First time to Australia. I hope the dinner hour is not like Spain or South America. Is it around 6:00 PM? I hope, I hope.

Hi Bajaflash,
You have nothing to worry about - you can eat in Australia as early as you like! The problem is on the other end, if you want something to eat after 9pm you can have a real problem! This happened us several times where we lost track of time and didn't get out to eat early enough, restaurants turned us down at 8:45pm twice. Eating early seems to suit the Aussies, so you should be fine.

Anna

It really will depend on where you're eating. Most restaurants in melbourne serve dinner from 6 (maybe 6.30) - but it is considered early to eat. Restaurants at places like Southbank serve food all day. In Melbourne the most common time to dine is around 7-8.

You will find that Australians are usually "early to bed and early to rise" people. We rarely phone people after 8.30pm nor do we eat late as a rule ( unless you are in the 18 - 25yr bracket) If you are around at 5.30AM you will find many people jogging, swimming or walking at that time. Sooo early dinner is the usual thing but you can rarely get it before 6PM.

As everyone said, in cities dinner is usually served from 6-6:30pm, gets busy around 7-9pm, and continues until around 10pm (the end of dinner for sure). In cities like Sydney and Melbourne, the most popular times for reservations are 7:30/8pm, so if you're willing to eat around 6:30 or 7, you may find you're able to get into restaurants that are usually harder to book!