Not quite. See the AOML site. We have cyclones in this part of the world, not typhoons.
You can’t have been looking very hard… Jim Beam has been available in Australia for years and years and years.
Hell, I’m not in Sydney but I’ve got quite the Bourbon collection in my liquor cabinet. Unfortunately, no-one I know appreciates good Bourbon (my brother gets a pass as a Scotch connosieur), so I rarely get to share it with anyone…
Hell, Jack and coke was the high-school binge drinker’s bevvie of choice in my town. Get bourbon? Hard to avoid! If it was available in Tassie 15 years ago I’d be terribly surprised at a sudden drought of it in wicked old Sydney.
To chime in on the “mexicans” thing, I heard about that again, years and years ago. Early 90s I think. As Victoria was north of us it didn’t really apply.
Our most sacred national day (ANZAC Day) commemorates a spectacular military defeat.
We once had a Police drama (called Homicide) which ran for 520 1 hour (and a few 2 hour) episodes. It ran concurrently with Division 4 (300 episodes) and Matlock Police (228 episodes) - all produced by the same company! “Law & Order” eat your heart out!
Perth, in Western Australia has a unique position in the world - for a city with a population of more than 1,000,000 people itself, it is further away from any other city with more than 1,000,000 people than any other similiar city in the world.
The town of Charleville in Western Queensland emolyed 6 Stieger Vortex rain guns for the purpose of cloud seeding. Only one remains and it is a remarkable tourist attraction.
The largest McDonald’s in Australia is in Kings Cross which was at one pont in time owned by a great Rugby League player, Ron Coote. Coote played for South Sydney and wore #8. My Souths jersey is numbered 8 in his honour.
We don’t have the death penalty in Australia. The last man hanged was in 1967 and was very probably not guilty.
A large koala held up traffic during peak hour at the busy Burpengary off-ramp of the freeway tonight as it crossed the road. Koalas are NOT cute or cuddly when they are frightened or trying to rip the faces off motorist who “are just trying to help”.
Koalas, by the way, are generally not good eating. There’s too much meat on one for one person but not enough for two.
The towns of Nanango and Kingaroy have a fierce rivallry based on their battle for status as Queensland’s Peanut Capital.
Australians invented the toasted sandwich (the jaffle), wine in a cask, the rotary lawn mower, speedos and
Some Prime Minister trivia:
The Prime Minister we lost, Harold Holt, wasn’t very good.
In 1961 our Prime Minister, Robert Menzies. was relected on preferences from the Communist party.
In 1971, our Prime Minister John Gorton, used his casting vote to elect himself out of office! And he was replaced by Julian Mcmahon’s dad.
We once had a Prime Minister nicknamed “Black Jack”. How freakin’ cool is that
Prime Minister George Reid was a rather corpulent gentleman and was well known for his quick wit and slightly ribald humour. Giving a speech once out in the sticks , he was interrupted by a heckler who pointed at Reid’s impressive girth and shouted “Hey George, what will you name the baby when it comes”, Reid, quick as a flash replied “Well, sir - if it’s a boy I shall name it George if it’s a girl I shall name it Victoria and if it is, as I suspect, mainly piss and wind I shall name it after you!”
In Australia, our K-Marts are more upmarket than their American cousins as are our Targets. We have no Walmart
Burbon was virtually unkown here until the mid 80’s. Then it became passe popular overnight. Much the same way VB did around the same time. Something tells me it may have come out of the then gay subculture.
mm
I don’t think i’ve ever been to a bar in Sydney where bourbon wasn’t* available. Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, and a number of others. Bourbon and coke is the drink of choice for heaps of my Australian friends.
Hell, one of Sydney’s better-known bars is the Bourbon and Beefsteak in Kings Cross.
Nitpick
Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey isn’t actually a bourbon. The charcoal filtering process, known as the Lincoln County Process, disqualifies it.
Were you looking in pubs & bars - they’re usually the best place to find them. 
Seriously, I live in Sydney, drink bourbon all the time, and have never once been UNABLE get a shot of bourbon.
I’ve also heard to “Mexican” thing for Victorians, but mostly from people who live closer to the border (e.g. Wagga or Albury).
Are you sure? I was there a few months ago - seemed like a regular sized McDonalds to me. Of course, I was drunk at the time (Why else would I be in a McDonalds in Kings Cross? 
)
Another Prime Minister factoid:
Bob Hawke (prime minister from 1983 - 1991) held the world record for fastest consumption of beer: two and a half pints in eleven seconds.
He also famously annouced on television, after Australia had won the America’s Cup in the wee hours of the morning (for which much of Australia stayed up to watch): “Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum.”
Not strictly true… Big W was started in the '80s as a joint venture between the Australian-based Woolworths and Wal-Mart in the US.
Woolworths later bought out the Wal-Mart share (which was only a 10% stake or so anyway), and now the stores are run by Woolworths as competitors to K-mart and Target stores in Australia, and are totally unlike Wal-Marts as you guys in the US know them.
Interestingly, there was a story one of those current affair programmes (hosted by someone who was clearly sleeping with someone else to get the job) was running on TV tonight about how Coles are planning to open massive Wal-Mart style stores in Australia in the next five years, with the 24/7 opening and huge range of groceries and other consumer items under one roof… it’ll be interesting to see what happens there, anyway.
I, too, am rather skeptical.
I’ve walked past that place sober plenty of times and it’s never looked really big to me. In fact, there’s a multi-level McDonald’s in the city (George St.?) that seems considerably larger, and some suburban locations also look pretty huge.
Ah. I don’t drink the stuff. Nor did I exactly run with the teen binge drinking crowd, what with being a gigantic nerd
And he was pissed at the time (‘pissed’ meaning intoxicated with alcohol (not angry (which is ‘pissed off’ (‘pissed off’ can also mean depart in haste)), in fact he was rather happy at the time)).
Is Souther Comfort bourbon? If so, it was most definitely around in the '70s.
Further nitpick: hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons may be similar or the same thing, but tornados are a completely different beast. For one thing, they occur over dry land.
Further to the further nitpick. Cyclones are properly called tropical cyclones (as it’s only cyclonic weather patterns in the tropics that form the big storms.) Tropical cyclones are not the equivalent of a hurricane or a typhoon until they reach hurricane force (winds of 64kts or more.) At this stage we call them a “severe tropical cyclone”. While still just a tropical cyclone, the rest of the world would call them a tropical storm.
Tropical cyclone (34kt winds or greater) = tropical storm
Severe tropical cyclone (64kt winds or greater) = hurricane/typhoon
And jsc1953 is quite correct. A tornado is a very localised event associated with thunderstorms. Although they can occur over the ocean, they are not related to a tropical storm.
I had two freinds from Australia visit, and yes, they drank Fosters- both here and back home. However, they also drank just about anything one could call “beer”.
We took them to an Australian shop, and the owners were quite taken with them. Although on a tourist permit, and thus prohibited from actually working, the store did have a “meet the Aussie” day, where my two friends were given a large cooler of Fosters and much food, and just hung around and “talked 'stralian” to the customers. They said it was the best job they ever had.
Other snippets of info:
Australia’s most dangerous bird is the cassowary - capable of disembowelling you with one swipe from its nasty taloned foot.
Queenslanders drink a lot more rum than the “Mexicans” - Bundaberg Rum is a very nice golden rum, made from the sugar cane that is a very common crop along the north-eastern coastline.
I have seen beaches around Cairns closed due to crocodile sightings! Salties seem to like the beach occasionally (although they prefer to stick to the estuaries) so if the jellyfish don’t get you, maybe the crocs will!
The Greek population in Melbourne is second only in size/numbers to Athens!
From working in the pub industry, and my family doing likewise, I hope I can clear up the issue of American whiskey consumption in Australia…
Up until the 1970s, young Australians tended to drink beer (or maybe awful sweet white wine for the girls). In the late 1970s, it was Southern Comfort that came from nowhere seemingly, to crack the youth market. Always mixed with Coke, it was believed this sweet drink was an easy entry point into the world of alcoholic beverages for young adults used to soft drinks.
By about 1985, Southern Comfort’s star was setting a little, and Jim Beam and Jack Daniel’s became the big drinks for the under 25s. Always with Coke. Jack seems to have slipped a bit, but Jim Beam is still their drink of choice, although now it’s always in pre-mixed bottles, rather than in a glass over the bar. Nobody much in Australia appreciates good American whiskey, and it is always drowned in gallons of cola.
I don’t understand not being able to find bourbon in Sydney at any time since about 1975.
So what about Australian whisky? Does such a thing even exist?
Well, yes it does, but it’s rare. I have childhood memories of my dad drinking rotgut called “Bond 7”. There was also one called “Corio”, and referred to as “Commonwealth Oil Refineries 10”. They were bad, apparently, but very cheap. In the 80s, the market was flooded with cheap scotch, and Bond 7 and Corio died out. The only Australian whiskies now are Tasmanian niche things at the extreme high end of the market. I’ve never tried it though.
Was Vat 69 an Australian whisky? Also, here in Queensland, Burbon displaced the ubiquitous Rumbo as the young man’s drink of choice - as you said, around 1985.
I am also prepared to conceed that my information on the Kings Cross McDonald may be out of date - and I may be confusing “big” with “profitable” in any case.
I can state with great confidence that no greater Rugby League player than Ron Coote has ever owned a McDonalds in Australia
mm
We’re probably a bit behind the Sydney trends here in Broome, but I, and other JB drinkers always drink from the glass at bars. We only resort to the canned stuff for easy take-out situations (parties etc.) Infact most will just drag a bottle around with them and a bottle of coke.
Scotch. Also known as “Pope’s Phone Number”. 