Australia Information

Ambulance

Call 000 for an ambulance.

Banking and money

Notes are in circulation in denominations of $100 (green), $50 (olive), $20 (red), $10 (blue) and $5 (purple). The notes are all made of plastic, a field in which Australia has been a pioneer. It was the first country in the world to print all of its notes on plastic, the current series having been introduced between 1992 and 1996. The plastic notes last approximately four times as long as paper notes and can be recycled.

Coins in circulation are in denominations of $2 (gold colour), $1 (gold colour), 50 cents (silver colour), 20 cents (silver colour), 10 cents (silver colour) and 5 cents (silver colour). One point which sometimes causes confusion at first is that the $1 coin is larger than the $2. The copper coinage for 2 cents and 1 cent was removed from circulation some years ago, but items may still be priced in steps of less than 5 cents. In such cases, your final bill is supposed to be rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cents.

Each bank offers its own exchange rate for foreign currencies, but for common currencies rates vary but little. If you are exchanging travellers cheques, though, you may find that there is one particular bank which represents the issuer of your cheques and therefore does not make a charge for changing that brand of travellers cheque. Other banks will impose a charge. You will have to research to find which is the best bank for you.

In many cases you make be able to use a non-Australian bank card to withdraw money from a machine at an Australian bank. Many travellers like this method as it avoids their having to safeguard too much cash or too many travellers cheques. There will be a small fee for this service, but the fee will be determined by your home bank, so ask before you set out.

Beach Safety

Australia Business hours

Business hours are most commonly 9:00 until 17:30, Monday to Friday, with a small variation either side. Places in the north of Australia sometimes open and close a little earlier. If trying to contact a business in another part of Australia, remember about time differences.

Government offices often close at 17:00, or even 16:30. Shops may stay open later, particularly on Thursday and Friday evenings, and most will be open on Saturdays, and some on Sundays. The larger the town, the more likely shops are to indulge in extended trading hours.Corner shops will usually stay open until about 20:00, and some even later. Supermarkets in the big cities are often open 24 hours a day, and even in smaller towns they are likely to remain open until about 22:00 on weekdays.

Australia Post

One oddity of the system is that G.S.T. (Goods and Services Tax) applies to domestic postage, but not to international postage. As a result, different stamps must be used for the two purposes. When purchasing stamps, therefore, you must make it clear whether you require domestic stamps, with G.S.T. included, or international stamps, on which G.S.T. is not paid. You may not use international stamps on domestic mail. You may use domestic stamps on international mail, but only if you put on 10% extra (to cover the fact that 9.09% of the money paid for the stamps will not go to the Post Office, but will have to be given to the government as tax).

Parcels to overseas destinations may be sent by air mail, by economy air mail (slower and slightly cheaper), or by sea mail to more distant countries only. All methods are relatively expensive. As an example, 5 kilograms sent to the U.K. will cost $98 by air mail, $74 by economy air mail or $44.50 by sea mail.

For items weighing up to 250 grams, a prepaid air mail envelope can be purchased. If you buy a pack of ten such envelopes, the cost of the envelopes themselves is negligible. You pay only for the postage. If your envelope weighs more than 250 grams, you may add the extra postage.

The Poste Restante system allows mail to be held for you for collection at any post office for up to a month. There is no charge. At the larger post offices a computerised system is employed and you can use a computer terminal to check whether you have mail or not. This is reasonably effective until the post office staff mis-spell your name when entering it into the system, after which there is little chance of your ever seeing that item. If your surname is one which might easily be mis-spelt, check the likely misspellings as well.

If you leave a location and want mail forwarded, that can be arranged, but there is a healthy charge for the service, and a likelihood, in the author’s experience, that not all items will get sent on.

Toilets

Toilets are an important consideration for the traveller, and in Australia the situation is good. Public toilets do exist and are usually open for most of the day. Bus stations and larger railway stations usually have toilets, and their use is free. Trains, of course, are equipped with toilets, except for suburban services, and long distance buses now have toilets too, although they have a habit of not keeping still when you want them to. Cleanliness varies, but is usually reasonable.

Sports and games

The principal sports in Australia are cricket, rugby and Australian Rules football. In the summer sport of cricket Australia is generally regarded currently as the world leader, especially in five-day test cricket. The nation has also produced the man usually regarded as the best cricketer ever, or certainly the best batsman - Sir Donald Bradman, who died in Adelaide at the beginning of 2001 at the age of 92.

In Australia cricket is popular and draws large crowds, the greatest struggle, of course, being against the old enemy, England, in a battle which takes place twice every four years - once in Australia and once in England - in a series of five five-day test matches, the reward for winning which is the title to the Ashes. The Ashes is a trophy reputedly containing the ashes of the stumps or bails from the first match in which Australia ever defeated England on English soil, on 29th August 1882, although probably it does not actually contain those ashes. The principal arena for cricket is the Melbourne Cricket Ground, built for the 1956 Olympic Games, and in which 97,000 spectators can be accommodated. However, other capital cities also have their famous cricket grounds - the Sydney Cricket Ground, the Gabba in Brisbane, the W.A.C.A. in Perth, and the Adelaide Oval.

In the winter Australia is divided between rugby and Australian Rules football. Rugby is the major sport in New South Wales and Queensland, while Victoria is the stronghold of Australian Rules football, with support from South Australia and Western Australia.

Australian Rules football is a fast and exciting game played on an oval field with an oval shaped ball. Two slightly different codes have teams of fifteen or eighteen players. The ball can be carried by players as long as they bounce it every ten metres (no mean feat) and it can be passed by being kicked or being punched, but not thrown.

If another player catches a kicked ball, he may claim a ‘mark’ and have a free kick, and one of the most exciting moments in the sport is seeing players rise high into the air to take marks. At each end of the field are four goal posts in line. If the ball is kicked between the centre two posts, a goal is scored and six points awarded to the team kicking the goal. If the ball passes between one of the centre posts and an outer post, however, only a ‘behind’ is scored and just a single point is awarded. A game consists of four quarters of twenty-five minutes of actual playing time each.

Horse racing is popular in Australia, mostly as a sport on which to bet. Greyhound racing serves a similar purpose. Australia has also produced some fine swimmers and tennis players over the years, as well as one or two famous golfers. As one might expect, surfing too is a sport at which Australians excel.

Food

British influence can still be felt in the gastronomic delicacies available in Australia, such as fish and chips, for example, and that which Australia has really made into its own speciality - the meat pie with sauce.

However, such purity of diet has become contaminated in recent years by the influx of immigrants from nations which have not such a refined cuisine, and now it is common to find dishes of Italian, Greek, Chinese and other Asian origin.

In point of fact, one can find almost any type of food in Australia - and one can find it in all price ranges. Some of the restaurants are very good indeed, but if you are on a limited budget you can still find tasty food in a diversity of ethnic styles at reasonable prices.

MacDonalds have established his hamburgers in every corner of the nation, and
Colonel Sanders is not far behind with his fried chicken. Almost every corner shop can sell you the ubiquitous meat pie, and usually has some other similar delicacies also. If you have a good appetite, the counter lunch will solve the problem. Most hotels (pubs) serve a hearty lunch at a modest price to anybody willing to sup a beer in the smoky bar. Often these meals are very good value, especially if you look around a little before making your choice.

If you really want to save money, though, you need to cook for yourself, which is easy enough for those staying in backpackers hostels, where kitchen facilities are provided. Perhaps it is the Australian climate which creates the Australian thirst. At any rate, Australians have something of a reputation for liking to down a beer or two. Two of the more unusual alcoholic world records are held by Australia, according to Mr. Guinness. One is that Darwin has the highest per capita consumption of beer in the world, with peak consumption estimated at 236 litres (52 gallons) per person per annum. Whilst in Darwin, try asking for a Darwin Stubby, a size of bottle suited to those with big thirsts.
The second record is that the Men’s Working Club in Mildura, Victoria claims the longest permanent bar with beer pumps in the world. It is 90.8 metres (298 feet) long, with 27 pumps.

Fosters Lager is known throughout the world, so it is perhaps something of a surprise to discover that it is a beer not as popular in its homeland as overseas. In Australia, each state has its own brands of beer and only in the last few years have the breweries been successful in expanding their sales into the foreign territory of other states. The most popular brand of beer is probably V.B. (Victoria Bitter), brewed, of course, in Victoria. A superior beer (in taste and price) which is gaining in popularity is Cooper’s, brewed in South Australia.

Australia has also become the home of some good quality wines. Although the Barossa Valley in South Australia has long been the most famous area for wine production, in recent years a determined challenge has come from Western Australia, and latterly from Victoria and New South Wales too.

Australia Telephones

There are always techniques to learn about each country’s telephone system. Australia’s system consists of timed long-distance calls, but local calls of unlimited duration. Public telephones exist, although not in abundance.

When making calls, look for 1-800... numbers. These calls are free. However, the owner of the number can choose the area from which he is willing to accept such calls. Quite often the 1-800 numbers can be used only within the same state as the party being called, and occasionally the effective area is even more limited.

1-300... numbers and six-digit numbers starting with 13 are charged as local calls, as long as you are calling from within Australia (but are extremely expensive or unusable if you attempt to call them from overseas).

Telephone cards are available and it is desirable to have one because telephones do not necessarily accept both coins and cards.

As for international calls, the way to make these is to purchase one of the variety of cards available for the purpose. One first telephones the office of the company issuing the card. Then one taps in the code number on the card. Then one dials the number required. The most important thing with these cards is to ensure that you can telephone the office of the company by making a local telephone call. This means that there must be either a 1- 300 number given or a local number for the city from which you are making the call. Check this point before purchasing the card. It will affect the cost of the call very considerably.

Provided that you can connect using a local call, your international telephone call will then cost the price charged by the card company per minute, plus a single charge of 40 cents no matter how long you speak. Most cards offer the option of using a free 1-800 number, but you should understand that, although the 1-800 call is free, your international call will be charged at a considerably higher per minute chargethan if you pay yourself for the call to the company. All this sounds complex, but the instruction is simple. Always use a local telephone number to contact the card company, so make sure that such a number is available before purchasing the card.

There are also kiosks provided for international telephone calls in some Internet shops. This is not a particularly cheap way of making a call, but it is simple, and still cheaper than using the Telstra system. If you just intend to make a single call, so do not want to purchase a card, this will probably be the best method.

It should be noted that some establishments have private coin-operated telephones for the use of their customers or guests. With these telephones, local calls are usually timed and 1-800 numbers are sometimes unacceptable. These are not good telephones from which to make international card calls. It is better to go out and look for an ordinary public telephone.

Australia email

It is not difficult to find e-mail facilities. There are shops devoted to this purpose, and hotels and backpackers hostels often provide facilities for their guests. Where the major differences lie is in the price charged. In major cities it is usually possible to find facilities for a charge of about $3 per hour. In remote areas, you may be asked to pay $10 per hour.

Australia time zones

This is not a matter as simple as one might suppose, so here are the facts.

Winter
Australia is divided into three zones east to west.
From the east: Queensland, New South Wales (except Broken Hill), the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania are 10 hours ahead of G.M.T.
South Australia, the Northern Territory and Broken Hill are 9½ hours ahead of G.M.T.
(30 minutes behind Sydney).

Western Australia is 8 hours ahead of G.M.T. (2 hours behind Sydney).
BUT the area in Western Australia between the South Australian border and Caiguna, or, along the railway, between the border and just east of Kalgoorlie, likes to keep an unofficial local time which is 8¾ hours ahead of G.M.T. (1¼ hours behind Sydney).

Summer
HOWEVER, in summer the southern states and territories of New South Wales, the
Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia keep daylight saving time, which advances them one hour, but the other states and territories do not do so. Therefore, in summer the situation is as follows. New South Wales (except Broken Hill), the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania are 11 hours ahead of G.M.T.
South Australia and Broken Hill are 10½ hours ahead of G.M.T. (30 minutes behind
Sydney).

Queensland is 10 hours ahead of G.M.T. (1 hour behind Sydney). The Northern Territory is 9½ hours ahead of G.M.T. (1½ hours behind Sydney). Western Australia is 8 hours ahead of G.M.T. (3 hours behind Sydney). The area in Western Australia between the South Australian border and Caiguna, or, along the railway, between the border and just east of Kalgoorlie, is 8¾ hours ahead of G.M.T. (2¼ hours behind Sydney).

Australia Climate

Australia is too extensive to have a single climate. It is not necessarily ‘hot and dry’, as it tends to be characterised, although such a description can be applied with moderate accuracy to the interior. It is important to realise that the Tropic of Capricorn runs through Rockhampton, towards the south of Queensland, and that approximately one-third of Australia is tropical.

One can, therefore, make a basic separation into two distinct climates - tropical and temperate. Again, very roughly, but for simplicity of explanation, Queensland, the Northern Territory and the northern half of Western Australia may be regarded as tropical, while New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Tasmania,

South Australia and the southern half of Western Australia are temperate. In the temperate area, the seasons are similar to, but at the opposite time of the year to, those in the northern hemisphere - in Europe or North America, for example. In an average year, the southern capital cities (Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth) will experience one or two occasions when the temperature rises to 40ºC and one or two occasions when the temperature descends to 0ºC (except that Perth has recorded 0ºC (32ºF) only once in its meteorological history - on 15th July 1997 - and Sydney’s lowest is 2.1ºC (35.8ºF) on 22nd June 1932). As one moves further inland, temperatures tend to be more extreme and rainfall tends to decrease.

For Current Information on Australian weather visit Australian Weather

Australia Visas

Most people need a visa for Australia.

Learn more about Australia Visas

Australia Health

There are no inoculation requirements for visitors to Australia, unless they have come recently from a list of rather unlikely countries. If you have visited somewhere off the beaten track on your way, check with an Australian embassy prior to travelling. Of course, medical attention, if required, will be expensive in Australia, so some form of health insurance is required.

Some countries have reciprocal arrangements with Australia for health cover. This applies particularly to various nations which are members of the British Commonwealth. If you check this situation when you apply for your ETA, you may find that you are already covered for your time in Australia.

Australia Language

For overseas visitors we list some of our Aussie slang words that you will hear and enjoy using. There are more and the meaning is normally guessable. Some are also used in UK but not USA.

Arvo (afternoon); barbie (BBQ); bloke (male); esky(icebox); fossick (search for something); mate (good friend or used as a greeting); outback (interior of Australia); petrol(gas); flog (sell); footpath (sidewalk); loo(toilet); ratbag (dishonest person); shout (pay for someone); sickie (a day off work due to illness); stubby (small beer bottle); ta (thanks); yakka (hard work).

The term Pom or Brit is used to describe persons of British origin and Kiwi for New Zealander; these are used in a friendly and accepted manner. Australians are friendly people and you will often hear “no worries” and “enjoy” the meaning is really meant in the use of the word and you will find yourself using it. It is important to greet andthe local term “g’day mate” will be heard on occasion.

The language of ordering a coffee is complicated! Coffee has become very popular and cafes exist all over Sydney that compete to make the best. The combinations are endless! Café staff are always pleased to help and best to describe what you want and then remember the name. For example we have flat white; long black; soy flat white; strong soy flat white; skinny strong decaff latte or soy decaff latte with a twist of almond and so on! To confuse further coffee time is often referred to as “morning tea” rather than “coffee time” Have fun and enjoy!

Australia Tipping

Tipping is not expected in Australia. However due to the large number of visitors tipping does occur and like most places in the world is appreciated. If service in restaurants has been outstanding you might wish to leave 10% but if not then do not feel obliged to tip and if you just want to be generous round up the bill.

Tourist Refund Scheme

Visitors to Australia can reclaim any GST on good purchased over $300 from a single store no more than 30 days prior to departure. Refunds are payable at the designated refund facility located past Customs up to 30 minutes before flight departure. You will need your tax invoice and goods to obtain a refund.