[Excerpt from TV Tropes]
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In Real Life, Australia is a vibrant, diverse and multicultural young country. The population is one of the most urbanised in the world (more so than in America or the UK). More than 80% of people live close to the coast, while the interior is sparsely populated.
In Hollywood, Australia is a primitive barren wasteland consisting entirely of Outback desert, aborigines, dingoes, crocodiles, kangaroos and some other marsupials, and occasionally a couple of rural people who run around wielding bowie knives and boomerangs. People talk with a grating accent, apparently a blend of ney English, New Zealander and vaguely British extraction called "Ostrayan" or more concisely "Strine".
In Real Life, Australian Wildlife is unique (the island is one of the handful of megadiverse lands in the world), being dominated by marsupials rather than placental mammals. The dangers of the native animals has been noted by many - US President Barack Obama brought it up when he visited Australia. Most dangerous these creatures only live in remote areas.
However, in Hollywood, Everything Trying to Kill You, although any sufficiently ''cute'' animal, no matter how wild, is inexplicably safe. This habit of making Australia a Death World often results in Australians being considered ludicrously tough - though there's some truth to that. On the other hand, while the 'duck-billed' platypus and the kangaroo are animals that are often treated as cute in Hollywood, in truth they can be very dangerous.
For those fortunate enough to avoid being eaten by the aforementioned crocodiles, life is one long beach party and all meals consist of shrimp on the barbie (actually called Prawns) and Vegemite sandwiches (pronounced veeeeejeemoit).
If these stereotypes are absent, the setting is likely Sydney, Australia's most populous metropolis and bustling economic centre. It's the home of the famous Sydney Opera House, which all hotels naturally look onto. Australia's capital is actually Canberra.
Australia's first European settlements were prison colonies. A fair few Australians claim convict ancestry with pride, truthfully or otherwise. Of course, with one of the world's highest immigrant intakes, Australians are, ethnically speaking, slowly becoming a sort of Convict/European/
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