‘Sick of it’: Dad brands Western Australia the ‘worst’ state in Australia

An Aussie dad and travel blogger has slammed one state as the worst in Australia, sharing he’s “sick” of it.

A dad has branded one state the “worst” in the country, slamming its “archaic” rules around closing hours.

Jimmy Mitchell, who grew up in WA and travels the world with his family, blasted his “backwards” home state in a video on TikTok after he struggled to find an emergency dental practice to treat his son’s chipped tooth.

“I’m done freakin’ living in the state of Western Australia and how freakin’ backwards it is,” he shared in the video.

The father-of-two said he called over 15 different emergency dental practices around 3pm on a Saturday afternoon in February after his son chipped his tooth while going down a slide with his cousin.

The painful incident had not only broken off a part of his son’s tooth, it also left him with an exposed nerve.

“We tried 15-20 different emergency dental practices. Half of them didn’t pick up. The other half were like ‘oh we’re closing in half an hour, he’s just going to have to wait until tomorrow’,” he explained.

“As parents what would you do? Would you just leave it until tomorrow? No. We weren’t sure if he was going to lose his tooth, (so) we went down to the Perth Children’s Hospital and it took them three hours to turn around to us and say we need to go and see an emergency dentist.”

Mr Mitchell said WA is the "worst state in Australia". Picture: TikTok@themothfamily

He struggled to find emergency dental care for his son’s chipped tooth. Picture: TikTok@themothfamily

Speaking to news.com.au, Mr Mitchell said the ordeal left him “frustrated” and “disappointed” in the state’s health care system.

“We didn’t know if his tooth was going to be OK or whether it was going to die overnight because of nerves exposed. All we wanted was an emergency dentist to take five minutes to tell us whether it was going to be okay or not so we could leave it (until Monday).

“I’m genuinely scared in WA that if I was to get sick of or one the kids was to get sick, we wouldn’t get the healthcare that we needed because of how broken the healthcare system is.”

Mr Mitchell said the poor healthcare was just one of the issues which leaves him believing WA is the worst state.

“There’s the archaic rules like how shops close at midday. Even just fundamentally how the city is designed, you go into the CBD and everything’s closed after six o’clock.”

Mr Mitchell said he had to wait until the following Tuesday for a dentist to fit his son with a filling.

“So far it’s so good, but they said there’s a chance the tooth could die just because of how long it was left.”

Mr Mitchell, returned from a trip from Southeast Asia last year, said his son would have been better off if they were still overseas.

“At least in Southeast Asia, we would have been able to go and see an emergency dentist, go get it fixed and have a resolution to do that tooth quickly instead of the poor kid sitting there thinking he’s going to lose a tooth overnight,” he said on TikTok.

Jimmy Mitchell and his wife Pauline. Picture: @themothfamily/Instagram

His video received a mixed response online, with some expressing their shock over shops and facilities closing earlier than other states.

“1 million per cent!!! Coming from QLD I just can’t get used to it!” one person wrote.

“WA is backwards compared to most other states in Australia,” said another.

“I thought this when I moved here! I moved from Tassie and was SHOCKED how early everything closes,” another person wrote.

“Totally agree with you I had a similar situation but I had a bad infection in my tooth and I was in agony no dentist to be seen … When I called the next day, bookings took two weeks (and) I’m in pain! Perth needs to seriously have some more clinics open,” said another.

However, his comments didn’t sit well with everyone, with others suggesting he relocate to another state if he’s not happy in WA.

“Get out and live somewhere else if you’re not happy. Pretty sure most people don’t mind the lifestyle,” one person wrote.

“If you sick of living in WA, please leave. I live in Perth and is not like that stop complaining,” said another.

Mr Mitchell said he’s done exactly that and has since left the country to travel to Kuala Lumpur with his family.

“I’m kind of sick of WA, I’m kind of sick of the backwards mentality Australians have and how defensive they get. Everyone said to us if you don’t like it, leave and that’s what we did … We can vote with out feet.”

The father-of-two previously revealed why he “decided to give up on Australia” and travel around the world full-time in a viral TikTok video last year.

He explained that he just simply couldn’t afford to live in Australia despite him and his wife having good jobs.

“Between the cost of living, the cost of groceries, the cost of fuel, the cost of housing, all these costs, I felt like we were making this extraordinary income and just not getting ahead,” he said.

Mr Mitchell, who now runs an online marketing agency, explained that “the more I worked and the harder I worked to earn the money so we could have the stuff, the less time I got to spend with my family and my kids and my wife”.

Mr Mitchell argued the cost of living in Australia was “getting so ridiculous that it makes it impossible for families to be families”.

“We were just sick of it,” he said.

“We were at the point where we can’t continue like this, so we just made the decision to check out of it. We were like, we are just moving away from Australia because clearly we can’t afford to be here anymore. If we want to be together as a family, we can’t afford to stay in this country anymore.”

Originally published as ‘Sick of it’: Dad brands Western Australia the ‘worst’ state in Australia