02/08/10

Preamble: Although we spent 4 weeks in Australia, the first two weeks was mainly spent in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra and the last two weeks traversing Queensland. Any views and impressions that I gathered are therefore rather limited and probably lack accuracy and reliability. However, I have bravely or maybe foolishly attempted to put to word processor some of my thoughts.

Some Thoughts about Australia

What a vast country – miles and miles of pastures, farms, plantations and coastline. With most of the population settled into more or less 5 major cities, the rest of the country seems rather unpopulated – even more so than our Canadian prairies. This impression is of course based only on driving about 5000 kilometers from Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne, then on to Sydney via Canberra and from Cape Tribulation over Cairns to Brisbane. When I look at the map, I realize that although we drove though the most populated area of Australia, I certainly could drive 10 times that distance and not have traveled all the major roads in the country. Unlike our large empty space called the Northwest Territory and Nunavut, highways do cross (both sealed and gravel) the great Outback from north to south and east to west.

Although Australia’s vistas are often spectacular, the great distances between them seem to dilute their impact – unlike both the beauty of New Zealand and western Canada. The number and large size of the beaches in a country surrounded by water is unfathomable for a western Canadian but also this very abundance and size of the beaches dilutes their value in that you get accustomed to seeing them and only the biggest (like on Fraser Island) or the ones with the whitest and finest sand are appreciated. Unlike both Canada and New Zealand the mountains of Australia area not very pointy but very nice and a green, cool oasis during the hot summer. Like our prairies a lot of the country is very flat. Unlike in most of Canada, water seems to be the limiting factor to both an expanding agro-industry and the population as a whole.

 An abundance of mineral wealth and much agriculture drives the Australian Economy which overall seems to be blessed with thousands of acres of vineyards, orchards, sugar cane fields, banana and papaya plantations and even some forests are left for both recreational and logging. Being isolated from the motherland, Great Britain, by distance, Australians through hard work and an abundance of resources have built a relatively strong economy. Like the old colonies of the 16^th  and 17^th  century, this young country has attempted to look after itself in all ways by providing their population with Ozzie built appliances, food supplies, building materials, and even cars – the great Holden! Overall, I came away with the impression that a fair bit of protectionism is practiced in order to sustain employment for Australians. The same reasons are often hinted at for keeping out immigrants and migrant workers from Asia. A lower Australian dollar (relative to ours) ensures that Australian goods and services can compete in the global market place since labour and transportation costs do not make many consumer goods competitive.

I found most Australians that we met (outside of our friends) not very open or gregarious compared to the New Zealanders or western Canadians. The people we encountered mostly in the tourism industry were efficient, friendly, and accommodating. Perhaps, we moved faster through Australia than New Zealand  so we did not get to “know” too many personally. However, my impression is that Australians are very competitive (hence their great performance at the Olympics summer games and the Commonwealth Games – they had to convert a Canadian to give them a gold medal in the Winter Olympics), with an attitude that says “Here I am – I am what I am – take it or leave it.” This is also exemplified by them often saying “we do it the Australian way” when asked why they pronounce, write or do something differently. Their competitiveness ranges from the football and cricket field to the large cities’ great desire to be recognized as “World Cities”. Australians also love gambling – on horses, on sports and the emerging casino industry. In summary I found them to be:  friendly but personally wary – cocky but hard working – competitive as well as sportsman-like – efficient and fun loving. Would they make great neighbours – you bet!

Shopping in the stores – except in the largest cities – is rather limited especially when it comes to food selection, appliances and other goods. I think Loblaws' Great Canadian Superstores with their immense size and vast varieties of ethnic and other foods from around the world would probably evoke “shopping shock” from most Ozzies.  I found the choices in bakeries and delis rather limited and even the availability and variety of fast foods does not come close to what we are used to here in Canada. It could be that Canada is more multicultural and that Australia having been longer a British colony has adopted the  limited British cuisine over  the years – it’s only in the last 20 years or so  that London cuisine has seen more variety and choice.

Like in New Zealand, many Australians still use real estate as their main investment tools to provide for their retirement. As long as real estate prices keep inflating (will the bubble burst??), this kind of investment pays off. Demographically the population is aging and there is a shift of seniors moving from the larger cities to coastal towns and mountain areas where real estate prices may be lower – like the westward migration of our friends from Calgary to Kelowna, Qualicum Beach and Courtney/Comox. The Australians we met were strongly attached to their own area, and hadn’t usually traveled much.

Australia has many of the same institutions as Canada. However, it is younger and has even less history than western Canada. In Australia, the government is bicameral and the senate is elected – American style. A Capital Territory was carved out of the colony of New South Wales (incidentally so were the states of Victoria and Queensland) and houses the capital – Canberra. Formal coalition governments are common. Unlike New Zealand, both houses have fewer women in politics and the government (as much of the country) seems to have an overabundance of testosterone. I guess the concept of the role of the “Sheila” may still be strong here. I think that Australians generally would not accept a Chinese Hong Kong refugee woman or a black Haitian immigrant woman as their Governors General. Although Sydney seems to have a large gay community, I think same sex marriage may be a long time to come in Australia.

The federal government seems to actually try to be American (elected senate and talk of becoming a republic). Perhaps the fact that Britain could not help defend Australia during WW II and the US did may have had something to do with this. Sometimes I got the feeling that Australia would like to see itself as a strong superpower of south east Asia – something the Americans seem to have accomplished throughout the world. It seems the US is Australia’s role model and best friend.  Hence, Australia is in Iraq – Canada is not. Unlike in New Zealand, Australia's aboriginals are not guaranteed seats in parliament and were granted citizenship rights only as recently as 1947 - this was further reaffirmed in 1967.

Since most of the population lives in 5 major cities, each surrounded by hinterland that is sparsely populated, it seems there are a number of “city states” (like Singapore and Hong Kong) instead of larger political units making up the country. Melbourne seems to be in competition with Sydney – Perth, like some in Calgary and western Canada, is talking separation - Adelaide and Brisbane do their own stuff, etc. Sydney is the most “American” of all the major cities and I think would like to see itself as the New York of Australasia and perhaps in the same league as Singapore, Hong Kong, KL and even Tokyo. In my opinion, Sydney is large in population but short on history and overall maturity as a great city unlike  London, Paris, Prague, New York or even our own Montreal. I guess that even more than Canada, Australia and Australians still need to find their identity as a nation and people. I wish them much success in that. After all we are cousins – at least Anglophone Canada is.

Overall, a great place to visit and we will – God willing and good health allowing – be back to see  Tasmania, more of South Australia,  the southeast of Victoria and the northeast of NSW, and particularly Perth and West Australia as well as Darwin and North Australia. Hopefully, our friends will be also still there in Melbourne and Sydney to continue to guide and educate us about this unique country. G'Day, mates!!!

-Erich