chochobnob

Agreed. I find Aussies NOT from any of the major cities to be much, much more interesting. Sydneysiders by and large tend to be the most boring Australians. Suburban to the core but with a faux 'big city' arrogance.

BadgeIsBack

I think I can identify a common, and fair, strand that suburban Australians are not very interesting because they live in very, very, large suburbs of what is not infact, a very huge city by other cities in the world. Does Melbourne fair any better? All of a sudden we open the Melb vs Sydney debate...But I think we can make allowances for others who might be interesting...

Personally I find people from outside the cities to be not that interesting unless they are from the professional classes or farmers. I live semi-rural, on the edge of Melbourne in a village, neither city nor country - but am employable professionally in a city. I could not live in a country town. I could certainly not live in anything resembling a suburb unless it was within 6k of Melbourne - so really I get a bit of everything - which is not boring.

Australia is very much country(outback, town) vs city (suburb and established).

I think the average UK person probably is a tad less conformist (and more interesting) than the average Australian but then anyone could look down on average.

...where discussion of this gets interesting though is exactly what people class as boring and what their tastes are... and what sort of people they are - because I can identify all sorts of streams..from BE.. that over the years are very much contradictory!

eg

That Aussies are insular. Big country, small population.
That people say that country Australians are even more insular as a result.
Small town mentality. 'Never left Queensland'.

By the very fact, others say that people in cities, and (indeed, closer to the city centre and this is known to be vertually a fact in Australia), tend to be more 'sophisticated' and this is where the culture is ('I wish I lived in Melbourne and not Perth'; 'Stay close in'). Others - who tend to live in country towns (who are not disadvantaged or deprived of culture or infrastructure) say they have rewarding and superior lives.

Then we have people debating what is a city - like 'London is, Melbourne is not' - is that because one is a true world city, and one is not etc even though one might be still distinctly liveable.

So what is it? I can't say.

This is why this one will run and run and run...
...which is why I can't say that Australians are more boring or that there are no characters...

I can say though there are a multitude of people who will never meet interesting Australians and I think this is part of the problem.

BadgeIsBack

Dropped a clanger there - it's not that I don't find country people interesting - far from it - it's just that I couldn't live in their town with everyone else (and get bored)! Make sense?

chris955

The huge difference for me is that I can easily live in rural England but no way in the world could I live in truly rural Australia, it would be purgatory to be honest. I could live semi rural as we would still have easy access to major centres. To me somewhere like Canungra on the GC hinterland would be great but not much further out than that. They have great pies in Canungra, not in the pie shop that says they have the best pies in the world but the cafe opposite

bingobob777

In Glasgow you'll either meet the funniet/coolest guy in the world or someone who'll kill you

In Brisbane you'll generally meet the most average person known to man

chochobnob

That's frigging funny!

Pollyana

I've met some extremely funny/cool guys in Brisbane too ....they aren't Aussies though

Swerv-o

Best pies in the world, or the best pies in the southern hemisphere?


S

BadgeIsBack

I would much rather live in the country in the UK than in the country in Australia. In the UK there is more access to a city or other things. I do however prefer Melbourne to Brummie or Mancester..and semi-rural Melbourne offers the best of both worlds and also ticks more boxes reliably than a UK country location.

I don't mind farm life in Australia - I adore facets of it - I like the interest and the challenge but I would not want to do it 24/7.

chris955

I just had a look on Google Maps streetview and the sign seems to have gone, maybe they got sick of the people laughing at them
The Outpost Cafe opposite have truly lovely pies, stuffed with meat.
The sign did say best in the world, we tried them and wondered where this world they were talking about was.

Mr Grumpy

If you want a semi rural life in Australia the absolute best place is the Blue Mountains.

It is absolutely beautiful forested mountains with excellent bushwalking and pretty mountain villages. But so close to Sydney and has a very good rail network. It even occasionally snows from Katoomba to Lithgow, especially at Blackheath.

The problem is of course employment. If you want a decent paying job that is not tourism related you will be heading off the city very early in the morning.

DeadVim

Hey, don't put yourself down, I'm sure you have some redeeming features.

IvanM

May be interesting people avoid you.

lesleys

I love Canungra, except for the heat in summer. Being away from the office environment probably means we meet a much wider variety of people - some can be boring but most are absolutely not. My sense of humour seems to be appreciated and practically all our friends are Aussie and include farmers, artists, scientists, engineers, gardeners, teachers. Only generalisation I might make is that the older ones are more relaxed, less self-conscious and funnier.

Sherlock Holmes

That has my vote.