The image we have of a country comes from many sources, such as television, newspapers and myths that have little or no basis in facts. We all 'know' that the Scots are mean, the Germans have no sense of humour and the Spanish are lazy. Unfortunately these 'facts' do colour our view of other nations.

Australia has an image of a sporting nation with little interest in culture and the arts - something which I am sure is not true. In the UK we are bombarded with adverts from Australian beer companies that seek to reinforce this image. Australian men are shown as unthinking louts who, to quote the advert, 'Don't give a Castlemaine XXXX' for anything else than their beer.

Despite the best efforts of Les Patterson (the Australian cultural attache in London) we see very few positive images of Australian culture. How do Australians feel about the way their nation is being portrayed around the world?

I should explain that Les Patterson is a drunken, belching character created by Australian actor Barry Humphries. He is very funny, but he may be confirming our view of Oz society.

I've been there. It's all true.

I get a bit annoyed at times Biggles, well maybe not annoyed, perhaps frustrated. When I see a few local stories go international on a news service like CNN I cringe and stay away form FT for a week or two. Mind you I think the international press like 'turning it up' a bit and dumping on all the Crocodile Dundee stereotype. Personally, I haven’t wrestled a croc for about eight years. I swam with some Bull Sharks last month. Not intentionally I can assure you. If you want Steve Irwin, take him, he's yours free of charge.

I'm proud of a lot of things here, as I know all aussies are. Our scientists lead the world in many fields. Every week there's a new breakthrough in something or another. R&D teams lead the world in mining technology and Marine Biology. I think our doctors even successfully transplanted a potato in replace of a kidney last week.

I also think the image of Australians being the typical ocker stereotype is wearing off and Aussies are finding some identity. You have to remember the place isn't that old, only 200 years, and I think the place has come a long way, particularly in the last 20 years - except for the XXXX - it hasn't gone anywhere and thank god for that! (XXXX is a beer)

The local art, while lacking history is definitely world class and the uni's are packed full of talent. We supply the world with more actors than you want or need and live theatre is on the up and up. The cultural facilities and museums and libraries are all world class. There are superb parklands and botanical gardens in nearly every town... and they're packed every weekend. I forgot to mention the musicians. Brilliant!

Most aussies are proud of our sporting achievements. You have to consider the climate makes us an outdoorsy mob. The government throws a lot of money into sporting development, and while that money could or should be used in better cultural pursuits, remember sport is a very large part of Australian culture.

The portrayal of the aussie stereotype isn't entirely wrong, and I personally wouldn't like it to go away completely, but it's not a good thing for the country when the Crocodile Hunter is more famous around the globe than the Prime Minister..

Is transplanting a potato instead of a kidney supposed to be a good thing?

Yep, alot of it is true...but its a lot better than it used to be. Once upon a time anyone who wanted to be anyone in the world of art and culture ran off to London - and alot never came back. That's not the case anymore. We don't have a long cultural tradition like some other countries (except of course for the Aboriginal arts!!) - but since we've thrown off our old inferiority complex we've had a relatively fresh canvas on which to work -which is to our advantage! I think probably within various fields (architecture, music or whatever) there is plenty of scope for people to achieve on both a national and international level - and I don't think that our outdoor, sporty image makes a lot of difference to those people.
A lot of people i know do wish that sport was given less prominence in our culture though - but I'm sure there's people elsewhere who feel the same.(Oh for the day when instead of "News, sport and weather" its "News, the arts/sciences/environment and weather"!) I do wish that the arts were a more valued part of our everyday lives. When I lived in Japan the owner of our local petrol station used to weave beautiful baskets in between filling petrol tanks - you wouldn't see that happening in an Australian servo! My business specialises in traditional Japanese textiles and is right next door to the local cricket and footy ground - but funnily enough my sales don't improve when there's a home game on!
Realistically though our bestshot at the international tourism market is our climate and natural heritage not our art galleries and theatres!

I've never been to Australia. I would like to, though. I think the stereotypical image is fairly ingrained in Canada mostly through advertising and those horrid movies (Crocodile Dundee, etc.).

I only knew one Australian here in town, and she was a Grade 5 teacher, here for many years. She has retired and she and her life partner are right now relaxing at the Great Barrier Reef. She was a treat!

I began having a close contact with an Australian in 1995. After that, and some of it because of FT(!) I've met many more. I have to say I am rarely disappointed in the mental acuity and sense of humour I have come to love. I have secretly thought that Australia must have a top-notch education system to produce so many quick and witty souls!

Oh, as for the culture, both aboriginal and non, I think it is colourful and rapidly growing for such a young nation. It does seem a bit "hot" for me, there. Also, I have seen many films produced in Australia and most have been stellar. Documentaries on Australian life and wildlife (not the people, the animals!) also hold my attention!

Now you can buy me a Foster's! OH hahahahaha!

The main stereotypes I had before visiting your country were probably from the kind of odd films like the Picnic film, the Peter Weir stuff...and I knew that it was vast in terms of land...I also was very curious about the wildlife..
I did work with an Australian artist though..in the UK, so I knew the supposed philistine thing wasn't true...we've corresponded for years now...writing each other rec letters...possible jobs. Very nice.
Oh yes, we had the Crocodile Dundee image, and the Monty Python Bruce sketch of Philosophers named Bruce.

But I don't think I was prepared for the grandiose landscapes! My! It was just vast...the nullarbor plain goes on and on...
The people themselves, well after New Zealand for a few weeks and its kind of hermitically sealed up time warp of what Americans think England is like...it seemed very boisterous...open...reminded me more of American than the UK, cause I hadn't been to the latter yet!

I did find the men...well rather boisterous, though as I was accompanied, it didn't normally bother me...didn't bother them either, one guy slapped my partner on the back asked him out for drinks, never met a live Frenchman before, and told him he could leave the old lady in the library! Very hospitable...though my husband politely refused...

The wildlife in the zoos is by far the most fantastic I've ever seen...each city has a zoo that's kept up in pristine condition...really!

A Yank view from a decidedly biased observer (screen name's an old Oz harness horse).

The Aussies can shed their so-called cultural cringe. Robert Hughes, who is also an excellent writer ("The Fatal Shore") may well be the best-known art critic in the US, and for my money he's one of if not the best. No American film director can carry Peter Weir's shoes, or for that matter, Bruce Beresford's. At the risk of repeating myself I will again recommend the film (and book) "The Year of Living Dangerously", the first Oz film made with US backing.. a stunningly good film, though made from an evern better book by CJ Koch, an Ozzie from Tassie.

I may not speak for many Americans but at least some of us view Oz as a bit paradisaical. However picturesque we find the "mateship" thing, I think some of us actually yearn for more of that sort of thing over here, where friendships tend to be work- or activity-based and thus a bit fleeting. Many of us are familiar with the infamous "Bruces" sketch from Python, and however humorously the faculty of the Philosophy Depaaaaaatment of the U. of Woolloomoloo may have been portrayed, one also got the sense that the Poms were paying a sort of backhanded compliment to the Aussies'
easygoing nature, hedonism, and of course, unabashed love of a good time, whether with a "tube of [censored]" or a nice Sheilah.

I too have noted the pronounced literacy of many of the Aussie qms, mods and eds on this site, their finely tuned ear for irony, and what seems to be their great and wide-ranging curiosity. They also appear to have civility and common sense in great abundance. I guess one of the real surprises I got on this site was ascertaining that jazzkickazz, despite having all of these attributes, and despite having come from a region known for its desert, lack of water, generally hot climate and comparatively recent settlement, is not in fact Australian!

Strewth!

I've visited Australia, and it's a fine country. Some of the the country's stereotypes come from the fact that historically it was viewed as a lesser offshoot of Europe, and was mocked for lacking some of the things Europe has. For example, however far Australia progresses in terms of the arts, it'll be a long time before it can compete with Paris and Rome on those terms.

However, as Bertho said above, more recently Australia has developed its own identity to a greater extent, and for me it's a great country in its own right. Admittedly some of that identity is built on sporting success, but what's wrong with that? I wish Britain's was sometimes.

PS. Sydney's botanical garden is IMHO the most beautiful anywhere in the world. This is a propos of nothing, but I thought I'd throw it in.

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The sheep's back just doesn't carry as much weight as it used to.

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mate, you're not telling me something I don't know!

There is such a big difference between the city and the country in Australia. With so much of the population being in the cities we are losing a lot of that 'pioneering' attitude ("we still like the idea that we are seen as tough pioneering people dealing with a harsh land and an unforgiving climate." from Jim's post) and losing touch with so much that has made this country what it is.

I live in an area where it is almost sterotypical of what our 'image' is ... people do give a damn about their drink ... imagine the uproar when the police decided that only low alcohol beer would be served after 6pm! World War Three nearly started right here, folks. And I have seen people going crash tackling feral pigs and pick up snakes and crack them like a whip to kill them. Perhaps it's all the beer that makes them do these kinds of things?

If anyone would like to post what their general perception of Aboriginal Australians is, I'd really like to hear it, by the way...

Jillian! You have suffered so much for so long (with the drought on the spread).......and THAT'S the pioneering spirit right there! You've retained your humour and humility throughout it all, and perhaps this should have been a PM, but, HEY! That's what makes you the wonderful you you are! NOT in the city.........NOT in a cushy environment others might better understand! Room for everyone! Good on'ya?

OH! Tanzen! I have a wonderful opinion of the Aboriginal Australians! All I know is from documentaries and I apologise for that, but I find it fascinating, and it only means there is so much more I can't know. The survival abilities (I'm sorry, but witchity grubs come to mind, and I'd damn well eat them if I had to!) and the interpretations of the nature they were given, and the art and also spirituality, from what I can tell, are all strong and admirable qualities. Here in Canada we have our own aboriginal "issues" to contend with, and it isn't easy or pretty. It is a factor in my daily working life. I never would have thought to say this without your prompting! I'm a little slow!

I know that I was shocked at the town of Kalgoorlie, as, well, the Aboriginal population there seemed to be very very downtrodden...very sad actually...but that was twenty years back...and that's an odd town...people going there to mine for gold or opals...rough around the edges isn't quite the term for it...
I remember a film with Jenny Agutter about them getting lost in the outback..and they were befriended by a group...does anyone remember that one? A girl and her brother in school uniforms, getting lost out in the wilderness.

The pioneer spirit...a few years back I worked with an Australian sports figure...who demonstrated to me...that sort of Bryce Courtenay style as the mother was the dominant one...the mainstay of the family...even though they lived in the suburbs of Sydney, they still had a big business and a few sons in the sports world...and the mother was the backbone!

What about the genealogy thing in Australia? I heard that it was quite fashionable to dredge up convict ancestors...is this true? My Aussie friends told me how they came to be there...

By the way, I found the cities very cosmopolitan, I suppose I expected something more like small town midwestern America, or more farm oriented...it wasn't.

One other thing...all the cities had a zoo...that rivaled the others...Sydney's zoo is of course just gorgeous..but the other cites..saw my first awake Koola in Melbourne...Adelaide, can't remember the zoo...
The platypus was neat too..
Question, where did I see the flying fox? It had a nocturnal cage...but I cannot remember which zoo had one.

I don't know if its fashionable to have convict ancestors - but its certainly interesting. I have convicts on my Dad's side and we have all their records including physical descriptions (incl. a 4'9" pockmarked prostitute!) and in one case a newspaper report of his court case - for drunkenly stealing a barrel of whiskey in Glasgow!
(When I first became engaged we were still in Japan and one of my student's suggested that i hire a private detective to investigate my fiance's past - eg. what caste his ancestors were. I laughed and told the student about my ancestors - and he was suitably horrified!)

The Jenny Agutter movie was called "Walkabout" - the other star was David Gulpilil who has recently been seen as an Aboriginal tracker in "The Tracker" (which unfortunatley I haven't seen yet). One of Australia's great actors.

I'm pretty proud of the Aborigines Tanzen, if white Australia has had it tough meeting some middle ground 'identity' than the natives have had a torrid time under some pretty rotten racist conditions. There's so much emphasis on reconciliation here. I reckon that's crap. What is there to reconcile? The past is good to learn from but you can't change it. Both blacks and whites here have to learn tolerance and understanding and respect for each other and I feel that's happening. The last ten years were a good move forward.

The further north you go there's still plenty of racial tension and segregation. I did a rugby tour up there recently and the white and black attitudes to each other I found appalling. The driver of a cab I was in veered the car sharply to give a scare to some young black kids crossing the road. He thought it was hilarious to see them dive onto the footpath. This is pretty common in the north. Obviously we still have a way to travel.

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Both blacks and whites here have to learn tolerance and understanding and respect for each other and I feel that's happening.

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I agree Bertho.

There are good and bad in all races, and I believe not only Aborigines have it hard, I believe alot of "whites" have it just as hard. But this is going off the topic abit.
No matter what colour or race you are, everyone should be treated as one. No race/colour should have more privileges, everyone should be treated as equal.

I lived in California for five years in the early 1980s. Just about everyone who came into my office went into raptures about my Aussie accent and bombarded me with questions about Australia, especially our wildlife.

What was quite amazing to me was that most of the Americans I met at work seemed to have a mental image of Australia being a tiny little island. When I explained that Australia is about the same size as the continental USA, they were amazed.

Another very common question I used to get was "Do you know my cousin/friend/etc in Sydney/Melbourne etc". Then I would have to explain that was like me asking someone in San Francisco if they just happened to know someone in New York.

In the end, I got a map of the world put up on my office wall so that I could show people where Australia was, how big it was, and where I was from!

And contrary to popular belief, we don't all have pet koalas and kangaroos!

MotherGoose, I know what you mean about people expecting you to know their cousin/friend/cousin's friend in Sydney...but if it's someone from Hobart there's not a bad chance that I will know them!

Most of the posts here are from Australians and we can talk until the cows come home about our quirks, our history, our culture. Just try and stop us!

However, I would really like to see some more opinions from other parts of the globe especially America (where FT has the most members) and Europe.

I added something then lost the message, as Wajo said, I thought it only happened to me, but turns out that Mother Goose's husband and I grew up in the same area of California.
(Dobrov and I had even spoken on the phone once apparently, or we're almost certain we might have!)
So it is a small world after all some times!

I don't think we learned about much in school in the States...most of what I know about the world, was on my own, through my parents, my relatives who'd often lived elsewhere than the States...curiosity.

The state of US education when I was a kid...we'd probably assume you all had kangaroos in your homes...and koalas in your trees.

When we think of Australia the first thing that comes to our mind is the wildlife: the kangaroos, koalas etc. I don’t think there are any negative or positive stereotypes regarding the Aussies themselves though.

We know that it is a relatively young country and its inhabitants are said to be descended from the convicts (please don’t take offence!). But most of all, it is very far and very hot .

Personally, I have never been there, but my image of Australia is that of a quiet, paradise-like country .