# Are white Australians and New Zealanders indistinguishable from white UK residents? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 15, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269 "2013-10-15T02:06:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/21 "2013-10-15T20:09:26Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > I see you’ve played knifey-spoony before. Which is a lot more fun than knifey-penisy. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/22 "2013-10-15T20:15:50Z")
Don’t know if this bears out in fact or is just a matter of seeing what you expect to see, but in my mind Australians are not only tanner, but also noticeably haler, heartier, more rugged people. The country has a reputation as an open, easy-going, rough-and-tumble place, and you expect the people to match. Britons, in comparison, are a bit paler, slimmer, more “indoorsy.” FWIW, Google Image Search bears this out. Compare (\*\*Warning: very mildly NSFW, if bikinis and Speedo group shots among the results are a no-go): [Australian Women](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=australian+women) vs [English Women](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=English+Women) [Australian Men](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=Australian+men) vs [English Men](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=English+men) Australians, women and men alike, come across as healthier, sportier people. ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/23 "2013-10-15T20:19:00Z")
My Aunt was in England in the early 50s and she became lifelong friends with Dame Anna Neagle (actress) who’s first words to her were “you must be Australian!” as she hung around the stage door seeking just such a brush with fame. Anna’s reasoning was that she just looked too healthy to be anything else in post war England. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/24 "2013-10-15T21:04:48Z")
> [@Thylacine](#): > > My Aunt was in England in the early 50s and she became lifelong friends with Dame Anna Neagle (actress) who’s first words to her were “you must be Australian!” as she hung around the stage door seeking just such a brush with fame. Anna’s reasoning was that she just looked too healthy to be anything else in post war England. 😃 Going off-topic here maybe, and getting onto a personal pet peeve; but there’s a novel by Nevil Shute – “The Far Country” – on that general theme, which a friend enthusiastically recommended to me; and which I made two separate genuine attempts to read, but which both times had me, halfway through at most, dropping the attempt – or else I’d have torn the bloody book in two and violently thrown the separated parts across the room. The book just struck me as utter, total “tritesville”. Overall, I’m not a big fan of Nevil – tend to regard him as somewhat like “the little girl with the little curl”, only for me, he’s “horrid” a lot more of the time than he’s “very good”. I’m sceptical in general, of the stuff about of how utterly miserable life in Britain supposedly was, in the years following on from World War 2: OK, things were tough in many ways – but from most of what I’ve read, they weren’t truly _that_ shitty… Like your posting name, by the way. Thylacines were IMO wondrous animals – if only they were still with us today… ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/25 "2013-10-15T21:43:36Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > I’m sceptical in general, of the stuff about of how utterly miserable life in Britain supposedly was, in the years following on from World War 2: OK, things were tough in many ways – but from most of what I’ve read, they weren’t truly _that_ shitty… Food rationing didn’t completely end until 1954. My mum turned 21 that year, and it was a really big deal. I mean, no-one was starving, but it was a bit monotonous for lots of ordinary folk. I’m not sure Shute had it quite that bad, given he flew his own plane to Australia in 1948. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/26 "2013-10-15T21:54:23Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > When the OP specified “white” New Zealanders, I understood that to exclude people with Polynesian descent. Well, I consider myself “white” and certainly to look at me you’d think so, but my Dad was 3/4 Maori, making me 3/8, and situations like that occur a lot in New Zealand, so it’s not so clear cut. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/27 "2013-10-15T22:01:19Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > FWIW, Google Image Search bears this out. Compare (\*\*Warning: very mildly NSFW, if bikinis and Speedo group shots among the results are a no-go): > > [Australian Women](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=australian+women) vs [English Women](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=English+Women) > > [Australian Men](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=Australian+men) vs [English Men](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=English+men) Looks like selection bias to me. I mean, the top entries on the Australian searches are Olympics teams. The English searches include celebrities, politicians, and a healthy dose of historical figures in artwork. Plus, many of those “English Men” are women. ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/28 "2013-10-16T00:00:31Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > Going off-topic here maybe, and getting onto a personal pet peeve; but there’s a novel by Nevil Shute – “The Far Country” Yes, they made us read that in school, it didn’t really reflect the Australia of the times as reported to me well either and I was miserable having to read it deeply enough to write about it in essays. > [@](#): > > Like your posting name, by the way. Thylacines were IMO wondrous animals – if only they were still with us today… Sightings of me are pretty rare but I like to think I am also pretty wondrous - and not quite extinct yet. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/29 "2013-10-16T00:21:40Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Is that missing a “don’t” or do you think southern europeans are polka-dotted? Southern Euros have darker skin as a rule than anlgos. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/30 "2013-10-16T00:27:01Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Don’t know if this bears out in fact or is just a matter of seeing what you expect to see, but in my mind Australians are not only tanner, but also noticeably haler, heartier, more rugged people. The country has a reputation as an open, easy-going, rough-and-tumble place, and you expect the people to match. Britons, in comparison, are a bit paler, slimmer, more “indoorsy.” > > FWIW, Google Image Search bears this out. Compare (\*\*Warning: very mildly NSFW, if bikinis and Speedo group shots among the results are a no-go): > > [Australian Women](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=australian+women) vs [English Women](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=English+Women) > > [Australian Men](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=Australian+men) vs [English Men](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=643&q=English+men) > > Australians, women and men alike, come across as healthier, sportier people. Unfortunately that’s more of an ‘ideal’. Australia has an image of itself as a country full of sporty outdoor types, but the sad fact is we are as heavily urbanised as any other developed country, and I believe we (Australia) are something like the second most overweight country in the world. I concur to some extent with **madrabbitwoman** , I grew up in small country towns, and I definitely have a personal space issue, I seriously dislike people standing closer than an armslength away. This is common among country/rural folk, but thing is, that is getting rarer, something like 80%\* of our total population now live in large cities. - totally unresearched statistic that I recall being vaguely correct. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/31 "2013-10-16T00:29:03Z")
> [@Thylacine](#): > > Sightings of me are pretty rare but I like to think I am also pretty wondrous - and not quite extinct yet. 😉 A mate of mine just recently spent a couple of weeks down in Tassie looking for evidence of you. I wonder if I should tell him I found you on an internet message board 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/32 "2013-10-16T04:46:17Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Well, I consider myself “white” and certainly to look at me you’d think so, but my Dad was 3/4 Maori, making me 3/8, and situations like that occur a lot in New Zealand, so it’s not so clear cut. Yep. For starters the Maori aren’t all that dark anyway, and then Maori and Europeans have been coupling for a long time. I’m 3/32nds or something and look very white. My Dad is a red head with a Maori nose and my Nana looked quite Maori. Are any of us Maori? It all depends on how you identify yourself. I’m mostly Irish and have a Norwegian name but Maori programs designed to improve the lot of young Maori people were available to me as a teenager due to my Maori heritage. Have a look at the Maori rugby team and you’ll see some pretty pale Maoris. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/33 "2013-10-16T05:43:24Z")
I’ve never been to England so can’t comment there. regarding Kiwis and Aussies, generally the only way to tell one from the other is when they open their mouth. No real physical differences apart from obvious racial ones and even then some of the Maoris in Aus are second gen so they actually qualify as Aussies. Not a bad place old East Bondi if it wasn’t for all the bloddy Kiwis there.😃 ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/34 "2013-10-16T07:30:01Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Looks like selection bias to me. I mean, the top entries on the Australian searches are Olympics teams. The English searches include celebrities, politicians, and a healthy dose of historical figures in artwork. > > Plus, many of those “English Men” are women. Yeah, come on, I know loads of Aussies and Kiwis in the UK, and none of them look like they’d be that great in speedos. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/35 "2013-10-16T07:52:19Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Well, I consider myself “white” and certainly to look at me you’d think so, but my Dad was 3/4 Maori, making me 3/8, and situations like that occur a lot in New Zealand, so it’s not so clear cut. And just to confuse the issue more, not everyone with Maori ancestry is proud of it or acknowledges it. It’s a complicated issue. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/36 "2013-10-16T08:23:40Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Plus, many of those “English Men” are women. And at least one of them is Australian born in NZ. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/37 "2013-10-16T09:06:51Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > And just to confuse the issue more, not everyone with Maori ancestry is proud of it or acknowledges it. It’s a complicated issue. Indeed. I am certainly proud of it, but I tend to keep it at arm’s length. While my brother has embraced it. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/38 "2013-10-16T09:38:08Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Indeed. I am certainly proud of it, but I tend to keep it at arm’s length. While my brother has embraced it. Yeah. I acknowledge it but don’t identify with it while my father embraces it to the point of studying the language and culture. The difference is partly down to the fact that Dad wasn’t really part of my life while I was growing up. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/39 "2013-10-16T10:07:16Z")
On a kind of related note, I was in the US recently and was struck by how relatively unattractive the average white American woman was compared to white European women (from various countries). Even after I mentally discounted the impact of weight, dress style and mannerisms (none of which helped either), it still seemed that _physically_ (especially in terms of facial features) they were less attractive than their European counterparts. For white folks at least, it seems like hybrid vigor worked in the opposite direction. (my apologies if I offended white American women. I am not saying there aren’t any attractive Americans, just fewer than I see in Europe. And yes, feel free to accuse me of small sample size, selection bias, anti-Americanism, etc 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269/40 "2013-10-16T10:56:22Z")
…just another 1/4 Maori putting his hand up in the thread, for no other reason except to say hi! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-white-australians-and-new-zealanders-indistinguishable-from-white-uk-residents/671269.md?page=3)