Observations of the Australian culture by a Dutch immigrant

In 2001 I immigrated from the Netherlands to Australia. Since then I have worked and lived in various places. During this time I noticed some interesting details of the Australian land and culture that were not be obvious at first. You may find these observations useful when visiting Australia as a tourist.

Housing

• Most rent is charged per week or per fortnight
• Many houses are not built with insulation in mind (single-pane glass, no cavity brick, no wall insulation).
• Lost of gaps around doors and windows and no hallway as a wind-buffer.
• Most houses do not have central heating so a small electric heater or putting on an extra jumper are your options if a reverse-cycle air-conditioning system is not installed.
• Door handles are often knobs, making them unusable for people that have poor grip strength.
• Many mailboxes are too small to receive a straight A4 sheet mail pieces

Working

• Most salaries are paid weekly or fortnightly.
• Staff birthdays are usually ignored.

Cities

• Garbage is collected even on public holidays such as Christmas day and New Year's day.
• Street names are not unique in a city (e.g. in Newcastle, there is a George Street in Mayfield East, Wallsend, North Lambton, Tighes Hill and Highfields)

Food

• Meat pies is a common food available in most road cafe's. It's a meat-filled pastry mini-pie, to be eaten hot, and can be served as-is or with a mushy peas/mash potato/gravy dressing.
• Recycling of cans (glass, plastic or aluminium) and plastic (bottle) crates is not available in most places. Only one state (South Australia) has implemented the system for empty bottles.

Electrical

• 240V AC @ 50Hz with a flush plate connection socket.
• In 2011 a bill was passed to prevent the sale of any incandescent light bulbs. Regardless whether these are better or worse for the environment, you will not be able to buy any traditional light bulbs.
• most household light sockets are B22d (bayonet) but you can still find E-27 (screw) fittings as well.

Trains

• Cheap fares on the regular CityRail lines. A weekday return ticket from Newcastle to Sydney (160km) is around $16 for an adult (2012 prices).

Prices

• Unleaded Regular Petrol costs about $1.45/l (premium $1.65, gas $.., diesel $..)
• The Australian dollar was 'above parity' with the USD for most of 2011 and is now around 99 USD-cents (May 2012).

Electoral System

In 2019 the Australian government held Federal Elections. The party called 'The Greens' received 10.4% of the votes from 14.2 million eligible voters (they received 1.48 million votes). There are 151 seats in the House of Representatives, so 10.4% of 151 is 15.7. You would think they received 15 or 16 seats, but guess what.. they only received 1 seat. Yes, just one seat. To me, that is not democratic.

During pre-election campaigns, political parties are legally allowed to send unsolicited SMS text messages to anyone in Australia. This form of spam is outdated, wasteful and lowers the credibility of the sender and their message. This is still happening in 2025 which is just crazy.

Roads

• As per the British system, traffic keeps left.
• Despite many signs indicating 'keep left unless overtaking', most drivers keep driving in the middle or right lanes.
• Most Australians are never aggressive or impatient until they drive a car.
• Periodic road-safety tests for rego renewal do not check for engine emissions.

Pedestrians

• as on the road, keep left when walking. You'll cause awkward situations and bump into people if you don't.

Language

• Slang: pluggers (flip flops, thongs), howyergoing (not too well, "I felt a bit howyergoing"), nail (cigarette), damage beers (drink beer).
• Apart from the expected slang there are also some words that are used to 'culture up' some common day products: Medley (combination of various food products), Gourmet (special, in any form), rustic (rural), salsa (like Medley), Boutique (special)
• Several words to describe native Australians: First Peoples, Traditional Owners, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Indigenous Australians.