Australia

Just seen from your replies that your son is headed to Wollongong and you were concerned about critters. I’m half hour north of Wollongong - it’s beautiful and a great area to live. It’s also more affordable than Sydney.

The chance of meeting nasty critters is not zero, but there are plenty of reasons it’s not common, and chances are even lower if you follow sensible precautions. In my 20 years here, I haven’t seen any snakes or dangerous spiders in suburban areas like Wollongong - only in less built up areas. Snakes are around but wisely keep out of humans’ way if they can. Spiders: I’ve seen one redback and no funnel webs. Sharks, various poisonous fish, octopi, jellyfish, etc are all out there, but again low chance and following well-publicised precautions reduces the odds further.

Hope your son enjoys his new life :)

I went to Wollongong once. Had lunch at a place called An Chut Chut. Incredible food.

Sorry I can't tell you more, other than it's a very pretty area. Beaches, hiking, train to Sydney if needed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wollongong

Yeah so that's a coastal city south of Sydney, NSW, I don't know much more about it beyond a few quick visits and their university. I had a look at their official website (https://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/) and I like that it's got a separate homepage for tourists and residents, so that site will have some useful tips for him.

Australia has a reputation for the dangerous critters but it's exaggerated a bit. It's not like we have bears or wild dogs (apart from dingos), the venomous animals generally want to run away from us. The exception would be crocodiles, and crocs aren't native to NSW.

I don't think there's anything too wild about our culture which would trick an internet-connected east coast fella, maybe that a fair bit of our (colonial) culture is closer to the UK than the US, so we might share things like understatement and a drier sense of humour. This page could also be fun to skim: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English_vocabulary

I don't know what the situation is in Wollongong, but in Sydney there's plenty of opportunity to explore different cultures. Depending on where you are on your east coast, you might have had similar immigration waves (e.g. initial European colony states, Central/South European WWII immigration, Pacific conflicts and general Pacific regional interests (e.g. gold rushes), Middle Eastern conflicts immigration) so in cities there's plenty of great cuisine from all around Asia, Lebanese/etc. food, Italian and Greek food, and plenty else around. Italians are sometimes credited with fueling a notable coffee culture in our cities. Wikipedia says Wollongong has Macedonians rank unexpectedly high up the demographics chart (~2%).

I lived in Wollongong for my Uni days and somewhat beyond. Dangerous critters are unlikely. Boredom is a possibility. It's not a slow country town but it certainly isn't a City either. BIG bands don't play there, indie hits do. A car isn't necessary, depending of course on his type of work. You can commute to Sydney by train but it's brutal. Not sure from your 'native' wording if his beloved is just Australian or of Indigenous heritage. There are some volatile sociopolitical issues with the latter. Wollongong is an old Steel town, it leans Left and Union, but is far from perfect.

He should be fine, his Australian girlfriend should help him out with the normal stuff here.

One thing that might be useful, when visiting the US many Americans would express concern about Australian spiders. I explained that it wasn't really much of an issue, you just make sure to check for spiders before putting your hands in places, putting on shoes, etc.

The shoes thing seemed particularly outrageous to them. It's pretty simple though, you just look at your shoes before putting them on. Any spiders in there? Any sign of webs? Don't put them on. Easy!

That's sounds like a done deal then, and he knows what he wants. Honestly, as a parent that's all you can ask for.

No, it's not the angle. The sun's orbit isn't exactly symetrical, it's a bit lopsided. In January the sun is about 5% closer to earth.

In the Northern hemisphere this is during winter, so it's the best of both worlds. In Australia though it's the reverse. We get extra dim winters and extra bright summers.