G’day Europe — The Australian Guide to Living in the UK and Europe
We built G’day Europe because we couldn’t find it when we needed it.
My wife got a job offer in London. We looked at each other and said yes. Pack up, move overseas, use London as a base and actually see Europe properly. Simple enough in theory.
What followed was weeks of Googling. Dozens of tabs open. Reddit threads that went nowhere. Facebook groups full of conflicting advice. Removalist websites that told us how to ship our furniture but not what to do when we landed.
Which visa do we actually need? Which SIM card works without a UK credit history? How do you keep your Australian number active so MyGov doesn’t lock you out? What happens to our bank accounts, our super, our investment property back home? How do you find a flat when you’ve never rented in the UK before? How does the NHS work? Where do you even start?
We looked for the guide that answered all of this in one place. It didn’t exist.
So we built it.
Who this is for
Any Australian who’s made the move to the UK and Europe — or is seriously thinking about it.
It doesn’t matter how you got here. A job offer that was too good to say no to. A spouse or partner who got that offer and you both decided to go. A Youth Mobility Visa and a desire for something different. A longer-term move with no fixed plan for coming back.
Whatever brought you here, the questions are the same. We try to answer them.
What we cover
We’re building guides across everything you actually need to sort out when you make this move:
- Visas and work — what’s available, what the fine print actually means and what life looks like once you’re here
- Money and banking — day one finance setup, what to do with your Australian accounts and how to send money home without getting ripped off on exchange rates
- Living in the UK — SIM cards, finding a flat, registering with a GP, getting around
- Keeping your Australian life intact — super, tax residency, investment properties, keeping your number active for your banks and government accounts
- Travel — using London as a base to actually see Europe, with honest guides from trips we’ve done ourselves
Start here: our guides to getting a UK SIM card, setting up your banking from day one and finding a flat in London.
How we do it
Everything on this site comes from direct experience. We’re not travel writers summarising someone else’s research. We’re a couple who made this move, figured things out the hard way and wrote it down.
Where we haven’t done something ourselves we research it properly — and we tell you what you should double-check for your own situation. We’ve been burned by bad information on the internet too many times to pass it on.
We’re based in London. Like a lot of Australians who make this move we’re still figuring parts of it out ourselves — including the job market. Which means everything we write comes from someone who’s actually in it right now, not someone who did it ten years ago and half-remembers.
G’day Europe grows as we do.
The information on this site is for general guidance only and is not legal, financial or immigration advice. Always check with a qualified professional before making big decisions.