Life in Australia

Australia is the only country in the world that is its own continent and has a land mass of roughly the same size as the continental United States. And offers visitors some of the most diverse scenery seen anywhere in the world. Australia is a country of roughly 20 million people and will continue to grow at an extraordinary rate over the next 30 years to accommodate another 15 million by 2040. Australia is one of the largest mineral exporters in the world and has significant contracts with China, the USA, and Japan for raw material.
So there is a lot more to Australia that meets the eye.

Life in Australia happens on the east coast and over 85% of Aussies find their home there. The east coast of Australia was the region that was settled first by Europeans at the end of the 18th century and the colony of New South Wales spent its first worrying years near starvation and under the assault of some of the indigenous clans that made their home in the area that would become Sydney. It was a miracle that the new colony even got off the ground in the first place, but through plucky determination, dumb luck and the inspired leadership of Arthur Phillip and his humanity that the colony flourished and continued to grow over the next decade. Norfolk Island, Hobart, Melbourne and the colony in Redcliffe were born over the next 30 years and the country began to take shape becoming the Commonwealth of Australia at the turn of the 20th century.  It is interesting to note that those first settlers thought that the country could not sustain a farming community in the European model, but over time flood plains were discovered in New South Wales and Victoria and significant farming was underway.

 But people don’t come to Australia to hear stories about farming, but come to see many of the awesome sights that Australians pass by everyday and take no notice of at all. Australia has some extraordinary man-made and natural sights in the world. The greatest of the man-made sights is the Sydney Opera House that stands in Sydney Harbour welcoming the ships of the world to come and find safety in the world’s largest deep water harbour.  Sydney Opera House is still relatively young though and was only completed in the 70’s after significant dispute between the parties involved in its design, development and construction. The designer of the Sydney Opera House has never seen it and most probably never will having ambiguous feelings about the other parties involved in the creation of this icon of the world.

Of the great natural sights that Australia has to offer two stand out more than many of the others, although significant in themselves. And they are Ulura (Ayers Rock) and the Great Barrier Reef on the Queensland Coast. Ulura is not quite in the heart of Australia, but is pretty close to it and is a significant spiritual place for many indigenous people in the area. Ulura still remains one of the country’s significant international icons and a tourist Mecca for millions of people throughout the world. While the Great Barrier Reef is the world’s most significant reef and has many gateways to it on the Queensland coast and has been the subject of more documentary films than anything else in Australia. The Great Barrier Reef is a diving wonderland and has seen significant tourist numbers make use of the reef in the past 50 years. The Great Barrier Reef is over 2000 kilometres long and is the home of still many undiscovered species of fish and sea life
 that has not been catalogued. So the preservation of the Great Barrier Reef is paramount for Australia.
               

There are four major culture myths that make up the Australian psyche and if you are going to do life in Australia then you will need to understand them a little.
 ‘The Australian Dream’ is the myth that developed largely out of the prosperity of the 1950’s and centres around the ownership of property, a house in particular.  It is reported that the number one desire of most Australian families is to own a house in the suburbs and on the surface this seems to be true. And can be testified too because of the large urban sprawl that spread out from all Australian state capitals since the end of the Second World War when those veteran’s who survived the campaigns in North Africa and the Pacific returned home to settle down and start families. The Australian Dream is the dream of middle class Australian’s and it is a significant rite of passage for many people in that socio-economic group, up there with getting married and first communion.  While the promise (opportunity) of home ownership is a significant drive for many of the recent and diverse migrants to Australia, ‘The Australian
 Dream’ is the country’s most capitalistic myth and lays at the heart of economic life in the country. 

The notion of ‘The Fair Go’ underpins the essential democratic nature of the country. It is ironic that, in spite of this myth and the belief that Australian’s have about themselves that they are a people who are devoid of a class system. Australia is a fierce international competitor in the sporting arena and expectations of Aussie’s winning looms large over all Australian athletes. There are also divisions within Australian society and it is still difficult for indigenous Australians to get a foothold in society. But the myth serves its purpose and it is still widely believed and all Australians can use the myth in their favour when they are moving through the different stations of life. Even international students when they come up against difficulty in Australia can appeal to people to give them a ‘Fair Go’ and find that people often will.

Many Australian’s believe that they are an ‘Underdog’ and the idea of always supporting the ‘Underdog’ is as old as the Bible where the young shepherd boy David defeated the Philistine monstrosity Goliath in a fight to the death and support for the ‘Underdog’ is an essential myth of many cultures around the world. Not just Australia. But Australian’s have turned support for the ‘Underdog’ into an art form that has made them buy swimming pools for Senegalese swimmers who came last in their Olympic heats, supporting the Japanese rugby union side when they did not have a hope in Hades of winning and becoming the cheer squad for  mediocre English cricketer Phil Tufnell.  Supporting the ‘Underdog’ is by far Australian’s most endearing trait and it is when Australians support someone who they believe to be an ‘Underdog’ they that are at their most ego evasive. The support of the ‘Underdog’ is a purely emotional response to a person’s plight but it has a purpose and it is good to know that people will help you if they perceive you as an ‘Underdog’.

So from here we turn to one of the negative cultural myths in Australia. And that is the idea of ‘Culture Cringe’. No element of the Australian psyche has been more satirized then Australian’s sense of shame about their place in the world. Many Australian’s are (still) ashamed about where they come from. And it can be off putting for many visitors to Australia. Bill Bryson in his book ‘Down Under’ commented about this when he met an Australian woman in a rural town who insisted on telling him how awful Australians were. He said Australian’s at their most neurotic were downright frightening and he is right.  And there was the time at a comedy gala in Canada when Australian comedian Adam Hill insisted on apologizing for Steve Irwin, in spite of the fact that Irwin was a cultural icon in North America who changed the nature of documentary film making. In reality Aussies do not have a lot to be ashamed off and play themselves down by insisting that they are a second rate people who have not achieved anything. While the fact of the matter is, is that Australia is a diverse society that administers itself well, has produced some extraordinary people and is seen as quirky alternative to the United States and Britain.
 
English is the language most used in Australia, although it is still not an official language. 80% of Australians use English in their home and Australian English is seen as an alternative to the language of the UK and US. Australian English is the 6th largest style of English used and Australian English is the inspiration for many of the weird phrases used by other English speakers throughout the world.  Australian English has its own unique accent and vocabulary and is spoken broadly, generally and culturally. There seems to be no class divisions with the use of the different accents although middle class Aussies and women tend to speak with a general accent and upper class Australian women speak with a cultured accent. While a considerable portion of 2nd generation Australian’s are bilingual and there are 70 indigenous languages been spoken today throughout the country. Chinese is the second most common language in Australia, while Italian and
 Greek come in third and fourth.  Australia has its own sign language spoken by roughly 7000 hearing impaired people called AUSLAN.  
As an international student you will need to have a good grasp on the English language and it is good to know that Australia is one of the administrators of IELTS and English language schools are common throughout the country and can be found in all major universities. Your AA Education Agent will help direct you to the best language school for you and a list of language schools can found at the AA Education Network website.
So, what are the benefits of studying in Australia?
Australia is a multicultural society where roughly 25% of Australian citizens were born overseas. Australia has over 100 different ethnic groups that make their home in Australia and Australia has some of the best weather, beaches, night clubs, pubs, parks, rainforests, lagoons, waterfalls, and wildlife on the planet. The people are friendly and relatively good natured a lot of the time and will give you a ‘Fair Go’.  Australian education qualifications are accepted throughout the world and you will have an opportunity to study at some of the finest and most respected institutions that the country has to offer. There are also a range of sporting clubs, cultural organizations and art forums that you can join. Australian educational institutions offer high quality outcomes and par well with North America and Britain in cost. Australian educational institutions are very democratic in they way they are administered and laid back in style. But the
 credentials that they offer are second to none.
Australia also has many of the amenities of Europe and has one of the best communication systems in the world. And it is easy to access money in Australia and there are banks in Australia that you can get accounts with that have ATM’s, on line banking and face to face customer service. The Australian banking system survived the last recession relatively unscathed and all accounts are insured by the Federal Government. An international student can also bring $10 000 into Australia undeclared and much more if they declare it. Money orders, promissory notes and other financial documentation can be brought into the country as well. As an international student who holds a visa with the subclass designation of 8105 you will only be allowed to work 20 hours per week during the semester, so you will need to have funds of $400 per week to live in Australia without hardship. But work for international students in Australia is common, if not glamorous and you can
 pick up part-time work relatively easy.  
Life in Australia is good, the country has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and the weather is temperate most of the year round. So consider Australia as a study and travel destination.