Barry Penney - Australia - Culture Smart! : the Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

Copyright 2016 Kuperard

Revised and updated edition 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Culture Smart! is a registered trademark of Bravo Ltd.

ISBN 978 1 85733 828 7

This book is also available as an e-book: eISBN 978-1-85733-829-4

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library

First published in Great Britain

by Kuperard, an imprint of Bravo Ltd

59 Hutton Grove, London N12 8DS

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8446 2440 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8446 2441

www.culturesmart.co.uk

Inquiries:

Series Editor Geoffrey Chesler

Design Bobby Birchall

Cover image: The great outdoors: surfboards. Dreamstime.

The image on Felipe Frazaom, Shutterstock.

The following images have been reproduced under the licences: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license: 12/13 Toby Hudson; .

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic: State Library of South Australia.

Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia: .

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic: Xixtas.

Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication: Daderot.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic: self.

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BARRY PENNEY is an Australian teacher, trainer, and management executive. After graduating from the University of Adelaide, he worked in education before specializing in sales, sales management, and marketing for several multinational corporations. He went on to study at The Australian Administrative Staff College, Victoria. Barry has lived and worked in the United States, Britain, and Turkey. On returning to Australia he established a management training business and devised and conducted marketing and presentation courses. He has published several short stories, and teaches English to foreign language students. He is an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.

GINA TEAGUE is a consultant, trainer, and writer on cross-cultural management, international relocation, and global career development. She has lived and worked in France, Spain, Brazil, the USA, and Australia. During her sixteen years in New York, Gina gained an M.A. in Organizational Psychology and an Ed.M. in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University. Since moving to Australia, in 2003, she has become a licensed organizational psychologist, developed a successful intercultural consultancy, and is an AsiaPacific based trainer for the United Nations.

The Culture Smart! series is continuing to expand.

For further information and latest titles visit

www.culturesmart.co.uk

The publishers would like to thank CultureSmart!Consulting for its help in researching and developing the concept for this series.

CultureSmart!Consulting creates tailor-made seminars and consultancy programs to meet a wide range of corporate, public-sector, and individual needs. Whether delivering courses on multicultural team building in the USA, preparing Chinese engineers for a posting in Europe, training call-center staff in India, or raising the awareness of police forces to the needs of diverse ethnic communities, it provides essential, practical, and powerful skills worldwide to an increasingly international workforce.

For details, visit www.culturesmartconsulting.com

CultureSmart!Consulting and CultureSmart! guides have both contributed to and featured regularly in the weekly travel program Fast Track on BBC World TV.

What makes Australia different? First, if youre traveling from Southeast Asia, youll cover about 4,500 miles (7,240 km); if from the Americas or South Africa, about 9,000 miles (14,500 km); if from Europe, about 10,500 miles (17,000 km). Its not just a quick crossing by ferryboat, or a walk over a bridge. Its a long way to Down Under. So there are bound to be cultural as well as geographical differences.

And then theres the size of it. Its a long way from one side to the other. Perth, the capital of Western Australia, is the most isolated city in the world. It is closer to Singapore than to Sydney, which is about 1,900 miles (3,000 km) away.

Most countries have probably had a fairly steady population growth, with much the same ethnic mix, for hundreds of years. Apart, of course, from the Aborigines, who have been there for over fifty thousand years, Australians have not been there long. The first Europeans settled just over two hundred years ago; Australia only widened/opened its doors to more diverse immigrant communities in the 1950s. Australias population has doubled since 1957, transforming what was perhaps one of the dullest nations to one of the most stimulating, with many interesting differences of culture and custom.

Australians are generally warmhearted and generous. Perhaps they have taken the best from the immigrant cultures, blending them with the best of Aboriginal and early settler culturesand, of course, also keeping a little of what was not the best. But Australians are mostly open, honest, and forthright, and will expect you to be the same. Early life in Australia was difficult; the result is an ethic of hard work and hard play. Australians work to live.

Today, Australia has one of the worlds highest standards of living, fine food and wine, a great sporting tradition, a colorful and invigorating multiculturalism, and an affection for visitors.

This book sets out to provide more than just the nuts and bolts of where to stay, what to see, and how to travel. Culture Smart! guides are written for true travelers who want to understand the beliefs and attitudes of the people they meet: to learn from them, and to absorb the human dimension of the country. Culture Smart! Australia provides the necessary background information to enable you to put a human face on the country and its people; to communicate; to make friends; to share experiences; to enjoy the culture; and to form lasting relationships.