Things you can expect as an Aussie travelling overseas
Including getting asked "Have you ever ridden a kangaroo?"
As an Australian who has travelled a lot, there are certain things you will have said to you or get asked about a lot. People in the Northern Hemisphere seem to have this fascination with meeting Australians. They really do think it’s another world “Down Under”. While you will hear a lot of the same things over and over, there are also a lot of random smaller differences between Australia and other places that people are fascinated about. There are also things I’ve learnt about people in the Northern Hemisphere that surprise me. I’d thought I’d compile them in this newsletter for you here, so that if you’re an Australian going to travel in the Northern Hemisphere anytime soon these are some of the things you can expect to hear, be asked about, have said to you, have an argument about about or be shocked to discover.
As a caveat, while I’ve travelled lots in the Northern Hemisphere, I’m still yet to visit any of the Americas. Despite that, I have met a lot of people from there on my travels so I’d say I’ve still got quite a wide variety of personal data from over the years around different people’s thoughts and opinions of Australia and Australians.
The main thing you will find is that people are particularly fixated on the animals in Australia. I’m shocked how many people instantly mention spiders and say how they could never come to Australia because of all the spiders. I barely ever see spiders in Australia. I understand if you’re living in a rural area, or somewhere in Queensland, you might see them more often but not enough to matter. No one has died by spider bite in Australia since 1979 so there’s really nothing to worry about. Snakes are another thing people mention, and while I’m personally terrified of snakes I’ve only maybe seen two outside of a zoo or reptile park in my whole life, and I grew up in the desert. Crocodiles and sharks occasionally get a mention, as well as kangaroos and koalas. If you come across a gullible enough person you can convince them you rode kangaroos to school and that drop bears are real.
You get people saying “g’day mate” to you and thinking themselves quite funny.
People especially love when you say “no” (“naurrr”) or “water” (“war-dah”) in an Australian accent.
There’s also a variety of common terms we use in Australia that confuse people in the northern hemisphere, some including '“heaps good”, “reckon”, “keen as”, “no worries” and “all good”. I had a friend who, when at a pub in Edinburgh, was asked if she would like another beer and when she told the bartender “all good” he proceeded to bring her another beer, thinking she had said yes.
I’ve also discovered that the Americans I have met don’t use the word “fortnight” which is super random but shocked me nonetheless. Fortnight, I feel, is a very common word used in Australia because a lot of people get paid their income fortnightly. When I said the word “fortnight” in passing to an American they thought I was talking about the video game!
Speaking of Americans, “Shrimp on the barbie” is not something Australians say. Ever. We call them prawns ok.
People will often exclaim about how far away Australia is and ask how long it took you to fly over. They will also claim they would love to visit but either think it’s too far (they’re not wrong) or they’re scared of {insert dangerous animal here}.
I’ve had people ask all the time “What’s the weather like in Australia?” to which I reply “Which part?”. People really struggle to conceptualise how big Australia is as a country and how different it is depending where you go. I’m originally from Alice Springs so when I tell people it’s a 14 hour drive to the nearest city/beach they are gobsmacked. If you drive 14 hours in Europe you’d probably pass through at least 5 countries.
These are some of the things you can guarantee to have a conversation about at some point as an Australian travelling overseas. I’m sure you’ll also discover other random and niche differences on your own travels which is always fun. I would personally recommend that you lean in to your Aussie-ness on your travels and definitely try convince some unsuspecting soul that we do in fact have drop bears in Australia (be sure to show them the above photo).