Down Under dream lives on for UK

Chris and Gemma Randle with children Maddie 3 and Oliver 1 cuddling a koala at Gorge Wildlife Park, Cudlee Creek . They are part of a A BBC TV reality TV show will highlight the benefits of living in the southwest.

In the cutthroat realm of reality TV, Wanted Down Under is a survivor. A daytime fixture that has just finished its 13th season, the BBC documentary follows Britons contemplating relocating to Australia or New Zealand. Equal parts travel, property and life-makeover program, it has a rival — A New Life in Oz, on Channel 5.

If a country’s TV schedules reflect its preoccupations, Britain’s must be bake-offs, island love and migration to the southern hemisphere.

Although stories about immigration make the front pages, ­Britain has a longstanding emigration habit. It was a net exporter of people until 1979. And when Britons migrate, they most often go Down Under. No country has received more Poms than Australia in the past three decades, in which an average of 30,000 a year have moved there for the long term (this excludes tourists, who also go south in droves). The second-favourite destination in the latest year, Spain, got little more than half as many.

Despite its reputation as a destination for prisoners, Australia attracted flocks of free settlers from the 1790s. It soon entered the British imagination as a workers’ paradise, with plenty of land, jobs and meat. Charles Dickens had such great expectations of Australia that he sent several of his fictional characters — and two of his real sons — there for better lives.

This fantasy continues. “I think the Australian dream is definitely mine and it has been since Kylie and Jason walked down the aisle in Neighbours,” said a Manchester mum recently on Wanted Down Under.

Yet fewer Britons now have that dream.

In 2017, only 19,000 made the hemispheric swap, down from a recent peak of 49,000 in 2006. These official figures have a high margin of error. But the decline has been fairly steady. It partly mirrors a slowdown in the total rate of emigration among Britons, which fell by 38 per cent in the same period, as weak global economic growth provided fewer temptations to move. Australia’s economy has fared well, but its stronger currency has made moving pricier. In 2006, £1 was worth about $2.50. Now it buys $1.85, making it harder to swap a London flat for a Melbourne mansion.

Paul Arthur, head of the Emigration Group, a company which helps Britons move to Australia and New Zealand, adds that until there is greater clarity regarding Britain’s position after Brexit, some of his clients will put off their moves.

At least they will still have Wanted Down Under. The show’s producer says she is already busy at work on series 14.