1) "Almost every Australian has their very own pet kangaroo in his or her backyard."

False. This is so far off it isn’t funny. Kangaroos are plentiful, sure, but most of the population lives nowhere near any kangaroos. Sorry.

2) "Tasmania doesn’t really exist."

False, no matter how much we wish this were true. It does exist, it’s just hidden down the bottom. It is really far down under.

3) "All Australians sound like Paul Hogan from ‘Crocodile Dundee’."

Again, false. Paul Hogan uses a very, very thick accent in this film. We sound less like him than most people believe.

4) "Australians all live in outback towns surrounded by desert."

Sorry, but this too is false. Most of the population lives near the coastline, near fabulous beaches and big cities.There are many other theories about Australia and Australians, but most of them are wrong. Let’s get a clear picture about what we are down here...

Australia was founded as a convict settlement by the British in 1788 (and no, we area’t all criminals). The native aboriginals were forced out of their lands and dominated by white man (to this day the government is still trying to settle native land rights claims). Now, Australia is a multicultural country, full of people from all walks of life and all places across the globe. Yes, the Australian accent is different to most, and some find it hard to understand, even fellow Australians can sometimes misunderstand each other, but it is not as bad as some films depict. The landscape is greatly varied from place to place, from snow to sunshine, drought to flood. We’ve got it all. And more. We have some of the best beaches in the world, beautiful forests, amazing coral reef formations, and other things which you probably have heard of. We even have the one architectural structure in the world that is more bizarre than the Taj Mahal: the Sydney Opera House. *LOL*

There is so much to say about Australia, and so much to clear up. So many things that people think about this country that are far from accurate, that it would take me weeks to go through them all. Put it this way: Look at films, television and so-on, and anything you see that seems ridiculous, don’t believe it. It probably isn’t true. We aren’t as weird as you think we are. Well, most of us anyways....

---Silent Guardian