Expat notices one habit Aussies who don’t live in Sydney share

A US expat has noticed the one thing some Aussies love to do when it comes to this particular city – but she doesn’t agree.

Us expat shocked Aussies love to ‘rip’ into Sydney. Picture: TikTok/brooke.alison.laven

A US expat has shared a clip on the one thing some Aussies do if they don’t live in Sydney.

Brooke Alison, who moved to the city earlier this year, joked that those who live outside of Sydney love to “rip” on it.

“I picked up on this thing about Australians that if you don’t live in Sydney, you love ripping on Sydney,’” she said in a TikTok.

“If somebody brings up Sydney they’ll say they hate the city and list all these different reasons.

“But if you ask someone who lives in Sydney about other cities in Australia, they’ll just say they’d love to visit, they have nothing bad to say.”

She emphasised what she was saying was “very generalised” but it was a theme she was noticing more of.

Brooke said she “kinda gets it” because before she moved to Australia she initially wanted to go to Melbourne or Brisbane as she thought Sydney was “so basic”.

“But now that I live here, I love it. I never want to leave,” she added.

“[And] having the conversations now, yeah, it’s just funny.”

US expat Brooke Alison noticed the one thing Aussies who don’t live in Sydney tend to do. Picture: TikTok/brooke.alison.laven

She said they love to ‘rip’ into the city. Picture: TikTok/brooke.alison.laven

Sydneysiders were quick to back how amazing the city is, while others noted how expensive it is.

“I totally get this. I live in Sydney but I love so many of the other cities around Aus for different reasons. They all hate on us for whatever reason,” a Sydney man wrote.

“This is so true!!! It’s an inferiority thing,” a fellow Sydneysider agreed.

A third person added: “Tbh everyone secretly desires to live in Sydney but it’s too expensive so it’s easier to just rip into it.”

Brooke’s clip also sparked the age-old debate of which city is better – Melbourne or Sydney.

“Sydney is close to snow and has great beaches. Can Melbourne or GC claim that?” one person wrote.

She laughed saying they list all the things they hate about it. But she disagreed, saying she loves Sydney. Picture: TikTok/brooke.alison.laven

“Yep. The rest of Australia has a massive chip on its shoulder. They want to be better than Sydney. Brisden your horizons Melbourne,” said another, while a third joked: “Brisbane and Melbourne have this obsession with ripping on Sydney because they think we do it to them and like … we just don’t care.”

Meanwhile, one person said: “Melbourne is the worst for this, you can’t see one thing about Sydney without them commenting how Melb is better, like get a life.”

And then there were those who wanted to keep the peace.

Brooke, from Minessota, moved to Sydney earlier this year. Picture: TikTok/brooke.alison.laven

“As a Sydneysider I love Melbourne and all the Aus cities, as well as regional areas. You just have to look for what they HAVE not LACK & enjoy it,” one Aussie said.

“Yeh, it’s a friendly rivalry, we all do it,” another chimed in.

But, when it comes to the most liveable city, Melbourne only just beat Sydney by one spot in this year’s The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index.

Vienna took out first place followed by Coppenhagen, then Melbourne in third and Sydney in fourth.

Last year, Melbourne was ranked tenth and Sydney fell to 13th spot due to the slow lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and overwhelmed healthcare systems.

But this year, the Global Liveability Index 2023 report said the city’s “shift towards normality after the pandemic” helped them bounce back up the list.

Both cities scored 100 in health, education and infrastructure, and 95 each in stability.

However, what set the cities apart was their culture and environment score, with Victoria scoring 95.8 to Sydney’s 94.4 out of 100.

Meanwhile, Brooke, who is originally from Minnesota, has been living in Sydney since the start of the year.

She ditched her HR job, moved to South Korea to teach English for four years, then packed her bags for Chile before settling in Australia on a working holiday visa.

She has been documenting her Aussie experience on TikTok where she has garnered almost 1 million ‘likes’ on her travel-based clips.