12 Australian Stereotypes All Aussie Don’t Want To Hear (That Aren’t True)

Travel Pixy is pointing fingers at bad tourist campaigns and pop culture references are to blame for creating stereotypes and false ideas about Australia. Let’s clear up the rumors and myths about everything, from our dangerous animals to the food we eat and everything in between.

Table of Contents

Animals that kill

Australia is home to some of the most dangerous animals in the world, like venomous snakes, creepy spiders, the poisonous blue-ringed octopus, and fierce predators like sharks and saltwater crocodiles, but the dangers they pose have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, a recent study from Melbourne University found that horses are the most likely animals to kill you.

Breakfast, lunch, and tea all with Vegemite

A study done in 2014 found that almost half of all Australians eat Vegemite every day. Even the most true blue Aussie doesn’t eat the spread for breakfast, lunch, and tea, as the song Happy Little Vegemite says. The best way to enjoy Vegemite is to spread it thinly on toast instead of eating it by the spoonful. As with all fine foods, less is more.

Riding Kangaroos

Kangaroos can be seen in cities, but they don’t affect how people get to school or work. No one can ride them like horses, and we can’t fit into their pouches either. It’s also unlikely that a kangaroo could save lives and fight crime like the one in the TV show Skippy.

Convicts

Between 1788 and 1868, 164,000 British prisoners were sent to Australia, but that doesn’t mean that all 24 million Australians are related to criminals. Even though more than 71% of Australians say they are of English or Irish descent, the country is very multicultural and is home to about 6 million migrants, most of whom say they are from Europe or Asia.

Australia is one big desert

Movies like “Crocodile Dundee” and “Australia” show the country as a patch of red, barren land that has been burned and scorched. Even though a lot of Australia is what people call “the outback,” more than 80% of the people live within 50-100 kilometers of the coast in urban areas and cities.

Uncouth

Australians have been proud to keep their Bogan image thanks to Warwick Capper, Eric Bana’s Poida, and Kath and Kim. The problem with that is that it sounds rude. Australians may have a satirical sense of humor, and their language may be full of funny abbreviations, but they are also very well educated. Aussies came up with the black box flight recorder, Wi-Fi, and the Cochlear implant

Surfers

Australia has more than 10,000 beaches. It is surrounded by the Indian, Pacific, Southern, and Tasman Seas, as well as the Indian, Pacific, and Southern Oceans. People often think that everyone in Australia has sandy hair and surfs. Even though most Australians live within an hour’s drive of the beach, only about 10% of them surf for fun.

Shrimp cooked on the grill

Before he was Crocodile Dundee, Paul Hogan used the line “slip another shrimp on the barbie for ya” in a 1984 Tourism Australia ad to invite Americans to visit Australia. The quote would become very Australian, except that no one in Australia uses the word “shrimp.” Instead, we call shrimp “prawns.”

Racist

Australia is proud of being a successful example of multiculturalism, with 26% of its people born outside of Australia, hundreds of languages spoken, and people from many different religions living there. Melbourne has the most Greek people of any city outside of Greece, and the country often celebrates Chinese, European, and American holidays, as well as Harmony Day on March 21, which is a day for celebrating cultural diversity. But it’s important to remember the country’s dark colonial past and how it affected the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Daily Show called Australia “comfortably racist,” which is a reminder that racism and Australia’s colonial past still need to be dealt with.

Fosters Beer

Fosters is an Australian beer brand, but it’s not what most Australians drink. Fosters isn’t even one of our top ten favorite beers. The British, on the other hand, like it a lot more. Choose Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught, or even better, support a local microbrewery if you want to drink like a real Aussie.

Never Cool

In the Icehouse song Great Southern Land, Iva Davies says that Australia has been “a prisoner island hidden in the summer for a million years.” This is an interesting image, but it isn’t quite true. Yes, it can get very hot here—once it reached 50.7 °C (123. 3 °F)—but in Charlotte’s Pass, New South Wales, it got as cold as 23.0 °C (9.4 °F). Victoria, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Tasmania all get snow every year.

Tan and Fit

If you think that every Australian looks like an extra from Home and Away, you’re wrong. Australia’s people look different, but more and more, the country is becoming overweight. More than 60% of adults are considered to be overweight. Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, which makes it very dangerous to try to look tanned.

Topic: 12 Australian Stereotypes All Aussie Don’t Want To Hear (That Aren’t True)

Become a member of Our Community on Facebook “I Left My Heart in Australia”. A place where members open up to one another, share their stories, travel photos, and experience a different way to travel Australia – together.