pb: You’re welcome of course. I’m waiting for the email to satisfy my curiosity… 
“I’m willing to concede the point though”
Aww shux dpr, I feel all guilty now. Usually when I have a disagreement with someone they will go right off at me. I think you are the first to actually concede. Perhaps I am wrong about it all, maybe it’s just my perception.
But yes you do raise a valid point: “when does it become distinctly geographical?”
dpr, I’m surprised about the accents too, only because I’ve met two people from Melbourne and they were the only two Australians I’ve ever not been able to identify as Australian right away. Any idea why that might be? Just coincidence?
Now THAT I find difficult to believe.
My question, exactly how big is soccer down there? I understand it’s a lot less popular than, say, Aussie rules (a great game, incidentally) but is it getting very popular or is it still kind of a niche market. For example would the average Australian known who Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka etc are?
And can you tell me WTF is Mark Viduka’s problem anyway?
cheers mate
Yes I know them
and Mark Bosnich
and Ned Zelic
and Stan Lazaridis
As for Viduka… I’m not sure what his problem is. The main thing is, he’ll be up forward for us when we’re trying to qualify for World Cup 2002.
Soccer is starting to get bigger here, now that we actually have some decent players, but it doesn’t get ANYWHERE NEAR the exposure that Aussie Rules gets. But the interest is certainly growing. The Soccer final, of our national league, had 40,000 in attendance. Thats not bad for a local soccer game.
and Craig Moore
etc etc
Soccer in Australia’s a bit funny. It’s truly a national sport but doesn’t dominate anywhere. While each state has its favourite code of football, soccer is just solid in all of them.
Qld and NSW prefer the two rugby codes, while Vic, Tas, SA and WA tend to be Aussie Rules states. NT is a mixture. But the strong ethnic nature of Melb and Sydney means soccer will always be reasonably well-supported. And the sheer number of quality imports, particularly to the English game, mean the national team is just getting stronger.
As for Viduka, he’s a funny lad. And Harry? He’s trying to keep everyone happy but not doing a very good job.
Check your email. 
Still waiting for the answer to my last query…
Ooops almost missed PB’s hidden question about Waltzing Matilda. Sorry hon:
Definitions:
Waltzing Matilda is a traditional Australian song. It’s seen as our unofficial anthem and known by nearly every Australian. Many want it to become our official national anthem.
Waltzing is derived from the German term auf der walz which referred to journeymen: people travelling while learning a trade. Young apprentices in those days travelled the country working under a master craftsman earning their living as they went - sleeping where they could.
Matilda has Teutonic origins and means Mighty Battle Maiden. It is believed to have been given to female camp followers who accompanied soldiers during the Thirty Year wars in Europe. This came to mean “to be kept warm at night” and later to mean the great army coats or blankets that soldiers wrapped themselves with. These were rolled into a swag tossed over their shoulder while marching.
So the phrase Waltzing Matilda came to mean: to travel from place to place in search of work with all one’s belongings on one’s back wrapped in a blanket or cloth. This is what Swagmen did in outback Australia.
The song:
The song came into being when Andrew “Banjo” Patterson ( a renowned Australian poet) was visiting some friends on an outback property and overhead a Miss Christina McPherson playing a Scottish tune on a harp. Banjo found the tune (called ‘Craigeelee’) whimsical and dreamy and thought it would be good to set a poem to.
During the same trip he encountered a skinned sheep and was told of a story dating back to a shearer’s strike in the recent past during which a shed containing over a hundred sheep was burnt to the ground. The property’s owner and three policemen gave chase to one dissident in particular – a man named Hoffmiester – who killed himself rather than be captured.
It seems Banjo took elements of the story and wrote the poem we now know. Christina wrote the score and it was later publicly performed for the Qld Premier. It’s stunning debut saw it become firmly entrenched in the Aussie psyche and by World War I it was distinctly Australian.
Having said that, you can still find Scots who are upset with us having stolen a traditional Scottish tune but what can we say? Australia is by its very nature a combination of many different cultures, the melding of which gives us our distinct nature. It’s quite apt actually.
It ** is ** about a guy stealing a sheep after all…
http://www.aaa.com.au/Waltzing.shtml
features the lyrics as well as a midi file of Waltzing Matilda as well as Advance Australia Fair – our national anthem (which hopefully you’ll be hearing a lot of in September). Ignore the ugly background. And a ‘jumbuck’ is a sheep btw.
http://www.south-pacific.com/travel-zine/dict1.html
has a look at South Pacific slang and provides definitions for the less fortunate (ie non-Australians)
Now has anyone got a question that requires a ** brief ** answer?
WOW! Thanks, dear. I am impressed. I didn’t realize I was asking such long questions, honest.
I’ll think of more tomorrow, no doubt. 
oops. Just re-read the question and realised I could have given a much more concise answer.
Dedication to the truth… fighting ignorance… trying for context… just raving on and on because he’s bored today…
At least one of these reasons is correct.
Aussie Rules commands more than a niche market as you describe it, but doesn’t dominate nationally. It certainly dominates the media but that’s due more to the fact that it is so heavily folowed in Melbourne: the largets population base and - more importantly - the media centre (Sydney people would argue with me). The vast majority of intense support is centered around the one city.
It does well outside of Vic. (The Brisbane Lions recently passed 20,000 members in its supporters club - afigure they would never have dreamed of five years ago) and is well supported and followed by most Aussies (we love our sport and follow nearly any sport known to man).
It has no international outlet though. We play occasional Test Matches against Irelenad in a hybrid Aussie Rules/Gaelic Football game but that hardly satisfies either country.
And lets never forget why it is the football game most tolerated/enjoyed by females, shall we, hmmmm?
(For the benefit of non-Aussies, it’s because the players are taller than the average footy player, and the uniform shorts are, well lets just say they put the short in shorts.) Not that I watch it or anything. I’ve just heard.
DPR…
why would you want6 to “Tie me kangaroo down”, Sport?
and is Australia really like the mad max films?
Hey dpr, just thought I would ask how things are going in old town Brisbane?
Only been gone a year and a half, but I hear that it has changed a bit, especially queen st. What is your verdict on the architectural vs experiencial value of the new mall?
Oh, the other thing I wanted to know is are there actually any australians left in australia, they seem to all be here in London!!
Haha - I’m sure we’ve got plenty of us Aussies left in Australia (at lest here in Melb).
Hmmmm…but just curious, dpr - would you agree that we have a very interesting ratio of Aussies to non-Aussies? Oh actually, just ignore me.
Realidad: Verdict on the new-look mall? Two thumbs down. Ugly. I’d say it will date quickly but this sort of ugliness was never in and never will be. Think metallic. Think angular. Think way above the ground so it doesn’t stop any rain or wind: just sits there looking ugly. Good one BCC…
And we still seem to have plenty of aussies to go around here.
JohnL: Everyone knows you want your kangaroos (and EVERYONE has a pet kangaroo) calm and not jumping around the place. Unfortunately with all these colourings in the food nowadays, the roos are suffering from hyperactivity and ADD. So sometimes they need to be restrained.
As for Oz being like Mad Max, anyone who’s driven in Melbourne or Bris’ SE northside during rush hour knows it’s EXACTLY like road warrior.
Doesn’t it hurt to walk upside down all day? I would think that the blood rushes to your head.
Is everyone over there really called Bruce?
How come I don’t see you using expressions like “fair dinkum” and “the other side of the black stump” in your posts?
Our girls (shielas) are so gorgeous the blood spends most of the time… um… away from our heads.
Following the 70s people stopped naming their sons Bruce, so people wouldn’t associate them with that kung-fu prancer guy.
And as for the language, it’s because atm I’m speaking English and American so you can understand me. Catch me in chat sometime and I’ll speak Australian. Just don’t come the raw prawn though or I’ll label you a drongo.
My hairdresser married a guy from Brisbane (Bris-bin, not Bris-bane, she says) and they took a belated honeymoon trip to Brisbane and a side trip (a rather long one, I think) to Rockhampton.
She said Aussies eat more vegetables than Americans. (Heck, probably everyone eats more veggies than we do.) She liked the pumpkin mixed with mashed potatoes, and the sliced beets on hamburgers. It sounds strange, but I’m gonna try it.
She said it wasn’t unusual to have five or six vegetables during a meal. Is this true, or is her new hubby just too cheap to spring for a steak?
Rockhampton? For a honeymoon? It’s such a soulless place… But it is near Yeppoon (and Great Keppel) I guess.
We do eat veggies with most meals but usually WITH steak rather than instead of. A standard counter meal would be a big steak with at least three or four veggies on the side. And yes we eat beetroot on burgers.
Speaking of that, ‘root’ has a completely different meaning down here. Australians reading this are already sniggering…
Actually I have a serious question for you.
As a kid I read some books that a friend of ours had given us, about the humorous experiences of an Italian immigran in Australia after World War II.
Here are the titles as I remember them:
Nino Culotta - They’re a weird mob
John O’Grady - Aussie English
where Nino Culotta was a nom de plume for John O’Grady, I think.
Are those books known in Australia? I’ve never been able to find them in the USA.