Ten Reasons You Must Visit Australia
You Asked For It!
I’ve been asked to write this as an antithesis to my “ Ten Reasons Not To Visit Australia” which is currently my third biggest earner this month even though I wrote it way back in May. I don’t expect to earn a cent for this positive view of Australia. Readers like to hear the bad stuff! So here goes. Ten reasons why you’d come to Australia. And not just for a week or two. There’s too much to see and do. And please, don’t just visit Sydney and Melbourne. They are different from the rest of Australia.
- It is different to everywhere else in the world.
It’s nothing like Europe, it’s nothing like Asia or Africa, it’s nothing like its nearest neighbours, New Zealand and New Guinea. In fact, it is unique. It’s getting to be a little like the USA but once you get out of the cities, you won’t see that so much either.
2. Some animals are dangerous but they are more than compensated by the less dangerous and cute ones.
Wallabies, koalas, (although don’t interrupt them mating!), wombats, possums, platypuses (or are they platypi ?) and quokkas are all super cute and friendly. Australia is the only place you can see all of these animals in their natural habitat. (but not jumping up and down city streets!) These animals are unique to Australia.
3. And that’s not even talking about all the birds that are unique!
I don’t know much about birds but I doubt you have kookaburras landing on your clothesline cackling like something is really funny. Neither will you have so many rainbow lorikeets your bottlebrush tree that you can’t see the tree!
4. Our beaches are pretty special too.
I won’t say unique here because I have swum at some bloody beautiful beaches in other parts of the world but I think you can probably say Australia has more consistently beautiful ones per kilometre of coastline than anywhere else. Pure white sandy beaches (who wants to lie on black sand or rocks?) and as long as you don’t swim at dawn or dusk in a wetsuit, you’ll be pretty safe from sharks. I’ve swum at unpatrolled beaches all my life and have only ever seen one shark.
5. The culture (or lack of it)
Australia is as multicultural as it gets consequently there isn’t a lot that identifies our culture as unique. Even our most popular foods are all borrowed from other countries. Pizza and spag bol from Italy, pies from England, butter chicken from India, sushi from Japan, bahn mi from Vietnam and good ol’ sweet and sour pork from China — these are the foods we eat most often. We toast marshmallows over a fire when camping, but we don’t have s’mores. I’d never heard of them until recently. Even the pavlova’s and lamington’s origins are disputed by New Zealand so we have no national food.
6. After a visit to Australia, you will most likely go home with a new nickname.
We massacre the English language by shortening every word we can. Pavlova is never called Pavlova. It’s always Pav. Sausages are snags. Sandwiches are sangas. If you’ve got a long name, be prepared for it to be shortened to a cuter nickname. I tried to avoid this by giving my children short names. I succeeded with the first two Blair and Liam but the next four were failures. Stacey gets Stace, Lexi gets Lex, Rowan gets Ro, and Keeley gets Keelz. But you will go home with a cute nickname.
7. Australia has undoubtedly some unique landscapes.
Uluṟu, the Kimberleys, the Great Barrier Reef, the Twelve Apostles (you’d better hurry up they’re disappearing fast!) Fraser Island (the largest sand island in the world) just to name a few.
8. Aussies are a really casual, friendly crowd.
Short and polo shirts are good for most occasions. Don’t bother bringing a suit and tie. You won’t need it — unless you’re going to a conference in Sydney or Melbourne.
9. The weather in most places is temperate.
Where I live rarely gets below 10C or above 30C.
10. It’s safe.
Parents aren’t afraid to send their kids to school here. Ordinary people don’t own any sort of firearm. You can walk down most streets at night on your own and not be afraid. If you’re on a sheep or cattle property, the owner will probably own a rifle to keep his herd safe from foxes or feral pigs, but that’s it.
So, have I convinced you to come see for yourself?
Are you a Medium member yet? If you’d like to read more of my travel adventures, click below and join me in the Medium community.
