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JohnKelly
01-24-2004, 04:17 AM
In another Thread titled 'Mother England', member co911 raised a question in relation to the comparison between the British Plod and the Australia Plod.

I guess this would be an appropriate time to post some information on the people of this great land down under called Australia.

"We are the people of a free nation of blokes, sheilas and the occasional Wanker. We come from many lands (although a few too many of us come from New Zealand), and although we live in the best country in the world, we reserve the right to bitch and moan about it whenever we bloody like. We are One Nation but divided into many States.

First, there's Victoria, named after a Queen who didn't believe in Lesbians. Victoria is the realm of Mossimo turtlenecks, cafe latte, grand final day and big horse races. Its capital is Melbourne, whose chief marketing pitch is that 'it's liveable'. At least that's what they think. The rest of us think that it is too bloody cold and wet.

Next there is New South Wales, the realm of pastel shorts, macchiato with sugar, thin books read quickly and millions of dancing queens. Its capital Sydney, has more queens than any other city in the world and is proud of it. Its mascots are Bondi Lifesavers that pull their Speedos up their cracks to keep the left and right sides of their brains separate.

Down south we have Tasmania, a State based on the notion that the family that bonks together stays together. In Tassie, everyone gets an extra chromosome at conception. Maps of the State bring smiles to the sternest faces. It holds the world record for a single mass shooting, which the Yanks can't seem to beat, no matter how they try.

South Australia is the province of half-decent red wine, a festival of foreigners and bizarre axe murders. South Australia is the State of innovation. Where else can you effectively reuse country bank vaults and barrels as in Snowtown. Just out of Adelaide (also named after a queen), they have the Grand Prix, but lost it when the views of Adelaide sent the Formula One drivers to sleep at the wheel.

Western Australia is too far from anywhere to be relevant. Its main claim to fame is that it doesn't have daylight saving because if it did, all men would get erections on the bus on the way to work. Western Australia was the last State to stop importing convicts and many of them still work there in the government and business.

The Northern Territory is the red heart of our land. Outback plains, sheep stations the size of Europe, kangaroos, Jackaroos, emus, Uluru, and dusty kids with big smiles. It also has the highest beer consumption of anywhere on the planet and its creek beds have the highest aluminium content of anywhere too. Although the Territory is the centrepiece of our national culture, few of us live there and the rest prefer to flyover it on our way to Bali.

And there's Queensland. While any mention of God seems silly in a document defining a nation of half arsed sceptics, it is worth noting that God probably made Queensland, as it is indeed beautiful one day and perfect the next. Why he filled it with Dickheads remains a mystery.

Oh yes and there's Canberra. The less said the better.

We, the citizens of Oz, are united by Highways, whose treacherous twists and turns kill more of us each year that murderers. We are united in our lust for international recognition, so desperate for praise we leap in joy when a rag tag gaggle of corrupt IOC officials tells us that Sydney is better than Beijing. We are united by a democracy so flawed that a political party, albeit a redneck gun totting one, can get a million votes and still not win one seat in Federal Parliament. Not that we're whingeing, we leave that to our Pommy Immigrants.

We want to make 'No worries Mate' our national phrase, 'She'll be right Mate' our national attitude and 'Waltzing Matilda' our national anthem, so what if it's about a sheep stealing crim who commits suicide.

We love sport so much that our newsreaders can read the death toll from a sailing race and still tell us who's winning. And we're the best in the world at all the sports that count, like Cricket, Netball, Rugby, Ausse Rules Football, Roo Shooting, Two Up and Horse Racing. We also have the biggest rock, the tastiest pies, and the worst dressed Olympians in the known universe.

Only in Australia can a pizza delivery get to your house faster than an ambulance. Only in Australia do we have bank doors wide open, no security guards or cameras but chain the pens to the desk.

Stand proud Aussies - we shoot, we root, we vote. We are girt by sea and ****ed by lunchtime. Even though we might seem a racist, closed minded, sports obsessed people, at least we feel better for it.

I am, you are, we are Australian.

P/S - We also shoot and eat the two animals that are on our Nations Crest!!! No other country has this distinction!

Happy Australia day.

Cheers,

JohnKelly
Australia

PC August
01-24-2004, 12:35 PM
Heh heh, good stuff. My understanding of that strange land has increased substantially. ;)

rugbyman
01-24-2004, 01:18 PM
Not bad JK, as a Kiwi can you just go over the sheep thing again.......lol.

;)

NSWCop
01-24-2004, 09:51 PM
You've hit the nail on the head John.

:D :D

Cockney Corner
01-25-2004, 08:50 AM
I've got to hand it to the Aussies. There's only 20 million of you and you invent Aussie Rules Football because playing the other 5 billion 980 million of us at our own games isn't enough of a challenge.

And I've always thought calling just one of your states Queensland is a bit odd. I mean, it's all the Queen's Land isn't it.

gazza
01-25-2004, 07:02 PM
:) GOOD ONE JOHN....AND TOMORROW IS THE DAY OF DAYS...BUT TODAY IS THE DAY I HAVE CHOSEN FOR THAT GREAT AUSSIE TRADITION OF SACRIFICING A SHEEP ON AN EXTREMELLY HOT PLATE..WHILST MYSELF AND A FEW MATES ALSO PARTAKE IN THE TIME HONOURED TRADITION OF DOWNING COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF THAT NECTAR FROM QLD ....BUNDY........MAY EVEN SAY A PRAYER FOR RUGBYMAN WHILST THE SHEEP SIZZLES ...LOL....;) TO ALL YOU BLOKES AND SHEILAS HAPPY AUSSIE DAY

krj
01-27-2004, 01:21 PM
WALTZING MATILDA

A song that Australians know and love - and can sing with gusto - is the unofficial national anthem Waltzing Matilda. The words are as follows:

"Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree"

The swagman is a tramp or itinerant who carries his swag, his bundle of clothes, cooking implements, etc. tied up in a blanket or bedroll. The billabong is a waterhole, most often found in the bed of a river. The coolibah tree is a species of eucalypt found in inland Australia, often in areas which get flooded from time to time (hence the location near the billabong).

"And he sang as he watched
and waited till his billy boiled
You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me"

The billy is a tin container used for boiling water for tea. No-one is sure where the word comes from but it's probably from the Scottish "bally" meaning bucket. The origin of the expression waltzing matilda is also uncertain but it probably dates back to a German influence on the goldfields. The German equivalent of a swag is Matilda, the "girl" a man sleeps with when he's alone on the road. And the expression "to waltz" is used in the context of German apprentices moving from one town to another to learn their trade. The Germans in this case would have come from the Barossa communities in South Australia. As a whole, the phrase is the equivalent of being "on the track", "on the wallaby" or "on the road" (as a tramp).

"Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tuckerbag
You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me"

The jumbuck is a sheep. This is thought to be Aboriginal pidgin for "jump up" which is what the Aborigines presumably thought of as the most noticeable about sheep. The tuckerbag is the bag of food. Tucker is a British schoolboy word for food which still survives in Australia English.

"Up rode the squatter mounted on his thoroughbred,
Down came the troopers - one, two, three
Where's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tuckerbag
You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me"

This is the strong arm of the law arriving to arrest the swagman for stealing the jumbuck. Squatters were originally people who pioneered settlement on land the government had not got around to allocating yet. They unofficially squatted on land that they were not legally supposed to have. Eventually of course the government came around to their point of view, and they became wealthy landowners, part of the squattocracy, the new aristocracy of pastoral Australia. This squatter rides a thoroughbred horse, and can summon troopers ("mounted police") to assist him.

"But the swagman he up and he jumped in the waterhole
Drowning himself by the coolibah tree;
And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the billabong,
You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me!"

Belated - but Happy Australia Day :)

JohnKelly
01-27-2004, 08:38 PM
Good on you mate, that was a bonzer post and thanks for your good wishes.

Cheers,

gazza
01-28-2004, 02:43 AM
:) :cool: well done krj...i dips me lid to you for that..hooroo from down here:)

krj
01-28-2004, 10:32 AM
Bonzer post?? Dips me lid to you?? Dang ya'll talk funny down there!! :D :D

Sleuth
01-28-2004, 02:21 PM
Thanks, gents. I always, wanted to learn more about OZ, and the words (and translation) of your "National Anthem". I enjoyed my visit there, and we would like to return.

Australia, different enought to be interesting, familiar enough to feel at home.

Happy Australia Day!

rugbyman
01-28-2004, 07:57 PM
What the heck, anyone for a few quiets.......... :D

JohnKelly
01-28-2004, 09:09 PM
Originally posted by Sleuth

Australia, different enought to be interesting, familiar enough to feel at home.
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Hey Sleuth, I love it mate, suggest you get copyright, before some ad agency grabs it and uses it to promote Oz in the USA. ;)

Cheers,

Sleuth
01-29-2004, 12:20 PM
No worries, Mate! I'll just charge them a round trip ticket for my wife & I. We didn't get into the outback last time, but I did get to meet some very accomidating Customs Officers.

In fact, they tipped me off about a way folks were cheating on importing goods. When I got back here, I asked our computer folks if the same trick would work to cheat U.S. Customs. They hemmed and hawed, which I understood to mean yes! So we changed our system. It's good to beat the bad guys!

JohnKelly
01-31-2004, 06:11 AM
Fair enough mate, Australia is a big country and it's pretty hard to see it all in one trip. Seeing the Outback is important because it is indeed the heart of this great land and that is where you will meet some fairdinkum Aussies.

Queensland seems to be the tourist mecca and fair enough it has got a lot to offer. The fact that it is beautiful one day and perfect the next does attract a lot of overseas tourists.

However, if you have the time, come further south to Victoria and see the Garden State and then top it off by slipping across the sea to Tasmania and that is where you will see some pristine countryside which is in fact listed on the World Heritage List.

Cheers,

Sleuth
02-02-2004, 01:17 PM
OK JOhn, but you need to come North. Just in the State of Arizona, I have worked in 126(F) heat in the desert, and now live in the mountains, where we get snow (and it was 8(F) this morning! We have lots of beach, it's just a very long way to the surf line! Add the big ditch (Grand Canyon), big cities and tiny towns, we don't have it all, but we have a lot.
Come visit the Real West!

JohnKelly
02-03-2004, 07:56 AM
126 f = >50 c - now that is hot and no thanks, I prefer a milder climate.

My sister who lives in Houston, often visits Arizonia and she was telling me how beautiful it is.

My wife and I are planning to visit Canada and the US in the next couple of years and like Australia, they are large countries, so it is pretty hard to see it all - I am a train travel buff and we are planning to do it via rail.

Anyhow, stay cool or warm as the case may be and above all stay safe.

Cheers,

JohnKelly
Australia

Sleuth
02-03-2004, 11:47 AM
If you are a train buff, there is the Durango - Silverton steam train not too far from here in Colorado. Also, from Williams, AZ you can take a steam train to the Grand Canyon & back - they even have a holdup on the train!

We now return you to your normally running thread!