# Do Australians not rinse their dishes after washing them? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 1, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-australians-not-rinse-their-dishes-after-washing-them/716476 "2015-04-01T03:38:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-australians-not-rinse-their-dishes-after-washing-them/716476/21 "2015-04-01T10:32:45Z")
> [@jezzaOZ](#): > > Let’s just agree my original statement that there is no such thing as ‘Australian’ stands. No, we won;t agree to that because nobody was ever discussing Australia, we were discussing “the driest state, of the driest country, of the driest continent in the world” [quote] Western Australia has dam storage for urban and agricultural use. It even has a Murray River![./quote] So the problem can be solved by building more dams, contrary to your claim that is an insoluble problem caused by immigration. > [@](#): > > Western Australian urban supply also has ground-water and desalination plants. So the problem can be solved by building more ground-water and desalination plants, contrary to your claim that is an insoluble problem caused by immigration. Everything you have posted is nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![jezzaOZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@jezzaOZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jezzaOZ)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-australians-not-rinse-their-dishes-after-washing-them/716476/22 "2015-04-01T10:48:01Z")
[quote=“Blake, post:21, topic:716476”] No, we won;t agree to that because nobody was ever discussing Australia, we were discussing “the driest state, of the driest country, of the driest continent in the world” > [@](#): > > Western Australia has dam storage for urban and agricultural use. It even has a Murray River![./quote] > > So the problem can be solved by building more dams, contrary to your claim that is an insoluble problem caused by immigration. > > So the problem can be solved by building more ground-water and desalination plants, contrary to your claim that is an insoluble problem caused by immigration. > > Everything you have posted is nonsense. I won’t bother responding by point… You seem set in your ways and unopen to different views, so discussion is futile. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-australians-not-rinse-their-dishes-after-washing-them/716476/23 "2015-04-01T13:42:31Z")
Oh dear. To be clear, I started this by replying to “the driest _ **state** _ in the driest continent” - with a “that would be here.” Which is South Australia. SA has had a pretty evil time with water. Up to half our city water gets pumped from the Murray River - which by the time it gets here is a pretty poor quality of water. When the bad droughts were upon us there was so little flow in the river that orchardists along the river were simply letting entire orchards die. The large lakes that the Murray feeds drained, and the smaller of the lakes essentially dried out. The annual sailing races across the larger lake were cancelled for a couple of years due to lack of water. Water restrictions for urban dwellers were enough that many let their gardens die. A green lawn was a magnet for roaming inspectors. Washing a car was right out. The state government later built a massive desalination plant - at massive cost. Since it was completed we have not had another drought. Australia is a big place, it encompasses nearly every possible climate (although some examples are very localised.) We are affected by el Nino/ la Nina events, in the south. Sea surface temperature in the Indian Ocean is probably the biggest determinant of normal rainfall in SA. But the north of the continent is mostly influenced by equatorial weather patterns, and tropical cyclones can stretch influence right down the entire main continent at times. One can get well over an inch of rain in a day when a cyclone is over the Kimberly and it pumps moisture over the continent. Then it won’t rain again for two months. Which is why we say - it never rains, but it pours. In all this, with all the water restrictions, I have always rinsed my washing up. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-australians-not-rinse-their-dishes-after-washing-them/716476/24 "2015-04-01T13:52:39Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I thought it was the English who were stereotyped as not rinsing their dishes. IME Australians rinse. The Straight Dope on that: [Do the British not rinse dishes after washing them?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3158/do-the-british-not-rinse-dishes-after-washing-them) See also the SDMB thread commenting on the column: [The British and their odd ways](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=721214) ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-australians-not-rinse-their-dishes-after-washing-them/716476/25 "2015-04-01T13:57:04Z")
rinse them? they don’t even wash them. they set them out and let the dingos lick them. ---
**Author:** ![Robrein](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robrein/32/6728_2.png) [@Robrein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robrein)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-australians-not-rinse-their-dishes-after-washing-them/716476/26 "2015-04-01T14:13:58Z")
You can mark me down as a non-rinsing Aussie. I fill the sink, put in a little detergent and wash glasses, cutlery, ceramic ware then pots and pans. All are put into a rack next to the sink and put in the cupboards the next morning while making breakfast. It was just the way our mum (from the UK) taught us. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-australians-not-rinse-their-dishes-after-washing-them/716476/27 "2015-04-03T09:24:08Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > No, it’s driven by economy. Most of Australia’s agriculture is export, returns from agriculture are very high, and the population involved in agriculture is insignificant, less than 5% of the country. > > So even if you halved the population the amount of water used would remain within 10% of the current usage. Hope I haven’t quoted you out of context here. Isn’t the economy directly related to (population x consumption). Australians export our water overseas (embedded in materials) to feed overseas people in exchange for crap made by overseas people. So, our water is being consumed by overseas population driven by our high consumption demand by our rapidly growing population. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-australians-not-rinse-their-dishes-after-washing-them/716476/28 "2015-04-03T09:25:11Z")
I rinse in Sydney. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-australians-not-rinse-their-dishes-after-washing-them/716476.md?page=1)