{"id":847,"date":"2016-07-08T01:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T01:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/?p=847"},"modified":"2016-07-13T00:38:43","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T00:38:43","slug":"aussie-myths-busted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/aussie-myths-busted\/","title":{"rendered":"Busted: 6 Aussie myths that just aren\u2019t true"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everybody has preconceived ideas about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a>, just like they do about everywhere. We\u2019ve got some of the best beaches in the world (true). We all like vegemite, Rupert Murdoch and sunbaking in the nude (false). Our toilets flush the other way (who cares, guys, come on).<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"giphy-embed\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/xT5LMQENFZT7YyfCRG\" width=\"480\" height=\"368\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And look, some stereotypes are well warranted. We <em>do <\/em>go a bit crazy for sport and we <em>do <\/em>try to steal everything from the Kiwis (although they can keep Russell Crowe, thank you very much). But if you\u2019re considering a holiday Down Under, there\u2019s a few things we need to get straight first. Here are six Aussie clich\u00e9s that just don\u2019t stack up to fair dinkum reality.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Everything will eat you<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_855\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-855\" class=\"wp-image-855 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/co-Jurgen-Otto-700x438.jpg\" alt=\"co Jurgen Otto\" width=\"700\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/co-Jurgen-Otto-700x438.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/co-Jurgen-Otto-585x366.jpg 585w, https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/co-Jurgen-Otto.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-855\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image c\/o Jurgen Otto, Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Welcome to stingy, bitey, creepy-crawly Australia, where even the sea snails and honeybees will kill you. Box jellyfish, Eastern brown snakes, funnel-web spiders, great white sharks, stinging stonefish, saltwater crocodiles\u2026 Oz is home to some of the deadliest creatures in the world.<\/p>\n<p>But as much as Aussies love to trot out the whole treacherous menagerie and give tourists a good scare (twisted, I know), the reality is that death by animal is a rare occurrence Down Under. More people die from falling off a chair every year than from snakebites and shark attacks combined. Most critters will stay well out of your way, but if on the rare chance you <em>do<\/em> get a bite or a sting, anti-venom is readily available at hospitals and medical centres countrywide.<\/p>\n<p>Watch out for drop bears, though. They\u2019re out to getcha.<\/p>\n<h3>2. It\u2019s hot and sunny all year round<\/h3>\n<p>Even though many imagine Oz to be a land of boundless sunshine (thanks Hollywood), it\u2019s actually home to some pretty diverse weather. In the tropical northern zones \u2013 Queensland, parts of the Top End and the Kimberly \u2013 it rains heavily for several months of the year. Down south, it can get pretty cold and dreary during the winter, especially in Victoria and Tasmania (Tassie\u2019s not so far from Antarctica, after all). We even get snow in the mountains. Snow, I say!<\/p>\n<p>Dorothea Mackellar was right when she wrote about a sunburnt country, though. Because of a thinning in the ozone layer, Australia has some of the highest UV levels in the world, so make sure you take extra care to protect yourself from the sun. Or in the words of this iconic 80s TV ad, slip, slop, slap:<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b7nocIenCYg\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>3. Everybody looks like\u00a0Elle Macpherson<\/h3>\n<p>While it\u2019s true that we\u2019re all bracingly good-looking, we\u2019re actually a pretty multicultural bunch. Melbourne and Sydney in particular have thriving populations of Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Malaysian, Indian, Greek and Italian people, as well as growing numbers of migrants from Africa and the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>And while 82% of the population live within 50 kilometres of the beach, we\u2019re not all bronzed Baywatch babes. So really, there\u2019s no one way to act or look \u2018Australian\u2019.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Koalas as pets? Kangaroos as boxing buds? Crocs as wrestling partners?<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_848\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-848\" class=\"wp-image-848 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/3189870179_2dbe02c132_b.jpg\" alt=\"3189870179_2dbe02c132_b\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/3189870179_2dbe02c132_b.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/3189870179_2dbe02c132_b-700x438.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/3189870179_2dbe02c132_b-585x366.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-848\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image c\/o Centophobia, Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Just\u2026 no. These are wild animals, and believe it or not, Skippy was JUST A TV SHOW. While they may look cute, koalas are actually pretty standoffish. Kangas are a lot more plentiful, but the closest you\u2019d ever get to a boxing match is a swift, powerful and one-sided kick. And crocodiles? Unless you\u2019re with an experienced guide in a boat or standing high above the water, it\u2019s a good idea to keep well away.<\/p>\n<h3>5. It\u2019s too far away<\/h3>\n<p>Travelling Aussies hear it all the time \u2013 I <em>would <\/em>come to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a>, but it\u2019s just so <em>far away. <\/em>Sure, if you\u2019re coming from Europe or the Americas, it\u2019s a long time to be stuck in the old tin bird. But consider the following arguments:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>15 hours on a plane is technically 15 hours of enforced, guilt-free downtime. When else in life do you get to watch five cheeseball rom-coms in a row or catch up on your kung fu cult classics? Alternatively, use the time to bone up on your Aussie literature \u2013 a splash of Patrick White here, some Tim Winton or Miles Franklin there.<\/li>\n<li>Australia\u2019s not far from <em>everywhere.<\/em> In fact, we have some pretty fabulous neighbours. If you\u2019ve got the time, why not make a grand tour of it and visit New Zealand, South East Asia or the Pacific Islands too?<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s just as far for us to visit you as it is for you to visit us. And we\u2019ll always visit you. Please invite us. We\u2019ll totally come.<\/li>\n<li>Once you get here you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s all worth it. Trust us.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>6. Australia is a \u2018new\u2019 country with a \u2018short\u2019 history<\/h3>\n<p>Sure, when it comes to white history, Australia is a bit of a youngster. Our oldest surviving church \u2013 found in Ebenezer, New South Whales \u2013 was only built in 1809. Doesn\u2019t quite stack up to the thousand-year-old basilicas of Europe or the antiquated temple complexes of Asia, does it? That being said, the notion that Australia is one of the youngest countries in the world couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-853 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/AUS_NT_Pudakul-9-700x438.jpg\" alt=\"AUS_NT_Pudakul-9\" width=\"700\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/AUS_NT_Pudakul-9-700x438.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/AUS_NT_Pudakul-9-585x366.jpg 585w, https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/AUS_NT_Pudakul-9.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Indigenous cultures of Australia are some of the oldest continually surviving cultures on the planet. Descended from people\u00a0who crossed the continents through Asia\u00a0some 60,000 years ago, the first Australians have survived through millennia of drought, floods and the devastating effects of colonialism. Even today, they share a complex spirituality grounded in connection to land and the ancient Dreamtime. The Indigenous rock art &#8216;galleries\u2019 in Kakadu National Park tell stories of human life over 20,000 years ago. If that isn\u2019t history, we don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Discover Australia beyond the cliches on an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\">ATA adventure<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everybody has preconceived ideas about Australia, just like they do about everywhere. We\u2019ve got some of the best beaches in the world (true). We all like vegemite, Rupert Murdoch and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[215,10,15,11],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-aussie-myths","tag-australia","tag-culture","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions\/858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}