Apparently foreigners are often incredulous when they see the barbecues in public parks. Not so much because they don't know what they're for, but more because they're both free and clean.
I mean, sure, they're not perfect but the whole idea is you turn that sucker on and let it get as hot as possible to burn away any potential bacteria, then wash it down properly before you use it. No one in their right mind just rocks up and uses them without making sure they've been cleaned thoroughly first.
I support this method. The other (which is what I do normally) is get some high smoke point oil onto the bbq and use a metal spatula to move the oil around and scrape away any crap that might be present, should pick up everything and the heat will kill off anything that can make you sick - discard and wipe the surface down, turn the bbq down to normal cooking temp then add in fresh oil and away you go.
If they're frequently used and someone doesn't clean it and that someone is the one that uses it frequently... then it's frequently dirty. But the majority are clean enough for a quick rinse off before aluminium foil goes on and then the food.
Putting foil down first males them abundantly easier to clean.
I've seen a few dirty ones in Brisbane but they aren't left dirty for long. I hate when people use them and leave a layer of grease behind to catch dirt, leaves, and bugs. It takes a minute or two to clean at most...
And they're so easy to clean. I really wonder why there isn't a home version that we can buy. I would kill for a big electric hotplate that I could just hose off.
Spotless stainless BBQs in my city - as good as a commercial kitchen would be if they knew a health inspector was coming. Pretty sure they’re cleaned three times a day, thoroughly scrubbed and with chemicals to remove any burned in fat.
And there are so many of that often nobody has even used it when they come around clean it again (less thoroughly - just wipe the dust off). I use them about once a month and there’s nearly always a clean/unused one available. The used ones are normally reasonably well cleaned by the previous person too.
Very rare to find a dirty one in Victoria. Inner city Melbourne to south Gippsland, the You Yangs, Great Ocean Rd… we use them a fair bit, and they're usually spotless
Yeah see you still don't get how this is to many foreigners. Some people from developing nations I've known have talked about it - if it's a public good, it would immediately break and the government wouldn't fix it, or someone would mafia style "claim" it and begin charging people to use it.
The fact it's free and not
- Broken
- Overused or impossible to get a spot on
- Squatted on by an "entreupreneur"
Is amazing to them.
You can’t even get into parks for free in London.
My first weekend in the UK, I was in Chelsea. I took Bub in the pram to give Mum some time, and was trying to find a quiet park for her nap. Every damn park needed a key or swipe card to get through the gate. One park even had a person at the gate, allowing the plebs in for only £10 each (£5 for the sleeping baby).
Those are likely residents' private communal garden squares rather than public parks, and Kensington and Chelsea have the highest level of those in London.
Not saying you're lying, but this isn't the case for *most* parks in London. In fact London has huge, incredible free parks.
I've never seen a park in the UK you have to pay to enter.
I'm 42. I've seen a couple about in my life time, though it's been forever since I last saw one. The few times I had seen one it was always at some remote national park type venue. I had assumed it was to capitalise on campers at the time. It was still a bit of a wtf moment when I saw them.
Wood bbq were more common when I was a kid, but occasionally I still see one in some old forgotten park (also usually the remote national park types). I always suppose when I see one it's simply because the park hasn't been updated in forever.
I have a 'modern Queenslander' in the Qld tropics, much less maintenance with different materials and things like windows, but similar design concepts. I love it, much more sensible than houses with high density materials which retain heat.
The idea of driving to buy alcohol didn't sit right with me when i first arrived, then I realised that people didn't actually start drinking the second they came out and I understood.
It felt quite foreign that people got a such a private space as a car and were just naturally able to have alcohol but not drink it.
True, but that's really a consequence of the trading laws - they're typically collocated because the supermarket in question is run by the same corporation that runs the bottle shop (Dan's and BWS for Woolies, Liquorland for Coles, Local Cellars for Foodland). If those laws weren't in place the bottle shops would likely be absorbed into the supermarkets.
I go shopping in an Aldi in NSW all the time that has booze right next to the checkout. You can only buy it through that checkout, but that's really the only rule.
As I said, it depends on the state. In SA you can't buy alcohol in a supermarket. I'm not sure whether Colesworths would like the trading rules liberalised so that they could sell alcohol in their supermarkets, or kept as they are because it means they own the main alcohol retailers and Aldi doesn't.
No but you did have an off licence on every corner which was even more convenient and now the supermarkets do it too so not a drive through but still pretty good in my book 😁👍
Yeah I'd rather a bakery! So many bakeries are so bad here. Mostly people who immigrated from Asian countries runs them where I am and they don't understand a meat pie lol
You want a bakery run by Vietnamese family, with a serene elder matriarch. They have French pastry and bread tradition as well as all the good vietnamese street food stuff.
I remember stopping at the big pineapple as a kid and being underwhelmed.
I also remember a group of very confused Japanese tourists who were convinced there must be more to it, and clearly, they were missing something here.
Not a potato, but I know Canada has a giant pierog (dumpling), which is often filled with potato if Ukrainian https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g4266459-d4262746-Reviews-World_s_Largest_Perogy-Glendon_Alberta.html. As well as a giant Ukrainian easter egg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegreville_egg
Many countries have variations of 'servicemens clubs' though.
I'm in Singapore atm and their RSL equivalents are more like private clubs - gym, pool, a few commercial restaurants or bars, gaming areas (arcade or mahjong, not pokies) as well as a kids rec space. Technically you have to be a member to join, but since it's open to everyone who does National Service that includes 99% of the male population.
The hyper clubs are really only an east coast thing though.., because of pokies from what I understand…, they also have discounted meals too right? Been about 30 years since I been to an RSL in NSW.
It's because of how poor the old liquor laws in NSW were. There was a specific number of liquor licenses, so you had to wait for another business to fold or buy an existing one.
So a lot of areas the RSL was the only place which served liquor. Social clubs got a boost and became the norm
Time to hit the midwest and *make* it a thing. Of course, a lot of them would wind up as memorials to local fallen heroes. Which might not be a bad thing.
Not a building but the rabbit proof and Dingo proof fences. Two of the longest fences in the world.
Also the Great Ocean Road the longest war memorial in the world.
Swimming pools carved directly into the rock shelf https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/north-coast/newcastle-area/newcastle/attractions/bogey-hole
or constructed on the rock shelf https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/north-coast/newcastle-area/newcastle/attractions/newcastle-ocean-baths
We still had an outdoor dunny when I was a kid in Sydney in the 70s. I was a fair way down the back, too. I hated it at night and is probably why I had a bed wetting issue, lol. The day we got a toilet in the house was one of the best days in my short life until then, I was about 5.
Yep, my life too. I would have been about the same age when we got an inside toilet.
we got the phone on when i was 9 (around 1976) and only because my dad got a manager position in his company and just in case work had to call him. But my parents thought it was silly, who needs a phone. I also wasn’t allowed to answer it.
Australia has wildly different climates and histories from region to region. Even a building that might be considered a “cultural building” is regional at best. But I’d go with:
- stone farmhouses made with corrugated iron roofs. Something like the Midnight Oil house.
- the flat pack churches and pubs of northern Queensland. They have very thin wooden walls that are made in panels and tilted up.
- trauma houses. As Darwin rebuilt after Cyclone Tracey, a common home design was thick brick walls and tiny tiny windows and a flat cement roof. They were actual cyclone-proof bunkers and utterly unsuitable for the tropics.
- Queenslanders
- Dunnies or outhouses. Functional but unloved, they’ve been done away with by modern plumbing.
- more recently: public water-play parks. Sprays, splash pads, big buckets, shallow pools, free entry.
There's a lot of buildings and walls and stairs in Sydney made from Convict Stone. Especially around The Rocks. Look for sandstone blocks. They often have a rough finish that still has random chisel marks, softened by time.
Sydney also has some Victorian buildings still standing. The Strand Arcade (1891) and the Queen Victoria Building (1898) are prime examples.
There's also a whole bunch or Art Deco buildings, pubs, cinemas around cities and country towns.
Sadly dying out with online gambling.
I'd also humbly suggest the predatory pokies pub with really fucking shit counter meals from a menu as long as your arm. Don't know if it is uniquely Australian but it feels like it
Because Australia is a very rich country. We earn a lot compared to most of the world and we also pay a premium for basic needs. Regardless of the cost of living crisis at the moment, which mostly affects lower income people.. a lot of Australians have disposable income. And a significant portion of that is fed into pokies.
Australia also has the world’s biggest gambling problem too and a lack of available properties to buy and rent.
Other countries limit access to pokies because they’ve seen the damage that they do in Australia and the US.
Slab huts are pretty Australian - they were the early settler houses. They're somewhat like your North American log cabins, but not logs, slabs cut from logs.
Sydney Sandstone is unique and stunning.
I've seen very old cottages in remoter areas of SA made from found materials, like flattened out metal food tins hammered to the framing. Old wool and fodder bags fixed onto walls or used to shield windows. Furniture made from fruit/produce crates. Rugs crocheted from rags torn into strips. My great-grandparents lived in wattle-and-daub houses with beaten earth floors, because that's what was freely available. I wonder what that variations are, state to state, and across countries.
I believed they were mostly a UK style thing brought over by Cornish/English miners.
https://www.exploringgb.co.uk/blog/abandonedminerscottageswales#:~:text=These%20are%20abandoned%20miners'%20cottages,and%20thus%2C%20the%20world).
I’d say Coober Pedy style dugouts are actually fairly unique, though there are plenty of crude shanty dugouts in various developing parts of the world still near mineral fields. Those are more out of necessity.
You could argue there’s overlap in some of the homes cut into side of hills that exist in Matera Italy and some of the Spanish/Andorran villages though those were about space to build and not about escaping the days heat though they probably have that bonus feature.
Shearing sheds, I reckon. Big old ones made of rough cut timbers and acres of rusty corrugated iron.
Also wonder about the grain silos in the wheat belt.
Home designs are different if you go to the floorplan subreddit the Aussie houses get ripped apart.
Double story homes have the laundry downstairs so it’s easy access to the clothesline, other countries have them upstairs with the majority of the bedrooms.
The master bedrooms are often at the front of the house whilst the main living space is backing onto the backyard. This just makes sense to me, if someone break in or knocks on the door the parents should be the closest.
And of course having the toilet separate to the bathroom is apparently pointless as well.
They demolished , the ( Hilton ) in White Cliffs one day , didn't even check for opals ? That's what happens when the government ( national parks ) does stuff
Although most are decommissioned and reused now, Melbourne (and I assume probably Sydney) has a history of Coffee Palaces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_palace?wprov=sfla1
I live in a converted wool store warehouse
You can still smell the lanolin and the old wool bale lifts are still in the foyer from the wool industry hey day
[Sidney Williams huts](https://www.google.com/search?q=sydney+williams+hut&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-au&client=safari)! Though I’ve only seen them in the NT, leftovers from WW2 I think
Had a free sausage sizzle ANZAC day after the march to raise funds for our community bowls club and a mob of Americans turned up amazedly and then they wanted to know the meaning, of ANZAC, we all answered correctly with very much pride and enthusiasm to share our history, culture & traditions.
Historical? Hyde Park Barracks Museum is the most unique landmark I've visited, it's an excellent interactive experience. There's a few buildings like that we only keep around cause they were built by convict labour.
We have Old Towns like Petrie and Caboolture old town, where not much has changed in a hundred years except that the post office is now a gift shop, and they'll run farmers markets and random stuff like pottery classes, steam engine exhibits, classic car shows etc
And there's random log cabins in the wood that were built in colonial times
We also have these things called Homesteads, they get marked on Google maps like they're towns but really it's just a couple of buildings owned by one family, usually with a central house, and it's a farm basically, but they'll have hundreds of thousands of acres, a dozen employees, in modern times they might use a helicopter to herd cattle. And they're often million dollar family businesses, but they're the only civilisation for miles around
I'd say our lifeguard towers are pretty iconic
Apparently foreigners are often incredulous when they see the barbecues in public parks. Not so much because they don't know what they're for, but more because they're both free and clean.
"clean"
I mean, sure, they're not perfect but the whole idea is you turn that sucker on and let it get as hot as possible to burn away any potential bacteria, then wash it down properly before you use it. No one in their right mind just rocks up and uses them without making sure they've been cleaned thoroughly first.
>wash it down properly before you use it. With beer, obviously.
Well I don't have a can of water in my hand, do I?
Lol exactly!
I support this method. The other (which is what I do normally) is get some high smoke point oil onto the bbq and use a metal spatula to move the oil around and scrape away any crap that might be present, should pick up everything and the heat will kill off anything that can make you sick - discard and wipe the surface down, turn the bbq down to normal cooking temp then add in fresh oil and away you go.
Teflon sheet. Portable. Washable.
Well gotta have some use for xxxx and vb.
Lol true that. I'll argue slightly for XXXX. But it's the only use for VB.
Blood oath with beer. It’s on hand
Never seen a dirty one. The council park mower men clean them as part of their round.
If they're frequently used and someone doesn't clean it and that someone is the one that uses it frequently... then it's frequently dirty. But the majority are clean enough for a quick rinse off before aluminium foil goes on and then the food. Putting foil down first males them abundantly easier to clean.
i don’t put foil on it to keep the barbie clean, i’m doing it so I don’t get bird shit on my snags
A clean barbecue is a flavourless barbecue
I've seen a few dirty ones in Brisbane but they aren't left dirty for long. I hate when people use them and leave a layer of grease behind to catch dirt, leaves, and bugs. It takes a minute or two to clean at most...
And they're so easy to clean. I really wonder why there isn't a home version that we can buy. I would kill for a big electric hotplate that I could just hose off.
I'd love one at home too.
Varies wildly by council
Gold Coast are pretty good at doing this.
Yer, weirdly even the grubs here seem to respect the public bbq.
Spotless stainless BBQs in my city - as good as a commercial kitchen would be if they knew a health inspector was coming. Pretty sure they’re cleaned three times a day, thoroughly scrubbed and with chemicals to remove any burned in fat. And there are so many of that often nobody has even used it when they come around clean it again (less thoroughly - just wipe the dust off). I use them about once a month and there’s nearly always a clean/unused one available. The used ones are normally reasonably well cleaned by the previous person too.
Yeah I don’t care how clean they look, I’m cleaning it myself before using it
Crank it up to max for 10 minutes, you’ll be good!
Very rare to find a dirty one in Victoria. Inner city Melbourne to south Gippsland, the You Yangs, Great Ocean Rd… we use them a fair bit, and they're usually spotless
They’re free because people used to steal coins from them when they were coin operated. And wood fires cause bushfires. Not for charitable reasons.
Yeah see you still don't get how this is to many foreigners. Some people from developing nations I've known have talked about it - if it's a public good, it would immediately break and the government wouldn't fix it, or someone would mafia style "claim" it and begin charging people to use it. The fact it's free and not - Broken - Overused or impossible to get a spot on - Squatted on by an "entreupreneur" Is amazing to them.
Not just developing nations, I’m from the UK and was pretty surprised to find them everywhere for free and for them not be vandalised
You can’t even get into parks for free in London. My first weekend in the UK, I was in Chelsea. I took Bub in the pram to give Mum some time, and was trying to find a quiet park for her nap. Every damn park needed a key or swipe card to get through the gate. One park even had a person at the gate, allowing the plebs in for only £10 each (£5 for the sleeping baby).
What happens if the baby wakes up? I’m picturing a guy with baying hunting dogs chasing down the sounds of crying babies for their extra £5.
Those are likely residents' private communal garden squares rather than public parks, and Kensington and Chelsea have the highest level of those in London.
Hyde Park doesn’t need a key 😉
Not saying you're lying, but this isn't the case for *most* parks in London. In fact London has huge, incredible free parks. I've never seen a park in the UK you have to pay to enter.
This is a load of bollocks
They get squatted on by families on the public holidays in some places, but they are available most of the time.
I have never seen a coin operated one in my 45 years growing up here. But maybe this is a state thing.
From what I remember the ‘coin operated’ period was pretty short. A few years. It was when they first switched to gas from wood.
We had coin operated ones in NSW in the 90’s
I'm 42. I've seen a couple about in my life time, though it's been forever since I last saw one. The few times I had seen one it was always at some remote national park type venue. I had assumed it was to capitalise on campers at the time. It was still a bit of a wtf moment when I saw them. Wood bbq were more common when I was a kid, but occasionally I still see one in some old forgotten park (also usually the remote national park types). I always suppose when I see one it's simply because the park hasn't been updated in forever.
SLSC clubhouses at most beaches.
Definitely not in the UK, you might get one Lifesaver every 10 miles if you are lucky.
*most urban beaches
I live in an area where most of the apartment buildings used to be Woolsheds, so that seems a bit Australian I guess?
Still has sheep in it, shearers will wake you up every day at 5am with their shearing. You are expected to collect the wool for the landlord. $600/pw
Most of the decent grain silos in Sydney are now apartments.
Not sure if Queenslander type homes exist outside of Australia...
Or QLD
They're not common, but they're around. I lived in one in SA, have looked at others when looking to buy - they're a sensible design.
Sith Ifruca is a weird spot to find them for sure
Y'know, I reckon they'd work there too. Stilts keep the lions away.
And all the murderers with no legs to get up the stairs
An underappreciated benefit
You spelt it wrong, it’s actually Sorth Efrica
I had a mate the moved there and built his house in a Queenslander design. Not a true one, but would fool anyone who could see over the fence.
Yeah I've seen similar designs in the NT. Makes sense, being built to come with the heat.
They definitely exist in the top half of NSW too
I have a 'modern Queenslander' in the Qld tropics, much less maintenance with different materials and things like windows, but similar design concepts. I love it, much more sensible than houses with high density materials which retain heat.
There are similar in hawaii
The corrugated iron shed made with cut trees.
Fletchings*
Drive through bottle shops. They aren’t in other countries are they?
The USA has them in some states depending on how loose the liquor laws are
I'd be surprised if there's anything in the US you can't get in a drive through 🤔
There’s a drive through wedding chapel in Las Vegas. When I lived in kings cross the local coke dealer operated on a drive up basis…
drive thru atms are super handy!!
The Gold Coast used to (may still do) have a drive through pie shop, can’t get much more Aussie than that.
Melbourne's had those too
I want drive through pizza and sushi
Eagle boys use to do drive through pizza. You could either get a couple slices or a whole pizza from their hot box.
Ohh where? We had eagle boys in Vic but they gradually changed to Johnnie boys etc
The idea of driving to buy alcohol didn't sit right with me when i first arrived, then I realised that people didn't actually start drinking the second they came out and I understood. It felt quite foreign that people got a such a private space as a car and were just naturally able to have alcohol but not drink it.
I have worked in, and used bottleos where they sell beer straight from the esky in the drive through so you can have an ice cold roadie straight away
Not in the UK..
No, they’ve got the “special aisle” in Tesco which is roped off when you’re not allowed to buy booze.
Because the sale of alcohol in the UK isn’t restricted to bottle shops
It's not restricted to bottle shops here either.
Can't buy it in supermarkets though, depending on the state (SA and QLD, as far as I know).
You don’t need them, there’s generally a BWS or Liquorland outside the stores.
True, but that's really a consequence of the trading laws - they're typically collocated because the supermarket in question is run by the same corporation that runs the bottle shop (Dan's and BWS for Woolies, Liquorland for Coles, Local Cellars for Foodland). If those laws weren't in place the bottle shops would likely be absorbed into the supermarkets.
I go shopping in an Aldi in NSW all the time that has booze right next to the checkout. You can only buy it through that checkout, but that's really the only rule.
As I said, it depends on the state. In SA you can't buy alcohol in a supermarket. I'm not sure whether Colesworths would like the trading rules liberalised so that they could sell alcohol in their supermarkets, or kept as they are because it means they own the main alcohol retailers and Aldi doesn't.
No but you did have an off licence on every corner which was even more convenient and now the supermarkets do it too so not a drive through but still pretty good in my book 😁👍
Got to love an corner offy
My friend in Hobart said she only knows of one in the whole metro city
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For the alcohol? Yeah [a pic](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSvf_gfH8sE055_jztE71-B4T1swLGHpN3iO-J6gwjR7weKzbkJzNVDSfA&s=10)
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Yeah I'd rather a bakery! So many bakeries are so bad here. Mostly people who immigrated from Asian countries runs them where I am and they don't understand a meat pie lol
You want a bakery run by Vietnamese family, with a serene elder matriarch. They have French pastry and bread tradition as well as all the good vietnamese street food stuff.
Fibro Shack and the red brick house commission homes known today as ‘Housos’ or the best homes are the Coober Pedy's underground homes
Random giant things made out of fibreglass. At least I hope so, if the rest of the world has a Giant Potato I am very sorry.
I love Australia's obsession with Big things. They always seem to be in the middle of nowhere too. Breaks up the monotony of a long drive.
I remember stopping at the big pineapple as a kid and being underwhelmed. I also remember a group of very confused Japanese tourists who were convinced there must be more to it, and clearly, they were missing something here.
Not a potato, but I know Canada has a giant pierog (dumpling), which is often filled with potato if Ukrainian https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g4266459-d4262746-Reviews-World_s_Largest_Perogy-Glendon_Alberta.html. As well as a giant Ukrainian easter egg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegreville_egg
Does any other country have RSL's? It seems like one of those things every country should have, but I've never heard of them having any.
Many countries have variations of 'servicemens clubs' though. I'm in Singapore atm and their RSL equivalents are more like private clubs - gym, pool, a few commercial restaurants or bars, gaming areas (arcade or mahjong, not pokies) as well as a kids rec space. Technically you have to be a member to join, but since it's open to everyone who does National Service that includes 99% of the male population.
New Zealand has the RSA
I saw one in Belize.
They have British Legions Clubs in the UK but they are not as widespread as RSL clubs.
There was VFW in the US but it wasn't as big a Thing as the RSL is, at least in the Northeast.
RSAs in NZ same thing but not at the hyper club scale of Australia.
The hyper clubs are really only an east coast thing though.., because of pokies from what I understand…, they also have discounted meals too right? Been about 30 years since I been to an RSL in NSW.
It's because of how poor the old liquor laws in NSW were. There was a specific number of liquor licenses, so you had to wait for another business to fold or buy an existing one. So a lot of areas the RSL was the only place which served liquor. Social clubs got a boost and became the norm
Heh. I’ve never thought about this.
Silo murals? Is that a thing overseas?
Time to hit the midwest and *make* it a thing. Of course, a lot of them would wind up as memorials to local fallen heroes. Which might not be a bad thing.
Surf lifesaving clubs?
Not a building but the rabbit proof and Dingo proof fences. Two of the longest fences in the world. Also the Great Ocean Road the longest war memorial in the world.
I went there yesterday for the first time not knowing this fact until I was there, beautiful part of the world, beautiful memorial.
Shearing sheds. Old ones that have had lots of use. All the rails have lanolin from the sheep’s wool worn into them.
This was my thought too. Very culturally iconic and closest to the example given.
Oops, didn't scroll far enough, but this was my contribution also
Big things (Bananas, Sheep, Lobsters, etc).
For me it’s the Heritage listed men’s public toilet in Toowoomba. It’s the oldest in Qld ya know.
That's hilarious, [you weren't kidding](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_Toilet,_Russell_Street,_Toowoomba#:~:text=Men's%20Toilet%20is%20a%20heritage,Register%20on%206%20June%201994.)
Oh, the things that toilet must have seen 🫡🙏🏻
It’s situated between two pubs
And when they upgraded the intersection of Russell and Victoria sts they pulled it apart brick by brick and reassembled it lol
Just like the temples of Abu Simbel
*exactly* like that
Swimming pools carved directly into the rock shelf https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/north-coast/newcastle-area/newcastle/attractions/bogey-hole or constructed on the rock shelf https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/north-coast/newcastle-area/newcastle/attractions/newcastle-ocean-baths
Yep, there’s a few of these in the UK, but not the quantity we have here, and you often have to pay to get in.
The dunny. Mostly obsolete now, but some historic examples have been preserved. Variant: Long Drop. known for: Redback on the seat of
We still had an outdoor dunny when I was a kid in Sydney in the 70s. I was a fair way down the back, too. I hated it at night and is probably why I had a bed wetting issue, lol. The day we got a toilet in the house was one of the best days in my short life until then, I was about 5.
Yep, my life too. I would have been about the same age when we got an inside toilet. we got the phone on when i was 9 (around 1976) and only because my dad got a manager position in his company and just in case work had to call him. But my parents thought it was silly, who needs a phone. I also wasn’t allowed to answer it.
Pretty sure most other countries have out houses too
Yeah had one till the SO decided it had to go. Went out one night and ran into an awesome possum!
Kangaroo saddleries. Less common these days but culturally significant.
I drove to the middle of the outback last week and there was a big fokkin rock out there that I haven't seen in other countries.
Australia has wildly different climates and histories from region to region. Even a building that might be considered a “cultural building” is regional at best. But I’d go with: - stone farmhouses made with corrugated iron roofs. Something like the Midnight Oil house. - the flat pack churches and pubs of northern Queensland. They have very thin wooden walls that are made in panels and tilted up. - trauma houses. As Darwin rebuilt after Cyclone Tracey, a common home design was thick brick walls and tiny tiny windows and a flat cement roof. They were actual cyclone-proof bunkers and utterly unsuitable for the tropics. - Queenslanders - Dunnies or outhouses. Functional but unloved, they’ve been done away with by modern plumbing. - more recently: public water-play parks. Sprays, splash pads, big buckets, shallow pools, free entry.
😆 For a second there, I read 'Qldrs' as meaning people & not buildings! For a moment, I thought, "Yeah, they're pretty weird." 🤣
As someone native to that neck of the woods...I totally agree 😂👌😁
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Did they accept returns?
Leyland Brothers World
Australia no longer has that. RIP Big Rock.
The only “big” attraction that was smaller than the real thing
It's a school camp ground now. Not sure what it's like these days, but when we went there for school (easily 15 years ago) it was pretty bad.
There's a lot of buildings and walls and stairs in Sydney made from Convict Stone. Especially around The Rocks. Look for sandstone blocks. They often have a rough finish that still has random chisel marks, softened by time. Sydney also has some Victorian buildings still standing. The Strand Arcade (1891) and the Queen Victoria Building (1898) are prime examples. There's also a whole bunch or Art Deco buildings, pubs, cinemas around cities and country towns.
Harold Holt swimming pool - brutalist architecture for a pool - brutal aussie humour :D
The TAB
Not necessarily called the TAB, but when you go to the UK and Ireland they’re fucking everywhere.
Sadly dying out with online gambling. I'd also humbly suggest the predatory pokies pub with really fucking shit counter meals from a menu as long as your arm. Don't know if it is uniquely Australian but it feels like it
You don’t get pokies on the Australian scale anywhere except Las Vegas, Atlantic City or the Indian casinos
Because Australia is a very rich country. We earn a lot compared to most of the world and we also pay a premium for basic needs. Regardless of the cost of living crisis at the moment, which mostly affects lower income people.. a lot of Australians have disposable income. And a significant portion of that is fed into pokies.
Australia also has the world’s biggest gambling problem too and a lack of available properties to buy and rent. Other countries limit access to pokies because they’ve seen the damage that they do in Australia and the US.
It was time for the government to step in 20 years ago. There's to much to made in tax revenue though I suppose
Slab huts are pretty Australian - they were the early settler houses. They're somewhat like your North American log cabins, but not logs, slabs cut from logs. Sydney Sandstone is unique and stunning.
Milk bars
Surf Shops every 100 metres in the coast.
I live inland in a cold climate, we have a surf shop! I mean WTF, the ocean is a few hundred kms away
I've seen very old cottages in remoter areas of SA made from found materials, like flattened out metal food tins hammered to the framing. Old wool and fodder bags fixed onto walls or used to shield windows. Furniture made from fruit/produce crates. Rugs crocheted from rags torn into strips. My great-grandparents lived in wattle-and-daub houses with beaten earth floors, because that's what was freely available. I wonder what that variations are, state to state, and across countries.
Not sure if any other countries have bush fire bunkers?
California has them
Coffs Harbour still has a couple of WWII era bunkers around the beach.
Miners cottages? Not sure where they exist outside australia
I believed they were mostly a UK style thing brought over by Cornish/English miners. https://www.exploringgb.co.uk/blog/abandonedminerscottageswales#:~:text=These%20are%20abandoned%20miners'%20cottages,and%20thus%2C%20the%20world). I’d say Coober Pedy style dugouts are actually fairly unique, though there are plenty of crude shanty dugouts in various developing parts of the world still near mineral fields. Those are more out of necessity. You could argue there’s overlap in some of the homes cut into side of hills that exist in Matera Italy and some of the Spanish/Andorran villages though those were about space to build and not about escaping the days heat though they probably have that bonus feature.
Pokies, though I think they might exist in the UK to a lesser extent.
Well the worlds biggest pokie manufacturer is based in Sydney. Back in the early 2000’s ~1/5 of the worlds pokies were in NSW
It's now 1/3 of the world pokies in NSW (excluding casinos)
I remember when SA was the last to legalise pokies, there was a lot of 'pokie palaces' in the border towns of NSW for the south Australians.
We have them in pubs in the UK. We call them fruit machines.
A small pub in Australia will have around 50 machines, it's ridiculous
The tobacco sheds around Bundaberg are pretty unique.
The Big Banana
Shearing sheds, I reckon. Big old ones made of rough cut timbers and acres of rusty corrugated iron. Also wonder about the grain silos in the wheat belt.
Home designs are different if you go to the floorplan subreddit the Aussie houses get ripped apart. Double story homes have the laundry downstairs so it’s easy access to the clothesline, other countries have them upstairs with the majority of the bedrooms. The master bedrooms are often at the front of the house whilst the main living space is backing onto the backyard. This just makes sense to me, if someone break in or knocks on the door the parents should be the closest. And of course having the toilet separate to the bathroom is apparently pointless as well.
My house, it is situated right under the southern cross, and has a lake of vb in the back next to the Vegemite bog.
The town I live in is a heritage city, every street has a heritage building. It's actually a very unusual sight in the 21st century.
They demolished , the ( Hilton ) in White Cliffs one day , didn't even check for opals ? That's what happens when the government ( national parks ) does stuff
Chicory Kilns on Philip Island. I don't think any of them are in use, but they're a distinctive type of building.
Federation houses. Those which still exist.
Maybe an SA thing but those backyard incinerators
We had them in Brissie when I was a kid
And Sydney
Although most are decommissioned and reused now, Melbourne (and I assume probably Sydney) has a history of Coffee Palaces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_palace?wprov=sfla1
The Opera House
Businesses that clearly used to be pizza huts.
Beach boxes?
Corner shop
In NZ it's called a Dairy. As in "left my scooter outside the dairy. Nek minnit"
Hairy Maclairy from Donaldson’s Dairy
And Hercules Morse as big as a horse
We also call them milk bars in Australia.
I thought they called them deer rays. Down the deer ray bro.
I always wondered what he was referring to, thank you
Very common in the UK, I’d say far more common actually
Bodega in the US, Conbini in Japan.
Aboriginal caves. Well until they all get blown up so we can dig up more rocks.
In the vein of sugar shacks, Regional Vic (esp. Phillip Island) has a smattering of historical Chicory Kilns.
Federation style buildings.
How about “lean to’s”. Small pieces of corrugated iron on an angle with a bit of wood holding up one end. Used for sheep as shelter
I live in a converted wool store warehouse You can still smell the lanolin and the old wool bale lifts are still in the foyer from the wool industry hey day
Dandenong station
[Sidney Williams huts](https://www.google.com/search?q=sydney+williams+hut&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-au&client=safari)! Though I’ve only seen them in the NT, leftovers from WW2 I think
Tin roofs
Had a free sausage sizzle ANZAC day after the march to raise funds for our community bowls club and a mob of Americans turned up amazedly and then they wanted to know the meaning, of ANZAC, we all answered correctly with very much pride and enthusiasm to share our history, culture & traditions.
Historical? Hyde Park Barracks Museum is the most unique landmark I've visited, it's an excellent interactive experience. There's a few buildings like that we only keep around cause they were built by convict labour. We have Old Towns like Petrie and Caboolture old town, where not much has changed in a hundred years except that the post office is now a gift shop, and they'll run farmers markets and random stuff like pottery classes, steam engine exhibits, classic car shows etc And there's random log cabins in the wood that were built in colonial times We also have these things called Homesteads, they get marked on Google maps like they're towns but really it's just a couple of buildings owned by one family, usually with a central house, and it's a farm basically, but they'll have hundreds of thousands of acres, a dozen employees, in modern times they might use a helicopter to herd cattle. And they're often million dollar family businesses, but they're the only civilisation for miles around I'd say our lifeguard towers are pretty iconic
Imagine having cultural buildings instead of a cultural rock.