As a California resident, I can't offer you too much advice on actually living anywhere, but out of all the places I've visited, Australia is definitly the place I'd actualy chose to live.

It's exotic, with amazing wildlife that you'll never see in the US, but the people are what really make it. Everyone we ran into was genuinly friendly, and not just in a "welcome to happy burger, have a nice day" kind of way. It's got big cities like sydney and melbourne, tropical climates with some of the best scuba diving in the world at the great barrier reef, extreem climates in the interior, and moderate climates in the south... And, for what it's worth, it still has a frontier - the feature that arguably shaped the US into whatever it is today. When we went on a family vacation, everyone expected it to be a checkmark on the list of continents to visit once in our lives, but by the time we left, everyone was trying to figure out when to go back.

Just my 2 cents worth...

Matthew