Life In Australia

There’s no doubt about it, the Australians take their sport more seriously than the British - particularly when it comes to taking part. That’s probably why they do so well in sporting competitions.

The biggest spectator sport here is Australian Rules Football. I wasn’t sure whether it was a bigger sport here than football is in the UK, so I dug out the numbers from the official websites, for example The AFL. (To avoid confusion, the Aussies always refer to football as soccer.)

Then I divided the total attendances at games in a year by the total population of the country. Here’s what I got for the 2004-2005 season:

Australian Football League (AFL) = 0.32 attendances per head of population

(6.3 million attendances / 20 million population of Australia)

English League Football = 0.43 attendances per head of population

(23 million attendances / 53 million population of England and Wales)

Scottish League Football = 0.80 attendances per head of population

(4.0 million attendances / 5.0 million population of Scotland)

So it turns out that Aussie rules football isn’t as popular in Australia as football is in the UK.

It’s also interesting to see that watching football in Scotland is about twice as popular as in England.

Some people say that Australia is now culturally closer to the USA than the UK.

I think Australia has its own, unique culture with British roots. Like most other cultures it continues to takes bits and pieces from elsewhere and American influence is important.

I was looking at popular baby names last night and thought it would be interesting to compare baby names from Australia, the UK and the USA. I’ve listed the top ten for each country below.

It’s amazing to see the close similarities between the three countries in 2005.

Australia seems to be slightly closer to the UK than it is to the USA in this totally unscientific study of baby names.

Girls Names:
Six baby names from the Australian top 10 were in the UK top ten - Emily, Olivia, Chloe, Sophie, Charlotte and Jessica.

Four baby names from the Australian top 10 were in the US top ten - Emily, Olivia, Isabella and Hannah.

Boys Names:
Five baby names from the Australian top 10 were in the UK top ten - Jack, Joshua, Thomas, Samuel and William.

Four baby names from the Australian top 10 were in the US top ten - Ethan, William, Joshua and Matthew.

Top 10 Boys’ Names in Australia / UK / USA

Top 10 Girls’ Names in Australia / UK / USA

I’m not a smoker. I’ve never smoked and I’ve always resented it - even as a child - if someone smoked near me and I had to breathe their fumes. I’m pleased to say that Queensland has the toughest anti-smoking regulations of any of Australia’s states. Anti-smoking regulations here are tougher than in the UK.

Currently smoking is banned ($150 on the spot fines for breaches) at entrances to non-residential buildings, within 10 metres of children’s public play equipment, at patrolled beaches, at artificial beaches, at major stadiums, and at least one-third of the indoor area of pubs and bars.

The laws are actually enforced. According to Queensland Health, 748 on-the-spot fines were levied for breaches of tobacco laws between March 31 and December 1 2005.

225 of the fines were for smoking at a building entrance, 149 were for smoking at a major sports facility and 328 were for other breaches.

From July this year, it gets even better. Then the whole area of pubs and bars must be smoke free. Smoking will also be banned in non-enclosed areas where food or drink is served.

If you’re going to a hospital, smoking will be banned at all health facilities including buildings, grounds and vehicles. The smoking policy will apply to everyone - staff, volunteers, inpatients, residents, patients, visitors, etc.

Patients who request it will be given the option of free nicotine patches or gum while they are in hospital.

Not everyone will agree, but I think it’s all fantastic!

British culture vultures often turn their noses up when Australia is mentioned. They imagine a land teeming with people who look and act like Crocodile Dundee, even the women.

There are, however, many highly cultured Australians.

Melbourne and Sydney in particular have plenty of culture, even for people who fashion their cultural tastes after the ever-so demanding (and snobbish) Frasier and Nials Crane in the Frasier TV series. I wouldn’t recommend acting like either of these brothers here though. You’d get some very odd looks.

I’ve never been an especially cultured person in terms of art, theatre or music - or appreciating things like National Trust buildings.

The little bit of British culture I value most is spoken-word radio and thanks to the Internet I can listen to almost anything I want to either live or using the listen again features.

Nothing in Australia comes close to British radio stations like Radio 4 and BBC7 for current affairs, drama and comedy.

I naughtily recorded a production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe from BBC7 just after Christmas. My daughter loves listening to it.

Recently I’ve been listening to episodes of Poirot (John Moffat makes a fantastic job of playing the little Belgian detective) and Lord Peter Wimsey on BBC7. I also enjoyed listening to author George MacDonald Fraser a few days ago, talking about his Flashman books, in Bookclub on Radio 4.

This really is the best of British and I’m grateful that I can live in Australia without missing any of it.

They’re not common in the UK, but in Australia, Sausage Sizzles are very popular.

People grill sausages outdoors and serve them on long rolls / buns with generous amounts of tomato ketchup.

Sausage sizzles are used for all sorts of fundraising activities. My daughter’s school has them every so often, as do many societies and charities.

Now a row has blown up because of the “un-Australian” attitude of Gold Coast City Council. The council has refused a permit for a lifesaving club to have sausage sizzles on the esplanade – which they have traditionally done every Sunday in summer.

Whichever way they dispute is eventually resolved, it crystallised in my mind another Australian cultural icon – the sausage sizzle.

Australia has already exported the “barbie” to the UK – but not, unfortunately, typical barbie weather. I wonder how long it will take for the sausage sizzle to catch on in Britain?