(T) Australia, Kilmore

Meanwhile I had started to meet a few academics in the International Baccalaureate community of Australia –which was very small at that time. I remember meeting the IB Australasia representative Chris B who was introduced to me at a conference in Sydney. He obviously knew a fair bit about the history of the school. His almost immediate reaction to me was ‘Why couldn’t they get an Australian to do the job?’ What amazed me was that he said to himself as if he were talking out loud to , and deliberately within my earshot. This was my first experience of Australian bluntness and rudeness in the professional environment!

He had said it without even asking one question about my experience or qualifications! I thought it a quite extraordinarily rude thing to say to my face! The implication being what could I possibly offer that an Australian could not-or to put more succinctly ‘We Australians can do anything as well , if not better than, any foreigner can’. I was to meet this type of reaction time and time again in Australia. The reality was that my job had been advertised in Australia and, for some reason, I know not why, they had not been able to fill the post. That was hardly my fault was it? The job had then advertised in the British press. But B was typical of so many ‘educated’ Australians who did not give you the time to tell them the truth –they could not even conceive of the idea that an Australian institution would have to advertise overseas-it offended their sense of national pride! Although it is beside the point , my own guess is that W did not want an Aussie to do the job because he knew no Aussie would put up with him, and he knew he could ‘control’ an unsuspecting foreigner with a family through the temporary work visa I had.

Australians assumed they we had , like all foreigners, wanted to migrate to Australia to get a job at the expense of the ‘Real’ Dinky Di (Australian born) Aussies.

Actually the truth was we never had any intention of settling in Australia. I regarded it as another few years in another country. We did obtain Australian citizenship in ther end but it was not our initial intention, I had no wish to remain there. I fervently hoped (in vain, as it turned out) that I would not have to return to Australia in order to be near to my children! The reality is that Australia , just like England, Ireland, the rest of Europe and the USA only permit migration becausethey t need workers to pay taxes to support their elderly , and to do the dirty jobs they are not prepared to do themselves. It is high time they were more honest about it. The Australian economy would collapse without it’s legal migrants in the same way the California would collapse without the Mexican ‘Illegals’.

I admire a lot about Australia – especially it’s economic and governmental infrastructure and of course it’s physical beauty. There is a preparedness to innovate and experiment which is refreshing after the ‘Old world’. In a very short time Australia has achieved an enormous amount from inauspicious beginnings. They are right to be proud of these achievements. But in some quarters this pride has been overdone to the point of complacency and arrogance. Many Australians value their independence to a fault. And that leaves me cold. The easiest way to offend some Australians I met seemed to be to offer them something, anything-even a beer or a cup of tea! They would perhaps forgive you an injury you caused them, but not an invitation, a gift, or worst of all an offer of assistance !

The underlying attitude seemed to be ‘What could I possibly need from you that I haven’t already got?”. Many other cultures have developed a spirit of cooperation and interdependence between individuals in order for the group or community to survive. – I can think of many other places I have lived where this is the case in Africa, South America or Mexico. In these places through cooperation individuals seem experience the joy and exhilaration of a communal sense of identity and security. This is what sustains their life. This is what makes them get up in the morning.. But it is precisely this that seems to be lacking in Australia –and in many north European type cultures and their derivatives including the USA. . The joy for an Australian, European or American seems to be obtained in the grim and relentless pursuit of independence from his human companions. His ‘Nirvana’ is to live alone and be completely self sufficient-‘I am an island –I need no-one’ To me this was typified in the quite common but nonetheless staggering quote which I encountered time and time again. “We have a wonderful house ..etc. etc. .. and best of all - NO neighbours!” The last thing wanted was a neighbour. How very, very sad. Of course this trait is also present in England, Northern Europe and the USA, and I’m sure lots of other places too. It is also present in modern Ireland. It is perhaps the hallmark of the “Developed” country. But it seemed to me to be more marked in Australia than anywhere else I had been.

It did not suit me at all. I like the ‘drop-in’ cultures such as in Africa or Mexico, where people feel honoured by your visit and do not look at you quizzically when you arrive on their doorstep as if to say ‘What do you want?’ or even worse, look at you with suspicion! I like cultures where socializing and friendship is valued for it’s own sake – and not as a means to an end. I like cultures where people honour my visit. With some exceptions , sadly, I did not find Australia to be like that. The social life didn’t suit me at all. The exceptions of course –the Foleys and Anne L and the Wares - only served to prove the rule. There were not nearly enough exceptions of them to satisfy my Irish thirst for chat and exchanging experiences. The social life was all in fact very similar to the ‘modern’ Northern Ireland we had just left!

The most absurd thing of all was to find that Australians considered themselves to be a friendly people.

Australians were rarely, if ever hostile –certainly not to us. No-one ever said ‘Piss off back to Ireland’ Even if they had it wouldn’t have upset me. In fact it would have been a relief if they had! No it was something else which did upset me. In many, there seemed to be a strong passive aggression-a smouldering resentment of foreigners about which the Aussies were in denial.

We felt this on a daily basis. A sense that you were excluded – almost as though we were invisible in fact. Many ‘Back door Aussies’ as we were humourrously referred to by our hosts - people in similar circumstances as ourselves, confessed to having the same feeling of being ignored and cold - shouldered by ‘Dinky Di’ Australians. Later on, it was also been interesting for me to see the same phenomenon manifest itself in Brunei. The Australians all socialised together like a group of gabbling geese clucking and screeching at each other and creating a bogus false sense of ‘Bonhomie’ which fooled no-one other than themselves. When a foreigner approached the group he/she was invariably ignored and left with an immense sense of frustration. There was an almost physical sense of being invisible to these people. I often felt like screaming at them at the top of my voice “Go back to Australia and live on your own”


Their lack of interest in anything about one’s background or personal history is obvious to any foreigner arriving the country to settle. (to tourist Aussies can be very friendly).

Most Aussies seemed not to brook even the slightest criticism of their country or culture. The Irish have coped with the English thru humour in the same way as the Mexicans have coped with the invading Americans. The French cope with the English with humpur and vice-versa. But many Aussies just seemed to me to be unable to cope with criticism from foreigners because they had not really developed a real sense of humour about themselves. (At least not by 1991)