A year in Australia

I’ve been in Australia for a year now. Naturally I felt obliged to rocket some thoughts, feelings and observations into the online abyss.

Meg and I recently explored a thought: If Britain was an individual, what would its character be? I suggested (a simplified version) that as a previously powerful nation, struggling to find its place in the world, Britain would be the school rugby captain, now in his 40s, insecure that the best days are behind him.

I found it hard to personify Australia so easily. Largely because I’m still caught somewhere between my previous conceptions and my current, more recently developed, understanding of the country.

However - I do feel strongly that Australia is mis-sold back home in the UK. Somehow, it is understood to be homogenous, too similar to the UK, without culture, beautiful, but basic, where a comfortable lifestyle lacks depth, particularly when hung up alongside the exciting complexities of Europe.

If France has impressive manifestations of culture, like Chantilly castle, and Italy has worldly documentation, with the likes of Da Vinci, I believe Australia excels when culture is understood in a looser sense, in terms of the shared beliefs, values, and behaviours that connect people.

Listen to a shirtless man, shaped like a triangle, describe the worms he’s using for fishing bait. Go to a meat raffle at an RSL club, six hours up the coast from Sydney. Have a schooner of Coopers in a dingy pub at 11am and listen. Watch an Indigenous smoking ceremony. Watch an AFL Grand Final.

Australia is rich with culture.

But - my list, limited to ten points for now, is not one-sided positivity. I hope it spurs some curiosity for this incomprehensibly large island, or sparks questions for whatever country feels close to home for you.

1. Every good sleep is interrupted by shrieking birds in the morning. When I miss English birdsong, I know I’ve been here too long.

2. The accessibility to high quality food provided and influenced by immigrant Asian communities (Vietnamese, Japanese, Cantonese, and many many more) is truly incredible.

3. Weekend sport feels akin to a CCCP procession in Beijing. Parks are pristine with rows of courts and fields and pitches - and seem to go as far as the eye can see. An active culture seeps into people’s lifestyles.

4. When it rains, Sydney is just like every other miserable city. If it rains for 5 days, everyone loses their sun-kissed glow and looks particularly miserable.

5. It’s very hard to find anything substantive or worth listening to on the radio, especially when you leave the city. Usually it’s a mixture of 60s Golden Oldie DJs and Christian faith channels, or blokes talking about NRL.

6. It’s true, getting in the ocean once a week, sometimes more, fixes most problems.

7. Australians do not go abroad, they go ‘overseas’ and ‘to Europe’.

8. Australian music is underrated. Temper Trap, AC/DC, Tame Impala, Empire of The Sun. Nick Cave. Listening to the Hottest 100 Australian songs (July on Triple J radio) is a better way to spend time than the Hottest 100 global songs (January on Triple J radio).

9. Cycling in Australia doesn’t meet the high expectations that Europe has set for me; road safety is worse than what I’ve experienced in the USA. The culture of Motonormativity here is bad.

10. It’s a long black, not an americano.

Harbour Bridge. High-vis. Cycling infrastructure. Australia, completed it mate.