Is Mad Max an accurate depiction of every-day life in Australia?

Your best bet would be to find out whether or not you will be eligible to move permanently into Australia. Ring your local Australian Embassy/Consulate & inquire or better yet--look onto their official web site. To answer your 20 questions as this point in time would be mute since the requirements for migration change all the time and who knows what they will be like "in a few years".

You sure do want to get out of America--you want to go live in Ireland, Scotland, Seychelles & New Zealand---might be easier for you to migrate into Canada.....same 20 questions, different categories..lol I would suggest you pay a visit to all the countries in question--including Australia, there are a few different visas which you can obtain--although I would suggest that if you qualify--I would try a Working Holiday Visa.

You won't be able to move to Australia unless one of you has qualifications and experience in an occupation listed as being in need of workers - work visas are only granted to people who have skills that are needed in Australia. Both Photographers and Marine Biologists are eligible for employer sponsored visas but a photographer would need to be very talented (and very lucky) in order to get sponsorship. The MB would need a PhD before s/he would have any chance of being considered and would have to compete with our many local MBs who don't need sponsorship (it's a popular course here) and the hundreds of MBs from overseas who would do just about anything to be able to work on the GBR.

To answer your other questions... The Australian standard work week is 38.5 hours with 4 weeks annual leave. Australia's economy is in great shape with low unemployment. Our economy is of course not as large as that of the USA, but is very much stronger.

Sorry, but I find that a fairly offensive question and find it hard to believe that you would even consider coming here without already knowing that Australia is a modern democracy where everyone has complete freedom of religion, association, occupation and location and full protection by our government when those rights are abused. Of course everyone can go to university and all citizens are eligible for interest free, non means tested 100% student loans from the government which are repaid through the taxation system over our working lives. If you never work for some reason or if you never earn over a minimum earnings threshold, the loan is not repayable.

University is expensive for international students (but still less than many US colleges) and education for citizens and PRs is very heavily subsidised. For example, a 4 year Marine Biology degree would cost a citizen or PR under $20,000 and for an international student would be around $110,000. Australia has an excellent universal healthcare system paid for partly by a levy of 1.5% - 3% of our taxable income and partly out of overall government revenue.

All treatment in our excellent public hospitals is free and GP, specialist, pathology and diagnostic services and pharmaceuticals are heavily subsidised. Australia is a very safe and peaceful country and nobody, including Americans, is in danger here. We don't have a gang culture.

Housing is very expensive in our large cities. A one bedroom apartment near the Melbourne CBD will cost upwards of $300 per week (rents in Australia are always expressed as a weekly amount) and more like $450/$600 in Sydney. The cost of a modest house in most places will be over $350,000 but much more in Sydney.

Cars are much more expensive than in the US and tend to be much smaller and more fuel efficient. A new, very small car is around $16,000 with most medium sedans being over $30k. Sorry, but asking if we have buses in our cities is pretty insulting.

Australia is a very modern, 1st world, highly developed country. We don't have huge networks of subways, but we have extensive train and bus systems in our larger cities and even the smallest place has buses. Australia is closer to the Equator than the USA so our overall temperatures are warmer but the country is very nearly as large as the Continental US (the lower 48) and so there are wide variations in climate ranging from hot tropical in the far north to temperate in the far south with every possible variation in between.

We only get snow in the high mountains and none in any of our cities. We have cyclones (the Southern Hemisphere's version of hurricanes) in the far north between October and April and a few savage storms in other places but bad storms are unusual. "Can anyone visit the beach at anytime?"

Sorry, I don't understand the question. Of course anyone can visit the beach at any time and in the top half of the country, the sea is warm enough to swim all year around. Australia has no private beaches if that's what you're asking.

The Australian government immigration website should be your first stop because everything else is irrelevant if you can't get a visa. http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/ You would be crazy to come without at least $30k and more would be much better. Finding work as a photographer would be fairly easy.

As a MB less easy but you must have a work visa. The only work visa you can get is employer sponsored,k so by definition, you would have a job before you arrive. Degrees from the USA are generally acceptable in Australia.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.