I'm English and have lived quite centrally in a couple of towns and cities around the UK.
Didn't matter whether it was the middle of winter or midsummer, whether the footie was on or not, whether it was a large city or a small market town, whether it was a Friday night or a Monday: without fail, drunks would pour out of pubs at fuck-off o'clock and often spend many further hours milling about in the town centre singing, arguing, fighting, pissing, etc. until they sobered up enough to remember that they have a bed that they needed to be in. I had to adapt to wearing earplugs to filter them out. Depending on the area, the police either don't care or are so poorly funded that they can't respond. NHS A&E departments are completely overwhelmed every Friday and Saturday night, and assaults on NHS staff are depressingly common by these wastes of skin.
Australia *does* also have a problem with alcohol, but a different one. I get the sense that it's an almost mandatory social lubricant, and a lot of people still feel pressured to drink. Work functions especially seem to run on beer here, which shocked me a bit. In that regard, I think Britain has made progress: nobody back home would bat an eyelid at someone choosing not to drink, alcohol at almost any work function is quite rare, boozy workplace lunches are almost dead, and drink driving carries a stigma just slightly below that of being a paedophile.
Here the bigger problem seems to be drugs. Even in sketchier parts of London or Brighton I can't recall ever seeing people tweaking on the streets. Walking around Freo every day without seeing several people off their tits is a rare occurrence.
Didn't really have tweakers back in England but that's probably because coke is the easier cheaper drug to get a hold of and that's pretty prevalent on a night out.
Drinking I feel like England is worse for going out and binge drinking but Australia more people drink larger amounts at home more regularly. But probably different experiences for different people.
True, English turned Australian here, every weekend in the UK was a big night, and hardly during the week.
But since living here for 12 years it’s basically an everyday thing
Thats the impression I get as well, Australia has a higher percentage of drinkers and drink at home, but UK has a higher percentage of binge / drink till you are maggoted
I’ve been working in Freo recently in construction. Because we are up high looking down on the streets below you see so much shit. Fights, yelling, drug deals, people shooting up. Me and my work mate usually sit in the mall and eat lunch and just watch the freaks. One time a meth head came up to us and gestured to his arm and yelled “I’ve put more money up this arm than you’ve made in your life ya dog!” The other day I saw a woman knock herself at cold by head butting a shop window. It was insane. I love freo but holy shit it’s drug fucked.
I can't imagine that being their one substantial claim and still not self examining. Have worked in AOD and the disconnect is strong but I still don't really "understand" addiction beyond a textbook.
I actually replied to him “ How’s that working out for ya mate” and he started walking away saying “fucken good cunt”. Luckily he just fucked off instead of starting shit. Should’ve just kept my mouth shut tbh.
Aussies play all of Britain's national sports with just AFL/oval rugby being the difference. So either Britain is lacking AFL or AFL was a mistake depending on your POV. ;)
Australian's decided they like a sport where teams score more than 0 times. It keeps the entertainment up, the frustration down, and the alcohol managed. I hardly drink when I go to the footy, there's too much chance of missing something.
think about the afl games that were decided by one kick, they are classics.
now apply this logic to soccer/football and you might start to understand it.
Nothing like Australia.....anymore. In the colonial days we definitely had to put some of the world's first restrictions on alcohol sales to individuals. It was getting so bad, and so many people (politicians, shopkeepers, police etc) were getting so shitfaced, our society was beginning to literally fail. When everyone in the colony was getting pissed every night, nothing was getting done.
It's why people got sent to Oz in the first place, the Gin Craze in the UK caused people to get so wasted that society going wild and they lacked the jails for all the laws they passed in an attempt to manage it.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4q4nwUqrOfbafDiHpDAsFl?si=1CzJ398ET1CaCurcD4HawA
My observation during my 5 years there was the local drunk guys almost never caused trouble - either unconscious or just quietly making their way home or if they missed the last train just finding somewhere to sleep. The foreigners on the other hand…
I always believed we were hard drinkers until I worked with poms. We are amateurs by comparison. They just put pints away like it's nothing. I don't mean hardened drinkers either, just ordinary office workers, blokes and ladies both.
I’m a Pom too and my theory is that in England you tend to grow up in a much closer vicinity to your mates so it’s much easier for unspecified carnage,
Whereas here (I live in a regional area) I imagine your mates are always a car ride away so less likely to spend your teenage years on a constant sesh
May be wrong though
England weekend drinking is about binging as hard as you can until you fall down. I tend to think midweek drinking in England is less public than Australian, but that doesn't mean its any the less.
Tbh I think the Aussies that travel that people see socialising love a drink/give us some of the reputation, but many countries go hard on the booze, it just looks different and seems worse sometimes
Englishman living in Australia for 9 years.
I’d say they’re on par, but obviously some areas are worse than others.
I’ve worked in pubs and clubs in both countries, and I’ll say that Australians definitely have more drinks, however, the drinks in England are larger.
I might serve someone 4 or 5 pints in England, and 6 or 7 schooners here.
Much of a muchness really.
I moved to a small town a few years ago. Nearly every social interaction is coupled to drinking but only rarely to excess. The people I now associate with range from NDIS carers, traddies, work from home engineers through to retired university professors. So lots of drinking but not 'bad'.
> Nearly every social interaction is coupled to drinking
That's right. A lot of people don't know how to socialise without alcohol being involved.
Though I don't know whether it's related to changing drinking cultures or myself growing older, but people don't seem to drink nearly as heavily as they did twenty years ago, when drunken oblivion was not only sought-after but the source of our funniest (and most harrowing) stories.
People in Britain drink publicly, so they disgrace themselves publicly. Australians tend to drink more at home and I think more systemically and less binge oriented (obv teens and young uns excluded). I’m fascinated by how many people happily polish off a bottle of wine every weekday night and several on a Saturday night.. AFAIK Australian alcohol consumption is amongst the highest in the first world.
Thats what I've tended to notice as well being from England and migrating to Aus.
I also feel like Australians aren't as big dickheads when they're drunk in general
To be fair, that is a specific chunk of Australians, who go there deliberately to get pissed for cheap, and feel entitled to be dickheads. But yeah, those ones aren't great.
Yeah wasn’t Indonesia talking about personality tests for incoming aussies to “filter out undesirables”? Normally I would be upset but I am very aware of Aussie behaviour in Bali. If anything I’m surprised they didn’t do it earlier.
I mean at least 50% of Australians going to Bali are going there to get drunk and act like assholes. So they can try to limit it but money is money unfortunately.
I had heard the rumours, but having moved here 20 or so years ago from England (as an adult who liked going to the pub), my opinion is that Australian drinking culture is much milder than British.
But that's not to say they are both a bit much. Just that my thought was the rumours are overstated in comparison to my experience of living in England.
I'm half English with family still over there. I was going to say the English drinking culture is bigger than it is here. Parts of Europe seem to be bigger drinkers than we are here.
After saying this, when we do go over to England, it is really pleasant to go the local pub for a meal and a drink. Pubs over there tend to do the best meals.
Speaking from experience drinking culture in Germany, Spain Italy etc is much more civialised than UK/Aus drinking culture. They seem to get the right balance and I wish it was similar here.
It's partly the vibe though, isn't it? Like... I've never seen people drink as much as they did in Munich, and despite the fact that when I was there I was borderline paralytic for an entire week straight, I never saw a single fight/argument/serious physical injury. Everyone seems to just drink 8 litres of amazing German beer, sing a bunch of happy songs together and go home to sleep it off. The cops there seemed to accept that people would be drunk but harmless fools in the evening so there was no nastiness there either.
I guess that comes back to your reason for drinking and your expectation of what will happen when you do it. I think a lot of people in the UK and Australia drink as a way of releasing pent up pressure/anger/anxiety/depression which leads to terrible behaviour when they get pissed. In Australia I think it leads people to do stupid things and hurt themselves. In the UK it always felt like everyone was one nasty look away from a fight to me.
To me the biggest problem in Australia is not drinking, but drink driving. It should genuinely be permanent licence loss if you are more than slightly over the limit. Fuck anyone who drink drives.
Can also attest to the British drinking issue. Went to Japan to compete in in a world competition (1990). The Australians were considered to be an unwanted bunch of drunken yobbos and thus, were not allocated to any of the home stays (something to do with the reputation from an event in the 70's). The British got the home stays and the Australians had to go to hotels. The British drinking behaviour was so bad; Riding bicycles drunk and wiping out local pedestrians, coming back to the home-stay so drunk that they urinated on the tatami mats, pulling down their pants in a karaoke bar and waving their genitalia around, that the Australians did not want anything to do with them. Most of them were in well standing jobs, well spoken and were not the lower class ratbags that you would expect this sort of behaviour from.
We drink less than the vast majority of Europe per capita, and are roughly on par with North America, Japan, & Korea. This is a different thing to 'drinking culture', but helps evince our relative alcoholic position.
I was expecting Korea beats most European countries?
They drink with nearly every meal, work lunches were 50% liquid, the office I worked in had beer on tap in the lunch room.
Add restrictions on other substances and I was expecting them to top the leaderboard.
My impression of South Korea may be a little dated, it's been 10 years, they were still way worse than Australians.
My impression is that it's died down a tiny bit (especially with work lunches) but my relatives still there drink much more with more intensity than my family here so it might be somewhere between Australia and the more alcoholic european countries.
I find Australians are more likely to take opportunities to drink as opportunities to get shitfaced. Most other countries I've been to, drinking alcohol may be very regular and normalised. Buut i find they dont drink to excess as much - it's more like drinking a coke to them or a drink you might have with a meal.
While I think there are places that are worse, I do think there are a lot of people who do drink in excess, that drink to get drunk, who abuse alcohol. I do think a lot of Aussies have a drinking problem
Depends on where/who/what you hang out with.
I’ve been apart of sporting clubs my whole life, everyone is drunk at least on Saturday, if not training nights too.
I’ve started to not hang out there as often because you almost can’t not drink, and I had/have a binge problem.
I don’t drink during the week, can’t think of anything worse, don’t generally drink any other time at all really, but my 2 beers turns into many more very fast around mates and that environment. That used to when I was younger turn into going to a pub/night club until you’re too drunk to stand.
I’m glad I’ve mostly stopped. What used to be each weekend between football and cricket is now almost never, only been drunk twice this year and lost a Sunday due to a hangover one of those times.
Having a son ask me why I couldn’t play on Sunday because I was hungover was a big turning point even though it took me a few years to get the message.
Yeah this is the key. Some groups will drink a lot, some will be moderate. I think it’s changed a bit from back in the day though.
My great grandfather (I think) had a system where he’d buy his mates the first round, meaning he could happily have only one beer, and no one would have a go at him for turning down later beers.
A little expensive, but everyone likes being treated, and it saves you getting wasted every time you want to hang out with your mates.
That’s funny, I’ve got a mate that someone how buys one round out of every 5! Always has a beer in his hand though, “someone else bought me this one” 🤣
It’s uncommon to not have alcohol at events, dates, party’s, BBQs, literally anything.
We were asked about alcohol for our lo’s first birthday party…
It’s also very common that if you stop drinking you lose a lot of ‘friends’ who only wanted drinking buddies.
I think that getting overly intoxicated and losing control in public, even out at bars and clubs, is more acceptable and commonplace in Australia than what I have experienced in North America
My limited experience would agree. I was in Vegas for Halloween once and there were so many people out and about, lots of alcohol, but not many people appeared drunk like they would be back here if you were allowed to drink on the street.
I lived there for a while and remember one night at a party drinking like ‘normal’ and my friend’s GF pulled me aside and told me to slow it down, she was worried about him because they “can’t handle ‘Australian style’ drinking” 🫡
I agree with you there. I did bring up a US city once in my example just because I'm not used to people being able to drink out in the streets. Overall the US is much tamer than Australia. I was more comparing to Europe, specifically to England, Wales, Ireland etc which personally seems a lot worse to me than Australia does.
I will say New Orleans is not representative of regular US drinking culture, it's a very extreme example for the US. It's seen as one of the biggest destination party cities in the country. People vacation there with the intention of getting incredibly drunk on bourbon street and taking advantage of the open container laws. Open container laws like they have in New Orleans are very uncommon in the US. People definitely drink excessively on vacation in other cities in the US, but New Orleans is kind of viewed here as being on a level of its own in regards to drinking. The only city I can think of that compares to New Orleans' party reputation here is probably Las Vegas - which has the slogan "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" because of the level of debauchery people intend to undertake when they go there.
I'm talking in terms of vacationing here as well, because it specifically sounds like you were on bourbon street and that area is mostly tourists drinking in excess of their normal amounts while on vacation.
Umm… drinking is ingrained into Australia pretty deeply. Working with a few people who do not drink for various reasons has opened my eyes to it a fair bit. Work drinks are pretty essential for socializing in the office. Social outings are almost always something with booze.
I think here in Japan is worse. Australians are more open to discussion about alcohol, drug usage, etc. Yes we have problems in Aus but in places like Tokyo, most people don't know their own limits and will pass out on streets. They're often not helped, either.
I’m from India and I moved here nearly 2 years ago now. In my experience, most social events involve alcohol. It is a fun experience at first but it gets old very quick.
I remember telling my partner ‘this is most of I’ve had to drink in two years’ within two months of being in Australia.
I enjoy the sentiment of ‘hey let’s have a cold one’ but I’ve learnt it’s not for me. Also, I know heaps of people who have a drink everyday which is considered totally normal. I found it to be a bit much.
Yeah, but being able to drink A LOT and not get drunk is part of the culture.
And as you get older there is no doubt it affects our health.
I'm 50 now, been drinking at the same level since I was 30. The only night I rarely drink is Monday.
Tues/Wed will only be 6 and Fri-Sun is 10 - 12, sometimes more sometimes less.
It's catching up now and I'm looking for ways to cut back without impacting my social life too much.
With all due respect, what you have described is textbook alcoholism.
> cut back without impacting my social life
And I would wager your friends fall in similar categories. Partly why you may find it hard to cut back.
Buy midis instead of schooners (or whatever the version is where you are). If anyone gives you shit just say it makes you feel like a giant/can finish ya beer before it gets warm. It's a confidently weird response so people tend to lay off after that.
When it's hot I have/ask for a half beer half lemonade, it's refreshing as fuuuuck. My mum's from Grafton, apparently they used to call this a "donkeys doodle" up there which I find fuckin hilarious, so I tell people and offer them a swig to try it. Again, being confidently weird gets people to back off.
Sorry if this isn't relevant to your drinking at all 8)
This is a good take, but I have considered drinking without the intent to get drunk pointless sometimes. Like having a wank but not intending to reach orgasm.
But I did call it a night after one rum and coke last night, that felt like enough for a quiet night in.
I don't mean any disrespect but I belive that's a pretty unhealthy and possibly immature take on it.
Do you eat until you throw up?
Do you run until you collapse?
When I was a kid I had a similar mindset, if there's alcohol drink it until it's gone.
It's not a mode or transport from sober to fuck eyed.
You can have say half a dozen beers throughout the day while watching sport or fishing etc and still be OK to drive in the evening.
Hangovers suck!
Just start to drink for quality instead of quantity.
I used to drink the cheapest crap I could get because that meant I got to drink more.
I would always get shitfaced and have a hangover that lasted days.
About 5 years back I started to drink more conservatively and pay more per drink for better quality, hangovers rarely last a few hours.
Don't drink spirits in places that serve Scotch and coke or rum and coke as a common drink. The house spirit is the cheapest crap and full of nasty volatiles.
Also avoid "cheap" brands/versions like Bundaberg rum, jack Daniels, wild turkey etc.
Opinions on the internet/Reddit can be misleading.
My case:
I come from Spain and live in Sydney (not considering here regional Australia). I also lived in the UK and spent an entire semester in Belgium and the Netherlands.
I often see posts on r/australia and other local subreddits complaining about the drinking culture in Australia. Most of the time in this type of posts, it is stated that it is impossible to socialise here or make friends if you don't drink alcohol. The most surprising thing is that people massively upvote these posts and comment on them reinforcing the idea of a heavily alcoholised society.
I'm always confused because my experience is quite the opposite of these people.
9 out of 10 times I meet friends, I meet them to have breakfast/dinner/lunch or do any other activity that doesn't include alcohol (except a glass of wine/beer for dinner, which is always optional).
I enjoy going out for drinks once in a while (more or less once a quarter) and I can count less than 5 people in my social circle willing to go out with me in this fashion. The rest of my friends don't really enjoy alcohol and many of them don't even drink at all.
There are also strict laws here about drinking, making it very difficult to get drunk in a bar.
This is the opposite I found in Europe and that's what I love about Australia.
I think when people complain about the "toxic drinking culture" in Australia (at least, in major cities) says more about the lack of diversity in their social circle, than a real problem in Australia. Here, it is very easy to socialise and make new friends without alcohol.
I've been a non drinker basically my whole life and agree with you. None of my friends or family care, I've never felt pressured at a work place event or gathering. No one acts strange when I tell them I don't drink they simply do not care and will offer to buy me a coke. I know through reading some of the comments here that everyone has vastly different experiences.
In terms of average alcohol consumption per year, UK, AUS and US don't even make the top 10 list. UK #19, AUS #34, and US #37.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-consumption-by-country
I don’t drink either. I’ve found it hard to make friends as an adult, because everyone I meet (work colleagues, other mums at school, fellow study mates) all want to socialise by drinking. No one’s interested in hanging out if it doesn’t involve alcohol.
It's more the fact that Australians can. not. socialise without drinking. If you say you're not drinking, you get a guilt trip. Everything centralises around drinking. Imagine the response to a alcohol free wedding. You think attendance would be as high as an alcohol fueled one? Even hikes end up at the pub after. It's like as soon as you can drink, you should be.
My husband and I arent drinking right now and he went to a pub with two old work mates for a catch up and had to make up some medical excuse for not having a beer because anything he said would end up with, aw come on mate, one won't hurt. People encourage others to drink to feel better about their own drinking
As 3rd gen born/bred Aussie, the encouraging others to drink is very accurate. Even more indicative is the circle of people you frequent with. Unfortunately mine has dwindled down to those that drink and easily to excess, so it's normal to just go with the flow and sleep off half the next day and not think there's anything wrong with that despite my (non drinking) wife's objections.
I will only consume alcohol once per week, but the tolerance level is so high, it takes a bottle of jacks to get me to a level I'm happy with.
Well one way to find out would be to compare statistics across countries.
I find the culture at work somehow more centred around drinking here than in other countries like UK or USA and maybe similar to Japan. And I’ve worked in places that actively try to incorporate more non drinking activities for teetotallers. This is obviously just anecdotal.
I’ve spent time in the UK as well I would say the drinking culture is similar. As in both pretty bad. Since you’re not a drinker you may not realise that visible signs of intoxication doesn’t necessarily correlate to alcohol dependance. In fact the less someone drinks the more likely they are to act unusually, vomit etc. When they do drink. The horrible thing about heavy alcohol use (or any substance really) is the more frequently you partake the more your tolerance increases and so you can have drunk half a bottle of spirits, multiple bottles of wine or half a case of beer and still seem relatively sober to everyone else and will need to drink larger and larger quantities to get the same effect. My take on the criticism of Australian (and UK) drinking culture is not the things you are describing but that it has become normalised to drink almost every day, and binge drink every weekend. Not many Australians would bat an eye to find out someone has a cheeky bottle of wine with dinner every night, or find it unusual that someone in their 20s/30s goes out binge drinking at least once a weekend. This is such a huge contrast to the drinking culture in the US for example and a massive health risk.
The World Health Organisation states that no level of alcohol consumption is safe. Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer decades ago – this is the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco. Alcohol causes at least seven types of cancer, including the most common cancer types, such as bowel cancer and female breast cancer.
The US guidelines suggest no more than 1 standard drink per day for women and no more than 2 standard drinks per day for men.
The Australian guidelines used to match and have recently been increased to no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day.
Keep in mind most “servings” can/glass/pint of alcohol are more than one standard drink.
A large percentage of Australians including many people I know, and formerly myself, would find this limit ridiculously low. I now consider myself a reformed former alcoholic but it was pretty hard to identify that as I didn’t drink any more than anyone else around me. This is the problem people are talking about.
Yes I would agree. Not to mention binge drinking leads to brain damage. I remember we watched a video on binge drinking (which is like more than 2 standard drinks an hour or something) in high school and when I said to someone "but alcohol causes brain damage" they just laughed me down. Like it was immature to think that way. Just shows how the idea of drinking alcohol is handed down to young people.
People really can't even socialise without alcohol which is a real shame. Perhaps that's what people talk about when they say Australians are alcoholics. Not that we drink more at occasions where drinking is acceptable but that we drink at EVERY occasion.
Exactly this. I live in a pretty white, regional area and everyone basically drinks all the time outside of work hours (which can be flexible to accommodate drinking). 2 drinks for a woman or 4 for a man is literally what you might have before heading out to the pub.
It's mostly the younger people that will brag about getting shit faced every weekend as if their entire personality is based on getting drunk. They either phase out of it or they take themselves out of the equation by trying to plank off a high-rise balcony during schoolies. The ones that make it into adulthood but still drink excessively are potential Big Brother contestants
Depends where you are. Many non European background Aussies don’t drink much. Meanwhile, my solidly affluent WASP neighbourhood drinks a fair bit (if the trolleys of booze coming out of Dan’s are a guide) and when the kids were still in primary school I was quite shocked to see families getting stuck into the wine at family events like the school carols by candlelight. Do you really need alcohol to get through a couple of hours of out of tune kids massacring Jingle Bells and Away In A Manger?
Yeah, it's really heavy.
I don't drink at all anymore and it took time for people to just accept that the answer is "no". I'll have a Coke No Sugar and that's it, thanks.
It's not at all overblown, we just live in a generation where the Aussie Larrikin thing has sort of moved on. If you were growing up thirty years ago you'd have nothing to do because you don't drink. Likewise if you're a blue collar dude who doesn't drink, you'll struggle.
It’s like this: aussies don’t drink in public. Some backyards though.. ouch.
I actually prefer european style drink a little outside then come home than this whole ‘no alcohol permitted anywhere out unless it’s a licensed or your own home’. Making it less available is enough to push some people to want it more.
It's pretty bad, as a non drinker I find it near impossible to find people whose idea of hanging out doesn't include drinking. Our drinking also revolves around binge drinking which is something other countries don't do as much (obviously depends where).
Depends on where/how you're comparing. Compared to a lot of Europe, Aussies drink too much too fast, something we unfortunately share with the Brits. Casual drinking over a long period of time, as is common across most of Europe and South America, isn't something we do well.
If you compare to many places in Asia, however, binge drinking is just as bad or worse than in Australia.
I didn't forget you. I just honestly don't know what the stats are on your drinking habits. But I've seen articles about comparisons between boomers, gen z and millennials on this topic. If I knew I would have posted sorry.
definitely a lot of drinking that goes on. people try to connect it to socioeconomic class but it's really just the entirety of the culture. i was in an affluent suburb where people began drinking around 15, and even now as adults, people still drink a lot.
👆
SES in Australia doesn't predict how much you drink, just what you drink.
Upper crust drink wine, whisky, gin, and craft beer.
Working class drink beer and premix cans.
People on the fringes drink goon and tawny port.
Ethnic/cultural background is often predictive too. The heaviest drinkers have white colonial or aboriginal background. My pet theory is that anyone whose ancestors were here 200 years ago is epigenetically conditioned towards alcoholism.
Which “drinking culture”, the nightly beer/wine with dinner, heading to the pub Friday night with mates, or getting blackout drunk every Saturday night
In between.
Places like Italy and France drink a bit with meals for flavour and rarely to get drunk.
Places like China and South Korea drink to get drunk. Most nights of the week. and and not just drunk, but plastered
We drink more than than just for taste, but rarely drink up to the point of being truly drunk, once we are out of our early 20s.
And we are appreciating drink more than we once did. The wine scene and microbrewery scene is stronger than it's ever been.
Anybody claiming we are a nation of drunks is just expressing their ignorance.
I think its more about how we drink rather than how much we drink. We drink a lot more at home than in public.
We crack open a tinny on the verandah or swing around a goonsack on a clothesline lol.
I think its also super normalised to drink with dinner every night or while watching the footy. It's a part of everyday life but it doesn't mean we are blind drunk vomiting on the streets.
I think our drinking culture has changed significantly over the last 10 years. Though admittedly that could also be me and my friend group getting older and more mature too.
It seems like non-alcoholic beers have started to become quite fashionable and the “Sunday morning” movement has started to take off. There is a greater influence on a healthy lifestyle vs writing yourself off on the weekend.
I’m sure there are still plenty of people who are drinking excessively in unhealthy patterns, but I don’t think it’s accurate to describe that as our culture any more.
In the reign of Julius Caesar, Caesar sent an envoy to Briton to asses the people whom which he ruled over. The envoy reported back that it was an Island of drunken savages and no threat to Caesar.
..somethings never change huh?
As someone who recently graduated from uni in Melbourne, I will say that it's not that everyone drinks a lot, it's more along the lines that everyone drinks super often, and while doing anything and everything.
Most of my friends would have been considered an alcoholic based on the official drinking guidelines. My BIL was never without a drink in his hand yet nothing was ever said about it and it seemed to be accepted as normal. In my halcyon days of going out to meet the ladies; drink was not just encouraged, it was very much expected. I think, so the friends didn't feel on their own getting enough courage and social lubrication to get the courage in order to get the job done.
I followed the trend for many years until I came to the relisation I don't even like to drink. I also smoked a hell of a lot of weed back then also.
For me, both seemed like me trying to drown out the world and my issues that come from being raised with kindness but never taught how to do the social something.
Instead being told not to do something without the appropriate information on what I should be doing in any situation.
Socially awkward that rings of being on the spectrum, but this was new age disease and not something even recognised in my youth. You were dumb and lazy instead.
It has gotten a lot better. Shit I’m old. Pubs used to be dirty and full of guys in singlets and stubbies getting a drink after work or at lunch or all day. Those days are long gone. The reason it was worse was the population was almost exclusively male.
Having moved from the UK (Scotland) to Australia, the Aussie drinking culture seems extremely mild compared to the UK drinking culture I came from.
Drinking and it's associated laws and regulations are also much more strict and policed/monitored in Australia. I know they are currently increasing alcohol prices in Scotland to try and discourage excess drinking, but unsure how much of an effect it's having.
Being a small woman who got her drinking initiation in Scotland I find it hilarious how many Aussie blokes are floored by the fact I can drink them all under the table.
I don't think any Australian (except maybe Darwinites, you should try to see if they measure up) quite knows just how toxic the drinking cultures of Ireland and Scotland were/are, judging by the number of Irish pissheads I've come across.
Interesting because my ancestry is half-Irish/half-English but neither side drank. My Dad's side were complete teatotallers and my Mum's side only had a snifter.
Only one person in my housing complex 'drinks' - as in a full recycling bins worth of cans every month (you can hear them go in the truck). The other tenants don't have cars to take empties to the tip, so that isn't a factor.
That said, of the 12 or so peeps at work, there are at least three I'd say were borderline alcoholics and or sloppy drunks. As a male bonding thing, they go out drinking every Saturday, getting blind drunk if you believe the tales they love to brag about.
It used to be. But it has been on the decline for decades now. I do drink but very moderately. Maybe 2 or 3 on a Friday but not every week. But I know a number of particularly younger people (I'm 37 so I'm talking about people in their 20s) who very rarely drink if at all.
I think it’s not what it was, referring to a earlier era. When I was a kid playing footy late 80s/early 90s, there would be dads on the sideline rocking up with a case to watch junior footy. I don’t think that sort of thing happens anymore, or it’s well hidden.
I’m probably an alcoholic two to three bottles of gin a week three or four drinks after work and a bottle on the weekend. I call it a functioning alcoholic
There are people who think of drinking is done only and solely with the purpose of getting drunk, and that's what EVERY weekend is for. And there are others who enjoy a few beers, a mild sensation of being drunk with friends and that's it. Or the others who can take it or leave it and might have a beer or wine socially whilst eating. It really depends on the individual social circle.
I think the drinking culture varies across age groups amongst other things. My Boomer age group drink but rarely to excess. My daughters age groups are even less alcohol centred. My much younger nieces and nephews don’t drink and that seems pretty usual. However, a drive thru the Melbourne CBD at night, Chapel St and the Richmond pub end show me there’s plenty of drunks in the gutters and fights so 🤷♀️
The boomers I know by far drink the most, but don't extend their own limits.
Like, I'll watch my dad and uncle polish off 3 bottles of red between them at a family lunch, before 2pm, but they don't appear intoxicated at all. My 21yr old cousin however has 3 mixed drinks fairly close together and becomes visibly tipsy.
Grandma has 2 glasses of wine, but will also have a glass of wine with dinner, and another glass with dinner every other night of the week, whereas tipsy cousin wont have another alcoholic drink until the following weekend. So although at a glance the cousin may seem to be the bigger drinker, she's actually overall drinking the least
Amongst the bogan and middle-aged population, drinking is excessive. But among our 1st and 2nd generation population, it is almost non-existent. It really depends on your social group.
I grew up experiencing multiple cultures and social classes within Australia. Drinking culture isn't as widespread as it was 20-30 years ago.
I think “a country full of drunks” is a bit extreme to say, but we definitely have a problematic drinking culture. Of course there are people who don’t drink, but drinking to excess is far too normalised amongst those who do.
Weekend BBQs and local bars was huge in the 80s-90s. It's to heavily taxed now so it's mainly coke, ice and depression culture for the younger gen. I think people in Pentrige had more freedom and leisure time than kids today
It’s the cultural cringe. I think as Aussies, we tend to say we are a nation of alcoholics. I think we as a culture tend to think we are generally worse than we are in many things.
Don’t get me wrong, lots of alcoholism and binge drinking still happens, but it is worse elsewhere, and the culture is moving away from this.
I feel judged for not wanting a wine or a drink when out for friends with dinner or lunch etc. it’s not that people are out getting pissed all the time but there’s a lot of casual drinking and it’s seen as being different if you don’t partake.
I feel like it's better now than it was, but I'm also older now so maybe I just don't spend enough of my life awake past 3am anymore or don't get invited to wild parties. I still get out to music stuff and clubs a bit, it certainly feels like there's a bit more of a "I have other shit I want to do with my life tomorrow" vibe, even in the younger crowd I know. If course there will always be wasted people partying, I still do it sometimes it just feels like a pressure release.
I've had all three uncles be alcoholics, my mum was heading that way before meeting my stepdad.
I've sort of grown to hate the prevailing habit where there needs to be alcohol with every dinner with friends or any social situations. I don't get the, have a few beers after work mentality. I drink maybe two or 3 times a year for a special occasion or a dedicated night out with some friends where the goal is to get a bit drunk and have fun. Theres a good proportion of the adult population who always have a beer in the fridge.
That being said. I think millennial and younger kids are bucking these trends a bit and it's definitely more ingrained in the older generations.
UK, Aus and USA are similar in this respect.
I lived in Berlin for a few years and it's very different. Germans drink a lot, but don't aim to get drunk. Getting drunk is poor form, and you should go home because you're drunk.
But I think the way we drink encourages it. German bars are almost always table service, so you don't do "rounds" because everyone just orders what they want when they want it. So there's no pressure to "keep up" and drink at the speed of the fastest member of the group.
Also in Berlin the bars generally serve as long as there are customers to serve, and you can buy beer from corner shops (spätkaufs) all night and wander around the place drinking. So there's no pressure to drink your fill by 11pm when some bastard rings a bell and stops serving.
I've seen people having a beer in the train station on their way to work. The office I worked in had a beer fridge about 5m long that was never locked. Lunchtime beer is totally acceptable. It's a country that drinks. But I've never seen the drunken violence like we get in Australia or the UK.
Australia has done what it can to try legislate the drinking culture away.
Things like dry communities in the outback, legislating that pubs/venues have to be closed and not serving alcohol for X amount of hours or from Y till Z. Banning open receptacles of alcohol almost anywhere in public outside of a venue.
Most of it is done behind closed doors these days.
Don't forget jacking up prices of beer and spirits to Kingdom Come!
It is like a vicious circle in some regards, people get smashed at home first because everything is so exxy when they go out, thus drinking faster then when they are out and arriving at the venues like yobbos and louts.
I am a from europe and well-travelled.. I can tell from my two months here in down under that you do not seem like a nation of alcoholics. I've seen much worse. In fact, with your alcohol prices, the hardcore drinkers couldn't afford their addiction anyway.
However, public drinking here is prohibited, so I can't tell what's going on inside peoples own four walls. Maybe it just seems better than it actually is.
As an ex taxi driver the drinking on Melbourne Cup Day and at Randwick Races was appalling, my Irish passengers were probably the biggest drinkers at other times but they were quite funny
I used to hear a lot people saying "I wouldn't trust anybody that doesn't drink " Never did understand that
Australians are globally stereotyped for having a few cold ones with a barby under a blue sky with the sun blazing.
When I got here, I couldn't believe how much tax you have to pay on your favorite past time.
I’m gen x. My generation and above are annoying as fuck in terms of you can’t be at any social function without literally holding a drink the entire time. Younger gens might be smarter
Look, as a German who has lived here for a year now, I wouldn’t even say there is a drinking culture at all, especially not a bad one. Considering how hard it is to get booze here (and how ridiculously expensive it is too), I’m shocked that anyone would get drunk here regularly.
Not anymore. With 15 bottle shops in the area and live venues being shutdown by the powers to be the nightlife is a fragment of what it was. Covid sped the issue up but they have been turning us into slaves and drones for the last 10 years if not longer
I've been living in Europe for a while, Germany specifically. In my experience: Brits can't handle their drink, Scandinavians can handle it and deliberately choose not to. Australians are a mix of the two and there are absolutely sections of society with problematic drinking ala the UK. I wouldn't want to be the liver specialist in a mining town...
In plenty of places you can walk on the street with an open beer and society doesn't collapse. There's words for it in German: "Wegbier" (beer on the way) and Fußpils (Pils(ner) on foot). The second one is a homophone with the word for foot fungus, which I chuckle at. No one blinks if you walk with a beer, the guy at the bottle-o will even ask if you want it opened when you buy it. Drinking levels in Germany are similar to Australia.
Laws like not being able to drink in public in Australia are really just a symptom of our love for authority rather than an indication of a real problem, honestly.
Honestly from my experience drinking culture here is incredibly safe. Every bar/club I've been to has been very savvy when it comes to RSA. Drunk people in general have been super chill. Less fist fights, and more collectively giggling in the urinals.
Admittedly I do not get out much, and I only stick with mainstream places in the capital cities
I don’t know about bad but it’s definitely above average. We are a top tier binge drinking country because we like to get fucked up but you can’t compare us to those European countries where they drink dead seriously for every occasion sipping on a life threatening concoction of homemade brew just because.
England is the GOAT, Australia imported its drinking from England. Drinking in public is not necessarily a good indicator of culture as that is a legislation thing and Australia loves to legislate/nanny.
I hardly drink. In my 20s I did but I have kids, a super busy life and I don't like cheap alcohol so hubby and I honestly hardly drink. I have friends however that spend a small fortune weekly on alcohol. Overall, I wouldn't say I'm surrounded by people who drink lots. I work in banking and even at our office parties, people don't get wasted. Drinking is an expensive hobby and I'd honestly prefer a holiday
From my observations it’s always the tradie type people who love to have a can. When I was in a trade it would be drinks every day after work and pissups on the weekend. It’s
Never really been my thing but I did join in a fair bit for the social aspect.
I really slowed down drinking when I met my wife and 100% stopped just before we had kids. I’m not comfortable with drinking around kids and it’s. It really needed to enjoy life
Wife and I might have an espresso martini or something on date night a couple of times a year if that.
Some other countries may be worse but Australia is not good,. It really depends on the circle you run in. The "excuses" for drinking is the best thing, they find any reason to drink.
It may have used to be bad but we've been clamped down on pretty hard law wise. That and it's much more expensive here than elsewhere so I think a lot of excessive drinking goes on behind closed doors. Source: my drinking problem
I once made the fatal mistake of going out with my Irish Housemates for a few quiet drinks during the All Ireland hurling final. I didnt get home til 4am.
Australia is ~35 in the world for alcohol consumption per capita.
It's definitely overstated.
Though for those it does impact seriously, it is a very real problem.
I'm Australian, and I've lived here my whole life (36). Personally, I think it depends on where you are like what state, what's happening etc. There are people who need to social drink absolutely and yes there are also drunks etc but it isn't in the public easy to see least not where I am. There will always be those that abuse a thing in this case alcohol. I also don't drink. I get.more excited about coffee and or food than going out for drinks, doesn't interest me. I also don't give a fuck about the footy or whatever and there's a large population that agree with me.
Most.of.my friends dont drink or have one or two socially. But yeah I can say it's a thing. Most towns have a few pubs on corners. Cocaine is a pretty big thing here too. Tbh those who use it are pretty good at keeping it on the low.
The rest is party drugs but seems to be once there past early twenties it sort of dies down, maybe they switch to the alcohol or weed.
I was shocked when I immigrate in Aus over 15 years ago
One thing that have marked me is seeing tradies on Friday afternoon holding a huge case of beer and leaving Dan Murphy looking all victorious
Like he was holding some sort of gold.
This picture stays in my mind forever
It's an absolute myth, a long hangover from the 70s and before. (like unions being scary). We're about 60th in the world or something equally nondescript when it comes to alcohol consumption. Our rates of consumption have been declining for about four decades straight.
The myth is continued by a) dull media types that rely on old cliches, and b) wowser organisations who think that all alcohol is sinful, and pretending we're a nation of piss heads is good for lobbying business.
Coffee culture replaced drinking culture 20yrs ago.
Taxation finished it off.
No one is social drinking out an about 3 X week anymore well no one over 21. Maybe once a fortnight a night out but most with a carton in the garage for a pre dinner drink after work.
You may be able to do it on the cheap at your local bowls or RSL club but watching zombies at the pokies lose their retirement or weeks paycheck just so you can save on a few drinks isn't the entertainment I go in for.
Saturday morning brunch with friends down by the beach and a good coffee seems to be where it's at if your over 26. Imo
Never been to England but from what I’ve heard drinking culture is much worse there than it is in Australia
I'm English and have lived quite centrally in a couple of towns and cities around the UK. Didn't matter whether it was the middle of winter or midsummer, whether the footie was on or not, whether it was a large city or a small market town, whether it was a Friday night or a Monday: without fail, drunks would pour out of pubs at fuck-off o'clock and often spend many further hours milling about in the town centre singing, arguing, fighting, pissing, etc. until they sobered up enough to remember that they have a bed that they needed to be in. I had to adapt to wearing earplugs to filter them out. Depending on the area, the police either don't care or are so poorly funded that they can't respond. NHS A&E departments are completely overwhelmed every Friday and Saturday night, and assaults on NHS staff are depressingly common by these wastes of skin. Australia *does* also have a problem with alcohol, but a different one. I get the sense that it's an almost mandatory social lubricant, and a lot of people still feel pressured to drink. Work functions especially seem to run on beer here, which shocked me a bit. In that regard, I think Britain has made progress: nobody back home would bat an eyelid at someone choosing not to drink, alcohol at almost any work function is quite rare, boozy workplace lunches are almost dead, and drink driving carries a stigma just slightly below that of being a paedophile. Here the bigger problem seems to be drugs. Even in sketchier parts of London or Brighton I can't recall ever seeing people tweaking on the streets. Walking around Freo every day without seeing several people off their tits is a rare occurrence.
Didn't really have tweakers back in England but that's probably because coke is the easier cheaper drug to get a hold of and that's pretty prevalent on a night out. Drinking I feel like England is worse for going out and binge drinking but Australia more people drink larger amounts at home more regularly. But probably different experiences for different people.
Yeah feel the same, England has the binge drinking problem, Australians have a “must drink everyday” problem.
Perfect summary. I’ve lived in the UK, America, NZ and now Australia. You’re bang on.
True, English turned Australian here, every weekend in the UK was a big night, and hardly during the week. But since living here for 12 years it’s basically an everyday thing
Thats the impression I get as well, Australia has a higher percentage of drinkers and drink at home, but UK has a higher percentage of binge / drink till you are maggoted
I’ve been working in Freo recently in construction. Because we are up high looking down on the streets below you see so much shit. Fights, yelling, drug deals, people shooting up. Me and my work mate usually sit in the mall and eat lunch and just watch the freaks. One time a meth head came up to us and gestured to his arm and yelled “I’ve put more money up this arm than you’ve made in your life ya dog!” The other day I saw a woman knock herself at cold by head butting a shop window. It was insane. I love freo but holy shit it’s drug fucked.
[удалено]
"Gimme back my wife's cardigan ya dog"
I can't imagine that being their one substantial claim and still not self examining. Have worked in AOD and the disconnect is strong but I still don't really "understand" addiction beyond a textbook.
I actually replied to him “ How’s that working out for ya mate” and he started walking away saying “fucken good cunt”. Luckily he just fucked off instead of starting shit. Should’ve just kept my mouth shut tbh.
Seems like the problem is the boring sport that drives everyone to drink to enjoy it!
Aussies play all of Britain's national sports with just AFL/oval rugby being the difference. So either Britain is lacking AFL or AFL was a mistake depending on your POV. ;)
Australian's decided they like a sport where teams score more than 0 times. It keeps the entertainment up, the frustration down, and the alcohol managed. I hardly drink when I go to the footy, there's too much chance of missing something.
think about the afl games that were decided by one kick, they are classics. now apply this logic to soccer/football and you might start to understand it.
Thank you for giving your honest views, it’s greatly appreciated! Here take my upvote
I kind of liked the drinking on the tube when I lived in London, it was nice to have a beer on the train with your workmates on the way home.
I would get harassed by old men with goon bags on the bus home from school at 4:30, and that’s in Australia where it’s banned :/
Absolutely on TV it looks like the downtown of every regional town is awash with vomit every Saturday night. Nothing like Australia.
Nothing like Australia.....anymore. In the colonial days we definitely had to put some of the world's first restrictions on alcohol sales to individuals. It was getting so bad, and so many people (politicians, shopkeepers, police etc) were getting so shitfaced, our society was beginning to literally fail. When everyone in the colony was getting pissed every night, nothing was getting done.
It's why people got sent to Oz in the first place, the Gin Craze in the UK caused people to get so wasted that society going wild and they lacked the jails for all the laws they passed in an attempt to manage it. https://open.spotify.com/episode/4q4nwUqrOfbafDiHpDAsFl?si=1CzJ398ET1CaCurcD4HawA
I thought it was all the handkerchief thieving? 🤔
I was always told it was loaves of bread!
Read through the logs of the first (2nd, 3rd, 4th…) fleet and pretty much every woman sent here was a “handkerchief thief” 😉
One of my ancestors was transported for receiving a stolen hankerchief from his brother.
That classic movie ‘wake in fright’ depicts it perfectly
In Australia it’s ice
So bad, that ice. I've had to screen so many guys over this.
I'm from Ireland. Australia is not a patch on what goes on over there.
English drinking culture is FAR FAR worse than Aussie.
japan is miles beyond worse than either lol
Agreed. I can’t believe how much I drank when I lived and worked there.
My observation during my 5 years there was the local drunk guys almost never caused trouble - either unconscious or just quietly making their way home or if they missed the last train just finding somewhere to sleep. The foreigners on the other hand…
I always believed we were hard drinkers until I worked with poms. We are amateurs by comparison. They just put pints away like it's nothing. I don't mean hardened drinkers either, just ordinary office workers, blokes and ladies both.
From England now living in Oz UK is far worse
I’m a Pom too and my theory is that in England you tend to grow up in a much closer vicinity to your mates so it’s much easier for unspecified carnage, Whereas here (I live in a regional area) I imagine your mates are always a car ride away so less likely to spend your teenage years on a constant sesh May be wrong though
England weekend drinking is about binging as hard as you can until you fall down. I tend to think midweek drinking in England is less public than Australian, but that doesn't mean its any the less.
Tbh I think the Aussies that travel that people see socialising love a drink/give us some of the reputation, but many countries go hard on the booze, it just looks different and seems worse sometimes
Englishman living in Australia for 9 years. I’d say they’re on par, but obviously some areas are worse than others. I’ve worked in pubs and clubs in both countries, and I’ll say that Australians definitely have more drinks, however, the drinks in England are larger. I might serve someone 4 or 5 pints in England, and 6 or 7 schooners here. Much of a muchness really.
I moved to a small town a few years ago. Nearly every social interaction is coupled to drinking but only rarely to excess. The people I now associate with range from NDIS carers, traddies, work from home engineers through to retired university professors. So lots of drinking but not 'bad'.
> Nearly every social interaction is coupled to drinking That's right. A lot of people don't know how to socialise without alcohol being involved. Though I don't know whether it's related to changing drinking cultures or myself growing older, but people don't seem to drink nearly as heavily as they did twenty years ago, when drunken oblivion was not only sought-after but the source of our funniest (and most harrowing) stories.
People in Britain drink publicly, so they disgrace themselves publicly. Australians tend to drink more at home and I think more systemically and less binge oriented (obv teens and young uns excluded). I’m fascinated by how many people happily polish off a bottle of wine every weekday night and several on a Saturday night.. AFAIK Australian alcohol consumption is amongst the highest in the first world.
Thats what I've tended to notice as well being from England and migrating to Aus. I also feel like Australians aren't as big dickheads when they're drunk in general
Go to Bali and you'll change your opinion. It's embarrassing
To be fair, that is a specific chunk of Australians, who go there deliberately to get pissed for cheap, and feel entitled to be dickheads. But yeah, those ones aren't great.
Yeah wasn’t Indonesia talking about personality tests for incoming aussies to “filter out undesirables”? Normally I would be upset but I am very aware of Aussie behaviour in Bali. If anything I’m surprised they didn’t do it earlier.
I mean at least 50% of Australians going to Bali are going there to get drunk and act like assholes. So they can try to limit it but money is money unfortunately.
Much easier way to tackle that. Tax the shit out of alcohol, make it expensive. Now you get people wanting to Bali for Bali
go to ibiza and you'll change yours
I had heard the rumours, but having moved here 20 or so years ago from England (as an adult who liked going to the pub), my opinion is that Australian drinking culture is much milder than British. But that's not to say they are both a bit much. Just that my thought was the rumours are overstated in comparison to my experience of living in England.
I'm half English with family still over there. I was going to say the English drinking culture is bigger than it is here. Parts of Europe seem to be bigger drinkers than we are here.
Definitely agree with that.
After saying this, when we do go over to England, it is really pleasant to go the local pub for a meal and a drink. Pubs over there tend to do the best meals.
Speaking from experience drinking culture in Germany, Spain Italy etc is much more civialised than UK/Aus drinking culture. They seem to get the right balance and I wish it was similar here.
It's partly the vibe though, isn't it? Like... I've never seen people drink as much as they did in Munich, and despite the fact that when I was there I was borderline paralytic for an entire week straight, I never saw a single fight/argument/serious physical injury. Everyone seems to just drink 8 litres of amazing German beer, sing a bunch of happy songs together and go home to sleep it off. The cops there seemed to accept that people would be drunk but harmless fools in the evening so there was no nastiness there either. I guess that comes back to your reason for drinking and your expectation of what will happen when you do it. I think a lot of people in the UK and Australia drink as a way of releasing pent up pressure/anger/anxiety/depression which leads to terrible behaviour when they get pissed. In Australia I think it leads people to do stupid things and hurt themselves. In the UK it always felt like everyone was one nasty look away from a fight to me. To me the biggest problem in Australia is not drinking, but drink driving. It should genuinely be permanent licence loss if you are more than slightly over the limit. Fuck anyone who drink drives.
Can also attest to the British drinking issue. Went to Japan to compete in in a world competition (1990). The Australians were considered to be an unwanted bunch of drunken yobbos and thus, were not allocated to any of the home stays (something to do with the reputation from an event in the 70's). The British got the home stays and the Australians had to go to hotels. The British drinking behaviour was so bad; Riding bicycles drunk and wiping out local pedestrians, coming back to the home-stay so drunk that they urinated on the tatami mats, pulling down their pants in a karaoke bar and waving their genitalia around, that the Australians did not want anything to do with them. Most of them were in well standing jobs, well spoken and were not the lower class ratbags that you would expect this sort of behaviour from.
Australian drinking culture probably a lot milder ... Australians exaggerating a lot is true tho
We drink less than the vast majority of Europe per capita, and are roughly on par with North America, Japan, & Korea. This is a different thing to 'drinking culture', but helps evince our relative alcoholic position.
I was expecting Korea beats most European countries? They drink with nearly every meal, work lunches were 50% liquid, the office I worked in had beer on tap in the lunch room. Add restrictions on other substances and I was expecting them to top the leaderboard. My impression of South Korea may be a little dated, it's been 10 years, they were still way worse than Australians.
My impression is that it's died down a tiny bit (especially with work lunches) but my relatives still there drink much more with more intensity than my family here so it might be somewhere between Australia and the more alcoholic european countries.
I find Australians are more likely to take opportunities to drink as opportunities to get shitfaced. Most other countries I've been to, drinking alcohol may be very regular and normalised. Buut i find they dont drink to excess as much - it's more like drinking a coke to them or a drink you might have with a meal.
While I think there are places that are worse, I do think there are a lot of people who do drink in excess, that drink to get drunk, who abuse alcohol. I do think a lot of Aussies have a drinking problem
Difference is, for the most part, I don't think we're doing classy aperitifs and glasses of wine with meals. It's getting shit faced on beer and rum
We're not alcoholics... Alcoholics goto meetings... We're drunks!
This And anyway, you'd classify most of us as "high functioning alcoholics"
My wife says I have a drinking problem. I say she is the one who has a problem with it.
Depends on where/who/what you hang out with. I’ve been apart of sporting clubs my whole life, everyone is drunk at least on Saturday, if not training nights too. I’ve started to not hang out there as often because you almost can’t not drink, and I had/have a binge problem. I don’t drink during the week, can’t think of anything worse, don’t generally drink any other time at all really, but my 2 beers turns into many more very fast around mates and that environment. That used to when I was younger turn into going to a pub/night club until you’re too drunk to stand. I’m glad I’ve mostly stopped. What used to be each weekend between football and cricket is now almost never, only been drunk twice this year and lost a Sunday due to a hangover one of those times. Having a son ask me why I couldn’t play on Sunday because I was hungover was a big turning point even though it took me a few years to get the message.
Yeah this is the key. Some groups will drink a lot, some will be moderate. I think it’s changed a bit from back in the day though. My great grandfather (I think) had a system where he’d buy his mates the first round, meaning he could happily have only one beer, and no one would have a go at him for turning down later beers. A little expensive, but everyone likes being treated, and it saves you getting wasted every time you want to hang out with your mates.
That’s funny, I’ve got a mate that someone how buys one round out of every 5! Always has a beer in his hand though, “someone else bought me this one” 🤣
It’s uncommon to not have alcohol at events, dates, party’s, BBQs, literally anything. We were asked about alcohol for our lo’s first birthday party… It’s also very common that if you stop drinking you lose a lot of ‘friends’ who only wanted drinking buddies.
I think that getting overly intoxicated and losing control in public, even out at bars and clubs, is more acceptable and commonplace in Australia than what I have experienced in North America
My limited experience would agree. I was in Vegas for Halloween once and there were so many people out and about, lots of alcohol, but not many people appeared drunk like they would be back here if you were allowed to drink on the street.
I lived there for a while and remember one night at a party drinking like ‘normal’ and my friend’s GF pulled me aside and told me to slow it down, she was worried about him because they “can’t handle ‘Australian style’ drinking” 🫡
I agree with you there. I did bring up a US city once in my example just because I'm not used to people being able to drink out in the streets. Overall the US is much tamer than Australia. I was more comparing to Europe, specifically to England, Wales, Ireland etc which personally seems a lot worse to me than Australia does.
I will say New Orleans is not representative of regular US drinking culture, it's a very extreme example for the US. It's seen as one of the biggest destination party cities in the country. People vacation there with the intention of getting incredibly drunk on bourbon street and taking advantage of the open container laws. Open container laws like they have in New Orleans are very uncommon in the US. People definitely drink excessively on vacation in other cities in the US, but New Orleans is kind of viewed here as being on a level of its own in regards to drinking. The only city I can think of that compares to New Orleans' party reputation here is probably Las Vegas - which has the slogan "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" because of the level of debauchery people intend to undertake when they go there. I'm talking in terms of vacationing here as well, because it specifically sounds like you were on bourbon street and that area is mostly tourists drinking in excess of their normal amounts while on vacation.
Yeh they start at 21 though, they are already much more conservative with that as a back bone, and pretty strict policing etc
Umm… drinking is ingrained into Australia pretty deeply. Working with a few people who do not drink for various reasons has opened my eyes to it a fair bit. Work drinks are pretty essential for socializing in the office. Social outings are almost always something with booze.
I think here in Japan is worse. Australians are more open to discussion about alcohol, drug usage, etc. Yes we have problems in Aus but in places like Tokyo, most people don't know their own limits and will pass out on streets. They're often not helped, either.
I’m from India and I moved here nearly 2 years ago now. In my experience, most social events involve alcohol. It is a fun experience at first but it gets old very quick. I remember telling my partner ‘this is most of I’ve had to drink in two years’ within two months of being in Australia. I enjoy the sentiment of ‘hey let’s have a cold one’ but I’ve learnt it’s not for me. Also, I know heaps of people who have a drink everyday which is considered totally normal. I found it to be a bit much.
Drinking is part of the culture being drunk isn't
Yeah, but being able to drink A LOT and not get drunk is part of the culture. And as you get older there is no doubt it affects our health. I'm 50 now, been drinking at the same level since I was 30. The only night I rarely drink is Monday. Tues/Wed will only be 6 and Fri-Sun is 10 - 12, sometimes more sometimes less. It's catching up now and I'm looking for ways to cut back without impacting my social life too much.
Definitely. You need to be able to hold your liquor and not be visibly drunk while still consuming a lot.
With all due respect, what you have described is textbook alcoholism. > cut back without impacting my social life And I would wager your friends fall in similar categories. Partly why you may find it hard to cut back.
Buy midis instead of schooners (or whatever the version is where you are). If anyone gives you shit just say it makes you feel like a giant/can finish ya beer before it gets warm. It's a confidently weird response so people tend to lay off after that. When it's hot I have/ask for a half beer half lemonade, it's refreshing as fuuuuck. My mum's from Grafton, apparently they used to call this a "donkeys doodle" up there which I find fuckin hilarious, so I tell people and offer them a swig to try it. Again, being confidently weird gets people to back off. Sorry if this isn't relevant to your drinking at all 8)
This is a good take, but I have considered drinking without the intent to get drunk pointless sometimes. Like having a wank but not intending to reach orgasm. But I did call it a night after one rum and coke last night, that felt like enough for a quiet night in.
Plenty of people drink because they enjoy the taste. If I go to a pub for dinner I have 2 beers to enjoy it, I have 0 intentions of getting drunk.
I don't mean any disrespect but I belive that's a pretty unhealthy and possibly immature take on it. Do you eat until you throw up? Do you run until you collapse? When I was a kid I had a similar mindset, if there's alcohol drink it until it's gone. It's not a mode or transport from sober to fuck eyed. You can have say half a dozen beers throughout the day while watching sport or fishing etc and still be OK to drive in the evening. Hangovers suck!
Just start to drink for quality instead of quantity. I used to drink the cheapest crap I could get because that meant I got to drink more. I would always get shitfaced and have a hangover that lasted days. About 5 years back I started to drink more conservatively and pay more per drink for better quality, hangovers rarely last a few hours. Don't drink spirits in places that serve Scotch and coke or rum and coke as a common drink. The house spirit is the cheapest crap and full of nasty volatiles. Also avoid "cheap" brands/versions like Bundaberg rum, jack Daniels, wild turkey etc.
Opinions on the internet/Reddit can be misleading. My case: I come from Spain and live in Sydney (not considering here regional Australia). I also lived in the UK and spent an entire semester in Belgium and the Netherlands. I often see posts on r/australia and other local subreddits complaining about the drinking culture in Australia. Most of the time in this type of posts, it is stated that it is impossible to socialise here or make friends if you don't drink alcohol. The most surprising thing is that people massively upvote these posts and comment on them reinforcing the idea of a heavily alcoholised society. I'm always confused because my experience is quite the opposite of these people. 9 out of 10 times I meet friends, I meet them to have breakfast/dinner/lunch or do any other activity that doesn't include alcohol (except a glass of wine/beer for dinner, which is always optional). I enjoy going out for drinks once in a while (more or less once a quarter) and I can count less than 5 people in my social circle willing to go out with me in this fashion. The rest of my friends don't really enjoy alcohol and many of them don't even drink at all. There are also strict laws here about drinking, making it very difficult to get drunk in a bar. This is the opposite I found in Europe and that's what I love about Australia. I think when people complain about the "toxic drinking culture" in Australia (at least, in major cities) says more about the lack of diversity in their social circle, than a real problem in Australia. Here, it is very easy to socialise and make new friends without alcohol.
I've been a non drinker basically my whole life and agree with you. None of my friends or family care, I've never felt pressured at a work place event or gathering. No one acts strange when I tell them I don't drink they simply do not care and will offer to buy me a coke. I know through reading some of the comments here that everyone has vastly different experiences.
Aussie here too, same experience.
I’d suggest our gambling problem is as bad, if not worse.
Alcoholism is still a problem. But gambling’s the one that’s screaming to be addressed.
In terms of average alcohol consumption per year, UK, AUS and US don't even make the top 10 list. UK #19, AUS #34, and US #37. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-consumption-by-country
I don’t drink either. I’ve found it hard to make friends as an adult, because everyone I meet (work colleagues, other mums at school, fellow study mates) all want to socialise by drinking. No one’s interested in hanging out if it doesn’t involve alcohol.
So lame that alcohol requirement to socialise here.
Drinking=/=drunk
It's more the fact that Australians can. not. socialise without drinking. If you say you're not drinking, you get a guilt trip. Everything centralises around drinking. Imagine the response to a alcohol free wedding. You think attendance would be as high as an alcohol fueled one? Even hikes end up at the pub after. It's like as soon as you can drink, you should be. My husband and I arent drinking right now and he went to a pub with two old work mates for a catch up and had to make up some medical excuse for not having a beer because anything he said would end up with, aw come on mate, one won't hurt. People encourage others to drink to feel better about their own drinking
As 3rd gen born/bred Aussie, the encouraging others to drink is very accurate. Even more indicative is the circle of people you frequent with. Unfortunately mine has dwindled down to those that drink and easily to excess, so it's normal to just go with the flow and sleep off half the next day and not think there's anything wrong with that despite my (non drinking) wife's objections. I will only consume alcohol once per week, but the tolerance level is so high, it takes a bottle of jacks to get me to a level I'm happy with.
Well one way to find out would be to compare statistics across countries. I find the culture at work somehow more centred around drinking here than in other countries like UK or USA and maybe similar to Japan. And I’ve worked in places that actively try to incorporate more non drinking activities for teetotallers. This is obviously just anecdotal.
According to the stats, compared to Europeans, South Koreans we are nowhere near heavy.
I’ve spent time in the UK as well I would say the drinking culture is similar. As in both pretty bad. Since you’re not a drinker you may not realise that visible signs of intoxication doesn’t necessarily correlate to alcohol dependance. In fact the less someone drinks the more likely they are to act unusually, vomit etc. When they do drink. The horrible thing about heavy alcohol use (or any substance really) is the more frequently you partake the more your tolerance increases and so you can have drunk half a bottle of spirits, multiple bottles of wine or half a case of beer and still seem relatively sober to everyone else and will need to drink larger and larger quantities to get the same effect. My take on the criticism of Australian (and UK) drinking culture is not the things you are describing but that it has become normalised to drink almost every day, and binge drink every weekend. Not many Australians would bat an eye to find out someone has a cheeky bottle of wine with dinner every night, or find it unusual that someone in their 20s/30s goes out binge drinking at least once a weekend. This is such a huge contrast to the drinking culture in the US for example and a massive health risk. The World Health Organisation states that no level of alcohol consumption is safe. Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer decades ago – this is the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco. Alcohol causes at least seven types of cancer, including the most common cancer types, such as bowel cancer and female breast cancer. The US guidelines suggest no more than 1 standard drink per day for women and no more than 2 standard drinks per day for men. The Australian guidelines used to match and have recently been increased to no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day. Keep in mind most “servings” can/glass/pint of alcohol are more than one standard drink. A large percentage of Australians including many people I know, and formerly myself, would find this limit ridiculously low. I now consider myself a reformed former alcoholic but it was pretty hard to identify that as I didn’t drink any more than anyone else around me. This is the problem people are talking about.
Yes I would agree. Not to mention binge drinking leads to brain damage. I remember we watched a video on binge drinking (which is like more than 2 standard drinks an hour or something) in high school and when I said to someone "but alcohol causes brain damage" they just laughed me down. Like it was immature to think that way. Just shows how the idea of drinking alcohol is handed down to young people. People really can't even socialise without alcohol which is a real shame. Perhaps that's what people talk about when they say Australians are alcoholics. Not that we drink more at occasions where drinking is acceptable but that we drink at EVERY occasion.
Exactly this. I live in a pretty white, regional area and everyone basically drinks all the time outside of work hours (which can be flexible to accommodate drinking). 2 drinks for a woman or 4 for a man is literally what you might have before heading out to the pub.
It's mostly the younger people that will brag about getting shit faced every weekend as if their entire personality is based on getting drunk. They either phase out of it or they take themselves out of the equation by trying to plank off a high-rise balcony during schoolies. The ones that make it into adulthood but still drink excessively are potential Big Brother contestants
Depends where you are. Many non European background Aussies don’t drink much. Meanwhile, my solidly affluent WASP neighbourhood drinks a fair bit (if the trolleys of booze coming out of Dan’s are a guide) and when the kids were still in primary school I was quite shocked to see families getting stuck into the wine at family events like the school carols by candlelight. Do you really need alcohol to get through a couple of hours of out of tune kids massacring Jingle Bells and Away In A Manger?
What does WASP stand for?
It’s an American term for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
Thanks, that seems extraordinarily specific for this conversation.
It's a catch-all term for upper middle class white, they might not actually be Protestant, or specifically Anglo-Saxon
Also seems weird to exclude the Irish Catholic Australian contingent from a conversation about drinking but include the ones of Protestant extraction.
Yeah, it's really heavy. I don't drink at all anymore and it took time for people to just accept that the answer is "no". I'll have a Coke No Sugar and that's it, thanks. It's not at all overblown, we just live in a generation where the Aussie Larrikin thing has sort of moved on. If you were growing up thirty years ago you'd have nothing to do because you don't drink. Likewise if you're a blue collar dude who doesn't drink, you'll struggle.
It’s like this: aussies don’t drink in public. Some backyards though.. ouch. I actually prefer european style drink a little outside then come home than this whole ‘no alcohol permitted anywhere out unless it’s a licensed or your own home’. Making it less available is enough to push some people to want it more.
In my opinion I think its more the fact that Aussies are so violent when on the piss, Europeans drink far more but they don't get violent.
It's pretty bad, as a non drinker I find it near impossible to find people whose idea of hanging out doesn't include drinking. Our drinking also revolves around binge drinking which is something other countries don't do as much (obviously depends where).
Depends on where/how you're comparing. Compared to a lot of Europe, Aussies drink too much too fast, something we unfortunately share with the Brits. Casual drinking over a long period of time, as is common across most of Europe and South America, isn't something we do well. If you compare to many places in Asia, however, binge drinking is just as bad or worse than in Australia.
Alcohol consumption is higher in most of Europe.
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Sssshhhhh. Keep it that way.
That way we can drink as much or as little as we want and no one will know because we’re invisible. Yay??
This is the comment I was scrolling for!
I didn't forget you. I just honestly don't know what the stats are on your drinking habits. But I've seen articles about comparisons between boomers, gen z and millennials on this topic. If I knew I would have posted sorry.
definitely a lot of drinking that goes on. people try to connect it to socioeconomic class but it's really just the entirety of the culture. i was in an affluent suburb where people began drinking around 15, and even now as adults, people still drink a lot.
👆 SES in Australia doesn't predict how much you drink, just what you drink. Upper crust drink wine, whisky, gin, and craft beer. Working class drink beer and premix cans. People on the fringes drink goon and tawny port. Ethnic/cultural background is often predictive too. The heaviest drinkers have white colonial or aboriginal background. My pet theory is that anyone whose ancestors were here 200 years ago is epigenetically conditioned towards alcoholism.
Which “drinking culture”, the nightly beer/wine with dinner, heading to the pub Friday night with mates, or getting blackout drunk every Saturday night
I've from London and England has a far bigger drinking culture especially after work from my experience
Go to Darwin and if you don't drink up there, you're an outlier.
In between. Places like Italy and France drink a bit with meals for flavour and rarely to get drunk. Places like China and South Korea drink to get drunk. Most nights of the week. and and not just drunk, but plastered We drink more than than just for taste, but rarely drink up to the point of being truly drunk, once we are out of our early 20s. And we are appreciating drink more than we once did. The wine scene and microbrewery scene is stronger than it's ever been. Anybody claiming we are a nation of drunks is just expressing their ignorance.
I think its more about how we drink rather than how much we drink. We drink a lot more at home than in public. We crack open a tinny on the verandah or swing around a goonsack on a clothesline lol. I think its also super normalised to drink with dinner every night or while watching the footy. It's a part of everyday life but it doesn't mean we are blind drunk vomiting on the streets.
I think our drinking culture has changed significantly over the last 10 years. Though admittedly that could also be me and my friend group getting older and more mature too. It seems like non-alcoholic beers have started to become quite fashionable and the “Sunday morning” movement has started to take off. There is a greater influence on a healthy lifestyle vs writing yourself off on the weekend. I’m sure there are still plenty of people who are drinking excessively in unhealthy patterns, but I don’t think it’s accurate to describe that as our culture any more.
In the reign of Julius Caesar, Caesar sent an envoy to Briton to asses the people whom which he ruled over. The envoy reported back that it was an Island of drunken savages and no threat to Caesar. ..somethings never change huh?
As someone who recently graduated from uni in Melbourne, I will say that it's not that everyone drinks a lot, it's more along the lines that everyone drinks super often, and while doing anything and everything.
Definitely. Think yourself lucky if your not a part of it.
Most of my friends would have been considered an alcoholic based on the official drinking guidelines. My BIL was never without a drink in his hand yet nothing was ever said about it and it seemed to be accepted as normal. In my halcyon days of going out to meet the ladies; drink was not just encouraged, it was very much expected. I think, so the friends didn't feel on their own getting enough courage and social lubrication to get the courage in order to get the job done. I followed the trend for many years until I came to the relisation I don't even like to drink. I also smoked a hell of a lot of weed back then also. For me, both seemed like me trying to drown out the world and my issues that come from being raised with kindness but never taught how to do the social something. Instead being told not to do something without the appropriate information on what I should be doing in any situation. Socially awkward that rings of being on the spectrum, but this was new age disease and not something even recognised in my youth. You were dumb and lazy instead.
It has gotten a lot better. Shit I’m old. Pubs used to be dirty and full of guys in singlets and stubbies getting a drink after work or at lunch or all day. Those days are long gone. The reason it was worse was the population was almost exclusively male.
Ahh the old pubs with the tiled walls they'd literally hose down at the end of the day
Having moved from the UK (Scotland) to Australia, the Aussie drinking culture seems extremely mild compared to the UK drinking culture I came from. Drinking and it's associated laws and regulations are also much more strict and policed/monitored in Australia. I know they are currently increasing alcohol prices in Scotland to try and discourage excess drinking, but unsure how much of an effect it's having. Being a small woman who got her drinking initiation in Scotland I find it hilarious how many Aussie blokes are floored by the fact I can drink them all under the table.
I don't think any Australian (except maybe Darwinites, you should try to see if they measure up) quite knows just how toxic the drinking cultures of Ireland and Scotland were/are, judging by the number of Irish pissheads I've come across. Interesting because my ancestry is half-Irish/half-English but neither side drank. My Dad's side were complete teatotallers and my Mum's side only had a snifter.
I would say most of the UK and Ireland
Only one person in my housing complex 'drinks' - as in a full recycling bins worth of cans every month (you can hear them go in the truck). The other tenants don't have cars to take empties to the tip, so that isn't a factor. That said, of the 12 or so peeps at work, there are at least three I'd say were borderline alcoholics and or sloppy drunks. As a male bonding thing, they go out drinking every Saturday, getting blind drunk if you believe the tales they love to brag about.
It used to be. But it has been on the decline for decades now. I do drink but very moderately. Maybe 2 or 3 on a Friday but not every week. But I know a number of particularly younger people (I'm 37 so I'm talking about people in their 20s) who very rarely drink if at all.
I think it’s not what it was, referring to a earlier era. When I was a kid playing footy late 80s/early 90s, there would be dads on the sideline rocking up with a case to watch junior footy. I don’t think that sort of thing happens anymore, or it’s well hidden.
Australians' binge drinking is worse than Yanks and better than Brits.
We aren’t always drunk but by guides, vast majority binge drink and probably due to our work hard, party harder attitude
I’m probably an alcoholic two to three bottles of gin a week three or four drinks after work and a bottle on the weekend. I call it a functioning alcoholic
There are people who think of drinking is done only and solely with the purpose of getting drunk, and that's what EVERY weekend is for. And there are others who enjoy a few beers, a mild sensation of being drunk with friends and that's it. Or the others who can take it or leave it and might have a beer or wine socially whilst eating. It really depends on the individual social circle.
Every country who drinks think they are the worst
I think the drinking culture varies across age groups amongst other things. My Boomer age group drink but rarely to excess. My daughters age groups are even less alcohol centred. My much younger nieces and nephews don’t drink and that seems pretty usual. However, a drive thru the Melbourne CBD at night, Chapel St and the Richmond pub end show me there’s plenty of drunks in the gutters and fights so 🤷♀️
The boomers I know by far drink the most, but don't extend their own limits. Like, I'll watch my dad and uncle polish off 3 bottles of red between them at a family lunch, before 2pm, but they don't appear intoxicated at all. My 21yr old cousin however has 3 mixed drinks fairly close together and becomes visibly tipsy. Grandma has 2 glasses of wine, but will also have a glass of wine with dinner, and another glass with dinner every other night of the week, whereas tipsy cousin wont have another alcoholic drink until the following weekend. So although at a glance the cousin may seem to be the bigger drinker, she's actually overall drinking the least
Short answer, yes
Amongst the bogan and middle-aged population, drinking is excessive. But among our 1st and 2nd generation population, it is almost non-existent. It really depends on your social group. I grew up experiencing multiple cultures and social classes within Australia. Drinking culture isn't as widespread as it was 20-30 years ago.
I think “a country full of drunks” is a bit extreme to say, but we definitely have a problematic drinking culture. Of course there are people who don’t drink, but drinking to excess is far too normalised amongst those who do.
Weekend BBQs and local bars was huge in the 80s-90s. It's to heavily taxed now so it's mainly coke, ice and depression culture for the younger gen. I think people in Pentrige had more freedom and leisure time than kids today
It’s the cultural cringe. I think as Aussies, we tend to say we are a nation of alcoholics. I think we as a culture tend to think we are generally worse than we are in many things. Don’t get me wrong, lots of alcoholism and binge drinking still happens, but it is worse elsewhere, and the culture is moving away from this.
I feel judged for not wanting a wine or a drink when out for friends with dinner or lunch etc. it’s not that people are out getting pissed all the time but there’s a lot of casual drinking and it’s seen as being different if you don’t partake.
I feel like it's better now than it was, but I'm also older now so maybe I just don't spend enough of my life awake past 3am anymore or don't get invited to wild parties. I still get out to music stuff and clubs a bit, it certainly feels like there's a bit more of a "I have other shit I want to do with my life tomorrow" vibe, even in the younger crowd I know. If course there will always be wasted people partying, I still do it sometimes it just feels like a pressure release.
Compared to Eastern Europe, we’re lightweights.
I've had all three uncles be alcoholics, my mum was heading that way before meeting my stepdad. I've sort of grown to hate the prevailing habit where there needs to be alcohol with every dinner with friends or any social situations. I don't get the, have a few beers after work mentality. I drink maybe two or 3 times a year for a special occasion or a dedicated night out with some friends where the goal is to get a bit drunk and have fun. Theres a good proportion of the adult population who always have a beer in the fridge. That being said. I think millennial and younger kids are bucking these trends a bit and it's definitely more ingrained in the older generations.
UK, Aus and USA are similar in this respect. I lived in Berlin for a few years and it's very different. Germans drink a lot, but don't aim to get drunk. Getting drunk is poor form, and you should go home because you're drunk. But I think the way we drink encourages it. German bars are almost always table service, so you don't do "rounds" because everyone just orders what they want when they want it. So there's no pressure to "keep up" and drink at the speed of the fastest member of the group. Also in Berlin the bars generally serve as long as there are customers to serve, and you can buy beer from corner shops (spätkaufs) all night and wander around the place drinking. So there's no pressure to drink your fill by 11pm when some bastard rings a bell and stops serving. I've seen people having a beer in the train station on their way to work. The office I worked in had a beer fridge about 5m long that was never locked. Lunchtime beer is totally acceptable. It's a country that drinks. But I've never seen the drunken violence like we get in Australia or the UK.
I am actually an alcoholic. Trust me, if we were a nation of alcoholics, I wouldn’t have to anonymously post on reddit about it.
I mean it's definitely bad here but the UK is where we get it from. We're the kid with a substance problem we got from our parents.
Why did you ignore Gen X?
It's culture in regional aus specially around football cricket clubs
Australia has done what it can to try legislate the drinking culture away. Things like dry communities in the outback, legislating that pubs/venues have to be closed and not serving alcohol for X amount of hours or from Y till Z. Banning open receptacles of alcohol almost anywhere in public outside of a venue. Most of it is done behind closed doors these days.
Don't forget jacking up prices of beer and spirits to Kingdom Come! It is like a vicious circle in some regards, people get smashed at home first because everything is so exxy when they go out, thus drinking faster then when they are out and arriving at the venues like yobbos and louts.
Ahhh yes, I forgot the taxes.
I am a from europe and well-travelled.. I can tell from my two months here in down under that you do not seem like a nation of alcoholics. I've seen much worse. In fact, with your alcohol prices, the hardcore drinkers couldn't afford their addiction anyway. However, public drinking here is prohibited, so I can't tell what's going on inside peoples own four walls. Maybe it just seems better than it actually is.
As an ex taxi driver the drinking on Melbourne Cup Day and at Randwick Races was appalling, my Irish passengers were probably the biggest drinkers at other times but they were quite funny I used to hear a lot people saying "I wouldn't trust anybody that doesn't drink " Never did understand that
Australians are globally stereotyped for having a few cold ones with a barby under a blue sky with the sun blazing. When I got here, I couldn't believe how much tax you have to pay on your favorite past time.
I’m gen x. My generation and above are annoying as fuck in terms of you can’t be at any social function without literally holding a drink the entire time. Younger gens might be smarter
Look, as a German who has lived here for a year now, I wouldn’t even say there is a drinking culture at all, especially not a bad one. Considering how hard it is to get booze here (and how ridiculously expensive it is too), I’m shocked that anyone would get drunk here regularly.
We used to drink, now we like meth.
Not anymore. With 15 bottle shops in the area and live venues being shutdown by the powers to be the nightlife is a fragment of what it was. Covid sped the issue up but they have been turning us into slaves and drones for the last 10 years if not longer
Have to take into account London has a population of 8million or so. Which is double Australia’s most populated city.
Japan has rampant alcoholism in a way that far supersedes Australian drinking culture. It’s sad, lots of stressed and depressed people.
No, there is worse. I was in Vietnam on holiday. Its toxic there.
I've been living in Europe for a while, Germany specifically. In my experience: Brits can't handle their drink, Scandinavians can handle it and deliberately choose not to. Australians are a mix of the two and there are absolutely sections of society with problematic drinking ala the UK. I wouldn't want to be the liver specialist in a mining town... In plenty of places you can walk on the street with an open beer and society doesn't collapse. There's words for it in German: "Wegbier" (beer on the way) and Fußpils (Pils(ner) on foot). The second one is a homophone with the word for foot fungus, which I chuckle at. No one blinks if you walk with a beer, the guy at the bottle-o will even ask if you want it opened when you buy it. Drinking levels in Germany are similar to Australia. Laws like not being able to drink in public in Australia are really just a symptom of our love for authority rather than an indication of a real problem, honestly.
Honestly from my experience drinking culture here is incredibly safe. Every bar/club I've been to has been very savvy when it comes to RSA. Drunk people in general have been super chill. Less fist fights, and more collectively giggling in the urinals. Admittedly I do not get out much, and I only stick with mainstream places in the capital cities
I don’t know about bad but it’s definitely above average. We are a top tier binge drinking country because we like to get fucked up but you can’t compare us to those European countries where they drink dead seriously for every occasion sipping on a life threatening concoction of homemade brew just because.
Unless you go hang out with some let's say lower socio economic people, you'll find Australia has a pretty normal drinking culture. I
"Millennials drink less than boomers and genZ drink less than millennials" Meanwhile I'm just enjoying the continued anonymity of being Gen X.
England is the GOAT, Australia imported its drinking from England. Drinking in public is not necessarily a good indicator of culture as that is a legislation thing and Australia loves to legislate/nanny.
It's too expensive to be that bad now.
I hardly drink. In my 20s I did but I have kids, a super busy life and I don't like cheap alcohol so hubby and I honestly hardly drink. I have friends however that spend a small fortune weekly on alcohol. Overall, I wouldn't say I'm surrounded by people who drink lots. I work in banking and even at our office parties, people don't get wasted. Drinking is an expensive hobby and I'd honestly prefer a holiday
From my observations it’s always the tradie type people who love to have a can. When I was in a trade it would be drinks every day after work and pissups on the weekend. It’s Never really been my thing but I did join in a fair bit for the social aspect. I really slowed down drinking when I met my wife and 100% stopped just before we had kids. I’m not comfortable with drinking around kids and it’s. It really needed to enjoy life Wife and I might have an espresso martini or something on date night a couple of times a year if that.
Some other countries may be worse but Australia is not good,. It really depends on the circle you run in. The "excuses" for drinking is the best thing, they find any reason to drink.
It may have used to be bad but we've been clamped down on pretty hard law wise. That and it's much more expensive here than elsewhere so I think a lot of excessive drinking goes on behind closed doors. Source: my drinking problem
I am here from Ireland, Aussies are lightweights by comparison.
I once made the fatal mistake of going out with my Irish Housemates for a few quiet drinks during the All Ireland hurling final. I didnt get home til 4am.
Australia is ~35 in the world for alcohol consumption per capita. It's definitely overstated. Though for those it does impact seriously, it is a very real problem.
I'm Australian, and I've lived here my whole life (36). Personally, I think it depends on where you are like what state, what's happening etc. There are people who need to social drink absolutely and yes there are also drunks etc but it isn't in the public easy to see least not where I am. There will always be those that abuse a thing in this case alcohol. I also don't drink. I get.more excited about coffee and or food than going out for drinks, doesn't interest me. I also don't give a fuck about the footy or whatever and there's a large population that agree with me. Most.of.my friends dont drink or have one or two socially. But yeah I can say it's a thing. Most towns have a few pubs on corners. Cocaine is a pretty big thing here too. Tbh those who use it are pretty good at keeping it on the low. The rest is party drugs but seems to be once there past early twenties it sort of dies down, maybe they switch to the alcohol or weed.
We have a bad drinking culture, but our drug culture is on another level
I was shocked when I immigrate in Aus over 15 years ago One thing that have marked me is seeing tradies on Friday afternoon holding a huge case of beer and leaving Dan Murphy looking all victorious Like he was holding some sort of gold. This picture stays in my mind forever
It's an absolute myth, a long hangover from the 70s and before. (like unions being scary). We're about 60th in the world or something equally nondescript when it comes to alcohol consumption. Our rates of consumption have been declining for about four decades straight. The myth is continued by a) dull media types that rely on old cliches, and b) wowser organisations who think that all alcohol is sinful, and pretending we're a nation of piss heads is good for lobbying business.
The words "Australia" and "culture" do not go in one sentence.
Coffee culture replaced drinking culture 20yrs ago. Taxation finished it off. No one is social drinking out an about 3 X week anymore well no one over 21. Maybe once a fortnight a night out but most with a carton in the garage for a pre dinner drink after work. You may be able to do it on the cheap at your local bowls or RSL club but watching zombies at the pokies lose their retirement or weeks paycheck just so you can save on a few drinks isn't the entertainment I go in for. Saturday morning brunch with friends down by the beach and a good coffee seems to be where it's at if your over 26. Imo