/som/index.shtml) for medicine, and here's their page on dietics and nutrition (http://www.uq.edu.au/careers/?page=29875&pid=)

I can't see where the campus is located... from memory I think it's in Brisbane. Nice and warm!

PS I found sydney depressing because of the three million other depressed people there. Soon as I left I felt better!

And here is the nutrition page for sunshine coast university (http://www.usc.edu.au/Students/Handbook/UndergradCourses/Science/nutr.htm) which is what I meant when I said 'southern queensland' in the earlier post.

There are many unis which offer medicine/nutrition in Australia, but I think these two are the most suited to your climate requirements (bloody hot in summer though!!!) and Uni of Qld is the better of the two.