Down Under in Melbourne: How one couple from London embraced the opportunities of a new life in Australia

Travel writer Steve Malins spent time as a young man challenging himself and learning about the world around him. He qualified as a military parachutist by the age of 19, sailed across the Atlantic and worked in the heart of Luxembourg.

After a sabbatical “Down Under” in Australia learning to fly, farm and dive the Great Southern Land, he and his fiancée sold up in London and moved to Melbourne to start a family, embracing the climate, opportunities and offer of new life on an acre of land.

There was lots to do—train as a firefighter, farm; fish the bay, camp and ski the Alpine, and take the kids to Surf Life Rescue. He found himself a poster boy in the newspaper and sung live in front of 40,000 people as a reborn tenor.

This is the account of that move, yet another chapter in the life of the British expatriate full of wanderlust, looking for the greener grass on the other side of the fence.