McDermott Wanted Down Under Revisited

Moving to the other side of the world

can mean risking not only your own future,

but your children's too.

And in 2008,

the McDermott family faced a tough choice

between what life in Australia could offer

and what it might cost.

Four years on, we've caught up with them to find out how and where they are now.

Australia was Karen McDermott's dream,

and her family were set to emigrate

when she received some devastating news.

I discovered a lump in my breast and went to the doctor's and I had breast cancer.

When you get something like that come along, thoughts of emigrating go to the back of your mind.

Now fully recovered, Karen was determined to make the move despite her partner's doubts.

'Karen's illness has made us seriously think,'

"Should we prevent ourselves doing something

"that maybe is going to niggle us for the rest of our lives?"

So what became of the McDermotts' dream of a life down under?

'At the time, it didn't feel like there was really much of way forward for a little while.'

But I'm really, really happy with where we are now.

In 2008, the McDermott family faced a huge decision -

whether to build new lives and a new business

on the other side of the world.

Ahead of them was a week experiencing Australia.

Today, we'll find out what's happened since then.

Karen and Alan McDermott lived in Upminster with their children

Zara, then 11, and Bradley, 7.

Alan was a senior manager for a large IT company, but work had become a means to an end.

Although I really enjoy my job, it's different every single day

and it is challenging,

I feel that sometimes it impinges slightly on the social side.

After her battle with cancer, it was also important for Karen to slow things down a bit.

When you live near London, life is so fast-paced,

it would be nice just to step off

that merry-go-round and do things at a slower pace, and enjoy doing them.

Karen also had high hopes for a better way of life

for her children.

I want them to be children and enjoy their childhood, rather than worry about the next test that's coming.

From what I've heard about Australia, they approach their education differently.

It's not just about academics, it's more of a rounded education.

Bradley, a talented tennis player, had his own ambitions in Australia.

I want to play tennis quite a lot there,

cos it's one of my favourite sports,

and I don't want to miss out on it.

If I'm famous, I could play in the Australian Open.

Then aged 45, Alan and Karen were too old to get a working visa

and the only way for them to realise their dream was to buy a business in Australia.

Although they liked the idea of running a coffee shop, neither had any experience.

It certainly means we'd have to make an investment,

so we'd have to sell up here

and we'd have to segregate some of our money to buy a business.

'It's therefore important that we make that a success.'

Financial security was just one concern for Karen.

And although she'd been given the all clear, her health was still a major concern.

Being through something like cancer, it is always on your mind.

Is it going to come back? I'm hoping we don't have any more problems like that, but you never know.

And support from her friends and family was a vital part of Karen's life in the UK.

'The things that I'll find most difficult to leave,'

obviously, are friends and family,

and the things that are familiar to us.

'But we've been thinking about this for such a long time now

'that I've been through those scenarios in my mind and I am going to miss everybody desperately,'

but we want to do this, so it will be a fantastic new beginning for us.

For their trial week in Australia,

the McDermotts journeyed more than 10,000 miles

to the city of Adelaide,

and after 23 hours in the air,

Karen was ecstatic to finally touch down on Aussie soil.

I just can't believe that we're here - after all these years of looking into Adelaide, we're here.

We made it!

With such high hopes, was the week ahead going to live up to their expectations?

Adelaide is the capital of the state of South Australia

and with a population of over a million people,

it's also the country's fifth largest city.

Home for the week was a three-bedroom property in Glenelg South,

a popular beachside suburb.

The house was an old-style property with plenty of space and character,

and, most importantly, just a stone's throw from the beach.

The McDermotts couldn't wait for their first taste of life down under.

-That's nice, isn't it?

-A lovely long hallway.

Yeah.

-Look. Nice bed.

-It's really like an old house, isn't it?

-It is. It has that old feel about it.

-Yeah. It's really charming.

Oh, Karen, look.

That's really nice.

Wow, this is lovely.

-It feels quite homely, doesn't it?

-It does.

The family liked what they saw, and having just arrived,

Alan was already thinking like an Aussie.

First impression's been really good.

I think we're only three roads away from the beach, so during the summer,

it will be a very nice place to visit.

It was a great start, but would the McDermotts be able to afford to live here?

They had a big week ahead.

Back in the UK, the McDermotts lived in a four-bedroomed family home

in Upminster.

With UK house prices falling, it was a risky time to sell.

But they needed to raise enough money to fund a new home and business

if they were to make the move.

They hoped to have £275,000 to spend in Adelaide,

and their ideal home would be the same size as their UK house

but by the beach and with a pool.

So, would their wallet be able to keep up with their dreams?

They visited three properties to see what was on offer

if they chose to move.

The first was close to their rental accommodation in Glenelg.

Just five minutes from the beach, it had three bedrooms

and a pool.

It was on the market for 620,000, around £285,000, at the time.

Oh, it's a prison. It's got bars on the window.

Don't say that!

Not the best start. But did the pool impress?

-Ooh, look!

-Look at that.

-Well, now, children, this puts a different perspective on the place.

What's the water like?

It's really cold.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

Well, it was the middle of winter, Bradley.

-That needs a bit of work.

-That's lovely. So different to the outside.

The indoors left Alan cold.

It just feels on the dim side, doesn't it?

But a classic Aussie feature got a warmer welcome.

-Is that a closet?

-A walk-in wardrobe.

-Your ultimate desire.

-Right up my street.

The property had two more bedrooms, but were they big enough for the McDermotts?

It's quite a small room, isn't it?

-Yes, it is.

-It's all right for a guest bedroom,

but I think for one of the children to use it all the time,

it's a little bit too small.

The kitchen's nice. It's all one room.

I think I prefer a lounge that's segregated off from the kitchen.

-A separate lounge as well?

-Yeah.

Fortunately, the space they wanted was down the other end of the hall,

with another open living room.

-A surprise. There is a separate lounge.

-Yeah.

What is it, study, lounge?

That's really good, isn't it?

It's very big.

Things were looking up until Alan looked up.

Fluorescent strips, not my cup of tea.

So, after a good look round, what did the McDermotts make of the first house?

Personally, I don't really like the place.

It is 500 metres from the beach.

Even so, I don't feel that it's close enough.

If we're going to live by the sea, I want to live by the sea.

-You want to overlook the water.

-I'm quite shocked how pricey it is around here.

You don't really get a lot for your money.

Finding space was clearly important for the McDermotts

so would the second home offer them more of what they wanted?

It was situated in Aldgate, in the hills surrounding Adelaide,

about 25 minutes from the city.

This three-bedroom home was on the market

for 680,000 Australian dollars, then around £355,000.

-This is... This is lovely.

-This is more like it!

-This is better than the last one.

-This is really nice. We do like this.

Their first impressions were good, even though it was 20 miles from the coast.

Like the first house, it had an open-plan layout, with a large, modern kitchen.

-I can see myself cooking here.

-Yes.

I really could. It's decorated well.

Even the prospect of Dad's cooking didn't put the children off.

-I love this.

-So do I.

Daddy could cook in here.

He could cook one of his famous rogan josh.

It was a great start but what about the rest of the house?

This is quite spacious, isn't it?

This could be, um, I don't know, could it be, like, a study?

I think it could be a bedroom.

You could probably use it as an office too.

Alan's positive reaction was good news for Karen.

And the large garden was just what the McDermotts had been hoping for in Australia.

-They'd have great fun out here, wouldn't they?

-I think they would.

It's got character. They'd hide and run about.

The house and garden were both big pluses.

But something still wasn't quite right.

I think the building, on its own, in isolation, is superb.

We really like the inside.

It's very spacious. We like the garden.

There are some downsides. I don't want to sound negative, but it is a long way away from everything.

There are no shops in walking distance.

Some people might like that, but for us, we like to be reasonably near to civilisation, don't we?

And for Zara, one important thing was missing.

-I think we would rather a swimming pool in the garden.

-Well, there you go.

That's something we thought was the norm, a given, in Australia.

We're not sure it is now.

House-hunting in Adelaide was becoming an eye-opening experience for the McDermotts.

One more option remained.

Situated in the suburb of Woodford, this four-bedroom house was older in style and needed updating.

It was the cheapest of the three properties, then on the market

for 600,000 Australian dollars, around £275,000.

It's going to be an interesting home, isn't it?

-It certainly is.

-This is going to be interesting.

-Is this a games room?

Yes, we could spend a bit of time in here.

-Do you want one of these?

-Yeah.

-It has a nice feel, this room.

-It does, doesn't it?

Things looked promising but would the upstairs layout suit the family?

It's a bit '60s.

It does, yeah. It feels very '60s.

When you stand outside a property,

you normally...comment on the brickwork,

but looking at the brickwork internally, it makes it feel a bit dull and dark.

I think a lot of Australian homes have got this.

-Have they?

-Internal brickwork effect.

-But it's a dark brick.

It really does dim the place down.

The Ramsay Street brickwork was a real letdown.

A nice-sized kitchen.

It's quite nice, isn't it?

-It needs updating.

-It does need updating.

-It does.

It looked like an expensive project.

At least the master bedroom had the space Karen wanted.

You have the walk-in wardrobe so you don't need a massive room.

You don't, actually. En-suite bathroom.

-Again, it needs updating, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

Would the garden have that much-needed wow factor?

Look. There we are.

-Barbecue area.

-This is nice. This is nice and tidy round here.

It's quite a small garden, really.

-I expected it to go back much further.

-Yeah.

In Australia, you expect triple the size, easily, wouldn't you?

-Yeah.

-OK.

The dream of a big garden and pool in every home was left high and dry.

Seeing how far their budget would go

had been a real wake-up call.

You think you'll come out here and find something absolutely fab for next to nothing.

And then you suddenly start to feel that,

"Hm, I think we're going to have to come out here

"and work just as hard as we work in the UK."

-It's knocked a dream into a bit of a reality check.

-Yeah.

-Definitely has.

-Things are a bit more expensive than we thought.

-They are a lot more expensive than we first thought.

-Yeah.

The first house was too pricey and too small.

The second had the space they needed but was too far from the city.

The third house was unwanted down under.

So how did the McDermotts vote on Aussie homes?

Based on the properties that we've seen today,

compared to our property in the UK,

our decision is...

-..England.

-Australia.

With Karen and Alan unable to agree, the week was off to a tricky start.

Karen and Alan were unable to qualify for a work visa.

so the McDermotts' hopes of moving depended on buying a company outright.

They hope to run a coffee shop, something neither of them had ever done before.

They headed to a neighbourhood cafe to try their hand at the daily grind of running a business.

The nerves were beginning to kick in.

I'm a bit worried about it, especially if they try and get us to use one of those coffee machines.

I don't quite know how we're going to get on with it.

Not an encouraging sign but Alan was thinking of the big picture.

It will give us a good opening,

I think, into the operational side of things.

What it's like dealing with the public

and putting up with the rush hour

and the peak times and I think that's going to be quite interesting.

The pressure was on for Karen's dream as any chance of moving

would boil down to what they found out today.

Owner Lisa Fabrey put the McDermotts straight to work.

First, chef Manu made sure Alan was suitably attired.

You know how to put it.

-You put it round the front?

-Yes.

-OK.

-That's it, nice and tight.

I don't want it to fall down, do I?

-Start the burgers...

-While Alan got stuck into the cooking,

-Karen handled the customers.

-Sure.

As the lunchtime rush began, things began to heat up for both of them.

Which meant Karen facing her fear of the coffee machine.

Coffee nice and smooth, yeah.

Burger coming through.

With Mum and Dad getting used to cafe culture,

Zara and Bradley were guests at a local tennis court.

The children love to play at their local club.

Bradley qualified for extra coaching from the Lawn Tennis Association.

Could Australia's outdoor lifestyle and coaching raise their game?

I think Australia is definitely better than England,

because it's got everything England has, and more.

But Bradley knew Mum and Dad weren't as sure.

Our mum really likes it, but our dad is just 50-50. He's not sure.

How did they think their parents would do running a cafe?

My mum would be very friendly. A friendly person to work with.

And my dad would be a brilliant chef.

He'd be very demanding sometimes.

Back at work, the lunchtime rush was over.

Karen and Alan took the opportunity to talk to Lisa

about the ups and downs of running a business.

Like the McDermotts,

Lisa and her husband had no experience of running a coffee shop

when they first opened their doors.

Her advice could have been vital.

You've got to think about the upfront costs of buying a business,

but then, you're not going to make a profit for quite some time.

-Probably a year?

-Well, a year would be good, I think, from what I hear.

Is this after you've paid yourself a wage or are you taking next to nothing?

Well, what happened for the first four months was

that I paid myself a wage and then I put it back in again.

So I considered that my investment in the business.

-Apparently, it's really good to get a wage out of it at all in the first year.

-Really?

Do you still get social time, though?

-Me?

-With family?

As a family?

Not very much at the moment.

I still see us in the very early stages of setting up a business

and I don't expect not to be working a lot.

But I think that gets easier because there's so much to put in

at the beginning, you've got to lay those foundations.

It looked as if starting a business would take a huge investment of time and money.

They'd enjoyed their day but the McDermotts' dream of emigrating

was going to be harder than they thought.

I think we've realised that we would have to make much more of a financial

investment and we'd have to put in a lot more hours than we first thought.

So what was their verdict?

-England.

-England.

A vote for home was a huge blow to the McDermotts' plans.

After experiencing the reality of running a business in Australia,

Karen and Alan had learnt some important lessons.

I've realised that, actually, it's going to be, financially, quite challenging for us.

We need to turn over something like 200,000 to run a business per annum.

Shall we say, our naive approach has been dented severely.

After a tough day at work, the McDermotts urgently needed to see

an upside to life in Adelaide, and its lifestyle didn't disappoint.

It doesn't feel like a city. It's more like a big town.

It just has a really lovely feel.

It's great for the family. Great for the kids.

As a treat for the children,

Karen and Alan took them to a local family attraction.

With the hours they worked in the UK,

it was a rare chance for the family to spend quality time together

and a welcome break from Karen and Alan's worries.

But while the children were happy, Mum and Dad's experience at the coffee shop

was still on their minds.

When we spoke to Lisa yesterday at the cafe

about not only the amount of commitment and hours

that she has to put in, which we kind of expected,

it was just the thought of the financial side of things

and the fact that she's, you know, not making the money

that we would expect her to make.

In fact, she's lucky to break even at times. It's a bit of a worry.

I don't want to go home because England is cold and it doesn't have

anything like this, and it's amazing to be here.

It looked like the children had fallen for the Adelaide lifestyle.

Everywhere you look, there's something you want to go to.

But did everyone agree?

Based on the Australian lifestyle we've seen today, our decision is...

ALL: Australia!

Their week in Adelaide showed the McDermotts that

moving down under would come at a high price.

But there was one more cost they still had to face.

Hello!

Hi, Karen, Alan, Zara and Bradley.

I hope you've had a good time this week and seen lots of Australia.

-Kangaroos!

-And kangaroos.

Hi, Karen and Alan. Message from Mum and Dad to you and the kids.

I hope you've had an absolutely wonderful time there

and seen everything you need to see

before you make a really big decision.

Karen, she's my big sister.

She's wonderful.

She's a very sociable person.

She's very outgoing, very easy to talk to.

Gets on with everybody, really. She's good fun.

The courage and dignity that she bore that illness with was fantastic.

She was always up and, "Right, I'm going to get through this day."

And was just fantastically strong throughout the whole thing.

Our biggest concern really is her health.

If she should become ill, we won't be there...

-..which we were before.

-The other thing is

the change in direction...

The fact that they're looking to go into a totally different field.

I just think it's barmy, but there we are. LAUGHTER

If he does it, fine, good luck to him.

We'll help as much as we can, but I think...

it's not a good thing to do.

The main thing I'll miss is having that person

that I know is always there.

If you do go...

-we'll be with you.

-We'll be there.

If this is what you really want and this is your dream, go for it.

I hope you've got your sums right, kids, I'm sure you have.

But do double-check your figures, but, erm...

Whatever your decision is, you know we're with you. We'll see you soon.

-Bye from both of us.

-Bye!

When you watch something like that, it really hits you hard, about how everybody feels.

It's not just about how we feel about being here.

It's how it's going to affect those that we might leave behind.

-We'll always love them.

-Of course we will.

Having seen that video, or DVD,

of people that we know and love and are close to us, um,

I don't think I've got over the shock.

In fact, your mum and dad are more concerned about your illness than you are.

We're trying to move on, we're trying to turn over a new page.

Your mum and dad are going to live with that.

You're right. I don't want to be a slave to having an illness like cancer.

I'd like to be able to put it behind me and just move forward now, really.

It made me feel very sad.

It made me think of what I've got and how lucky I am to have everything,

have Nan and Grandad always there for me.

I've got a really great family and I just don't want to leave them now.

It was the end of a revealing week for the McDermotts.

They'd had a great time getting to know Australia

and fallen in love with the lifestyle.

But at the heart of the move was their plan to buy a business.

After seeing just how tough that would be,

Karen's long-held dream of a move down under seemed under threat.

We've seen so much and done so much in a short space of time.

It's just too much, it's information overload. We need time for it to sink in now.

It might be a dream for us but it could end up being a nightmare for us as well,

and for our friends and family at home.

For me, I don't know whether we'll make it or not.

So, watch this space.

With so much at stake, how did they vote?

It's been a roller-coaster of emotions this week.

We've viewed properties, we've worked in a cafe, we've met new people.

It's really been a fantastic experience for us.

It's really put us into turmoil now.

It's been very hard to take in how different it is to England.

-That's true.

-It's going to be a tough decision, isn't it...

-Yeah.

-..at the end of the day? Because we've had fun, we've had emotion, we've had tears.

Our decision is...

-UK!

-Australia!

There week in Australia left the McDermotts split

right down the middle.

For Karen and Alan, life down under came at simply too high a price.

But Zara and Bradley were won over and ready to pack their bags.

So, four years on, where are they now?

The McDermotts are living in...

the UK.

Karen, Alan,

Zara and Bradley

have settled back into life just outside London.

Their week in Australia convinced them

that emigrating wasn't the right decision.

We realised that it wasn't for us.

We had a great week but the reality of the property prices

and running the business -

it was just too much.

It wasn't the dream that we thought it was going to be.

Consequently, by the end of the process,

we'd completely flipped 180 and said, "No, I think it's the UK for us."

Bit of a double-edged sword.

Some sadness, because it was something that we'd looked at

for a really long time but also it was a relief that we now know the UK is where we live

and where we're going to stay.

It helped us look at our future here, rather than in Australia.

You roll the dice...

But staying in the UK doesn't mean that nothing's changed for the McDermotts.

In fact, their experiences helped them

take a look at what was really important to their family.

We had work out what the next thing for us was to do.

For us, it was about trying to drive some more leisure time

into our UK lifestyle.

Like thousands of families, the McDermotts downsized,

selling their four-bedroom house

and buying and renovating a smaller property nearby.

It's been quite a journey.

The house that we moved from, it was a lovely big house.

It had a lot of character to it.

It was sad, in a way, to leave it.

But... And it was lot of upheaval.

When we bought this property,

it had been rented out for a few years so

it had not been looked after.

It was in a very unloved state. More importantly,

it wasn't the size we wanted it to be, so decided to extend it.

We put a double-storey extension on the house

and we've put in some nice touches that we wanted.

It's been a big change for the whole family but

with some real benefits.

It took a bit of adjustment to move into a smaller property

that was run down. That was hard.

But we got there in the end.

Zara went from having a really big room at the old house

to having a boxroom.

She struggled with that for a while.

From the children's point of view,

I think it took them a little while to adjust.

First of all, it was tough because we'd moved from a big, stable house

to this house and it was about a third of the size of our old house

so it was quite small.

But Zara and Bradley aren't missing their old house too much.

When doing up the new place, Mum and Dad

built in a special feature.

I prefer this house because we've got a games room.

It's so much better!

We've managed to give them a social area in the house

that they can now use to bring their friends round

and watch TV in there, chill out.

That's been a benefit for them.

Oh!

I really do like this house.

It's been much more tailor-made to our requirements.

It's situated in a better place than our last house was.

Much more convenient for us.

Obviously, they don't have the big mortgage they used to have.

Giving up their big home AND its big mortgage was key to giving

the McDermott family what they wanted -

more money to spend on leisure and the chance to enjoy it together.

Downsizing has meant we can spend more family time.

Sometimes you just want to say, "Let's go out tonight,"

and not think, "Can we afford to do that?"

Now, we can say, "Yeah." We can go out for a meal every now and again, which is lovely.

We've found that trying to have more time for the things that we enjoy

is really important.

That's the four of us, not just for the children.

We've got the tennis, I play a bit of golf occasionally,

if I get the time at weekends.

It was their week in Australia that inspired the McDermotts to

put family life ahead of work.

With more money and time,

they've even rediscovered some hidden talents.

'I've played guitar since I was eight years old'

and now I can spend a bit of weekends doing a bit of song-writing,

and Zara's got a great voice,

'she enjoys singing, so we're starting to record together now

'and really got the passion back for music.'

# Just shoot for the stars if it feels right

# Then aim for my heart if you feel like

# And take me away

# I'll make it OK

# I swear I'll behave. #

I definitely think my parents are a lot happier than they were before

because, obviously, with this new house,

it's definitely made them feel a lot more relaxed

because before, they were worrying about mortgage and money

'and my dad works from home a lot now, most of the time,

'so he's always around,

'so it's really great to have that family unit together.'

BOTH: # I'll show you all the moves like Jagger

# I've got the moves like Jagger

# I've got the moves like Jagger... #

One of Karen's fears about moving to Australia

was being far from her parents.

The new house has really solved that problem.

'Since we moved to this house,

'we live been a lot closer to my parents.

'We live at the back of a park

'and they live on the other corner of the park,

'so we do see a fair bit of them

'and now they're getting a bit older,'

it's quite nice, I think, that we're close by

and I can keep my eye on them

and, you know, be there for them if they need us

'and I think they feel reassured as well, that we're close by.

'They often just pop round for a coffee

'on the off chance that we're in, and we do the same.

'My parents were quite vocal about the fact

'that they didn't want us to go to Australia

'and they could see that it would have been financial ruin for us'

but we said we needed to go and look at this

and make our own decisions, it was something that we want to do,

so they had to really understand

'where we were coming from.

'I think with going through the breast cancer that I went through,

'you do tend to rely on your friends so much more

'and your family, obviously.'

Everyone around you becomes key in your life,

so if we'd gone to Australia, we wouldn't have had that network.

Having shared so much together, in the end, it was family ties

that made moving to Australia a step too far.

Hi, Karen and Alan, a message from Mum and Dad to you and the kids.

'In Australia, watching the video of the family and friends,

'it was quite heartbreaking.

'I don't think any of us expected to feel quite as emotional as we did.

'I'm glad we did,'

because it just again helped to cement our decision

'on staying in the UK.'

If this is what you really want to do, this is your dream,

then go for it.

'My parents were really quite relieved.'

In fact, Mum gave me a big hug when she found out that we weren't going

and that we were staying here, so yeah, they were absolutely

'over the moon that we were staying.'

-Brings it back, doesn't it?

-It certainly does.

-We're not gone.

-No!

-We're still here.

We're still here, we've not gone.

I look at it, and as I said,

I realise just how much we would have missed

not seeing them grow up and develop

and that would have been the saddest part, I think.

I think...

One of the big reasons that we didn't go was because of friends and family.

We would have had to make a completely new network of friends

and connections out there,

and I think it was important that...

you know, it was important in our decision process.

-It's a lovely country, there's no doubt about it.

-Oh, yes.

-But...

-Not for you.

-No.

-No.

-I'm very pleased about that.

THEY LAUGH

One thing that attracted both Karen and Alan to Australia

was the chance to enjoy a more outdoor lifestyle,

so were they able to make that dream come true without moving down under?

I think at the point when we came back and we realised

that it just wouldn't have been the right decision for us to go

at that point in our lives,

we could then look forward and just close the door on that chapter,

so it really did help us enormously in that respect.

One of our goals was to buy a property abroad,

so we could enjoy our holidays more

and feel more at home in the place that we were holidaying in,

if you like, so we started to look at various different locations abroad

and Bulgaria was in the top ten places to buy, and we bought...

We bought a property in a place called St Vlas near Sunny Beach.

It's just great fun. It's just great fun, and we really, really enjoy it.

The children have got friendships with other children their own age

and it just means that we can spend more time together as a family

and we've found as well that my parents enjoy coming with us

and so does my sister and her family,

so we're having extended family holidays over there.

Again, that's something

that we didn't really think about when we bought the place,

but they love coming back with us year after year,

so that side of it has been absolutely fantastic.

With their villa in Bulgaria,

things have turned out rosy for Mum and Dad,

but it was Zara and Bradley who fell in love with life in Adelaide.

Both of them voted for a move to Australia,

so how have they settled back into life in the UK?

When my parents decided to stay in the UK, I was a bit gutted,

really, because I wanted to move to Australia along with my brother.

Yeah, I was disappointed when they told me that we weren't moving,

because I really wanted to go out there and because it was

so fun, it was, like, a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

It can't be a family decision, something like that, it has to come from us,

and then we have to explain to the children

why it's not going to happen, why we're not going to emigrate.

I think they were disappointed cos they'd seen some really good things

and they'd spent the whole of their week

doing things that they'd never done before.

What Bradley loved about Australia was all that sport out in the sun,

so how's he getting on at home?

Bradley has just this year started secondary school

so he's getting to grips with that now and doing really well.

I'm really pleased with how he's getting on,

and he's getting involved in his tennis at school and outside school.

He's done a bit of golf, rugby,

any sport going, really, Bradley's up for.

He's a real sporty boy, always on the go.

Great play, Bradley, well done.

I really enjoy doing tennis.

It's like the tennis court's pretty much my second home.

It would have been a lot harder for tennis out there because I have

a lot of friends here that sometimes I play matches with.

I do lessons with them and they're really nice.

It would have been a really big change for me

and would have been really hard.

And Zara's making leaps and bounds with her music and her studies.

Zara's doing really well at school.

She's predicted to get high grades in her GCSEs.

She works hard, always gets her homework done,

so we're very proud of how she's getting on.

But for Zara, her week in Australia was a life-changing experience,

one she's not forgotten.

After falling in love with the Adelaide lifestyle,

she's now got her own dreams of one day making a move down under.

I think she's happy where she is now but whether she'll still be here

in a few years' time when she's an adult, I don't know.

She's had a taste of Australia and, er, she has mentioned that she

would like to go back maybe to work there one day.

I want to be an obstetrician or go into that sort of career path,

so I know that Australia offers a lot of opportunities out there

for people wanting to follow my career path, so, you know,

I definitely will be considering moving there when I'm older.

When I went to Australia, erm,

it was a really good experience for me

because I learned a lot about what houses are going to be like there,

the culture, the lifestyle, how to run your own business.

It's definitely given me a huge learning curve in moving there.

If that's what she wants to do then we couldn't hold her back,

we'd miss her like mad, um,

but we'd have to go and visit if she did decide to stay there.

For the McDermott family, staying in the UK was a tough choice,

but it seems the right one.

And they're looking forward to the future,

surrounded by friends and family.

Feel like I've come full circle, really,

but really, really happy with where we are now

and what we've achieved since we had to shelve our plans.

At the time, it didn't feel like there was much of a way forward

for a little while, but we sat down and took stock

and looking back on it all now,

I'm really glad that we didn't go to Australia.

I don't regret trying it,

and I don't regret going through the process, and we've made a very

informed decision, and now I don't regret staying in the UK either.

In the end, their week in Australia did lead to big changes,

just not the ones the McDermotts had planned.

I like where we're living, I like being close to my mum and dad,

my sister's not that far away either.

We're in a better financial position than we were a few years ago

and we've got our nice little holiday home where

we can get a sunshine fix, so that's probably the benefits of being here.

And do Zara and Bradley agree?

I think they're a lot happier now that we've stayed in the UK,

especially because of the move.

We've been doing so much better since the move.

I do think it was the right decision not going,

because it has...it would have definitely put a lot of strain on

our family moving there, and I think we would have ended up moving back.

With the children happy and family life reorganised,

things are looking good for the McDermotts.

I definitely think, as a family, the McDermotts belong in the UK.

It looks as if Australia helped the McDermotts make the changes

they were searching for after all,

and staying in the UK was the right choice for the family,

with the holiday home a lovely bonus.

But for at least one McDermott,

the dream of an Aussie life isn't quite over yet.

We wish them all the best.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd