Here and There

What have I learned about Australia so far?  It’s a place at once recognizably similar but decidedly different.  For example:

In most cities we’ve visited, households use and drink tankwater.  That’s pure rainwater they collect from their roofs which goes into a huge storage tank.  Phil’s tank is larger than most at 50,000 litres.  Some houses have a diversion switch so the first batch of water which contains all the dirt and birdshit runs off, and then the clean water goes into the tank. 

There are no basements, but then they don’t need them for furnaces ‘cause there’s no central heating.  They don’t need it.  In areas where it does get cool in the winter they use space heaters. Lots of places have solar hot water heaters, and you can see both the solar panels and the tanks, which lie flat on the roofs.  Some places have air conditioning if they need it.

Gardens are gorgeous and extensive because of their long growing season.

Where’s Timmy?  He could make a fortune here.  Coffee as we know it is almost nonexistent here.  Almost every house and restaurant serve only instant coffee, so I had no problem resisting it.  Only very occasionally have I had real coffee and they call it cappuccino (it’s not) if you want it with foam and flat white if you want it, well, flat.  Without foam.

There is no tipping here, though we did tip in Sydney when we went to an upscale restaurant.  Minimum wage is quite high compared to Canada.  We were told it’s around $20, which would explain why there’s no tipping

I picked up a few pieces of fruit and nuts to take on the train with us, and all fruit, even though most of it comes from here, is very expensive.  Bananas were $3/ kg;  Gala apples were $6.57/kg; mangoes were $1.50 each and nectarines were just over $9/ kg.  I found the prices shocking!

Lots of seafood is available everywhere, but since I haven’t bought any I can’t comment on the cost, but it’s plentiful and very, very fresh and delicious! 

Infrastructure, like roads, is lacking.  The main highway between Sydney and Brisbane runs right through Coffs Harbour, and it’s a bottleneck.  They’ve talked about improving it for 20 years, and have started work on it now but locals tell us it’s 10 years to completion.  By then it will already be too small to handle the increased traffic flow.

There are many private clubs where you can gamble and eat, and we ate in these clubs several times with our hosts so we had to take out a temporary membership, which is free, but otherwise you can’t enter.  Lots of people like to gamble and horse racing in particular is a big favourite.

Fun rules!  Everyone we met was full of laughter and ready to have a good time, just like our friends and Rotary clubs back home.  There was nothing stuffy here.

Luxury cars are very expensive compared to Canada.  The same Lexus for which we might pay $55,000 costs $95,000 here and the difference is all tax.  And they drive on the wrong side of the road – maybe that’s where the price differential comes in.

Travel is hugely expensive, like cruises.  Looking through the paper I was shocked to see that 12 and 13 day cruises cost over $5,000 per person even though that included air.  So I told our hosts that if they ever want to cruise, they should save money and fly to Canada or the US first and start their cruise from there.

Land and housing is more expensive, but then it’s hard to compare since we’ve been in ocean-front areas where of course land and housing would be most costly.  It probably compares to Vancouver land prices, though it may be higher here.  Sydney housing around the ocean and Bondi Beach is in the mega millions.  We saw a $100 million dollar house.

Overall, we’re a lot more similar than different.  Values and principles are pretty much aligned with ours.  Everyone values the same things, like friends and family.

And best of all, I haven’t personally seen anything yet that could kill me.  But I know they’re lurking out there.