AustraliaZooIsGreat

>In general I know we'd like to think of ourselves as a physically active race, but the sad fact is that we're a nation of couch potatoes.

One thing I noticed in my travels in Australia is that, and feel free to correct me without getting upset if you think i'm wrong, but people who live in the cold end of Australia (melbourne/adelaide) are more likely to attend a football game than those living in Brisbane. Brisbanites are happy to watch the game on tv at home.

The same applies here in dublin. We're pasionate about our sport. You can't even get tickets to international rugby matches here unless you're a member of a club. Everyone wants to go to the game and those who can't will leave their homes and watch the game in a pub.

beemersgallore

Wrong! The further north you go the more likely people are to be out and about. The further south you go ( colder climes) the more likely people are to be inside - same as in Europe - you don't see too many people swimming, walking, running or exercising at 6AM even if the weather is OK.
I always thought that the biggest past-time for the Irish was sitting in a Pub somewhere. They are not much on being out-doors!

AustraliaZooIsGreat

>Wrong! The further north you go the more likely people are to be out and about. The further south you go ( colder climes) the more likely people are to be inside - same as in Europe - you don't see too many people swimming, walking, running or exercising at 6AM even if the weather is OK.
I always thought that the biggest past-time for the Irish was sitting in a Pub somewhere. They are not much on being out-doors!

Ummm Firstly, no i'm not wrong. Just look at the crowds drawn to AFL matches in melbourne and compare that to RL and AFL matches in Brisbane. I'd do it for you but I couldn't be bothered.

2ndly, yes brisbanites go out, they go out to their back yards to their barbeques. I've spent a lot of time in brisbane. I do it to escape 1 month of Irish winter every year.

3rdly, the Irish love travelling. While the pub or cinema are places most of us venture to when we go out (because we can escape the cold) we also travel very regularly.

Any time you see a blue sky in Ireland you'll notice everybody outside. Every friday afternoon in dublin the streets around my office are empty because everybody else left work at 2pm to go away for the weekend.

Most Australians I met in Australia have never ventured more than 200kms from the place of their birth. The same could not be said about the Irish. We make the most of any good weather we can get and travel to find it when we can.

beemersgallore

Statically Australians are the MOST travelled nation on earth. There are 82% with passports compared with something like 8% in the USA. If the Irish go out every time there is good weather then you must only go out twice a year.
I have spent one year in Ireland and let me say that the only place the Irish seemed to go was from home to the Pub and back. Having a father who works in the Dip. Corps I get/got to see quite a bit of the world.
I have no idea who your friends are but they certainly are not the norm in Australia if they have not ventured anywhere - perhaps they were once Irish!. Might I also add that had it not been for Australia, England and USA there may not be an Ireland now as most would have perished in the potatoe famine if they had not been able to find a new country. Please do not try and argue with people when your basis for your arguement is a couple of trips there - for one month or whatever.

Neil_Oz

I might add that 40% of Australians are either foreign-born or have at least one foreign-born parent, and at any given time 5% of the population is living (not just touring) overseas. Yes, AZG, you certainly met a very unrepresentative group of Australians -in fact, I can't imagine how you'd find any group in which a majority had never travelled more than 200 km away. Even in Brisbane.

Having said that - beemersgalore, I'd be interested to know the source for your assertion that 82% of Australians have passports. That figure seems too high to me. Where did you get the number from?

JohnInMiami

>> Most Australians I met in Australia have never ventured more than 200kms from the place of their birth. <<

This may have been true in the 19th century but it absolutely not true today! I've met hundreds of Aussies in several trips to Oz and well over half had traveled outside the country!

beemersgallore

Actually Neil I think it was 79% and these were some of the latest stats from the Bureau from the last census. But it would be right seeing that there is a large i.e. 40% % who are either from o/s or have parents from o/s then take 5% who are living o/s any given year - that alone makes 50% so it would be easy enough to get the remaining % - extrapolate that over a 3 yr period and you have something like 60% without anyone who has just gone somewhere for a holiday.
Frankly I don't know "anyone" who has not been overseas at least once but more like anything up to 10 times.

margo_oz

Richard

I've seen Uluru (Ayers Rock!) I'll show you the pix over a coffee

AustraliaZooIsGreat

>Yes, AZG, you certainly met a very unrepresentative group of Australians -in fact, I can't imagine how you'd find any group in which a majority had never travelled more than 200 km away.

I can accept that. It's not like I was quoting statistics or suggesting I'd taken a sound sample.

>Even in Brisbane
Why are Australians from the south so prejudiced against Queenslanders?

In Australia it seems to be extremely socially unacceptable to hold prejudices against Race/Religion/Culture/Nationality/Gender (excluding the odd pom bash which is all in good humour) and for that I aplaud you. But why do you think it's OK to make statements like that?

Beemers has shown us already that s/he is full of shit. I wouldn't believe anything s/he muttered.

AustraliaZooIsGreat

>This may have been true in the 19th century but it absolutely not true today!

You think it was true in the 19th century that most people I met whilst in Australia haven't travelled further than 200Kms from their place of birth?

I knew you aussies lived longer than the Irish but I didn't think it was that long!

Neil_Oz

AZG, you've hit the nail on the head, mate. We are indeed impeccably politically correct, and jokes involving someone's race, sex, age, shape, physical or mental disability are looked on with deep disapproval - unless you're at any pub, or in my place when I've had a couple of beers and my wife isn't within overhearing distance. But Queenslanders, and Tasmanians, and for that matter all foreigners, are specifically exempt from this rule.

And did you hear about the Kerryman who...

AustraliaZooIsGreat

Oh here we go...

>If the Irish go out every time there is good weather then you must only go out twice a year.

Exageration...

>Having a father who works in the Dip. Corps I get/got to see quite a bit of the world.

Yes, tell me more about your father. Did he beat you as a child?

>perhaps they were once Irish!.
Oh that hurts beemy. You obviously don't know much about Irish history. It must be very sad to be you. I mean to feel so insecure you need to make cheap shots like that. I haven't said anything negative about Australia or Singapore. Though i've visted both many times.

>Might I also add that had it not been for Australia, England and USA there may not be an Ireland now as most would have perished in the potatoe famine if they had not been able to find a new country.

Well that's just lovely. Have you considered that there wouldn't be an Australia if it weren't for England and Ireland because it's us who settled it?

>Please do not try and argue with people when your basis for your arguement is a couple of trips there - for one month or whatever.

I don't believe I did that. I said, most australians i met... I didn't say most Australians...

Perhaps you need to work on your english skills.

AustraliaZooIsGreat

>unless you're at any pub, or in my place when I've had a couple of beers and my wife isn't within overhearing distance

OK so your a biggot got it. But I know for a fact you don't speak for all australians when you talk like that.

AustraliaZooIsGreat

>Might I also add that had it not been for Australia, England and USA there may not be an Ireland now as most would have perished in the potatoe famine if they had not been able to find a new country.

Just on this point Beemy, how would you like it if I started using the battle at Gallipoli in some sort of argument or slanging match in the way you just used a famine that killed millions of people?

I won't stoop to your level. That's just sad.

AustraliaZooIsGreat

Australian passports...

http://www.passports.gov.au/Web/year...rbook_0102.pdf

Now this document doesn't provide an exact % of passports held by aussies. However, it does show the annual totals for passports issued for more than 10 years.
Since aussie passports expire after 10 years, based on this info I can get a fairly accurate figure. Of course, this doesn't take into account ppl who received passports and died or applied because they lost their passports. So the number I come up with is exagerated to beemer's favour.

Roughly, the total passports issued from 1992-2001 (inclusive) = 9, 060, 000.

Population of Australia is approx 20 mill (not sure what it was in 2001 so lets say 18 mill just for good measure)

That means, in 2001, there were fewer than 50.33% of Australians with passports...

A far cry from 82% which just happens to be the exact figure for the % of passport applications made via Australia Post in 2001.

I'd say this figure could be out by anywhere up to -15%. But the figure is definitely not higher than what i've stated.

AustraliaZooIsGreat

Now for US passports. I found it quite difficult to get statistical information. I found web sites detailing 7%, 10% and 20%. But then I found this one...

http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2...ny_america.php

This details a number of sources with claims ranging from 7%-25%.

Beemers it looks like you did a quick search and then just picked the lowest number you could find. not very objective.

Are you sure you study in a scientific field? I find it difficult to believe.

JohnInMiami

For what it's worth...

From a speech given by Alexander Downer, Foreign Affairs Minister in 2002. (http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/sp...st_aus_os.html)

"Australia is a nation of travellers. 3.5 million Australians – almost 20 per cent of the population – travel overseas each year."

From the Parliamentary Secretary of Foreign Affairs (http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/pa...s8_250702.html)

"For most Australians, overseas travel is a wonderful experience, and increasingly accessible. The number of people travelling abroad is estimated to increase from around 3.5 million in 2001-02 to 4.5 million by 2005."

And finally, from the founder of Lonely Planet (http://archive.salon.com/wlust/featu...12feature.html)

"I've spent half a lifetime wondering who goes where, and the results of my surveys may be unscientific but they're certainly conclusive: Australians go everywhere."

AZG, the spirit of this board is to share information with others so that they may learn from your experience and improve on their own. While negative comments are certainly welcome, please try to keep them travel related and not personal.

AustraliaZooIsGreat

>While negative comments are certainly welcome, please try to keep them travel related and not personal.

Scroll up Miami. I was merely responding to a personal attack.

Neil_Oz

As it happens, I think that AZG's estimate of the number of Australians holding passports (50%) is probably about right, and beemersgalore's 79% considerably overstated. However, there appears to be no conclusive figure, none that I could access anyway. How do you count children travelling under a parent's passport, for a start?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics doesn't collect such information, and the question doesn't appear in their population census questionnaire (trust me, this comes from the horse's mouth). The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade contributes some data to the ABS Yearbook, but it's limited to the number of Australians who travelled overseas and passports issued in the previous year.

I'm sure that everyone beemersgalore knows has travelled overseas. Most of my circle of family and friends have too. But then, I'm a middle-class urbanite, and I imagine that beemersgalore is too. I can assure him that there are large numbers of poor, disadvantaged and isolated Australians for whom travelling abroad is as much a fantasy as owning a Beemer.

I'm reminded of John Howard's comment, about his favourite decade, that in the '50s "everyone" had a car and a phone. Oh, yes?

AustraliaZooIsGreat

>Australians for whom travelling abroad is as much a fantasy as owning a Beemer.

In Australia every man and his dog owns a beemer. They're nothing special. They have only badge value and those who buy them are chasing status value. Very sad really.