As a Welshman speaking English with an impeccable accent may I say how irritating I find that “raised tone”. It’s called, I believe, the Australian Questioning Intonation. It seems to catching on here in the UK too. Why oh why does nearly every sentence have to sound like a question. 
V
You wanna go to the [sup]Pit[/sup]?
Seriously, I find it irritating too, but only when overly-emphasised in that screeching schoolgirl way you see on Neighbours. Most Aussies don’t do it like that. In fact, it might even be dying out due to the heavy Mediterranean/Asian influence here. If it’s catching on there, well… heh.
My impression of a Kiwi: “feesh and cheps”.
But I do have to say… everyone? I’ve ever met? From Oz? Has that intonation? But not only that? The Kiwis I’ve met hev it too? I guess you antiodeans have like got rid of it? Or maybe you don’t realise you’re doing it?
Ah, so Australia was settled by Valley Girls, then.
:: d&r ::
Sani has it aright, the voice raising at the end of a sentence is an old and honored Californian tradition? So everything sounds like a question? Hee hee?
In 1998, I spent a couple weeks in Britain, and my first night in London, my aunt and I ran into some drunk dudes on the Underground. I was dead certain they were Australian. My aunt (who’s an American, but lived in London for many years), told me nope, definitely a London accent. After a couple weeks of being exposed to a dizzying variety of British accents (including more than one person I could not understand at all), I don’t think I would make that mistake again. In fact, a few years ago in Mexico, my family was waiting in line for a ferry behind a British family. My dad whispered to me, “I bet they’re Australian.” I whispered back, “No, they’re British.” We had a whispered argument until my dad finally struck up a conversation and determined that they were, in fact, British. Naturally. When am I wrong?
I once stayed in a hostel with a New Zealander girl and an Australian guy. I made the terrible, terrible error of commenting on how I couldn’t tell their accents apart. Never again shall I do this! But seriously, I’m pretty sure I can tell them apart now, thanks to years of careful listening to BBC Sport commentary on cricket. I realize this won’t make sense, but the Australian accent sounds harder to me, the New Zealand accent softer.
P.S. Americans and Canadians often have difficulty telling each others’ accents apart too. Europeans shouldn’t feel any kind of embarrassment over that, in my mind the stereotypical “Canadian” accent is just one of a myriad of North American accents, and I expect a Briton or Australian is about as likely to recognize it as they are a specifically Michigan or California accent (both of which definitely exist!).
Strangely it seems that quite a few Aussies can’t tell the difference between a Canadian and Irish accent. I’ve had significant (30+) number of people guess Irish or Scottish about my accent.
I’m not cringing. This is pretty accurate as far as I’m concerned.
I’d be pretty offended (for about a minute or so) if someone said I souded like a kiwi. No offence to the NZlners, but they do sound pretty silly.
We don’t sound sully, not even a wee but…take that back!
We dispensed of vowels because we noticed it took an absolute age for an Aussie to finish a sentence “Heeeeeeeeeey maaaaaaaaaate hows eeeeeeeeeeeeeet goiiiiiiiiiiiin?” Being the more efficient Antipodean nation we decided to do it better
Oh and Jimm your “feesh and cheeps” impression of a Kiwi was an Aussie…we would be the ones saying “fush and chups”
Balls. See? It’s tough.