There are many ways in which Americans and Australians are very much alike. However, there are certainly also many differences between our countries . In this article I will be referring to the ways in which Americans and Australians differ in the fields of sport, entertainment and cuisine. I hope this will be of considerable value to many Americans who would just like to know more about us or who are possibly even planning to travel to or take up residency in Australia.
Our most popular sports are not baseball and grid iron football, as they are in America. Aussies love their footy (Australian rules, rugby league, rugby union and soccer) in winter – and cricket in summer. Cricket has a reputation for being something of a national religion. Ice hockey isn’t really big over here either, as it seems to be in the US. Some of our most highly-esteemed heroes are our Olympic swimmers and we follow national swimming championships on TV far more avidly than Americans seem to do. On an international level we are just below America – even though our population is significantly smaller at just over 20 million.
As far as entertainment is concerned, we do share many of the same interests as Americans. Modern technological obsessions such as the internet, video games, DVDs and personal music players such as the iPod occupy many people’s free time. We love movies too and the cinema is probably more popular than ever in spite of people having extensive DVD collections and good home theatre systems.
As far as outdoor entertainment is concerned though, the beach would have to be the chief playground for Australians. After all, the majority of our population lives in cities and towns that are either on the coast or within a few hours’ drive of it. I live in the national capital, which is only a couple of hours from the New South Wales south coast and in summer thousands flock to coastal towns. Water activities are certainly high on our favourites list – and many of us dream of a sea-change if we don’t live in a coastal city or town. This is undoubtedly quite different to the experience of many Americans who would live much too far away from the coast to visit beaches very often – and I expect there would be a significant part of the population who would never go there.
My e-pal in Ohio has told me that Americans are crazy about their cars. I replied that here in Australia it would be mainly the young guys who would be fanatical about their cars and pour a lot of time, attention and money into them. However, she says that in America it’s all ages that are obsessed with their cars. So this would be another difference. A lot of us in Australia just regard our cars as something to get us from A to B. Yes, Australians do own a lot of cars. Many families have two – but only because of their needs to transport their families to various places and have freedom to do the things they need and want to do. Cars are our servants. Petrol/gas is even more expensive in Australia than it is in the USA – and with our continuing drought, water usage has been restricted so that people can’t be washing their cars as often as they used to. So cars are only regarded and treated by most of us as something we use as a means to an end – not so much an end in themselves.
Having said that, we do have a very popular national car rally here in Canberra in January, which draws thousands of enthusiasts from all over the country. I don’t know what percentage would be young guys – but no doubt there are plenty of enthusiasts across the age range. Formula 1 car racing is also very popular. So there is certainly a considerable sector of our population that are mad about cars. Also, we are probably more inclined to be like Americans in that many people own larger vehicles such as SUVs (which we more commonly refer to as 4-wheel-drives or 4WDs) – whereas Europeans have a greater tendency to drive smaller cars. Aussie guys are known to be passionate about their utes.
Australians do invest a lot of themselves into their homes. Home ownership is highly-valued as a major goal for young people. This is becoming more difficult for many couples due to rising mortgage interest rates and the general high costs of real estate in the larger cities especially. A lot of time and attention is given to home improvements – and many people love to visit hardware stores on the weekend to buy items for their latest home renovations or DIY projects. It’s also becoming common for young people to invest in numerous properties and some of them are very successful in making a lot of money from it.
Gardening has traditionally been a very popular pastime for many Australians too – but again the drought is impacting hard on that in many cities and as a result gardens are being neglected by sheer necessity. However, in time this may lead to people developing more practical gardens for our increasingly hot and dry climatic conditions, as well as learning to maximise the water we do have.
Australians love shopping and we have a lot of good shopping malls in the larger cities. We also like our craft markets. My e-pal has told me that craft markets are pretty much the domain of the over-55s in the US. However, I would say that all ages enjoy craft markets here in Australia. It’s not just for old ladies who crotchet – there are countless modern crafts of all kinds at such markets.
We also enjoy visiting all sorts of tourist attractions and being involved in community cultural activities and events. Here in the national capital there is always a lot happening and so many places of interest for families to go.
Travel is very popular in Australia too – though some of us have to do most of our travelling from our armchairs as TV programs transport us to places that we would love to see for ourselves one day. There are countless wonderful landmarks to see in our magnificent, ancient land – many of the most awe-inspiring in the outback and “Top End” of our vast continent.
We have many favourite foods that are unique to Australia, while some that are popular in America are relatively unknown here. Some American favourites that are not traditional fare here are pumpkin pie, fried green tomatoes, sloppy joes and “grits. We don’t eat bagels for breakfast as seems to be popular in the US either – and I have certainly never heard of bagels in a variety of flavours here. It’s only in recent years that muffins and brownies have become quite popular in Australia – and while coffee has gained more popularity over the years, we have never really been a nation of coffee drinkers in the same way that Americans are. Cafes and coffee lounges have sprung up everywhere in the past decade or so. But many of us still like our tea best on a regular basis and only drink coffee as cappuccino or café late when we go out. Personally I can’t stand instant coffee!
Some Aussie favourites are meat pies, Chiko rolls (deep-fried savoury rolls similar to spring rolls), damper (bush-style bread made without yeast), pavlova (a dessert made with egg whites and caster sugar and decorated with whipped cream and fruit ), lamingtons (small square cakes made with sponge and covered with chocolate icing and coconut), Anzac biscuits – cookies made with oats and golden syrup as the key ingredients), Arnotts SAO biscuits (large crackers which an old jingle referred to as being “big enough to build a meal on”) and Violet Crumble (a honeycomb chocolate bar).
Vegemite is another national favourite – this black spread made from brewer’s yeast being something you have to eat from infancy to love as we do. Most Americans hate it when they first taste it.
We also share a love for “fish and chips” with the Brits. Battered or crumbed fillets of fish with thickly-cut potato chips (much chunkier than what we call French fries but not as thick as potato wedges) are deep fried and sold wrapped in white butchers’ paper or newspaper. Many people would say they taste best eaten straight from the paper after being sprinkled with white vinegar and/or tomato sauce (ketchup).
We also share the British love of crumpets. These are a substitute for toast and are especially very popular in winter. They are round, porous and spongy in texture and are like a cross between a pancake and an English muffin. They are spread generously with butter and most Aussies like them best with Vegemite or honey.
Some Americans may be horrified to learn that some of us will actually eat kangaroo steaks and sausages too – but believe me, kangaroo numbers are such in Australia that eating roo makes very good sense. It is actually a very lean meat, though it has a relatively strong flavour compared to beef, lamb or pork, which, along with chicken, would be amongst our most popular meats. There are still many people who do cringe at the thought of eating “Skippy” or one of the animals on our Coat of Arms though.
There are some items of native Australian cuisine that many of us would find difficult to swallow. Our aboriginal Australians traditionally consider witchety grubs to be delicacies – and I’m sure that these fat white curly grubs which are removed from the bark of certain trees probably do taste very good when they have been flame-grilled over an open fire – but personally I would find it difficult to put one of them in my mouth and chew it up! Mind you, it might be surprising what any of us would eat in the way of “bush tucker” as we call it if we were lost in the Australian bush and were fortunate enough to be rescued and fed by those who know what’s safe to eat from our country’s native flora and insects.
Recently a Canberra restaurant was said to be serving up bogong moths in their fine cuisine. Bogong moths travel through our capital on their migrational journey to the mountains during spring and are attracted to our brightly-lit Parliament House. Again they are apparently considered to be fine fare by our native people. However, I really couldn’t come at eating bogongs!
Personally, I would have to say you couldn’t beat the traditional Aussie barbecue – or barbie as they are commonly known. Many Americans who know little about Australia may nevertheless remember our ocker character, Paul Hogan in ads during the 80s, telling them to “throw another shrimp on the barbie.” Actually prawns are the name of the seafood that many Aussies like on their barbecues at Christmas – for those who don’t still eat the traditional roast Christmas dinner. But for the average Aussie most times of year it’s more likely to be the humble snag (sausage), chop or steak that they hoe into at such a social get-together.
Not surprisingly seafood is popular in Australia and some of the fish that are considered to be the finest of our bounty are the Murray cod, the barramundi (found in northern waters), Tasmanian salmon, Tasmanian scallops and crayfish/lobsters – as well as prawns.
I hope that the information I’ve provided here will be of interest and education to many Americans and will help make them more aware of our nation. Look out for further articles in this series – relating to the differences between education and health care – as well as unique geological/natural features and fauna and flora in the USA and Australia. I also intend to do one about the numerous differences in words we use for different things as well as the way we spell many words.
