The British-born woman made the 17000km move to Sydney on a working holiday visa, leaving the grey skies of London behind for the fantasy of sunny days, beach swims and green smoothies.
Symonds soon met an Australian man, obtained her permanent residency and thrived in her new life in Kirribilli in Sydney’s north.
Annie Symonds met her husband Stephen Moylan while travelling and settled in Australia for seven years. (Supplied)
Just under 40,000 people from the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man arrived in Australia in 2024 alone.
Like many of these expats, though, the temptation of returning to a circle of loved ones back home was hard to resist.
“I was here for seven years before we moved back to the UK, and when we decided to move back, it was really exciting. It was a very spontaneous thing,” Symonds told Nine.com.au.
“In Sydney, I never really felt like I fitted in properly.
“So I couldn’t wait to be around all my family and friends again.”
Symonds commuted to London from Brighton. (Supplied)
Symonds and her husband Stephen Moylan packed up their life in Australia and moved to Brighton in 2018, a seaside town on England’s south coast.
The couple wanted to at least replicate some of Sydney’s coastal attributes.
And for a Londoner, Brighton was the next best thing.
The first 30 days were ideal. Then it all began to unravel.
“I was living in Brighton and commuting to London… and it was a horrendous commute,” Symonds said.
“It can take three hours to get to London. I was spending £1000 ($1873) per month on commuting.”
It was more than the rough commute that made Symonds realise she had made a mistake.
For one thing, a partner visa application for Moylan to permanently live and work in the UK was going to be a long and costly exercise.
In fact, Symonds realised most things were more expensive in the UK.
“I remember just thinking, like, how is everyone affording this?” she said.
“Everyone was just trying to keep up with the Joneses… It was a real eye opener.
“We thought, this isn’t worth it. So that’s why we came back.”
After just six months back on British soil, Symonds became a “ping pong pom”, a term coined by the expat community.
She made the leap for the second time and emigrated back Down Under.
After just six months back on British soil, Symonds and her husband moved back to Australia. (Supplied)
Logistically, it was easy to slot back into their Australian life. The couple had sold most of their belongings to travel before moving back to the UK.
Sydney house prices and rent, however, had become prohibitively expensive.
“It’s like saying an Australian wants to move to London and buy a house there,” she said.
“It was just not gonna happen.”
Symonds and Moylan moved to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, where they eventually bought their first home.
This time, eight years after leaving the UK behind again, it is a permanent move.
“I never realised that actually buying a home was what was going to really make me feel completely settled,” she added.
“I feel really content now.”
The couple bought a house on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. (Supplied)
Symonds is empathatic of the expat diaspora experience in Australia.
She writes blogs, produces social media content and records a podcast on this very phenomenon for her website Londoner in Sydney.
Her experience is not unusual: Symond said plenty of British expats “ping pong” their way back to Australia.
“That’s the problem that a lot of expats have when they move over to Australia, is that they remember the UK with rose-tinted glasses, and remember the good parts of it, not what it’s atually like to live there,” she said.
“I’ve found that a lot of people end up moving back because they’ve missed their friends and family and that sort of sense of belonging and identity.
“Then there’s the British culture… you know, the banter, the pub.”
Now a fully-fledged Australian home-owner, Symonds want to help other expats feel like they belong in the lucky country.
Because, as she explained, there is a lot more about Australia than just the beach.
“And I think it takes quite a while to understand that.”
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