Australian Stereotypes - Real or Fake?

By Cayla Graner

Stereotypes are found on every continent. The French are rude, the Americans are all fat, Chinese people are all smart. One cannot truly understand or interpret stereotypes until you have completely immersed yourself in that country’s style of living. When I was getting ready to go to Australia in 2017, I had this stereotype in my mind that Australia was full of blonde haired, tanned skin, blue eyed men and women who surfed a lot and were laid back. As I was there though, I realized that yes, there are Australians that fit this stereotype, but in reality Australia is filled with unique people from multiple different backgrounds Here are 5 stereotypes that I heard from the states or that I personally thought before I went.

STEREOTYPE 1 - ALL AUSTRALIANS ARE LAID BACK

This is partly true. All Australians get a month off of work as their summer holiday and most of them only work 30 hours a week. Of course there are exceptions, but it seems that the phrase, “Work hard, play hard,” is very much true in Australia. It is common for Aussies to surf in the morning before heading on to work, or hit the beach after a long day at work. Aussies are fun, friendly, and very carefree! I was in a grocery store once and the cashier was having a fun long chat with the customer and was bagging her groceries very slowly. The customer was engaging in the conversation and didn’t seem to mind how long she was standing there. This seemed so weird to me, because in America everything is about being fast and the workers hardly ever take the time to talk to you. The one thing about Australia that is fast however, is how they get around. The bus and train are used for travel, but most of the time walking is preferred. The Aussies are very fast walkers and they will even walk on the escalator.

STEREOTYPE 2 -EVERYTHING CAN KILL YOU IN AUSTRALIA, AND KANGAROOS AND KOALAS ARE EVERYWHERE

Definitely false!! I lived in Sydney for three and a half months and although my roommates saw a few bugs and snakes, I was never in contact with any animals. There are birds that fly and walk everywhere, but the dangerous spiders and snakes aren’t everywhere you walk. Australia is known for their huge spiders, but a friend once told me that it’s the small spiders that are the dangerous ones. Not sure how that made me feel better… The most dangerous animals in my opinion were the seagulls that would swarm the beaches and literally steal your food right from your hand and then poop on you. Sydney is a very urban place, so there aren’t a lot of creatures. Of course there are poisonous creatures in Australia, but you really have to travel outside of Sydney to get to them. Kangaroos and Koalas are not everywhere! In fact, in most areas of Australia it is illegal to hold or have a koala. I had to travel all the way to Cairns just to pet a koala. And despite what Aussies tell you, “drop bears” are not a real thing. So if they try to trick you into believing they fall from the sky and attack you, you can be prepared to get them back. And never call them koala bears, I was reminded multiple times that they were not a species of bear.

STEREOTYPE 3 - EVERYONE IS FIT

This is pretty true! In Sydney, there are a lot of places to walk and bike instead of taking the train or bus. Of course I don’t know what other places in Australia are like, but I can say that Sydney is pretty fit. The portions of food are a lot smaller than in America, and the ingredients are a lot healthier. Almost everything you get has avocado, pumpkin, or fruit in it. There are a few chains in Sydney, but there are mostly local places to eat. And even the chains that they do have, like McDonald’s, have a healthier menu with better ingredients.

Like I said before, Australians like to surf, run, and hang out at the beach before, after, and even in the middle of their work days. My boss once told me that he didn’t want me eating my lunch at my desk, but to go out for lunch and take a long walk, even if it was up to an hour a day! They really care about your physical and mental health over work productivity which was a weird but awesome thing to see. Australia is also very green and eco friendly. They take recycling very seriously and they have switches on all their outlets so that you can turn them off when you aren’t using the electric. In our rooms, the air turns off every hour, and if you want more air you have to turn the system back on.

STEREOTYPE 4 - AUSTRALIA IS SMALL

This stereotype is the funniest one of all. Australia is actually almost the same size as the U.S. It would take you five hours to get from Perth, which is in the Western part of Australia to Sydney which is in the Eastern part. The city of Sydney itself is almost 5,000 square miles! It once took us an hour to get from our apartments in Central Sydney to Manly Beach near Circular Quay. All of Australia is different, and is even split up into different time zones just like the U.S. There are even some territories(basically a region) that decide not to do time zones and control individual laws for their territory. Sydney is more urban and looks a little like New York City, but also has mountains and trees. The climate is almost always around 70-80 degrees throughout the year. Other parts of Australia can be in the dry climate, wet climate, or even the tropical climate. You can go to Sydney and still be amazed at how different Queensland is, and how long it actually takes to get there. And Queensland is only the next city over from Sydney. I met over a dozen people from London, Spain, New Zealand, France, and Thailand while I was there. It seems that Australia is a “melting pot” of nationalities. Whether someone is simply staying for school, lived there for six years, or has lived there their whole life, everyone is immersed in culture. If you just walk around the city of Sydney, you can see Chinatown, a German restaurant, a french restaurant, costumes and dances from other countries, and so much more. When you ask an Australian what types of foods their country is known for, a lot of them respond by saying that the food here is a mix of every other country’s food. There are literally so many different options for food all in the same street. It’s this mix of culture that makes me really love Australia. Yes, there are people who live their whole lives in Australia, but there are also those who bring their culture here and mix it in to create the great atmosphere and diversity of Australia! I know now, experiencing so much diversity and cultures in Australia has made me see how much of the world I want to experience.

STEREOTYPE 5 - IT’S NOT A HUGE CULTURE SHOCK TO GO FROM AMERICA TO AUSTRALIA BECAUSE THERE ISN’T A LANGUAGE BARRIER

False! Although we do speak the same language, our words, dialects and phrases are very different. Australians seem to shorten every one of their words (breaky for breakfast, arvo for afternoon etc...) They speak just as fast as Americans so it can be very hard to understand them. Plus, there are certain American words they don’t use at all. (wheat bread, names for the years in college...) Also, because all of their measurements are in the metric system, it can be difficult to even figure out what temperature it is, or how much something weighs. Stereotypes come from people not experiencing different cultures. It is fascinating and beautiful to learn something new about a country and learn why they do what they do. Just because a country does something different doesn’t make it wrong, just different! In order to open your mind, you must get rid of stereotypes and just go see the country for yourself! What you find just might surprise you, but in a good and insightful way. And you never know what you will bring back with you.