You nailed it buddy. I am moving to the Gong. Guess there are not too many places an hour south of Sydney. It was a surprise when I started researching Australia more as my travel date approached that I realized despite the land mass it is a relatively small country in regards to population size/density. Roughly the size of the continental united states. 20 million versus the 330 million in the states. You guys have like 6 or 7 major cities where the vast majority of your population lives. Where I live there are 6 or 7 major cities within 3 to 4 hours driving and that is within driving distance of the DC metropolitan area. But I will be honest I am looking forward to that. I am done with the congested traffic.
One thing I noticed. I have the sneaking suspicion as I started interacting with more and more Australians that you lot of people might be the nicest most thoughtful and considerate people I have had the pleasure of dealing with. Be it on the phone with the Uni or organizing my living situation with potential flatmates. I am moving in with two uni girls and they know I am coming from the states. They offered to go to IKEA and buy me a bed and set it up for me so I can have a place to sleep when I get there. I respectfully declined and then they offered that if I do not get one ordered by the time I arrive to feel free to sleep in one of their beds since they will be on holiday for the first two weeks I am there. That sort of behavior in the states, at least where I am from, is unheard of.
As far as one punch attacks go and being nervous walking about. I have zero fears at all. I went to school in Baltimore and that is the shittiest most violent city I have ever had the displeasure of living in. It used to have the highest murder rate in the states but St. Louis now holds that honor with Baltimore a close second. We have a great aquarium though so that makes up for all the decrepit squalor.
Fuck snakes and fuck spiders and definitely fuck sharks. Despite growing up on the east coast with beach in driving distance I never really learned to swim that well. That coupled with the fear of the unknown means I venture no farther then waste deep in the ocean. Even though I know those sharp tooth bastards can still get you in shallow water.
I actually donāt mind magpies that much. They are pretty intelligent and generally only swoop to protect their young. Plovers on the other hand have a poison barb and they just like attacking for the sheer pleasure of it.
Yeah exactly, youāll notice eventually that most of our population is within 100km of a beach so pretty much venturing along our coast lines (bar Canberra our nations captitol, but itās pretty genius actuallyā¦ making all our politicians be in a general area away from the rest of us)
Ehhhh our roads are pretty average tbh. Not as bad as other places Iām sure but donāt think youāre gunna be immune to traffic jams, especially in metro areas.
Hence our bike talk before, itāll save you plenty of time. Plus average fuel prices are like $1.40 a litre so itās pretty steep.
Yeah I think I can speak on behalf of most Aussies here is that if everything is going smoothly and everyone is happy, generally it means that everyoneās lives will run smoother. Which means we all do a lot of things for our community that we donāt actually need to do, but considering everyone does that here, it makes everything run so much better.
You need to get to the shops but youāll be their a little later than their closing time, 99% of the time if you call them theylll stay open until you get there.
Just little things like that.
Haha, my wife and I call each other cunts all the time.
And as above, only thing to watch out for is the snakes, fair few Browns around here in Adelaide, neighbours had one curled up under their bed.
The father in-law worked for a telecommunications mob, was out bush in a mine sites smoko room when one came in through the door and slipped into the bottom flap of the coke machine
Was pulling down some gyprock off the roof the other day onsite, ripped off the cornice and heard like a scrapping slither on the other side of the sheet, thought it may have just been insulation rearranging.
Jerked the sheet and an eastern brown slid out, bounced off my tool belt and rolled about half a metre from my leg.
Never jumped so far in my life
Itās still under construction so the supervisor claims that because itās not on lock and hasnāt handed over to the client that itās nothing to be noted which I understand
The house has only stood for about 3 weeks but no one knows how it had gotten between the levels (2 story block)
Could have easily been amongst scaffold or pallets
Snake catchers? If I was on a jobsite with an eastern brown it would be tools down till its caught or dead. FYI I love snakes but itās a super valid reason for tools down
Nah one of the boys said they seen it go down the run off drain
It was more of a practical joke afterwards, throwing black plumbing pipes at each other saying it was the snake
You know how it is hahaha
Lol, I just finished 72 deadliest animals of Australia on Netflix yesterday. OP, if you stay out of the water, tall grass, and check your boots youāll be alrightā¦
I canāt believe I havenāt bought it up yet, but there is one more thing that I need like you should keep an eye out for and if Iām being honest and Iām sure the other Aussies here can back me up with this, and itās becoming more prevalent.
A few years ago we had a few sightings of the black panther in the blue mountains (a chain of mountains that run up the eastern coast of NSW) so there were a lot of people going out looking for the panther.
In this time considering that a fair chunk of Australian bush isnāt populated, there were a lot of reports of foreigners being reported missing.
A bunch of Australian search parties went out to look for the researchers and what they found were grim.
It was discovered that 2 creatures had survived from the times of when megafauna ruled Australia.
Think giant tigers, sharks and birds.
Well the rescue parties located parts of body parts and sighted two of the surviving creatures
They are called the yowie and the drop bear.
The yowie anatomically similar to the sasquash.
About 9ft tall, covered in thick hair that lives in billabongs and swamps.
The drop bear is a genetically mutated koala that is about 1.7metres tall, about 140kgs but is incredibly agile.
Only a few sightings have been reported of the yowie however they are said to frequent the outer west of the great dividing range.
The drop bear has had very minimal sightings only because of the actual success rate they have in killing people.
We have found that they generally only attack foreigners but are easily fooled.
You may have heard of a delicacy we have called Vegemite.
Some people like the taste of it, some donāt.
But all Australians use it by smearing it behind our ears.
Drop bears hate the smell of it and will not attack you if they can smell it.
They also donāt attack locals so if youāre speaking in English, put on an Aussie accent and theyāll leave you alone.
This is why I will frequent the northern extremes of Australia and take my chances with bull sharks, 6m crocs, taipans and rogue kangaroos rather than visit the nsw dividing range and risk being mistaken as a foreigner by a fukin drop bear!
Pretty sure there have been sightings of Tasmanian tigers in mainland Victoria and south Australia as well.
And best mate Ivan
It really surprises me the amount of tourists Australian manages considering we literally have glorified our locals who kidnap, rape and kill tourists, backpackers and foreigners hahahaha
